Central-place foraging in honey bees: the effect of travel time and nectar flow on crop filling

Summary Crop-filling by honeybees foraging at sources of variable nectar flow at a fixed distance from the hive has been shown to maximize energetic efficiency, defined as ratio of energy gained to energy spent. Predictions based on maximisation of rate of energy gain, defined as net energy gained per unit time foraging, are significantly different from observed behaviour (Schmid-Hempel et al. 1985). In this paper we consider the effect of varying travel times in addition to flow rate. The predictions of an extended version of our theoretical model are confronted with experimental results obtained by Núñez (1982). Núñez found that bees filled their crops more fully for higher flows and longer travel times. We show that when the cost of carrying a load is considered, this trend can be predicted by maximising either energetic efficiency or net rate of gain. Figure 1 shows, however, that maximisation of net rate of gain can only produce an acceptable quantitative fit if unreasonably high costs are assumed to result from carrying the load. Energetic efficiency instead generates a good quantitative fit for acceptable assumptions about this cost (Fig. 2).     

Nile water pollution and technical efficiency of crop production in Egypt: an assessment using spatial and non-parametric modelling

Agriculture is considered one of the vital activities in Egypt; it consumes about 83 % of the Egyptian Nile water quota. This activity is becoming negatively affected by water pollution causing negative repercussion on land productivity and subsequently food security. This paper assesses the water quality for agriculture along the mainstream of the Nile in Egypt through spatial distributions modelling of total dissolved solids (TDS), using spatial statistical analysis. The study’s sample frame consists of 78 sampling points collected in February 2008 and located on the Nile mainstream and its two branches, Rosetta and Damietta. Exploratory spatial data analysis is carried out on the TDS, followed by plotting and modelling the experimental semi-variogram. Then, cross validation is executed in order to determine the best fitting model. Finally, surface mapping is generated by performing spatial interpolation, using kriging technique. The generated surface map shows that the TDS levels increase from Upper to Lower Egypt, exceeds the standard limit in Beni-Suef and Rosetta branch. In fact, high levels of TDS are known to have a negative effect on Egyptian agriculture through harmfully affecting the soil and consequently the crop yields. Therefore, an analysis of the effect of water pollution on technical efficiency of crop production is conducted using a non-parametric mathematical programming approach to frontier estimation. The results of this estimation indicated that the TDS is overutilized in all governorates except Aswan.     

Hydrogen production by nitrogenase as a potential crop rotation benefit

Both climate change and the adverse effects of chemical use on human and environmental health are recognized as serious issues of global concern. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the agricultural sector where release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane continues to be problematic and where use of nitrogen fertilizer is responsible for negative impacts on both human populations and ecosystems. The manipulation of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) could help alleviate part of the difficulty by decreasing the need for nitrogen fertilizers, which require huge quantities of fossil fuel to produce and contribute to the release of nitrous oxide from soil as well as being responsible for the contamination of drinking water systems and natural habitats. BNF is performed by a variety of microorganisms. One of the most studied examples is the BNF carried out by rhizobial bacteria in symbiosis with their plant hosts such as pea and soybean. Hydrogen gas is an energy-rich, obligate by-product of BNF. Legume symbioses with rhizobia lacking hydrogenase enzymes (which can recycle hydrogen) have traditionally been viewed as energetically inefficient. However, recent studies suggest hydrogen release to soil may be beneficial, increasing soil carbon sequestration and promoting growth of hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria beneficial to plant growth; the alleged superiority of symbiotic performance in rhizobia possessing functional hydrogenases (HUP⁺) over those rhizobia without functional hydrogenases (HUP⁻) has also not been conclusively shown. The structure of the iron-molybdenum cofactor or FeMo-co of nitrogenase (the active site of the enzyme) has been elucidated through X-ray crystallography but the mechanism of nitrogen fixation remains unknown. However, studies of effects of hydrogen production on BNF have revealed potential candidate intermediates involved in the nitrogenase reaction pathway and have also shown the role of hydrogen as a competitive inhibitor of N₂, with hydrogen now considered to be the primary regulator of the nitrogenase electron allocation coefficient. The regulation of oxygen levels within legume root nodules is also being investigated; nitrogen fixation is energetically expensive, requiring a plentiful oxygen supply but too high an oxygen concentration can irreversibly damage nitrogenase, so some regulation is needed. There is evidence from gas diffusion studies suggesting the presence of a diffusion barrier in nodules; leghaemoglobin is another potential O₂ regulator. Possible functions of hydrogenases include hydrogen recycling, protection of nitrogenase from damaging O₂ levels and prevention of inhibitory H₂ accumulation; there is evidence for H₂ recycling only in studies where H₂ uptake has been strongly coupled to ATP production and where this is not the case, it is believed that the hydrogenase acts as an O₂ scavenger, lowering O₂ concentrations. The distribution of hydrogenases in temperate legumes has been found to be narrow and root and shoot grafting experiments suggest the host plant may exert some influence on the expression of hydrogenase (HUP) genes in rhizobia that possess them. Many still believe that HUP⁺ rhizobia are superior in performance to HUP⁻ species; to this end, many attempts to increase the relative efficiency of nitrogenase through the introduction of HUP genes into the plasmids or chromosomes of HUP⁻ rhizobia have been carried out and some have met with success but many other studies have not revealed an increase in symbiotic performance after successful insertion of HUP genes so the role of HUP in increasing parameters such as N₂ fixation and plant yield is still unclear. One advantage of the hydrogen production innate to BNF is that the H₂ evolved can be used to measure N₂ fixation using new open-flow gas chamber techniques seen as superior to the traditional acetylene reduction assay (ARA) conducted in closed chambers, although H₂ cannot be used for field studies yet as the ARA can. However, the ARA is now believed to be unreliable in field studies and it is recommended that other measures such as dry weight, yield and total nitrogen content are more accurate, especially in determining real food production, particularly in the developing nations. Another potential benefit of H₂ release from root nodules is that it stays in the soil and has been found to be consumed by H₂-oxidizing bacteria, many of which show plant growth–promoting properties such as the inhibition of ethylene biosynthesis in the host plant, leading to root elongation and increased plant growth; they may well be promising as biofertilizers if they can be successfully developed into seed inoculants for non-leguminous crop species, decreasing the need for chemical fertilizers. It has been suggested that rhizobia can produce nitrous oxide through denitrification but this has never been shown; it is possible that hydrogen release may provide more ideal conditions for denitrifying, free-living bacteria and so increase production of nitrous oxide that way and this issue will require more study. However, it seems unlikely that a natural system would release nitrous oxide to the same degree that chemical fertilizers have been shown to do.     

Buoyancy distribution in a filling box segmented by a planar jet

Environmental Fluid Mechanics - Air curtains are produced by thin vertical planar air jets and are used to prevent exchange flows between two fluids with a horizontal density gradient. They have...     

Net energy versus efficiency maximizing by foraging ring-billed gulls

Summary Ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) breeding at Dog Lake, Manitoba often feed by following tractors pulling cultivating implements around fields. Tractor-following gulls always land immediately behind the cultivating implement, where they feed on earthworms or grain. Afeer a feeding bout on the ground (patch residence time), gulls fly up, pursue the tractor and repeat the cycle. We use net energy maximizing (energy gained per unit time) and efficiency maximizing (energy gained per unit energy expended) models to make quantitative predictions of patch residence time, and compare these predictions to observations. If we assume flight speed to be constrained at the observed mean, the observations fall between the predictions of the two models, and the models explain approximately equal and highly significant proportions of the overall variation in patch residence time. If both flight speed and patch residence time are allowed to vary in the models, the efficiency maximizing model more closely predicts observed patch residence times, and the net energy maximizing model more closely predicts observed flight speeds. We discuss whether breeding ringbilled gulls may be truly intermediate between net energy and efficiency maximizing, and how measurements of flight speed may be useful in further investigations.     

Dissipation of fluvalinate and characterisation of its degradation products on chickpea crop by mass spectroscopy

Fluvalinate was applied on chickpea crop at (i) 0.056, (ii) 0.112 and (iii) 0.56 kg a.i. ha^‐1 to evaluate its rate of dissipation. Two major degradation products of fluvalinate formed on the crop were identified and characterised as phenoxybenzoic acid and 2‐[2‐chloro‐4‐(trifluoromethyl)anilino]‐3‐methylbutanoic acid. They were estimated in day‐5 and day‐10 samples of chickpea crop as their methyl esters by gas liquid chromatography.     

Dynamics of a chemostat with three competitive hydrogen oxidizing denitrifying microbial populations and their efficiency for denitrification

In this work, competition for two nitrogen resources (nitrate-, nitrite-nitrogen) between three hydrogen oxidizing denitrifying populations (Acidovorax sp. strain Ic3 (X₁), Paracoccus sp. strain Ic1 (X₂), and Acinetobacter sp. strain Ic2 (X₃)) was examined. The dynamics of three systems of microbial populations (system I: X₁ − X₃, system II: X₂ − X₃, and system III: X₁ − X₂ − X₃), grown in a chemostat, was studied using bifurcation analysis. The chemostat is the most common type of biological reactor used for the study of microbial growth under controlled conditions. The effect of the operating parameters (i.e., dilution rate and feed nitrate nitrogen concentration) on the long-term behavior of the systems showed that X₃ was the predominant population for a wide range of combinations of dilution rate and feed nitrate nitrogen concentration. Also, coexistence of two populations (X₂X₃, X₁X₃) was observed. The results of the bifurcation analysis were also used to determine the denitrification rate and the nitrite nitrogen accumulation for each of the three systems as a function of the dilution rate (up to 0.17 h⁻¹) and the feed nitrate nitrogen concentration (up to 300 mg/L). The highest denitrification rate was achieved by system I (28 mg/Lh). A comparison between the three systems showed that the nitrite nitrogen concentration in system I was less than the one in system III, while the two systems gave similar denitrification rates. The second system had the greatest accumulation of nitrites with the lowest denitrification rate.     

Values of net compensation irradiation and their dependence on photosynthetic efficiency and respiration in marine unicellular algae

Daily compensation irradiation for net photosynthetic rates (ΣI _comp) of Skeletonema costatum (Greville) Cleve, Chaetoceros ceratosporum Ostenfeld, Nitzschia sp., Thalassiosira nordenskiöldii Cleve, and Chroomonas salina (Wislouch) Butcher were measured during 1979 to obtain values for use in ecological models describing compensation and critical depths of marine phytoplankton. Batch cultures of these unicellular algae were exposed to temperatures and photoperiods varying from 6° to 15°C and 8.4 to 16.0 h, conditions typical of surface water in Saanich Inlet, a fjord in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Results obtained with S. costatum and T. nordenskiöldii provided estimates of ΣI _comp varying between 1.8 and 13 J cm^-2 d^-1, from which a mean value of 7.0 J cm^-2 d^-1 was calculated for use in ecological models with neritic phytoplankton. No seasonal variation in compensation irradiation was noted because photosynthetic efficiencies, which increased as division rates increased, were balanced by respiration rates, which increased as temperature increased. Results obtained with Chaetoceros ceratosporum, Nitzschia sp., and Chroomonas salina were difficult to interpret, because respiration rates were stimulated and depressed by light, respectively, for the first two species and the last one. This light effect was greatest when cells grew under conditions of low temperature and short photoperiod. Also, under winter and spring conditions, cells of Nitzschia sp. appeared to fix CO₂ in the dark and with low irradiances by mechanisms other than photosynthesis.     

微生物淋滤法去除城市污泥中重金属的效果

以广州市城市污泥作为培养介质,利用以硫代硫酸钠作为生长基质进行生命活动的氧化亚铁硫杆菌(T.f]和氧化硫硫杆菌(T.t)来淋滤去除污泥中的重金属,研究了不同底物含量及不同驯化污泥接菌量对重金属去除效果的影响.结果表明,在无驯化污泥接种的条件下,最佳基质投配率为10 g·L-1;驯化污泥接种培养可以缩短污泥的酸化周期,并且在相同投配比条件下,接种培养较不接种培养的去除效果明显提高.驯化污泥接种量为10%、投配比为7 g·L-1时,污泥中主要超标元素Cu、Zn、Cd和Ni的去除率分别达到67.2%,88.9%,82.4%,和68.4%.同时,处理后污泥中的重金属含量可满足污泥农用的国家标准.     

Female great tits do not alter their yolk androgen deposition when infested with a low-transmittable ectoparasite

In birds as in many other taxa, parasites can have deleterious effects on offspring development. Therefore, avian mothers have evolved responses to counteract parasite virulence in offspring via transgenerational defense mechanisms that is the transfer of immune-enhancing substances such as antibodies to their eggs. Another maternal pathway is suggested by the finding that infested great tit mothers produced eggs with lower androgens, since these yolk androgens are immunosuppressive and potentially affect parasite susceptibility of the nestlings. However, whether this pathway is a specific adaptation to infestation with parasites that affect the offspring or an epiphenomenon of lower androgen production in the female due to the parasite effects on the mother itself is as yet unclear. In this study we infested female great tits (Parus major) with sheep ticks (Ixodes ricinus), which are nonnidicolous ectoparasites with low vertical transmission capability, and evaluated the effects on yolk androgen deposition. Tick-infested females did not significantly reduce their deposition of androgens (androstenedione (A₄) and testosterone) compared to tick-reduced females, which is in contrast to a previous study showing a lowered deposition of A₄ and testosterone when females were exposed to the nidicolous hen flea. Thus, females alter their hormone deposition, and thus likely offspring phenotype, when exposed to parasites that also form the parasitic environment of their offspring, but not when temporarily infested with the field-dwelling sheep ticks with low transmission capability. This suggests that selection favored the evolution of an adaptive transgenerational effect by acting mainly on the parasite-induced maternal effect.     

Optimal investment in sons and daughters when parents do not know the sex of their offspring

Optimal parental investment usually differs depending on the sex of the offspring. However, parents in most organisms cannot discriminate the sex of their young until those young are energetically independent. In a species with physical male–male competition, males are often larger and usually develop sexual ornaments, so male offspring are often more costly to produce. However, Onthophagus dung beetles (Coleoptera; Scarabaeidae) are highly dimorphic in secondary sexual characters, but sexually monomorphic in body size, despite strong male–male competition for mates. We demonstrate that because parents provide all resources required by their offspring before adulthood, O. atripennis exhibits no sexual size dimorphism irrespective of sexual selection pressure favoring sexual dimorphism. By constructing a graphic model with three fitness curves (for sons, daughters, and expected fitness return for parents), we demonstrate that natural selection favors parents that provide both sons and daughters with the optimal amount of investment for sons, which is far greater than that for daughters. This is because the cost of producing small sons, that are unable to compete for mates, is far greater than the cost of producing daughters that are larger than necessary. This theoretical prediction can explain sexual dimorphism without sexual size dimorphism, widely observed in species with crucial parental care such as dung beetles and leaf-rolling beetles, and may provide an insight into the enigmatic relationship between sexual size dimorphism and sexual dimorphism.     

两种复合人工湿地系统对东莞运河污水的净化效果

复合人工湿地系统是将不同类型的人工湿地相组合,充分发挥各类型湿地特长,实现优势瓦补的一种更有效的污水净化系统.研究采用复合垂直流-水平潜流人工湿地和复合垂直下行流人工湿地两种复合人工湿地系统对东莞运河的河道污水进行处理,分别监测了两套不同复合人工湿地系统第一、二级湿地单元的出水情况,研究了不同时间段和一定的水力负荷下复合人工湿地系统对河道污水的净化效果.结果表明,两种复合人工湿地系统的二级湿地单元出水各指标明显优于一级湿地单元,复合垂直流-水平潜流湿地对东莞运河污水COD、BOD_5和TP的平均去除率分别达到70.52%、69.21%和55.56%;复合垂直下行流湿地系统对TP的净化尤其突出,平均去除率达到72.62%,二级出水的质量浓度在0.10～0.60 mg·L~(-1)之间,对COD和BOD_5的平均去除率分别为64.74%和60.63%.两种复合系统的出水浓度均达到<城市污水处理厂污染物排放标准>(GB 18918-2002)中的一级标准.由此可见,两种复合人工湿地系统对各污染物去除效果明显优于单一的湿地系统,且更具稳定性和耐冲击能力.     

三级串联湿地对氮磷的净化效果

采用三级串连湿地,对抚仙湖湖滨带的农业面源污染及部分县城生活污水进行了处理,以防止湖泊的富营养化.对湿地各串连单元(即沉淀池、表流湿地单元和潜流湿地单元)的总氮和总磷浓度进行了试验分析,来监测湿地对污染物的净化效果.研究结果表明,除了表流湿地单元的平均脱氮率接近40%之外,其他的净化单元去除营养盐的效率都只有10%～20%左右.相对而言,沉淀池的TP去除率较好,而表流湿地单元的TN去除率最高.湿地在运行两年之后,其脱氮除磷的效果不是太佳.因此,在利用湿地进行污水处理的同时,要对其进行妥善管理,如植物的收割、基质土壤的翻新等,使其保持持续脱氮除磷能力.     

Males are attracted by their own courtship signals

Courting male fiddler crabs Uca terpsichores (1 cm carapace width) sometimes build mounds of sand called hoods at the entrances to their burrows. Males wave their single enlarged claws to attract females to their burrows for mating. It was shown previously that burrows with hoods are more attractive to females and that females visually orient to these structures. In this study, we test whether males also use their hoods to find their burrows. We first determined the maximum distance that males can see and find a burrow opening without a hood. Males were removed from their burrows and placed on the sand at a range of distances from a burrow opening. If they were more than about 8 cm (seven units of eye-height) away, they were unable find the burrow. In contrast, males that were burrow residents used a non-visual path map to return to their burrows from much greater distances. To determine if hoods help males find their burrows when there are errors in their path maps, we moved residents 1–49 cm on sliding platforms producing errors equal to the distances they were moved. Males with self-made hoods or hood models at their burrows relocated their burrows at significantly greater distances than did males with unadorned burrows. Hood builders also relocated their burrows faster. Hence, hoods have two functions: they attract females and they provide a visual cue that males use to find their burrows quickly and reliably when their path maps fail. An erratum to this article can be found at     

垂直流-水平潜流复合人工湿地深度处理电镀废水的效果

采用垂直流-水平潜流复合人工湿地对金华清湖电镀厂排放的电镀废水尾水进行深度处理,研究复合人工湿地对电镀废水的深度净化效果,并对复合人工湿地在低(30 cm·d-1)、高(55 cm·d-1)水力负荷条件下的去除效果进行对比试验,探讨水力负荷对复合人工湿地处理能力的影响.复合人工湿地主要由调节池、垂直流人工湿地、水平潜流人工湿地和集水池四部分组成,电镀厂化学沉淀处理后的尾水先经一级垂直流人工湿地的基质和植物根系的过滤、吸附作用,刺激微生物活性,再流入水平潜流人工湿地完成二级处理,依靠植物、微生物、基质三者的联合作用从而使电镀废水得到深度净化.其中,垂直流人工湿地种植凤眼莲(Eichhornia crassipes)、稗草(Echinochloa crusgalli)和空心莲子草(Herba Alternantherae)3种水生植物,潜流人工湿地种植藨草(Scirpus triqueter)、黄菖蒲(Iris pseudacorus)、芦苇(Phragmites communis)、千屈菜(Lythrum salicaria)和美人蕉(Canna indica)5种水生植物.结果表明,复合人工湿地对电镀废水的净化效果非常显著,对Zn、Cu、Cr、Mn四种重金属和COD具有很高的去除率,处理后Zn、Cu、Cr、Mn和COD的质量分数分别为15.9%、12.4%、15.2%、28.5%和32.9%.其中,Cu、Mn和COD出水符合<污水综合排放标准>(GB8978-1996)一级标准,而Zn、Cr虽有很高的去除率,但并未达到标准.研究同样表明,复合人工湿地对电镀废水的去除效率存在一个最适宜的处理时间,过短和过长的处理时间都不利于污染物的去除.低、高水力负荷对比试验研究表明,水力负荷对COD的去除效果影响较大,对Zn、Cu、Cr、Mn的影响较小;在高水力负荷条件下,复合人工湿地对Zn、Cu、Cr、Mn四种重金属仍然具有很高的去除率,其质量分数分别降到32.3%、27.7%、30.8%、43.2%.     

利用餐厨和绿化垃圾提高蚯蚓堆肥效率处理剩余污泥的研究

为了显著提高蚯蚓堆肥处理剩余污泥的效率,在实验室条件下进行了掺入不同比例餐厨和绿化垃圾的剩余污泥蚯蚓堆肥试验。在保持剩余污泥占主体的情况下,试验按照剩余污泥：餐厨垃圾：绿化垃圾的质量比（干质量）顺序,共设6个不同配比处理组,分别为100/0/0、90/5/5、80/10/10、70/15/15、70/20/10和70/10/20,各组接种蚯蚓后恒温（25±1）℃暗室培养,中途适时补充基质和水分,试验为期7周。试验结束后,去除未被降解基质,分离并量测蚯蚓质量和数量以及蚓粪质量及其养分含量,并据此量化比较各组蚯蚓堆肥效率。试验结果表明,与纯污泥相比,增加餐厨和绿化垃圾的总比例可以显著加快蚯蚓的生长、成熟和繁殖速度,显著提高对应基质的降解速率和蚓粪生产速率,而且相应蚓粪的养分（总有机碳、全钾）含量也会显著增加（全氮和全磷含量无显著影响）。在保持剩余污泥占70%比例下,掺入15%餐厨垃圾和15%绿化垃圾的组别蚯蚓堆肥处理剩余污泥的效率达到最高（蚓粪的养分含量除外）,并与其他组别相比具有统计显著性。总之,餐厨和绿化垃圾的掺入能够显著提高蚯蚓堆肥处理剩余污泥的效率。     

仿生植物附着微生物膜对污染水体氮素迁移转化效能分析

通过室外及室内控制试验,研究5种常见填料作为原材料制成的仿生植物对污染水体氮素的去除性能,结果表明,仿生植物原材料的差异将直接影响其附着生物膜特性,其附着生物膜量、硝化强度、反硝化强度以及硝化细菌、反硝化细菌均表现为：软性填料﹥组合填料﹥悬浮填料﹥立体弹性填料﹥半软性填料。水深对仿生植物附着生物膜亦有不同程度的影响,其中生物膜量随水深的增加并未表现出明显的分层效应,而生物膜硝化作用强度、硝化细菌随水深的增加逐渐降低,但生物膜反硝化作用强度、反硝化细菌则随水深的增加则呈现出逐渐增加的趋势。5种不同材质的仿生植物对水体TN、NH4＋-N、NO3--N具有较好的去除效果,去除率表现为：软性填料﹥组合填料﹥悬浮填料﹥立体弹性填料﹥半软性填料﹥对照系统。同时,仿生植物种植密度也影响其对水体氮素的去除效果,表现为CK〈7株·m-3〈13株·m-3〈20株·m-3,研究结果将为仿生植物的野外实际应用及我国城市重污染河道水质原位修复提供技术支持。     

钙镁磷肥与有机物料配施对作物镉铅吸收的控制效果

通过田间定位试验,采用钙镁磷肥(G)、泥碳(P)、猪粪(M)、钙镁磷肥+泥碳(GP)、钙镁磷肥+猪粪(GM)等处理对福建省龙岩市新罗区特钢厂附近的污染田进行改良。试验表明,大部分处理能提高土壤的pH值;处理钙镁磷肥、钙镁磷肥+泥碳和钙镁磷肥+猪粪对提高作物产量均有显著效果;大部分处理能抑制水稻、花生对镉铅的吸收;说明通过调节土壤pH值,改变土壤重金属活性是有机-中性化改良技术的主要机理。