Movement patterns and habitat use of smalltooth sawfish,Pristis pectinata,determined using pop‐up satellite archival tags

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Analysis of fine‐scale daily movement patterns of juvenile Pristis pectinata within a nursery habitat

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Development of external and neutrally buoyant acoustic transmitters for juvenile salmon turbine passage evaluation

Fish can sustain injury or mortality when they pass through hydroelectric facilities. To develop a method to monitor the passage and survival of juvenile salmonids without bias through turbines within the Federal Columbia River Power System, we developed and fabricated two designs of neutrally buoyant transmitters: Type A (sutured to the dorsal musculature of the fish anterior to the dorsal fin) and Type B (two-part design attached with wire pushed through the dorsal musculature, ventral to the dorsal fin). To determine the efficacy of the two designs under non-turbine passage-related conditions, fish had one of the tags attached and were held for 14 days to determine any potential effects of the tags on growth, survival and tissue damage. We also evaluated the attachment method by monitoring tag retention. These two neutrally buoyant tag designs were compared to nontagged individuals and those surgically implanted with current Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System (JSATS) transmitters and passive integrated responder (PIT) tags. In addition, two suture materials (Monocryl and Vicryl Rapide) were tested for attachment of Type A tags. When compared with non-tagged individuals, fish tagged with Type A tags did not differ significantly with respect to growth or mortality over a 14-d holding period. However, fish tagged with Type B transmitters had lower growth rates than the nontagged controls or other tag treatments. The efficacy of two designs was also compared to nontagged individuals under shear exposure. Fish were exposed to a submerged, 6.35-cm-diameter water jet at velocities ranging from 3.0 to 12.2 m/s in a water flume to simulate turbine conditions within the Columbia River basin. Throughout the shear exposure study, no mortalities or tag loss were observed. There was also no significant difference in the rates of shear injury between untagged fish and fish tagged with Type A or Type B tags. When tissue damage was assessed for tagged individuals exposed to shear forces, those tagged with Type A tags showed lower rates and severity of injury when compared to Type B-tagged fish. Overall, Type A tags may be a viable tag design for juvenile Chinook salmon passing through hydropower facilities.     

Predicting sapstain and degrade in fallen trees following storm damage in a Pinus radiata forest

Storm damage in production forests constitutes a major source of economic loss world wide, yet the retrieval of salvageable timber remains problematic. In particular, an inability to anticipate when sapstain and degrade will appear hampers the planning of log recovery operations. A study was conducted to monitor the deterioration of fallen trees following two winter storms causing wind and snow damage in a Pinus radiata plantation forest in the upper South Island of New Zealand. Percentage sapstain, incidence of basidiomycete decay fungi, and frequency of bark beetle infestation increased, while percentage sapwood moisture content decreased, over a period of 1 year. These changes proceeded more rapidly in fallen trees that were severed at stump height, to simulate breakage, than in those that were left partially rooted. There was little beetle activity at the time of the storms, but Arhopalus ferus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), and Hylastes ater, Hylurgus ligniperda and Pachycotes peregrinus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), were collected in flight traps during the following spring and summer. The predominant fungal species associated with sapstain was Diplodia pinea, while Ophiostoma piceae and Grosmannia huntii were isolated near the end of the period. The main decay fungi obtained were Phlebiopsis gigantea, Stereum sanguinolentum, and Schizophyllum commune. A generalized linear mixed model was constructed to predict the development of sapstain in fallen trees for conditions prevailing during the study after a storm at the same time of year. According to the model, a 10 m long butt log of 22 cm mid length diameter will have minimal stain (<10% of the cross sectional area affected) when cut from severed stems up to 4 months after the storm; if taken from still-rooted trees this period will extend to 1 year. However, because of large between-tree variation, economically productive log recovery will also depend on the proportion of trees that lie below an acceptable sapstain threshold. Further research is needed to determine regional and seasonal influences on the development of sapstain in fallen trees.     

Effects of Ethanol on Synthesis of Prostaglandin F2α in Bovine Females

Ethanol stimulates the production of prostaglandins in many species. The purpose of this study was to verify the effect of ethanol on the production of prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) and luteolysis in bovine females. In the first experiment, Holstein cows at day 17 of the oestrous cycle were treated with 100% ethanol (0.05 ml/kg of body weight, IV; n = 5), saline (0.05 ml/kg of body weight, IV; n = 4) or synthetic prostaglandin (150 μg of D‐cloprostenol/cow, IM; n = 4). The plasma concentrations of 13, 14‐dihydro‐15‐keto PGF2α (PGFM; the main metabolite of PGF2α measured in the peripheral blood) were assessed by radioimmunoassay (RIA). There was an acute release of PGFM in response to ethanol comparing to other treatments (p ≤ 0.05). However, only cows treated with PGF2α underwent luteolysis. In the second experiment, endometrial explants of cross‐bred beef cows (n = 4) slaughtered at day 17 of the oestrous cycle were cultured for 4 h. During the last 3 h, the explants were cultured with medium supplemented with 0, 0.1, 1, 10 or 100 μl of 100% ethanol/ml. Medium samples were collected at hours 1 and 4 and concentrations of PGF2α were measured by RIA. Ethanol did not induce PGF2α production by the endometrium. In conclusion, ethanol does not cause luteolysis in cows because it stimulates production of PGF2α in extra‐endometrial tissues.     

Impacts of maternal selenium and nutritional level on growth, adiposity, and glucose tolerance in female offspring in sheep

To examine effects of maternal nutrition and Se intake on adiposity and insulin sensitivity in female offspring, treatments were imposed during gestation on 82 pregnant primiparous Rambouillet ewe lambs (52.2 ± 0.8 kg) allotted randomly to 1 of 6 treatments in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement. Factors were adequate (9.5 μg Se·kg BW(-1)·d(-1); ASe) or high (81.8 μg Se·kg BW(-1)·d(-1); HSe) levels of dietary Se (Se-enriched yeast) and maternal nutritional intake (100% of metabolizable energy [ME] requirement [MOD], 60% of MOD [LOW], and 140% of MOD [HIGH]). Selenium treatments were initiated at breeding and global nutritional treatments at day 50 of gestation. At parturition, lambs were removed from ewes before nursing and managed similarly. Glucose tolerance tests were performed at 107 and 148 d of age. Necropsies were performed at 180 d of age. Although there was no effect of Se on maternal body condition or weight during gestation, both maternal nutritional intake and selenium treatment influenced (P ≤ 0.04) offspring growth and response to a glucose tolerance test. Female lambs from HSe ewes were heavier (P = 0.04) at birth. There were nutritional intake and Se interactions (P ≤ 0.05) on the growth rate of the lambs and their insulin response to a glucose bolus at 2 different times during growth. By 180 d, ewe lambs from HSe ewes had more (P ≤ 0.07) internal fat stores than lambs from ASe ewes. It appears that both maternal nutritional level and Se intake can influence insulin sensitivity, and maternal Se intake alone can enhance fat deposition in female offspring.     

A comparison via simulation of least squares Lehmann-Scheffé estimators of two variances and heritability with those of restricted maximum likelihood

The objective was to compare the performance of a recently derived, new method of estimating variances and covariances with any mixed linear model and any pattern of missing data with that of restricted maximum likelihood. For each of 96 combinations of six three-herd x four-sire unbalanced designs of 39 offspring each, four heritability values, two ratios of sire variance to interaction variance, and two distributions (multivariate normal and multivariate chi2, 3 df), 15,000 vectors (n = 39) were generated. Least squares Lehmann-Scheffé (LSLS) estimators of sire variance, interaction variance, and heritability were compared to those of REML with the performance measures of percentage of estimates (of the 15,000) that were positive, mean square error, variance, percentage of estimates within +/- 50% of the parameter, bias, maximum value, skewness, and kurtosis. The LSLS method vastly outperformed REML in almost all 96 combinations. Averaged over the 48 combinations with multivariate normal data, the average percentage that REML estimators of heritability performed relative to those of LSLS for the first five of the above listed eight performance measures was -100%. The number of times LSLS was better than REML was 235 out of 240. The analogous values for the 48 combinations with multivariate chi2, 3-df data were -90% and 230 out of 240. The REML maximum values were always larger than the LSLS values. The LSLS skewness and kurtosis values were about the same as those for REML, with the exception of LSLS heritability kurtosis values, which were notably less than those for REML. The explicit expectations of the LSLS estimators showed that the LSLS estimators were surprisingly unbiased given the paucity of data. Explicit coefficients for calculating mean square errors, variances, and biases squared of the LSLS estimators of the three variances were obtained for each design. The LSLS advantage was not quite so large with the multivariate chi2, 3-df data as with the multivariate normal data. Results with a symmetric multinomial distribution were the same as with the multivariate normal. The overall result was that the LSLS estimators produced substantially more non-zero estimates than REML estimators and these more abundant positive estimates were substantially grouped closer to their respective parameters. Results justify efforts to make the LSLS procedure computationally available.