Patterns of Nest Predation on Artificial and Natural Nests in Forests

Abstract:  Artificial nest experiments have been used in an attempt to understand patterns of predation affecting natural nests. A growing body of literature suggests that neither relative rates nor patterns of predation are the same for artificial and natural nests. We studied nest predation and daily mortality rates and patterns at real and artificial ground and shrub nests to test the validity of artificial nest experiments. We monitored 1667 artificial and 344 natural nests, over seven trials, in three regions, across 58 sites in Ontario. We controlled for many of the factors thought to be responsible for previously reported differences between predation rates on natural and artificial nests. Although artificial nests in our study resembled natural nests, contained eggs of appropriate size, shape, and color of target bird species, and were placed in similar microhabitats as natural nests, the rates of predation on these nests did not parallel rates on natural nests for any region in terms of absolute rate or pattern. Predation rates on artificial nests did not vary between years, as they tended to for natural nests, and the magnitude of predation pressure on artificial ground nests compared with shrub nests did not show the same pattern as that on natural nests. In general, rates of predation on artificial nests were significantly higher than on natural nests. Our results suggest that conclusions derived from artificial nest studies may be unfounded. Given that many influential ideas in predation theory are based on results of artificial nest experiments, it may be time to redo these experiments with natural nests.     

有机负荷对SBAR中好氧颗粒污泥特性影响的研究

研究不同有机负荷条件下,气升式间歇反应器(SBAR)中培养好氧颗粒污泥,并观察其形态变化及处理模拟生活污水的效果。实验结果表明,在SBAR中,有机负荷为3kgCOD/(m3.d)和6 kgCOD/(m3.d)下均可以培养出成熟的好氧颗粒污泥,SVI值分别为25mL/g和32mL/g,沉降速度分别达到33.85m/h和33m/h。但较高的有机负荷条件下,培养出的污泥颗粒的粒径大多数在0.6mm～1.5mm,且COD、氨氮和总磷的去除率分别可达97.57%、87.74%和86.60%;较低有机负荷条件下形成的污泥颗粒粒径多数在0.4mm～1.0mm之间,COD、氨氮和总磷的去除率分别为96.93%、85.48%和84.20%。