Determinants of brood defence in the great tit Parus major L.

Summary Great tits (Parus major) tending nestlings reacted defensively to a live predator (Glaucidium perlatum; domestic cat) and the playback of a mixed species mobbing chorus, or to the latter alone. Defensive behaviour, mainly mobbing, reflected the risk taken and is assessed by five measures. Multivariate and contingency analyses revealed that at least 11 of 16 contextual independent variables affected the risk taken. Incremental effects are due to: Age of young, sex of the defending bird, the expected number of neighbouring mobbers, low temperature, wet canopy, the raptor's distance from cover, coniferous forest, advancing season. A decremental effect is exerted by a large brood that is older. Annual differences in defence arise probably from demographic factors such as fecundity, which in turn affect the parent's benefit-cost ratio (number of young of the same sex as the parent/residual reproductive value of the parent).While the effects of annual fecundity, age of young and season were predicted on the basis of this benefit-cost ratio, the failure to verify an incremental effect of brood size runs counter to established theory. We conclude that parents gear their defence efforts to energy investment, past or future, and are mal-adapted to brood size as a promotor of risk taken. The influence of the habitat is poorly understood. At least three factors (age and number of young, parent's sex) act additively on part of the response. Despite the large number of variables examined, about 43% of the total response variance remains unexplained.While four defence measures are determined by at least 10 contextual factors, a fifth measure, the male's minimum distance from the raptor, is determined by one other factor, the appearance of the male. The latter leads us to assume an additional, social rôle of brood defence.Risk-assessment by great tits leading to risk-aversive defence behaviour is governed by evolved restraints rather than by momentary constraints. Examples are provided by the effects of weather and cover.     

III. Ökotoxikologische Charakterisierung der Schwermetall-Immissionsmuster

The spatial variation of the immission patterns of Cr, Fe, Pb and V in the region Leipzig-Halle is dicussed in terms of similarities as well as dissimilarities. The representation by isopleths enables the identification of areas with high and low air pollution. The immission patterns can be used as criteria to select areas suitable for in-field testing so that possible effects on fauna und flora and xenobiotic fluxes can be studied at representative sites. The comparison with literature data yields a first characterization of the ecotoxic potential of the heavy-metal immission for the region. By the principal component analysis a comparative evaluation of the spatial structure of all element contents is performed, which leads to conclusions about emission sources and the physicochemical behaviour of the elements.     

Not Only Single Mating in Stingless Bees

Queens of the large, pantropical and fully eusocial taxon Meliponinae (stingless bees) are generally considered to be singly mated. We indirectly estimated queen mating frequency in two meliponids, Melipona beecheii and Scaptotrigona postica, by examining genotypes of workers at microsatellite DNA loci. Microsatellites were highly variable, providing suitable markers with which to assign patrilinial origin of workers within colonies headed by single queens. Queen mating frequency varied between 1 and 3 (M. beecheii) and 1 and 6 (S. postica), representing the first clear documentation of polyandry in the Meliponinae. Effective paternity frequency, m _e , was lower, although above 2 for S. postica. Stingless bees may provide suitable subjects for the testing of recent inclusive fitness arguments describing intracolony kin conflict in social Hymenoptera. Received: 26 August 1998 / Accepted in revised form: 18 November 1998     

Description and evaluation of a sampling system for long-time monitoring of PAHs wet deposition

In this paper a new electronically controlled year-round wet-only sampler for wet deposition of trace organic compounds (e.g. airborne PAHs) is described. The sampler provides in situ filtration of the precipitation as well as preconcentration of nonpolar organic compounds by means of a C18-PAH modified silica gel cartridge. The whole assembly is insulated and equipped with heating elements which permit collection of wet deposition as ice or snow and insure correct function of the sampling system even during cold weather. Concurrent chemical analysis of both the particulate and the dissolved phases is performed by high resolution gas chromatography with flame ionization detection or HPLC with fluorescence detection. The reliability of the method was proved by analyzing PAH spiked water (simulated rain) and using NIST SRM 1649 ('urban dust') as certified material for particle-bound PAHs in precipitation. This study proved satisfactorily recoveries of as both particle-bound and unbound aqueous PAH, with only small losses to collector surfaces. It was proved that this new wet-only precipitation sampler can successfully be used for long-time monitoring of PAH in wet depositions in urban areas.     

Environmental fate of amitrole: influence of dissolved organic matter

In this study the environmental fate of amitrole in terrestrial and aquatic model ecosystems was investigated. Under aerobic conditions mineralization of amitrole is the main degradation pathway. The experiments revealed that the leaching behaviour is low in the presence or the absence of dissolved organic matter (DOM) despite the high water solubility due to a strong binding of amitrole to soil constituents. Under anaerobic conditions the addition of DOM increases the transport of amitrole in soil columns. The tests with water/sediment model ecosystems showed that the mineralization of amitrole is lower in comparison to aerobic soil experiments. Up to 80.6% of the applied 14C-labelled amitrole transfer into the sediment and about 1/3 of this amount formed bound residues, which are not extractable.     

Characterization of carbon nanoparticles in ambient aerosols by scanning electron microscopy and model calculations

Size-selected aerosol samples were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to explore (1) the relative concentration of individual and aggregated carbon nanoparticles (C-NPs) and (2) the combustion behavior of C-NP agglomerates. SEM analysis of low-coverage aerosol deposits showed that most of the C-NP matter is present in the form of chain-type agglomerates. The individual C-NPs in the agglomerates are remarkably similar in diameter (40+/-5 nm) and appear to be very tightly bound to the neighboring NPs. Comparison with literature data suggests that the agglomerates originated from diesel exhaust. After gently removing the water-soluble compounds from relatively thick layers of aerosol matter, the residues were exposed to increasing temperatures, for 1 hr at each step, followed by SEM analysis of the same sample area. C-NP agglomerates were found to disappear rapidly at temperatures exceeding approximately 470 degrees C. This observation constitutes the first direct visualization of the combustion of what appears to be the most important fraction of elemental carbon in ambient aerosol matter. The experimental studies were complemented by simple model calculations that aimed at assessing the size-dependent mass fraction of individual C-NPs in ambient aerosol matter. The results suggest that the mass fraction decreases from 20+/-10% at particle diameters of approximately 30-40 nm to less than 0.1% above 300 nm.