Variation in female sperm storage is explained, in part, by the amount of sperm transferred at mating. Laboratory mating experiments
were conducted on Eurypanopeus depressus and Rhithropanopeus harrisii from the Chesapeake Bay and Pachygrapsus transversus from Florida, while mated pairs of Uca beebei and U. terpsichores were collected from mudflats in Panama. All experiments and collections were conducted during the summer of 2006 and 2007.
More sperm was transferred to larger than smaller females, and by species with long copulation durations (R. harrisii and E. depressus). These two species live in cryptic habitats, have high sperm/egg ratios, and likely store sperm across multiple broods.
In contrast, P. transversus and U. beebei mate conspicuously, have short copulations, transfer fewer sperm, and have low sperm/egg ratios. Comparisons of sperm transfer
across different mating strategies and habitats provide a better understanding of female sperm storage in the Brachyura. 相似文献
Agrochemicals including neonicotinoid insecticides and fungicides are frequently applied as seed treatments on corn, soybeans, and other common row crops. Crops grown from pesticide-treated seed are often directly planted in managed floodplain wetlands and used as a soil disturbance or food resource for wildlife. We quantified invertebrate communities within mid-latitude floodplain wetlands and assessed their response to use of pesticide-treated seeds within the floodplain. We collected and tested aqueous and sediment samples for pesticides in addition to sampling aquatic invertebrates from 22 paired wetlands. Samples were collected twice in 2016 (spring [pre-water level drawdown] and autumn [post-water level flood-up]) followed by a third sampling period (spring 2017). Meanwhile, during the summer of 2016, a portion of study wetlands were planted with either pesticide-treated or untreated corn seed. Neonicotinoid toxic equivalencies (NI-EQs) for sediment (X??=?0.58 μg/kg), water (X??=?0.02 μg/L), and sediment fungicide concentrations (X??=?0.10 μg/kg) were used to assess potential effects on wetland invertebrates. An overall decrease in aquatic insect richness and abundance was associated with greater NI-EQs in wetland water and sediments, as well as with sediment fungicide concentration. Post-treatment, treated wetlands displayed a decrease in insect taxa-richness and abundance before recovering by the spring of 2017. Information on timing and magnitude of aquatic insect declines will be useful when considering the use of seed treatments for wildlife management. More broadly, this study brings attention to how agriculture is used in wetland management and conservation planning.
Introduced populations can cause ecological and economic damage and are difficult to eradicate once they have established.
It is therefore important to be able to predict both where species may become established and their capacity to spread within
recipient regions. Here, we use a new method to assess potential for intraregional spread of a marine crab introduced to North
America, Carcinus maenas. We determined survivorship and development rates throughout a range of temperatures in the laboratory for C. maenas larvae from non-native populations on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America. The larvae exhibited narrower physiological
tolerances than adults, and no lab-cultured larvae completed larval development below 10.0°C or above 22.5°C. Survivorship
peaked at intermediate water temperatures of 12.5–20.0°C, and development time decreased with increasing temperatures within
this range. Based upon these laboratory development rates, we used nearshore sea-surface temperature data from both coasts
of North America to predict development times required for larvae at different months and sites. Taken together, survivorship
and development data indicate that C. maenas has the capacity to continue its northward spread and establish populations at numerous additional sites in North America.
Moreover, decadal temperature data at two Alaskan sites predicted little variability in development duration across years,
suggesting that development duration predictions are robust to interannual water temperature differences. 相似文献
There is a need for a better understanding of the status of the environment. At the same time, concerns have been raised regarding alienation of the local populace from environmental decisions. One proposed solution is participatory environmental monitoring. When evaluating the usefulness of environmental monitoring, the focus may be on accuracy, as is usually done by scientists, or on efficiency in terms of conservation impact. To test whether investment in participatory biodiversity monitoring makes economic sense for obtaining data for management decisions, we compared the cost efficiency of participatory and conventional biodiversity monitoring methods in Philippine parks. We found that, from a government perspective, investment in monitoring that combines scientific with participatory methods is strikingly more effective than a similar level of investment in conventional scientific methods alone in generating conservation management interventions. Moreover, the local populace seemed to benefit from more secure de facto user rights over land and other resources. Participatory biodiversity monitoring not only represents a cost-effective alternative when conventional monitoring is impossible, but it is also an unexpectedly powerful complementary approach, capable of generating a much higher level of conservation management intervention, where conventional monitoring already takes place. 相似文献