Sirococcus shoot blight on Picea spinulosa in Bhutan

During a recent survey of forest tree diseases in Western and Central Bhutan, Sirococcus shoot blight and an associated Sirococcus sp. were found on saplings and mature trees of Eastern Himalayan spruce (Picea spinulosa). Based on morphological characteristics and DNA sequence comparisons of the ITS region of the rDNA operon, representative isolates from Bhutan were unequivocally identified as Sirococcus conigenus. The DNA sequence data also showed that these isolates belong to the P group of S. conigenus. To our best knowledge, this is the first report of Sirococcus shoot blight from the Himalayas or any other part of Asia. Sirococcus conigenus does not appear to cause dramatic damage at the moment, but this fungus has the potential to cause severe disease problems on P. spinulosa in Bhutan.     

Facultative and obligate diapause phenotypes in populations of the European spruce bark beetle Ips typographus

The bark beetle Ips typographus is the most destructive insect pest in Norway spruce-dominated forests. Its potential to establish multiple generations per year (multivoltinism) is one major trait that makes this beetle a severe pest. Ips typographus enters diapause to adjust its life cycle to seasonally changing environments. Diapause is characterized by developmental and reproductive arrest; it prolongs generation time and thus affects voltinism. In I. typographus a facultative, photoperiod-regulated diapause in the adult stage has been described. In addition, the presence of an obligate, photoperiod-independent, diapause has been hypothesized. The diapause phenotype has important implications for I. typographus voltinism, as populations with obligate diapausing individuals would be univoltine. To test for the presence of different I. typographus diapause phenotypes, we exposed Central and Northern European individuals to a set of photoperiodic treatments. We used two ovarian traits (egg number and vitellarium size) that are associated with gonad development, to infer reproductive arrest and thus diapause. We found a distinct effect of photoperiod on ovarian development, with variable responses in Central and Northern European beetles. We observed obligate diapausing (independent of photoperiod) individuals in Northern Europe, and both facultative (photoperiod-regulated) as well as obligate diapausing individuals in Central Europe. Our results show within-species variation for diapause induction, an adaptation to match life cycles with seasonally fluctuating environmental conditions. As the diapause phenotype affects the potential number of generations per season, our data are the basis for assessing the risk of outbreaks of this destructive bark beetle.

     

Species concepts and speciation of fishes: concluding remarks

The definition of the species category has stimulated more debate than perhaps any other topic in the biological sciences. There are currently more than 22 different species concepts and the debate continues on which concepts apply to all organisms, which concepts are operational and which concepts should be used in specific circumstances. The first major division of the types of concepts depends on whether one views species as constructs that exist for ordering biodiversity and information retrieval (i.e. classes), or views species as ontological individuals that exist in nature. If species are categories that can be defined, then theoretically, a single species can arise more than once in different places or at different times. If, on the other hand, species are individuals, then they are historical events, monophyletic and each species is unique.     

Increase of atmospheric methane recorded in antarctic ice core

Air entrapped in bubbles of cold ice has essentially the same composition as that of the atmosphere at the time of bubble formation. Measurements of the methane concentration in air extracted by two different methods from ice samples from Siple Station in western Antarcitica allow the reconstruction of the history of the increase of the atmospheric methane during the past 200 years.     

Stable carbon cycle-climate relationship during the Late Pleistocene

A record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations measured on the EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) Dome Concordia ice core extends the Vostok CO2 record back to 650,000 years before the present (yr B.P.). Before 430,000 yr B.P., partial pressure of atmospheric CO2 lies within the range of 260 and 180 parts per million by volume. This range is almost 30% smaller than that of the last four glacial cycles; however, the apparent sensitivity between deuterium and CO2 remains stable throughout the six glacial cycles, suggesting that the relationship between CO2 and Antarctic climate remained rather constant over this interval.     

Controls on surface water chemistry in the southern Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces

Using lake and stream data collected during the National Surface Water Survey (NSWS), and corrected for regional wet deposition and local cultural contamination, the role of weathering in supplying base cations C_B, silica, and alkalinity is evaluated for the southern Blue Ridge (SBR) and southern Piedmont (SPM) Provinces of the United States. Silicate weathering can account for virtually all of the non-cultural (Na+K) leaving the catchments, consistent with the weathering of feldspars to kaolinite, and in some dilute montane catchments, gibbsite. The net export of divalent C_B (Ca+Mg) represents 62 to 66% (median values) of total C_B export for the regional NSWS index sample populations; the alkalis account for the remainder. The median percentage (Ca+Mg) is significantly lower (53%) for SBR special sites, consistent with their unusual vulnerability to acid deposition. Exchange-leaching currently accounts for < 17% of the divalent C_B mobilized in these SBR and SPM catchments, possibly because of the high regional retention rates for both nitrate and sulfate.