The homogenizing influence of agriculture on forest bird communities at landscape scales

Landscape Ecology - Agricultural expansion is a principal driver of biodiversity loss, but the impacts on community assembly in agro-ecosystems are less clear, especially across regional scales at...     

Validating the use of Cs measurements to estimate rates of soil redistribution by wind

Wind erosion has degraded over one-half billion hectares of land worldwide. ¹³⁷Cesium (¹³⁷Cs) has been used as a tracer to study long-term rates of soil redistribution by water and, to a lesser extent, by wind. Early studies assumed that the decline in ¹³⁷Cs activity for a potentially eroded soil relative to that for an uneroded soil was linearly proportional to soil loss. More recently, models have emerged that consider the effects of soil cultivation and the particle surface area-dependent partitioning of ¹³⁷Cs on soils. We investigated the partitioning of ¹³⁷Cs in wind-eroded sediments and with soil surface samples sieved into contiguous ranges of particle sizes. We also compared the ¹³⁷Cs activities and stratification of several adjacent soils with known wind erosion and deposition histories. Finally, we tested ¹³⁷Cs-based soil loss models with measured data from sites with documented histories. ¹³⁷Cs activities and mean particle diameters of aeolian samples agreed well with the ¹³⁷Cs activities and respective mean diameters of the sieved surface soil samples. Good agreement between model estimations and measured data indicated that ¹³⁷Cs models developed to estimate soil redistribution by water were also applicable to soil redistribution by wind provided that the models contained an appropriate particle size correction parameter.     

Soil compaction and forest floor removal reduced microbial biomass and enzyme activities in a boreal aspen forest soil

Soil enzymes are linked to microbial functions and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems and are considered sensitive to soil disturbances. We investigated the effects of severe soil compaction and whole-tree harvesting plus forest floor removal (referred to as FFR below, compared with stem-only harvesting) on available N, microbial biomass C (MBC), microbial biomass N (MBN), and microbial biomass P (MBP), and dehydrogenase, protease, and phosphatase activities in the forest floor and 0–10 cm mineral soil in a boreal aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) forest soil near Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada. In the forest floor, no soil compaction effects were observed for any of the soil microbial or enzyme activity parameters measured. In the mineral soil, compaction reduced available N, MBP, and acid phosphatase by 53, 47, and 48%, respectively, when forest floor was intact, and protease and alkaline phosphatase activities by 28 and 27%, respectively, regardless of FFR. Forest floor removal reduced available P, MBC, MBN, and protease and alkaline phosphatase activities by 38, 46, 49, 25, and 45%, respectively, regardless of soil compaction, and available N, MBP, and acid phosphatase activity by 52, 50, and 39%, respectively, in the noncompacted soil. Neither soil compaction nor FFR affected dehydrogenase activities. Reductions in microbial biomass and protease and phosphatase activities after compaction and FFR likely led to the reduced N and P availabilities in the soil. Our results indicate that microbial biomass and enzyme activities were sensitive to soil compaction and FFR and that such disturbances had negative consequences for forest soil N and P cycling and fertility.     

Organic globules in the Tagish Lake meteorite: remnants of the protosolar disk

Coordinated transmission electron microscopy and isotopic measurements of organic globules in the Tagish Lake meteorite shows that they have elevated ratios of nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14 (1.2 to 2 times terrestrial) and of deuterium to hydrogen (2.5 to 9 times terrestrial). These isotopic anomalies are indicative of mass fractionation during chemical reactions at extremely low temperatures (10 to 20 kelvin), characteristic of cold molecular clouds and the outer protosolar disk. The globules probably originated as organic ice coatings on preexisting grains that were photochemically processed into refractory organic matter. The globules resemble cometary carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (CHON) particles, suggesting that such grains were important constituents of the solar system starting materials.     

Application of Line Thinnings in Practice

The discussion covers the need to change our present system of harvesting pine timber thinnings in order to increase productivity. It points out that this productivity increase can only be achieved through technical innovation and by the introduction of machinery suited to do the job. The machinery and work methods call for a type of neutral thinning in conjunction with a selective thinning or followed by a selective thinning. The advantages of this type of thinning, as practised in this country, are illustrated.     

我国野生披碱草属牧草居群的穗部形态多样性研究

对采集自我国12个不同分布区的105个野生披碱草属(Elymus)牧草居群的14项穗部形态指标进行研究,结果表明,我国披碱草属牧草种质资源穗部遗传多样性丰富,居群内多样性指数(H′)在0.784～1.652,平均多样性指数为1.396;居群总平均多样性指数为1.936,居群间表型分化系数为27.89%。14项穗部形态性状在居群内多样性、居群总多样性以及变异系数变化不完全一致,居群内H′最高的为旗叶与穗基部长度(1.648),居群总H′最高的为小穗长(2.054),变异系数最大的为第一颖芒长(58.932%),平均变异系数为31.22%,表明穗部形态性状均存在较大的变异,F检验差异极显著。引起居群形态差异的性状与种子产量密切相关,主要包括穗长、穗宽、第一颖芒长、第一外稃长、第一内稃长、第一外稃芒长、每穗轴小花数、第一颖长和第一颖宽。我国野生披碱草属牧草的多样性和分布格局是相关的,我国西北部是野生披碱草属牧草分布中心,也是披碱草属牧草的多样性中心。此外,提出了我国披碱草属牧草保护的策略。     

不同含水率对四倍体刺槐抗弯强度及弹性模量的影响

为研究四倍体刺槐在弯曲负荷作用下破裂或折弯的变化规律,用数理统计的方法在万能力学试验机上对不同含水率的四倍体刺槐枝条的弯曲力学特性进行了研究。结果表明,4种含水率水平下,四倍体刺槐在弯曲载荷作用下的抗弯强度为54.12～94.42 MPa、弹性模量为4.81～9.30GPa。四倍体刺槐枝条的最大载荷在各个含水率水平下均随枝条直径的增大呈线性提高。四倍体刺槐的抗弯强度及弹性模量与含水率水平成一元线性相关关系,随含水率水平的降低四倍体刺槐的抗弯强度及弹性模量呈线性增大。     

Coding channels in the taste system of the rat

Basic taste qualities are thought to be perceived independently, yet discrete neural coding channels have not been demonstrated in the central nervous system. The response profiles of taste cells in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) of the rat were categorized into four groups, and the effects of amiloride, a passive sodium channel blocker, on each were determined. NTS neurons that responded specifically to sodium chloride (NaCl) or to NaCl and sugars were suppressed by amiloride; those broadly sensitive to salts, acids, and bitter stimuli were unaffected. Moreover, the response profile evoked by NaCl lost its distinctiveness after treatment with amiloride, becoming similar to those evoked by acids and quinine. Receptors that respond to sodium must relay their information through independent coding channels to identifiable subgroups of NTS neurons, the activity of which is responsible for the perception of saltiness.     

Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid from field cases of some common ovine neurological diseases.

Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from normal sheep and from cases of some common neurological diseases revealed a significant increase (P less than 0.05) in the group mean CSF protein concentration for meningitis, listeriosis and spinal abscess but not for scrapie, spinal injury, ovine pregnancy toxaemia or polioencephalomalacia. The CSF white blood cell count (WBC) was significantly increased (P less than 0.05) in the meningitis group and in those cases of listeriosis which failed to respond to antibiotic therapy. All cases of bacterial infection of the central nervous system (CNS) could be identified by the combined interpretation of the protein concentration and the differential WBC count. It is concluded that CSF analysis is useful clinically in differentiating traumatic from infective spinal lesions and toxic or metabolic lesions from bacterial meningitis in sheep.     

Salmon testes meal as a functional feed additive in fish meal and plant protein‐based diets for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum) and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.) fry

Fishery processing by‐products are a large resource from which to produce fishmeal and other products for a variety of uses. In this study, testes meal (TM) produced from pink salmon processing by‐product was evaluated as a functional ingredient in aquafeeds. Nile tilapia and rainbow trout fry were fed five isonitrogenous and isoenergetic experimental diets for 4 and 9 weeks respectively. Two diets were fishmeal‐based (FM) and three were plant protein‐based (PP). Salmon TM was added to the FM and PP diets at 7% to replace 20% of fishmeal protein (FMTM and PPTM respectively). An additional control diet was prepared in which fishmeal was added to the PP diet to supply an equivalent amount of protein as supplied by TM (PPFM). Inclusion of TM in both the FM‐ and PP‐based diets resulted in higher final body weights, although differences were only significant between rainbow trout fed FM or FMTM diets. Similar differences were calculated for other indices of fish performance, e.g. specific growth rate, feed conversion ratio, protein efficiency ratio and protein retention efficiency. Feed intake was significantly higher for fish fed FMTM compared with FM in rainbow trout. For tilapia, final weights were numerically higher, but not significantly different for fish fed diets containing TM compared with non‐TM diets (FM vs. FMTM; PP vs. PPTM). Performance of trout or tilapia fed the PPFM diet did not increase compared with the PP diet. The results indicate that TM addition to both FM and PP diets increased feed intake and also increased metabolic efficiency, demonstrating that TM can be a functional ingredient in aquafeeds.