Holocene sedimentary history of some coastal plains in Hokkaido,Japan IV. Diatom assemblages in the sediments from Kushiro moor (2)

Diatom assemblages of sediments obtained from three sites on Kushiro Moor were analyzed to investigate the Holocene sedimentary history. The results showed that: 1) The Takkobu site was originally at the bottom of the paleo-Kushiro Bay, and after-wards the paleo-Takkobu Lagoon developed, became sealed off, and changed to a freshwater lake. The succession to peat moor probably began about 2000 yr B.P. at the Takkobu site. 2) The Tsurui site was originally at the bottom of the paleo-Kushiro Bay, then changed to the paleo-Kushiro Lagoon and became peat moor as a result of the first Holocene regression, which finished about 3600 yr B.P. The site then returned to a brackish lake again, probably due to the second Holocene transgression between 3600 and 3000 yr B.P., thereafter passing through brackish lake and freshwater lake stages, and eventually becaming peat moor at about 2000 yr B.P., 3) At the Chuo site, the second paleo-Kushiro Bay developed again as a result of the second Holocene transgression, which finished about 3000 yr B.P. Thereafter, brackish or freshwater lakes, rivers, and then peat moor developed in the central area of Kushiro Moor. 4) The second marine diatom zone (MD₂ Zone), which indicates the second Holocene transgression, complete by about 3000 yr B.P., is detected only at the Chuo site in the central area of Kushiro Moor.     

Ritual production of environmental history among the Arawakan Wakuénai of Venezuela

This essay examines ritual and ceremonial activities among the Arawakspeaking Wakuénai of the Venezuelan Amazon as processes of constructing power relations in changing historical and ecological conditions. Ritual evocations of the vertical dimension of power relations between mythic ancestors and human descendants adapt local populations to conditions of relatively severe stress, such as epidemics and scarcity of fish in long wet seasons. Other rituals evoke the horizontal dimension of power relations between affinally-related groups as a way of expanding the local descent group in conditions of lowered stress. These two ways of exercising ritual power link human populations to specific natural habitats and provide flexibility needed to adjust to demographic and other historical changes. Through ritual performances, the Wakuénai transform the natural environment into a cultural landscape of socialized objects and, conversely, remember the history of political relations among peoples through spirit-naming of natural species, objects, places, and geographic landmarks.     

Vulnerability of early life intervals of Coregonus hoyi to predation by a freshwater mysid,Mysis relicta

Synopsis The bloater, Coregonus hoyi, deposits its eggs on deep sediments (70–100 m in Lake Michigan), where its eggs and embryos can be exposed to epibenthic predators. We investigated the vulnerability of early life intervals of bloaters to predation by mysids, Mysis relicta, which are mostly epibenthic by day and planktonic at night. Bloaters were raised from spawn in the laboratory and presented to field-collected mysids in laboratory predation trials. Eggs were not ingested by the mysids. Embryonic bloaters were vulnerable to predation by mysids only during the interval between hatching and swim up, usually 1–24 h under laboratory conditions. The mysids required about a day of exposure to this novel prey before they were able to kill significant numbers of the bloater embryos by making successive attacks with their thoracic legs. In experiments with experienced (2 and 3 days with bloater embryos) mysids, a functional response between embryo density and mysid predation rates was apparent. Temperature and the presence of alternative prey (zooplankton) did not alter the ‘kill rate’ (about 2.5 embryos mysid^-1d^-1) of experienced mysids at high bloater densities (>4 bloaters/mysid). However, more embryos were partially, rather than completely, ingested at 4 versus 9° C and in the presence of zooplankton.     

The nature and role of learning in the orientation and migratory behavior of fishes

Synopsis Fish migration may be viewed as the product of two processes; the selection and tracking of optimal environmental conditions through time and space, and the use of predictive information about environmental structure to bias movements towards a goal. The establishment and maintenance of directional bias is based on the interaction of experience and instinct. The preoccupation of much fish orientation research with innate fixed patterns of behavior on one hand and hydrodynamics on the other has led us to underestimate the possibility that orientation is a flexible process relying on developmental sequences, calibration of the motor-sensory interaction based on experience and the learning of environmental pattern. Evidence illustrating how experience and learning may influence the direction of movement and how the goal is recognized is presented according to two general categories: (a) imprinting and early experience and (b), spatial learning, including the social transmission of migratory routes and directions. In the first category, the olfactory hypothesis of salmon homing is briefly reviewed and new data presented describing olfactory imprinting in Atlantic salmon,Salmo salar. In the second category, evidence is presented demonstrating the modifiability of sun-compass orientation and the ability of some fish species to learn the spatial distribution of landmarks. The role of social transmission in the migration of coral reef fishes is reviewed. The possible role of these learning phenomena in the formation of familiar area maps, route-based and location-based navigation and the critical distance factor is considered. The relationship between life history and the nature of learning in migratory orientation is discussed     

Cell and molecular biology of bryophytes: ultimate limits to the resolution of phylogenetic problems

Ultrastructure, biochemistry and 5S rRNA sequences link tracheophytes, bryophytes and charalean green algae, but the precise interrelationships between these groups remain unclear. Further major clarification now awaits primary sequence data. These are also needed to determine directionality in possible evolutionary trends within the bryophytes, but are unlikely to overturn current schemes of classification or phylogeny. Comparative ultrastructural studies of spermatogenesis, sporogenesis, the cytoskeleton and plastids reinforce biochemical and morphogenetic evidence for the wide phyletic discontinuities between mosses, hepatics and hornworts, and also rule out direct lines of descent between them. Direct ancestral lineages from charalean algae to bryophytes and to tracheophytes are also unlikely. EM studies of gametophyte/sporophyte junctions, plus immunological investigations of bryophyte cytoskeletons, are likely to accentuate the differences between mosses, hepatirs and hornworts. Other priorities for systematics include elucidation of oil body ultrastructure, analysis of the changes in nuclear proteins during spermatogenesis and a detailed comparison of bryophyte and charalean plastids. The combined evidence from ultrastrueture, biochemistry, morphology and morphogenesis warrants general acceptance of the polyphyletic origin of the bryophytes. Ultrastructural attributes should be more widely used in bryophyte systematics.     

Thermal requirements for development of aphidophagous Coccinellidae (Coleoptera), Chrysopidae,Hemerobiidae (Neuroptera), and Syrphidae (Diptera): some general trends

Summary The sum of effective temperatures (SET) and lower development threshold (LDT) were established for eggs and/or pupae of central European populations of 20 species of chrysopid, coccinellid, hemerobiid, and syrphid predators of aphids. LDT ranged between 5.6° and 12.2°C, SET between 38.3 and 140.9 day degrees (dd), with broad overlap among stages and taxa. When LDT was plotted against SET, the data for both eggs and pupae were scattered along a single regression line which predicted a 0.47°C decrease in LDT per 10 dd increase in SET (r=-0.77, p<0.001). A regression calculated from published data from all over the world predicted a 0.24°C/10 dd decrease in LDT, and the data were more scattered (r=-0.38, p<0.01). This is perhaps the first report on the functional relationship between LDT and SET at the interspecific level. The species and stages differed in typical development length (VDL) and in the extent of its deceleration by low temperatures (DD). DD increased with increasing VDL, but the relative effect of low temperature on development length (DD/VDL ratio) reflected thermal adaptations consistent with the life history of the species. Polyvoltine species were less affected by low temperatures than monovoltine species, particularly the thermophilic ones.     

Life-history strategies of Australian lizards: a comparison between the tropics and the temperate zone

Summary Previous studies have suggested that tropical and temperate-zone lizards may differ fundamentally in life histories. We tested the applicability of this idea to Australian species by comparing temperate-zone species of agamid and scincid lizards with their congeners from the seasonal tropics. Data were derived from dissection of 1,941 specimens and from published information. Clutch size and egg size were positively correlated with mean maternal body size in most lizard species from both climatic zones. Mean body size of the lizards studies did not differ between the tropics and the temperate zone, nor did egg or hatchling size. However, tropical skinks showed considerably (approximately 20%) lower clutch size and relative clutch mass than did temperate-zone skinks. This difference was partly due to the higher incidence of species with low, invariant clutch size in the tropical lizard fauna (as seen in other continents as well), but primarily due to a trend for lineages (especially genera) with relatively high fecundity to be more common in the temperate zone than in the tropics. In contrast to studies on African lizards, our data suggested that modification of clutch size between areas has not occurred within genera: congeneric species from the tropics and temperate zone did not differ in clutch size. Production of more than one clutch per annum by individual females was common in both climatic zones. Tropical lizards may differ from temperate-zone species in showing higher reproductive frequencies, more rapid growth and earlier maturation. However, most of these effects may be due to phenotypic responses to environmental conditions (especially longer annual activity season), rather than to genetically based lifehistory adaptations.     

Life History Studies on the Genus Trillium (Liliaceae) V. Reproductive Biology and Survivorship of Three Declinate-flowered Species

Absract Three pedicellate-declinate-flowered species of Trillium (Liliaceae), T. vaseyi and T. flexipes , were studied for their life history characteristics, e.g., stage class structures of natural populations and reproductive features, including energy allocation to reproductive activities. The populations structures of all three species showed similar depletion structures characterized by a conspicuous decrease of individuals in the small juvenile stages, as was also observed in pedicellate-erect-flowered Trillium species However, with respect to reproductive characteristics, these three declinate-flowered species showed different features from erect-flowered species, although they belong to the same pedicellate-flowered group. That is, these declinate-flowered Trillium species exhibited low seed setting rates of 30% in T. catesbaei , 45% in T. vaseyi and 34% in T. flexipes , suggesting that they possess different mating systems from erect-flowered species which showed high seed setting rates of 50–90%.     

A 7000-year pollen record from the Amazon lowlands,Ecuador

The longest continuous Amazonian palynological record (ca 7010 yrs B.P. to present) from Lake Ayauchⁱ, Ecuador, reveals species-by-species abundance changes during a period of climatic change. Pollen influx from a wet tropical rain forest was found to be high, 1×10⁴–10⁵ grains cm^-2 yr^-1, although mature forest taxa were poorly represented. Horizons of laminated sediments and weathered gyttja, dated to ca 4200–3150 B.P., evidence a period of reduced net water availability. During this period Ficus, Alchornea and Palmae pollen representation appears to decline, although there is no evidence of a major forest compositional change. The lake was reduced to a shallow, possibly seasonal, pool. Zea cultivation was recorded between ca 2850 B.P., (the earliest paleoecological record to date in the Amazon basin) and ca 800 B.P. It is suggested that Zea was cultivated on exposed lake sediment within the crater at times of low water levels. The abandonment of Zea cultivation may have been due to rising water levels or social unrest.     

Life history of the importedScymnus (Nephus) Reunioni [Col.: Coccinellidae] predator of mealybugs

The life history ofNephus reunioni, introduced from the Reunioni island has been studied. Optimum temperature for the development of the entomophagous insect is 24–25°C. In this case the population has the highest survival at preimaginal stages, life duration of adults and reproductive capacity. The rate of population growth was calculated by the formula: