Carotenoids in the egg yolks of collared flycatchers (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ficedula albicollis</Emphasis>) in relation to parental quality,environmental factors and laying order

Birds may influence the fitness of their offspring by transmission of different amounts of carotenoids to their eggs. Carotenoids play crucial roles in antioxidant protection and immune defence mechanisms, but they may be available to females in limiting amounts. Therefore, their allocation to the eggs may be influenced by the female’s condition, age and environmental circumstances. Furthermore, the quality of the male parent, which affects the reproductive value of the offspring, may also influence this investment. In this correlational study, we investigated proximate and ultimate factors that may lead to variation in yolk lutein, zeaxanthin and β-carotene concentrations among and within clutches of a wild passerine, the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis). We found that carotenoid concentration was positively associated with caterpillar supply at the time of egg formation, which suggests a proximate constraint of carotenoid availability on yolk composition. Neither female condition, body size, age, nor male plumage ornamentation, age and body size correlated with carotenoid deposition. Yolk β-carotene concentration was found to be positively linked to yolk testosterone concentration. We suggest that females allocated more β-carotene to their eggs to mitigate the potentially detrimental effects of elevated steroid concentration. We found that concentration of β-carotene increased with laying order. The possible function of this pattern may be to enhance the resistance to oxidative stress and pathogens of the disadvantaged last-hatching nestling, suggesting that collared flycatchers pursue a compensatory, “brood survival” strategy.     

A stakeholder dialogue on European vulnerability

A stakeholder dialogue was embedded in the ATEAM project to facilitate the development and dissemination of its European-wide vulnerability assessment of global change impacts. Participating stakeholders were primarily ecosystem managers and policy advisers interested in potential impacts on ‘Agriculture’, ‘Forestry’, ‘Water’, ‘Carbon storage’, ‘Biodiversity’ and ‘Mountain environments’ sectors. First, stakeholder dialogue approaches to integrated assessment are introduced. Methodological considerations on stakeholder selection and dialogue implementation and evaluation follow. The dialogue content and process are evaluated from the perspectives of stakeholders and scientists. Its usefulness in the research process and the relevance of outcomes for stakeholders are particularly considered. The challenging compromises required to perform innovative research, which seeks to achieve both peer scientific credibility and societal relevance, are emphasized. Effective stakeholder dialogues play a substantial role in raising the visibility and meaningfulness of vulnerability assessments as critical means to improve awareness on global change and its potential worrying impacts on society. They further provide scientists with critical information on ecosystem management and sectoral adaptive capacity. These processes of mutual learning and knowledge exchange moreover foster a better understanding of the potential and limits of global change modelling and vulnerability assessment for policy and ecosystem management.

Nutritional and related experiments on laboratory maintenance of three species of symbiont-bearing,large foraminifera

Factors were examined that affect survival and growth of two common species of large foraminifera from the Red Sea,Amphisorus hemprichii Ehrenberg andAmphistegina lobifera Larsen, 1976. The former is host for dinoflagellate and the latter for diatom zooxanthellae. Experimental conditions were modeled on conditions at 25 m during spring at Wadi Taba, Gulf of Elat, Israel, the season and site where the experimental organisms were collected between 1983 and 1988. The two species responded quite differently in nutritional experiments.A. hemprichii grew, on average, 0.270 mm in diameter in 3 mo on a diet ofNitzschia subcommunis Hustedt,Chlorella sp. (clone AT) orCylindrotheca closterium Rabenhorst isolated from their native habitat. Unfed controls did not grow. In contrast, unfed populations ofA. lobifera grew as well or better than those that were fed unialgal diets. Growth of both species was enhanced on particular mixed algal diets. Both species required photosynthetically active symbionts. Even when fed weekly and supplied with nutrients, neither species survived in the dark. All individuals ofA. hemprichii died after 8 wk incubation in the dark;A. lobifera survived longer, but all were dead by 13 wk. The highest growth rate ofA. hemprichii (0.037 mm wk^–1) was obtained when they were fed, the medium was enriched, and the medium was changed weekly. All other conditions being the same, growth rate dropped to 0.009 mm wk^–1 when the medium was changed every 3 wk. In contrast,A. lobifera grew fastest when the medium was changed every 3 wk. Food or enrichment with nitrate or phosphate did not stimulate growth (0.03 mm wk^–1) over that of the controls. Specimens ofMarginopora kudakajimensis Gudmundsson from Japan, another dinoflagellate-bearing species, were also tested. They grew best (0.02 mm wk^–1) when cultured in light, in media enriched with nitrate and phosphate changed weekly, and fed. All three species withdrew nitrate and phosphate from the medium in chemostat experiments.     

The influence of parental age and weather on testosterone concentration and offspring survival in broods of tawny owl Strix aluco

Previous research has suggested that parental condition may affect offspring mortality patterns by affecting offspring testosterone levels. Accordingly, we hypothesized that there is a relationship between offspring testosterone concentration and survival during the early nestling period, and that both are influenced by parent age/experience and by prey availability. We tested our hypothesis on tawny owls Strix aluco in their first and third known breeding seasons, when they bred either in adverse or mild weather conditions, in Duna-Ipoly National Park, Hungary. Plasma testosterone concentrations of the nestlings were analyzed and related to parental condition, hatching order and nestling mortality. Inexperienced parents breeding in all weather conditions and experienced parents breeding in adverse conditions were both in poor condition compared to experienced parents breeding in mild conditions. Parents in poor condition produced broods with large between-sibling differences in testosterone concentrations and their later-hatched nestlings (which had low testosterone levels) died during the early nestling period, whereas parents in good condition produced broods with lower variation in offspring testosterone concentrations and all offspring survived the early nestling period. We discuss environmental influences on the amount of testosterone deposited in eggs, and also how maternal testosterone might induce those mechanisms producing testosterone in the nestlings.Communicated by M. Webster, T. Czeschlik     

β-Estradiol and ethinyl-estradiol contamination in the rivers of the Carpathian Basin

17β-Estradiol (E2) and 17α-ethinyl estradiol (EE2), which are environmental estrogens, have been determined with LC-MS in freshwater. Their sensitive analysis needs derivatization and therefore is very hard to achieve in multiresidue screening. We analyzed samples from all the large and some small rivers (River Danube, Drava, Mur, Sava, Tisza, and Zala) of the Carpathian Basin and from Lake Balaton. Freshwater was extracted on solid phase and derivatized using dansyl chloride. Separation was performed on a Kinetex XB-C18 column. Detection was achieved with a benchtop orbitrap mass spectrometer using targeted MS analysis for quantification. Limits of quantification were 0.05 ng/L (MS1) and 0.1 ng/L (MS/MS) for E2, and 0.001 ng/L (MS1) and 0.2 ng/L (MS/MS) for EE2. River samples contained n.d.–5.2 ng/L E2 and n.d.–0.68 ng/L EE2. Average levels of E2 and EE2 were 0.61 and 0.084 ng/L, respectively, in rivers, water courses, and Lake Balaton together, but not counting city canal water. EE2 was less abundant, but it was still present in almost all of the samples. In beach water samples from Lake Balaton, we measured 0.076–0.233 E2 and n.d.–0.133 EE2. A relative high amount of EE2 was found in river Zala (0.68 ng/L) and in Hévíz-Páhoki canal (0.52 ng/L), which are both in the catchment area of Lake Balaton (Hungary).     

Ecotoxicological assessment of doxycycline in soil

Doxycycline has been used in continually increasing quantities for mass treatment of food animals because of its greater bioavailability relative to older tetracyclines. The study presented in this paper was undertaken to investigate the degradation rate of the tetracycline derivative in manure-amended soil. In the present experiment, following composting, the doxycycline-contaminated manure was applied to agricultural land, and a field study was performed to investigate the degradation rate of doxycycline in soil. By the end of the 20-week sampling period, about 20 %, 33 % and 18 % of the initial doxycycline concentrations could be measured in soil samples taken at three different soil depths. The calculated half-life of doxycycline in the soil was 66.5, 76.3 and 59.4 days at depths of 0 cm, 25 cm and 50 cm, respectively. The potential effect of doxycycline on soil microbial activity was demonstrated by the nitrogen transformation test performed in compliance with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guideline No. 216. On day 28, the following nitrate concentrations of the control soil sample were found in the soil samples treated with different amounts of doxycycline: 76.9 %, 53.0 %, 65.6 %, 59.7 % and 77.1 %.     

Chemical and biological characterisation of biofilms formed on different substrata in Tisza river (Hungary)

Natural biofilms were simultaneously grown on granite, polished granite, andesite, polycarbonate and Plexi-glass substrata for six weeks in the Tisza River. Biofilm production and abundance of algae were influenced by the substratum. Magnitude of the substratum effect was andesite相似文献   

Rethinking resilience and development: A coevolutionary perspective

The interdependence of social and ecological processes is broadly acknowledged in the pursuit to enhance human wellbeing and prosperity for all. Yet, development interventions continue to prioritise economic development and short-term goals with little consideration of social-ecological interdependencies, ultimately undermining resilience and therefore efforts to deliver development outcomes. We propose and advance a coevolutionary perspective for rethinking development and its relationship to resilience. The perspective rests on three propositions: (1) social-ecological relationships coevolve through processes of variation, selection and retention, which are manifest in practices; (2) resilience is the capacity to filter practices (i.e. to influence what is selected and retained); and (3) development is a coevolutionary process shaping pathways of persistence, adaptation or transformation. Development interventions affect and are affected by social–ecological relationships and their coevolutionary dynamics, with consequences for resilience, often with perverse outcomes. A coevolutionary approach enables development interventions to better consider social–ecological interdependencies and dynamics. Adopting a coevolutionary perspective, which we illustrate with a case on agricultural biodiversity, encourages a radical rethinking of how resilience and development are conceptualised and practiced across global to local scales.