Ecology and Management of Nesting Blue-and-Yellow Macaws (Ara ararauna) in Mauritia Palm Swamps

This paper reports on the nesting ecology of blue-and-yellow macaws (Ara ararauna) and the structure, conservation, and management of the Mauritia flexuosa palm swamps where they nest: clutch size averaged 2.6 and the number of chicks fledged per nesting attempt was 0.5. Macaws nested in tall dead palms in healthy palm swamps and in palms of all heights in open dieing palm stands. All nesting palms rose well above the surrounding vegetation presumably to discourage terrestrial predators. PVC nest boxes failed to attract nesting blue-and-yellow macaws. A small section of palm swamp was managed to encourage macaw nesting by cutting the tops off of M. flexuosa palms and clearing the understory vegetation. The palms remained standing from 4 to 7 years and were occupied by nesting macaws at a rate of 24%. The data presented here suggest that cutting five palms a year in perpetuity would produce a stand of approximately 20 standing dead palms used by 6 or more pairs of macaws annually. However, macaw occupancy rates would depend on the density of macaws and density of naturally occurring nest sites. This management scheme could be conducted on a 100-year rotation in an area of 1–4 ha or more depending on the palm density. Such a colony could be used to increase reproductive success of blue-and-yellow macaw populations, create a valuable ecotourism resource, and concentrate macaw nesting in protected areas.     

Endothelin—Biology and disease

Endothelins are important mediators of physiological and pathophysiologic processes including cardiovascular disorders, pulmonary disease, renal diseases and many others. Additionally, endothelins are involved in many other important processes such as development, cancer biology, wound healing, and even neurotransmission. Here, we review the cell and molecular biology as well as the prominent pathophysiological aspects of the endothelin system.     

Botulism—Diagnosis,Management and Public Health Considerations

Botulism is an uncommon but often fatal disease associated with ingestion of a potent neurotoxin present in improperly preserved foods. Exposures to commercially preserved foods with an odd or peculiar taste almost never represent exposure to botulism toxin. Improperly prepared home-canned products which are tasted or consumed without heating are more likely to be associated with botulism.The management of suspect and confirmed cases of botulism is presented by medical epidemiologists in the State Department of Public Health, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, to provide physicians in California with a practical approach to this problem.     

Education and Biology—a Partnership in Health,Social and Scientific Studies

Various techniques have been developed to prepare tissue in either thin sections or squashes and to stain the chromosomes in order to make their appearance and behaviour more easy to see. These techniques are assessed in the light of the facilities, time, and operator skill required for their execution. A new technique is suggested which provides quality squash preparations suitable for the majority of purposes up to university level, yet requires a minimum of preparation time or skill, and is inexpensive.     

Animal Personality： Ecology,Behavior, and Evolution

The past decade has seen an extraordinary rise in the number of papers devoted to the study of consistent individual differences in behavior, termed variably as ＂personality＂, ＂behavioral types＂, ＂temperament＂, ＂cor related phenotypes＂, and/or ＂behavioral syndromes＂. In earnest, the acceleration of this field was initiated by a handful of reviews that focused on the ecological and evolutionary implications of personality,     

Satellite Ecology (SATECO)—linking ecology,remote sensing and micrometeorology,from plot to regional scale,for the study of ecosystem structure and function

There is a growing requirement for ecosystem science to help inform a deeper understanding of the effects of global climate change and land use change on terrestrial ecosystem structure and function, from small area (plot) to landscape, regional and global scales. To meet these requirements, ecologists have investigated plant growth and carbon cycling processes at plot scale, using biometric methods to measure plant carbon accumulation, and gas exchange (chamber) methods to measure soil respiration. Also at the plot scale, micrometeorologists have attempted to measure canopy- or ecosystem-scale CO₂ flux by the eddy covariance technique, which reveals diurnal, seasonal and annual cycles. Mathematical models play an important role in integrating ecological and micrometeorological processes into ecosystem scales, which are further useful in interpreting time-accumulated information derived from biometric methods by comparing with CO₂ flux measurements. For a spatial scaling of such plot-level understanding, remote sensing via satellite is used to measure land use/vegetation type distribution and temporal changes in ecosystem structures such as leaf area index. However, to better utilise such data, there is still a need for investigations that consider the structure and function of ecosystems and their processes, especially in mountainous areas characterized by complex terrain and a mosaic distribution of vegetation. For this purpose, we have established a new interdisciplinary approach named ‘Satellite Ecology’, which aims to link ecology, remote sensing and micrometeorology to facilitate the study of ecosystem function, at the plot, landscape, and regional scale. This article was contributed at the invitation of the Editorial Committee.     

Functional Amyloidogenesis and Cytotoxicity—Insights into Biology and Pathology

Prions are self-templating protein structures that can be transferred from organism to organism. The [Het-s] prion propagates as a functional amyloid aggregate in the filamentous fungi Podospora anserina, and is involved in mediating heterokaryon incompatibility. Fusion of a P. anserina strain harboring the [Het-s] prion with another strain expressing the soluble Het-S protein results in cell death. The mechanism of Het-s/Het-S-mediated cell death has now been revealed in a paper just published in PLOS Biology. The study shows that Het-s and Het-S C-terminal domain co-amyloidogenesis induces a profound conformational rearrangement in the N-terminal Het-S HeLo domain, resulting in the exposure of a nascent transmembrane helix. Oligomerization of these helices leads to pore formation, leakage of the cytosolic contents, and subsequent cell death. Thus, Het-s amyloid plays a major role in the life cycle of P. anserina by orchestrating a complex conformational change in the Het-S protein, resulting in cytotoxicity by compromising membrane integrity. This ability of Het-s functional amyloid to initiate programmed cytotoxicity by mediating a conformational change in another protein significantly expands the functional repertoire of amyloid. Moreover, the mechanism of Het-S cell killing may be similar to the mechanism by which some pathological amyloid proteins lead to the demise of post-mitotic tissue.     

What Happens after Conservation and Management Donors Leave? A Before and After Study of Coral Reef Ecology and Stakeholder Perceptions of Management Benefits

The coral reefs of Tanga, Tanzania were recognized as a national conservation priority in the early 1970s, but the lack of a management response led to damage by dynamite, beach seines, and high numbers of fishers until the mid 1990s. Subsequently, an Irish Aid funded IUCN Eastern Africa program operated from 1994 to mid 2007 to implement increased management aimed at reducing these impacts. The main effects of this management were to establish collaborative management areas, reduce dynamite and seine net fishing, and establish small community fisheries closures beginning in 1996. The ecology of the coral reefs was studied just prior to the initiation of this management in 1996, during, 2004, and a few years after the project ended in 2010. The perceptions of resource users towards management options were evaluated in 2010. The ecological studies indicated that the biomass of fish rose continuously during this period from 260 to 770 kg/ha but the small closures were no different from the non-closure areas. The benthic community studies indicate stability in the coral cover and community composition and an increase in coralline algae and topographic complexity over time. The lack of change in the coral community suggests resilience to various disturbances including fisheries management and the warm temperature anomaly of 1998. These results indicate that some aspects of the management program had been ecologically successful even after the donor program ended. Moreover, the increased compliance with seine net use and dynamite restrictions were the most likely factors causing this increase in fish biomass and not the closures. Resource users interviewed in 2010 were supportive of gear restrictions but there was considerable between-community disagreement over the value of specific restrictions. The social-ecological results suggest that increased compliance with gear restrictions is largely responsible for the improvements in reef ecology and is a high priority for future management programs.