First evidence of spawning migration by goldfish (Carassius auratus); implications for control of a globally invasive species

Goldfish (Carassius auratus) was one of the first fishes to be domesticated and has been widely introduced across the globe, but is now considered one of the world's worst invasive aquatic species. Surprisingly, there is a dearth of information on its spatial and temporal movement patterns, which hampers the development of effective control programmes. We examined the movement patterns of an introduced population of C. auratus in a south‐western Australian river using passive acoustic telemetry. The study population had a high residency index within the array (i.e. proportion of all days at liberty that, on average, each fish was detected by a receiver) with fish being detected on 64% of days. The individuals were also reasonably mobile, travelling a mean of 0.30 km (linear river kilometres).day^‐1 within the array, and one fish moved 231.3 km over the 365‐day study period (including 5.4 km in a 24 hr period). Importantly, C. auratus displayed significant seasonal movement patterns including a clear shift in habitats during its breeding period with most mature individuals being detected in an off‐channel wetland during that time. The results of this study strongly suggest that C. auratus undertook a spawning migration into a lentic habitat. These results have important implications for developing control programmes for the species, such as targeting connections to off‐channel lentic systems during its breeding period.     

Soundscapes reveal disturbance impacts: biophonic response to wildfire in the Sonoran Desert Sky Islands

Context

While remote sensing imagery is effective for quantifying land cover changes across large areas, its utility for directly assessing the response of animals to disturbance is limited. Soundscapes approaches—the recording and analysis of sounds in a landscape—could address this shortcoming.

Objectives

In 2011, a massive wildfire named “the Horseshoe 2 Burn” occurred in the Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona, USA. We evaluated the impact of this wildfire on acoustic activity of animal communities.

Methods

In 2013, soundscape recordings were collected over 9 months in 12 burned and 12 non-burned sites in four ecological systems. The seasonal and diel biological acoustic activity were described using the “Bioacoustic Index”, a detailed aural analysis of sound sources, and a new tool called “Sonic Timelapse Builder” (STLB).

Results

Seasonal biophony phenology showed a diurnal peak in June and a nocturnal peak in October in all ecological systems. On June mornings, acoustic activity was lower at burned than at non-burned sites in three of four ecological systems, due to a decreased abundance of cicadas directly impacted by the death of trees. Aural analyses revealed that 55% of recordings from non-burned sites contained insect sounds compared to 18% from burned sites. On October nights, orthopteran activity was more prevalent at some burned sites, possibly due to post-fire emergence of herbaceous.

Conclusions

Soundscape approaches can help address long-term conservation issues involving the responses of animal communities to wildfire. Acoustic methods can serve as a valuable complement to remote sensing for disturbance-based landscape management.

     

Habitat suitability and connectivity modeling reveal priority areas for Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis) conservation in a complex habitat mosaic

Context

Conservation for the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), a federally endangered species in the United States of America, is typically focused on local maternity sites; however, the species is a regional migrant, interacting with the environment at multiple spatial scales. Hierarchical levels of management may be necessary, but we have limited knowledge of landscape-level ecology, distribution, and connectivity of suitable areas in complex landscapes.

Objectives

We sought to (1) identify factors influencing M. sodalis maternity colony distribution in a mosaic landscape, (2) map suitable maternity habitat, and (3) quantify connectivity importance of patches to direct conservation action.

Methods

Using 3 decades of occurrence data, we tested a priori, hypothesis-driven habitat suitability models. We mapped suitable areas and quantified connectivity importance of habitat patches with probabilistic habitat availability metrics.

Results

Factors improving landscape-scale suitability included limited agriculture, more forest cover, forest edge, proximity to medium-sized water bodies, lower elevations, and limited urban development. Areas closer to hibernacula and rivers were suitable. Binary maps showed that 30% of the study area was suitable for M. sodalis and 29% was important for connectivity. Most suitable patches were important for intra-patch connectivity and far fewer contributed to inter-patch connectivity.

Conclusions

While simple models may be effective for small, homogenous landscapes, complex models are needed to explain habitat suitability in large, mixed landscapes. Suitability modeling identified factors that made sites attractive as maternity areas. Connectivity analysis improved our understanding of important areas for bats and prioritized areas to target for restoration.

     

Methanol fixation of plant tissue for Scanning Electron Microscopy improves preservation of tissue morphology and dimensions

Background

It is well known that preparation of biological (plant and animal) tissues for Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) by chemical fixation and critical point drying results in shrinkage of tissues, often by up to 20-30%, depending on the tissue type and fixation protocol used. We sought to identify a protocol that would preserve tissue size and morphology better than standard chemical fixatives and dehydration regimes. We compared a range of processing techniques by quantifying changes in tissue size and recording details of surface morphology using leaf tissues from three commonly studied species; Arabidopsis thaliana, barley and cotton.

Results

All processing protocols altered tissue dimensions. Methanol fixation and dehydration, followed by a further short (1 h) dehydration step in ethanol and critical point drying (which was based on a previously published method), preserved tissue dimensions most consistently of all protocols tested, although it did cause 8% shrinkage in all three species. This protocol was also best for preservation of surface morphology in all three species. We outline a recommended protocol and advise that the method is best trialled for different tissues, especially thicker or larger samples.

Conclusions

This study shows that simultaneous fixation and dehydration in methanol followed by ethanol results in better preservation of dimensions and morphology of critical point dried plant tissues than other fixation and dehydration procedures. It is a quick and simple method, and requires standard SEM preparation equipment.

     

Ecological and economic benefits of cross-boundary coordination among private forest landowners

A significant challenge facing forestry today is managing private forests sustainably in the face of continued ownership fragmentation (i.e., parcelization). Cross-boundary coordination––where forest practices are coordinated across multiple properties––has been proposed as a mechanism by which landscape-level ecological and economic benefits may be accrued in privately-owned landscapes, but few tests of the concept exist. Using a case study approach, we quantify the extent to which ownership-centric forest management is constrained by economies of scale and misses opportunities to achieve ecological objectives in three landscapes in Wisconsin, USA. Methods are based on existing forest management plans and include spatial analysis of patch distributions and shapes, simulation of forest practices, and calculation of net present value over a 20-year horizon. Our results indicate substantial opportunity for cross-boundary coordination: between 62% and 88% of the managed properties within our study landscapes were adjacent to other properties with forest management plans. At a patch scale, coordination can result in ecological benefits that can be accrued into the future (e.g., maintenance of large patches and natural ecosystem boundaries). Because these landscapes are already highly parcelized, however, coordination offers little opportunity to impact the overall landscape-scale structure. Greater economies of scale can also be gained by coordinating forest practices, including increases in the size (16–99%) and volume of timber sales (16–94%), and a modest economic advantage (3–6%). As first steps, investment in data infrastructure and professional training are required to support cross-boundary multi-ownership forest management. More broadly is the need to shift from policies and practices that are largely ownership-centric to those that include and better incorporate landscape-centric perspectives.     

Reponses of mamey sapote (Pouteria sapota) trees to continuous and cyclical flooding in calcareous soil

Physiological and growth responses of ‘Pantin’ and ‘Magana’ mamey sapote (Pouteria sapota) trees to continuous and cyclical flooding were studied in a series of experiments. Trees were grown in containers in a very gravelly loam soil and were subjected to continuous flooding of the root zone for 30–66 days (Experiments 1 and 2) or alternating flooding–unflooding cycles for 50 days (Experiments 3–5). For all experiments, the control treatment consisted of nonflooded trees. Net CO₂ assimilation (A) and stomatal conductance (g_s) decreased within 3 days of continuous flooding and internal CO₂ concentration was significantly higher in leaves of flooded than nonflooded plants. In the cyclic flooding experiments, trees were flooded in 3- to 6-day cycles and then unflooded for the same time periods. Stomatal conductance and A decreased within 3 days of flooding, leaf epinasty occurred between days 5 and 10, leaf senescence and abscission occurred between days 15 and 30, and branch dieback and tree death occurred between days 30 and 60. Three cycles of 3-day flooding and 3-day recovery of trees had little effect on leaf gas exchange of ‘Magaña’ trees. Similarly, ‘Pantin’ trees survived 3 cycles of 6 days of flooding interspersed with 3–6 days of recovery despite consistent decreases in g_s and A during flooding. Stomatal conductance and A of both mamey sapote cultivars decreased within a few days of flooding and this species appears to have intermediate flooding tolerance compared with other tropical fruit crops based on tree survival.     

Induction of tetraploidy in meristematically active seeds of Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii var. atropurpurea) through exposure to colchicine and oryzalin

Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii DC) is an invasive shrub, widely naturalized across the United States, whose numerous cultivars remain an important horticultural commodity. Maintaining this crop for the future necessitates the development of sterile clones. Exposure to the mitotic inhibitors colchicine and oryzalin is a traditional method for inducing tetraploidy in breeding lines as a precursor to creating sterile genotypes. Treatments utilized pre-germinated B. t. var. atropurpurea seeds with emerged radicles. Seeds were immersed in aqueous solutions of colchicine (.02%, .05%, .1% and .2%) and oryzalin (.002%, .005%, .01% and .02%) dissolved in 1% DMSO for 6, 12 and 24 h durations. Seedling ploidy level was determined via flow cytometry following 6 and 52 weeks of growth in the greenhouse. Both anti-mitotic chemicals proved effective at inducing tetraploidy and produced comparable efficiency rates. The survival rate of treated seeds decreased in response to both increased mitotic inhibitor concentration and longer exposure duration. While exposure to oryzalin produced greater seed mortality than colchicine, most seedlings that survived had altered ploidy levels. The most efficient oryzalin concentration was 0.002% with a rating of 28%, while the most efficient colchicine concentrations were in the range from 0.05% to 0.2%. Duration of exposure to mitotic inhibitor was not a significant factor over the range from 6 to 24 h. Reversion of tetraploid plants to the diploid state occurred at a low frequency following a dormancy period. Some tetraploid seedlings derived from exposure to both chemicals displayed foliar abnormalities including irregular leaf margins and mottled lamina. The primary advantage of colchicine was low seedling toxicity, while oryzalin was notable for its ability to induce tetraploidy at low concentrations.     

Five-year survey uncovers extensive diversity and temporal fluctuations among fusarium head blight pathogens of wheat and barley in Brazil

We conducted a five-year survey (2011–2015) of barley and wheat fields in Paraná state, Brazil, obtaining 754 Fusarium isolates from spikes with fusarium head blight (FHB)-symptoms. Multilocus genotyping and TEF-1α gene sequence analyses confirmed the dominance of the F. graminearum species complex (FGSC, 75.7%), but F. poae (11.5%), as well as F. avenaceum and related members of the F. tricinctum species complex (FTSC, 8.1%) appeared as substantial contributors to FHB. Within the FGSC, F. graminearum of the 15-ADON genotype was dominant (63%), followed by F. meridionale of the NIV genotype (23.1%), F. cortaderiae of the NIV (7%) or 3-ADON (2.6%) genotypes, and F. austroamericanum (3.8%) of the 3-ADON genotype. Substantial variation in pathogen composition was observed across years, with F. poae and F. meridionale frequencies significantly elevated in some years. Most F. poae strains produced DAS, diANIV, and butenolide, but not neosolaniol, T-2, or HT-2. All FTSC species produced moniliformin. Enniatin production was widespread among FTSC species, with the single F. acuminatum strain found to be the strongest producer of enniatins. Our findings confirm FGSC as a major contributor to FHB and expand considerably our knowledge of the presence, frequency, and conditions under which other pathogens may emerge, altering the spectrum of toxins that may accumulate in grain.     

Glutathione transferase activities toward herbicides used selectively in soybean

Using extracts from suspension-cultured cells of soybean (Glycine max cv. Mandarin) as a source of active enzymes, the activities of glutathione transferases (GSTs) catalysing the conjugation of 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB) and selective herbicides were determined to be in the order CDNB≫ fomesafen>metolachlor=acifluorfen>chlorimuron-ethyl. GST activities showed a thiol dependence in a substrate-specific manner. Thus, GST activities toward acifluorfen and fomesafen were greater when homoglutathione (hGSH), the endogenously occurring thiol in soybean, was used as the co-substrate rather than glutathione (GSH). Compared with GSH, hGSH addition either reduced or had no effect on GST activities toward other substrates. In the absence of enzyme, the rates of hGSH conjugation with acifluorfen, chlorimuron-ethyl and fomesafen were negligible, suggesting that rapid hGSH conjugation in soybean must be catalysed by GSTs. GST activities were subsequently determined in 14-day-old plants of soybean and a number of annual grass and broadleaf weeds. GST activities of the plants were then related to observed sensitivities to post-emergence applications of the four herbicides. When enzyme activity was expressed on a mg^-1 protein basis, all grass weeds and Abutilon theophrasticontained considerably higher GST activity toward CDNB than soybean. With fomesafen as the substrate, GST activities were determined to be in the order soybean≫Echinochloa crus-galli>Digitaria sanguinalis>Sorghum halepense=Setaria faberi with none of the broadleaf weeds showing any activity. This order related well to the observed selectivity of fomesafen, with the exception of A. theophrasti, which was partially tolerant to the herbicide. Using metolachlor as the substrate the order of the GST activities was soybean>A. theophrasti≫S. halepense>Amaranthus retroflexus>Ipomoea hederacea, with the remaining species showing no activity. GST activities toward metolachlor correlated well with the selectivity of the herbicide toward the broadleaf weeds but not toward the grass weeds. Acifluorfen and chlorimuron-ethyl were selectively active on these species, but GST activities toward these herbicides could not be detected in crude extracts from whole plants. © 1997 SCI