Can We Accurately Characterize Wildlife Resource Use When Telemetry Data Are Imprecise?

ABSTRACT Telemetry data have been widely used to quantify wildlife habitat relationships despite the fact that these data are inherently imprecise. All telemetry data have positional error, and failure to account for that error can lead to incorrect predictions of wildlife resource use. Several techniques have been used to account for positional error in wildlife studies. These techniques have been described in the literature, but their ability to accurately characterize wildlife resource use has never been tested. We evaluated the performance of techniques commonly used for incorporating telemetry error into studies of wildlife resource use. Our evaluation was based on imprecise telemetry data (mean telemetry error = 174 m, SD = 130 m) typical of field-based studies. We tested 5 techniques in 10 virtual environments and in one real-world environment for categorical (i.e., habitat types) and continuous (i.e., distances or elevations) rasters. Technique accuracy varied by patch size for the categorical rasters, with higher accuracy as patch size increased. At the smallest patch size (1 ha), the technique that ignores error performed best on categorical data (0.31 and 0.30 accuracy for virtual and real data, respectively); however, as patch size increased the bivariate-weighted technique performed better (0.56 accuracy at patch sizes >31 ha) and achieved complete accuracy (i.e., 1.00 accuracy) at smaller patch sizes (472 ha and 1,522 ha for virtual and real data, respectively) than any other technique. We quantified the accuracy of the continuous covariates using the mean absolute difference (MAD) in covariate value between true and estimated locations. We found that average MAD varied between 104 m (ignore telemetry error) and 140 m (rescale the covariate data) for our continuous covariate surfaces across virtual and real data sets. Techniques that rescale continuous covariate data or use a zonal mean on values within a telemetry error polygon were significantly less accurate than other techniques. Although the technique that ignored telemetry error performed best on categorical rasters with smaller average patch sizes (i.e., ≤31 ha) and on continuous rasters in our study, accuracy was so low that the utility of using point-based approaches for quantifying resource use is questionable when telemetry data are imprecise, particularly for small-patch habitat relationships.     

Expectancy controlled sampling decisions in Vimba elongata

Synopsis Experimental data on snapping behavior of laboratory reared zährte, Vimba elongata, indicate that this species chooses between different food searching methods. If visibility is good, mainly directed snaps are employed for immediate food location. However, under conditions of reduced visibility undirected snapping and sampling methods are adopted. In the field, zährte may use sampling to acquire foraging benefits from stochastically distributed, hidden resources, like sediment dwelling prey. In the experiments this species continued to sample the bottom even in situations without any chance of prey detection. It is therefore concluded that zährte's searching decisions, apart from incorporating external information on prey occurrence, are controlled by internal expectations of long term benefits derived from sampling.     

数量遗传学中一种新的求综合性状的方法

本文运用申农(Shannon)提供的最大熵原理,提出一种构成单一综合性状的新方法,并以此与数量遗传学中的多元统计法作了比较。在作多元遗传分析吋,常用多元统计法求出多个数量性状的综合性状,再对这些相互关联的基本性状作主成份分析或用典范相关进行遗传分析。本文提出了不同于多元统计学的另一种新的方法——最大熵法求出多个数量性状的单一综合性状值。它具有数学结构简单,过程明晰,结果简明等优点。     

Floristic and structural variation in the Tamaulipan thornscrub,northeastern Mexico

Abstract. A generalized research strategy is presented for identifying the ecological effects of the physical environment and management in a poorly known region of subtropical, semiarid thornscrub in northeastern Mexico. Vegetation samples were stratified across a small number of climatic subregions, substrate types and topographic situations. Classification analysis and PCo A of the species x site matrix of incidence data after application of the Information Statistic were used. The analyses suggested that the regional variation in climate, substrates and topography was responsible for the major floristic differences in the vegetation. The distributions of most plant species were related to the variation in the physical environment. PCo A of the species x site cover data after application of the Bray-Curtis dissimilarity metric revealed evidence of vegetation change due to overgrazing in each major floristic group, but not to selective cutting for timber and firewood.     

Effects of recent experience on foraging decisions by bumble bees

The temporal and spatial scales employed by foraging bees in sampling their environment and making foraging decisions should depend both on the limits of bumble bee memory and on the spatial and temporal pattern of rewards in the habitat. We analyzed data from previous experiments to determine how recent foraging experience by bumble bees affects their flight distances to subsequent flowers. A single visit to a flower as sufficient to affect the flight distance to the next flower. However, longer sequences of two or three visits had an additional effect on the subsequent flight distance of individual foragers. This suggests that bumble bees can integrate information from at least three flowers for making a subsequent foraging decision. The existence of memory for floral characteristics at least at this scale may have significance for floral selection in natural environments.     

Neutral adaptation of the genetic code to double-strand coding

Summary We lay new foundations to the hypothesis that the genetic code is adapted to evolutionary retention of information in the antisense strands of natural DNA/RNA sequences. In particular, we show that the genetic code exhibits, beyond the neutral replacement patterns of amino acid substitutions, optimal properties by favoring simultaneous evolution of proteins encoded in DNA/RNA sense-antisense strands. This is borne out in the sense-antisense transformations of the codons of every amino acid which target amino acids physicochemically similar to each other. Moreover, silent mutations in the sense strand generate conservative ones in its antisense counterpart and vice versa. Coevolution of proteins coded by complementary strands is shown to be a definite possibility, a result which does not depend on any physical interaction between the coevolving proteins. Likewise, the degree to which the present genetic code is dedicated to evolutionary sense-antisense tolerance is demonstrated by comparison with many randomized codes. Double-strand coding is quantified from an information-theoretical point of view.     

大脑皮层信息传输和精神分裂症

本工作用脑电图为测试手段,比较了正常人与精神分裂症病人的大脑皮层的信息传输。我们发现精神分裂病人的大脑皮层信息传输有非常特殊的现象。正常人在睁眼时大脑皮层信息传输比较活跃,当闭眼时信息传输相对减少。而精神分裂症病人则恰好相反。闭眼时信息传输很活跃而睁眼对它们产生抑制,严重的情况可与正常人深度睡眠时类似。经过近三百多例的统计分析这种差别是非常显著的。我们认为这种方法可能作为诊断精神分裂症的客观指标。     

Information about previous phosphate fluctuations is stored via an adaptive response of the high-affinity phosphate uptake system of the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans

The high-affinity uptake system of phosphatelimited cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans [Synechococcus leopoliensis (Raciborski) Komarek] is characterized by a threshold value below which uptake cannot occur. Here it is shown that, if phosphate-limited cyanobacteria are challenged with a short pulse of high phosphate concentration that appreciably exceeds this threshold value, the uptake system undergoes an adaptive response, leading to the attainment of new kinetic properties and a new threshold value. These new properties are maintained for several hours after the pulse. A notable characteristic of this new state is a wide linear dependence of the uptake rate on the external phosphate potential that is a function of the driving force of the uptake process. According to theoretical arguments it is shown that this “linear operation mode” can be explained by the simultaneous operation of several uptake systems with different, staggered threshold values and kinetic properties. Moreover, the new linear uptake properties, in turn, reflect the prehistory of phosphate supply experienced by the population. The consequences of this result with regard to environmental fluctuations of the phosphate concentration in lakes are discussed.