Bioindication and Functional Response in Floodplain Systems: Where to from Here?

We synthesise the results of the papers in this Special Issue, place them within the context of current trends in floodplain research, and outline promising new avenues that emerge from the contributions. The indication system presented complements existing approaches by focussing on a quantitative indication of environmental parameters. A promising research line that emerges is an extension of the systematic comparison of taxonomic groups with contrasting traits in terms of their performance as quantitative indicators for different environmental parameters. The studies show similarities and dissimilarities in the traits explaining the functional response of plants, molluscs, carabids, and syrphids to site conditions but trait databases and studies on additional taxa are required before broad generalisations can be made. The rigorous study design developed for the RIVA project, of which all contributions in this Special Issue are a part, not only was essential for an improvement of the understanding of species environment relationships and the role biological traits play for it, it also provides a baseline for assessing future change as part of long‐term ecological monitoring of floodplains. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Isolation of alternariol and alternariol monomethyl ether from Alternaria dauci (kühn) groves and skolko

Alternariol and alternariol monomethyl ether have been isolated from the mycelium of Alternaria dauci, in proportions which differed considerably from those obtained from A. tenuis. The preparation of triacetylalternariol and of alternariol dimethyl ether is described.     

Plant remains from Asikli Höyük,a pre-pottery Neolithic site in central Anatolia

Cereal crop plants at Asikli Höyük included einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum), emmer wheat (T. dicoccum), free-threshing wheat (T. cf. durum), hulled two-rowed barley (Hordeum distichum) and naked barley (H. vulgare var. nudum). As for pulses, bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia), lentil (Lens culinaris) and probably pea (Pisum sativum) were grown. Hackberry (Celtis tournefortii) fruits were gathered intensively. In addition, fruits of pistachio (Pistacia cf. atlantica) and almond (Amygdalus spec.) were collected from the wild.     

Response of bird assemblages to windstorm and salvage logging — Insights from analyses of functional guild and indicator species

Natural disturbances, such as fire, windstorms and insect outbreaks, are important drivers of biodiversity in forest ecosystems, but at the same time cause large economic losses. Among the natural disturbances in Europe, windstorms cause the highest economic loss. After such storms, damaged forest stands are commonly salvage logged to restore economic value. However, such interventions could affect species assemblages of various taxonomic groups, including breeding birds. Despite these potential effects, investigations of the impacts of post-storm logging are largely lacking. We thus investigated assemblages of breeding birds in 21 logged and 21 unlogged windstorm-disturbed forest plots and 18 undisturbed, control forest plots using fixed-radius point-stop counts three, five and seven years after a windstorm within the Bavarian Forest National Park as part of the European Long-Term Ecosystem Research Network. We recorded 2100 bird individuals of 55 bird species. Bird assemblages were predominantly altered by the consequences of the windstorm and affected only to a minor degree by subsequent logging of storm-felled trees. Nevertheless, bird species richness was significantly reduced by post-storm logging within the first season. In general, the windstorm led to a shift in bird assemblage composition from typical forest species towards open- and shrub-land species. Assemblages of logged and unlogged disturbed plots consisted mainly of long-distance migrants and ground-foraging bird species, whereas assemblages of undisturbed control plots consisted of resident species that forage within vegetation. Both unlogged and logged storm-felled coniferous forest stands were inhabited by endangered or declining bird species, such as Water Pipit (Anthus spinoletta) on logged plots and Eurasian Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) on unlogged plots. Indicator species analyses suggested that species of unlogged storm disturbed plots depended on storm-created legacies, such as pits and snags, for foraging and nesting. Hence, we recommend reducing post-storm logging of these legacies to support species restricted to unlogged disturbed forest. To increase the diversity of breeding birds on the landscape scale, diverse logged and unlogged post-disturbance stands should be provided, which could be gained by a partial benign neglect strategy of storm disturbed forest stands.     

Luminescent activity and ultrastructural characterization of photocytes dissociated from the coelenterate Renilla köllikeri

Dissociation and Percoll sedimentation techniques were used to separate and pool the autofluorescent luminescent cells (photocytes) of the pennatulid anthozoan Renilla k?llikeri. Photometric recordings of luminescent activity of photocyte suspensions show that activation of flashing and glowing by KCl depolarization is suppressed in calcium-free sea water and by cobalt but enhanced by trifluoperazine, thus suggesting that luminescence excitation is dependent on extracellular calcium and calmodulin-mediated mechanisms. Of several neuroactive substances tested, adrenaline, dopamine, N-methyl-N-phenylethanolamine, serotonin and the native neuropeptide Antho-RFamide all induced photocyte responses at high concentrations (0.1-1 mM) only, whereas lower concentrations of adrenaline and Antho-RFamide are known to activate or enhance luminescence or muscular contractions in intact Renilla tissues (Anctil et al., 1982; Anctil, 1987). Hence, none of these substances is a likely neurotransmitter candidate for direct photocyte activation. Ultrastructural observations of dissociated photocytes reveal that they are musculo-epithelial cells containing numerous 0.2-mum vesicles resembling previously extracted and light-emitting lumisomes (Anderson and Cormier, 1973). Similar cells were traced ultrastructurally in situ in the endodermal luminescent zones, but not in non-luminescent endoderm.     

Cloning and nucleotide sequence of β-mannanase and cellulase genes from Bacillus sp. 5H

The two genes for -mannanase and cellulase of Bacillus sp. 5H have been cloned in Escherichia coli JM 109 by a shotgun method, though the cellulase gene was not expressed in Bacillus sp. 5H. The nucleotide sequences of the -mannanase gene and the cellulase gene revealed open reading frames of 1,086 and 1,503 base pairs, respectively, coding for a proteins of M_r 40,803 Da (-mannanase) and 55,420 Da (cellulase). The deduced primary structure of -mannanase comprised 362 amino acids which had a mature protein of 336 amino acids and a signal peptide of 26 amino acids and that of cellulase comprised 501 amino acid residues.     

Zdeněk Šesták and Photosynthetica,a tribute

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the international journal Photosynthetica in 2017 we briefly report on the establishment of this journal and on Dr. Zdeněk ?esták, the renowned researcher of photosynthesis processes who, in cooperation with the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, founded this essential science journal in Prague in 1967.     

The removal of carbohydrates from ricin with endoglycosidases H,F and D and α-mannosidase

Recently, several investigators have explored the possibility of targetting ricin to designated cell types in animals by its linkage to specific antibodies. There is evidence, however, that the mannose-containing oligosaccharide chains on ricin are recognised by reticuloendothelial cells in the liver and spleen and so cause the immunotoxins to be removed rapidly from the blood stream. In the present study we analysed the carbohydrate composition of ricin and examined enzymic methods for removing the carbohydrate. The carbohydrate analysis ricin A-chain revealed the presence of one residue of xylose and one of fucose in addition to mannose and N-acetylglucosamine which had been detected previously. The B-chain contained only mannose and N-acetylglycosamine. Ricin A-chain is heterogeneous containing two components of molecular weight 30 000 and 32 000. Strong evidence was found that the heavier form of the A-chain contains an extra carbohydrate unit which is heterogeneous with respect to concanavalin A binding and sensitivity to endoglycosidase H. The lower molecular weight form of A-chain did not bind concanavalin A and was insusceptible to endoglycosidases. Only one of the two high mannose oligosaccharide units on the isolated B-chain could be removed by endoglycosidases H or F, whereas both were removable after denaturation of the polypeptide by SDS. Both the isolated A- and B-chains were sensitive to α-mannosidase. Intact ricin was resistant to endoglycosidase treatment and was only slightly sensitive to α-mannosidase. The addition of SDS allowed endoglycosidase H to remove both of the B-chain oligosaccharides from intact ricin and increased the toxin's sensitivity to α-mannosidase. In conclusion, extensive enzymic deglycosylation of ricin may only be possible if the A- and B-chains are first separated, treated with enzymes and then recombined to form the toxin.     

Isolation and identification of entomopathogenic nematodes and their symbiotic bacteria from Hérault and Gard (Southern France)

Isolation and identification of native nematode-bacterial associations in the field are necessary for successful control of endemic pests in a particular location. No study has yet been undertaken to recover and identify EPN in metropolitan France. In the present paper, we provide results of a survey of EPN and their symbiotic bacteria conducted in Hérault and Gard regions in Southern France. Molecular characterization of isolated nematodes depicted three different Steinernema species and one Heterorhabditis species, H. bacteriophora. Steinernema species recovered were identified as: S. feltiae and S. affine and an undescribed species. Xenorhabdus symbionts were identified as X. bovienii for both S. feltiae and S. affine. Phylogenetic analysis placed the new undescribed Steinernema sp. as closely related to S. arenarium but divergent enough to postulate that it belongs to a new species within the “glaseri-group”. The Xenorhabdus symbiont from this Steinernema sp. was identified as X. kozodoii. All Heterorhabditis isolates recovered were diagnosed as H. bacteriophora and their bacterial symbionts were identified as Photorhabdus luminescens. Molecular characterization of these nematodes enabled the distinction of two different H. bacteriophora strains. Bacterial symbiontic strains of these two H. bacteriophora strains were identified as P. luminescens ssp. kayaii and P. luminescens ssp. laumondii.     

Public Health Response Systems In-Action: Learning from Local Health Departments’ Experiences with Acute and Emergency Incidents

As part of their core mission, public health agencies attend to a wide range of disease and health threats, including those that require routine, acute, and emergency responses. While each incident is unique, the number and type of response activities are finite; therefore, through comparative analysis, we can learn about commonalities in the response patterns that could improve predictions and expectations regarding the resources and capabilities required to respond to future acute events. In this study, we interviewed representatives from more than 120 local health departments regarding their recent experiences with real-world acute public health incidents, such as infectious disease outbreaks, severe weather events, chemical spills, and bioterrorism threats. We collected highly structured data on key aspects of the incident and the public health response, particularly focusing on the public health activities initiated and community partners engaged in the response efforts. As a result, we are able to make comparisons across event types, create response profiles, and identify functional and structural response patterns that have import for future public health preparedness and response. Our study contributes to clarifying the complexity of public health response systems and our analysis reveals the ways in which these systems are adaptive to the character of the threat, resulting in differential activation of functions and partners based on the type of incident. Continued and rigorous examination of the experiences of health departments throughout the nation will refine our very understanding of what the public health response system is, will enable the identification of organizational and event inputs to performance, and will allow for the construction of rich, relevant, and practical models of response operations that can be employed to strengthen public health systems.     

The long-term development of urban vegetation in Helsinki, Finland: A pollen diagram from Töölönlahti

A core from Töölönlahti, a bay close to the central business district of Helsinki, the capital of Finland, was analysed for its pollen stratigraphy. The extrapolated age-depth curve based on¹³⁷Cs dating, sphaeroidal carbonaceous particle analysis and historical data suggests that the core goes back to the 17th or early 18th century. Four local pollen assemblage zones (LPAZ) were identified. Detrended correspondence analysis was used to detect the main phases of change represented by these zones. The basal LPAZ indicates that the vegetation was characterized by forest dominated byPinus sylvestris andPicea abies during the early history of the city of Helsinki and that human impact remained relatively minor until the end of the 19th century. A drastic change in vegetation took place at the turn of the 19/20th century when bothPinus andPicea declined rapidly while pollen values of several anthropogenic indicators rose. These changes were synchronous with the rapid expansion of population and urban area in Helsinki. Rarefaction analysis shows that palynological richness was highest during the early phase of increased human impact but then started to fall. During the 20th century the main vegetational trend has been the proliferation of introduced park trees. Palynological richness has decreased.