永瓣藤的地理分布及其种群空间格局

应用Ｇｒｅｉｇ－Ｓｍｉｔｈ邻接格子取样法,研究了我国珍稀植物永瓣藤（ＭｏｎｉｍｏｐｅｔａｌｕｎｃｈｉｎｅｎｓｅＲｅｈｄ）,的地理分布和种群空间格局及其形成机制,分析了其克隆生长格局和生态适应对策,研究结果表明,永瓣藤的分布区域狭窄,其种群空间格局为集群型,克隆生长格避为游击式稀疏形式样式,这与其生物学特性和种群生态适应的对策密切相关。     

Early‐life foraging: Behavioral responses of newly fledged albatrosses to environmental conditions

In order to survive and later recruit into a population, juvenile animals need to acquire resources through the use of innate and/or learnt behaviors in an environment new to them. For far‐ranging marine species, such as the wandering albatross Diomedea exulans, this is particularly challenging as individuals need to be able to rapidly adapt and optimize their movement strategies in response to the highly dynamic and heterogeneous nature of their open‐ocean pelagic habitats. Critical to this is the development and flexibility of dispersal and exploratory behaviors. Here, we examine the movements of eight juvenile wandering albatrosses, tracked using GPS/Argos satellite transmitters for eight months following fledging, and compare these to the trajectories of 17 adults to assess differences and similarities in behavioral strategies through time. Behavioral clustering algorithms (Expectation Maximization binary Clustering) were combined with multinomial regression analyses to investigate changes in behavioral mode probabilities over time, and how these may be influenced by variations in day duration and in biophysical oceanographic conditions. We found that juveniles appeared to quickly acquire the same large‐scale behavioral strategies as those employed by adults, although generally more time was spent resting at night. Moreover, individuals were able to detect and exploit specific oceanographic features in a manner similar to that observed in adults. Together, the results of this study suggest that while shortly after fledging juvenile wandering albatrosses are able to employ similar foraging strategies to those observed in adults, additional skills need to be acquired during the immature period before the efficiency of these behaviors matches that of adults.     

Lessons from the Tōhoku tsunami: A model for island avifauna conservation prioritization

Earthquake‐generated tsunamis threaten coastal areas and low‐lying islands with sudden flooding. Although human hazards and infrastructure damage have been well documented for tsunamis in recent decades, the effects on wildlife communities rarely have been quantified. We describe a tsunami that hit the world's largest remaining tropical seabird rookery and estimate the effects of sudden flooding on 23 bird species nesting on Pacific islands more than 3,800 km from the epicenter. We used global positioning systems, tide gauge data, and satellite imagery to quantify characteristics of the Tōhoku earthquake‐generated tsunami (11 March 2011) and its inundation extent across four Hawaiian Islands. We estimated short‐term effects of sudden flooding to bird communities using spatially explicit data from Midway Atoll and Laysan Island, Hawai'i. We describe variation in species vulnerability based on breeding phenology, nesting habitat, and life history traits. The tsunami inundated 21%–100% of each island's area at Midway Atoll and Laysan Island. Procellariformes (albatrosses and petrels) chick and egg losses exceeded 258,500 at Midway Atoll while albatross chick losses at Laysan Island exceeded 21,400. The tsunami struck at night and during the peak of nesting for 14 colonial seabird species. Strongly philopatric Procellariformes were vulnerable to the tsunami. Nonmigratory, endemic, endangered Laysan Teal (Anas laysanensis) were sensitive to ecosystem effects such as habitat changes and carcass‐initiated epizootics of avian botulism, and its populations declined approximately 40% on both atolls post‐tsunami. Catastrophic flooding of Pacific islands occurs periodically not only from tsunamis, but also from storm surge and rainfall; with sea‐level rise, the frequency of sudden flooding events will likely increase. As invasive predators occupy habitat on higher elevation Hawaiian Islands and globally important avian populations are concentrated on low‐lying islands, additional conservation strategies may be warranted to increase resilience of island biodiversity encountering tsunamis and rising sea levels.     

Breeding strategies of Antarctic Petrels Thalassoica antarctica and Southern Fulmars Fulmarus glacialoides in the high Antarctic and implications for reproductive success

Breeding strategies of two closely related fulmarine petrels were studied on Ardery Island, on the continental coast of East Antarctica, where short summers are expected to narrow the time-window for reproduction. Both species had a similar breeding period (97 days from laying to fledging) but Antarctic Petrels Thalassoica antarctica bred up to 16 days earlier than Southern Fulmars. During the pre-laying exodus, all Antarctic Petrels deserted the colony, whereas some Southern Fulmars Fulmarus glacialoides remained. Antarctic Petrels exhibited stronger synchronization in breeding, made longer foraging trips and spent less time guarding their chicks than Southern Fulmars. Overall breeding success of both species was similar but failures of Antarctic Petrels were concentrated in the early egg-phase and after hatching, when parents ceased guarding. Southern Fulmars lost eggs and chicks later in the breeding cycle and so wasted more parental investment in failed breeding attempts. Different breeding strategies may be imposed by flight characteristics; Southern Fulmars are less capable of crossing large expanses of pack ice and need to delay breeding until the sea ice retreats and breaks up. However, due to the short summer they risk chick failure when weather conditions deteriorate late in the season.     

Leg-attached data loggers do not modify the diving performances of a foot-propelled seabird

Global location sensors (GLS) are increasingly being used to determine animal position at sea. Their small size and weight means that they can be attached to the leg of volant birds with supposedly little impact on the flight ability. However, very few studies have investigated the impact that foot-attached devices may have on the diving ability of foot-propelled seabirds. We compared the diving activity of two groups of free-ranging great cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo carbo , both groups carrying identical time-depth recorders attached to the tail, and one group also having leg-attached GLS. Our results showed that there were no differences between the two groups in any of the diving parameters investigated, at least over the short term. Caution should be exercised when extrapolating to other species, especially those smaller than great cormorants, and also when deploying GLS over longer periods.     

Identification of 24 polymorphic microsatellite markers for the double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)

Twenty-four polymorphic microsatellite markers were developed for the double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus). The number of alleles ranged from two to 13 and observed heterozygosities ranged from 0.032 to 0.871. The use of these loci should enable researchers and biologists to learn more about the population structure and ecology of this species.     

Metabolic scaling in modular animals

Metabolic scaling is the relationship between organismal metabolic rate and body mass. Understanding the patterns and causes of metabolic scaling provides a powerful foundation for predicting biological processes at the level of individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems. Despite intense interest in, and debate on, the mechanistic basis of metabolic scaling, relatively little attention has been paid to metabolic scaling in clonal animals with modular construction, such as colonial cnidarians, bryozoans, and colonial ascidians. Unlike unitary animals, modular animals are structural individuals subdivided into repeated morphological units, or modules, each able to acquire, process, and share resources. A modular design allows flexibility in organism size and shape with consequences for metabolic scaling. Furthermore, with careful consideration of the biology of modular animals, the size and shape of individual colonies can be experimentally manipulated to test competing theories pertaining to metabolic scaling. Here, we review metabolic scaling in modular animals and find that a wide range of scaling exponents, rather than a single value, has been reported for a variety of modular animals. We identify factors influencing variation in intraspecific scaling in this group that relate to the general observation that not all modules within a colony are identical. We highlight current gaps in our understanding of metabolic scaling in modular animals, and suggest future research directions, such as manipulating metabolic states and comparisons among species that differ in extent of module integration.