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Kyle Hamish Elliott Roger D. Bull Anthony J. Gaston Gail K. Davoren 《Behavioral ecology and sociobiology》2009,63(12):1773-1785
How predators vary search patterns in response to prey predictability is poorly known. For example, marine invertebrates may
be predictable but of low energy value, while fish may be of higher energy value but unpredictable at large (pelagic schools)
or small (solitary benthics) spatial scales. We investigated the search patterns of the thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia), an Arctic seabird feeding on invertebrates, pelagic fish, or benthic fish. Foraging ranges at the Coats Island colony are
generally smaller (<240 min per trip) than at larger colonies, and many birds specialize in foraging tactics and diet. Underwater
search times for benthic fish were higher than for pelagic fish or invertebrates while above-water search times for pelagic
fish were higher than for benthic fish or invertebrates. There were few stops during trips. Total trip time, flying time,
number of flights, and number of dives were intercorrelated and increased with prey energy content, suggesting that longer
trips involved fewer prey encounters due to selection of higher-quality, but rarer, prey items. Flight times were not Lévy-distributed
and seabirds may have used area-restricted searches. The high degree of specialization, apparent absence of information center
effects, and reduced above-water searching times may be linked to the relatively small colony size and the resulting short
commuting distances to feeding areas, leading to greater prey predictability. We concluded that prey predictability over various
scales affected predator search patterns. 相似文献
3.
Private domestic gardens contribute substantially to the biodiversity of urban areas and benefit human health and well-being.
We previously reported a study of 267 gardens across five cities in the United Kingdom in which variation in geographical
and climatic factors had little bearing on the richness, diversity and composition of plant species. We therefore hypothesise
that garden management is an important factor in determining garden characteristics. Here, from the same sample of gardens,
we investigate potential associations between the uses to which people put their gardens, the types of management activities
they undertake, and the characteristics of those gardens. Householders (n = 265) completed a questionnaire detailing various aspects of garden use and management activities. The majority of respondents
used their gardens chiefly for relaxation, recreation, and eating. Fewer than one fifth included “gardening” amongst their
garden uses even though all performed some garden management, suggesting that not all management activity resulted from an
interest in gardening. Garden-watering and lawn-mowing were the most prevalent activities and were predictors of other types
of management including weeding, vegetation-cutting, leaf-collection, and dead-heading flowers. A number of these activities
were associated with one another, the richness and composition of plant species, and the number of land uses in gardens. However,
relationships between management activities and the amount of tall vegetation were less consistent, and garden management
appeared to be independent of garden area. More species of amphibians, birds, and mammals were observed in gardens with ponds
and in which efforts were made to attract wildlife, particularly by providing drinking water. This study supports the hypothesis
that garden use and management is associated with garden characteristics. 相似文献
4.
Blazier MA Gaston LA Clason TR Farrish KW Oswald BP Evans HA 《Journal of environmental quality》2008,37(4):1546-1558
Fertilizing pastures with poultry litter has led to an increased incidence of nutrient-saturated soils, particularly on highly fertilized, well drained soils. Applying litter to silvopastures, in which loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) and bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) production are integrated, may be an ecologically desirable alternative for upland soils of the southeastern USA. Integrating subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum) into silvopastures may enhance nutrient retention potential. This study evaluated soil nutrient dynamics, loblolly pine nutrient composition, and loblolly pine growth of an annually fertilized silvopasture on a well drained soil in response to fertilizer type, litter application rate, and subterranean clover. Three fertilizer treatments were applied annually for 4 yr: (i) 5 Mg litter ha(-1) (5LIT), (ii) 10 Mg litter ha(-1) (10LIT), and (iii) an inorganic N, P, K pasture blend (INO). Litter stimulated loblolly pine growth, and neither litter treatment produced soil test P concentrations above runoff potential threshold ranges. However, both litter treatments led to accumulation of several nutrients (notably P) in upper soil horizons relative to INO and unfertilized control treatments. The 10LIT treatment may have increased N and P leaching potential. Subterranean clover kept more P sequestered in the upper soil horizon and conferred some growth benefits to loblolly pine. Thus, although these silvopasture systems had a relatively high capacity for nutrient use and retention at this site, litter should be applied less frequently than in this study to reduce environmental risks. 相似文献
5.
Melina Nisenbaum Gonzalo Hernán Sendr Gastón Alfredo Cerdá Gilbert Marcelo Scagliol Jorge Froilán González Silvia Elena Murialdo 《环境科学学报(英文版)》2013,25(3):613-625
We report on the biodegradation of pure hydrocarbons and chemotaxis towards these compounds by an isolated chlorophenol degrader,Pseudomonas strain H.The biochemical and phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence identified Pseudomonas strain H as having 99.56% similarity with P.aeruginosa PA01.This strain was able to degrade n-hexadecane,1-undecene,1-nonene,1-decene,1-dodecene and kerosene.It grew in the presence of 1-octene,while this hydrocarbons is toxic to other hydrocarbons degraders.Pseudomonas strain H was also chemotactic towards n-hexadecane,kerosene,1-undecene and 1-dodecene.These results show that this Pseudomonas strain H is an attractive candidate for hydrocarbon-containing wastewater bioremediation in controlled environments.Since the classical standard techniques for detecting chemotaxis are not efficient at low bacterial concentrations,we demonstrate the use of the dynamic speckle laser method,which is simple and inexpensive,to confirm bacterial chemotaxis at low cell concentrations (less than 105 colony-forming unit per millilitre (CFU/mL)) when hydrocarbons are the attractants. 相似文献
6.
Rarity and Body Size: Some Cautionary Remarks 总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1
7.
The nighttime light environment of much of the earth has been transformed by the introduction of electric lighting. This impact continues to spread with growth in the human population and extent of urbanization. This has profound consequences for organismal physiology and behavior and affects abundances and distributions of species, community structure, and likely ecosystem functions and processes. Protected areas play key roles in buffering biodiversity from a wide range of anthropogenic pressures. We used a calibration of a global satellite data set of nighttime lights to determine how well they are fulfilling this role with regard to artificial nighttime lighting. Globally, areas that are protected tend to be darker at night than those that are not, and, with the exception of Europe, recent regional declines in the proportion of the area that is protected and remains dark have been small. However, much of these effects result from the major contribution to overall protected area coverage by the small proportion of individual protected areas that are very large. Thus, in Europe and North America high proportions of individual protected areas (>17%) have exhibited high levels of nighttime lighting in all recent years, and in several regions (Europe, Asia, South and Central America) high proportions of protected areas (32–42%) have had recent significant increases in nighttime lighting. Limiting and reversing the erosion of nighttime darkness in protected areas will require routine consideration of nighttime conditions when designating and establishing new protected areas; establishment of appropriate buffer zones around protected areas where lighting is prohibited; and landscape level reductions in artificial nighttime lighting, which is being called for in general to reduce energy use and economic costs. 相似文献
8.
Nutrient recycling by animals is a potentially important biogeochemical process in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Stoichiometric traits of individual species may result in some taxa playing disproportionately important roles in the recycling of nutrients relative to their biomass, acting as keystone nutrient recyclers. We examined factors controlling the relative contribution of 12 Neotropical fish species to nutrient recycling in four streams spanning a range of phosphorus (P) levels. In high-P conditions (135 microg/L soluble reactive phosphorus, SRP), most species fed on P-enriched diets and P excretion rates were high across species. In low-P conditions (3 microg/L SRP), aquatic food resources were depleted in P, and species with higher body P content showed low rates of P recycling. However, fishes that were subsidized by terrestrial inputs were decoupled from aquatic P availability and therefore excreted P at disproportionately high rates. One of these species, Astyanax aeneus (Characidae), represented 12% of the total population and 18% of the total biomass of the fish assemblage in our focal low-P study stream but had P excretion rates > 10-fold higher than other abundant fishes. As a result, we estimated that P excretion by A. aeneus accounted for 90% of the P recycled by this fish assemblage and also supplied approximately 90% of the stream P demand in this P-limited ecosystem. Nitrogen excretion rates showed little variation among species, and the contribution of a given species to ecosystem N recycling was largely dependent upon the total biomass of that species. Because of the high variability in P excretion rates among fish species, ecosystem-level P recycling could be particularly sensitive to changes in fish community structure in P-limited systems. 相似文献
9.
Anthony J. Gaston Paul A. Smith Laura McFarlane Tranquilla William A. Montevecchi David A. Fifield H. Grant Gilchrist April Hedd Mark L. Mallory Gregory J. Robertson Richard A. Phillips 《Marine Biology》2011,158(9):1929-1941
The non-breeding movements of marine birds were poorly known until recently, but this information is essential to understanding
the risk to different geographical populations from events on the wintering grounds. We tracked the migration routes and wintering
areas of Thick-billed Murre Uria lomvia from two breeding colonies in eastern Canada: Coats Island in northern Hudson Bay and The Minarets, Baffin Island, during
the period August 2007–May 2008 using geolocation loggers. Birds from The Minarets moved south rapidly post-breeding and wintered
principally off Newfoundland and southern Labrador, or between Newfoundland and southern Greenland, remaining south of 55°N
until at least the spring equinox. Those from Coats Island remained in Hudson Bay until at least mid-November, after which
they moved rapidly through Hudson Strait to winter in southern Davis Strait and the northern Labrador Sea, mostly north of
55°N. Many individuals stayed throughout the winter in areas of heavy ice cover. Adults from the two colonies appear to be
completely segregated in winter and those from Coats Island probably did not enter the area of the winter hunt in Newfoundland.
Unexpectedly, some birds from The Minarets wintered in waters beyond the continental slope and outside the distribution of
pack ice, demonstrating that particular individuals can be wholly pelagic throughout the winter. Coats Island birds returned
through Hudson Strait as soon as open water areas became available in spring. Their sojourn in Hudson Bay coincided very closely
with the occurrence of areas with <90% ice cover. In spite of the relatively large error in positions obtained from geolocation
loggers, our results demonstrated the value of these devices by uncovering a number of previously unknown aspects of Thick-billed
Murre non-breeding ecology in the Northwest Atlantic. Comparison of the non-breeding ecology based on SST experienced in winter
show that the winter niche is broader than hitherto assumed, demonstrating that separate populations may experience different
selection in the face of climate change. 相似文献
10.
Burwell RW Beasley JS Gaston LA Borst SM Sheffield RE Strahan RE Munshaw GC 《Journal of environmental quality》2011,40(4):1241-1248
Nutrient and sediment runoff from newly constructed levee embankments pose a threat to water quality during soft armor vegetation establishment. Research was initiated in 2008 and 2009 to evaluate the effect of bermudagrass ( L.) coverage and N source on nutrient and sediment runoff from levee embankments during establishment. Bermudagrass plots were seeded at 195.3 kg pure live seed ha and fertilized at 50 kg N ha using a water-soluble N source, urea or NH-NO, or slow-release N source, S-coated urea (SCU) or urea formaldehyde (UF), with controls unfertilized. Vegetative cover percentage, time until the onset of runoff, runoff volume, and total solids (TS), NO-N, and NH-N concentrations were measured from simulated and natural rainfall events for 70 d in 2008 and 56 d in 2009. Bermudagrass at 90% grass cover delayed the onset of runoff an additional 441 to 538 s and reduced runoff volumes 74 to 84% of that exhibited at 10% grass cover. Nitrogen fertilizers did not accelerate bermudagrass growth sufficiently, however, to reduce TS loading compared with unfertilized bermudagrass in either year of the study. The application of urea and SCU resulted in cumulative N losses of 2.45 and 3.13 kg ha compared with 1.59 kg ha from the unfertilized bermudagrass in 2008, and 1.73 kg ha from NH-NO vs. 0.24 kg ha from controls in 2009. Only UF increased bermudagrass establishment without increasing cumulative N losses compared with unfertilized bermudagrass. Therefore, the benefit of greater erosion and runoff resistance expected from N-accelerated vegetative growth did not occur but had the unintended consequence of higher N losses when water-soluble N and SCU fertilizers were applied. 相似文献