Bird community responses to afforested eucalyptus plantations in the Argentine pampas

Land-use change driven by human population growth and economic activity will continue to impact both natural habitats and land currently being used for food, fiber, and fuel production. The effects of this conversion on economically important ecological services will in large part depend on how native biodiversity responds to these changes. We investigated how agriculture-related land use change influences the avian community in northeastern Argentina by examining common agricultural land uses (pasture/annual crops, young and mature large-scale eucalyptus plantations, mixed-use farms with citrus, blueberry and small stands of eucalyptus) and remnant native espinal savannas. In this region, afforested eucalyptus plantations represent a new land-use change from the land cover of pasture with intermixed annual crops that has dominated the region. In this mosaic, we used point counts to assess how avian diversity and community structure differed between land uses. Bird species richness was lowest in older plantations and highest in the espinal savanna, with the other land uses having intermediate richness. Abundance trends followed the same pattern, with low overall abundance in the plantations, intermediate levels for pasture/annual crops, and highest abundance in the espinal. Distinct bird community assemblages were strongly associated with each land use, and between young and mature eucalyptus stands. Birds can be useful indicators for biodiversity as a whole, and the depopulated and depauperate avian community within the eucalyptus plantations will likely lead to reduced provision of many ecosystem services in this region if the spatial extent of plantations continues to expand.     

New dates and new rates for divergence across the Isthmus of Panama

Sister species separated by the Isthmus of Panama have been widely used to estimate rates of molecular evolution. These estimates are based on the assumption that geographic isolation occurred nearly simultaneously for most taxa, when connections between the Caribbean and eastern Pacific closed approximately three million years ago. Here we show that this assumption is invalid for the only genus for which many taxa and multiple genetic markers have been analysed. Patterns of divergence exhibited by allozymes and the mitochondrial COI gene are highly concordant for 15 pairs of snapping shrimp in the genus Alpheus, indicating that they provide a reasonable basis for estimating time since cessation of gene flow. The extent of genetic divergence between pairs of sister species varied over fourfold. Sister species from mangrove environments showed the least divergence, as would be expected if these were among the last habitats to be divided. Using this pair yields a rate of sequence divergence of 1.4% per one million years, with implied times of separation for the 15 pairs of 3 to 18 million years ago. Many past studies may have overestimated rates of molecular evolution because they sampled pairs that were separated well before final closure of the Isthmus.     

A MULTILOCUS TEST OF SIMULTANEOUS DIVERGENCE ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA USING SNAPPING SHRIMP IN THE GENUS ALPHEUS

The completion of the Panamanian Isthmus is one of the greatest natural experiments in evolution, sending multiple species pairs from a broad range of taxonomic groups on independent evolutionary trajectories. The resulting transisthmian sister species have been used as model systems for examining consequences that accompany cessation of gene flow in formerly panmictic populations. However, variance in pairwise genetic distances of these "geminates" often exceeds expectations, seemingly conflicting with the assumption that separation of populations was contemporaneous with the final closure of the Isthmus. Multilocus datasets and coalescent-based analytical methods can be used to estimate divergence times while accounting for variance in gene divergence that predates isolation, thus removing the need to invoke unequal divergence times. Here we present results from Bayesian analyses of sequence data from seven nuclear and one mitochondrial marker in eight transisthmian species pairs in the snapping shrimp genus Alpheus . Divergence times in two species pairs were shown to occur much earlier than the Isthmus final closure, but much of the variance in pairwise genetic distances from cytochrome oxidase I (COI) was explained when ancestral polymorphisms were accounted for. Results illustrate how coalescent approaches may be more appropriate for dating recent divergences than for estimating ancient speciation events.     

The isolated perfused human skin flap: design, perfusion technique, metabolism, and vascular reactivity

The design, isolated perfusion technique, and reactivity of a novel human skin-flap model are described. A transverse paraumbilical skin flap based on perforator vessels from the deep epigastric system was designed utilizing the tissue usually discarded following abdominal dermolipectomy. Within 3 hours of devascularization, a gassed (95% O2, 5% CO2), 37 degrees C Krebs-Henseleit buffer containing albumin (65 gm/liter) was pumped into the cannulated arterial pedicle of the skin flap and subsequently collected from the venous pedicle. Vascular resistance was continuously monitored and remained stable throughout the 4-hour perfusion. Lactate release was maintained throughout perfusion and was markedly increased by addition of insulin to the perfusate. Addition of norepinephrine to the perfusate resulted in a significant (p less than 0.05) dose-response increase in vascular resistance, and acetylcholine significantly (p less than 0.05) attenuated resistance in flaps preconstricted with norepinephrine. The results of these studies indicate that the isolated perfused human skin flap remained metabolically active with functionally intact vascular endothelium and smooth muscle throughout the 4-hour perfusion. The availability of this technique will, for the first time, permit laboratory study of human skin-flap pathophysiology and pharmacology.     

Plasma FFA responses to prolonged walking in untrained men and women

Gender differences in plasma FFA responses to 90 min of treadmill walking at 35% VO2max were investigated in six men and six women following an overnight fast. The subjects represented average values for maximal oxygen uptake and body fat percentage for age and gender. Mean plasma FFA concentration at 45 and 90 min of exercise were significantly (P less than 0.05) higher for women (0.82 mmol X 1(-1), 0.88 mmol X 1(-1)) than men (0.42 mmol X 1(-1), 0.59 mmol X 1(-1)). Lower R values for women throughout the exercise period indicated a greater percentage fat in total metabolism than for men while the FFA/glycerol results supported greater lipolytic activity for women. The uniformity of percent fat in metabolism for women from rest to exercise showed that FFA release from adipose tissue increased rapidly with the onset of exercise which was not the case for men. Comparison of metabolic data as well as a statistical analysis (ANCOVA) controlling for the influence of VO2max and percentage body fat on FFA plasma concentration suggested that gender differences in FFA responses to prolonged submaximal exercise can be expected to occur in untrained subjects.