Investigation of relationships between marine diatoms and the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes

Relationships between marine diatoms and the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes have been studied by routine algological methods and high-resolution video-enhanced differential interference contrast light microscopy. The study showed that the relationship between the listeria and the benthic diatom Navicula sp. has a parasitic character, whereas the relationship between the listeria and the planktonic diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum is protocooperative.     

Environmental factors influencing the regional distribution and local density of a small benthic fish: the stoneloach (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Barbatula barbatula</Emphasis>)

We investigated the relationships between different environmental variables and the spatial distribution patterns of the stoneloach (Barbatula barbatula) at the stream system, the stream site, and the mesohabitat (riffle/pool) scales in south-western France. Stoneloach occurred at 240 sites (out of 554 sampling sites), chiefly close to the source, in areas at low elevation and with weak slopes. Population density at a site was primarily influenced by physical conditions. Stream width was positively related to the probability of presence of stoneloach within the stream system, but negatively related to local density. These results indicate that stoneloaches can occur in a wide range of streams, but they are less abundant in wide rivers, probably because of lower habitat heterogeneity. Slope was negatively correlated to both fish presence at the regional scale and local density, suggesting that stoneloach’s swimming performance were weak under greater erosive forces. These results suggested that the distribution of populations and the density of stoneloach were governed by the suitability of physical habitat. Multi-scale studies of factors influencing a species’distribution allow to integrate patterns observed at different scales, and enhance our understanding of interactions between animals and their environment. The use of few pertinent variables in successful final models could reduce the effort and cost of data collection for water management applications.     

Summer Epidemics of Apple Scab: The Relationship between Measurements and their Implications for the Development of Predictive Models and Threshold Levels under Different Disease Control Regimes

A 2‐year study on epidemic progress of apple scab was conducted at Randwijk, the Netherlands, in 1998 and 1999. The summer epidemic caused by conidia was studied instead of the well‐described spring season epidemic originating from ascospores. The aim was to investigate relationships between disease measurements, i.e. disease incidence and severity measures of apple scab, and their implications for the development of predictive models and threshold levels. The study characterized good relationships between the measurements on cultivar Jonagold using regression analyses in three disease control regimes (untreated, organic and integrated). For fruit quality prediction, the relationship between fruit incidence (I_f) and leaf incidence (I_l) in the organic control regime was given by I_f = 1.966 + 0.402 × (I_l) (R² = 0.92). As a result of low level of disease in the integrated control regime, shoot incidence (I_s), with higher values than leaf incidence, was better suited for prediction. The relationship was given by I_f = ?0.162 + 0.028 × (I_s) (R² = 0.91). For the integrated control regime, disease threshold levels were constructed for timing of the final fungicide application. If an apple grower wants to keep fruit infection under 1% incidence (harvest scab threshold), the timing of the final fungicide application (action threshold) should correspond to 4% shoot scab incidence at the beginning of August. The results are compared with similar studies and their biological interpretation is discussed.