Population size and breeding success of the Cinereous Vulture,Aegypius monachus,in a newly found breeding area in western Anatolia (Aves: Falconiformes)

A total of 123 nests of the Cinereous Vulture, Aegypius monachus, was found in three different nesting areas in Middle Sakarya Region, Western Turkey, during three years. The number of breeding pairs was 32 in 2010, 46 in 2011 and 42 in 2012. This is the largest Cinereous Vulture colony in Turkey and the most important breeding area in the western part of its distribution outside Spain. Breeding success was 0.78 fledgling per occupied nest in 2010, 0.73 in 2011 and 0.54 in 2012. The most unsuccessful breeding occurred mostly between May and July, when recreational activities and various economic human activities increased in the area.     

The Politics of Ecology in South Africa on the Radical Left

The South African ecologist and political activist Edward Roux (1903–1966) used evolutionary biology to argue against racism. During the cold-war, he transformed his communist beliefs into advocacy for scientific rationalism, management, and protection of nature against advancing capitalism. These pleas for saving the environment served as a vehicle for questioning the more risky issue of evolution and racial order in society. The link between ecological and political order had long been an important theme among the country's ecologists and politicians alike. The statesman Jan Christian Smuts' holistic theory of evolution and racial order inspired the nation's ecologists to sanctify an ecologically informed racial policy. This idealist informed methodology stood in direct opposition to the materialist approach to ecology of Roux. These methodological debates reflected differing political support from within the Union Party and people on the radical left, respectively. Ecology was of concern to politicians because understandings of the order of nature had direct implications for the racial order of the South African society. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Prevalence,epidemiology and geographical distribution of Sporothrix schenckii infections in Gauteng,South Africa

Sporotrichosis is a subcutaneous fungal infection caused by the traumatic implantation of the dimorphic, pathogenic fungus, Sporothrix schenkii. It constitutes the most common subcutaneous fungal infection in the general population in South Africa. Sporotrichosis in South Africa dates back to 1914, when the disease was first diagnosed in the gold mines. Occupational and recreational circumstances of infection are well established, and the environmental requirements for contracting the disease are better understood. Sporotrichosis cases were recorded from 42 suburbs in the greater Pretoria area as well as from 23 towns outside the Pretoria municipal boundary. It occurred in 154 patients with ages ranging from less than 1 year to 90 years old, with males predominating. Females in the area seemed to be at lesser risk, mainly becoming infected through gardening injuries, insect bites or other minor injuries due to outdoor activities. Exposure to possible sources of the fungus, either from recreational or occupational activities in males, was the main determining factor in acquiring the disease. The lymphocutaneous and localized forms of the disease were most often recorded. Our study indicates that, while there is no pronounced seasonal variation, the onset of the disease seemed to be mainly in the cooler and dryer months of the year. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Comparing primate communities: a multivariate approach

Although there have been many studies of the ecology of primates in communities throughout the world, there have been few attempts to compare community ecology within and among continents. In this study the ecological characteristics of the sympatric primate species at eight localities—two from each of the major biogeographic areas inhabited by primates today—South America, Africa, Madagascar, and Asia—were compared using a multivariate technique (principal components analysis of the correlation matrix) to summarize the ten dimensional ecological niche space. The most striking clustering of species in ecological multivariate space is according to phylogeny with closely related species showing similar ecological features. Likewise, the ecological characteristics of individual communities are determined by phylogenetic groups present at each locality or biogeographic region. As a result, communities within any biogeographical region are more similar ecologically to one another than to communities from other continental areas. In several measures of ecological diversity among the species comprising each community, the neotropical communities show lower overall diversity than do communities from other continents.     

Increased nest cofounding and high intra-colony relatedness in the bee Exoneura bicolor (Hymenoptera: Apidae): Results from an experimental situation

Abstract Identifying differences in a key social trait between two populations of die same species is important for understanding the evolution of sociality. Previous studies of new colonies in Exoneura bicolor, an Australian allodapine bee, have shown that there are high levels of kin cofounding in a montane population. The only study to examine intra-colony relatedness in a heathland population has found that new multifemale colonies are not formed by kin. In this study we used an experiment to investigate both cofounding behaviour and intra-colony relatedness in E. bicolor from a heathland population. Nest substrate was placed either 0.05 or 1 m distant from source nests in a novel environment. Although there were no differences in cofounding rate or intra-colony relatedness between die two treatments there was, overall, a high rate of cofounding: 53% of new nests were multifemale, approximately twice as high as found in previous field-based studies. Relatedness among cofoundresses was not only different from zero, ^r± SE = 0.597 ± 0.097, but almost identical to that found in montane populations. A constraint, such as nest substrate distribution, is suggested as a proximate factor affecting the expression of cofounding behaviour in E. bicolor. The implication of such proximate constraints for inferring the phylogenetic origins of social behaviour is discussed.     

A model for species-area relationships in plant communities

Abstract. A model is proposed for the fitting of species-area curves to data from the Stellenbosch region, South Africa. Basic assumptions of the model are finiteness of the number of species in a finite area, and random distribution of plant species over the region. The model involves a distribution of densities of different species, and the parameters of this distribution are useful for describing and classifying communities. The data of the Stellenbosch region suggest that the assumptions of the model break down in areas greater than 500 m².