Striking difference in response to expanding brood parasites by birds in western and eastern Beringia

Two species of obligate brood‐parasitic Cuculus cuckoos are expanding their ranges in Beringia. Both now breed on the Asian side, close to the Bering Strait, and are found in Alaska during the breeding season. From May to July 2017, we used painted 3D‐printed model eggs of two cuckoo host‐races breeding in northeastern Siberia to test behavioral responses of native songbirds on both sides of the Bering Strait, with particular attention to species that are known cuckoo hosts in their Siberian range. Each host nest was tested after the second egg was laid and, if possible, again 4 days later with a model of a different type. Although our Siberian study site was also outside the known breeding ranges of the cuckoos, we found that Siberian birds had strong anti‐parasite responses, with 14 of 22 models rejected. In contrast, birds in Alaska had virtually no detectable anti‐parasite behaviors, with only one of 96 models rejected; the rejecters were Red‐throated Pipits (Anthus cervinus). Such differences suggest that the cuckoos might successfully parasitize naïve hosts and become established in North America whether or not their historic host species are widely available.     

The effect of winter temperatures on the timing of breeding activity in the common toad Bufo bufo

A 19-year study of a common toad population in south Dorset, UK, was carried out between 1980 and 1998. The daily arrival of sexually mature male and female toads at a breeding pond was recorded each year. The timing of the main arrival of toads at the breeding pond was highly correlated with the mean daily temperatures over the 40 days immediately preceding the main arrival. When the temperatures were higher than average, breeding occurred significantly earlier in the year than if they were either average or lower than average. During the study, the toad breeding seasons were early (2–13 February) in 5 years (1989, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1998), late (16–23 March) in 2 years (1986, 1996) and average (25 February–8 March) during the remaining 12 years. Evidence was found suggesting that common toads have a daylength threshold of about 9 h, below which the migration to the breeding pond does not occur. Evidence was also found indicating that common toads in southern England have a threshold temperature for activity of about 6°C and that the onset of breeding activity is highly correlated with the number of days during the 40 days prior to the main arrival at the breeding pond that were at or above this temperature. Predicting the start of the main breeding migration to a pond in any year may be possible by comparing the pattern of the 40-day running mean daily temperatures from 21 December the preceding year with those from previous years when the start of breeding activity is known. Although all five of the earliest recorded toad breeding years occurred during the last 10 years, and were associated with the occurrence of particularly mild winters, a significant trend towards earlier breeding in recent years compared with previous years was not found. Received: 16 July 1998 / Accepted: 14 September 1998     

The impacts of agricultural payments on groundwater quality: Spatial analysis on the case of Slovenia

The European Common Agricultural Policy still follows its primary goals, i.e. quality food at affordable prices and a decent standard of living for farmers, fifty years after its adoption. Moreover, this policy adapts to the changing needs of society and the new challenges, mostly preservation of the environment, nature and biodiversity in rural areas. Although the Common Agricultural Policy receives the largest share of European budget, the funds are decreasing over time, especially direct payments, which aim to provide basic income support to farmers in the European Union. On the other hand, agri-environmental payments are gaining importance. Policy decision-makers should be interested in the question of impacts of growing eco-conditionality of agricultural spending. New insights would help them to be successful in achieving the goals of sustainable agriculture. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impacts of production support payments and rural development payments on the quality of groundwater. We use the small EU country Slovenia as an example. The baseline indicators are the level of nitrates and pesticides in groundwater, while the impacts were estimated using spatial error model. The results show that direct payments, coupled subsidies and investment grants raise the level of pesticides in groundwater, but do not have any statistically significant impact on the level of nitrates in groundwater. Furthermore, we did not find any statistically significant effects of agri-environmental payments on decrease of groundwater pollution with nitrates. However, our findings revealed that agri-environmental payments are effective in reducing pesticides in groundwater, although only to a limited extent. These results imply a problem of insufficient targeting of agri-environmental measures on the one hand, and suggest that greening of direct payments is necessary and entirely justified.     

Differential climate–growth relationships in Abies alba Mill. and Fagus sylvatica L. in Mediterranean mountain forests

Pointer year analysis, simple correlations, and response functions were combined in a dendroecological study to evaluate climate–growth relationships over the last century in two Abies alba Mill. and Fagus sylvatica L. mixed stands in Southern Italy mountainous areas. Analyses revealed species-specific attributes at the two study sites, i.e. Molise and Basilicata. Growth divergence between the two species emerged based on three primary climatic drivers, including drought stress and spring warmer temperatures during the current growing season for F. sylvatica, and water availability in the previous growing season for A. alba. However, despite the microclimatic differences between the two study sites, F. sylvatica showed similar climate–growth patterns, while differences were indicated for A. alba, due to its minor susceptibility to drought stress during the current growing season at the Basilicata site. Indeed, at the southernmost geographic limits of A. alba drought avoidance mechanisms were confirmed, consistent with traits considered diagnostic for the species in the Mediterranean region.     

Quantitative evaluation of temporal similarity in abundance of animal species

Summary A quantitative method is suggested for measuring the similarity of seasonal abundance patterns of different animal species. The method was applied to two sets of field data and produced biologically meaningful and interesting results.     

辽宁鸟类分布新记录5种:小鸦鹃、雪鹀、 红翅凤头鹃、宝兴歌鸫和黄眉姬鹟北大核心CSCD

近年来,随着观鸟活动和鸟类科研工作在辽宁的持续开展(Baietal.2015,汤姆·滨客2016),辽宁各地不断发现鸟种分布新记录种(白清泉等2019)。2012至2020年间,在丹东、大连、抚顺等市先后发现小鸦鹃(Centropus bengalensis)、雪鹀(Plectrophenax nivalis)、红翅凤头鹃(Clamator coromandus)、宝兴歌鸫(Turdus mupinensis)和黄眉姬鹟(Ficedula narcissina)5种,经查阅相关资料(邱英杰等2006,郑光美2017),确定为辽宁省鸟类分布新记录种。     

Non-resident definitive host presence is sufficient to sustain avian schistosome populations

To control swimmer’s itch in northern Michigan inland lakes, USA, one species of bird, the common merganser (Mergus merganser), has been relocated from several lakes since 2015. Relocation efforts are driven by a desire to reduce the prevalence of the swimmer’s itch-causing parasite Trichobilharzia stagnicolae. The intention of this state-sponsored control effort was to interrupt the life cycle of T. stagnicolae and reduce parasite egg contribution into the environment from summer resident mergansers such that infections of the intermediate snail host Stagnicola emarginata declined. Reduced snail infection prevalence was expected to substantially reduce the abundance of the swimmer’s itch-causing cercarial stage of the parasite in water. With no official programme in place to assess the success of this relocation effort, we sought to study the effectiveness and impact of the removal of a single definitive host from a location with high definitive host and parasite diversity. This was assessed through a comprehensive, lake-wide monitoring study measuring longitudinal changes in the abundance of three species of avian schistosome cercariae in four inland Michigan lakes. Environmental measurements were also taken at these lakes to understand how they can affect swimmer’s itch incidence. This study demonstrates that the diversity of avian schistosomes at the study lakes would likely make targeting a single species of swimmer’s itch-causing parasite meaningless from a swimmer’s itch control perspective. Our data also suggest that removing the common merganser is not an effective control strategy for the T. stagnicolae parasite, likely due to contributions of the parasite made by non-resident birds, possibly migrants, in the autumn and spring. It appears likely that only minimal contact time between the definitive host and the lake ecosystem is required to contribute sufficient parasite numbers to maintain a thriving population of parasite species with high host specificity.     

Are developing countries prepared to face Ebola-like outbreaks?

<正>Ebola virus disease has caused havoc in West Africa,with 11,162deaths and more than 27,181 cases(as of May 31,2015)being reported since the virus emerged in early2014 in Guinea.The maximum number of cases has been reported in Sierra Leone(12,827),while most of the reported deaths have occurred in Liberia(4,806),according to the Center for Disease Control and     

普通烟草MATE基因家族分析及功能预测

摘要：植物多药和有毒化合物排出家族（multidrug and toxic compound extrusion,MATE）是一类可转运毒素、金属离子、次级代谢产物的次级转运蛋白家族。该家族主要在植物的解毒机制中发挥作用,部分成员也参与植物的形态建成过程。MATE家族在烟草基因组中的数量、特征及功能目前尚未开展系统分析。本研究利用生物信息学方法对普通烟草（Nicotiana tabacum）基因组中的MATE基因进行了预测分析,共预测到131个基因,分为4个亚家族。亚家族3在进化树中形成较为独立的分枝,其跨膜区数量、亚细胞定位、保守结构域方面与其他亚家族不同。转录组数据显示,相当一部分MATE家族基因在所有组织中低量表达。GO功能注释结果表明该家族成员主要作为一种转运体,在应激响应、生物调控等过程中发挥作用。本研究为烟草及其他植物中MATE家族的鉴定和功能研究提供了数据基础。     

Genetic divergence analysis of the Common Barn Owl Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769) and the Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus (Pontoppidan, 1763) from southern Chile using COI sequence

In this paper new mitochondrial COI sequences of Common Barn Owl Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769) and Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus (Pontoppidan, 1763) from southern Chile are reported and compared with sequences from other parts of the World. The intraspecific genetic divergence (mean p-distance) was 4.6 to 5.5% for the Common Barn Owl in comparison with specimens from northern Europe and Australasia and 3.1% for the Short-eared Owl with respect to samples from north America, northern Europe and northern Asia. Phylogenetic analyses revealed three distinctive groups for the Common Barn Owl: (i) South America (Chile and Argentina) plus Central and North America, (ii) northern Europe and (iii) Australasia, and two distinctive groups for the Short-eared Owl: (i) South America (Chile and Argentina) and (ii) north America plus northern Europe and northern Asia. The level of genetic divergence observed in both species exceeds the upper limit of intraspecific comparisons reported previously for Strigiformes. Therefore, this suggests that further research is needed to assess the taxonomic status, particularly for the Chilean populations that, to date, have been identified as belonging to these species through traditional taxonomy.