Seasonal habitat requirements of Lemon Dove (Aplopelia larvata) in coastal forest: camera-trap surveys of a reclusive species

The modification of natural habitats requires behavioural plasticity, which may be challenging for ‘specialist’ species. Quantifying habitat requirements and behavioural responses of specialists to landscape transformation is thus a priority for baseline data to inform conservation practices. Using camera-trap surveys of the forest-dependent Lemon Dove Aplopelia larvata in conjunction with detailed microhabitat-scale covariates, we assessed habitat use during two periods in the year: autumn–winter and spring–summer (which largely encompassed peak breeding). We used occupancy modelling of forest-structural covariates to produce models of the probability of occupancy and detection of Lemon Doves in patches of the Indian Ocean Coastal Belt Forest of South Africa. The average occupancy and detection probability as indicated by the top-performing models was 0.39 ± 0.08 and 0.26 ± 0.05, respectively, during autumn–winter, and 0.37 ± 0.08 and 0.25 ± 0.04, respectively, during spring–summer. Although occupancy and probability of detection remained relatively constant between seasons, there was seasonal variation in the influence of individual covariates for both measures. The overall trend of positive influences on Lemon Dove occupancy was that of complex and diverse habitat structures and high plant species richness. The specific covariates that influenced occupancy positively during spring–summer may reflect the ecological requirements for nestling provisioning for both dietary needs and an avoidance of potential disturbance. Thus, while Lemon Doves may be less habitat-specific during autumn–winter, conservation management plans for safeguarding the breeding success of the species are advised to ensure adequate protection of large forest patches with complex and diverse interior structures and minimal disturbance.     

Managing biological variation in skin background colour along the postharvest chain of ‘Jonagold’ apples

Skin background colour is an important quality aspect in the grading of ‘Jonagold’ apples, with consumers usually preferring fruit with a green background colour. However, apple handlers are usually faced with large fruit-to-fruit variability of background colour within a population of fruit. In this study, a stochastic modelling approach was used to describe how the initial fruit-to-fruit variability in the background colour of ‘Jonagold’ apples present at harvest, propagates throughout the postharvest chain. Two hundred and twenty ‘Jonagold’ apple fruit were harvested and stored at 1 °C or 4 °C, under different controlled atmosphere (CA) conditions for 6 months, followed by 2 weeks exposure to shelf-life conditions, during which the background colour and ethylene production of the individual fruit were measured. A kinetic model was developed to describe the postharvest loss of skin greenness, by assuming that the loss was principally due to chlorophyll breakdown, the rate of which was dependent on the endogenous ethylene concentration. Stochastic model parameters were identified, and by treating these parameters as fruit-specific, the model could account for more than 95% of the variability of the data. By treating the stochastic model parameters as random factors, the Monte Carlo method was used to model and describe the propagation of the fruit-to-fruit variability of the background colour within a population of fruit. The model developed in this study might allow better management of variability in quality along the postharvest chain, by predicting how the initial fruit-to-fruit variability within a batch of apples will propagate throughout the postharvest chain, as a function of storage and shelf-life conditions.