Sociality in mole rats has been suggested to have evolved as a response to the widely dispersed food resources and the limited burrowing opportunities that result from sporadic rainfall events. In the most arid regions, individual foraging efficiency is reduced, and energetic constraints increase. In this study, we investigate seasonal differences in burrow architecture of the social Cryptomys hottentotus hottentotus in a mesic region. We describe burrow geometry in response to seasonal weather conditions for two seasons (wet and dry). Interactions occurred between seasons and colony size for the size of the burrow systems, but not the shape of the burrow systems. The fractal dimension values of the burrow systems did not differ between seasons. Thus, the burrow complexity was dependent upon the number of mole rats present in the social group. 相似文献
Generalization prevails in flower–animal interactions, and although animal visitors are not equally effective pollinators, most interactions likely represent an important energy intake for the animal visitor. Hummingbirds are nectar-feeding specialists, and many tropical plants are specialized toward hummingbird-pollination. In spite of this, especially in dry and seasonal tropical habitats, hummingbirds may often rely on non-ornithophilous plants to meet their energy requirements. However, quantitative studies evaluating the relative importance of ornithophilous vs. non-ornithophilous plants for hummingbirds in these areas are scarce. We here studied the availability and use of floral resources by hummingbirds in two different areas of the Cerrado, the seasonal savannas in Central Brazil. Roughly half the hummingbird visited plant species were non-ornithophilous, and these contributed greatly to increase the overall nectar availability. We showed that mean nectar offer, at the transect scale, was the only parameter related to hummingbird visitation frequency, more so than nectar offer at single flowers and at the plant scale, or pollination syndrome. Centrality indices, calculated using hummingbird–plant networks, showed that ornithophilous and non-ornithophilous plants have similar importance for network cohesion. How this foraging behaviour affects reproduction of non-ornithophilous plants remains largely unexplored and is probably case specific, however, we suggest that the additional energy provided by non-ornithophilous plants may facilitate reproduction of truly ornithophilous flowers by attracting and maintaining hummingbirds in the area. This may promote asymmetric hummingbird–plant associations, i.e., pollination depends on floral traits adapted to hummingbird morphology, but hummingbird visitation is determined more by the energetic "reward" than by pollination syndromes. 相似文献
Several social mammals, including elephants and some primates, whales and bats, live in multilevel societies that form temporary subgroups. Despite these fission–fusion dynamics, group members often maintain long-term bonds. However, it is unclear whether such individual links and the resulting stable social subunits continue to exist after a complete reorganisation of a society, e.g. following a population crash. Here, we employed a weighted network analysis on 7,109 individual roosting records collected over 4 years in a wild Bechstein’s bat colony. We show that, in response to a strong population decline, the colony’s two stable social subunits fused into a non-modular social network. Nevertheless, in the first year after the crash, long-term bonds were still detectable, suggesting that the bats remembered previous individual relationships. Our findings are important for understanding the flexibility of animal societies in the face of dramatic changes and for the conservation of social mammals with declining populations.
We used aerated systems to assess the influence of the bacterioplankton community on cyanobacterial blooms in algae/post-bloom of Lake Taihu, China. Bacterioplankton community diversity was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis(PCR-DGGE) fingerprinting. Chemical analysis and nitrogen dynamic changes illustrated that NH4+-N was nitrified to NO2-N and NO3-N by bacterioplankton. Finally, NH4+-N was exhausted and NO3-N was denitrified to NO2-N, while the accumulation of NO2-N indicated that bacterioplankton with completely aerobic denitrification ability were lacking in the water samples collected from Lake Taihu. We suggested that adding completely aerobic denitrification bacteria(to denitrify NO2-N to N2)would improve the water quality. PCR-DGGE and sequencing results showed that more than 1/3 of the bacterial species were associated with the removal of nitrogen, and Acidovorax temperans was the dominant one. PCR-DGGE, variation of nitrogen, removal efciencies of chlorophyll-a and canonical correspondence analysis indicated that the bacterioplankton significantly influenced the physiological and biochemical changes of cyanobacteria. Additionally, the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means revealed there was no obvious harm to the microecosystem from aeration. The present study demonstrated that bacterioplankton can play crucial roles in aerated ecosystems, which could control the impact of cyanobacterial blooms in eutrophicated fresh water systems. 相似文献
We have created a new method of ZnS nanospheres synthesis. By interface-mediated precipitation method (IMPM), monodisperse ZnS nanoparticles was synthesized on the particle surface of sulfate-reducing bacterium nutritious agar culture. Sulfate-reducing bacterium (SRB) was used as a sulfide producer because of its dissimilatory sulfate reduction capability, meanwhile produced a variety of amino acids acting as templates for nanomaterials synthesis. Then zinc acetate was dispersed into nutritious agar plate. Subsequently agar plate was broken into particles bearing much external surface, which successfully mediated the synthesis of monodisperse ZnS nanoparticles. The morphology of monodisperse ZnS nanospheres and SRB were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the microstructure was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The thermostability of ZnS nanoparticles was determined by thermo gravimetric-differential thermo gravimetric (TG-DTG). The maximum absorption wavelengh was analysed with an ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer within a range of 199–700 nm. As a result, monodisperse ZnS nanoparticles were successfully synthesized, with an average diameter of 80 nm. Maximum absorption wavelengh was 228 nm, and heat decomposed temperature of monodisperse ZnS nanoparticles was 596°C. 相似文献
We have created a new method of ZnS nanospheres synthesis. By interface-mediated precipitation method (IMPM), monodisperse ZnS nanoparticles was synthesized on the particle surface of sulfate-reducing bacterium nutritious agar culture. Sulfate-reducing bacterium (SRB) was used as a sulfide producer because of its dissimilatory sulfate reduction capability, meanwhile produced a variety of amino acids acting as templates for nanomaterials synthesis. Then zinc acetate was dispersed into nutritious agar plate. Subsequently agar plate was broken into particles bearing much external surface, which successfully mediated the synthesis of monodisperse ZnS nanoparticles. The morphology of monodisperse ZnS nanospheres and SRB were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the microstructure was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The thermostability of ZnS nanoparticles was determined by thermo gravimetric-differential thermo gravimetric (TG-DTG). The maximum absorption wavelengh was analysed with an ultravioletvisible spectrophotometer within a range of 199-700 nm. As a result, monodisperse ZnS nanoparticles were successfully synthesized, with an average diameter of 80 nm. Maximum absorption wavelengh was 228 nm, and heat decomposed temperature of monodisperse ZnS nanoparticles was 596℃. 相似文献
Many studies have shown soil degradation after the conversion of native forests to exotic Eucalyptus plantations. However, few studies have investigated the long-term impacts of short-rotation forestry practices on soil microorganisms. The impacts of Eucalyptus successive rotations on soil microbial communities were evaluated by comparing phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) abundances, compositions, and enzyme activities of native Pinus massoniana plantations and adjacent 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation Eucalyptus plantations. The conversion from P. massoniana to Eucalyptus plantations significantly decreased soil microbial community size and enzyme activities, and increased microbial physiological stress. However, the PLFA abundances formed "U" shaped quadratic functions with Eucalyptus plantation age. Alternatively, physiological stress biomarkers, the ratios of monounsaturated to saturated fatty acid and Gram+ to Gram- bacteria, formed "∩" shaped quadratic functions, and the ratio of cy17:0 to 16: 1ω7c decreased with plantation age. The activities of phenol oxidase, peroxidase, and acid phosphatase increased with Eucalyptus plantation age, while the cellobiobydrolase activity formed "U" shaped quadratic functions. Soil N:P, alkaline hydrolytic nitrogen, soil organic carbon, and understory cover largely explained the variation in PLFA profiles while soil N:P, alkaline hydrolytic nitrogen, and understory cover explained most of the variability in enzyme activity. In conclusion, soil microbial structure and function under Eucalyptus plantations were strongly impacted by plantation age. Most of the changes could be explained by altered soil resource availability and understory cover associated with successive planting of Eucalyptus. Our results highlight the importance of plantation age for assessing the impacts of plantation conversion as well as the importance of reducing disturbance for plantation management. 相似文献