Describing the growth and molt of modern domestic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) primary wing feathers

The use of feathers as noninvasive physiological measurements of biomarkers in poultry research is expanding. Feather molting patterns and growth rates, however, are not well described in domestic poultry. These parameters could influence the measurement of these biomarkers. Therefore, the objective of this study was to describe the juvenile primary feather molting patterns and feather growth rates for domestic turkeys. The 10 primary wing feathers of 48 female turkeys were measured weekly from week 1 (0 d of age) to week 20. Feathers were manually measured, and the presence or absence of each primary feather was recorded weekly. Generalized linear mixed models were used to investigate if feather growth differed between the primary feathers. The molting of the juvenile primary feathers followed a typical descending pattern starting with P1 (5 wk of age), while P9 and P10 had not molted by the end of the study (20 wk of age). The average feather growth rate was 2.4 cm/wk, although there was a significant difference between the 10 primary feathers (P < 0.0001, 2.1 to 2.8 cm/wk). Over time, feather growth followed a pattern where the growth rate reaches a peak and then declines until the feather is molted. The results of this study provide a critical update of patterns of molting and feather growth in primary wing feathers of modern turkeys. This can have implications for the interpretation of physiological biomarkers, such as the longitudinal deposition of corticosterone, in the feathers of domestic turkeys.     

Growth and recruitment dynamics of young‐of‐year northern pike: Implications for habitat conservation and management

Maximising growth during the months after hatching is critical for fishes to surpass predator gape limits, make ontogenetic shifts in diet and increase overwinter survival. Constraints on growth during early life stages can have population and community‐level implications, yet are rarely addressed by habitat restoration or fishery management efforts. To assess environmental controls on larval growth rates, we sampled adult and young‐of‐year (YOY) northern pike (Esox lucius) emigrating from spawning grounds in six tributaries of Lake Michigan. We found that YOY growth rates differed significantly among natal streams, in parallel with variation in hatch date and water temperatures. Within each stream, individual growth rates were positively associated with trophic position, as measured by nitrogen isotope enrichment and gut contents. Earlier hatching individuals also grew faster, but the strength of this relationship varied with warming water temperatures (i.e., 21–27°C). Ageing of adult spawners indicated no differences among streams in average growth rates later in life. Our findings suggest that restoration efforts should replicate ecological conditions found in habitats producing large numbers of fast‐growing YOY. Key habitat attributes include adequate water level throughout the spring spawning season, and stable, warm water temperature conditions. Providing these environments during early life history could enhance the robustness of northern pike populations by boosting fitness from hatching to emigration to adult habitats.     

Oceanic mechanisms for amplification of the 23,000-year ice-volume cycle

Situated adjacent to the largest Northern Hemispher ice sheets of the ice ages, the mid-latitude North Atlantic Ocean has an important role in the earth's climate history. It provides a significant local source of moisture for the atmosphere and adjacent continents, forms a corridor that guides moisture-bearing storms northward from low latitudes, and at times makes direct contact along its shorelines with continental ice masses. Evidence of major ice-ocean-air interactions involving the North Atlantic during the last 250,000 years is summarized. Outflow of icebergs and meltwater initially driven by summer insolation over the ice sheets affects midlatitude ocean temperatures, summer heat storage, winter sea-ice extent, and global sea level. These oceanic responses in turn influence the winter moisture flux back to the ice sheets, as well as ablation of land ice by calving. Spectral data indicate that the oceanic moisture and sea-level feedbacks, in part controlled by glacial melt products, amplify Milankovitch (insolation) forcing of the volumetrically dominant mid-latitude ice sheets at the 23,000-year precessional cycle.     

Deep percolation during prolonged ponding of a swelling soil,and the effect of gypsum treatment

A sodic clay soil (a Vertisol) was instrumented from a 5 m deep pit to avoid the problems of preferential cracking around surface installations. Infiltration rates and changes in water content and vertical swelling at a number of depths in the soil profile were measured during prolonged ponding (139 and 160 days on separate plots). Essentially no deep percolation in one plot contrasted with a substantial amount (6.6 mm day^?1) in the second, gypsum-treated plot, with obvious consequences for changes in ground-water level. A method of calculating deep percolation is presented which takes into account the effects of swelling.     

Warmth of the subpolar north atlantic ocean during northern hemisphere ice-sheet growth

Two 10,000-year periods of Northern Hemisphere continental ice-sheet growth stand out prominently within the last full interglacial-to-glacial cycle. During the first half of each rapid ice-growth phase, the subpolar North Atlantic from 40 degrees N to 60 degrees N maintained warm sea-surface temperatures comparable to those of today's ocean. The juxtaposition at latitudes 50 degrees N to 60 degrees N of an "interglacial" ocean along-side a "glacial" land mass, particularly along eastern North America, is regarded as an optimal configuration for delivering moisture to the growing ice sheets.     

Hidden degrees of freedom in aperiodic materials

Numerous crystalline materials, including those of bioorganic origin, comprise incommensurate sublattices whose mutual arrangement is described in a superspace framework exceeding three dimensions. We report direct observation by neutron diffraction of superspace symmetry breaking in a solid-solid phase transition of an incommensurate host-guest system: the channel inclusion compound of nonadecane/urea. Strikingly, this phase transition generates a unit cell doubling that concerns only the modulation of one substructure by the other-an internal variable available only in superspace. This unanticipated pathway for degrees of freedom to rearrange leads to a second phase transition, which again is controlled by the higher dimensionality of superspace. These results reveal nature's capacity to explore the increased number of phases allowed in aperiodic crystals.