Effects of temperature and fertilization on total vs. active bacterial communities exposed to crude and diesel oil pollution in NW Mediterranean Sea

The dynamics of total and active microbial communities were studied in seawater microcosms amended with crude or diesel oil at different temperatures (25, 10 and 4 °C) in the presence/absence of organic fertilization (Inipol EAP 22). Total and hydrocarbon-degrading microbes were enumerated by fluorescence microscopy and Most Probable Number (MPN) method, respectively. Total (16S rDNA-based) vs. active (16S rRNA) bacterial community structure was monitored by Capillary-Electrophoresis Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (CE-SSCP) fingerprinting. Hydrocarbons were analyzed after 12 weeks of incubation by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Total and hydrocarbon-degrading microbial counts were highly influenced by fertilization while no important differences were observed between temperatures. Higher biodegradation levels were observed in fertilized microcosms. Temperature and fertilization induced changes in structure of total bacterial communities. However, fertilization showed a more important effect on active bacterial structure. The calculation of Simpson's diversity index showed similar trends among temperatures whereas fertilization reduced diversity index of both total and active bacterial communities.     

Embryonic and parental preferences for incubation temperature in herring gulls: implications for parent-offspring conflict

According to Trivers (1974), parent-offspring (P-O) conflict arises because offspring are selected to solicit more care than parents are selected to provide. However, should benefits fail to increase with increasing care, the offspring optimum can be reduced to the point where predicted P-O conflict vanishes. We examined offspring demand and parental care in such a benefit-limited system in herring gulls (Larus argentatus). In this species, parents typically neglect their lasthatched (C-) egg during the final hours of hatching (pipped-egg stage), allowing mean temperature to drop by about 4°C, to near 33°C. Other studies indicate that no increased offspring benefit arises from increasing pipped egg incubation temperature above that level, but embryo damage occurs if temperature drops lower. In such a system, P-O conflict over preferred incubation temperature is predicted to be minimal or absent. We assessed phenotypic manifestations of conflict by determining incubation temperature preferences of parent and offspring independently. Temperature provided solely by parental initiative was 33.9°C (artificial eggs, corrected for embryonic heat production). Preferred incubation temperature of pipped embryos was measured by exposing them to moderate chilling (20°C) punctuated by 4-min periods of rewarming when they called. Temperature of vocally thermoregulating embryos stabilized around a mean of 32.9–33.4°C, about 0.5–1.0°C below parental preference. Acting independently, parents and embryos each maintained egg temperature at or near minimum developmentally safe levels. Results provided no evidence for phenotypic conflict, as predicted by a benefit-limited version of Trivers' P-O conflict model. Benefit limitation may also be relevant to P-O conflict in other contexts such as feeding of newly-hatched young.     

The relative role of age and experience in determining variation in body mass during the early breeding career of the Common Tern (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sterna hirundo</Emphasis>)

Body mass is a consistent individual trait that characterises the state of adult birds and mammals and is positively related with long-term reproductive success. However, whether and to what extent body mass changes over lifetime in long-lived birds is poorly studied. In this paper, we investigate how individual body mass varies with age. Furthermore, we try to separate possible effects of age and experience on body mass. This study was conducted in a Common Tern colony on the German Wadden Sea coast. Transponders allowed registration of individuals throughout the breeding season and consecutive years with an antenna system combined with electronic balances for recording individual body-mass changes within and between years. Individual body masses of males and females were measured during three stages of the breeding season: at arrival, during incubation and chick rearing when mass was lowest in both sexes. Individual-based longitudinal analyses clearly showed that body mass during arrival, incubation and chick rearing increased up to an age of 5 or 6 years. First-time breeders had lower body mass than experienced breeders. Experience had stronger effects on incubation mass than age. Recruiting age also affected body-mass development of breeders: Three-year-old recruits showed a stronger increase in mass with experience than 4-year-old recruits. We assume that increasing experience enables birds to cope better with the physiological challenge of reproduction. To explain the general phenomenon of higher body mass in older birds, our results support the constraint hypothesis rather than either the selection or restraint hypothesis.     

Preferential incubation positions for different sized eggs and their influence on incubation period and hatching asynchrony in Snares crested (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Eudyptes robustus</Emphasis>) and yellow-eyed penguins (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Megadyptes antipodes</Emphasis>)

In crested penguins (Eudyptes spp.), second-laid eggs typically hatch before first eggs. Amongst a variety of factors that have been considered as mechanisms underlying this reversal, has been the idea that crested penguins can adjust the degree of hatching asynchrony by manipulating egg positions (i.e. placing the smaller first egg in the supposedly thermally disadvantaged anterior position) during incubation (termed Preferential Incubation Hypothesis). We tested this in the Snares crested penguin (Eudyptes robustus) and the closely related, but synchronously-hatching, yellow-eyed penguin (Megadyptes antipodes). Snares crested penguins were more likely to place their first eggs, which are smaller than second eggs, in the anterior incubation position than were yellow-eyed penguins, which have a clutch of two similar-sized eggs. But when yellow-eyed penguins, a non-brood reducing species, were provided with an artificial size-dimorphic clutch, they also placed smaller eggs more frequently in the anterior position, suggesting that a general preference exists among penguins to place smaller eggs in the anterior position. Egg temperatures of small first eggs of Snares crested penguins were higher in the anterior than in the posterior position. Large first eggs in lesser size-dimorphic clutches experienced high temperature differences in relation to position, while small first eggs in greater size-dimorphic clutches were incubated at similar temperatures. In yellow-eyed penguins, large eggs within clutches generally had higher egg temperatures than small eggs. Incubation periods of second eggs declined with increasing egg size. Egg-size variation, rather than egg positioning behaviour, influenced hatching patterns in Snares crested penguins. In lesser size-dimorphic clutches, second eggs were more likely to hatch first while in greater size-dimorphic clutches, small first eggs were more likely to hatch at the same time or before the second eggs. This was similar in yellow-eyed penguins, where second eggs hatched earlier in clutches with large first eggs. Our data contradicts the Preferential Incubation Hypothesis and we conclude that this hypothesis is unlikely to explain the reversed hatching asynchrony in crested penguins.Communicated by C. Brown     

Use of thermal analysis techniques (TG-DSC) for the characterization of diverse organic municipal waste streams to predict biological stability prior to land application

The use of organic municipal wastes as soil amendments is an increasing practice that can divert significant amounts of waste from landfill, and provides a potential source of nutrients and organic matter to ameliorate degraded soils. Due to the high heterogeneity of organic municipal waste streams, it is difficult to rapidly and cost-effectively establish their suitability as soil amendments using a single method. Thermal analysis has been proposed as an evolving technique to assess the stability and composition of the organic matter present in these wastes. In this study, three different organic municipal waste streams (i.e., a municipal waste compost (MC), a composted sewage sludge (CS) and a thermally dried sewage sludge (TS)) were characterized using conventional and thermal methods. The conventional methods used to test organic matter stability included laboratory incubation with measurement of respired C, and spectroscopic methods to characterize chemical composition. Carbon mineralization was measured during a 90-day incubation, and samples before and after incubation were analyzed by chemical (elemental analysis) and spectroscopic (infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance) methods. Results were compared with those obtained by thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. Total amounts of CO₂ respired indicated that the organic matter in the TS was the least stable, while that in the CS was the most stable. This was confirmed by changes detected with the spectroscopic methods in the composition of the organic wastes due to C mineralization. Differences were especially pronounced for TS, which showed a remarkable loss of aliphatic and proteinaceous compounds during the incubation process. TG, and especially DSC analysis, clearly reflected these differences between the three organic wastes before and after the incubation. Furthermore, the calculated energy density, which represents the energy available per unit of organic matter, showed a strong correlation with cumulative respiration. Results obtained support the hypothesis of a potential link between the thermal and biological stability of the studied organic materials, and consequently the ability of thermal analysis to characterize the maturity of municipal organic wastes and composts.     

Old endemics and new invaders: alternative strategies of passerines for living in the Australian environment

Life history parameters of ”old endemics” and ”new invaders” among the Australian passerines were compared, controlling for phylogeny by using current, phylogenetic research methods. Old endemics were found to have significantly smaller clutches and demonstrated significantly more cooperative breeding than the new invaders, whose fledging periods are significantly longer than those of the old endemics. We argue that breeding under conditions of a small annual food increment during the breeding season, as is probably the situtation in Australia, is possible only when clutch size is small, or while breeding cooperatively, or by extending the fledging period. Our data show that the old endemics use the first two options, while the new invaders employ the third. Received: 10 February 1999 / Received in revised form: 10 November 1999 / Accepted: 20 November 1999     

Bioavailability and dissipation of fluridone under controlled conditions

Abstract

Bioavailability of fluridone, l‐methyl‐3‐phenyl‐5‐[3‐(trifluoromethyl) phenyl]‐4(1H)‐pyridinone, as affected by soil temperature, soil moisture regime, and duration of incubation was investigated in three soil types by grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench cv. Abu Sabien) chlorophyll bioassay. Initial loss of fluridone was rapid and dissipation followed first‐order kinetics under most of the incubation treatments investigated. Soil moisture, in general, had a greater impact than soil temperature on dissipation of fluridone. The herbicide dissipated faster at the fluctuating room temperature (18–24°C) than at the constant 10°C in Sonning sandy clay loam (O.M. = 1.2%) and Erl Wood sandy loam (O.M. = 2.5%) but not in Shropshire loamy peat (O.M. = 33%). In the two mineral soils, bioassay‐detectable residues from an initial rate of 1.00 μg/g were least (0.00 ‐ 0.10 μg/g) at 1/2 field capacity (FC) and greatest (0.16 ‐ 0.37 μg/g) at 1/4 FC, 400 days after treatment. At 10°C, the DT₅₀ values (days) at 1/4 FC and 1/2 FC were, respectively, 147 ± 16 and 69 ± 6 for Erl Wood soil, and 257 ± 28 and 51 ± 12 for Sonning soil. In Shropshire soil, concentrations of bioavailable fluridone were least at each bioassay date when soil moisture was maintained at FC, at both temperatures of incubation. At 10°C, herbicide concentrations in the organic soil from an initial rate of 10.00 μg/g were 0.95 and 4.69 μg/g, respectively, at FC and 1/4 FC.     

Relation of enhanced Pb solubility to Fe partitioning in soils

It is well documented that Pb solubility may be related to Fe chemistry in soils and enhanced Pb solubility may occur under certain reducing conditions; however, quantification of such relationships is unavailable. Based on metal classification, Pb (II) and Fe (II) are similar in some chemical characteristics. Thus, competition between Pb and Fe for ligands in soils may be important in determining Pb solubility. In this paper, Pb solubility was examined in a sandy soil after spiking with Pb and incubating for 40 days under water-flooded or non-water-flooded conditions. Solution chemistry in soil columns was adjusted using different concentrations of NaCl, CaCl(2) and deionized water of varying pH before incubation. The results showed that Pb solubility in the soil was not correlated well with pH, dissolved organic C or aqueous Fe concentrations. However, an index of Fe partition behavior using the ratio of aqueous Fe to sorbed Fe was related to Pb solubility. Enhanced Pb solubility occurred only when the index was < approximately 2 kg l(-1). The index can be a simple measure of Fe's ability to compete with Pb for ligands in solution. The ability of Fe to compete with Pb decreases as the index decreases and as the ratio approached its minimum, substantial increases in Pb solubility will be expected. In general, the index was not sensitive to changes in solution chemistry. A similar trend was observed using one data set published in the literature.     

The use of incubation behavior to adjust avian reproductive costs after egg laying

Reproduction in birds requires the input of time and energy during discrete breeding phases leading to investment trade-offs between laying date, clutch size, body mass, and incubation constancy. We investigated costs during incubation by experimentally enlarging 25 clutches of white-tailed ptarmigan Lagopus leucurus. The experiment was conducted in 2 years, one with harsh weather that forced a natural delay in reproduction. When forced to delay egg-laying, females began incubation with poorer body condition and foraged more during incubation. Rates of mass loss during incubation were not affected by clutch enlargement, and did not differ between harsh and benign years; however, females that were heavier at the start of incubation lost more mass than lighter females. Clutch-enlarged females had reduced nest attendance compared to control birds in both years and incubation periods increased by up to 2 days relative to controls. In the harsh year, there was a trend for clutch-enlarged females to have lower nest success, but there was no effect on overwinter survival. Different behavioral responses by females in the 2 years showed that incubation costs may depend on other factors such as female quality, food supply, or weather conditions. Incubation is a dynamic period during which birds may adjust energy balances by varying body condition and food intake. Received: 28 March 2000 / Received in revised form: 18 August 2000 / Accepted: 2 July 2000