Detection and discrimination of fauna in the aerosphere using Doppler weather surveillance radar

Organisms in the aerosphere have been detected by radar sinceits development in the 1940s. The national network of Dopplerweather radars (WSR-88D) in the United States can readily detectbirds, bats, and insects aloft. Level-II data from the radarcontain information on the reflectivity and radial velocityof targets and on width of the spectrum (SD of radial velocitiesin a radar pulse volume). Information on reflectivity can beused to quantify density of organisms aloft and radial velocitycan be used to discriminate different types of targets basedon their air speeds. Spectral width can also provide some usefulinformation when organisms with very different air speeds arealoft. Recent work with dual-polarization radar suggests thatit may be useful for discriminating birds from insects in theaerosphere, but more development and biological validation arerequired.     

An evolutionary change in diagnostic virology

The earliest laboratory diagnoses of viral infections were made by microscopy just after the turn of the twentieth century. Animal and egg inoculation were the methods of choice until tissue culture and serology accelerated the field of diagnostic virology during the fifties and sixties. More rapid methods, including electron microscopy, immunoassays, and nucleic acid probes, are now available and influencing laboratory decisions and patient care. This review discusses changes in science and society which have influenced diagnostic virology and how the discipline has responded to these influences.     

An inventory of the possible effects of climatic change on western palearctic migratory birds

This paper presents an assessment of the possible effects of future climatic change on migratory birds. The assessment is based on two approaches: firstly an inventory is made of the environmental factors that may change which directly affect migratory birds. These factors include physical (temperature, hydrology, ocean and air streaming patterns) as well as biological (floral and faunal composition of ecosystems) and landuse aspects of the environment.Secondly, these possible changes were related to the annual cycles of migratory birds in order to estimate the problems that different groups of migratory birds have to cope with at various stages in their annual cycle. It is concluded that many migratory bird species will be influenced by climatic change, leading to adaptations in the birds annual cycle. The biggest problems may arise for those birds which depend on wetlands, because many of these wetlands may dessicate.     

Aeromechanics in aeroecology: flight biology in the aerosphere

The physical environment of the aerosphere is both complex anddynamic, and poses many challenges to the locomotor systemsof the three extant evolutionary lineages of flying animals.Many features of the aerosphere, operating over spatial andtemporal scales of many orders of magnitude, have the potentialto be important influences on animal flight, and much as marineecologists have studied the relationship between physical oceanographyand swimming locomotion, a subfield of aeroecology can focusattention on the ways the biology of flight is influenced bythese characteristics. Airflows are altered and modulated bymotion over and around natural and human-engineered structures,and both vortical flow structures and turbulence are introducedto the aerial environment by technologies such as aircraft andwind farms. Diverse aspects of the biology of flight may bebetter understood with reference to an aeroecological approach,particularly the mechanics and energetics of flight, the sensingof aerial flows, and the motor control of flight. Moreover,not only does the abiotic world influence the aerospheric conditionsin which animals fly, but flying animals also, in turn, changethe flow environment in their immediate vicinity, which caninclude the air through which other animals fly, particularlywhen animals fly in groups. Flight biologists can offer considerableinsight into the ecology of the aerial world, and an aeroecologicalapproach holds great promise for stimulating and enriching thestudy of the biology of flight.     

The influence of light on paternal plants in Campanula americana (Campanulaceae): pollen characteristics and offspring traits

Offspring trait expression is determined by the combination of parental genes and parental environments. Although maternal environmental effects have been widely characterized, few studies have focused on paternal environmental effects. To determine whether light availability influences pollen and offspring traits in the woodland herb Campanula americana, we reared clones of 12 genotypes in two light levels. In the parental generation we measured pollen number and size. Plants grown under high light produced more pollen grains per flower than those grown under low light. However, the response was genotype specific; some individuals responded little to changes in light availability while others substantially reduced pollen production. As a consequence, paternity ratios may vary between light environments if more pollen is associated with greater siring success. We crossed a subset of these plants to produce the offspring generation. The paternal and maternal light environments influenced offspring seed mass, percentage germination, and days to germination, while only maternal light levels influenced later life traits, such as leaf number and size. Maternal and paternal environmental effects had opposite influences on seed mass, percentage germination and days to germination. Finally, there was no direct relationship between light effects on pollen production and offspring trait expression.     

Effects of air pollution on biogenic volatiles and ecological interactions

Chemical signals play important roles in ecological interactions but are vulnerable to perturbation by air pollution. In polluted air masses, signals may travel shorter distances before being destroyed by chemical reactions with pollutants, thus losing their specificity. To determine which scent-mediated interactions are likely to be affected, we review existing literature to build a picture of what chemicals are commonly found in such interactions and the spatial scales at which interactions occur. We find that pollination, attraction of natural enemies of plant pests, aggregation pheromones, and mate attraction are likely to be affected. We review the scant literature on this topic and extend the hypothesis to include heretofore unexplored interactions. New research should investigate whether air pollution deleteriously affects populations of organisms that rely on scent plumes. Additionally, we need to investigate whether or not breakdown products created by the reaction of signaling chemicals with pollutants can provide usable signals, and whether or not there has been adaptation on the part of scent emitters or receivers to use either breakdown products or more robust chemical signals. The proposed research will necessarily draw on tools from atmospheric science, evolutionary biology, and ecology in furthering our understanding of the ecological implications of how air pollution modifies the scentscape.     

Biodiversitätsforschung – wohin geht die Reise?

Biodiversity and biodiversity politics Extrapolations for a range of indicators suggest that based on current trends, pressures on biodiversity will continue to increase (Global Biodiversity Outlook 4, 2014). Since services of nature, like fertile soil, clear water and clean air are achieved by consortia of organisms rather than by individual species, they are already endangered. This holds, in spite of the fact, that only 10% of the earth's organisms are known to science and that therefore the loss caused by global change cannot be reliably quantified. Today, science develops new methods for recording consortia of coexisting organisms in a habitat. With the Convention on Biological Diversity, biodiversity has become a matter of politics which is welcome with respect to species and habitat conservation, but the concern of biopiracy creates bureaucratic hurdles hindering research. The most recent achievement is IPBES (Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Bonn), which strives to bring more science into biodiversity politics.     

The impact of future research on our understanding of parasitism

Future developments in science cannot be foreseen with any accuracy as they depend on ideas which cannot be predicted. The immediate future, like the recent past, will be very much dictated by technological developments but exploitation of these developments may be limited to a select few. Parasitologists must advertise discoveries of potential fundamental biological significance in order to attract new recruits to the discipline and maintain its scientific vigour. Our understanding of the nature of parasitism will ultimately depend upon the characterization of the genetic dependence of parasites on their hosts.     

Implications of scale for patterns and processes in stream ecology

Abstract Although the scale-dependence of ecological patterns and processes is recognized by freshwater ecologists, current knowledge of scale effects is rudimentary and non-quantitative. We review issues of spatial and temporal scale in this paper to highlight conceptual problems relating to scale and some potential solutions. We present examples of how the spatial scale of a study influences observed patterns and their interpretation, and discuss how the size of an experimental arena influences the degree to which the dynamics of studied populations are influenced by exchange processes (immigration and emigration). The results of small-scale field experiments in streams will often be strongly influenced by the per capita exchange rates of organisms and differences in exchange rates may explain differences in the perceived effects of stream manipulations across scales. Spatial extent also influences the amount of spatial heterogeneity within a study site or arena, with important consequences for the outcome of predator-prey interactions. We suggest that changes in the availability of prey refuges may help explain why predator manipulations in streams appear to weaken as arena size increases. We also recommend that new techniques for decomposing and quantifying spatial heterogeneity be applied to characterize scale-dependent variation in freshwater systems. Lastly, we discuss the pitfalls of mismatching the temporal scale of experiments and models. Models incorporating spatial heterogeneity and the behaviour of organisms are needed to predict the short-term outcome of perturbations in streams, whereas models predicting long-term dynamics will need to integrate the impacts of episodic disturbance and all life history stages of organisms. In general, we recommend that freshwater ecologists undertake more multi-scale sampling and experimentation to examine patterns and processes at multiple scales, and make greater attempts to match the scales of their observations and experiments to the characteristic scales of the phenomena that they investigate.     

A critique of race-based and genomic medicine

Now that a composite human genome has been sequenced (HGP), research has accelerated to discover precise genetic bases of several chronic health issues, particularly in the realms of cancer and cardiovascular disease. It is anticipated that in the future it will be possible and cost effective to regularly sequence individual genomes, and thereby produce a DNA profile that potentially can be used to assess the health risks for each person with respect to certain genetically predisposed conditions. Coupled with that enormous diagnostic power, it will then depend upon equally rapid research efforts to develop personalized courses of treatment, including that of pharmaceutical therapy. Initial treatment attempts have been made to match drug efficacy and safety to individuals of assigned or self-identified groups according to their genetic ancestry or presumed race. A prime example is that of BiDil, which was the first drug approved by the US FDA for the explicit treatment of heart patients of African American ancestry. This race-based approach to medicine has been met with justifiable criticism, notably on ethical grounds that have long plagued historical applications and misuses of human race classification, and also on questionable science. This paper will assess race-based medical research and practice in light of a more thorough understanding of human genetic variability. Additional concerns will be expressed with regard to the rapidly developing area of pharmacogenomics, promoted to be the future of personalized medicine. Genomic epidemiology will be discussed with several examples of on-going research that hopefully will provide a solid scientific grounding for personalized medicine to build upon.     

多溴二苯醚的环境暴露与生态毒理研究进展

多溴二苯醚(PBDEs)是一类具有生态风险的新型环境有机污染物.作为阻燃剂,PBDEs已经被愈来愈广泛地添加到工业产品中,并因此对大气、水体、沉积物和土壤等环境介质及相关生态系统产生日益广泛的污染.鉴于这一环境新问题的产生,本文基于有限的资料,初步探讨了PBDEs的人为来源和环境暴露途径,大致给出了PBDEs在不同生物和人体不同组织器官中可能的存在及含量水平;在扼要介绍其基本性质的基础上,从甲状腺、神经系统和生殖发育毒性等三个方面分析了PBDEs对动物和人体可能产生的毒性效应与生态影响,以及PBDEs在生态系统中可能具有的生物积累和生物放大风险;并对今后研究PBDEs的环境暴露与生态效应以及人体健康影响等方面的工作重点进行了展望.     

Environmental metabolomics: a critical review and future perspectives

Environmental metabolomics is the application of metabolomics to characterise the interactions of organisms with their environment. This approach has many advantages for studying organism–environment interactions and for assessing organism function and health at the molecular level. As such, metabolomics is finding an increasing number of applications in the environmental sciences, ranging from understanding organismal responses to abiotic pressures, to investigating the responses of organisms to other biota. These interactions can be studied from individuals to populations, which can be related to the traditional fields of ecophysiology and ecology, and from instantaneous effects to those over evolutionary time scales, the latter enabling studies of genetic adaptation. This review provides a comprehensive and current overview of environmental metabolomics research. We begin with an overview of metabolomic studies into the effects of abiotic pressures on organisms. In the field of ecophysiology, studies on the metabolic responses to temperature, water, food availability, light and circadian rhythms, atmospheric gases and season are reviewed. A section on ecotoxicogenomics discusses research in aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicology, assessing organismal responses to anthropogenic pollutants in both the laboratory and field. We then discuss environmental metabolomic studies of diseases and biotic–biotic interactions, in particular herbivory. Finally, we critically evaluate the contribution that metabolomics has made to the environmental sciences, and highlight and discuss recommendations to advance our understanding of the environment, ecology and evolution using a metabolomics approach.     

Environmental influences during development and their later consequences for health and disease: implications for the interpretation of empirical studies

Early experience has a particularly great effect on most organisms. Normal development may be disrupted by early environmental influences; individuals that survive have to cope with the damaging consequences. Additionally, the responses required to cope with environmental challenges in early life may have long-term effects on the adult organism. A further set of processes, those of developmental plasticity, may induce a phenotype that is adapted to the adult environment predicted by the conditions of early life. A mismatch between prediction and subsequent reality can cause severe health problems in those human societies where economic circumstances and nutrition are rapidly improving. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of plasticity is, therefore, clinically important. However, to conduct research in this area, developmental plasticity must be disentangled from disruption and the adverse long-term effects of coping. The paper reviews these concepts and explores ways in which such distinctions may be made in practice.     

Quantitative behavior analysis and human values

Many scientists believe that among the virtues of quantitative science are that its facts are free from personal, social, political, economic, and other cultural influences, or at least, if they are not, they should be. Radical behaviorism suggests, however, that a science of behavior must apply to peoples' everyday professional behaviors, including those of quantitative behavior analysts. The behaviors of quantitative behavior analysts, however, like the behaviors of everyone else, depend on the cultures to which they belong. A quantitative science of behavior must therefore describe and explain the cultural and human values of quantitative behavior analysts. In this sense, a quantitative science of behavior must apply to itself. No such "reflexive behavior analysis" currently exists and its development might shed considerable light on the basic nature of behavior analysis.     

Nitrogen Addition and Warming Independently Influence the Belowground Micro-Food Web in a Temperate Steppe

Climate warming and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition are known to influence ecosystem structure and functioning. However, our understanding of the interactive effect of these global changes on ecosystem functioning is relatively limited, especially when it concerns the responses of soils and soil organisms. We conducted a field experiment to study the interactive effects of warming and N addition on soil food web. The experiment was established in 2006 in a temperate steppe in northern China. After three to four years (2009–2010), we found that N addition positively affected microbial biomass and negatively influenced trophic group and ecological indices of soil nematodes. However, the warming effects were less obvious, only fungal PLFA showed a decreasing trend under warming. Interestingly, the influence of N addition did not depend on warming.Structural equation modeling analysis suggested that the direct pathway between N addition and soil food web components were more important than the indirect connections through alterations in soil abiotic characters or plant growth. Nitrogen enrichment also affected the soil nematode community indirectly through changes in soil pH and PLFA. We conclude that experimental warming influenced soil food web components of the temperate steppe less than N addition, and there was little influence of warming on N addition effects under these experimental conditions.     

Estimating diffuse irradiance on organisms: A comparison of results from isotropic and anisotropic sky radiance models

In calculating the diffuse irradiances of both solar and longwave radiation on geometric solids chosen to simulate organisms or parts of organisms, it is conventional to employ an isotropic sky model. This simplifies computations but may be unrealistic for radiative fluxes of atmospheric origin. The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the significance of error brought about by the adoption of the isotropic assumption to compute the diffuse irradiance on the sphere, the vertical circular cylinder, the horizontal circular cylinder, the cone, the inclined plane, the parallelipiped, the vertical elliptical cylinder, the horizontal cylinder with hemispheric ends and the vertical cylinder with an upfacing hemispheric end. Theory is presented for the diffuse irradiance on an infinitessimal element, and for that on the solid forms. Results using the isotropic assumption are compared to those obtained using empirically-derived radiance distributions for atmospheric longwave irradiance and for solar diffuse irradiance under both overcast and cloud-free skies. These experiments suggest that, for the longwave irradiance, the isotropic sky model performs well. For solar diffuse radiation, however, errors are larger. Data are presented which permit estimation of the magnitude and direction of the error under a variety of conditions. Ultimately, the decision to employ an isotropic or anisotropic sky model will depend on the nature of the application. The methods described provide a means of evaluating the likely error resulting from the adoption of the more convenient isotropic sky model.     

The influence of light and air on the purification of polluted water

Summary A comparative study was made between the organic polluted water from the river Lieve (Ghent, Belgium), and the same water treated in the laboratory aquaria, with light and atmospheric air at a constant temperature.The treatment influenced the biological selfpurification, as well in its early start, as in its final qualitative and quantitative expression.There were significant changes in the chemical and biological composition of the treated Lieve-water, and some of the changes could be traced to differences in the treatment of the water.The biochemical oxygen demand and the KMnO₄-consumption test decreased fast and reached minimal values.On the other side pH values transparency, oxygen content, nitrite and nitrate nitrogen increased to maximal values.The evolution of the plankton organisms was followed up regularly and important changes occured as well in the quantitative as in the qualitative composition of the waters.The saprobic value of the initial Lieve-water and that of the waters in the aquaria was estimated.Important differences in the evolution of the saprobic values could be demonstrated.     

Sustaining biological welfare for our future through consistent science

Physiological anthropology presently covers a very broad range of human knowledge and engineering technologies. This study reviews scientific inconsistencies within a variety of areas: sitting posture; negative air ions; oxygen inhalation; alpha brain waves induced by music and ultrasound; 1/f fluctuations; the evaluation of feelings using surface electroencephalography; Kansei; universal design; and anti-stress issues. We found that the inconsistencies within these areas indicate the importance of integrative thinking and the need to maintain the perspective on the biological benefit to humanity. Analytical science divides human physiological functions into discrete details, although individuals comprise a unified collection of whole-body functions. Such disparate considerations contribute to the misunderstanding of physiological functions and the misevaluation of positive and negative values for humankind. Research related to human health will, in future, depend on the concept of maintaining physiological functions based on consistent science and on sustaining human health to maintain biological welfare in future generations.