Hatchery production of Florida red tilapia seed in brackishwater tanks: the influence of broodstock age

Abstract. Production of Florida red tilapia seed (eggs, sacfry and fry) in 34-m² above-ground tanks using recirculated brackishwater (12 ppt) was studied over a 5-month period on Lee Stocking Island (Exuma Cays, Bahamas). Four tanks were stocked with year class 1 (YCI) breeders, while 2 tanks were stocked with year class 2 (YCII) breeders at densities of 200 and 240/tank (5·9 and 7·1/m²), respectively, and at a sex ratio of 3 females to 1 male, beginning in November 1988. Seed production was measured by removing free-swimming fry from tanks and eggs and sacfry from the mouths of brooding females, and assessing the number of each at 15 to 16-day intervals from February to June 1989. Average seed production (seed/m²/day) was significantly higher in YCI (52·3) than in YCII (36·0) broodstock, indicating the advantages of replacing broodstock with yearling breeders each year.     

The Effect of Gravity on Root Emergence from Cuttings of Some Tree Species

Poplar shoots trained horizontally and normally growing shootswere used to compare the effect of horizontal and vertical orientationin summer on the subsequent rooting of terminal cuttings; asignificantly greater number of preformed roots emerged fromcuttings of vertical shoots. This difference in rooting abilitymay be due to the lower concentration of indolyl-acetic acidin the upper than in the lower half of horizontal poplar stemsas shown by Leach and Wareing (1967). Decapitation of a seriesof these poplar cuttings (Populus ? robusta Schn.) showed thatwound-root production was influenced by the larger terminalbuds on vertical than on horizontal shoots. From a comparison of horizontal and vertical storage of applerootstock cuttings at 45 ?F in the autumn, 29 per cent moreof the horizontal cuttings than the vertical ones had a basalcallus in the following February. Of these cuttings which madesatisfactory shoot growth (over 5 cm) in the following summer,horizontal cuttings exceeded vertical ones by 80 per cent; aresult which was correlated with root production. In a second experiment with M II apple rootstocks in which cuttingswere both stored and grown at the same angle more roots occurredon cuttings placed horizontally rather than vertically, andthis orientation also induced the rootings of a greater proportionof leafy Worcester Pearmain apple cuttings.     

Modelling water flow through undisturbed soil cores using a transfer function model derived from 3HOH and Cl transport

Large undisturbed soil cores (20 cm diam. × 25–30 cm long) were irrigated at rates of 0.5–4 cm h^?1 with 0.005 M CaCl₂ solution labelled with ³HOH. The cores were used at varying initial water contents and flow in all cases was unsaturated. Breakthrough curves for Cl and ³HOH were markedly asymmetric and unlike those reported for columns of packed aggregates. The data could be satisfactorily described using a density distribution function of the logarithm of cumulative drainage D. The mean and standard deviation of In D were estimated by a curve-fitting procedure from Cl and ³HOH effluent concentrations in each core. The mean pore water velocity and fraction of the soil water that participated in solute transport (the mobile volume) were also calculated. The apparent velocity of Cl movement was always greater than that of ³HOH which suggested that the mobile volume involved in convective and diffusive transport of Cl was less than that for ³HOH. We suggest that Cl and ³HOH diffused at different rates out of flowing water films in a relatively few large conducting channels into essentially immobile water within the surrounding soil matrix. The difference in mobile volume for Cl and ³HOH was used to calculate the perimeter of voids in any horizontal cross-section of the soil through which water flowed, assuming a planar interface between the mobile and immobile water.     

The estimation of mineralization, immobilization and nitrification in nitrogen-15 field experiments using computer simulation

A combination of mathematical analysis and computer simulation, using parameters readily measured in a nitrogen-15 field experiment, is employed to determine rates of mineralization, immobilization and nitrification under a growing crop. The procedure also yields the proportion of crop nitrogen uptake occurring as ammonium and nitrate.
When applied to -results from grass lysimeters receiving 250 or 900 kg N ha^–1 a^–1 as ammonium nitrate, the analysis suggested that at 250 kgN ha^–1 a^–1 64–66% of crop nitrogen uptake was as ammonium; at 900 kg N ha^–1 a^–1 the figure was 43–49%. Nitrification at 250kgNha^–1 was only 13–19kgN ha^–1 over 160d while at 900 kg N ha^–1 between 191 and 232 kg N ha^–1 were nitrified.
The results suggested that the apparent inhibition of nitrification in grassland soils may simply reflect poor substrate competition by nitrifying bacteria. Finally, there was a suggestion that mineralization/immobilization was lower at the high fertilizer rate.     

Phenotypic instability of flusilazole sensitivity in Venturia inaequalis

Sensitivities of 16 monoconidial isolates of Venturia inaequalis to the sterol demethylation inhibitor flusilazole were found to be stable, when cultures which had been successively transferred to inhibitor-free nutrient agar and maintained at 20 C were retested 6 months after isolation. In contrast, with storage of these isolates at 2 C for 7 additional months, phenotypic sensitivities were subject to change. A high degree of phenotypic instability was also observed for 77 representative strains which had been subcultured for 10 months. In both cases, the majority of strains became more sensitive to flusilazole. The frequency and magnitude of these changes were most pronounced for strains with moderate levels of resistance. More than 70% of the strains investigated were collected from wild-type populations, suggesting that the reversion of resistant strains was not related to a process of unstable adaptation but to a high degree of plasticity in the genetic control of sensitivities to sterol demethylation inhibitors.     

Inhibition by bacterial lipopolysaccharide of wilt induced by phytopathogenic bacteria in cut cherry shoots, and of cherry canker disease

Virulent phytopathogenic bacteria and their less virulent mutants induced wilt in cut cherry shoots treated with cell suspensions. Both heterologous and homologous bacteria induced the will reaction. The wilt-inducing isolates also caused the hypersensitive response in tobacco. An avirulent capsulaled mutant of Erwinia amylovora did not elicit either response. Non-phytopathogens did not cause wilting to occur. All the tested isolates aggregated after entry into plant tissues whether wilting occurred or not, but did not aggregate in suspensions in contact with cut shoots. Bacterial lipopolysaccharide or sidechain carbohydrate derived from lipopolysaccharide of Pseudomonas syringae pv. morsprunorum protected shoots against wilt when administered with the same bacterial isolate. These substances also inhibited cherry canker disease in susceptible mature trees when applied before inoculation to leaf-scar inoculation sites. Inhibition of bacterial adhesion to mature plant tissues treated with lipopolysaccharide or sidechain is suggested as a cause of disease inhibition. The wilt reaction may provide a rapid test of phytopathogenicity.     

Soil persistence studies with [14C]MCPA in combination with other herbicides and pesticides

The persistence of [¹⁴C]MCPA at a rate equivalent to 1 kg ha^?1 was studied under laboratory conditions in a clay loam, heavy clay and sandy loam at 85% of field capacity moisture and 20±1°C both alone and in the presence of tri-allate, trifluralin, tri-allate and trifluralin, malathion, Vitaflow DB, malathion and Vitaflow DB, bromoxynil, bromoxynil and asulam, bromoxynil and difenzoquat, dicamba, dicamba and mecoprop, linuron, MCPB, metribuzin, propanil, TCA, benzoylprop-ethyl, diclofop-methyl, and flamprop-methyl. Except in the soils treated with asulam, the half-lives of [¹⁴C]MCPA in all three soil types were similar, being approximately 13±1 days, thus indicating that none of the other chemicals studied adversely affected the soil degradation of MCPA. In the asulam treated soils, the half-lives of the MCPA were about 3 days longer than in non-asulam treated soils; the effect was most marked in the clay loam.