Distribution and behaviour of Common Scoter Melanitta nigra relative to prey resources and environmental parameters

Offshore wind farms are proposed around the coast of the UK and elsewhere in Europe. These sites tend to be located in shallow coastal waters that often coincide with areas used by over-wintering Common Scoter Melanitta nigra . A large-scale study was undertaken to ascertain the relationship of the spatial distribution of Common Scoter in Liverpool Bay with prey abundance and environmental and anthropogenic variables that may affect foraging efficiency. The highest numbers of Common Scoter coincided with sites that had a high abundance and biomass of bivalve prey species. There was strong evidence that the maximum observed biomass of bivalves occurred at a mean depth of c. 14 m off the Lancashire coast and at c. 8 m off the north Wales coast. This coincided well with the distribution of Common Scoter at Shell Flat, but less well with the distribution of birds off North Wales. Common Scoters were observed in lowest numbers or were absent from areas in which anthropogenic disturbance (shipping activity) was relatively intense, even when these areas held a high prey biomass. Commercial fishing activities did not appear to contribute to this disturbance.     

Sensitivity of respiratory metabolism and efficiency to foliar nitrogen during growth and maintenance

Scaling of respiration from the leaf to the canopy level currently depends on identification of physiological parameters that are tightly linked to respiration and that can readily be determined. Several recent studies have helped provide guides to predicting whole canopy respiration on the basis of foliar nitrogen (N). This approach is potentially powerful owing to the well‐described patterns of allocation of N that follow interception of radiation. In the present study, we investigated the sensitivity of the N–respiration correlation to environmental and developmental factors, in order to evaluate its usage for attempts to scale respiration to the organism and ecosystem level. We studied fully expanded, 1 and 2‐year‐old, and current‐year needles from canopies of Pinus radiata that had been treated (unthinned, thinned and thinned+fertilized treatments) in ways likely to induce a wide range of growth and respiratory responses. We examined respiration in detail during the growth period in spring and again at the end of summer, using calorespirometric methods (combined measurements of CO₂ and heat rates) to determine the respiration rates , instantaneous enthalpic growth rates (R_SGΔH_B, a measure of the conservation of electrons in anabolic products) and the enthalpy conversion efficiency (η_H) of needles differing in age. A general linear model revealed that was positively correlated with needle N, but this correlation was strongly dependent on the season and the needle age – indicating an important physiological difference between expanding young needles and fully expanded old needles. Furthermore, the strength of the correlation between needle N and respiration was comparatively weak for the current year, expanding foliage, indicating that factors other than foliage N significantly influenced the respiration of young needles. The analysis of instantaneous growth rates revealed two general processes. Older, nonexpanding foliage showed considerable rates of enthalpic growth (increases in enthalpy) that was mainly caused by the increment of lignin during secondary growth. Secondly, canopy development appeared dynamic and to be optimized according to environmental drivers and constraints – such as light and water availability. In late spring, needle extension slowed in the upper, but not the lower canopy, because the upper canopy appeared to be affected first by the onset of drought stress in late spring. Growth rates were reduced in the upper canopy despite greater rates of respiration, indicating higher demand of ATP for the maintenance of protein and for export of sugars. Consequently, the enthalpy conversion efficiency and enthalpic N productivity (enthalpic growth per unit N) were comparatively poor indicating advanced development of needles in the upper canopy. We suggest that the growth and maintenance paradigm of respiration is, at best, only moderately useful when applied to whole trees, and is not valid at the cellular level or that of the plant organ. A different concept, namely that of respiratory efficiency, seems a more suitable way to represent respiration in carbon (C) balance models and should help provide a better mechanistic understanding of how respiration affects the C conversion efficiency of plants, and ultimately the net primary productivity of ecosystems.     

The action of some systemic aphicides on the eggs of Anthocoris nemorum (L.) and A. confusus Reut

Comparisons were made of the systemic action of phorate, menazon and dimethoate on Aphis fabae Scop, and on the eggs of the aphidophagous Anthocoridae Anthocoris nemorum (L.) and A. confusus Reut., which are laid within plant tissue. Against 4th-instar apterous A. fabae the order of toxicity of the insecticides taken up by roots of the field bean Vicia faba L. was: menazon > dimethoate > phorate. Phorate concentrations needed to kill all A. fabae (10–15 ppm of wet weight of plant) killed most A. nemorum eggs but did not harm A. confusus eggs. Few A. nemorum eggs were killed by 15 ppm of menazon or 5 ppm of dimethoate. In the field a commercial in-row treatment of 1·5 lb/acre of phorate applied as granules in the seed drill of field beans sown in late April killed 86 % of eggs laid in June by overwintered A. nemorum and 30% of those laid in late July by second-generation females. Plants initially treated with 6 lb of in-row phorate per acre killed 74% of A. nemorum eggs in late July but did not harm A. confusus eggs. A. nemorum eggs laid in early June were unharmed by 1·5 lb/acre of in-row menazon. Of the A. nemorum eggs, 92–96% were inserted into the stipules and leaf margins of young bean plants, i.e. in the region (peripheral and distal part of the leaf) where most ³²P from labelled phorate accumulates after root uptake. The egg-laying sites of A. nemorum in potatoes and brussels sprouts (edges of the leaves) and in oats (the leaf tips) are also where most of the ³²P accumulates. In contrast, 98% of A. confusus eggs were laid in the stems, petioles and leaf midribs of field beans, where there was generally much less ³²P from labelled phorate.