Stoichiometry in an ecological context: testing for links between <Emphasis Type="Italic">Daphnia</Emphasis> P-content,growth rate and habitat preference

We used laboratory experiments with ten Daphnia taxa to test for links between Daphnia P-content, growth rate and habitat preference. The taxa represent a wide range of body sizes and most show distinct preferences for one of three habitats: shallow lakes, deep, stratified lakes or fishless ponds. Previous studies show that taxa from shallow lakes and fishless ponds experience high predation risk and rich food resources, whereas taxa from deep lakes experience low predation risk, strong food limitation and potentially P-deficient resources. Thus, we predicted higher P-content and higher maximal growth rates in taxa from ponds and shallow lakes and lower P-content, lower maximal growth but reduced sensitivity to P-limitation in taxa preferring stratified lakes. In each of 25 experiments, a clonal Daphnia cohort was cultured for 4 days on a P-sufficient (molar C:P ratio 70) or a P-deficient (C:P 1,000) diet of a green alga at a high concentration (1 mg C l^–1). The P-content of adult Daphnia fed the P-sufficient diet ranged from 1.52 to 1.22% mass. Small-bodied taxa from shallow lakes had higher P-content than larger-bodied taxa from deep lakes or fishless ponds. However, we found a nonsignificant negative correlation between P-content and growth on the P-sufficient diet, rather than the positive relationship predicted by the growth rate hypothesis. The P-deficient diet resulted in declines in both growth rate and P-content compared with the P-sufficient controls and the extent of the declines differed between taxa. Taxa from ponds showed a marginally greater decline in growth with the P-deficient diet compared with taxa from shallow or deep lakes. However, contrary to stoichiometric theory, no relationship was found between a species P-content and growth depression on the P-deficient diet. Although we found evidence for habitat adaptations, our results show that factors other than Daphnia P-content are important in determining differences between Daphnia species in both maximal growth rate and sensitivity to P-limited growth.     

Ecological assessments with algae: a review and synthesis

Algae have been used for a century in environmental assessments of water bodies and are now used in countries around the world. This review synthesizes recent advances in the field around a framework for environmental assessment and management that can guide design of assessments, applications of phycology in assessments, and refinements of those applications to better support management decisions. Algae are critical parts of aquatic ecosystems that power food webs and biogeochemical cycling. Algae are also major sources of problems that threaten many ecosystems goods and services when abundances of nuisance and toxic taxa are high. Thus, algae can be used to indicate ecosystem goods and services, which complements how algal indicators are also used to assess levels of contaminants and habitat alterations (stressors). Understanding environmental managers' use of algal ecology, taxonomy, and physiology can guide our research and improve its application. Environmental assessments involve characterizing ecological condition and diagnosing causes and threats to ecosystems goods and services. Recent advances in characterizing condition include site‐specific models that account for natural variability among habitats to better estimate effects of humans. Relationships between algal assemblages and stressors caused by humans help diagnose stressors and establish targets for protection and restoration. Many algal responses to stressors have thresholds that are particularly important for developing stakeholder consensus for stressor management targets. Future research on the regional‐scale resilience of algal assemblages, the ecosystem goods and services they provide, and methods for monitoring and forecasting change will improve water resource management.     

Effects of seed burial on germination,protein mobilisation and seedling survival in Dodonaea viscosa

Ecological restoration of disturbed areas requires substantial knowledge of the germination of native plants and the creation of novel methods to increase seedling establishment in the field. We studied the effects of soil matrix priming on the germination of Dodonaea viscosa seeds, which exhibit physical dormancy. To this end, we buried both pre‐scarified (in H₂SO₄, 3 min) and non‐pre‐scarified seeds in the Parque Ecológico de la Ciudad de México. After seeds were unearthed, they were post‐scarified for 0, 2, 6 and 10 min and their germination percentages compared to the germination of a control batch of laboratory‐stored seeds. For both control and unearthed seeds, the protein pattern was determined in the enriched storage protein fraction in SDS‐PAGE gels stained with Coomassie blue. Percentage germination increased as the scarification time increased. Pre‐scarification significantly increased percentage germination of post‐scarified seeds in relation to the control and non‐pre‐scarified seeds. In seeds unearthed from the forest site, the buried pre‐scarified seeds had relatively high percentage germination, even in the absence of post‐scarification treatment. A 48‐kDa protein was not found in unearthed, pre‐scarified seeds nor in the control germinated seeds, indicating that mobilisation of this protein occurred during soil priming. Burying seeds for a short period, including the beginning of the rainy season, promoted natural priming, which increased protein mobilisation. Functionally, priming effects were reflected in high percentage seedling survival in both the shade house and the field. Seed burial also reduced the requirement for acidic post‐scarification.     

紫胶虫最佳生长地的植被条件分析

本文在对紫胶产区进行调查的基础上,分析了云南紫胶虫最佳生长地的植被条件、对其中的四种群落类型从植物种类成分、群落结构和群落生态等方面进行分析。根据丰富的寄主资源和有利于紫胶虫越冬的气候条件指出“暖热性稀树灌草丛”及“河谷季雨林次生林和灌丛”是云南紫胶虫及其主要寄主植物的适生类型。本文在总结紫胶产区的经验基础上,提出了开发利用的意见和改造的措施。     

Density dependence of developmental instability in a dimorphic ungulate

The use of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) for biomonitoring environmental stress is limited by the lack of work on how FA in particular traits responds to specific stresses. Here, by manipulating the number of individuals in an enclosed fallow deer (Dama dama) population, we describe, for the first time, clear density dependence in the FA of juvenile jaw morphology. The impact of high population density on FA was strong for both sexes, supporting the use of FA for indexing environmental stress. In addition, there was some indication that the change in FA was greater in males (43.6%) than females (28.5%). Finally, the ability to buffer density-dependent stress was independent of body condition. We suggest that, under highly limiting conditions, whole cohorts may be unable to buffer against developmental error, irrespective of individual quality.     

不同比例尺DEM数据对森林生态类型划分精度的影响

针对以辽东山区森林生态类型划分的需求,探讨了所需DEM数据的最低精度要求,通过对比试验和Kappa检验,得到1：10000比例尺DEM是划分辽东山区森林生态类型的较佳数据源。通过实践工作和对比试验研究,本文总结了针对ELT划分的需求,进行地形图扫描矢量化生成DEM数据过程中需要解决的关键技术问题,提出了等高线矢量化中纠错的有效方法,采用TOPOGRID命令生成了更符合客观地形状况的DEM数据,解决了生态分类系统中的关键性技术问题,该技术方法具有普遍性。     

Effects of nutritional restriction on nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes in growing seabirds

When using stable isotopes as dietary tracers it is essential to consider effects of nutritional state on isotopic fractionation. While starvation is known to induce enrichment of ¹⁵N in body tissues, effects of moderate food restriction on isotope signatures have rarely been tested. We conducted two experiments to investigate effects of a 50–55% reduction in food intake on δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C values in blood cells and whole blood of tufted puffin chicks, a species that exhibits a variety of adaptive responses to nutritional deficits. We found that blood from puffin chicks fed ad libitum became enriched in ¹⁵N and ¹³C compared to food-restricted chicks. Our results show that ¹⁵N enrichment is not always associated with food deprivation and argue effects of growth on diet–tissue fractionation of nitrogen stable isotopes (Δ¹⁵N) need to be considered in stable isotope studies. The decrease in δ¹³C of whole blood and blood cells in restricted birds is likely due to incorporation of carbon from ¹³C-depleted lipids into proteins. Effects of nutritional restriction on δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C values were relatively small in both experiments (δ¹⁵N: 0.77 and 0.41‰, δ¹³C: 0.20 and 0.25‰) compared to effects of ecological processes, indicating physiological effects do not preclude the use of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in studies of seabird ecology. Nevertheless, our results demonstrate that physiological processes affect nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes in growing birds and we caution isotope ecologists to consider these effects to avoid drawing spurious conclusions.     

一种利用推论性模型预测陆地脊椎动物分布的技术

对用于预测物种地理分布的新技术进行了叙述。这种预测包括以下步骤：建立地理基础资料库（ｄａｔａｂａｓｅ）、收集被预测物种的地理分布点以及使用生物多样性的附件－－Ｇｅｎｅｔｉｃ Ａｌｇｏｒｔｈｍ ｆｏｒ Ｒｕｌｅ－ｓｅｔ Ｐｒｅｄｉｃｉｏｎ来建立被预测物种的位模型。为了能清楚地理解这一预测过程,以濒危特种褐马鸡（Ｃｒｏｓｓｏｐｔｉｌｏｎ ｍａｎｔｃｈｕｒｉｃｕｍ）为例进行了叙述。这项新技术是用于生态学     

Designing a “tailor-made” ecological network using geographical information systems

During the last few years, geographical information systems (GIS) have spread as powerful tools for landscape analysis. The main purpose of this work was to use GIS to display an ecological network made up of core areas, key areas and ecological corridors. As an example of the application of this method we refer to the population of deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in an alpine area in northwestern Italy. The method provided an overall view of the ecological network of the area, highlighting how linear infrastructures can affect animal populations and consequently, their survival probability.     

Sensitive periods during the development and expression of vertebrate sexual signals: A systematic review

Many sexually selected traits exhibit phenotypic plasticity. Despite a growing appreciation for the ecological context in which sexual selection occurs, and for the role of plasticity in shaping traits associated with local adaptation and divergence, there is an important gap in knowledge about the onset and duration of plasticity in sexual trait expression. Integrating this temporal dimension of plasticity into models of sexual selection informs our understanding of the information conveyed by sexual traits and our predictions related to trait evolution, and is critical in this time of unprecedented and rapid environmental change. We conducted a systematic review of 869 studies to ask how trait modalities (e.g., visual and chemical) relate to the onset and duration of plasticity in vertebrate sexual signals. We show that this literature is dominated by studies of coloration in birds and fish, and most studies take place during the breeding season. Where possible, we integrate results across studies to link physiology of specific trait modalities with the life stage (e.g., juvenile, breeding, or nonbreeding) during which plasticity occurs in well‐studied traits. Limitations of our review included a lack of replication in our dataset, which precluded formal analysis. We argue that the timing of trait plasticity, in addition to environmental context, is critical for determining whether and how various communication signals are associated with ecological context, because plasticity may be ongoing or occur at only one point in an individual''s lifetime, and determining a fixed trajectory of trait expression. We advocate for careful consideration of the onset and duration of plasticity when analyzing how environmental variation affects sexual trait expression and associated evolutionary outcomes.