The Dynamics of Size-at-Age Variability

In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework within which a unified treatment of the key sources of size-at-age variability—size dependence of growth rate, stochastic growth rate variations and individual-to-individual variability in growth performance—is possible. We use this framework to develop a general criterion for growth depensation in cohorts, which we define as the increase of the coefficient of variation of size-at-age, with increasing age. We use this criterion to show that size dependence of growth rate, acting alone, is depensatory only if the growth rate increases faster than linearly with size (that is, if growth is faster than exponential), while stochastic growth rate variation is invariably depensatory. Many species exhibit growth rates that scale less than linearly with size; indeed the commonly used von Bertalanffy model shows growth rates which actually decrease with size. In such a species, the size dependence of growth rate acts compensatorily, while stochastic growth rate variability is depensatory. We show that the tension between these two mechanisms leads to quasi-stationary size-at-age variability, which we can calculate analytically in some special cases and obtain by a simple numerical procedure where analysis is impractical.     

Cleistogamy as a bet‐hedging strategy in Oxalis acetosella, a perennial herb

1 Phenology and reproduction were studied in three populations of the cleistogamous herb Oxalis acetosella during three growing seasons, in order to see how the balance between chasmogamous (CH) and cleistogamous (CL) reproduction varies with temporal and spatial environmental variation and with plant size. The numbers of CH and CL flower buds, flowers, immature capsules and mature capsules were counted per ramet, ramet sizes were estimated, and mature capsules were collected for seed counts.
2 Both CH and CL flower numbers were positively correlated with ramet size expressed as leaf number, but the correlation was much stronger in the CL phase. CL flower production also varied significantly between years and sites. Thus, CL production in O. acetosella was not independent of resources and climatic variation.
3 When the effects of year and site were taken into account, the probability of an individual flower developing into a mature fruit was not higher in the CL phase than in the CH phase.
4 CL production was affected by fertilization success in the CH phase. Ramets with one or more CH flowers left unfertilized generally produced more CL buds than ramets with all their CH flowers fertilized. The former group also tended to have more seeds per CL capsule.
5 Since reproductive success in the two phases varies in different temporal and spatial patterns, cleistogamy in O. acetosella is considered to be a bet‐hedging strategy optimizing reproductive output in fluctuating environments.
6 The findings of this study are in conflict with the general view on cleistogamy as a fail‐safe mechanism for back‐up seed production, unaffected by variations in resource supply and environmental conditions.     

Diurnal Variation in Heart Rate Variability before and after Maximal Exercise Testing

As heart-rate variability (HRV) is under evaluation in clinical applications, the authors sought to better define the interdependent impact of age, maximal exercise, and diurnal variation under physiologic conditions. The authors evaluated the diurnal changes in HRV 24-h pre- and post-maximal aerobic exercise testing to exhaustion in young (19–25 yrs, n?=?12) and middle-aged (40–55 yrs, n?=?12) adults. Subjects wore a portable 5-lead electrocardiogram holter for 48?h (24?h prior to and following a maximal aerobic capacity test). Time-, frequency-, time-frequency-, and scale-invariant-domain measures of HRV were computed from RR-interval data analyzed using a 5-min window size and a 2.5-min step size, resulting in a different set of outputs every 2.5?min. Results were averaged (mean?±?SE) over four prespecified time periods during the morning, afternoon, evening, and night on Day 1 and Day 2. Diurnal changes in HRV in young and middle-aged adults were compared using a two-way, repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Young adults demonstrated higher HRV compared to middle-aged adults during periods of wakefulness and sleep prior to maximal exercise stress testing (i.e., high-frequency power during Day 1: young adults: morning 1862?±?496?ms², afternoon 1797?±?384?ms², evening 1908?±?431?ms², and night 3202?±?728?ms²; middle-aged adults: morning 341?±?53?ms², afternoon 405?±?68?ms², evening 469?±?80?ms², and night 836?±?136?ms²) (p < .05). Exercise resulted in reductions in HRV such that multiple measures of HRV were not significantly different between age groups during the afternoon and evening periods. All measures of HRV demonstrated between-group differences overnight on Day 2 (p < .05). Young adults are associated with higher baseline HRV during the daytime. Sleep increases variability equally and proportionally to daytime variability. Given the higher baseline awake HRV and equal rise in HRV during sleep, the change in HRV from sleep to morning with exercise is greater in younger subjects. These physiologic results have clinical significance in understanding the pathophysiology of altered variability in ill patients. (Author correspondence: aseely@ohri.ca)     

Countergradient variation in growth rate: compensation for length of the growing season among Atlantic silversides from different latitudes

Summary How do organisms adapt to the differences in temperature and length of the growing season that occur with latitude? Among Atlantic silversides (Menidia menidia) along the east coast of North America, the length of the first growing season declines by a factor of about 2.5 with increasing latitude. Yet body size at the end of the first growing season does not decline. High-latitude fish must, therefore, grow faster within the growing season than do low-latitude fish. This geographical pattern has a genetic basis. Laboratory experiments on fish from six different locations revealed a latitudinal gradient in the capacity for growth (i.e., maximum growth potential). In two subsequent experiments using fish from Nova Scotia (NS), New York (NY) and South Carolina (SC) that had been separately reared in a common environment for several generations, differences in growth rate among populations were highly significant. The rank order was NS>NY>SC, but the difference among populations depended on temperature. High-latitude fish outperformed those from low latitudes primarily at the high temperatures that low-latitude fish would be expected to experience most often in nature. These results suggest that instead of being adapted for growth at low temperatures, fish from high latitudes are adapted for rapid elevation of growth rate during the brief interval of the year when high temperatures occur. Selection on growth rate results from sizedependent winter mortality: the importance to winter survival of being large increases with latitude but the length of the growing season simultaneously decreases. The end result is countergradient variation in growth rate, a phenomenon that may be much more widespread than currently recognized.     

Long-term temporal variation in the organization of an ant–plant network

Background and Aims

Functional groups of species interact and coevolve in space and time, forming complex networks of interacting species. A long-term study of temporal variation of an ant–plant network is presented with the aims of: (1) depicting its structural changes over a 20-year period; (2) detailing temporal variation in network topology, as revealed by nestedness and modularity analysis and other parameters (i.e. connectance, niche overlap); and (3) identifying long-term turnover in taxonomic structure (i.e. switches in ant resource use or plant visitor assemblages according to taxa).

Methods

Fieldwork was carried out at La Mancha, Mexico, and ant–plant interactions were observed between 1989 and 1991, between 1998 and 2000, and between May 2010 and 2011. Occurrences of ants on extrafloral nectaries (EFNs) were recorded. The resulting ant–plant networks were constructed from qualitative presence–absence data determined by a species–species matrix defined by the frequency of occurrence of each pairwise ant–plant interaction.

Key Results

Network variation across time was stable and a persistent nested structure may have contributed to the maintenance of resilient and species-rich communities. Modularity was lower than expected, especially in the most recent networks, indicating that the community exhibited high overlap among interacting species (e.g. few species were hubs in the more recent network, being partly responsible for the nested pattern). Structurally, the connections created among modules by super-generalists gave cohesion to subsets of species that otherwise would remain unconnected. This may have allowed an increasing cascade-effect of evolutionary events among modules. Mutualistic ant–plant interactions were structured 20 years ago mainly by the subdominant nectarivorous ant species Camponotus planatus and Crematogaster brevispinosa, which monopolized the best extrafloral nectar resources and out-competed other species with broader feeding habits. Through time, these ants, which are still present, lost their position as network hubs and diminished in their importance in structuring the network; simultaneously, plants gained in importance.

Conclusions

The long-term network analysis reveals a decrease in attended plant species richness, a notable increase in plant species participation from 1990 to 2010 (sustained by less plant taxonomic similarity in the older 1990 network), an increase in the number of ant species and a diminishing dominance of super-generalist ants. The structure of the community has remained highly nested and connected with low modularity, suggesting overall a more participative, homogeneous, cohesive interaction network. Although previous studies have suggested that interactions between ants and EFN-bearing plants are susceptible to seasonality, abiotic factors and perturbation, this cohesive structure appears to be the key for biodiversity and community maintenance.     

Island tameness: living on islands reduces flight initiation distance

One of Darwin''s most widely known conjectures is that prey are tame on remote islands, where mammalian predators are absent. Many species appear to permit close approach on such islands, but no comparative studies have demonstrated reduced wariness quantified as flight initiation distance (FID; i.e. predator–prey distance when the prey begins to flee) in comparison with mainland relatives. We used the phylogenetic comparative method to assess influence of distance from the mainland and island area on FID of 66 lizard species. Because body size and predator approach speed affect predation risk, we included these as independent variables. Multiple regression showed that FID decreases as distance from mainland increases and is shorter in island than mainland populations. Although FID increased as area increased in some models, collinearity made it difficult to separate effects of area from distance and island occupancy. FID increases as SVL increases and approach speed increases; these effects are statistically independent of effects of distance to mainland and island occupancy. Ordinary least-squares models fit the data better than phylogenetic regressions, indicating little or no phylogenetic signal in residual FID after accounting for the independent variables. Our results demonstrate that island tameness is a real phenomenon in lizards.     

干旱条件下冷季型草光合蒸腾特性的研究

对9种冷季型草在春夏季干旱条件下的光合、蒸腾等生理特性进行测定.结果表明:春季冷季型草净光合速率在6:00较低,8:00~12:00后出现最大值后逐渐下降,呈曲线变化.不同种类的日平均净光合速率,以虉草和看麦娘最高,达11μmol?m-2?s-1,匍匐剪股颖不到5μmol?m-2?s-1,其它草种居中,为6~10μmol?m-2?s-1.夏季测定时,大部分冷季型草在6:00净光合速率为全天最大值,8:00后光合速率下降,至16:00光合速率最低,几乎呈直线下降的变化.不同种类的日平均净光合速率,紫羊茅最高,为16.5μmol?m-2?s-1,鸭茅和虉草仅6~7μmol?m-2?s-1,其它草种居中.春季蒸腾速率早晨6:00~8:00最低,随后逐步升高至最高峰后又逐渐回落.不同种类的日平均蒸腾速率,看麦娘、高羊茅、虉草、草地早熟禾较高,为2 mmol?m-2?s-1左右,最低为匍匐剪股颖0.8 mmol?m-2?s-1,其它草种为1.3~1.8 mmol?m-2?s-1.夏季大部分植物在6:00蒸腾速率较高,至8:00开始回落,10:00后上升,到最高点后回降,呈多峰变化的曲线.不同种类的日平均蒸腾速率,紫羊茅最高为3.5 mmol?m-2?s-1,最低为无芒雀麦、鸭茅、虉草,为1.4~1.7 mmol?m-2?s-1,其它草种为2.1~2.8 mmol?m-2?s-1.     

Robustness of coalescent estimators to between-lineage mutation rate variation

Data from HIV and from human neoplastic cells can show substantial between-lineage mutation rate variation even within a single population. Such variation may affect estimators of population quantities such as Theta = 4N(e)mu. Using simulated DNA data, I measured the effect of rate variation on recovery of Theta by the summary-statistic estimator of Watterson (Watterson GA. 1975. On the number of segregating sites in genetical systems without recombination. Theor Popul Biol. 7:256-276) and the coalescent maximum likelihood algorithm LAMARC (Kuhner MK. 2006. LAMARC 2.0: maximum likelihood and Bayesian estimation of population parameters. Bioinformatics. Advance Access doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btk051). Watterson's estimator showed a downward bias, as expected, with high values of Theta. LAMARC's mean estimate was accurate for all tested values of Theta and rate variation except for a downward bias when rate variation was maximal (i.e., the slow rate was zero). LAMARC had consistently narrower confidence intervals (CIs) than Watterson's estimator. Both methods tended to reject the truth too often when rate variation was 8x or greater and independent among branches, as well as when variation was 4x or greater and correlated among branches. In the case of Watterson's estimate, this excess rejection was fully attributable to variation among genealogies in the amount of total branch length associated with the fast and slow rates. However, in the case of LAMARC, some excess rejection was still observed even when between-genealogy variation was taken into account. Both estimators are robust to modest rate variation; however, their use should be coupled with a statistical test to rule out extreme rate variation as the resulting CIs may not be reliable.