Controls on atrazine leaching through a soil-unsaturated fractured limestone sequence at Brévilles, France

The objective of this study was to identify the main controls on atrazine leaching through luvisols and calcisols overlying fissured limestone using the dual-permeability model MACRO. The model parameterisation was based on a combination of direct measurements (e.g. hydraulic properties, adsorption and degradation), literature data and calibration against bromide leaching experiments in field plots. A Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis was carried out for a typical application pattern, considering two different depths of unsaturated limestone (15 and 30 m). MACRO calibrations to the field experiments demonstrated the occurrence of strong macropore flow in the luvisol, while transport in the calcisol could be described by the advection-dispersion equation. MACRO simulations of tritium and atrazine leaching qualitatively matched tritium concentration profiles measured in the limestone and atrazine concentrations measured in piezometers and in aquifer discharge via a spring. The sensitivity analysis suggested that the thickness of the limestone, as well as the transport properties and processes occurring in the unsaturated rock (e.g. matrix vs. fissure flow) will have little significant long-term effect on atrazine leaching, mainly because degradation is very slow in the limestone. No mineralization of atrazine was detected in one-year incubations and a mean half-life of 10 years was assumed in the simulations. Instead, processes occurring in the soil exerted the main control on predicted atrazine leaching, especially variations in the degradation rate and the strength of sorption and macropore flow. However, fissure flow in unsaturated rock is expected to exert a much more significant control on groundwater contamination for compounds that degrade more readily in the deep vadose zone.     

A spatial gradient in the potential reproductive output of the sea mussel <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mytilus californianus</Emphasis>

Spatial variation in reproductive output from different populations within a region could have important consequences for recruitment, and cascading effects on populations and communities of marine species, but is rarely examined over meso-scales (i.e., tens to hundreds of kilometers). In this study, reproduction in the dominant mid-intertidal mussel, Mytilus californianus, was examined from sites spanning Point Conception, California over a 6-month period (March–August 2000). There was a dramatic geographic pattern in the relationship between size and potential reproductive output that was qualitatively similar across all 6 months sampled. Increases in allocation to reproductive tissue with increasing body size occurred at all sites, but the slope nearly doubled at sites south of Point Conception compared to northern sites. The spatial variation in size-specific reproductive output, coupled with additional spatial gradients in mussel density and size distributions, combined to increase total reproductive output by over eightfold at southern relative to northern sites. This study highlights the need to explicitly examine spatial patterns of reproductive output at these meso-scales, in order to better understand connectivity and source–sink dynamics in marine systems.     

Among- and within-population variation in sperm quality in the simultaneously hermaphroditic land snail Arianta arbustorum

Sperm competition models on the evolution of sperm size assume associations with another sperm quality trait, sperm longevity. Sperm length can also provide an indication of possible mechanisms affecting motility and thus fertilization success. Despite their importance, however, detailed mechanisms of sperm competition at the gamete level are poorly understood. In simultaneously hermaphroditic land snails, sperm traits and cryptic female choice are assumed to be crucial in determining fertilization success. We examined the variation in sperm length and number among individuals from four natural populations of the land snail Arianta arbustorum, a species with multiple mating and long-term sperm storage. We also assessed variation in velocity, motility and longevity of sperm in snails from two of the four populations. Independent of shell size, sperm length differed among populations and, to a minor extent, even among individuals within populations. Mean sperm length of a snail was not correlated with the number of sperm delivered in a spermatophore. The mean sperm velocity (=VCL) did not differ between snails from two populations. However, VCL varied among snails. Percentage motility and longevity of sperm differed between snails from the two populations. No correlations were found between length, velocity, percentage motility and longevity of sperm. To conclude, individual snails differed in sperm quality, and this variation may partly explain the differential fertilization success between A. arbustorum snails. Moreover, our findings did not support the positive association between sperm length and longevity assumed by sperm competition models for internally fertilizing species.