绿磺隆在土壤中的残留及其对后茬作物的安全性

研究了绿磺隆在江苏省吴县及河北省石家庄市麦田土壤中的降解规律,以及水稻对绿磺隆的敏感性。结果表明,绿磺隆在土壤中残留期较长,在江苏省吴县及河北省石家庄市麦田土壤中的降解半衰期分别为22．82和32．98d;水稻对绿磺隆及敏感,它对水稻根系生长的抑制浓度仅为0．1μg/kg,麦收后土壤中残留的绿磺隆极易对后茬水稻产生危害。     

绿磺隆在土壤中的残留与危害

江苏省苏南地区，冬季麦田每公顷施用１５ｇ绿磺隆（以有效成份计，下同），翌年水稻栽秧时土壤中绿磺隆的残留量为０．２２μｇ／ｋｇ，种麦期间绿磺隆在土壤中的降解量约占施用量的９６．８％，绿磺隆在土壤中的降解半衰期平均为３８．６ｄ。水稻对绿磺隆也有高度的敏感性，由于绿磺隆在渍水土壤中容易降解，所以它在稻麦轮作地区对后茬水稻的实际危害较轻。改善土壤肥力状况，在一定程度上可减缓绿磺隆对作物的危害。     

绿磺隆在土壤中的残留与危害

江苏省苏南地区，冬季麦田每公顷施用１５ｇ绿磺隆（以有效成份计，下同），翌年水稻栽秧时土壤中绿磺隆的残留量为０．２２μｇ／ｋｇ，种麦期间绿磺隆在土壤中的降解量约占施用量的９６．８％，绿磺隆在土壤中的降解半衰期平均为３８．６ｄ。水稻对绿磺隆也有高度的敏感性，由于绿磺隆在渍水土镶中容易降解，所以它在稻麦轮作地区对后茬水稻的实际危害较轻。改善土壤肥力状况，在一定程度上可减缓绿磺隆对作物的危害。     

绿磺隆对水稻的残留危害剂量

用田间模拟试验法，研究了土壤中绿磺隆不同添加量与水稻危害剂量的关系。结果表明：稻田绿磺隆添加量超过０．３７５ｇ（ＡＩ）／ｈｍ￣２时，就可能对水用产生危害，在此用量水平下，绿磺隆在耕层土壤中的平均残留浓度为０．１７μｇ／ｋｇ，按此推算，麦田按正常用量的２倍量（３０ｇ／ｈｍ￣２）施用，在种麦期间绿磺隆在麦田土壤中的半衰期超过３２．１ｄ．即会对水稻产生危害。     

绿磺隆对水稻的残留危害剂量

用田间模拟试验法，研究了土壤中绿磺隆不同添加量与水稻危害剂量的关系。结果表明：稻田绿磺隆添加量超过０．３７５ｇ（ＡＩ）／ｈｍ＾２时，就可能对水稻产生，在此用量水平下，绿磺隆在耕层土壤中的平均残留浓度为０．１７μｇ／ｋｇ，按此推算，麦田按正常用量的２倍量（３０ｇ／ｈｍ＾２）施用，在种麦期间绿磺隆在麦田土的半衰期超过３２．１ｄ，即会对水稻产生危害。     

绿磺隆在太湖水稻水中降解速率的研究

在实验室内,采用改进的玉米根长生物测定方法研究了土壤微生物,土壤温度和土壤含水量对绿磺隆在太湖水稻中降解速率的影响。结果表明：（１）在不同处理下,绿磺隆的降解均符合一级动力学反应;（２）绿磺隆在未灭菌土壤中的降解明显快于灭菌土壤;（３）在试验范围内,绿碘隆降解随土壤温度的升高和土壤含水量的增大加快,其半衰期在０．７￣５．８周之间变化。     

绿黄隆在麦茬土壤中的残留及其对后茬水稻的影响

应用核素示踪技术，以１４Ｃ－绿黄隆进行麦茬土壤残留及其对后茬水稻影响的盆栽试验研究。结果表明，施于麦地的绿黄隆经过麦季（２０６ｄ）后有２５％～３０％残留于土壤；经过麦－稻两季（３２６ｄ）后仍有约１５％的绿黄隆残留在土壤中；麦茬土壤中残留的绿黄隆严重影响后茬水稻根系生长，进而影响植株的生长发育；水稻植株残留量和转移系数是根系＞＞茎叶＞稻谷，在各部位的分布是不均匀的。     

绿磺隆残留对水稻生长的影响

观察了不同水稻品种对绿磺隆的敏感性，发现“９３２５”、“９－９２”、“９３８０”等３品种对绿黄隆高度敏感。采用添加法试验，证实绿磺隆残留对水稻株高、分蘖、干物质积累、产量影响明显，残留致使“９－９２”水稻减产２．３２％～２３．５８％。建议在镇江市沿江、孟河平原和丘陵非重草害田块，应停止使用绿磺隆或通过复配方式，降低绿磺隆用量。     

绿磺隆残留对水稻生长的影响

观察了不同水稻品种对绿磺隆的敏感性，发现“９３２５”、“９－９２”、“９３８０”等３品种对绿黄隆高度敏感。采用添加法试验，证实绿磺隆残留对水稻株高、分蘖、干物质积累、产量影响明显，残留致使“９－９２”水稻减产２．３２％￣２３．５８％。建议在镇江市沿江、孟河平原和丘陵非重草害田块，应停止使用绿磺隆或通过复配方式，降低绿磺隆用量。     

绿黄隆在麦茬土壤中的残留及其对后茬水稻的影响

应用核素示踪技术，以＾１４Ｃ－绿黄隆进行麦茬土壤残留及其后茬水稻影响的盆栽试验研究。结果表明，施地麦地的绿黄隆经过麦季（２０６ｄ）后有２５－３０％残留土壤；经过－稻两季（３２６ｄ）仍有约１５％的绿黄隆残留在土壤中，麦茬土壤中残留的绿黄隆晋茬水稻根系生长，而影响植株的生长发育；水稻植株残留量和转移系数是根系〉〉茎叶〉稻谷，在各部位的分布是不均匀的。     

Rapid,recurring, structured survey versus bioblitz for generating biodiversity data and analysis with a multispecies abundance model

A bioblitz inexpensively and quickly generates biodiversity data, but bioblitzes are often conducted with haphazard, unreplicated sampling. Results tend to be taxonomically, geographically, or temporally biased, lack metadata, and consist of lists of observed taxa that do not enable further analyses or correction for imperfect detection. A rapid, recurring, structured survey (RRSS) uses a structured sampling design and temporal and spatial replication to survey randomly selected sites on a conservation property. We participated in a loosely structured bioblitz and a subsequent RRSS at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve in Springville (St. Clair County), Alabama (USA) to compare observed richness derived from the 2 survey approaches. The RRSS data structure enabled us to fit models that accounted for imperfect detection to estimate abundances, occupancy probabilities, and habitat associations. The loosely structured bioblitz data could not be used in such models. We present a new integrated multispecies abundance model that we applied to avian RRSS data. Our model extension enables estimation for the community, employs data augmentation to estimate the number of undetected species, and incorporates covariates. The RRSS generated a more comprehensive and less biased list of observed taxonomic richness than the loosely structured bioblitz (e.g., 73 vs. 45 bird species and 104 vs. 63 insect families from the RRSS vs. loosely structured bioblitz, respectively). Models fit to the RRSS data identified seasonal patterns in avian community composition and allowed for estimation of habitat–occupancy relationships for insect taxa. The RRSS protocol has potential for broad transferability as a standardized, quick, and inexpensive way to inventory biodiversity and estimate ecological parameters while providing an outreach opportunity.     

Compliance with and ecosystem function of biodiversity offsets in North American and European freshwaters

Land-use change via human development is a major driver of biodiversity loss. To reduce these impacts, billions of dollars are spent on biodiversity offsets. However, studies evaluating offset project effectiveness that examine components such as the overall compliance and function of projects remain rare. We reviewed 577 offsetting projects in freshwater ecosystems that included the metrics project size, type of aquatic system (e.g., wetland and creek), offsetting measure (e.g., enhancement, restoration, and creation), and an assessment of the projects’ compliance and functional success. Project information was obtained from scientific and government databases and gray literature. Despite considerable investment in offsetting projects, crucial problems persisted. Although compliance and function were related to each other, a high level of compliance did not guarantee a high degree of function. However, large projects relative to area had better function than small projects. Function improved when projects targeted productivity or specific ecosystem features and when multiple complementary management targets were in place. Restorative measures were more likely to achieve targets than creating entirely new ecosystems. Altogether the relationships we found highlight specific ecological processes that may help improve offsetting outcomes.     

A palaeo-hydrogeological model for arsenic contamination in southern and south-east Asia

An argument is presented in which areas of natural arsenic contamination of modern groundwaters throughout Asia have a common origin. Arsenic originally accumulated in oceanic ferro-manganoan sediments of the eastern Palaeo-Tethys. This was further concentrated through oceanic crustal extinction in what later became the south-east Chinese accreted mineralised terrain. Proto-Himalayan uplift of this area created the palaeo-drainage systems of the Ganges – Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Mekong, and Red Rivers, with consequent headwater erosion of arsenic-rich sediments. Their downstream deposition as immature and easily redistributed Neogene sandstones, silts, and iron-rich clays has created secondary and tertiary reservoirs of adsorbed and authigenic arsenic, from which the current arsenic-rich groundwaters have evolved. Considering river basins within the above palaeo-hydrogeological framework provides a basis for assessing the risk of arsenic in groundwater basins of south and south-eastern Asia.     

Cost‐effective conservation of an endangered frog under uncertainty

How should managers choose among conservation options when resources are scarce and there is uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of actions? Well‐developed tools exist for prioritizing areas for one‐time and binary actions (e.g., protect vs. not protect), but methods for prioritizing incremental or ongoing actions (such as habitat creation and maintenance) remain uncommon. We devised an approach that combines metapopulation viability and cost‐effectiveness analyses to select among alternative conservation actions while accounting for uncertainty. In our study, cost‐effectiveness is the ratio between the benefit of an action and its economic cost, where benefit is the change in metapopulation viability. We applied the approach to the case of the endangered growling grass frog (Litoria raniformis), which is threatened by urban development. We extended a Bayesian model to predict metapopulation viability under 9 urbanization and management scenarios and incorporated the full probability distribution of possible outcomes for each scenario into the cost‐effectiveness analysis. This allowed us to discern between cost‐effective alternatives that were robust to uncertainty and those with a relatively high risk of failure. We found a relatively high risk of extinction following urbanization if the only action was reservation of core habitat; habitat creation actions performed better than enhancement actions; and cost‐effectiveness ranking changed depending on the consideration of uncertainty. Our results suggest that creation and maintenance of wetlands dedicated to L. raniformis is the only cost‐effective action likely to result in a sufficiently low risk of extinction. To our knowledge we are the first study to use Bayesian metapopulation viability analysis to explicitly incorporate parametric and demographic uncertainty into a cost‐effective evaluation of conservation actions. The approach offers guidance to decision makers aiming to achieve cost‐effective conservation under uncertainty.     

Parasitic wasps orient to green leaf volatiles

Summary Undamaged plants emit low levels of green leaf volatiles (GLVs), while caterpillar-damaged and artificially damaged plants emit relatively higher levels of certain GLVs. Female braconid parasitoids,Microplitis croceipes, oriented to both damaged plants and to individual GLVs in no-choice tests in a wind tunnel, but seldom oriented to undamaged plants. Female ichneumonid parasitoids,Netelia heroica, also oriented to individual GLVs in a wind tunnel. Males of both wasp species failed to orient to the GLVs. These data show that leaf-feeding caterpillars can cause the release of GLVs, and that parasitic wasps can respond to these odors by flying upwind (chemoanemotactic response), which brings the wasps to their caterpillar hosts. This supports the hypothesis that plants communicate with members of the third trophic level,i.e., plants under herbivore attack emit chemical signals that guide natural enemies of herbivores to sites of plant damage. In this interaction, the GLVs serve as tritrophic plant-to-parasitoid synomones. That parasitoids from two different wasp families oriented to GLVs suggests that the response may be widespread among the Hymenoptera.Mention of a commercial or proprietary product does not constitute an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture     

Potential for Electropositive Metal to Reduce the Interactions of Atlantic Sturgeon with Fishing Gear

Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrhynchus) populations have been declared either endangered or threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Effective measures to repel sturgeon from fishing gear would be beneficial to both fish and fishers because they could reduce both fishery‐associated mortality and the need for seasonal and area closures of specific fisheries. Some chondrostean fishes (e.g., sturgeons and paddlefishes) can detect weak electric field gradients (possibly as low as 5 Μv/cm) due to arrays of electroreceptors (ampullae of Lorenzini) on their snout and gill covers. Weak electric fields, such as those produced by electropositive metals (typically mixtures of the lanthanide elements), could therefore potentially be used as a deterrent. To test this idea, we recorded the behavioral responses of juvenile Atlantic sturgeon (31–43 cm fork length) to electropositive metal (primarily a mixture of the lanthanide elements neodymium and praseodymium) both in the presence and absence of food stimuli. Trials were conducted in an approximately 2.5 m diameter × 0.3 m deep tank, and fish behaviors were recorded with an overhead digital video camera. Video records were subsequently digitized (x, y coordinate system), the distance between the fish and the electropositive metal calculated, and data summarized by compiling frequency distributions with 5‐cm bins. Juvenile sturgeon showed clear avoidance of electropositive metal but only when food was present. On the basis of our results, we conclude that the electropositive metals, or other sources of weak electric fields, may eventually be used to reduce the interactions of Atlantic sturgeon with fishing gear, but further investigation is needed. El Potencial del Metal Electropositivo para Reducir las Interacciones del Esturión Atlántico con Instrumentos de Pesca Bouyoucos, Bushnell & Brill 13–003     

The role of time and species identities in spatial patterns of species richness and conservation

Many conservation actions are justified on the basis of managing biodiversity. Biodiversity, in terms of species richness, is largely the product of rare species. This is problematic because the intensity of sampling needed to characterize communities and patterns of rarity or to justify the use of surrogates has biased sampling in favor of space over time. However, environmental fluctuations interacting with community dynamics lead to temporal variations in where and when species occur, potentially affecting conservation planning by generating uncertainty about results of species distribution modeling (including range determinations), selection of surrogates for biodiversity, and the proportion of biodiversity composed of rare species. To have confidence in the evidence base for conservation actions, one must consider whether temporal replication is necessary to produce broad inferences. Using approximately 20 years of macrofaunal data from tidal flats in 2 harbors, we explored variation in the identity of rare, common, restricted range, and widespread species over time and space. Over time, rare taxa were more likely to increase in abundance or occurrence than to remain rare or disappear and to exhibit temporal patterns in their occurrence. Space–time congruency in ranges (i.e., spatially widespread taxa were also temporally widespread) was observed only where samples were collected across an environmental gradient. Fifteen percent of the taxa in both harbors changed over time from having spatially restricted ranges to having widespread ranges. Our findings suggest that rare species can provide stability against environmental change, because the majority of species were not random transients, but that selection of biodiversity surrogates requires temporal validation. Rarity needs to be considered both spatially and temporally, as species that occur randomly over time are likely to play a different role in ecosystem functioning than those exhibiting temporal structure (e.g., seasonality). Moreover, temporal structure offers the opportunity to place management and conservation activities within windows of maximum opportunity.     

Main nutrient compounds in food bodies of Mexican <Emphasis Type="Italic">Acacia</Emphasis> ant-plants

Summary. Myrmecophytic plants use obligate ant mutualists as a constitutive indirect defence mechanism. These plants often produce cellular food bodies (FBs) to nourish their resident ants. Lipids, proteins, and even highly specialised compounds such as glycogen have been reported from FBs, but detailed chemical analyses of FB composition have so far been presented only for Southeast Asian Macaranga and Central American Piper myrmecophytes. Here we report the chemical composition of FBs of five myrmecophytic Acacia (Fabaceae) species from Mexico using HPLC (carbohydrates and proteins) and GC-MS (lipids). Feeding experiments revealed no hints on any use of external food sources by the inhabiting Pseudomyrmex ants. These ants obviously rely completely on FBs and extrafloral nectar provided by their hosts. The total content of nutrients in Acacia FBs was 15-25% of FB dry mass, being much lower than in Macaranga or Piper FBs. Proteins were dominating (8-14 % dm) in Acacia FBs and thus were present in higher amounts than in Macaranga FBs, yet in lower amounts than in Piper. Lipids contributed 1-9 % of dry mass, showing a lower proportion than in FBs of Macaranga or Piper. Carbohydrates made up 3-11 % dm, reaching in most Acacia species the same range as observed in Macaranga and in Piper FBs. Water content was 18-24 % of FB fresh mass, and structural tissue obviously made up a much higher proportion in Acacia FBs than in Macaranga or Piper FBs. Both characters might represent an adaptation to producing FBs unprotected at the leaf tips under dry conditions. Acacia FBs contain all amino acids and all fatty acids that are considered essential for insects, and their contents of lipids and proteins are higher than in the leaves from which they are ontogenetically derived. This indicates a putatively adaptive enrichment of nutritionally valuable compounds in structures functioning as ant-food.     

Examining the uncertain origin and management role of martens on Prince of Wales Island,Alaska

Conservation biologists are generally united in efforts to curtail the spread of non‐native species globally. However, the colonization history of a species is not always certain, and whether a species is considered non‐native or native depends on the conservation benchmark. Such ambiguities have led to inconsistent management. Within the Tongass National Forest of Alaska, the status of American marten (Martes americana) on the largest, most biologically diverse and deforested island, Prince of Wales (POW), is unclear. Ten martens were released to POW in the early 1930s, and it was generally believed to be the founding event, although this has been questioned. The uncertainty surrounding when and how martens colonized POW complicates management, especially because martens were selected as a design species for the Tongass. To explore the history of martens of POW we reviewed other plausible routes of colonization; genetically and isotopically analyzed putative marten fossils deposited in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene to verify marten occupancy of POW; and used contemporary genetic data from martens on POW and the mainland in coalescent simulations to identify the probable source of the present‐day marten population on POW. We found evidence for multiple routes of colonization by forest‐associated mammals beginning in the Holocene, which were likely used by American martens to naturally colonize POW. Although we cannot rule out human‐assisted movement of martens by Alaskan Natives or fur trappers, we suggest that martens be managed for persistence on POW. More generally, our findings illustrate the difficulty of labeling species as non‐native or native, even when genetic and paleo‐ecological data are available, and support the notion that community resilience or species invasiveness should be prioritized when making management decisions rather than more subjective and less certain conservation benchmarks.