Limb regeneration and subsequent asymmetry in a male secondary sexual character influences sexual selection in wolf spiders

Males of the brush-legged wolf spider Schizocosa ocreata (Hentz) have conspicuously decorated forelegs used in courtship and agonistic displays. Approximately one in five juvenile males has a missing or regenerating foreleg, and regeneration of a leg lost during development usually results in the absence of a decorative tuft on that leg. The subsequent asymmetry in this male secondary character significantly decreases success in both courtship of females and male-male agonistic interactions. Experimental removal of tufts from one leg of previously successful symmetric males produces similar results. As a test for concomitant behavioral effects, female spiders were shown video images of a courting male with symmetric tufts and the same video image altered to have asymmetric tufts. Female receptivity to the asymmetric video image was lower. In contrast to fluctuating asymmetry resulting from developmental instability, leg tuft asymmetry in S. ocreata most likely arises from a single event during ontogeny – possibly leg loss from an aggressive or predator encounter  – and may serve as a quality indicator in female mate choice. Received: 27 July 1995/ Accepted after revision: 19 November 1995     

Comparative Toxicities of Polar and Non-Polar Organic Fractions From Sediments Affected By the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska

Standardized tests were applied to aromatic and polar fractions of sediment extracts to determine whether polar constituents or oxidative degradation products contributed significantly to the toxicity of sediments oiled by the Exxon Valdez spill. Intertidal sediment and pore-water samples were collected in September 1990 from two heavily oiled sites and an unoiled site in Prince William Sound (PWS). Methylene chloride extracts from these samples were fractionated by liquid chromatography into aliphatic, aromatic and polar fractions, and the aromatic and polar fractions were tested for toxicity using the Microtox^R test, bivalve larval mortality and development (Mytilus); several measures of genotoxicity in Mytilus, including SOS Chromotest^R, anaphase aberrations and sister chromatid exchange; and survival, anaphase aberrations and teratogenicity in coho salmon (Onchorhynchus kisutch). Microtox^R and SOS Chromotest^R protocols were applied in a screening mode to all samples, whereas other tests were applied only to selected fractions from two sites. Samples from Bay of Isles (oiled) were consistently more toxic (usually only 2 to 5-fold) than the Mooselips Bay (unoiled) samples, which gave very low responses in all tests. for both sites, however, responses to polar and aromatic fractions were about the same in most tests, suggesting that while the overall toxicity of the oil was low in these samples, at least part of that toxicity was derived from polar constituents. Compared to the parent hydrocarbons, polar oxidation products partition preferentially into pore-water and are more rapidly diluted and dispersed in the water column. These results suggest that polar oxidation products of petroleum hydrocarbons pose little risk to marine organisms, except possibly for infauna continuously exposed to pore-water in heavily oiled sediments. Independent surveys showed that sediment toxicity in PWS declined during 1989-1991 to near background levels, in accord with previous understanding of oil weathering and toxicity.     

Approaches to environmental aesthetics

A synthesis of current empirical work in environmental aesthetics is overdue. Based on the twin criteria of methodological rigour and social relevance, four major approaches to environmental aesthetics are defined and described. A contemplative humanist approach is matched by goal-oriented activism. The planner, doomed to relevance, confronts the rigorously scientific experimentalist. Advances in environmental aesthetic research and practice will depend upon the fruitful collaboration of the four approaches.     

ESTIMATION OF DAILY TEMPERATURE MEANS USING ELEVATION AND LATITUDE IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN1

ABSTRACT A model was developed for predicting mean daily, mean daily minimum, and mean daily maximum temperatures in West Virginia. The model is easily used since the only inputs are elevation, latitude, and julian date. With local calibration, the model is expected to apply to other areas in the Appalachian region.     

THE EFFECT OF SALT ON SMALL,ARTIFICIAL LAKES1

ABSTRACT: Northridge Lakes, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, receive runoff from a 3.8 square kilometer drainage area. Almost 30% of the watershed is covered by shopping centers, apartment buildings, and roadways. Deicing agents used on the paved areas, primarily NaCl with some CaCl₂, dissolved in surface runoff and entered the lakes during the winter season. This highly saline inflow was denser than the receiving lake water and formed a saline-water stratum at the lakes' bottom. The salinity stratification remained stable until the spring thaw when a rapid decay began. After the stratification had disappeared, the lakes continued to act as a storage site for dissolved salts. Chloride concentrations in the lakes remained well above the levels found in natural lakes until the advent of the next salting season. Furthermore, outflow from the lakes also showed abnormally high salt concentrations year-round.