Occupancy pattern of a long-horned beetle in a variegated forest landscape: linkages between tree quality and forest cover across spatial scales

Context

Interactions between landscape-scale processes and fine-grained habitat heterogeneity are usually invoked to explain species occupancy in fragmented landscapes. In variegated landscapes, however, organisms face continuous variation in micro-habitat features, which makes necessary to consider ecologically meaningful estimates of habitat quality at different spatial scales.

Objectives

We evaluated the spatial scales at which forest cover and tree quality make the greatest contribution to the occupancy of the long-horned beetle Microplophorus magellanicus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in a variegated forest landscape.

Methods

We used averaged data of tree quality (as derived from remote sensing estimates of the decay stage of single trees) and spatially independent pheromone-baited traps to model the occurrence probability as a function of multiple cross-scale combinations between forest cover and tree quality (with scales ranging between 50 and 400 m).

Results

Model support and performance increased monotonically with the increasing scale at which tree quality was measured. Forest cover was not significant, and did not exhibit scale-specific effects on the occurrence probability of M. magellanicus. The interactive effect between tree quality and forest cover was stronger than the independent (additive) effects of tree quality and particularly forest cover. Significant interactions included tree quality measured at spatial scales ≥200 m, but cross-scale interactions occurred only in four of the seven best-supported models.

Conclusions

M. magellanicus respond to the high-quality trees available in the landscape rather than to the amount of forest per se. Conservation of viable metapopulations of M. magellanicus should consider the quality of trees at spatial scales >200 m.

     

Phyfitalifche Wirtung des abgefallenen Laubes in den Waldungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

料槽的调控——时时观察,拍照记录

建议对每栋猪舍经常性拍照记录以便有效地调控料槽设置量,同时确保猪群的大小与其采食空间合适.     

Femoral Capital Physeal Fractures in 25 Foals

The medical records of 25 horses 1 year of age or younger affected with femoral head and neck fractures during an 18 year period were reviewed. Each fracture involved the capital physis. The foals were 11 days to 12 months of age (mean, 5 months). No femoral capital physeal fractures occurred in horses older than 1 year of age during the same period. The history in each case included acute onset of severe unilateral hindlimb lameness, 3 hours to 2 months (mean, 12 days) before presentation. Injuries observed were violent falls, struggles, and kicks. Crepitation, swelling, pain with manipulation or palpation or both, and apparent fracture fragment displacement were inconsistently noted. Tentative clinical diagnoses were confirmed by radiography in 24 foals and by necropsy alone in one foal. Twenty-one foals were euthanatized due to poor prognosis. One foal sent home for stall rest was lost to follow-up. Surgical repair was attempted in three foals. Two fractures were repaired with multiple intramedullary pins and the foals were euthanatized within 2 weeks due to surgical failure and, in one case, contralateral limb breakdown. The third fracture was repaired with a compressing screw and plate device; the animal was pasture sound at month 20.     

ULTRASONOGRAPHIC DETECTION OF ADRENAL GLAND TUMOR AND URETEROLITHIASIS IN A GUINEA PIG

A 5-year-old guinea pig was presented to the University of Berne Small Animal Radiology Department for an ultrasound examination of the abdomen to confirm a suspected diagnosis of Cushing's syndrome. The patient had bilateral alopecia, was apathic and obese. Ultrasonographically, a tumor of the left adrenal gland, obstruction of the left ureter by an ureterolith, as well as hydronephrosis of the left kidney were detected. During surgery to relieve the ureteral obstruction the adrenal gland tumor was removed. The guinea pig died post-operatively due to blood loss. The left adrenal gland tumor was found histopathologically to be an adenoma and the right adrenal gland also had multiple small adenomas, but grossly appeared normal. The ureterolith was analyzed and found by x-ray diffraction to consist of calcium carbonate.     

Determination of the elastic properties of the compact bone in the femur of dogs

Total hip endoprotheses are a good possibility for treatment degenerative wear and pathologic damage of the hip joint in man as well as in dogs. However, aseptic loosening of the protheses, especially in the area of the shaft, is still a problem in conventional total hip endoprotheses. The purpose of the present study was to use the finite-element-analysis (FEA), to enhance endoprothetic design and to prevent loosening of protheses. In order to simulate the femur of the dog for numerical analysis, a material law for the compacta in the femur of the dog was developed. The elastic properties of the compacta were experimentally determined by using compression tests of bone samples of euthanised dogs. The results show constant denseness and a constant axial elastic modul in the compacta.