The Effects of One-Off Ivory Sales on Elephant Mortality

ABSTRACT We revisited the debate about whether the 1999 one-off sale of ivory promoted elephant (Loxodonta africana) poaching in Africa. Complementing earlier work based on ivory seizure data, we considered data on elephant mortality in Zimbabwe and Kenya. Our findings present a mixed picture. At the local level there was some evidence that the one-off sale resulted in extra elephant killing, but this effect was relatively small (and probably short-lived). Although the data were too scanty to draw strong conclusions, decision-making about elephant management and the ivory trade has to continue and will necessarily be based on imperfect information for a long time to come. Our findings suggest that further experimenting with one-off sales may be beneficial from a conservation and development perspective.     

应用聚类分析研究十字珊瑚亚科的分类并探讨其起源与演化

提要具分裂繁殖的十字珊瑚类在我国扬子区兰多维列统（Llandovery）分布广泛,属种繁多,有重要的地层意义．但长期以来关于该类群的分类位置及各属的定义和范围各家意见不一。文章应用Q型聚类分析研究十字珊瑚类的分类．提出十字珊瑚亚科可分为7属．即：Stauria Milne-Edwards et Haime, Cystostauria He et Li, Ceriaster Lindstrom. Eostauria He et Li. Paraceriaster Y. X. He. Parastauria He et Li. Massparaseriaster nora. provis. 对7个属分别给予简要定义。文中对十字珊瑚亚科的起源、演化及扩散进行探讨．并分析各属可能的演化亲缘关系。资料表明．最原始最早期的Eostauria属很可能起源于澳大利亚的新南威尔士晚奥陶世的Palaeophyllum的某一种群．后在早兰多维列世晚期扩散到扬子区．在中兰多维列世的爱隆期（Aeronian）迅速繁衍,产生许多新属种,因而扬子区在兰多维列世是十字珊瑚类的演化中心。除少数类群,如：Eostauria,Ceriaster．Stauria在晚兰多维列世或文洛克世（Wenlock）早期分别迁移到中亚地区和欧洲,多数类群在扬子区晚兰多维列世的早、中期因不适应环境巨变而快速衰亡。     

Considering land–sea interactions and trade‐offs for food and biodiversity

With the human population expected to near 10 billion by 2050, and diets shifting towards greater per‐capita consumption of animal protein, meeting future food demands will place ever‐growing burdens on natural resources and those dependent on them. Solutions proposed to increase the sustainability of agriculture, aquaculture, and capture fisheries have typically approached development from single sector perspectives. Recent work highlights the importance of recognising links among food sectors, and the challenge cross‐sector dependencies create for sustainable food production. Yet without understanding the full suite of interactions between food systems on land and sea, development in one sector may result in unanticipated trade‐offs in another. We review the interactions between terrestrial and aquatic food systems. We show that most of the studied land–sea interactions fall into at least one of four categories: ecosystem connectivity, feed interdependencies, livelihood interactions, and climate feedback. Critically, these interactions modify nutrient flows, and the partitioning of natural resource use between land and sea, amid a backdrop of climate variability and change that reaches across all sectors. Addressing counter‐productive trade‐offs resulting from land‐sea links will require simultaneous improvements in food production and consumption efficiency, while creating more sustainable feed products for fish and livestock. Food security research and policy also needs to better integrate aquatic and terrestrial production to anticipate how cross‐sector interactions could transmit change across ecosystem and governance boundaries into the future.     

Rice copine genes OsBON1 and OsBON3 function as suppressors of broad‐spectrum disease resistance

Breeding for disease resistance is the most effective strategy to control diseases, particularly with broad‐spectrum disease resistance in many crops. However, knowledge on genes and mechanism of broad‐spectrum resistance and trade‐off between defence and growth in crops is limited. Here, we show that the rice copine genes OsBON1 and OsBON3 are critical suppressors of immunity. Both OsBON1 and OsBON3 changed their protein subcellular localization upon pathogen challenge. Knockdown of OsBON1 and dominant negative mutant of OsBON3 each enhanced resistance to rice bacterial and fungal pathogens with either hemibiotrophic or necrotrophic lifestyles. The defence activation in OsBON1 knockdown mutants was associated with reduced growth, both of which were largely suppressed under high temperature. In contrast, overexpression of OsBON1 or OsBON3 decreased disease resistance and promoted plant growth. However, neither OsBON1 nor OsBON3 could rescue the dwarf phenotype of the Arabidopsis BON1 knockout mutant, suggesting a divergence of the rice and Arabidopsis copine genes. Our study therefore shows that the rice copine genes play a negative role in regulating disease resistance and their expression level and protein location likely have a large impact on the balance between immunity and agronomic traits.     

Sugar enrichment provides evidence for a role of nitrogen fixation in coral bleaching

The disruption of the coral–algae symbiosis (coral bleaching) due to rising sea surface temperatures has become an unprecedented global threat to coral reefs. Despite decades of research, our ability to manage mass bleaching events remains hampered by an incomplete mechanistic understanding of the processes involved. In this study, we induced a coral bleaching phenotype in the absence of heat and light stress by adding sugars. The sugar addition resulted in coral symbiotic breakdown accompanied by a fourfold increase of coral‐associated microbial nitrogen fixation. Concomitantly, increased N:P ratios by the coral host and algal symbionts suggest excess availability of nitrogen and a disruption of the nitrogen limitation within the coral holobiont. As nitrogen fixation is similarly stimulated in ocean warming scenarios, here we propose a refined coral bleaching model integrating the cascading effects of stimulated microbial nitrogen fixation. This model highlights the putative role of nitrogen‐fixing microbes in coral holobiont functioning and breakdown.     

Where are they all from? – sources and sustainability in the ornamental freshwater fish trade

The global trade in ornamental fish involves c. 125 countries worldwide and is worth c. US $15–30 billion each year. This total is dominated (90%) by freshwater fishes, most of which are sourced from breeding facilities located in developing countries, typically in Asia or South America, but also in Israel, USA and Europe. Some fish are still obtained from natural (wild) sources, but the exact percentage of wild-caught fish is difficult to quantify given a lack of reliable data. Although c. 1000 species of freshwater fishes are widely available (from a total of > 5300 on sale), the most dominant freshwater fishes in the market comprise only 30 species from the orders Cyprinodontiformes, Perciformes, Characiformes and Siluriformes. In this perspectives review paper, illustrative example case studies of wild-fish collecting (Barcelos and Rio Xingu, Brazil) and breeding projects (Java, Indonesia) are described. In addition, wild-collecting expeditions to West Papua, Indonesia are discussed, focused on discovering novel species of rainbowfish (Melanotaeniidae) for breeding in captivity. Sustainability of the aquarium industry is considered in its broadest sense. The aquarium industry has been portrayed as both a major threat to natural ecosystems, but also as being part of the solution in terms of helping to maintain species when they have gone extinct in the wild or offering an income to impoverished citizens who might otherwise engage in much more destructive practices.     

Increased diversity and concordant shifts in community structure of coral‐associated Symbiodiniaceae and bacteria subjected to chronic human disturbance

Both coral‐associated bacteria and endosymbiotic algae (Symbiodiniaceae spp.) are vitally important for the biological function of corals. Yet little is known about their co‐occurrence within corals, how their diversity varies across coral species, or how they are impacted by anthropogenic disturbances. Here, we sampled coral colonies (n = 472) from seven species, encompassing a range of life history traits, across a gradient of chronic human disturbance (n = 11 sites on Kiritimati [Christmas] atoll) in the central equatorial Pacific, and quantified the sequence assemblages and community structure of their associated Symbiodiniaceae and bacterial communities. Although Symbiodiniaceae alpha diversity did not vary with chronic human disturbance, disturbance was consistently associated with higher bacterial Shannon diversity and richness, with bacterial richness by sample almost doubling from sites with low to very high disturbance. Chronic disturbance was also associated with altered microbial beta diversity for Symbiodiniaceae and bacteria, including changes in community structure for both and increased variation (dispersion) of the Symbiodiniaceae communities. We also found concordance between Symbiodiniaceae and bacterial community structure, when all corals were considered together, and individually for two massive species, Hydnophora microconos and Porites lobata, implying that symbionts and bacteria respond similarly to human disturbance in these species. Finally, we found that the dominant Symbiodiniaceae ancestral lineage in a coral colony was associated with differential abundances of several distinct bacterial taxa. These results suggest that increased beta diversity of Symbiodiniaceae and bacterial communities may be a reliable indicator of stress in the coral microbiome, and that there may be concordant responses to chronic disturbance between these communities at the whole‐ecosystem scale.     

Evidence for growth ofSporothrix schenckii on dead but not on living sphagnum moss

When clinical isolates ofSporothrix schenckii were inoculated onto the apices of living or dead sphagnum moss plants maintained under growth chamber conditions, populations of the fungus, assessed by standard dilution plate methods, increased swiftly up to about 70-fold on moist, dead plants but did not increase on the live moss. Light and scanning electron microscopy revealed fungal growth and sporulation on and within dead plants, but no evidence of either on live plants. These data provide indirect support for the contention thatS. schenckii does not grow on living sphagnum in bogs, but rather that sporotrichosis epidemics associated with sphagnum moss are likely to result from contamination of the dead plants at some point(s) in the chain of events during or after harvest. One practical implication of our results is that precautions should be taken to insure that sphagnum moss is stored dry and that it is not wetted any sooner than necessary before use. We also report here improvement of the Mycose isolation medium by an increase in cycloheximide from 400 to 800 mg/l, chloramphenicol from 50 to 250 mg/l, and the addition of rifampicin at 20 mg/l.