The role of Thailand in the international trade in CITES-listed live reptiles and amphibians

Background

International wildlife trade is one of the leading threats to biodiversity conservation. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is the most important initiative to monitor and regulate the international trade of wildlife but its credibility is dependent on the quality of the trade data. We report on the performance of CITES reporting by focussing on the commercial trade in non-native reptiles and amphibians into Thailand as to illustrate trends, species composition and numbers of wild-caught vs. captive-bred specimens.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Based on data in the WCMC-CITES trade database, we establish that a total of 75,594 individuals of 169 species of reptiles and amphibians (including 27 globally threatened species) were imported into Thailand in 1990–2007. The majority of individuals (59,895, 79%) were listed as captive-bred and a smaller number (15,699, 21%) as wild-caught. In the 1990s small numbers of individuals of a few species were imported into Thailand, but in 2003 both volumes and species diversity increased rapidly. The proportion of captive-bred animals differed greatly between years (from 0 to >80%). Wild-caught individuals were mainly sourced from African countries, and captive-bred individuals from Asian countries (including from non-CITES Parties). There were significant discrepancies between exports and imports. Thailand reports the import of >10,000 individuals (51 species) originating from Kazakhstan, but Kazakhstan reports no exports of these species. Similar discrepancies, involving smaller numbers (>100 individuals of 9 species), can be seen in the import of reptiles into Thailand via Macao.

Conclusion/Significance

While there has been an increase in imports of amphibian and reptiles into Thailand, erratic patterns in proportions of captive-bred specimens and volumes suggests either capricious markets or errors in reporting. Large discrepancies with respect to origin point to misreporting or possible violations of the rules and intentions of CITES.     

Collaboration in scientific research: a critical need for freshwater ecology

1. Collaboration means actively working together to achieve things which could not be done alone. This article attempts to provide an overall, unified, guiding framework for collaboration in freshwater ecology by discussing aspects of collaboration at individual and organizational levels, and addressing international linkages.
2. The essential elements of collaboration are communication and trust, and effective project management. Barriers to effective collaboration include competition, organizational cultures and organizational instabilities.
3. The success of collaboration can be measured by tangible benefits such as increased numbers of peer-reviewed publications, the production of working models and a number of intangible benefits.
4. Interactions between individuals lie at the heart of an effective collaboration; organizational arrangements should facilitate this interaction. Some governments are encouraging collaboration to increase cost efficiency and allocate accountability. This trend should continue on an international level.
5. Collaboration is a key to future research in freshwater ecology.     

AERODYNAMICS OF EPHEDRA TRIFURCA: I. POLLEN GRAIN VELOCITY FIELDS AROUND STEMS BEARING OVULES

The behavior of pollen grains within the airspace around Ephedra trifurca is described. Vectoral analyses of pollen grains moving around stems and ovules indicate a complex pattern of directional and magnitudinal changes in trajectories that can be related to the geometries of surfaces that obstruct airflow. Pollen grains, passing around cylindrical stems oriented normal to the direction of ambient airflow, are deflected in circumrotating non-laminar flow-patterns. Stems tilted downwind deflect pollen grains into trajectories along leeward surfaces of stems. These trajectories travel acropetally in a spiraling pattern and may intersect airflow patterns created around and by ovules. Computer analyses of pollen motion in the vicinity of ovules indicate that pollen vector-direction is highly canalized and directed toward micropyles. Within the immediate vicinity of micropyles, which produce pollination droplets, analyses indicate that the magnitudinal variance of pollen grain vectors is high (spanning three orders of magnitude). This variance coincides with dramatic changes in the local Reynolds numbers, resulting in a localized region around the micropyle in which neither viscous nor inertial forces predominate. Based on additional aerodynamics parameters (vector curl, vector-divergence, and vector curl-differential) it is shown that the region around the pollination-droplet is characteristically a “pollen sink” (pollen grains collect in this airspace) in which abrupt changes can occur in the angular momenta of airborne pollen grains. These aerodynamic analyses suggest that the morphology of ovules and the stems to which they are attached facilitates pollen capture by creating an aerodynamic “singularity” (= a unique region) around the pollination-droplet.     

MECHANISMS OF RAPID PHOTOSYNTHETIC ADAPTATION IN NATURAL PHYTOPLANKTON COMMUNITIES. I. REDISTRIBUTION OF EXCITATION ENERGY BETWEEN PHOTOSYSTEMS I AND II1

An inverse linear relationship between chlorophyll fluorescence yield (R) and light intensity was recorded in the near-surface waters of six lakes (New Zealand, England) of greatly different trophic status and phytoplankton species composition. This surface depression of R values could be removed by incubation of samples in dim light or darkness and was not observed in situ below a threshold irradiance (146 μEin ·m^?2·s^?1 for Lake Taupo, New Zealand). The time course of chlorophyll fluorescence depression and recovery in response to light treatment was measured in samples from Lake Windermere (England). Fluorescence exponentially decreased upon exposure to bright light and the response was 100% (5 m samples) or 83% (dim light-adapted 0 m samples) complete within 2 min. An increase in R values in the dim light occurred after a lag of 60 s and the rate of increase decreased exponentially with time. Full recovery took 15 min or more. Deep (6.5 m) populations from Lake Windermere exhibited large, time-dependent variations in chlorophyll fluorescence over the first 25 s of exposure to 450 nm light, whereas surface populations did not. These data were interpreted in terms of decreased spillover from PSII to PSI with increasing depth, to a minimum at the threshold light intensity below which cells are in light state 1.     

Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system to define the chromosomal instability phenotype

Translocations, deletions, and chromosome fusions are frequent events seen in cancers with genome instability. Here we analyzed 358 genome rearrangements generated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae selected by the loss of the nonessential terminal segment of chromosome V. The rearrangements appeared to be generated by both nonhomologous end joining and homologous recombination and targeted all chromosomes. Fifteen percent of the rearrangements occurred independently more than once. High levels of specific classes of rearrangements were isolated from strains with specific mutations: translocations to Ty elements were increased in telomerase-defective mutants, potential dicentric translocations and dicentric isochromosomes were associated with cell cycle checkpoint defects, chromosome fusions were frequent in strains with both telomerase and cell cycle checkpoint defects, and translocations to homolog genes were seen in strains with defects allowing homoeologous recombination. An analysis of human cancer-associated rearrangements revealed parallels to the effects that strain genotypes have on classes of rearrangement in S. cerevisiae.     

Inactivation of Ku-mediated end joining suppresses mec1Delta lethality by depleting the ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor Sml1 through a pathway controlled by Tel1 kinase and the Mre11 complex

RAD53 and MEC1 are essential Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes required for the DNA replication and DNA damage checkpoint responses. Their lethality can be suppressed by increasing the intracellular pool of deoxynucleotide triphosphates. We report that deletion of YKU70 or YKU80 suppresses mec1Delta, but not rad53Delta, lethality. We show that suppression of mec1Delta lethality is not due to Ku--associated telomeric defects but rather results from the inability of Ku- cells to efficiently repair DNA double strand breaks by nonhomologous end joining. Consistent with these results, mec1Delta lethality is also suppressed by lif1Delta, which like yku70Delta and yku80Delta, prevents nonhomologous end joining. The viability of yku70Delta mec1Delta and yku80Delta mec1Delta cells depends on the ATM-related Tel1 kinase, the Mre11-Rad50-Xrs2 complex, and the DNA damage checkpoint protein Rad9. We further report that this Mec1-independent pathway converges with the Rad53/Dun1-regulated checkpoint kinase cascade and leads to the degradation of the ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor Sml1.