The effect of pup vocalisations on food allocation in a cooperative mammal, the meerkat (Suricata suricatta)

In the meerkat (Suricata suricatta), a cooperative mongoose, pups follow potential feeders while the group is foraging and emit incessant calls when soliciting food from them. In contrast to a ’stationary’ brood of chicks, in which nestlings are fed at a fixed location, meerkat pups are ’mobile’ and become spread out. The question arises whether meerkat pups that experience different constraints to those facing chicks have evolved similar begging strategies. This paper describes the vocalisations that meerkat pups emit in the context of begging and investigates the influence of these calls on food allocation by older group members and on the behaviour of littermates. Meerkat pups use two types of calls when soliciting food from a potential feeder. The most common is a ’repeat’ call, which pups emit continuously when following an older forager over several hours a day. In addition, when a potential feeder finds a prey item, the pups next to it emit a bout of calls with increased calling rate, amplitude and fundamental frequency, termed ’high-pitched’ calls. Observations, together with playback experiments, showed that more prey was allocated to pups that called longer and more intensely. The pup closest to a feeder was almost always fed. The probability of emitting high-pitched calls did not depend on the time since a pup had received food, and the change from repeat to high-pitched calls occurred suddenly. The main function of the high-pitched call, therefore, does not appear to be to signal a pup’s hunger state. More likely, the two calls, in the context of begging, may be an adaptation to energetic constraints in a mobile feeding system. Pups, which are dispersed during foraging, may emit repeat calls over long periods to prevent potential feeders from eating all the prey themselves. At the moment a potential feeder finds prey, pups may give the more intense high-pitched calls to direct feeders to bring the food item to them and not to a littermate. Therefore, unlike the stationary feeding system where chicks emit one type of begging call when the feeder approaches the nest, meerkats, with a mobile feeding system, have evolved two discrete types of vocalisations in the context of begging. Received: 22 November 1999 / Revised: 1 July 2000 / Accepted: 17 July 2000     

Nutrient transfer functions: the site of integration between feeding behaviour and nutritional physiology

Summary. We describe and extend a graphical approach to quantitative nutrition that focuses on the interplay between behavioural and physiological components of nutritional regulation. The site of integration is the nutrient transfer function, which is the function describing the time course of nutrient transfer between serially connected nutritional compartments (e.g., from the gut to the blood). The relationship between the shape of the nutrient transfer function and the temporal patterns of feeding determines the values of two key quantitative parameters of nutrition: the rate ('power') and the efficiency of nutrient acquisition. The approach can be extended to consider, in addition to the short-term behavioural and physiological decisions made by animals, some ecological determinants and longer-term, life history consequences of such decisions. Most importantly, this category of models can provide insights into the interplay among the various nutrients in an animal's diet. We illustrate this using hypothetical examples, and also present preliminary data for the power-efficiency relationships of protein and digestible carbohydrates in locusts. Finally, we consider existing evidence for the various means available to these and other insects for regulating such relationships. Received 24 September 1997; accepted 9 December 1997.     

金沙江上游赠曲的鱼类与裸腹叶须鱼的食性

2013年5月和9月对金沙江上游支流赠曲的鱼类资源和裸腹叶须鱼的食性特征进行了调查研究。结果表明,赠曲现有鱼类10种,隶属2目3科5属,其中鲤科鱼类7种,占70%;鮡科2种,占20%;鳅科1种,占10%。赠曲裸腹叶须鱼的食物组成包括53种(属)的浮游藻类、原生动物和节肢动物等。硅藻门是出现率百分比、相对重要性指数和数量百分比最高的饵料生物;水生昆虫是质量百分比最大的饵料生物。裸腹叶须鱼的摄食强度存在较明显的季节差异,雨季末期的摄食强度较低。食物中植物性饵料相对重要性随着裸腹叶须鱼体长的增长而增加。综合而言,赠曲的鱼类组成较为简单,鲤科鱼类是优势类群;裸腹叶须鱼属杂食性鱼类,且摄食强度存在季节性差异。为保护赠曲鱼类,建议在赠曲梯级水力开发过程中做好鱼类栖息地保护或再造等生态补偿措施。     

废水中2,6-二硝基酚厌氧毒性和降解动力学研究

在中温(35℃±1℃)厌氧条件下,以葡萄糖为共基质,采用间歇实验方法,研究了2,6-二硝基酚(2,6-DNP)的厌氧产甲烷毒性和厌氧降解动力学.厌氧毒性试验(ATA)以累计产甲烷量和相对活性(RA)为指标,评价了不同浓度2,6-DNP对产甲烷菌的抑制程度;结果表明,2,6-DNP浓度＜20 mg/L时,对产甲烷菌没有抑制作用,浓度为40 mg/L时产生轻度抑制,浓度为80～120 mg/L时产生重度抑制;24 h 2,6-DNP的75%、50%、25%相对抑制浓度分别为30、70和＞120 mg/L.2,6-DNP降解动力学可用Haldane方程来描述,利用非线性拟合求得动力学参数Ks、Rm、Ki分别为179.7 mg/L、4.84 mg/g VSS·h、206.5 mg/L,方差R2=0.94,拟合效果很好.     

AAOA-MBR工艺污水脱氮特性及脱氮机制

为了提高污水脱氮效果,在传统A2O工艺的基础上,增加后置缺氧段并与膜生物反应器相结合,构建了AAOA-MBR污水处理中试装置,进行了中试实验。实验结果表明,在进水COD浓度为100.00~280.00 mg/L、TN浓度为18.32~31.86 mg/L、NH4+-N浓度为12.78~24.44 mg/L时,COD、TN和NH4+-N的平均去除率分别达到了90.0%、72.1%和99.0%,出水水质达到《城镇污水处理厂污染物排放标准》(GB 18918-2002)中的一级A标准;通过多点进水优化了内源配置,节约了碳源,强化了脱氮效果;采用膜池回流供氧,可在节能的同时保证缺氧池1的缺氧环境,提高了反硝化效果。本文的研究成果为实际污水处理工程市场提供了一套高效脱氮的新工艺。     

响应面法优化黄粉虫幼虫处理餐厨垃圾饲养条件的研究

研究了黄粉虫幼虫处理餐厨垃圾的方法。首先在饲养温度、饲料含水量和饲养密度等条件下进行单因素实验,然后,以利用率为指标,运用响应面法优化了黄粉虫幼虫处理餐厨垃圾的饲养条件,结果表明,最佳饲养条件为饲养温度26.7℃、饲料含水量14.5%、饲养密度4.1头/cm2。在此饲养条件下,黄粉虫对餐厨垃圾利用率理论值为38.72%,实际餐厨垃圾利用率为38.88%,相对误差为0.41%,说明利用黄粉虫幼虫处理餐厨垃圾具有较好的效果。     

初级基质对降解菌Pseudomonas putida共代谢苯扎贝特的影响

通过对3,5-二硝基水杨酸(DNS)法测定还原糖含量各影响因素的筛选,优化确定了显色时间8 min,稳定时间10 min,最佳波长490 nm下进行吸光度测定的检测方法;分析分别以葡萄糖和麦芽糖作为外加碳源时,降解菌Pseudomonas putida B-31的生长情况和共代谢降解典型药物苯扎贝特(BZF)的过程。结果表明,降解菌只有在外加碳源的条件下才可正常生长,而且其在葡萄糖环境中生长得更好;拟合得到的葡萄糖、麦芽糖和BZF代谢动力学结果显示,葡萄糖对BZF去除的促进作用更为明显,同时从葡萄糖培养基中降解菌所提取的酶比活力要高于麦芽糖培养基,分析原因可能是葡萄糖所诱导的降解菌关键酶活力更强,而且还可能会产生不同的蛋白质点位。     

应用新型好氧堆肥反应器连续投加处理人粪便的研究

针对间歇式堆肥反应器处理效率低、不便移动、单次投加所需物料量大等不足,以及为更有效地处理分散型人粪便,使人粪便资源化,开发了梨形筒式好氧堆肥反应器。在获得该反应器的最佳通风与搅拌频率分别为3.0 L/min,5 min/h以及最佳m（粪便）︰m（锯末）为1︰2.5的条件下进行连续投加人粪便好氧堆肥。在不接种微生物的30 d堆制过程中,升-降温周期为36 h,平均温度为51.44℃,第15天时COD降解率达到63.99%并趋于稳定,TN损失率第17天时达到56.68%,GI于第21天时达到106.25%,堆肥完全腐熟,稳定期处理效率为23.81 g/（L·d）。接种土著菌种时,升-降温周期缩短至24 h,平均温度为53.96℃,COD降解率8 d可达65.28%,TN 损失率仅为25.75%,GI于第8天达到108.22%,稳定期处理效率可达35.71 g/（L·d）,比不接种时提高1.5倍,同时节约能耗50%。     

UV-B辐射增强对褶皱臂尾轮虫摄食的影响

运用生态毒理学方法,研究了UV-B辐射条件下褶皱臂尾轮虫(Brachinonus plicatilis)对6株海洋微藻:小球藻(Chlorella sp.、绿色巴夫藻(Pauloua uiridis)、扁藻(Tetraselmis chuii)、球等鞭金藻8701(Isochrysis galbana Park 8701)、牟氏角毛藻(Chaetoceros muelleri Lermumerman)和小新月菱形藻(Nitzschia clostertum)的摄食.结果表明:UV-B辐射增强对褶皱臂尾轮虫的摄食有显著的抑制作用.与对照组相比,褶皱臂尾轮虫对每一种饵料单胞藻的滤水率和摄食率都表现出,随UV-B辐射剂量的增大而显著减小(P＜0.5).而且对每一种饵料单胞藻的滤水率和摄食率是不相同的,这说明褶皱臂尾轮虫对饵料单胞藻是有选择性的.     

Glucose production from hydrolysis of cellulose over a novel silica catalyst under hydrothermal conditions

A novel silica catalyst was synthesized by evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) method and tested for the catalytic selective hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose. This silica catalyst exhibited a higher catalytic activity than other oxides prepared by the same method, such as ZrO₂, TiO₂, and Al₂O₃. Using silica as a catalyst, cellulose was selectively hydrolyzed into glucose with a glucose yield as high as 50% under hydrothermal conditions without hydrogen gas. The silica catalyst was characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results of temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia (NH₃-TPD) and textural properties indicated that the synergistic effect between strong acidity and a suitable pore diameter of the silica catalyst may be responsible for its high activity. In addition, the catalyst was recyclable and showed excellent stability during the recycle catalytic runs.