Effects of plant diversity on plant biomass production and soil macrofauna in Amazonian pastures

We examined the effect of plant diversity on plant production and soil macrofauna density and diversity. Four plants species (Arachis pintoi, an herbaceous legume; Brachiaria brizantha, a perennial grass; Leucaena leucocephala, a legume shrub; Solanum rugosum, a non-legume shrub) were used in a field experiment and communities of all combinations of one, two, three or four species were established. Plant diversity neither significantly affected density and diversity of soil macrofauna nor total plant biomass, however, the biomass of specific plants was negatively affected by plant diversity. Earthworm and ant densities were significantly higher in the presence of A. pintoi although this plant influenced neither the density of the other group nor fauna diversity. Earthworm and diplopod densities increased significantly with shoot biomass of A. pintoi. Fauna diversity increased significantly with shoot biomass (specific and total). Root biomass did not affect fauna density and diversity. Our results suggest that fauna density is affected by litter quality and that it is more affected by resource quantity than quality. Our results also confirm the importance of nitrogen fixers to ecosystem function.     

Using landing statistics and fishers’ traditional ecological knowledge to assess conservation threats to Pacific goliath grouper in Colombia

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Intravenous 15% isoflurane lipid nanoemulsion for general anesthesia in dogs

Objective

To investigate the efficacy of a new intravenous (IV) nanoemulsified isoflurane formulation for maintenance of general anesthesia in dogs.

Effects of a single intravenous bolus of fentanyl on the minimum anesthetic concentration of isoflurane in chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)

Objective

To assess the temporal effects of a single fentanyl intravenous (IV) bolus on the minimum anesthetic concentration (MAC) of isoflurane in chickens and to evaluate the effects of this combination on heart rate (HR) and rhythm, systemic arterial pressures (sAP) and ventilation.

The occurrence of wild cotton <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gossypium mustelinum</Emphasis> Miers ex Watt populations in the coast of Pernambuco,Northeastern Brazil

In this study, we describe three populations of the wild cotton Gossypium mustelinum Miers ex Watt in the coastal plain to the north of the State of Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil. These populations occur in urban areas in current expansion and under imminent risks of extinction, due to land use changes for house constructions. Distances between these new occurrences and the populations already mapped in the Northeast semiarid Caatinga (Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará, and Bahia) range from approximately 270–950 km. Besides distant, the populations on the coastal plain of Pernambuco also occur in very distinct climatic and edaphic conditions. Aiming at allowing the ex situ conservation of these genetic resources, branches of 66 plants were collected, propagated by the asexual breeding method cutting to regenerate an accession of each plant. These now constitute a germplasm collection in the Department of Agronomy of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.     

Phenolic Compounds Determined by LC-MS/MS and <Emphasis Type="Italic">In Vitro</Emphasis> Antioxidant Capacity of Brazilian Fruits in Two Edible Ripening Stages

The aim of this study was to investigate the free individual phenolics and the in vitro antioxidant capacity of blackberry, acerola, yellow guava, guabiju, jambolan and jabuticaba fruits in two edible stages. Of the thirty-three phenolics investigated by liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), twenty-five were quantified and the major ones were catechin, isoquercitrin, epicatechin and gallic acid. The highest values for the total phenolic content (in dry matter) were observed for acerola (83.6 to 97.7 mg gallic acid equivalents g^?1 DM) and blackberry (18.9 to 28.3 mg gallic acid equivalents g^?1 DM); however, acerola, jabuticaba, and blackberry showed the highest antioxidant capacities (134.6 to 1120.4 mg Trolox equivalents g^?1 for 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl and 43.6 to 501.8 μmol Trolox equivalents g^?1 for ferric reducing antioxidant power). For most fruits, the antioxidant capacity decreased during the ripening, possibly due to a decrease in the concentration of most of the phenolics.     

Estimated Reduction in Solids During Sheep Bedding Composting as a Function of the Composition of the Organic Fractions

The different organic matter fractions of residues significantly impact the degradability of organic material in composting windrows. Based on that, this study aimed to find out the organic matter fractions that most impact the breakdown rate during composting, besides proposing models to estimate the solids reductions in sheep bedding composting windrows. To that end, 24 sheep beddings from different locations and varied composition were composted so as to ensure the representativeness of the sample. The models found for reduction in total (TS) and volatile (VS) solids as a function of compostable organic matter (COM) and organic matter resistant to composting (OMRC) were not significant. Lignin had correlation coefficients of ?0.6, ?0.89, and ?0.84 in relation to temperature, TS reduction, and VS reduction, respectively. The hemicellulose:lignin ratio was the parameter most correlated with temperature (0.69), TS reduction (0.91), VS reduction (0.92), and nitrogen (0.5), which led to more significant predictive models. It can be concluded that the hemicellulose:lignin ratio is the parameter that most impacts the breakdown of organic matter and nitrogen losses in sheep bedding composting windrows.     

Models for Jointly Estimating Abundances of Two Unmarked Site-Associated Species Subject to Imperfect Detection

In ecological field surveys, it is often of interest to estimate the abundance of species. It is frequently the case that unmarked animals are counted on different sites over several time occasions. A natural starting point to model these data, while accounting for imperfect detection, is by using Royle’s N-mixture model (Biometrics 60:108–115, 2004). Subsequently, many multivariate extensions have been proposed to model communities as a whole. However, these approaches are used to study species richness and other community-level variables and do not focus on the relationship between two site-associated species. Here, we extend the N-mixture modelling framework to model two site-associated species abundances jointly and propose to measure the influence of one species’ abundance on the populations of the other and study how this changes over time and space. By including a new parameter in the abundance distribution of one of the species, linking it to abundance of the other, our proposed model treats extra variability as an effect induced by an associated species’ abundance and allows one to study how environmental covariates may affect this. Using results from simulation studies, we show that the model is able to recover true parameter estimates. We illustrate our approach using data from bald eagles and mallards obtained in the 2015 survey of the North American Breeding Bird Survey. By using the joint model, we were able to separate overdispersion from mallard-induced variability and hence what would be accounted for with a dispersion parameter in the univariate framework for the eagles was explained by covariates related to mallard abundance in the joint model. Our approach represents an attractive, yet simple, way of modelling site-associated species populations jointly. Conservation ecologists can use the approach to devise management strategies based on the strength of association between species, which may be due to direct interactions and/or environmental effects affecting both species’ populations. Also, mathematical ecologists can use this framework to develop tools for studying population dynamics under different scenarios. Supplementary materials accompanying this paper appear on-line.