Passive irrigation and functional morphology of crustacean burrows in a tropical mangrove swamp

Flushing measurements and a resin cast of a burrow inhabited by Sesarma messa and Alpheus cf macklay were taken from a Rhizophoraspp. forest. The burrow had 9 openings and occupied a swamp surface area of 0.64 m². Passive irrigation of the burrow was investigated by recording change in conductivity of burrow water in a chamber 45 cm below the swamp surface during tidal inundation of the swamp. The chamber was completely flushed within approximately one hour, i.e. by a single tidal event. Burrow morphology was determined by means of resin casting. The investigated burrow was of discrete structure, with an overall depth of 1.2 m and a total volume of 68 l, i.e. ca. 9% of the volume of swamp soil. The below ground surface area of chambers and tunnels was 3.8 m². The mean and maximum chamber/tunnel diameter was 7 cm and 11 cm respectively. The soil in the close vicinity of the burrow was extensively penetrated by roots, and any two parts of the burrow were located no further than 20 cm away from each other. By reducing diffusion distances within the soil and by being well flushed, the burrows provide an efficient mechanism for removal of excess salt accumulated in the soil around mangrove roots due to exclusion.     

The inhibition of phospholipase A2 by manoalide and manoalide analogues

Manoalide, a natural product from sponge, displays anti-inflammatory activity in vivo. Previous work has shown that manoalide is also a potent covalent inhibitor of the extracellular phospholipase A2 from cobra venom and that the inhibition correlated with a pH-dependent change in manoalide (Lombardo and Dennis (1985) J. Biol. Chem. 260, 7234-7240). Manoalide contains two rings and the opening of either would produce an alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehyde. The cobra venom phospholipase A2 may be able to catalyze the opening or isomerization of one of these rings, raising the possibility that manoalide is acting as a suicide substrate. To ascertain the role of the gamma-lactone ring in the inhibition, we have now investigated a synthetic manoalide analogue, 3(cis,cis-7,10)-hexadecadienyl-4-hydroxy-2-butenolide (HDHB) which contains only the alpha,beta-unsaturated gamma-lactone ring. We have found that the closed and open forms are in rapid equilibrium between pH 4 and 9 with the cyclic form being preferred at acidic pH values and the open cis form preferred at pH 9.5. When the pH is raised above 12, the alpha,beta double bond isomerizes to form trans-HDHB. Once the trans compound is formed, it is stable at all pH values and does not recyclize to the gamma-lactone ring. The observed pKa of 7.7 found for the inhibition of manoalide agrees well with the transition of the closed to the cis form of the gamma-lactone ring. Kinetic experiments with the HDHB compound show that under conditions in which the cis and closed form of the inhibitor are present in equal molar ratios, HDHB is not an irreversible inhibitor, but reversibly competes with substrate. However, the kinetics of this inhibition are complex and do not follow either pure competitive or non-competitive inhibition. The trans-HDHB exhibits similar complex kinetic but is several times more potent. The distinct differences between the behavior of manoalide and HDHB clearly indicate that while the gamma-lactone ring may play an important role in manoalide inhibition, it alone does not produce irreversible inhibition.     

Soil and Fertilizer Amendments and Edge Effects on the Floral Succession of Pulverized Fuel Ash

Plots of fresh pulverized fuel ash (PFA, an industrial waste) were inoculated with soils from existing PFA sites and fertilizers in a factorial design, then left unmanaged for 12 years during which time the floral development and soil chemistry were monitored annually. For the first 3 years, the site supported a sparse mix of chenopods (including the scarce Chenopodium glaucum ) and halophytes. As salinity declined, ruderals, legumes, and grasses plus the fire-site moss Funaria hygrometrica colonized, followed by Festuca arundinacea grassland (NVC community MG12) and Hippophae rhamnoides scrub. Dactylorhiza incarnata (orchidacea) appeared after 7 years, but only in plots that had received soil from existing orchid colonies. Four years later, a larger second generation of Dactylorhiza appeared, but only in the central zone of the site where vegetation was thinnest. By year 12, the site was dominated by coarse grasses and scrub, with early successional species persisting only in the sparsely vegetated center, where nitrate levels were lowest. This edge effect is interpreted as centripetal encroachment, a process of potentially wider concern for the conservation of low-fertility habitat patches. Overall, seed bank inoculation seems to have introduced few but desirable species ( D. incarnata , Pyrola rotundifolia , some halophytes, and annuals), whereas initial application of organic fertilizer had long-lasting (≥10 years) effects on cover and soil composition.     

Fire history of an isolated subalpine mountain range of the Intermountain Region,United States

Fire has historically been an important ecological component of forests in the Intermountain Region of the northwestern United States. This study is set in a small biogeographically disjunct mountain range. Our research objectives were to (1) investigate the historical frequency, severity, size, and spatial pattern of fire; (2) determine if and how fire regimes have changed since Euro-American settlement; and (3) compare how fire regimes of a small isolated range compare to nearby, but considerably larger, mountain agglomerations. Our findings suggest that this mountain range has historically supported fires typified by small size and high frequency, resulting in a high degree of spatial pattern complexity compared to mountain agglomerations. We also found disparity in size and burn severity solely within the study area based on the bisecting Continental Divide. Since the advent of Euro-American settlement in the 1870s, fire frequency and sizes of individual fires in the West Big Hole Range have significantly decreased resulting in an estimated 87% reduction in area burned. We discuss potential relationships of mountain range isolation and fire regimes in the Intermountain Region. Furthermore, we suggest that the relative small size of this mountain range predisposes it to greater anthropogenic effects upon fire occurrence.     

Molecular heterogeneity of D-end products detected by anti-H-2.28 sera

Immunoprecipitation of NP-40 lysates of 125I-labeled lymph-node cells with different anti-H-2 sera and with anti-Qa-2 serum has shown that the BALB/cByA strain (H-2d, Qa-2-negative) expresses, besides H-2Ld, another molecule that is not detectable in the BALB/c-H-2dm2 strain. Electrophoresis in SDS polyacrylamide gels indicated that this molecule, provisionally designated Lq, has an apparent molecular weight of 41000 daltons, in contrast to approximately 49000 daltons for H-2Kd and H-2Ld, and 47000 daltons for H-2Dd molecules. The anti-Qa-2 serum precipitated from the Qa-2-positive strains BALB/cHeA but not from the Qa-2-negative strains BALB/cByA and BALB/c-H-2dm2 a protein that gave a very strong band corresponding to the molecular weight 41000 daltons in the gel electrophoresis. The biochemical characteristics of the Lq molecule are thus more similar to those of Qa-2 than of H-2 antigens.     

Does maternal condition or predation risk influence small mammal population dynamics?

There is strong debate over whether the intrinsic traits of individuals or the extrinsic environment exert the greater influence on small mammal population dynamics. We test the roles of maternal effects (an intrinsic factor) and predation risk (an extrinsic factor) in the population dynamics of wild strain house mice using a 2-factor enclosure experiment. Pre-release supplemental feeding with a high-fat diet created female treatment founders that were 6–10% heavier than controls, a condition that we predicted would be passed on as a maternal effect. Predation risk was enhanced using regular application of predator (red fox Vulpes vulpes ) scats. Founder populations of six females and six males released into eight, 15×15 m enclosures showed near exponential population growth over 17 weeks (maximum 3 generations). But there were no responses to either treatment in terms of survival, inherited body weights, fecundity or population size. We suggest that elevated maternal condition may have only minor and transient intergenerational effects with little long-term consequence. We also suggest that the general significance of predator scats as a cue to predation risk to alter prey behaviour may have been overestimated. Hence our results question the role of either factor in causing long-term responses that influence condition to affect population processes.