Shade-adapted Algae beneath Ice and Snow in the Northern Bothnian Sea

The winter-spring phytoplankton flora in the coastal waters of the northern Bothnian Sea consists mainly of marine cold water species even adapted to low light. These dinoflagellates and diatoms seem to be selectively promoted by the seven months of low light and water temperature. They are able to grow during this period of subsaturated light and have their abundance maxima around ice-break. Solar radiation measured under ice and snow cover was in the same order of magnitude as the compensation points of some of the species. In summer, these algae species vanish from the water, and surely survive in the form of inactive life stages.     

Winter Refuge for Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus Mosquitoes in Hanoi during Winter

Dengue occurs throughout the year in Hanoi, Vietnam, despite winter low temperatures <10°C. During July 2010 to March 2012, we surveyed monthly for Aedes larvae and pupae in 120 houses in 8 Hanoi districts. Aedes albopictus preferred discarded containers in summer and pupal density drastically decreased in winter. Aedes aegypti preferred concrete tanks and this preference increased in winter. Even in winter, the lowest water temperature found in concrete tanks was >14°C, exceeding the developmental zero point of Ae. aegypti. Although jars, drums and concrete tanks were the dominant containers previously (1994–97) in Hanoi, currently the percentage of residences with concrete tanks was still high while jars and drums were quite low. Our study showed that concrete tanks with broken lids allowing mosquitoes access were important winter refuge for Ae. aegypti. We also indicate a concern about concrete tanks serving as foci for Ae. aegypti to expand their distribution in cooler regions.     

Palm Community Structure and Land Cover Changes in the San Juan Biological Corridor, Costa Rica

Biological corridors connect forest fragments, minimize the isolation of remaining habitats, and reduce the negative impact of fragmentation. Important studies in a corridor include documentation of land cover and the relationships between the plant community and land cover changes. In this study, density, species richness, and species diversity of palms of different life stages and growth forms were documented in forty 10 × 10 m census plots in the San Juan Biological Corridor (SJBC), Costa Rica. Changes in the percent cover of agricultural, partially forested, and forested lands from 1979 to 2001 were quantified based on existing land classifications. Associations between these palm community characteristics and the reduction in forest cover in 200-m and 1000-m annuli surrounding the census plots were investigated. These palm community characteristics were spatially interpolated to examine their distributions in SJBC. The community characteristics of palms of all growth forms varied among census plots. Forested lands in SJBC decreased from 88 percent to 26 percent during 1979–2001, while the percentage cover of agricultural and partially forested lands increased. The annual deforestation rate was 0.8 percent from 1979 to 1992, 4.3 percent from 1992 to 1997, and 7.5 percent from 1997 to 2001. Overall, palm community characteristics of small-canopy palms, dwarf palms, and cotyledonous seedlings had lower values with a lower percentage forest cover. The spatially interpolated palm community characteristics were consistently greatest within or adjacent to protected areas. This study demonstrates the complexity of the landscape and the effect of loss of adjacent forests on the palm community.     

季节性雪被对青藏高原东缘高寒草甸2种优势植物碳、氮积累和分配的影响

依据2006~2008冬季的自然雪被分布状况,在青藏高原东缘的高寒草甸中设置3条样带（即深雪、中雪和浅雪）。在2009年的生长季,在3个雪梯度样带中,分别测定了2种优势植物圆穗蓼（Polygonum macrophyllum）和黑褐穗苔草（Carex atrofusca subsp. Minor）生物量和碳氮营养积累及分配的动态特征。结果表明,深雪能够促进圆穗蓼和黑褐穗苔草生物量和碳氮养分的积累,可能使它们产生的凋落物数量更多且质量更好。深雪更有利于圆穗蓼（非禾本科草本植物）根系生物量、碳氮养分的积累;深雪不仅同时促进黑褐穗苔草（禾本科植物）地上部分和根系生物量、碳氮积累,而且还使其种子产量增加和质量提高,潜在地增强了黑褐穗苔草种子的繁殖能力,可能使得黑褐穗苔草的种间竞争能力增强。可以预见,未来季节性雪被的变化,必定会引起青藏高原东缘高寒草甸的初级生物量及其结构、植物群落物种组成等均发生相应变化。     

Factors and Processes Shaping Land Cover and Land Cover Changes Along the Wisconsin River

Land use can exert a powerful influence on ecological systems, yet our understanding of the natural and social factors that influence land use and land-cover change is incomplete. We studied land-cover change in an area of about 8800 km² along the lower part of the Wisconsin River, a landscape largely dominated by agriculture. Our goals were (a) to quantify changes in land cover between 1938 and 1992, (b) to evaluate the influence of abiotic and socioeconomic variables on land cover in 1938 and 1992, and (c) to characterize the major processes of land-cover change between these two points in time. The results showed a general shift from agricultural land to forest. Cropland declined from covering 44% to 32% of the study area, while forests and grassland both increased (from 32% to 38% and from 10% to 14% respectively). Multiple linear regressions using three abiotic and two socioeconomic variables captured 6% to 36% of the variation in land-cover categories in 1938 and 9% to 46% of the variation in 1992. Including socioeconomic variables always increased model performance. Agricultural abandonment and a general decline in farming intensity were the most important processes of land-cover change among the processes considered. Areas characterized by the different processes of land-cover change differed in the abiotic and socioeconomic variables that had explanatory power and can be distinguished spatially. Understanding the dynamics of landscapes dominated by human impacts requires methods to incorporate socioeconomic variables and anthropogenic processes in the analyses. Our method of hypothesizing and testing major anthropogenic processes may be a useful tool for studying the dynamics of cultural landscapes. Received 7 December 2000; accepted 2 October 2001.     

Watershed Land Use and Seasonal Variation Constrain the Influence of Riparian Canopy Cover on Stream Ecosystem Metabolism

Ecosystem metabolism is an important determinant of trophic structure, nutrient cycling, and other critical ecosystem processes in streams. Whereas watershed- and local-scale controls on stream metabolism have been independently investigated, little is known about how controls exerted at different scales interact to determine stream metabolic rates, particularly in urban streams and across seasons. To address this knowledge gap, we measured ecosystem metabolism in four urban and four reference streams in northern Kentucky, USA, with paired closed and open riparian canopies, during each of the four seasons. Gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration, and net ecosystem production (NEP) were all best predicted by models with season as a main effect, but interactions between season, canopy, and watershed varied for each response. Urban streams exhibited higher GPP during most seasons, likely due to elevated nutrient loads. Open canopy reaches in both urban and forested streams, supported higher rates of GPP than the closed canopy which reaches during the summer and fall, when the overhead vegetation shaded the closed reaches. The effect of canopy cover on GPP was similar among urban and forested streams. The combination of watershed and local-scale controls resulted in urban streams that alternated between net heterotrophy (NEP <0) and net autotrophy (NEP >0) at the reach-scale during seasons with dense canopy cover. This finding has management relevance because net production can lead to accumulation of algal biomass and associated issues like nighttime hypoxia. Our study suggests that although watershed urbanization fundamentally alters ecosystem function, the preservation and restoration of canopied riparian zones can provide an important management tool at the local scale, with the strongest impacts on stream metabolism during summer.     

云南澜沧江流域土地利用和覆盖变化

由人类活动引起的土地利用和地被覆盖的变化是地球上环境变化的主要原因。上世纪90年代是云南省经济发展和环境变化的活跃时期。本文通过现代卫星遥感技术、地理信息系统和其它多学科手段相结合 ,系统调查评估了云南澜沧江流域 1990年至 1998年间土地利用和地被覆盖的变化 ,结果显示流域中林业用地面积从 1990年的 6 4 9%增长到 1998年的6 6 4 % ,但是森林有林地 (郁闭度 >30 %的天然林和人工林 )从 1990年的 5 2 6 %减少到 1998年的 35 3%。并且分析大规模商业性森林砍伐、基础建设、经济作物的种植、刀耕火种、薪材过度采集和砍伐建筑用材等引起了森林的结构的显著变化和退化 ,从而导致了生物多样性的下降。     

Winter Fidelity and Apparent Survival of Lesser Snow Goose Populations in the Pacific Flyway

Abstract The Beringia region of the Arctic contains 2 colonies of lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) breeding on Wrangel Island, Russia, and Banks Island, Canada, and wintering in North America. The Wrangel Island population is composed of 2 subpopulations from a sympatric breeding colony but separate wintering areas, whereas the Banks Island population shares a sympatric wintering area in California, USA, with one of the Wrangel Island subpopulations. The Wrangel Island colony represents the last major snow goose population in Russia and has fluctuated considerably since 1970, whereas the Banks Island population has more than doubled. The reasons for these changes are unclear, but hypotheses include independent population demographics (survival and recruitment) and immigration and emigration among breeding or wintering populations. These demographic and movement patterns have important ecological and management implications for understanding goose population structure, harvest of admixed populations, and gene flow among populations with separate breeding or wintering areas. From 1993 to 1996, we neckbanded molting birds at their breeding colonies and resighted birds on the wintering grounds. We used multistate mark-recapture models to evaluate apparent survival rates, resighting rates, winter fidelity, and potential exchange among these populations. We also compared the utility of face stain in Wrangel Island breeding geese as a predictor of their wintering area. Our results showed similar apparent survival rates between subpopulations of Wrangel Island snow geese and lower apparent survival, but higher emigration, for the Banks Island birds. Males had lower apparent survival than females, most likely due to differences in neckband loss. Transition between wintering areas was low (<3%), with equal movement between northern and southern wintering areas for Wrangel Island birds and little evidence of exchange between the Banks and northern Wrangel Island populations. Face staining was an unreliable indicator of wintering area. Our findings suggest that northern and southern Wrangel Island subpopulations should be considered a metapopulation in better understanding and managing Pacific Flyway lesser snow geese. Yet the absence of a strong population connection between Banks Island and Wrangel Island geese suggests that these breeding colonies can be managed as separate but overlapping populations. Additionally, winter population fidelity may be more important in lesser snow geese than in other species, and both breeding and wintering areas are important components of population management for sympatric wintering populations.     

Temperature and Cloud Cover, but Not Predator Urine, Affect Winter Foraging of Mice

Although homeotherms likely experience costs of both predation risk and thermoregulation while foraging, it is unclear how foragers contend with these costs. We used foraging trays placed in sheltered microsites to determine whether temperature, a direct cue of predator presence (predator urine) and an indirect cue of predation risk (cloudy nights) affect foraging of white-footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus , in winter. Mice were presented with urine from bobcats, Lynx rufus , red foxes, V ulpes vulpes , and coyotes, Canis latrans , an herbivore (whitetailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus ), and a water control. To measure rodent foraging, we used seeds of millet mixed with sand to quantify giving-up densities (the number of seeds left in each foraging tray). Giving-up density was not affected by predator urine. Rather, rodent foraging was affected by an interaction of temperature and weather. On overcast nights, when predation risk was likely lower, mice foraged more when soil temperature was higher, presumably reducing thermoregulatory costs. On clear nights, foraging was low regardless of soil temperature, presumably because foraging was more risky. These results suggest that mice consider thermoregulatory costs and predation risk when making foraging decisions, and that the indirect cue afforded by weather, rather than the direct cue of predator urine, is among the cues used to make foraging decisions. Moreover, these results suggest that sensitivity to a particular cue is likely to be context-dependent.     

Highly Active Microbial Communities in the Ice and Snow Cover of High Mountain Lakes

An exploratory study carried out in Pyrenean and Alpine lakes shows that a rich, active microbial community lives in the slush layers of the winter cover of such lakes in spite of the low temperature and the seasonal occurrence of the habitat. Bacteria were very diverse in morphology, with filaments reaching up to 100 (mu)m long; flagellates, both autotrophic (chrysophytes, cryptophytes, dinoflagellates, and volvocales) and heterotrophic, and ciliates were abundant, reaching biovolume values up to 2.7 x 10(sup6) (mu)m(sup3) ml(sup-1). Species composition was very variable, with dominance depending on date and depth. Although many species were typical of lake plankton communities, some were restricted to the slush, for instance the predatory ciliates Dileptus sp. and Lacrymaria sp., and others were restricted to the surface pools, such as the snow algae Chlamydomonas nivalis. Microbial biomasses and usually bacterial and algal activities were greater in the slush layers than in the lake water. Photosynthesis rate in the upper cover layers reached values up to 0.5 (mu)g of C liter(sup-1) h(sup-1), and high bacterial activities up to 226 pmol of leucine incorporated liter(sup-1) h(sup-1) and 25 pmol of thymidine incorporated liter(sup-1) h(sup-1) were measured. For most species, lake water flooding the ice and snow cover could provide an inoculum. Differential growth depending on the environmental conditions (nutrients, organic matter, light) of a particular slush layer could provide dominance of different groups or species. However, there was no obvious colonizing mechanism for those species not appearing either in plankton or in communities on top of the snowpack.     

Multiple Methods in the Study of Driving Forces of Land Use and Land Cover Change: A Case Study of SE Kajiado District,Kenya

This landscape-scale study combines analysis of multitemporal satellite imagery spanning 30 years and information from field studies extending over 25 years to assess the extent and causes of land use and land cover change in the Loitokitok area, southeast Kajiado District, Kenya. Rain fed and irrigated agriculture, livestock herding, and wildlife and tourism have all experienced rapid change in their structure, extent, and interactions over the past 30 years in response to a variety of economic, cultural, political, institutional, and demographic processes. Land use patterns and processes are explored through a complementary application of interpretation of satellite imagery and case study analysis that explicitly addresses the local–national spatial scale over a time frame appropriate to the identification of fundamental causal processes. The results illustrate that this combination provides an effective basis for describing and explaining patterns of land use and land cover change and their root causes.     

Microbial Community Structure, Pigment Composition, and Nitrogen Source of Red Snow in Antarctica

“Red snow” refers to red-colored snow, caused by bloom of cold-adapted phototrophs, so-called snow algae. The red snow found in Langhovde, Antarctica, was investigated from several viewpoints. Various sizes of rounded red cells were observed in the red snow samples under microscopy. Pigment analysis demonstrated accumulation of astaxanthin in the red snow. Community structure of microorganisms was analyzed by culture-independent methods. In the analyses of small subunit rRNA genes, several species of green algae, fungus, and various phylotypes of bacteria were detected. The detected bacteria were closely related to psychrophilic or psychrotolerant heterotrophic strains, or sequences detected from low-temperature environments. As predominant lineage of bacteria, members of the genus Hymenobacter were consistently detected from samples obtained in two different years. Nitrogen isotopic compositions analysis indicated that the red snow was significantly ¹⁵N-enriched. Based on an estimation of trophic level, it was suggested that primary nitrogen sources of the red snow were supplied from fecal pellet of seabirds including a marine top predator of Antarctica.     

Comparisons of P-Yield,Riparian Buffer Strips,and Land Cover inSix Agricultural Watersheds

Riparian buffer strips may protect streams from phosphorus (P) pollution. We compared 2 years of daily P-yield (μg m⁻² day⁻¹) from six southeast Wisconsin watersheds with contrasting riparian buffer attributes. Of the variables measured, mean daily P-yield was most closely correlated with the variability in riparian patch size. Variability in P-yield was most closely correlated with characteristics of the riparian buffer, such as percent wetland land cover, riparian continuity, and stream sinuosity. During the most extreme events, mean P-yield was negatively correlated with the percentage of wetland land cover in the upland watershed. Correlations suggest that riparian continuity may influence P-loading in these watersheds. Our results corroborate the importance of continuity and uniformity of riparian buffers as moderators of P flow from upland agricultural lands into streams. Received 1 June 2001; accepted 5 February 2002.     

Seasonal Changes in the Composition and Content of Dehydrins in Winter Wheat Plants

Seasonal changes in the pattern and content of dehydrins in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) plants grown under field and laboratory conditions were studied by one-dimensional PAGE and immunochemical methods. During hardening, plants accumulated dehydrin-like polypeptides with mol wts of 209, 196, 66, 50, and 41 kD. In winter, low-molecular-weight dehydrins with mol wts of 24, 22, 17, 15, and 12 kD were synthesized and accumulated as well. Their content dropped sharply in spring when plants became unhardened. Accumulation/disappearance of these proteins corresponded to the fluctuations in wintering plant frost tolerance before winter and in spring. It is assumed that both high- and medium-molecular-weight dehydrins are involved in plant stress responses and adaptation, whereas low-molecular-weight dehydrins are evidently involved only in the process of low-temperature adaptation.     

Seasonal dynamics of the planktonic community in Lake Druzhby, Princess Elizabeth Land, Eastern Antarctica

1. The temporal abundance and composition of the plankton of a continental Antarctic lake (Lake Druzhby) situated in the Vestfold Hills, Eastern Antarctica was investigated from December 1992 to December 1993. The system was dominated by microbial plankton (cyanobacteria, heterotrophic bacteria and protozoans) with few metazoans. 2. Chlorophyll a concentrations ranged between 0.15 and 1.1 μg l^–1 and showed highest levels from late winter to spring. 3. Heterotrophic bacteria ranged between 75 and 250 × 10⁶ l^–1 with highest abundances in late winter/spring. Mean bacterial biovolumes showed considerable seasonal variation (0.05–0.31 μm³). Largest biovolumes occurred in summer and this was the time of highest community biomass. 4. Heterotrophic nanoflagellates reached highest abundances in late summer (maximum 14 × 10⁵ l^–1). Their mean biovolume also exhibited considerable seasonal variation, ranging between 1.77 and 27.0 μm³, with largest size resulting in community biomass peaking in early summer. Ciliated protozoa were poorly represented and sparse. Phototrophic nanoflagellates were sparse in this lake; instead the phototrophic plankton was dominated by a small rod-shaped cyanobacterium which constituted the largest carbon pool in the system. It was common throughout the year, its biomass peaking in autumn. Its presence is discussed in relation to lake morphometry and light climate. 5. Heterotrophic flagellate grazing rates ranged from 6.78 bacteria cell^–1 day^–1 at 2 °C to 11.8 bacteria cell^–1 day^–1 at 4 °C. They remove around 2% of the bacterial carbon pool per day during summer and winter. 6. Nutrient levels were low and recorded in pulses. Dissolved and particulate organic carbon were also low, usually less than 3 mg l^–1 and 600 μg l^–1, respectively. The carbon pools were derived from autochthonous sources. This lake system is driven by bottom-up forces and lacks top-down control, which fits into the picture currently seen for continental Antarctic lakes.