Patterns of the Remnant Cichlid Fauna in Southern Lake Victoria

During the years 1984–1987 Lake Victoria in East Africa experienced what is probably the largest mass extinction of contemporary vertebrates. Within a decade about 200 endemic species of haplochromine cichlids disappeared. The extinctions that occurred in the 1980s have been documented predominantly on species of offshore and sub-littoral waters in the Mwanza Gulf of southern Lake Victoria. Although the littoral fauna of southern Lake Victoria had not been examined in detail, their diversity seemed less affected by the changes in the ecosystem. We give results of the first comprehensive inventory of the littoral cichlid fauna in southern Lake Victoria and discuss its conservation status. We also report on new developments in the sub-littoral fauna after 1990. More than 50 littoral and 15 sub-littoral stations were sampled between the years 1991 to 1995. Of the littoral stations, 34 were sampled for the first time. One hundred sixty three species of haplochromines were collected. Of these, 102 species were previously unknown. About two thirds of them live in rocky areas that were sampled for the first time. Littoral rocky habitats harbored the highest diversity. Since 1990, however, 13 more species disappeared from established sampling stations in littoral habitats. Fishing practices, spreading of exotic fishes, water hyacinth, and eutrophication are considered important threats to the littoral fauna. Also in the upper sub-littoral the number of species declined further. On deeper sub-littoral mud bottoms individual and species numbers increased again, although they are nowhere close to those found before the Nile perch (Lates niloticus) upsurge. This fauna differs from the well studied pre-Nile perch fauna. At well-established sampling stations, the sub-littoral zone is dominated by previously unknown species, and some known species have performed dramatic habitat shifts.     

Tropane and pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the ithomiinesPlacidula euryanassa andMiraleria cymothoe (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Summary Larvae of the ithomiine butterflyPlacidula euryanassa sequester tropane alkaloids (TAs) from the host plantBrugmansia suaveolens and pass them through the pupae to freshly emerged adults. Wild caught adults also show in their tissues, variable amounts of pyrrolidizine alkaloids (PAs), probably sequestered from variable plant sources and subject to dynamics of incorporation, accumulation and utilization of PAs by ithomiine butterflies. The ratio TAs/PAs is also variable between different populations.Miraleria cymothoe, another ithomiine that feeds onB. suaveolens as larvae, does not sequester TAs from the host-plant, but sequesters PAs from plant sources visited by the adult butterflies. The main alkaloid found in both butterflies is lycopsamine, which also is the principal PA found in all genera of Ithomiinae.     

Regulatory structures and operational environment in the Portuguese waste sector

This research computes the influence of the operational environment on the efficiency of the Portuguese urban solid waste services. A sample of 29 solid waste utilities encompassing the whole continental country was used for this purpose. Particularly, we apply the non-parametric double bootstrap model to estimate the effect of various explanatory factors on robust data envelopment analysis estimates. In general, we find a significant influence of the environmental context on the solid waste utilities’ performance. The environmental context is characterized by gross domestic product per capita, distance to treatment facilities, population density, regulation, type of management, composting and incineration services.     

Performance of Greater Sage-Grouse Models for Conservation Assessment in the Interior Columbia Basin, U.S.A.

Abstract: Valid modeling of habitats and populations of Greater Sage-Grouse ( Centrocercus urophasianus) is a critical management need because of increasing concern about population viability. Consequently, we evaluated the performance of two models designed to assess landscape conditions for Greater Sage-Grouse across 13.6 million ha of sagebrush steppe in the interior Columbia Basin and adjacent portions of the Great Basin of the western United States (referred to as the basin). The first model, the environmental index model, predicted conditions at the scale of the subwatershed (mean size of approximately 7800 ha) based on inputs of habitat density, habitat quality, and effects of human disturbance. Predictions ranged on a continuous scale from 0 for lowest environmental index to 2 for optimal environmental index. The second model, the population outcome model, predicted the composite, range-wide conditions for sage grouse based on the contribution of environmental index values from all subwatersheds and measures of range extent and connectivity. Population outcomes were expressed as five classes (A through E) that represented a gradient from continuous, well-distributed populations (outcome A) to sparse, highly isolated populations with a high likelihood of extirpation (outcome E). To evaluate performance, we predicted environmental index values and population outcome classes in areas currently occupied by sage grouse versus areas where extirpation has occurred. Our a priori expectations were that models should predict substantially worse environmental conditions ( lower environmental index) and a substantially higher probability of extirpation ( lower population outcome class) in extirpated areas. Results for both models met these expectations. For example, a population outcome of class E was predicted for extirpated areas, as opposed to class C for occupied areas. These results suggest that our models provided reliable landscape predictions for the conditions tested. This finding is important for conservation planning in the basin, where the models were used to evaluate management of federal lands for sage grouse.     

Heavy metal concentration in soil and woody plants in a quarry

This study determined the concentration of three heavy metals zinc (Zn), lead (Pb), and cadmium (Cd) in soil and in a woody plant species, Milicia excelsa, at Ishiagu quarry, Nigeria. The highest soil concentrations of Zn, Pb, and Cd in soil were obtained at 1?m from the quarry site. In M. excelsa, the highest concentrations of Zn, Pb, and Cd were 3.12–9.1, 3.9–6.01, and 0.51–1.12?mg?kg^?1, respectively. There were significant positive correlations between Cd and Zn (r?=?0.963) and Cd and Pb (r?=?0.974) in plants as well as between Cd and Pb (r?=?9.84) in soil. The level of Cd in soil reflected significant pollution compared to average global concentrations in soils.     

Disturbance and resource availability act differently on the same suite of plant traits: revisiting assembly hypotheses

Understanding the mechanisms of trait selection at the scale of plant communities is a crucial step toward predicting community assembly. Although it is commonly assumed that disturbance and resource availability constrain separate suites of traits, representing the regenerative and established phases, respectively, a quantification and test of this accepted hypothesis is still lacking due to limitations of traditional statistical techniques. In this paper we quantify, using structural equation modeling (SEM), the relative contributions of disturbance and resource availability to the selection of suites of traits at the community scale. Our model specifies and reflects previously obtained ecological insights, taking disturbance and nutrient availability as central drivers affecting leaf, allometric, seed, and phenology traits in 156 (semi-) natural plant communities throughout The Netherlands. The common hypothesis positing that disturbance and resource availability each affect a set of mutually independent traits was not consistent with the data. Instead, our final model shows that most traits are strongly affected by both drivers. In addition, trait-trait constraints are more important in community assembly than environmental drivers in half of the cases. Both aspects of trait selection are crucial for correctly predicting ecosystem processes and community assembly, and they provide new insights into hitherto underappreciated ecological interactions.