Examining adaptation and mitigation opportunities in the context of the integrated watershed management programme of the Government of India

India occupies 2.4% of the world’s geographical area with a large percentage of its land under agriculture. About 228 Million hectares (Mha) of its geographical area (nearly 69%) fall within the dryland (arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid) region. Of the total cultivated area of 142 Mha, major part of agriculture in the country is rainfed, extending to over 97 Mha and constituting nearly 68% of the net cultivated area, therefore making the agricultural sector vulnerable and exposed to the vagaries of weather conditions. Climate change adds to this dimension of stress. A strong need is felt for targeting programmes in these areas that address issues related to employing suitable soil and water conservation measures. In this context this paper seeks to examine the case for watershed development as an adaptive strategy. An examination of the possibility of fortifying the existing programme with a view to adapting to expected changes in climate in future is undertaken. Also, the possibility of watershed development integrating into a suitable mitigation strategy for the country is assessed.

Tropical deforestation in a future international climate policy regime—lessons from the Brazilian Amazon

The possibility of adopting national targets for carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from tropical deforestation in a future international climate treaty has received increasing attention recently. This attention has been prompted by proposals to this end and more intensified talks on possible commitments for developing countries beyond the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Kyoto Protocol. We analyze four main scientific and political challenges associated with national targets for emissions from tropical deforestation: (1) reducing the uncertainties in emission inventories, (2) preserving the environmental integrity of the treaty, (3) promoting political acceptance and participation in the regime, and (4) providing economic incentives for reduced deforestation. We draw the following conclusions. (1) Although there are large uncertainties in carbon flux from deforestation, these are in the same range as for other emissions included in the current Kyoto protocol (i.e., non-CO₂ GHGs), and they can be reduced. However, for forest degradation processes the uncertainties are larger. A large challenge lies in building competence and institutions for monitoring the full spectrum of land use changes in developing countries. (2 and 3) Setting targets for deforestation is difficult, and uncertainties in future emissions imply a risk of creating ‘tropical hot air’. However, there are proposals that may sufficiently deal with this, and these proposals may also have the advantage of making the targets more attractive, politically speaking. Moreover, we conclude that while a full carbon accounting system will likely be politically unacceptable for tropical countries, the current carbon accounting system should be broadened to include forest degradation in order to safeguard environmental integrity. (4) Doubts can be cast over the possible effect a climate regime alone will have on deforestation rates, though little thorough analysis of this issue has been made.

铅在棉秆基活性炭上的吸附动力学与热力学

以棉秆与棉秆纤维为原料,利用磷酸活化法制备了低成本的高比表面微孔棉秆基活性炭,通过静态实验研究了活性炭对水溶液中铅的吸附特性,测定了溶液pH值、吸附时间、溶液温度对吸附的影响,探讨了吸附动力学、热力学及吸附机制.根据低温液氮(N2/77K)吸附测定数据,以BET方程、BJH法及H-K法对活性炭孔结构进行了表征,以Boehm滴定、FTIR、零电荷点pHPZC测定及元素分析定量表征活性炭表面含氧官能团.结果表明,以棉秆和棉秆纤维为原料制备的活性炭的比表面积分别为1570和1731m2·g-1,含氧酸官能团含量分别为1.43和0.83mmol·g-1,均高于商业活性炭ST1300.静态吸附实验表明,棉秆基活性炭对铅有较大的吸附容量和吸附效率,最大吸附量超过120mg·g-1,溶液pH对吸附有较大的影响,吸附量随时间增大而增大,在5min内可达饱和吸附量的80%;吸附动力学数据符合假二级方程,Freundlich方程能更好地描述等温吸附行为;热力学研究表明,吸附吉布斯自由能(ΔG0)0,而焓变(ΔH0)0,说明吸附为吸热的自发反应过程,升温有利于吸附,离子交换可能在吸附过程中起了重要作用.     

巢湖周围池塘氮、磷和有机质研究

巢湖周围池塘众多,根据池塘位置和地表径流补给差异,池塘可以分为村庄内池塘、毗邻村庄池塘和农田区域池塘(远离村庄的池塘).本研究采集了巢湖周围136口池塘上覆水和沉积物样品,调查巢湖周围池塘中氮、磷以及有机质污染现状.结果表明,池塘上覆水中总氮、氨氮、硝态氮、亚硝态氮、总磷、溶解态磷和COD平均含量分别为2.53、0.65、0.18、0.02、0.97、0.38和51.58mg·L-1;池塘沉积物中总氮、氨氮、硝态氮、亚硝态氮、总磷、无机磷、有机磷和烧失量平均含量分别为1575.36、35.73、13.30、2.88、933.19、490.14、414.75mg·kg-1和5.44%;90%以上的池塘总氮、总磷含量达到或超过富营养化水平.位于村庄内的池塘上覆水和沉积物中总氮和氨氮的含量显著高于位于农田区域的池塘.上覆水和沉积物中无机氮表现为:氨氮硝态氮亚硝态氮.池塘上覆水和沉积物中有机质与总氮、总磷之间存在显著的正相关性.池塘中氮、磷和有机物质主要为陆源性输入,池塘位置和径流补给方式明显影响其中的氮、磷和有机质含量.通过截留径流中的氮、磷和有机质,池塘能够有效减少进入巢湖的营养盐含量.     

Infanticide by a solitary koinobiont ichneumonid ectoparasitoid of spiders

When encountering an already parasitized host, a parasitoid’s optimal choices (superparasitism, host rejection, host feeding or infanticide) seem to depend on the individual species’ life history, because the same choice may have different fitness consequences. We demonstrate infanticide under laboratory conditions by a polysphinctine, Zatypota albicoxa, which is a solitary koinobiont ectoparasitoid of spiders. The female always removed any previously attached egg or larva from the body of the host spider, Parasteatoda tepidariorum, with a rubbing behaviour. She rubbed her ovipositor back and forth toward the undersurface of the attached egg or of the saddle under the attached larva to pry it off and laid an egg after removal. When removing a larva, the infanticidal female engaged exclusively in unfastening the ‘saddle’ which fastens the larva to the body of the spider. All larvae were removed with the ‘saddle’ attached to the ventral surface of the body. The female invested more time to remove the medium second and the large penultimate instar larvae than to remove eggs and first instar larvae because of the labour involved in unfastening the saddle. Oviposition with infanticide of the medium second and the penultimate instar larvae imposed more time upon the female than that on an unparasitized host. Removal of any previous occupant in spite of the associated labour costs suggests that infanticide will always be adaptive, no matter the time costs to Z. albicoxa, because so much is invested in attacking the host and because the parasitoid cannot detect whether the spider is already parasitized until she achieves subjugation.     

Nuptial coloration of red shiners (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cyprinella lutrensis</Emphasis>) is more intense in turbid habitats

Communication is shaped and constrained by the signaling environment. In aquatic habitats, turbidity can reduce both the quantity and quality of ambient light and has been implicated in the breakdown of visual signaling. Here, we examined the relationship between turbidity (quantified with long-term data) and the expression of carotenoid-based nuptial coloration in the red shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis), a small-bodied cyprinid. Males in more turbid habitats displayed redder fins, and an experimental manipulation of adult diet suggested that carotenoid intake alone did not explain among-population color differences. These results run counter to similar studies where signal expression decreased in turbid conditions, and may be explained by the non-territorial red shiner mating system, interactions between the mechanism of coloration and the signaling environment, or reduced cost of color expression in turbid habitats (e.g., reduced predation risk). Our results highlight how the behavioral and ecological contexts in which signals function can shape evolutionary responses to the environment.     

The end of the fat dodo? A new mass estimate for <Emphasis Type="Italic">Raphus cucullatus</Emphasis>

A new mass estimate for the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), based on the lengths of the femur, tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus, is attempted. The obtained mean mass is 10.2 kg, which is less than previous estimates based on other methods, which ranged from 10.6 to 21.1 kg, and much lower than the 50 lbs reported by a seventeenth-century eyewitness. The new estimated mass, which is similar to that of a large wild turkey, seems more realistic than previous ones and supports the hypothesis that contemporary illustrations of extremely fat dodos were either exaggerations, or based on overfed specimens. Pictures of “fat” dodos may also have been based on individuals exhibiting a display behaviour with puffed out feathers.     

Ultrastructure of spermatozoa of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Onthophagus taurus</Emphasis> (Coleoptera,Scarabaeidae) exhibits heritable variation

Sperm competition is thought to be an important selective pressure shaping sperm form and function. However, few studies have moved beyond gross examinations of sperm morphology. Sperm length is subject to sexual selection via sperm competition in the scarab beetle Onthophagus taurus. Here, the structure and ultrastructure of spermatozoa in this species were investigated using light and electron microscopy. Spermatozoa were found to be filiform, measuring about 1,200 mm in length. The sperm head consists of a three-layered acrosome and a nuclear region bearing the anterior extension of the centriole adjunct. Acrosome and nuclear regions are bilaterally symmetric, with their axes of symmetry being orthogonal to each other. Head and flagellar structures are connected by a well-developed centriole adjunct. The sperm heads are asymmetrically surrounded by accessory material and embedded into the cytoplasm of the spermatocyst cell. The accessory material is produced inside the spermatids and then transferred to the outside due to a new membrane formed around the sperm’s organelles. The old spermatid membrane separates the accessory material from the cyst cell. The flagellum contains a 9+9+2 axoneme, two accessory bodies, and two mitochondrial derivatives of unequal size. The major mitochondrial derivative is significantly larger than the minor one. The axoneme is arranged in a sinusoidal manner parallel along the major mitochondrial derivative. The spermatozoa show no progressive motility when released in buffer solution which is likely to be the result of the flagellar arrangement and the structure of the major mitochondrial derivative. The cross-sectional area of the minor and the major mitochondrial derivatives show different patterns of genetic variation. The data provide the first estimates of genetic variation in sperm ultrastructure for any species, and give evidence for the persistence of genetic variation in ultrastructure required for the rapid and divergent evolution that characterizes spermatozoa generally.     

Bone histology of the titanosaur <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lirainosaurus astibiae</Emphasis> (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Latest Cretaceous of Spain

The titanosaur Lirainosaurus astibiae is the only sauropod species known from the Late Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula. Lirainosaurus did not reach a gigantic body size and is one of the smallest sauropods discovered to date. Histological analysis of Lirainosaurus bones, focused on diaphyseal transverse sections of appendicular elements, reveals that Lirainosaurus did not exhibit the osseous microstructure typical for large sauropods, but is comparable with that of the coeval titanosaurs Alamosaurus sanjuanensis, Ampelosaurus atacis, and Magyarosaurus dacus, and also shares histological traits with other small to medium-sized sauropodomorph dinosaurs. Lirainosaurus limb bones exhibit a laminar fibrolamellar bone microstructure interrupted by growth marks, fully obliterated in adulthood by intense secondary remodeling processes which tend to replace completely the primary cortex. Lirainosaurus attained smaller sizes than typical sauropods reducing the rate of primary periosteal osteogenesis and developing an extensive secondary remodeling well before the adult size was reached. Histological organization of Lirainosaurus long bones is more mature than observed in basal neosauropods at similar ontogenetic stage, documenting a case of peramorphosis by pre-displacement. This heterochronic growth would be a reversal of the accelerated pattern of bone deposition typical for the sauropod lineage.     

The earliest record of birch mice from the Early Miocene Nei Mongol,China

The earliest species of birch mouse, Sicista primus sp. nov., was recovered from the 17-Ma-old (Early Miocene) Gashunyinadege locality, central Nei Mongol, China. It is ~9 Ma older than the previous first appearance datum of Sicista in Eurasia. This study indicates that North American Macrognathomys is a synonym of Eurasian Sicista, having 12 shared dental characters. As a result, the biogeography of dipodids indicates that Asian Sicista dispersed to North America as opposed to the hypothesis that Sicista originated from the North American clade. Sicista is one of the few extant rodent genera that originated as early as the Early Miocene.