Adaptive genetic variation mediates bottom-up and top-down control in an aquatic ecosystem

Research in eco-evolutionary dynamics and community genetics has demonstrated that variation within a species can have strong impacts on associated communities and ecosystem processes. Yet, these studies have centred around individual focal species and at single trophic levels, ignoring the role of phenotypic variation in multiple taxa within an ecosystem. Given the ubiquitous nature of local adaptation, and thus intraspecific variation, we sought to understand how combinations of intraspecific variation in multiple species within an ecosystem impacts its ecology. Using two species that co-occur and demonstrate adaptation to their natal environments, black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) and three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), we investigated the effects of intraspecific phenotypic variation on both top-down and bottom-up forces using a large-scale aquatic mesocosm experiment. Black cottonwood genotypes exhibit genetic variation in their productivity and consequently their leaf litter subsidies to the aquatic system, which mediates the strength of top-down effects from stickleback on prey abundances. Abundances of four common invertebrate prey species and available phosphorous, the most critically limiting nutrient in freshwater systems, are dictated by the interaction between genetic variation in cottonwood productivity and stickleback morphology. These interactive effects fit with ecological theory on the relationship between productivity and top-down control and are comparable in strength to the effects of predator addition. Our results illustrate that intraspecific variation, which can evolve rapidly, is an under-appreciated driver of community structure and ecosystem function, demonstrating that a multi-trophic perspective is essential to understanding the role of evolution in structuring ecological patterns.     

Ecosystem-level evidence for top-down and bottom-up control of production in a grassland stream system

Ecosystem-wide effects of introduced brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) and native river galaxias (Galaxiaseldoni McDowall) were studied by analysing ecosystem production budgets for two adjacent tributaries of a grassland stream-system in the South Island of New Zealand. One tributary was inhabited by brown trout, the other by river galaxias. No other fish species were present in either stream. The budget for the river galaxias stream indicated little top-down control of invertebrates by fish predation (river galaxias consumed ∼18% of available prey production). A large proportion of annual net primary production was required to support production by invertebrates (invertebrates consumed an average of ∼75% of available primary production), and mean surplus primary production (i.e. not consumed) was not significantly different from zero. Primary and secondary production were presumably mutually limiting in this system (i.e. controlled by simultaneous top-down and bottom-up mechanisms). In contrast, the budget for the brown trout stream indicated extreme top-down control of invertebrate populations by fish predation; essentially all invertebrate production (∼100%) was required to support trout production. Invertebrate production required only a minor portion of annual net primary production (∼21%) and primary production was presumably controlled by mechanisms other than grazing (e.g. sloughing, nutrient limitation). Predatory invertebrates had little quantitative effect on prey populations in either stream. Recent experimental studies of invertebrate behaviour, fish behaviour, and food-web structure in New Zealand streams with physically stable channels indicate that a trophic cascade should be observed in streams inhabited by brown trout, in contrast to those inhabited by native fish. The results reported here provide ecosystem-level evidence supporting this prediction. Received: 10 March 1997 / Accepted: 12 December 1997     

大鼠压杆行为的运动皮层局部场电位研究

目的：提取与大鼠右前肢运动相关联的初级运动皮层场电位的信号特征,并探讨依据局部场电位（LFP）识别前肢运动行为的可行性。方法：4只SD大鼠通过训练习得压杆取水操作,然后在左右脑初级运动皮层M1区分别植入多通道束状微电极,术后恢复后进行大鼠压杆行为实验,以2 kHz/s速率记录深部脑电信号及压杆状态信号,同步记录行为过程的视频信号。以通道间的差分信号作为局部场电位信号,分析局部场电位信号的时域特征,进行聚类分析。以压杆状态信号和视频分析为判定依据,对聚类结果进行分析。结果：局部场电位信号在大鼠压杆动作时明显增强,不同通道的局部场电位信号幅值、波形有差异,表明与前肢运动相关联的M1区局部场电位信号有空间分布特征;依据阈值准则从局部场电位信号检测压杆行为的检出率为80%。结论：依据局部场电位信号特征对大鼠前肢运动进行检测具有可行性。     

Comment arising from a paper by Wittmer et al.: hypothesis testing for top-down and bottom-up effects in woodland caribou population dynamics

Asexual fungal endophytes, which do not produce reproductive structures, spread in host populations only vertically via the propagules of their hosts. With such a close relationship between the fitness of the asexual endophyte and that of the host, the relationship is traditionally thought to be mutualistic. Here we present data showing that the positive effect of asexual endophytes may concern only a short period of the host’s life and that its lifetime reproductive success may be reduced. We followed 180 individuals of a perennial grass, Puccinellia distans, for the first 3 years of their growth both in the field and in a common garden experiment. In the first 2 years, infected individuals produced more generative shoots with longer inflorescences. Three-year-old individuals produced significantly fewer generative shoots with shorter inflorescences when infected with the fungus Epichloë typhina. Moreover, the dry mass of above- and belowground parts after three seasons was significantly lower in infected individuals. We suggest that if the endophyte retains control over plant reproduction and if shorter generation time is more crucial for the fungus than for the perennial host, then the fungus should stimulate plant reproduction early in life even though infection incurs a future cost. This reasoning suggests that discovering an endophyte’s beneficial effect on its perennial host in one season provides insufficient grounds for concluding that a mutualistic relationship exists.     

Stimulus-dependent oscillations and evoked potentials in chinchilla auditory cortex

Besides the intensity and frequency of an auditory stimulus, the length of time that precedes the stimulation is an important factor that determines the magnitude of early evoked neural responses in the auditory cortex. Here we used chinchillas to demonstrate that the length of the silent period before the presentation of an auditory stimulus is a critical factor that modifies late oscillatory responses in the auditory cortex. We used tetrodes to record local-field potential (LFP) signals from the left auditory cortex of ten animals while they were stimulated with clicks, tones or noise bursts delivered at different rates and intensity levels. We found that the incidence of oscillatory activity in the auditory cortex of anesthetized chinchillas is dependent on the period of silence before stimulation and on the intensity of the auditory stimulus. In 62.5% of the recordings sites we found stimulus-related oscillations at around 8-20 Hz. Stimulus-induced oscillations were largest and consistent when stimuli were preceded by 5 s of silence and they were absent when preceded by less than 500 ms of silence. These results demonstrate that the period of silence preceding the stimulus presentation and the stimulus intensity are critical factors for the presence of these oscillations.     

A direct comparison of exogenous and endogenous inhibition of return and selective attention mechanisms in the somatosensory system

The interaction of excitation and inhibition in responses due to attentional mechanisms in the visual system has been investigated. The studies reported herein use the tactile system of humans to test a specific hypothesis about the processes of attention that have never been directly addressed. Both exogenous and endogenous Inhibition of Return (IOR) reaction-time paradigms with a 100?Hz, 35?µm of peak displacement amplitude were used. In these experiments multiple Stimulus Onset Asynchronies were tested which made it difficult for subjects to learn timing patterns. We tested whether a detection time to a target which is to be attended to is a composite of at least two underlying mechanisms. These mechanisms were explored using exogenous and endogenous IOR experiments. It is hypothesized that these mechanisms work in a push–pull fashion: one deploying attention when new events occur, and the other withdrawing attention (“Disengagement”) after it has been deployed. Based on the results, a new hypothesis is proposed stating that one form of attention (selective attention) competes with IOR in determining the time taken to detect a target in the tactile system.     

Evaluation of local field potential signals in decoding of visual attention

In the field of brain research, attention as one of the main issues in cognitive neuroscience is an important mechanism to be studied. The complicated structure of the brain cannot process all the information it receives at any moment. Attention, in fact, is considered as a possible useful mechanism in which brain concentrates on the processing of important information which is required at any certain moment. The main goal of this study is decoding the location of visual attention from local field potential signals recorded from medial temporal (MT) area of a macaque monkey. To this end, feature extraction and feature selection are applied in both the time and the frequency domains. After applying feature extraction methods such as the short time Fourier transform, continuous wavelet transform (CWT), and wavelet energy (scalogram), feature selection methods are evaluated. Feature selection methods used here are T-test, Entropy, receiver operating characteristic, and Bhattacharyya. Subsequently, different classifiers are utilized in order to decode the location of visual attention. At last, the performances of the employed classifiers are compared. The results show that the maximum information about the visual attention in area MT exists in the low frequency features. Interestingly, low frequency features over all the time-axis and all of the frequency features at the initial time interval in the spectrogram domain contain the most valuable information related to the decoding of spatial attention. In the CWT and scalogram domains, this information exists in the low frequency features at the initial time interval. Furthermore, high performances are obtained for these features in both the time and the frequency domains. Among different employed classifiers, the best achieved performance which is about 84.5 % belongs to the K-nearest neighbor classifier combined with the T-test method for feature selection in the time domain. Additionally, the best achieved result (82.9 %) is related to the spectrogram with the least number of selected features as large as 200 features using the T-test method and SVM classifier in the time−frequency domain.     

Comment arising from a paper by Wittmer et al.: hypothesis testing for top-down and bottom-up effects in woodland caribou population dynamics

Conservation strategies for populations of woodland caribou Rangifer tarandus caribou frequently emphasize the importance of predator–prey relationships and the availability of lichen-rich late seral forests, yet the importance of summer diet and forage availability to woodland caribou survival is poorly understood. In a recent article, Wittmer et al. (Can J Zool 83:407–418, 2005b) concluded that woodland caribou in British Columbia were declining as a consequence of increased predation that was facilitated by habitat alteration. Their conclusion is consistent with the findings of other authors who have suggested that predation is the most important proximal factor limiting woodland caribou populations (Bergerud and Elliot in Can J Zool 64:1515–1529, 1986; Edmonds in Can J Zool 66:817–826, 1988; Rettie and Messier in Can J Zool 76:251–259, 1998; Hayes et al. in Wildl Monogr 152:1–35, 2003). Wittmer et al. (Can J Zool 83:407–418, 2005b) presented three alternative, contrasting hypotheses for caribou decline that differed in terms of predicted differences in instantaneous rates of increase, pregnancy rates, causes of mortality, and seasonal vulnerability to mortality (Table 1, p 258). These authors rejected the hypotheses that food or an interaction between food and predation was responsible for observed declines in caribou populations; however, the use of pregnancy rate, mortality season and cause of mortality to contrast the alternative hypotheses is problematic. We argue here that the data employed in their study were insufficient to properly evaluate a predation-sensitive foraging hypothesis for caribou decline. Empirical data on seasonal forage availability and quality and plane of nutrition of caribou would be required to test the competing hypotheses. We suggest that methodological limitations in studies of woodland caribou population dynamics prohibit proper evaluation of the mechanism of caribou population declines and fail to elucidate potential interactions between top-down and bottom-up effects on populations. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Evidence for a role for anti-Mullerian hormone in the suppression of follicle activation in mouse ovaries and bovine ovarian cortex grafted beneath the chick chorioallantoic membrane

The first critical transition in follicular development, the activation of primordial follicles to leave the pool of resting follicles and begin growth, is poorly understood, but it appears that the balance between inhibitory and stimulatory factors is important in regulating the exodus of follicles from the resting pool. There is evidence that anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH; also known as MIS) inhibits follicle activation in mice, but whether it plays a similar role in non rodent species is not known. When pieces of bovine ovarian cortex, rich in primordial follicles, are cultured in serum-free medium, most follicles initiate growth, but when cortical pieces are grafted beneath the chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) of chick embryos, follicle activation does not occur. Since embryonic chick gonads of both sexes produce and secrete high levels of AMH, the hypothesis that the AMH in the chick circulation inhibits follicle activation was tested. In Experiment 1, whole newborn mouse ovaries were grafted beneath the CAM (placed "in ovo") or cultured in vitro for 8 days. In vitro (or after 8 days in vivo) follicles activated and proceeded to the primary or secondary stage, but activation was suppressed in ovo. This inhibition was reversed if ovaries were removed from beneath the CAM and cultured in vitro. In contrast, when ovaries from mice null mutant for the AMH type II receptor were CAM-grafted in Experiment 2, follicle activation occurred in a similar fashion to activation in vitro. This finding strongly implicates AMH as the inhibitor of follicle activation in ovo. Since chick embryonic gonads are the source of circulating AMH, chicks were gonadectomized in Experiment 3, prior to grafting of pieces of bovine ovarian cortex beneath their CAMs. Bovine primordial follicles activated in the gonadectomized chicks, similar to the results for mice lacking the AMH type II receptor. Taken together these experiments provide strong evidence that AMH is the inhibitor of mouse follicle activation present in the circulation of embryonic chicks and provide indirect, and hence more tentative, evidence for AMH as an inhibitor of bovine follicle activation.     

Evidence for Ideal and Non-Ideal Equilibrium Freezing of Leaf Water in Frosthardy Ivy (Hedera helix) and Winter Barley (Hordeum vulgare)

Temperature dependences of leaf water potentials (ψ_leaf) of frozen leaves of frosthardy ivy and winter barley were determined psychrometrically and found to coincide with the respective water potentials of ice which were obtained using the same technique. The water potentials of ice showed good agreement with theoretically established data. Analysis of the components of ψ of frozen leaves of Hedera helix revealed ideal equilibrium freezing, i.e. the governing of the relative content of liquid (or frozen) water solely by the osmotic potential. In winter barley, by contrast, a negative pressure potential was demonstrated to contribute to ψ_leaf. even under conditions of moderate frost. This reduced the degree of protoplast dehydration and the extent to which the concentrations of the cellular solutes rose. Such a freezing behavior is termed non-ideal equilibrium freezing. Depending on the original content of leaf water, the volume increments of liquid water due to the negative pressure potential amounted up to 10% at ?6 °C and even more at a lower temperature. In addition to the experimental data, a theoretical treatment of psychrometry at subzero temperatures is presented.     

基于视觉搜索的外源易化和返回抑制脑机制研究

采用事件相关电位技术研究了在视觉搜索过程中的外源易化和返回抑制（inhibition of return,IOR）的相互关系。当外源注意保持在序列搜索过的位置上时,有一个延时反应(即IOR）,伴随其产生的相关脑电成分有：分布在后顶的潜伏期为200 ms 的正差异、分布在前额叶内侧靠左的潜伏期为240 毫秒的负差异,以及分布在两侧颞顶联合区的潜伏期为280 ms 的负差异。而当外源注意保持在平行搜索的位置上时,则出现了明显的易化效应,伴随其产生的脑电成分仅为分布在枕顶区域的潜伏期为280 ms 的负差异。这些结果表明,外源易化和IOR 涉及了不同的脑区和神经过程,从而支持两者在机制上是可分离性的观点。     

Acetate, lactate, propionate, and isobutyrate as electron donors for iron and sulfate reduction in Arctic marine sediments, Svalbard

The contribution of volatile fatty acids (VFA) as e(-)-donors for anaerobic terminal oxidation of organic carbon through iron and sulfate reduction was studied in Arctic fjord sediment. Dissolved inorganic carbon, Fe(2+), VFA concentrations, and sulfate reduction were monitored in slurries from the oxidized (0-2 cm) and the reduced (5-9 cm) zone. In the 0-2 cm layer, 2/3 of the mineralization could be attributed to sulfate reduction and 1/3 to iron reduction. In the 5-9 cm layer, sulfate reduction was the sole mineralization process. Acetate and lactate turnover rates were measured by radiotracer. Inhibition of sulfate reduction with selenate resulted in the accumulation of acetate, propionate, and isobutyrate. The acetate turnover rates determined by radiotracer and accumulation after inhibition were similar. VFA turnover accounted for 21% and 52% of the mineralization through sulfate reduction in the 0-2 and 5-9 cm layer, respectively. Acetate and lactate turnover in the inhibited 0-2 cm slurry was attributed to iron reduction and accounted for 10% and 2% of the iron reduction. Therefore, 88% and 79% of the iron and sulfate reduction in the 0-2 cm layer, respectively, must be fueled by alternative e(-)-donors. The accumulation of VFA in the selenate-inhibited 0-2 cm slurry did not enhance iron reduction, indicating that iron reducers were not limited by VFA availability.     

Heterotopic transplantation in the syncytial blastoderm ofDrosophila: Evidence for anterior and posterior nuclear commitments

Summary The interaction ofDrosophila syncytial blastoderm nuclei and cortical cytoplasm in the control of somatic developmental commitments was studied by transplanting genetically marked nuclei and surrounding cytoplasm between anterior and posterior flanks. After completion of cellularization the host egg was cut. Host anterior or posterior partial embryos were cultured in adult abdomens for 8–10 days, then the larval tissue removed and injected into larval hosts for metamorphosis. Differentiated ectodermal implants were recovered from emerged adults and characterized. One hundred sixteen clearly interpretable control and experimental implants were found. Of the 73 experimental implants 15 were derived from donor nuclei.Among the 15 donor implants, 14 autonomously formed donor site anterior (head and thoracic) or posterior (abdomen and genital) structures. This donor autonomy is interpreted to mean that nuclear and cytoplasmic factors necessary for anterior and posterior somatic commitments are present and transplantable prior to the completion of cellularization. Since donor nuclei injected directly into host flanks, or premixed with host cytoplasm, would have been well exposed to any host cytoplasmic factors, donor nuclei appear to have adopted anterior or posterior somatic commitments which are stable to significant cytoplasmic alterations.In 14 implants, host nuclei exposed to donor material altered somatic fate and formed donor type structures. These conversions are interpreted to imply that cytoplasmic factors controlling anterior or posterior somatic fates are present in the syncytial balstoderm embryo.     

Evidence for common precursors but differential processing of VIP and PHM in VIP-producing tumors

To elucidate the biosynthesis of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) and investigate the suggestion that the prepro-VIP contains another peptide designated PHM (the peptide with N-terminal histidine and C-terminal methionine amide) in its sequence, the concentration and molecular forms of immunoreactive VIP and PHM in 14 human VIP producing tumors (VIP-omas) were determined. Elevated quantities of both peptides were found in all tumor extracts but the concentration of PHM did not correlate with that of VIP and the ratio VIP/PHM varied from 0.5 to 8.5. Gel chromatography showed that in addition to peaks corresponding to VIP and PHM, two larger molecular forms with Kd values of 0.31 and 0.36 which displayed both VIP and PHM immunoreactivity were present. While the proportions between the various PHM molecular forms varied considerably, the relative contribution of the VIP immunoreactive peaks was rather constant from tumor to tumor. The molecular pattern was unaffected by protein denaturing with guanidine hydrochloride and cleavage of sulfide bonds with dithiothreitol. The findings indicate that VIP and PHM are co-produced in VIP-omas probably from common larger molecular forms and that differences in the post-translational processing between tissues exist.     

Corrected equations for calculation of constants in enzyme inhibition and activation

Equations for calculation of the constants of biparametrical types of enzyme inhibition and activation were obtained that take into account a ratio of the lengths of L vector projections representing such reactions in the three-dimensional K (m)V I coordinate system. This allows higher accuracy of calculation and is more correct for comparison of these constants. Examples of data analysis of enzyme inhibition and activation by using the traditional equations (they do not take into account the lengths of vector projections) and corrected ones (they take into account the lengths of vector projections) are given. The corrected and traditional equations are used for calculation of the constants of biparametrical types of enzyme inhibition and activation.