广西边境地区活禽批发市场禽流感流行病学监测

为了给广西边境地区重大动物疫病防控阻截带建设提供数据支持,以及了解中越边境地区家禽禽流感病毒生态学,2012年12月—2017年12月,对广西边境地区主要活禽批发市场家禽及市场环境进行了系统监测。结果显示:广西边境地区活禽批发市场内禽流感病毒污染较重,呈多亚型病毒共存状态;家禽样品的平均病毒分离率为15.95%,环境样品则高达23.65%,明显高于家禽样品。市场调查发现:广西9个边境县(市、区)中,年活禽交易量在100万只以上的有5个;市场交易活禽主要为本地散养或规模场养殖家禽、从其他地区批发转运来的家禽以及边境走私家禽;大部分活禽市场没有配备消毒和无害化处理设施,也未严格执行休市制度。监测和调查结果表明,广西边境地区活禽批发市场家禽交易量大且频繁,来源复杂;市场中禽流感病毒污染严重,多亚型病毒在市场内常年蓄积循环,且存在家禽隐性带毒现象,因而有病毒散播风险。污染严重主要是因市场管理水平不高和生物安全措施不到位造成的,因此需要加强市场的动物卫生监管,提高禽流感监测力度。     

Yield Performance of Wheat Isolines with Different Dosages of the Short Arm of Rye Chromosome 1

Translocations of the short arm of rye (Secale cereale L.) chromosome 1 (1RS) in wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Pavon 76) are known to increase root biomass. Such an increase enhances water and nutrient uptake and may improve grain yield. Two greenhouse experiments and a field experiment were carried out at the University of California, Riverside, in 2012 and 2013 under well‐watered and terminal drought treatments to evaluate phenotypic characters associated with varying dosages of 1RS, including grain yield. The genotypes used were cultivar Pavon 76 (R₀), Pavon 76/Pavon1RS.1AL (F₁ hybrid) with a single dosage of 1RS (R₁A), Pavon 1RS.1AL with two dosages of 1RS (R₂A), Pavon 1RS.1DL (R₂D) also with two dosages of 1RS and Pavon 1RS.1AL‐1RS.1DL (R₄AD) with four dosages of 1RS. There was a significant positive correlation between number of dosages of 1RS and root biomass. However, no correlation was found between root biomass and grain yield per plant. Drought in the field experiment reduced grain yield significantly. Under well‐watered field conditions, grain yield of R₂A (215.9 g plant^?1) was significantly greater than those of R₂D (191.8 g plant^?1) and R₄AD (161.7 g plant^?1). Also, grain yield of R₄AD was significantly less than those of F₁, Pavon 76 and R₂D under well‐watered conditions. Under drought field conditions, no significant differences were found among the genotypes for grain yield was found between F₁ (14.7 g plant^?1) and R₄AD (12.4 g plant^?1). Harvest index was significantly greater in well‐watered (44.2 %) than in drought (34.6 %) field conditions. On average, genotypes F₁ (42.3 %) and R₂A (40.6 %) had higher harvest index than R₂D (38.3 %) and R₄AD (35.5 %) in the field. Also, Pavon 76 (40.2) and R₂D (38.3) had higher harvest index than R₄AD. Drought tolerance was lowest for R₄AD due to its relatively lower grain yield potential. In general, Pavon 1RS.1AL carrying two dosages of 1RS showed higher grain yield under wet treatments. Pavon 1RS.1AL‐1RS.1DL carrying four dosages of 1RS produced the largest shoot and root biomasses, but the least grain yield.     

Environmental heterogeneity and biotic interactions as potential drivers of spatial patterning of shorebird nests

Context

Species distributions are driven by a wide variety of abiotic and biotic factors, including nest placement for breeding individuals. As such, the spatial distribution of nests within a landscape can reflect environmental heterogeneity, habitat preferences, or even interactions with predators and other species.

Objectives

We determined the extent to which environmental heterogeneity and predation risk accounted for the observed spatial distribution of nests.

Methods

We assessed the spatial distribution of 112 nests of a migratory shorebird, the Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica), at Beluga River, Alaska, from 2009 to 2012, and explicitly tested for the relative influence of habitat characteristics and predation risk on nest locations. We also evaluated the effect of nest location, distance to conspecific nests, and proximity to roads on nest fate using 64 nests that were monitored through completion.

Results

Hudsonian Godwit nests were clustered across the landscape despite a lack of significant spatial autocorrelation (i.e., patchiness) in vegetation characteristics at either the micro- or landscape scale. Nest fate also was not predicted by either the distance to the nearest conspecific neighbor or proximity to roads. Thus, neither habitat characteristics nor predation risk explained the clustering of godwit nests.

Conclusions

These results suggest that godwits may select nest locations based more on social cues than underlying heterogeneity in vegetation or predation risk. As such, intra- and inter-specific interactions should be considered when developing management plans for species of conservation concern.

     

A rapid assessment of landscape biodiversity using diversity profiles of arthropod morphospecies

Context

The assessment of land-use impacts on biodiversity is one of the central themes of landscape ecology and conservation biology. However, due to the complexity of biodiversity, it is impossible to obtain complete information about the diversity of all species even for small areas, necessitating the selection of individual species or assemblages thereof as species surrogate. In parts of the world where taxonomic expertise is lacking, species identification has hindered progress in biodiversity conservation, and the only practical, relatively-accurate option, is the use of taxonomic minimalism.

Objective

We carried out a rapid biodiversity assessment based on three surrogates—land-use (driver-surrogate), terrestrial arthropods (species-surrogate) and morphospecies (taxonomic-surrogate)—to determine the impacts of land-use on biodiversity of the Western Region (Ghana), an area covering ~4 % of the West African biodiversity hotspot.

Method

We used diversity profiles to visualize the distribution of a total of 8848 arthropod individuals over seven land-use types which define the complete heterogeneity of the landscape.

Results

Here, we present both sample and asymptotic diversity profiles of arthropod morphospecies for each land-use type and the potential of each land-use type for conserving arthropods.

Conclusions

We conclude that (1) the morphospecies approach is useful for detecting differences in species diversity of land-use types; (2) the concept of asymptotic diversity may not be necessary for land-use based biodiversity comparison; and (3) maximum diversity profiles are useful for determining the land-use conservation values in cases where pristine areas are not available.

     

A network model framework for prioritizing wetland conservation in the Great Plains

Context

Playa wetlands are the primary habitat for numerous wetland-dependent species in the Southern Great Plains of North America. Plant and wildlife populations that inhabit these wetlands are reciprocally linked through the dispersal of individuals, propagules and ultimately genes among local populations.

Objective

To develop and implement a framework using network models for conceptualizing, representing and analyzing potential biological flows among 48,981 spatially discrete playa wetlands in the Southern Great Plains.

Methods

We examined changes in connectivity patterns and assessed the relative importance of wetlands to maintaining these patterns by targeting wetlands for removal based on network centrality metrics weighted by estimates of habitat quality and probability of inundation.

Results

We identified several distinct, broad-scale sub networks and phase transitions among playa wetlands in the Southern Plains. In particular, for organisms that can disperse >2 km a dense and expansive wetland sub network emerges in the Southern High Plains. This network was characterized by localized, densely connected wetland clusters at link distances (h) >2 km but <5 km and was most sensitive to changes in wetland availability (p) and configuration when h = 4 km, and p = 0.2–0.4. It transitioned to a single, large connected wetland system at broader spatial scales even when the proportion of inundated wetland was relatively low (p = 0.2).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that redundancy in the potential for broad and fine-scale movements insulates this system from damage and facilitates system-wide connectivity among populations with different dispersal capacities.

     

UCP1基因变异与绵羊生长及胴体性状的关联分析

试验旨在探讨解耦联蛋白1（UCP1）基因核苷酸变异对绵羊生长性状的性别差异和胴体性状的影响，以期能够筛选出可以提升绵羊生长及胴体性状的核苷酸变异，为提高绵羊相关重要经济性状的分子遗传标记提供材料。以9个绵羊品种为研究对象，用PCR-SSCP方法检测不同性别绵羊中UCP1基因内含子5区和外显子6区变异。利用Minitab 16.0软件中一般线性模型分析内含子5区等位基因与不同性别绵羊生长性状、公羔胴体性状的关联性。结果显示，绵羊UCP1基因内含子5区和外显子6区共检测到8个核苷酸变异，其中位点c.910 G/A突变导致p.Ala304Thr氨基酸变异。生长性状关联分析结果表明，内含子5区等位基因对绵羊生长性状的影响存在性别特异性，母羔中携带等位基因A₁的群体较缺失群体具有较低的初生重（P<0.05），公羔中携带等位基因C₁的群体较缺失群体具有较高的断尾重（P<0.05），未发现其他等位基因与羔羊的生长性状存在性别特异性。胴体性状关联分析结果表明，携带等位基因A₁的群体具有较低后腿瘦肉量、腰部瘦肉量和较高的肩部瘦肉比例（P<0.05），携带等位基因C₁的群体具有较低的后腿瘦肉比例（P<0.05），其他胴体性状均没有发现与等位基因存在显著相关，基因型分析结果与等位基因分析结果一致。结果提示，UCP1基因对绵羊的生长性状影响具有性别特异性，且携带等位基因A₁的公羔群体具有较低的胴体生产性状，为提高公羔胴体生产性能提供了理论依据。     

Accurate machine learning-based germination detection,prediction and quality assessment of three grain crops

Photosynthesis is one of the most important biological reactions and forms the basis of crop productivity and yield on which a growing global population relies. However, to develop improved plant cultivars that are capable of increased productivity, methods that can accurately and quickly quantify photosynthetic efficiency in large numbers of genotypes under field conditions are needed. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging is a rapid, non-destructive measurement that can provide insight into the efficiency of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis. To test and validate a field-deployed fluorescence imaging system on the TERRA-REF field scanalyzer, leaves of potted sorghum plants were treated with a photosystem II inhibitor, DCMU, to reduce photochemical efficiency (FV/FM). The ability of the fluorescence imaging system to detect changes in fluorescence was determined by comparing the image-derived values with a handheld fluorometer. This study demonstrated that the imaging system was able to accurately measure photochemical efficiency (FV/FM) and was highly correlated (r = 0.92) with the handheld fluorometer values. Additionally, the fluorescence imaging system was able to track the decrease in photochemical efficiency due to treatment of DCMU over a 7 day period. The system’s ability to capture the temporal dynamics of the plants’ response to this induced stress, which has comparable dynamics to abiotic and biotic stressors found in field environments, indicates the system is operating correctly. With the validation of the fluorescence imaging system, physiological and genetic studies can be undertaken that leverage the fluorescence imaging capabilities and throughput of the field scanalyzer.