Urban observatories opportunities for environmental monitoring: solid wastes

Towns concentrate around 50% of world-wide population and the trend is oriented to underscore an urban profile of population. In addition, towns have become important for their economic contribution to the Gross Internal Product. The negative side of towns is the environmental and social impacts as a result of productive and domestic activities, besides the lack of available data. In order to overcome these shortcomings, the United Nations has established a project of urban monitoring throughout the Global Network of Urban Observatories; Mexico joined the project in 2005. The Local Urban Observatory of Mexicali has the task to produce information about cities that is useful to design public policies. Some of this information deals with a set of environmental indicators in the United Nations Habitat Agenda, which includes solid wastes. Therefore, this paper deals with two main topics; firstly, from the Habitat Agenda, a comparative urban analysis of waste production and coverage of domestic waste collection services; secondly, from the Local Agenda, the identification and ranking of environmental problems according to public perception coming from people involved in the municipal planning and decision making process. Results will be used to develop local indicators and public environmental policies.     

Experimental evidence of a testosterone-induced shift from paternal to mating behaviour in a facultatively polygynous songbird

Previous studies have suggested that testosterone (T) profiles of male birds reflect a trade-off between mate attraction behaviours (requiring high T levels) and parental care activities (requiring low T levels). In this study, we experimentally elevated T levels of monogamous males in the facultatively polygynous European starling (Sturnus vulgaris), and compared mate attraction and paternal behaviour of T-treated males with those of controls (C-males). T-males significantly reduced their participation in incubation and fed nestlings significantly less often than C-males. Females paired to T-treated males did not compensate for their mate’s lower paternal effort. The observed reduction in a male’s investment in incubating the eggs was accompanied by an increased investment in typical female-attracting behaviours: T-males spent a significantly higher proportion of their time singing to attract additional females. They also occupied more additional nestboxes than C-males, although the differences just failed to be significant, and carried significantly more green nesting materials into an additional nestbox (a behaviour previously shown to serve a courtship function). T-males also behaved significantly more aggressively than C-males. During the nestling period, the frequency of mate-attracting behaviours by T-treated and control males no longer differed significantly. Despite the reduced paternal effort by T-males and the lack of compensation behaviour by females, hatching and breeding success did not differ significantly between T- and C-pairs. Received: 7 February 2000 / Revised: 10 August 2000 / Accepted: 3 September 2000     

Aggression and resource sharing among foundresses in the social wasp Polistes dominulus: testing transactional theories of conflict

Tug-of-war models of within-group conflict predict that the frequency of conflict will be positively related to the degree of reproductive sharing within the group; in contrast, a negative relationship supports transactional models, in which reproductive payments among group members limit the degree of within-group selfishness. We tested predictions of the tug-of-war and transactional models by examining cofoundress interactions during the founding (preworker) phase of colony development in 30 naturally nesting colonies of the paper wasp Polistes dominulus. We found that the mean rate of foundress aggression and the mean probability of food sharing were significantly negatively associated, which supports the prediction of the transactional, not the tug-of-war model. Further, cofoundress aggression significantly increased over the founding phase (independently of temperature), while the fraction of aggression initiated by the dominant (alpha) foundress significantly decreased over this period. We show that both of these results are predicted by the transactional model of within-group conflict. Interestingly, the alpha’s rate of aggression was significantly positively temperature dependent, while the beta’s was not. This indicates that the alpha’s aggression level may often be near her physiological maximum, while the beta’s aggression is limi- ted by other factors, contradicting the prediction of the tug-of-war model. Moreover, the alpha’s aggression was significantly positively temperature dependent only in the second half of the founding period, as predicted by the transactional model since this is when there is least reproductive sharing. Finally, our results indicate that the alpha’s level of aggression depends on the resources controlled by the beta. Received: 18 January 2000 / Revised: 19 June 2000 / Accepted: 24 June 2000     

Training Captive-Bred or Translocated Animals to Avoid Predators

Abstract: Animal reintroductions and translocations are potentially important interventions to save species from extinction, but most are unsuccessful. Mortality due to predation is a principal cause of failure. Animals that have been isolated from predators, either throughout their lifetime or over evolutionary time, may no longer express appropriate antipredator behavior. For this reason, conservation biologists are beginning to include antipredator training in pre-release preparation procedures. We describe the evolutionary and ontogenetic circumstances under which antipredator behavior may degenerate or be lost, and we use principles from learning theory to predict which elements can be enhanced or recovered by training. The empirical literature demonstrates that training can improve antipredator skills, but the effectiveness of such interventions is influenced by a number of constraints. We predict that it will be easier to teach animals to cope with predators if they have experienced ontogenetic isolation than if they have undergone evolutionary isolation. Similarly, animals should learn more easily if they have been evolutionarily isolated from some rather than all predators. Training to a novel predator may be more successful if a species has effective responses to similar predators. In contrast, it may be difficult to teach proper avoidance behavior, or to introduce specialized predator-specific responses, if appropriate motor patterns are not already present. We conclude that pre-release training has the potential to enhance the expression of preexisting antipredator behavior. Potential training techniques involve classical conditioning procedures in which animals learn that model predators are predictors of aversive events. However, wildlife managers should be aware that problems, such as the emergence of inappropriate responses, may arise during such training.     

Bushmeat Markets on Bioko Island as a Measure of Hunting Pressure

Abstract: Counts of the number of animal carcasses arriving at Malabo market, Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, were made during two, 8-month study periods in 1991 and 1996. Comparisons of the availability and abundance of individual species between years showed that more species and more carcasses appeared in 1996 than in 1991. In biomass terms, the increase was significantly less, only 12.5%, when compared with almost 60% more carcasses entering the market in 1996. A larger number of carcasses of the smaller-bodied species (i.e., rodents and the blue duiker [ Cephalophus monticola ] ) were recorded in 1996 than in 1991. Although an additional four species of birds and one squirrel were recorded in 1996, these were less important in terms of their contribution to biomass or carcass numbers. Concurrently, there was a dramatic reduction in the larger-bodied species, Ogilby's duiker ( C. ogilbyi ) and seven diurnal primates. We examined these changes, especially the drop in the number of larger animals. We considered the possible following explanations: (1) the number of hunters dropped either because of enforced legislation or scarcity of larger prey; (2) a shift in the use of hunting techniques occurred (   from shotguns to snares); or (3) consumer demand for primate and duiker meat dropped, which increased demand for smaller game. Our results suggest that the situation in Bioko may be alarmingly close to a catastrophe in which primate populations of international conservation significance are being hunted to dangerously low numbers. Although there is still a need for surveys of actual densities of prey populations throughout the island, working with the human population on Bioko to find alternatives to bushmeat is an urgent priority.     

Demographic Forecasting in Koala Conservation

Abstract: The koala currently needs conservation intervention. There is clear evidence of decline in many populations, but the existence of other stable or expanding populations offers the possibility of a variety of creative solutions to their conservation problems. The 1998 National Koala Conservation Strategy emphasizes the need to obtain demographic information and to use this information to assess management options for koalas. We need accurate diagnoses of the status of koala populations and forecasts of their demographic future with and without particular management actions. In a qualitative fashion, this process has been undertaken many times on a local and national scale. Quantitative demographic forecasting tools are increasingly available, and koala management could benefit from their application both at the scale of individual populations and more broadly. There is already a considerable body of suitable data on the dispersal, effects of normal and catastrophic environmental variation on reproduction and survival, and on the effects of habitat change. Demographic forecasting, however, is hampered because the full suite of information is rarely available from a single population. In two Queensland populations, retrospective population viability analyses provided forecasts that were in agreement with observed population trends. Work is needed to determine whether data from one population can be applied to other populations. Models can then be developed to make projections at a multipopulation level on the basis of local population dynamics and dispersal. Certain koala populations, because of their long history of study, offer the opportunity to test demographic models retrospectively. These tests will not only aid in fine-tuning the models for koala biology and data but will also assist with the more general process of validating the models.     

Poisoned plusiines: toxicity of milkweed latex and cardenolides to some generalist caterpillars

Summary. Larvae of Trichoplusia ni Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) that ingested latex from Asclepias curassavica L. (Asclepiadaceae) often regurgitated and convulsed with spasms before becoming immobile and unresponsive. Some larvae required over a day to recover sufficiently to feed. Latices from four other plant species in three families were all deterrent, but none caused detectable poisoning. The toxicity of A. curassavica latex was evidently due to cardenolides because pure cardenolides had similar effects when ingested by T. ni. Other species of noctuid caterpillars (Rachiplusia ou Guenée, Anagrapha falcifera Kirby, and Autographa precationis Guenée) sometimes also suffered spasms and temporary immobility when fed A. curassavica latex. A more distantly related noctuid, Spodoptera ornithogalli, was deterred by the latex, but showed no overt physiological responses at the dosage tested. T. ni larvae failed to develop on intact leaves of A. curassavica, on leaves with latex canals deactivated by midrib severance, and on excised leaves. Similarly, larvae reared on excised A. syriaca L. leaves to the final instar died when transferred to A. curassavica leaves with either intact or severed midribs. The final instar larvae sometimes suffered from spasms and immobility even when confined on leaves with depressurized canal systems. Evidently, cardenolides stored outside the latex system suffice to poison larvae. We conclude that cardenolides in A. curassavica have potent physiological effects on some generalist caterpillars and that the presence of these compounds both inside and outside laticifers effectively protects the plant. Received 30 June 1999; accepted 18 October 1999     

Elemental (C, N and P) analysis of metamorphosing bonefish (Albula sp.) leptocephali: relationship to catabolism of endogenous organic compounds, tissue remodeling, and feeding ecology

Whole-body carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content, and stable-isotope composition (¹³C:¹²C and ¹⁵N:¹⁴N), were followed during metamorphosis of bonefish (Albula sp.) larvae (leptocephali). Metamorphosing larvae depend entirely on endogenous carbon compounds (some of which contain N and P) as an energy source. Two fundamental questions are (1) Do the demands of extensive tissue remodeling during metamorphosis require the efficient retention of N and P during the catabolism of carbon compounds? (2) What effect does the lack of feeding have on stable-isotope composition? Our results showed that both C and N decreased by ～35 to 40%, reflecting the utilization of neutral lipid (triacylglycerols) and N-containing compounds (phosphatidylethanolamine and keratan sulfate glycosaminoglycan) as energy sources, and indicating that larvae have little or no capacity to retain N. Evidence suggested that collagen breakdown, measured as a loss of hydroxyproline content, also contributed to N loss. Stable-isotope ratios, expressed as ¹³C and ¹⁵N, showed no statistically significant differences in early and advanced metamorphosing larvae. In contrast to C and N, phosphorus was conserved during metamorphosis and most probably is utilized in the increased bone mineralization occurring in advanced larvae. We show, however, that advanced larvae are P-limited and that normal ossification is dependent upon a supply of exogenous P obtained after the resumption of feeding. The N:P ratio of 12.3 in early larvae decreased to 8.1 in advanced larvae owing to the conservation of P as N was lost. The mean ¹⁵N value in early metamorphic larvae (11.6‰) is consistent with results from other studies, and provides further support for the view that premetamorphic leptocephali feed at a very low trophic level.     

聚苯乙烯基硫代磺酸钾树脂的合成及其与卤代烃的反应

由聚苯乙烯基磺酰氯树脂与硫化氢钾反应制备聚苯乙烯基硫代磺酸钾树脂（Ｉ）,树脂Ｉ与亲电的卤代烃反应,生成聚苯乙烯基硫代磺酸酯树脂（Ⅱ）,树脂Ⅱ经过乙硫醇处理,使卤代烃结构部分以不对称二硫醚的形式游离下来,用ＧＣ／ＭＳ对其结构进行鉴定。从不对称二硫醚的结构可推导出原卤代烃的结构,所制备的聚苯乙烯基硫代磺酸钾树脂的转化效率为１．１１ｍｍｏｌ·ｇ＾－１。