Nestling rearing is antioxidant demanding in female barn swallows (Hirundo rustica)

Reproduction is a demanding activity, since organisms must produce and, in some cases, protect and provision their progeny. Hence, a central tenet of life-history theory predicts that parents have to trade parental care against body maintenance. One physiological cost thought to be particularly important as a modulator of such trade-offs is oxidative stress. However, evidence in favour of the hypothesis of an oxidative cost of reproduction is contradictory. In this study, we manipulated the brood size of wild barn swallows Hirundo rustica soon after hatching of their nestlings to test whether an increase in nestling rearing effort translates into an increased oxidative damage and a decreased antioxidant protection at the end of the nestling rearing period. We found that, while plasma oxidative damage was unaffected by brood size enlargement, females rearing enlarged broods showed a decrease in plasma non-enzymatic antioxidants during the nestling rearing period. This was not the case among females rearing reduced broods and among males assigned to either treatment. Moreover, individuals with higher plasma oxidative damage soon after the brood size manipulation had lower plasma non-enzymatic antioxidants at the end of the nestling rearing period, suggesting that non-enzymatic antioxidants were depleted to buffer the negative effects of high oxidative damage. Our findings point to antioxidant depletion as a potential mechanism mediating the cost of reproduction among female birds.     

Nutrient distribution in locations of the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic sea) suspected of pollution

Nutrients (ammonium‐nitrogen, nitrite, nitrate, orthophosphate and dissolved silica) as well as some chemical‐physical parameters (temperature, pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen and total suspended matter) were determined in filtered seawater samples taken at the surface, at middle depth and at the bottom, in 6 open‐sea locations of the Gulf of Trieste (northern Adriatic Sea) close to pipeline exits that discharge wastewaters from treatment plants. The collected data allow a comparison of the quality of these open‐sea waters with coastal waters and constitute a reference for successive monitoring in these locations suspected of pollution. A multivariate statistical analysis by the principal component method shows that the considered ecosystem can be modeled with two factors: the first one is referenced to the marine environment, in particular to the decomposition of the organic debris in deep water; whereas the second factor is referenced to the input of freshwaters in the Gulf, driving nitrates from agricultural lands.     

Stable isotopes identify age- and sex-specific dietary partitioning and foraging habitat segregation in southern giant petrels breeding in Antarctica and southern Patagonia

We examined the isotopic signatures (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) of adult body feathers from southern giant petrels Macronectes giganteus collected at two breeding colonies in Antarctica (Potter Peninsula and Cape Geddes) and one in southern Patagonia (Observatorio Island), as well as in whole blood collected from adults of both sexes at each Antarctic colonies and from chicks at Potter Peninsula. As body feather moult is a continuous process in giant petrels, feathers provide an integrated annual signal of an adult’s diets and foraging habitats. In contrast, the stable isotope values of adult and chick blood are reflective of their diets during the breeding season. We found that sex-specific dietary segregation in adults breeding in Antarctica was notable during the breeding season (blood samples) but absent when examined across the entire year (feather samples). In addition, blood stable isotope values differed between chicks and adults, indicating that adults provision their offspring with a relatively higher amount of penguin and seal prey that what they consume themselves. This finding confirms previous work that suggests that chicks are preferentially fed with prey of presumably higher nutritional value such as carrion. Finally, based on isotopic differences between major oceanographic zones in the Southern Ocean, our data indicate population-specific differences in foraging distribution, with Antarctic populations move seasonally between Antarctic and subantarctic zones, while Patagonian populations likely forage in subtropical waters and in continental shelf habitats year-round.     

Copper recovery from aqueous solution by a modified industrial polymer

The use of a new material (MFPAN) for copper remotion from aqueous solution is reported. An industrial fibber polymer (FPAN) was modified by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to include tetrazole moieties, as pendant groups. A minimum ratio Cu/MPFAN is required to enable precipitation, suggesting a pseudo stoichiometry. Both polymer and metal can be quantitatively recovered from the precipitate by acidification. This recovery ensures a recyclable use of this new material.     

Design-based estimation in environmental surveys with positional errors

The recent increased availability of information about the micro-geographic positions of population units in environmental surveys has led to important developments in spatial sampling methodologies and, as a result, has improved the estimation accuracy. In real data, however, information about the location of units is often affected by inaccuracy about their exact spatial positions, and these non-sampling errors can affect the estimation procedure. This paper aims to investigate the effects of positional errors on total estimation through a Monte-Carlo simulation study based on real populations of trees. Starting from perfect positioning, we examine two typical types of coarsening that frequently impact two different species of trees. The simulation results show that the exploitation of spatial information to estimate population totals continues to be relevant in the context of environmental surveys, even in the presence of inaccuracies.     

Herbivores on a dominant understory shrub increase local plant diversity in rain forest communities

Indirect effects of trophic interactions on biodiversity can be large and common, even in complex communities. Previous experiments with dominant understory Piper shrubs in a Costa Rican rain forest revealed that increases in herbivore densities on these shrubs caused widespread seedling mortality as a result of herbivores moving from Piper to seedlings of many different plant genera. We tested components of the Janzen-Connell hypothesis by conducting focused studies on the effects of specialist and generalist Piper herbivores on local seedling diversity. Whereas specialist herbivores are predicted to increase mortality to neighboring seedlings that are closely related to the source plant, true generalists moving from source plants may cause density-dependent mortality of many species, and possibly increase richness if new species replace abundant species that have been thinned by herbivores. Therefore, we hypothesized that seedling richness would be greater in understory control plots created in patches of Piper that had normal densities of generalist herbivores compared to plots from which we removed generalist herbivores manually from all Piper shrubs. After 15 months, generalist-herbivore-removal plots had > 40% fewer seedlings, > 40% fewer species, and 40% greater seedling evenness, on average, than control plots with generalist herbivores intact. Using a complementary approach in unmanipulated plots in four forests, we used path analysis to test for a positive association between seedling diversity and herbivore damage on Piper species. In unmanipulated plots, for both generalist and specialist herbivores, our data were significant fits to the causal model that Piper herbivores decrease evenness and increase plant species richness, corroborating the experimental results. Because herbivores changed how individuals were apportioned among the species and families present (lower evenness), one interpretation of these associations between herbivores on Piper shrubs and local seedling richness is that high seedling mortality in dominant families allowed the colonization or survival of less common species. If interspecific or apparent competition allowed for a relative increase in species richness, then the Janzen-Connell hypothesis may extend its predictions to generalist seedling predators. We speculate that apparent competition may explain some of the deviations from neutral model predictions, especially at small scales.     

Egg antimicrobials, embryo sex and chick phenotype in the yellow-legged gull

Maternal effects through albumen quality are largely unexplored, despite the fundamental role that albumen exerts as source of proteins and water, as well as for antimicrobial defence of the embryo. We analysed the variation of two major albumen antimicrobials, avidin and lysozyme, by extracting samples from freshly laid eggs of the yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) and by correlating their levels to egg features. Lysozyme concentration increased along the laying sequence, while avidin concentration decreased. Both antimicrobials declined during the season. In addition, avidin concentration declined from first- to last-laid male eggs, whereas the opposite was true among the female eggs. We also analysed chick body mass and size and immune response, in relation to albumen antimicrobial levels in their original egg while controlling for potential covariation between egg quality and rearing conditions by cross-fostering eggs between nests. Tarsus length decreased with avidin concentration, particularly early in the season. Avidin concentration negatively predicted tarsus length of chicks and the phytohaemagglutinin response of females, but not males. However, chick phenotype did not covary with lysozyme albumen concentration. This is the first study where maternal effects mediated by albumen antimicrobials are investigated in relation to both sex and egg features in any wild bird species. Whether the observed patterns of variation in antimicrobial concentration are the by-product of maternal physiological constraints, or reflect adaptive allocation strategies, cannot be ascertained. The covariation between chick cell-mediated immunity and albumen avidin concentration might be causal, according to the documented effects of albumen proteins on immunity in other species.     

Food supplementation affects egg albumen content and body size asymmetry among yellow-legged gull siblings

Parental decisions can determine offspring experience of environmental conditions. Such ‘maternal’ effects act both before and after hatching via, e.g., egg quality or the social milieu predisposed by parents. Resource availability may constrain the expression of adaptive maternal effects, and the specific pattern of allocation of these effects among offspring depending on their sex or birth order can result in different fitness payoffs to parents. Declining egg mass with laying order observed in several bird species may constitute an adaptive strategy of parental favouritism towards early hatching offspring with larger reproductive value but may also result from nutritional constraints on laying effort. A previous study has shown that the small size of the third, last laid (c-)egg in yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) clutches depends on food availability and that food-supplemented mothers increase the size of their female but not male c-eggs. Here, we show that increased mass of c-eggs laid by females supplemented with food after clutch initiation depends on increased albumen mass, which, in turn, enhances the size of daughters at hatching. Because asynchronous hatching results in a competitive disadvantage of c-chicks, present results suggest that mothers relieved from nutritional constraints enhance the size of daughters to compensate for their larger susceptibility to hatching last. The study also confirms the role of egg albumen content in determining hatchling size, previously experimentally detected only in one species in the wild. The effect of increased egg mass on offspring size persisted at least until day 8 after hatching, when, however, it did not vary with sex, suggesting intense negative selection on small female c-chicks in control broods. Hence, maternal effects mediated by egg albumen content had persistent effects on offspring size.