Chilling to zero degrees disrupts pollen formation but not meiotic microtubule arrays in Triticum aestivum L.

Throughout the wheat‐growing regions of Australia, chilling temperatures below 2 °C occur periodically on consecutive nights during the period of floral development in spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). In this study, wheat plants showed significant reductions in fertility when exposed to prolonged chilling temperatures in controlled environment experiments. Among the cultivars tested, the Australian cultivars Kite and Hartog had among the lowest levels of seed set due to chilling and their responses were investigated further. The developmental stage at exposure, the chilling temperature and length of exposure all influenced the level of sterility. The early period of booting, and specifically the +4 cm auricle distance class, was the most sensitive and corresponded to meiosis within the anthers. The response of microtubules to chilling during meiosis in Hartog was monitored, but there was little difference between chilled and control plants. Other abnormalities, such as plasmolysis and cytomixis increased in frequency, were associated with death of developing pollen cells, and could contribute to loss of fertility. The potential for an above‐zero chilling sensitivity in Australian spring wheat varieties could have implications for exploring the tolerance of wheat flower development to chilling and freezing conditions in the field.     

Infrared heater arrays for warming ecosystem field plots

There is a need for methodology to warm open‐field plots in order to study the likely effects of global warming on ecosystems in the future. Herein, we describe the development of arrays of more powerful and efficient infrared heaters with ceramic heating elements. By tilting the heaters at 45° from horizontal and combining six of them in a hexagonal array, good uniformity of warming was achieved across 3‐m‐diameter plots. Moreover, there do not appear to be obstacles (other than financial) to scaling to larger plots. The efficiency [η_h (%); thermal radiation out per electrical energy in] of these heaters was higher than that of the heaters used in most previous infrared heater experiments and can be described by: η_h= 10 + 25exp(? 0.17 u), where u is wind speed at 2 m height (m s^{? 1}). Graphs are presented to estimate operating costs from degrees of warming, two types of plant canopy, and site windiness. Four such arrays were deployed over plots of grass at Haibei, Qinghai, China and another at Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA, along with corresponding reference plots with dummy heaters. Proportional integral derivative systems with infrared thermometers to sense canopy temperatures of the heated and reference plots were used to control the heater outputs. Over month‐long periods at both sites, about 75% of canopy temperature observations were within 0.5 °C of the set‐point temperature differences between heated and reference plots. Electrical power consumption per 3‐m‐diameter plot averaged 58 and 80 kW h day^{? 1} for Haibei and Cheyenne, respectively. However, the desired temperature differences were set lower at Haibei (1.2 °C daytime, 1.7 °C night) than Cheyenne (1.5 °C daytime, 3.0 °C night), and Cheyenne is a windier site. Thus, we conclude that these hexagonal arrays of ceramic infrared heaters can be a successful temperature free‐air‐controlled enhancement (T‐FACE) system for warming ecosystem field plots.     

Validating Aerial Photographic Mark-Recapture for Naturally Marked Feral Horses

ABSTRACT Accurately estimating large mammal populations is a difficult challenge because species of interest often occupy vast areas and exhibit low and heterogeneous visibility. Population estimation techniques using aerial surveys and statistical design and analysis methods provide a means for meeting this challenge, yet they have only rarely been validated because wild populations of known size suitable for field tests are rare. Our study presents field validations of a photographic aerial mark-recapture technique that takes advantage of the recognizable natural markings on free-roaming feral horses (Equus caballus) to accurately identify individual animals and groups of animals sighted on multiple occasions. The 3 small populations of feral horses (<400 animals each) in the western United States used in the study were all closely monitored on a weekly basis by local researchers, thus providing test populations of known size. We were able to accurately estimate these population sizes with aerial surveys, despite rugged terrain and dense vegetation that created substantial heterogeneity of sighting probability among horse groups. Our best estimates at the 3 sites were within −6.7%, 2.6%, and −8.6% of known truth (-4.2% mean error, 6.0% mean absolute error). In contrast, we found undercount bias as large as 32% before any statistical corrections. The necessary corrections varied both temporally and spatially, in response to previous sighting history (behavioral response), and by the number of horses in a group. Despite modeling some of the differences in horse-group visibility with sighting covariates, we found substantial residual unmodeled heterogeneity that contributed to underestimation of the true population by as much as 22.7% when we used models that did not fully account for these unmeasured sources. We also found that the cost of the accurate and validated methods presented here is comparable to that of raw count (so called, census) methods commonly employed across feral horse ranges in 10 western states. We believe this technique can assist managers in accurately estimating many feral horse populations and could be applied to other species with sufficiently diverse and distinguishable visible markings.     

Landscape-Genetic Analysis of Population Structure in the Texas Gray Fox Oral Rabies Vaccination Zone

ABSTRACT In west-central Texas, USA, abatement efforts for the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) rabies epizootic illustrate the difficulties inherent in large-scale management of wildlife disease. The rabies epizootic has been managed through a cooperative oral rabies vaccination program (ORV) since 1996. Millions of edible baits containing a rabies vaccine have been distributed annually in a 16-km to 24-km zone around the perimeter of the epizootic, which encompasses a geographic area >4 × 10⁵ km². The ORV program successfully halted expansion of the epizootic into metropolitan areas but has not achieved the ultimate goal of eradication. Rabies activity in gray fox continues to occur periodically outside the ORV zone, preventing ORV zone contraction and dissipation of the epizootic. We employed a landscape-genetic approach to assess gray fox population structure and dispersal in the affected area, with the aim of assisting rabies management efforts. No unique genetic clusters or population boundaries were detected. Instead, foxes were weakly structured over the entire region in an isolation by distance pattern. Local subpopulations appeared to be genetically non-independent over distances >30 km, implying that long-distance movements or dispersal may have been common in the region. We concluded that gray foxes in west-central Texas have a high potential for long-distance rabies virus trafficking. Thus, a 16-km to 24-km ORV zone may be too narrow to contain the fox rabies epizootic. Continued expansion of the ORV zone, although costly, may be critical to the long-term goal of eliminating the Texas fox rabies virus variant from the United States.     

Shell colour polymorphism associated with substrate colour in the intertidal snail Littorina saxatilis Olivi (Prosobranchia: Littorinidae)

Littorina saxatilis Olivi (1792), the rough winkle, is highly polymorphic in shell colour. Shell colour frequencies were studied at six locations in south-western Wales, U.K., each at a geological contact between red sandstone and grey limestone or volcanic rock. At each site shell colour frequencies were determined in samples from the contact zone and on red or grey rock on either side. Highly significant associations were found between shell colour frequencies and substrate colour. Grey shells were always more common on grey rock than on red rock, and brown shells were usually more common on red than on grey rock, suggesting selection for cryptic colouration. Shell colour frequency differences were also found between replicate samples taken only 5 m apart from the same kind of rock, and between samples from the same kind of rock at the six study sites. These latter differences suggest that selection for camouflage is not the only factor involved in maintaining shell colour polymorphism in this species.     

A monograph of Boykinia, Peltoboykinia, Bolandra and Suksdorfia (Saxifragaceae)

An evaluation of the limits and infra-generic taxonomy of the genus Boykinia and its allies is presented. In the past, Boykinia has been split into the following segregate genera: Boykinia and Telesonix (from North America) and Neoboykinia and Peltoboykinia (from Japan). The situation is complicated by other closely related genera, the limits of which also need clarification. Narrowly defined, they comprise Suksdorfia, Hemieva, Bolandra, Sullivantia and Jepsonia (all from North America) and Hieronymusia (from South America). This monograph draws on a variety of sources for information, including a morphological comparison of all taxa, using a wide range of both living and herbarium material, and observations on leaf anatomy, trichomes, pollen grains and seeds; reference is also made to our previously published work on flavonoids, chromosome numbers and breeding relationships. General ecological observations were made during field work in western North America. The results of these investigations confirm that the genera form a closely related group. Much of the evidence combines to suggest the following conclusions. Boykinia includes nine species in three sections: section Boykinia (B. aconitifolia , B. intermedia , B. lycoctonifolia , B. major , B. occidentalis and B. rotundifolia) , section Renifolium (B. ruhardsonii) and section Telesonix (B. jamesii and B. heucheriformis). Peltoboykinia (P. tellimoides and P. watanabei ) is recognized as a distinct genus allied to both Saxifraga and Boykinia. Suksdorfia , expanded to include Hemieva and Hieronymusia , has three species: S. violacea, S. alchemilloides and S. ranunculifolia. Bolandra is very closely related to Suksdorfia but is retained as a separate genus containing two species, B. californica and B, oregana. Sullivantia and Jepsonia are accepted as genera related to, but distinct from, Boykinia.     

Modeling Global Macroclimatic Constraints on Ectotherm Energy Budgets

We describe a mechanistic individual-based model of how globalmacroclimatic constraints affect the energy budgets of ectothermicanimals. The model uses macroclimatic and biophysical charactersof the habitat and organism and tenets of heat transfer theoryto calculate hourly temperature availabilities over a year.Data on the temperature dependence of activity rate, metabolism,food consumption and food processing capacity are used to estimatethe net rate of resource assimilation which is then integratedover time. We detail and explore the significance of assumptionsused in these calculations. We present a new test of this model in which we show that thepredicted energy budget sizes for 11 populations of the lizardSceloporus undulalus are in close agreement with observed resultsfrom previous field studies. This demonstrates that model testsare feasible and the results are reasonable. Further, sincethe model represents an upper bound to the size of the energybudget, observed residual deviations form explicit predictionsabout the effects of environmental constraints on the bioenergeticsof the study lizards within each site that may be tested byfuture field and laboratory studies. Three major new improvements to our modeling are discussed.We present a means to estimate microclimate thermal heterogeneitymore realistically and include its effects on field rates ofindividual activity and food consumption. Second, we describean improved model of digestive function involving batch processingof consumed food. Third, we show how optimality methods (specificallythe methods of stochastic dynamic programming) may be includedto model the fitness consequences of energy allocation decisionssubject to food consumption and processing constraints whichare predicted from the microclimate and physiological modeling Individual-based models that incorporate macroclimatic constraintson individual resource acquisition, assimilation and allocationcan provide insights into theoretical investigations about theevolution of life histories in variable environments as wellas provide explicit predictions about individual, populationand community level responses to global climate change.