Longer flumes increase critical swimming speeds by increasing burst–glide swimming duration in carp Cyprinus carpio, L.

Carp Cyprinus carpio altered the repertoire of swimming behaviour with increased flume length. While the transition speed from steady to burst–coast swimming was unaffected by flume length, fish reached higher critical swimming speed ( U _crit), consequently swimming for longer periods of time in burst–coast mode and hence performing more work before becoming fatigued. Analysis of swimming behaviour of burst–coast swimming revealed an increase in duration and a decrease in distance of forward burst movements with increasing water speeds. Frequency was unaffected by water speed. Overall, longer flumes increased U _crit by allowing for less restricted burst–coast swimming behaviour.     

Bearing Witness: Assumptions, Realities, and the Otherizing of Katrina

As post-Katrina rebuilding of Louisiana and Mississippi proceeds, we should heed the lessons from anthropologists and others studying aid and development in other parts of the world who point out that aid is often predicated on poorly examined assumptions about beneficiaries and local conditions. Hence, as the recovery after Katrina continues, assumptions about the U.S. South and about poverty, race, and class in the United States must be exposed and examined as well as assumptions about disaster victims and relief. Drawing on personal experiences, I examine here some of the assumptions with which I operated as a small group of friends and I organized an unofficial relief team to provide whatever aid we could to people on the Mississippi Gulf coast in the first few weeks after Hurricane Katrina. I recount the disconnections between my assumptions and the local conditions as relayed by Katrina survivors or that members of the team and I witnessed firsthand.     

Vegetation Mapping of the Mond Protected Area of Bushehr Province (South-west Iran)

Add regions of the wodd occupy up to 35% of the earth's surface, the basis of various definitions of climatic conditions,vegetation types or potential for food production. Due to their high ecological value, monitoring of add regions is necessary and modem vegetation studies can help in the conservation and management of these areas. The use of remote sensing for mapping of desert vegetation is difficult due to mixing of the spectral reflectance of bright desert soils with the weak spectral response of sparse vegetation. We studied the vegetation types in the semiarid to arid region of Mond Protected Area, south-west Iran, based on unsupervised classification of the Spot XS bands and then produced updated maps.Sixteen map units covering t2 vegetation types were recognized in the area based on both field works and satellite mapping. Halocnemum strobilaceum and Suaeda fruticosa vegetation types were the dominant types and Ephedra foliata,Salicornia europaaa-Suaeda heterophylla vegetation types were the smallest. Vegetation coverage decreased sharply with the increase in salinity towards the coastal areas of the Persian Gulf. The highest vegetation coverage belonged to the riparian vegetation along the Mond River, which represents the northern boundary of the protected area. The location of vegetation types was studied on the separate soil and habitat diversity maps of the study area, which helped in final refinements of the vegetation map produced.     

Conditions for open-air outdoor culture of Dunaliella salina in southern Spain

The optimization of the operation, under the climatic conditions of southern Spain, of an experimental plant for -carotene production by Dunaliella has been pursued. The effects of mixing, culture depth, cell density and dilution cycles on -carotene and biomass productivity were studied under a semicontinuous culture regime in open tanks outdoors. Using 3 m²-surface containers, the highest productivity values, for both -carotene and biomass, were recorded with a flow rate of 0.55 m s^–1; 10 cm depth; 0.7 – 0.9 × 10⁶cell ml^–1, population density; and dilution cycles of two days. An average annual productivity of 1.65 g (dry wt) m^–2 d^–1 was estimated for Dunaliella biomass, being that for -carotene of about 0.1 g m^–2 d^–1. Under these optimized conditions, experiments have been carried out at the Cadiz Bay with 20 m²-surface tanks during a whole-year cycle. The results obtained have validated this location and the operating conditions established as being most appropriate for efficient mass production of -carotene rich D. salina.     

Gonadal Maturity in Wild Sturgeons, Huso dauricus, Acipenser mikadoi and A. schrenckii Caught near Hokkaido, Japan

We investigated the occurrence and gonadal maturity of wild sturgeons, which are rarely caught off Hokkaido island in Japan. Based on their morphological features, combined with the data on their cell DNA content, 48 sturgeons were classified into three species and one hybrid. These were the kaluga, Huso dauricus; the Japanese (Sakhalin) sturgeon, Acipenser mikadoi (historically, this species has been considered conspecific with the American green sturgeon, A. medirostris); the Amur sturgeon, A. schrenckii; and the kaluga–Amur sturgeon hybrid; with a ratio of 36:10:1:1. All of them were caught in saline waters, rather than in the fresh-water of the river, although some of them were in saline waters in the mouth of the river. Most of them were smaller than adult size; however, early juvenile fish were not detected. Histological analysis of gonadal development revealed early stages of gametogenesis in the majority of the fish of both genders. These results indicate that several sturgeon species are still occurring in the coastal waters of northern Japan, at different stages of gonadal maturity. In contrast, the lack of reports of both mature and early juvenile sturgeon capture in the Hokkaido rivers may suggest that native spawning populations of Japanese sturgeon have become extinct in Japan.     

Ultrastructure and chemistry of soluble and polymeric lipids in cell walls from seed coats and fibres of Gossypium species

Electron-microscopic examination in conjunction with extraction procedures and chemical analysis have confirmed that a suberin-like lipid biopolymer is located within the concentric polylamellate layers found in the secondary cell walls of green cotton fibres (Gossypium hirsutum cv. green lint). A polymer of similar ultrastructure and chemical constitution also occurs mainly in the secondary seed-coat walls of the outer epidermis of both green and white varieties of G. hirsutum. The suberins composed of predominantly C₂₂ compounds are, however, markedly different from those present in the periderms of the same plants; these comprise mainly C₁₆ and C₁₈ compounds. Long-chain 1-alkanols (C₂₆–C₃₆) and alkanoic acids (C₁₆–C₃₆) are the principal components of the wax from white fibres but these lipid classes comprise a much smaller proportion of that from green fibres. unidentified highmolecular-weight compounds were the major constituents of the green-fibre was extract which also contains a number of yellow-green pigments, probably flavonoid in nature. These pigments are thought to be associated with the ultrahistochemical reaction with silver proteinate that was observed only in the green-fibre cell walls. A total of 16 wild and cultivated cotton species were examined with the electron microscope for the presence of suberin. The outer seed-coat epidermis of all the examined species but only the fibres of the wild ones were found to be suberized. Among the analysed mutants of fibre colour in G. hirsutum only the gene Lg (green lint) seemed to be associated with suberin.Abbreviations GLC gas-liquid chromatography - TLC thinlayer chromatography Fibres=fibre cells of the seed coat epidermis without fibre base; Seed coast=include the base of fibre cells, and short, so-called fuzz fibres     

Salinity tolerance and osmotic regulation in the diamond killifish,Adinia xenica

Synopsis Salinity tolerances and plasma osmotic regulatory capacity were determined in individuals of Adinia xenica following laboratory acclimations. Survival of individuals was better than 90% of those entered into the acclimation sequence from an initial acclimation salinity of 17.0 ppt down to fresh-water, and up to 95.0 ppt. Survival of individuals transferred from 95.0 to 105.0 ppt was low. Adinia showed most consistent plasma osmotic regulation in the range of ambient salinities from 17.0 to 60.0 ppt, but responded well over the ambient salinity range from 0.5 ppt to 85.0 ppt. Plasma osmotic concentrations were higher at common ambient salinities, but in a generally similar overall pattern of response, compared with such euryhaline cyprinodontids as Cyprinodon variegatus and Fundulus kansae.     

ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF OREGON COAST MARINE MAMMALS: THE LAST 3,000 YEARS

Mammalian faunal remains recovered from three archaeological sites on the Oregon, U.S.A. coast provide strong evidence that 18th and 19th century commercial exploitation of marine mammals had major effects on the zoogeography and demography of those taxa. Zalophus californianus and Callorhinus ursinus bred and pupped along the Oregon coast between 3,000 and 100 yr ago. About 100 yr ago Eumetopias jubatus abandoned a major rookery that had been utilized since at least 400 yr ago. Phoca vitulina does not appear to have suffered major modifications to coastal use or demographic patterns in Oregon during the last 3,000 yr, although a minor incident of intensified utilization of one location about 1,000 yr ago is suggested. All age-sex classes of Enhydra lutris lived on the Oregon coast until about A.D. 1900. Oregon's prehistoric remains of E. lutris display some dental characters similar to modern Alaskan specimens, and other dental characters similar to modern Californian specimens, conforming to a latitudinal dine reflected by historic specimens. Additional evidence for many of these observations is found in faunal remains recovered from archaeological sites on the coast of Vancouver Island, the Washington coast, and the northern California coast.     

Potential response of dark carbon fixation to global warming in estuarine and coastal waters

Dark carbon fixation (DCF), through which chemoautotrophs convert inorganic carbon to organic carbon, is recognized as a vital process of global carbon biogeochemical cycle. However, little is known about the response of DCF processes in estuarine and coastal waters to global warming. Using radiocarbon labelling method, the effects of temperature on the activity of chemoautotrophs were investigated in benthic water of the Yangtze estuarine and coastal areas. A dome-shaped thermal response pattern was observed for DCF rates (i.e., reduced rates at lower or higher temperatures), with the optimum temperature (T_opt) varying from about 21.9 to 32.0°C. Offshore sites showed lower T_opt values and were more vulnerable to global warming compared with nearshore sites. Based on temperature seasonality of the study area, it was estimated that warming would accelerate DCF rate in winter and spring but inhibit DCF activity in summer and fall. However, at an annual scale, warming showed an overall promoting effect on DCF rates. Metagenomic analysis revealed that the dominant chemoautotrophic carbon fixation pathways in the nearshore area were Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle, while the offshore sites were co-dominated by CBB and 3-hydroxypropionate/4-hydroxybutyrate cycles, which may explain the differential temperature response of DCF along the estuarine and coastal gradients. Our findings highlight the importance of incorporating DCF thermal response into biogeochemical models to accurately estimate the carbon sink potential of estuarine and coastal ecosystems in the context of global warming.     

Vegetation formations and associations of the zonobiomes along the North American Pacific coast

This phytosociological study, carried out according to the Braun-Blanquet method and supported by cluster analysis, describes Walter's zonobiomes along the North American Pacific coast between British Columbia (Canada) and Baja California Sur (Mexico). Fourteen floristic associations have been identified and each is characterized by a unique floristic combination, a distinctive geographical range and particular bioclimatic conditions.Abbreviations of the associations that appear in table and figures AE Fraxino trifoliatae-Aesculetum parryi - AM Ambrosio chenopodifoliae-Larreetum tridentatae - BE Bergerocacto emoryi-Agavetum shawii - CA Calystegio intermediae-Ceanothetum megacarpi - CE Cercidio praecocis-Prosopidetum palmeri - CY Antigono leptopi-Cyrtocarpetum edulis - DU Malosmo laurinae-Quercetum dumosae - ID Agavo cerulatae-Idrietum columnaris - LO Lonicero denudatae-Quercetum agrifoliae - OX Oxalido oreganae-Sequoietum sempervirentis - RO Roso minutifoliae-Aesculetum parryi - TH Thujo plicatae-Tsugetum heterophyllae - UM Umbellulario californicae-Quercetum agrifoliae - YU Yucco validae-Fouquierietum diguetii