Energetics of walking and running: insights from simulated reduced-gravity experiments.

On Earth, a person uses about one-half as much energy to walk a mile as to run a mile. On another planet with lower gravity, would walking still be more economical than running? When people carry weights while they walk or run, energetic cost increases in proportion to the added load. It would seem to follow that if gravity were reduced, energetic cost would decrease in proportion to body weight in both gaits. However, we find that under simulated reduced gravity, the rate of energy consumption decreases in proportion to body weight during running but not during walking. When gravity is reduced by 75%, the rate of energy consumption is reduced by 72% during running but only by 33% during walking. Because reducing gravity decreases the energetic cost much more for running than for walking, walking is not the cheapest way to travel a mile at low levels of gravity. These results suggest that the link between the mechanics of locomotion and energetic cost is fundamentally different for walking and for running.     

Energetics and mechanics of human running on surfaces of different stiffnesses.

Mammals use the elastic components in their legs (principally tendons, ligaments, and muscles) to run economically, while maintaining consistent support mechanics across various surfaces. To examine how leg stiffness and metabolic cost are affected by changes in substrate stiffness, we built experimental platforms with adjustable stiffness to fit on a force-plate-fitted treadmill. Eight male subjects [mean body mass: 74.4 +/- 7.1 (SD) kg; leg length: 0.96 +/- 0.05 m] ran at 3.7 m/s over five different surface stiffnesses (75.4, 97.5, 216.8, 454.2, and 945.7 kN/m). Metabolic, ground-reaction force, and kinematic data were collected. The 12.5-fold decrease in surface stiffness resulted in a 12% decrease in the runner's metabolic rate and a 29% increase in their leg stiffness. The runner's support mechanics remained essentially unchanged. These results indicate that surface stiffness affects running economy without affecting running support mechanics. We postulate that an increased energy rebound from the compliant surfaces studied contributes to the enhanced running economy.     

Scaling up population dynamics: integrating theory and data

How to scale up from local-scale interactions to regional-scale dynamics is a critical issue in field ecology. We show how to implement a systematic approach to the problem of scaling up, using scale transition theory. Scale transition theory shows that dynamics on larger spatial scales differ from predictions based on the local dynamics alone because of an interaction between local-scale nonlinear dynamics and spatial variation in density or the environment. Based on this theory, a systematic approach to scaling up has four steps: (1) derive a model to translate the effects of local dynamics to the regional scale, and to identify key interactions between nonlinearity and spatial variation, (2) measure local-scale model parameters to determine nonlinearities at local scales, (3) measure spatial variation, and (4) combine nonlinearity and variation measures to obtain the scale transition. We illustrate the approach, with an example from benthic stream ecology of caddisflies living in riffles. By sampling from a simulated system, we show how collecting the appropriate data at local (riffle) scales to measure nonlinearities, combined with measures of spatial variation, leads to the correct inference for dynamics at the larger scale of the stream. The approach provides a way to investigate the mechanisms and consequences of changes in population dynamics with spatial scale using a relatively small amount of field data.     

Towards an e-biology of ageing: integrating theory and data

Ageing is a highly complex process; it involves interactions between numerous biochemical and cellular mechanisms that affect many tissues in an organism. Although work on the biology of ageing is now advancing quickly, this inherent complexity means that information remains highly fragmented. We describe how a new web-based modelling initiative is seeking to integrate data and hypotheses from diverse biological sources.     

Estimating contemporary early life-history dispersal in an estuarine fish: integrating molecular and otolith elemental approaches

Dispersal during the early life history of the anadromous rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax , was examined using assignment testing and mixture analysis of multilocus genotypes and otolith elemental composition. Six spawning areas and associated estuarine nurseries were sampled throughout southeastern Newfoundland. Samples of adults and juveniles isolated by > 25 km displayed moderate genetic differentiation ( F _ST ~ 0.05), whereas nearby (< 25 km) spawning and nursery samples displayed low differentiation ( F _ST < 0.01). Self-assignment and mixture analysis of adult spawning samples supported the hypothesis of independence of isolated spawning locations (> 80% self-assignment) with nearby runs self-assigning at rates between 50 % and 70%. Assignment and mixture analysis of juveniles using adult baselines indicated high local recruitment at several locations (70–90%). Nearby (< 25 km) estuaries at the head of St Mary's Bay showed mixtures of individuals (i.e. 20–40% assignment to adjacent spawning location). Laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry transects across otoliths of spawning adults of unknown dispersal history were used to estimate dispersal among estuaries across the first year of life. Single-element trends and multivariate discriminant function analysis (Sr:Ca and Ba:Ca) classified the majority of samples as estuarine suggesting limited movement between estuaries (< 0.5%). The mixtures of juveniles evident in the genetic data at nearby sites and a lack of evidence of straying in the otolith data support a hypothesis of selective mortality of immigrants. If indeed selective mortality of immigrants reduces the survivorship of dispersers, estimates of dispersal in marine environments that neglect survival may significantly overestimate gene flow.     

Forecasting the limits of resilience: integrating empirical research with theory

Despite the increasing evidence of drastic and profound changes in many ecosystems, often referred to as regime shifts, we have little ability to understand the processes that provide insurance against such change (resilience). Modelling studies have suggested that increased variance may foreshadow a regime shift, but this requires long-term data and knowledge of the functional links between key processes. Field-based research and ground-truthing is an essential part of the heuristic that marries theoretical and empirical research, but experimental studies of resilience are lagging behind theory, management and policy requirements. Empirically, ecological resilience must be understood in terms of community dynamics and the potential for small shifts in environmental forcing to break the feedbacks that support resilience. Here, we integrate recent theory and empirical data to identify ways we might define and understand potential thresholds in the resilience of nature, and thus the potential for regime shifts, by focusing on the roles of strong and weak interactions, linkages in meta-communities, and positive feedbacks between these and environmental drivers. The challenge to theoretical and field ecologists is to make the shift from hindsight to a more predictive science that is able to assist in the implementation of ecosystem-based management.     

Colonization in metapopulations: a review of theory and observations

In metapopulation dynamics turnover of populations in isolated patches may be frequent. Regional survival of a species in such a system with frequent extinctions hinges on its colonization ability. Colonization is more than just dispersal; when a propagule reaches a new patch it faces higher extinction probabilities than does an established population. Extinction models as well as empirical data suggest that a large propagule with a potential for rapid increase in a varying environment, or with a low mortality rate in an environment perceived as constant, has a higher probability of successful colonization. Large variation in population size when it is still small increases the risk of failure. Factors introducing such variation are demographic stochasticity and environmental variation. It is hard to single out demographic traits that ensure good colonizing ability, since colonization can be achieved in many different ways, but generalists and species with self-fertilization seem to be superior.     

Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution

Many biologists are calling for an 'extended evolutionary synthesis' that would 'modernize the modern synthesis' of evolution. Biological information is typically considered as being transmitted across generations by the DNA sequence alone, but accumulating evidence indicates that both genetic and non-genetic inheritance, and the interactions between them, have important effects on evolutionary outcomes. We review the evidence for such effects of epigenetic, ecological and cultural inheritance and parental effects, and outline methods that quantify the relative contributions of genetic and non-genetic heritability to the transmission of phenotypic variation across generations. These issues have implications for diverse areas, from the question of missing heritability in human complex-trait genetics to the basis of major evolutionary transitions.     

整合电路理论的生态廊道及其重要性识别

景观连接度被认为是影响诸多生态过程的一个重要因素.基于最小累积阻力模型的最小成本路径识别方法可以有效识别异质性景观中的功能连接,已被广泛应用到景观的功能连接评价与生态廊道模拟的研究中.基于电路理论的连接度模型用电阻代替了图论中的边、用电阻距离代替成本距离,来衡量异质性景观的功能连接.本文以SIMMAP 2.0软件生成的模拟景观为对象,借助于Linkage Mapper工具和Circuitscape软件,探讨如何将最小累积阻力模型与基于电路理论的连接度模型相结合来识别生态廊道及其景观要素的相对重要性.结果表明: 两种模型在应用中各有优势,互为补充.最小成本路径方法可以有效识别栖息地之间的最小成本廊道,基于电路理论的连接度模型通过电流密度的计算可以有效识别对景观连接性有重要影响的景观要素和“夹点”地区,并且“夹点”的位置不受廊道宽度的影响,在廊道重要性识别研究中具有明显优势.该方法可为区域生态保护规划和生态廊道设计提供科学依据.     

The gravity of pollination: integrating at‐site features into spatial analysis of contemporary pollen movement

Pollen‐mediated gene flow is a major driver of spatial genetic structure in plant populations. Both individual plant characteristics and site‐specific features of the landscape can modify the perceived attractiveness of plants to their pollinators and thus play an important role in shaping spatial genetic variation. Most studies of landscape‐level genetic connectivity in plants have focused on the effects of interindividual distance using spatial and increasingly ecological separation, yet have not incorporated individual plant characteristics or other at‐site ecological variables. Using spatially explicit simulations, we first tested the extent to which the inclusion of at‐site variables influencing local pollination success improved the statistical characterization of genetic connectivity based upon examination of pollen pool genetic structure. The addition of at‐site characteristics provided better models than those that only considered interindividual spatial distance (e.g. IBD). Models parameterized using conditional genetic covariance (e.g. population graphs) also outperformed those assuming panmixia. In a natural population of Cornus florida L. (Cornaceae), we showed that the addition of at‐site characteristics (clumping of primary canopy opening above each maternal tree and maternal tree floral output) provided significantly better models describing gene flow than models including only between‐site spatial (IBD) and ecological (isolation by resistance) variables. Overall, our results show that including interindividual and local ecological variation greatly aids in characterizing landscape‐level measures of contemporary gene flow.