Monitoring forest structure to guide adaptive management of forest restoration: a review of remote sensing approaches

New Forests - With the demand for, and scale of, ecological restoration increasing globally, effectiveness monitoring remains a significant challenge. For forest restoration, structural complexity...     

Increased indices of lipid peroxidation in stress-susceptible pigs and effects of vitamin E

When stress-susceptible and stress-resistant pigs consumed diets containing 10 iu vitamin E kg-1, the stress-susceptible pigs had damaged cell membranes. This was indicated by increased plasma activities of creatine kinase and pyruvate kinase. Plasma concentrations of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and conjugated dienes were also increased suggesting that the membrane damage was caused by free radicals. Susceptibility to free radicals was further demonstrated by an increased tendency for erythrocytes and tissue homogenates from stress-susceptible pigs to peroxidise when incubated with hydrogen peroxide and iron, respectively. Supplementation of the diets with approximately 20 times normal requirements of vitamin E decreased plasma creatine kinase and pyruvate kinase activities, and inhibited the formation of the indices of peroxidation in vivo and in vitro. It is concluded that the stress-susceptible pig has an abnormality in its antioxidant defence mechanisms. However, this abnormality was not due to a deficiency in selenium-dependent glutathione peroxidase, since activities were significantly increased in the longissimus dorsi of stress-susceptible pigs. Although the nature of the antioxidant defect is unclear, it is suggested that stress-susceptible pigs are under a sustained oxidant stress and that a decreased ability to accommodate even a normal free radical load may contribute to the rapid development of the fatal stress response.     

Iodine deficiency in cattle: compensatory changes in thyroidal selenoenzymes

The trace elements selenium and iodine are both essential for normal thyroid hormone metabolism. To investigate the relationships between these functions, heifers were maintained on iodine-deficient or iodine-sufficient diets from mid pregnancy to term. In these heifers and their offspring the interrelationship between iodine and selenium was apparent with the preferential 10- to 12-fold induction of the selenoenzyme, thyroidal type I, selenium-containing iodothyronine deiodinase activity by iodine deficiency. This was accompanied by two- to four-fold increases in cytosolic glutathione peroxidase activity, probably reflecting increased oxidative activity and metabolism in the thyroid gland in response to iodine deficiency. The above selenoenzyme activities were not affected in liver, kidney, pituitary and brain by iodine deficiency. The results are consistent with a critical role for selenium in both the normal function of cattle thyroid and key enzymes to compensate for the effects of iodine deficiency.     

Effects of nest linings,pecking strips and partitioning on nest use and behaviour in modified battery cages

1. Nine groups of 4 ISA Brown hens were housed in modified battery cages each containing 3 nest sites. Egg laying was performed exclusively in these sites.

2. In experiment 1, each cage contained one unlined nest (type A), one lined with neoprene rubber (type B) and one lined with rubber with an additional peckable strip of artificial grass attached above the nest rear (type C). Positions of the nests were systematically altered over 45 d.

3. Hens spent most time in and made most visits to nest type C. More eggs were laid in nest types B and C than in nest type A.

4. In experiment 2, all nests were of type C, but nests were divided within each cage either by wire mesh, or a solid nest partition, or no partition. Nesting behaviour was monitored over 20 d for each of the 3 conditions.

5. Hens spent most time in, and made most visits to the nests when solid partitions were present. However, disturbance of nesting birds was also significantly increased by solid partitions. There were no significant effects of partition type on the number or positions of eggs laid in the nests.     

Highly infested soils undermine the use of resistant olive rootstocks as a control method of verticillium wilt

Verticillium wilt of olive (VWO) is probably the most devastating fungal disease for olive trees worldwide, and currently the main cultivars are susceptible or moderately susceptible to this disease. The evaluation of resistant cultivars as rootstocks to control the disease has scarcely been explored, and mainly in short-term studies under controlled conditions, which usually do not correspond with field evaluations. The main objective of this study was to assess the responses to VWO of different scion × rootstock combinations of the olive cultivars Picual, Arbequina, Changlot Real, and Frantoio in a long-term field experiment with a soil highly infested with the defoliating pathotype of Verticillium dahliae. The results showed that grafting the susceptible cultivar Picual onto resistant rootstocks delayed the onset of the disease symptoms; however, after 4 years, it was observed that all combinations that contain Picual (a) were extensively colonized by V. dahliae; (b) developed severe symptoms of the disease; and (c) had plant mortality similar to Picual growing on its own roots. This result highlights the importance of long-term field experiments to evaluate VWO and shows that grafting susceptible olive cultivars onto resistant ones does not provide a durable control of VWO under high inoculum potential, as V. dahliae is able to progress through the resistant rootstock and then extensively colonize and kill the susceptible scion. However, the high inoculum potential observed in this study does not allow us to consider the evaluated resistant cultivars as completely ineffective under lower inoculum densities.     

Preliminary study to examine the utility of using foot burn or hock burn to assess aspects of housing conditions for broiler chicken

1. Eleven broiler chicken farms, representing 4 production system types, were visited during the last 5 d of the flock cycle: bird and flock details were recorded. Litter friability was assessed at 9 sites within the house, atmospheric ammonia was measured at three sites and bird cleanliness was assessed on a numerical rating scale. 2. For these flocks, hock burn, foot burn and breast burn were measured at the processing plant by standardised assessors. 3. Significant correlations were identified between the percentage of birds with foot burn and average litter score, average house ammonia concentrations and feather score. 4. No correlation was found between the percentage of birds with hock burn or breast burn and average litter scores, average ammonia concentrations or feather score. 5. No correlation was found between stocking density and foot burn, hock burn or breast burn.6. If confirmed, these findings may have implications for the draft EU Broiler Directive, for which it is proposed that permitted stocking density on farm may be determined by the incidence and severity of contact dermatitis measured on plant.     

Soluble sugars mediate sink feedback down-regulation of leaf photosynthesis in field-grown Coffea arabica

Source-sink relationships of field-grown plants of Coffea arabica L. cultivar 'Caturra' were manipulated to analyze the contribution of soluble sugars to sink feedback down-regulation of maximal leaf net CO2 assimilation rate (Amax). Total soluble sugar concentration (SSCm) and Amax were measured in the morning and afternoon on mature leaves of girdled branches bearing either high or low fruit loads. Leaf Amax was negatively correlated to SSCm, increased with fruit load and decreased during the day, indicating that limiting sink demand for carbohydrates caused SSCm to accumulate in the leaf tissue which results in down-regulation of Amax. To further analyze source-sink feedback on Amax, we compared Amax of mature, non-sink-limited coffee leaves fed with water or sucrose for 5, 10 or 30 min with that of non-fed control leaves. Sucrose-feeding reduced Amax compared with the control and water-feeding treatments, indicating that down-regulation of Amax is related to phloem sucrose concentration in coffee source leaves, independent of SSCm concentration in other leaf tissues. Although sucrose appeared to be more closely related to the mechanism underlying sink feedback down-regulation of Amax in coffee leaves than SSCm, Amax was closely related to SSCm by a nonlinear equation that may be useful for integrating sink limitations in coffee leaf photosynthetic models.