A field study was carried out in the south of the Iberian Peninsula in an industrial area in the neighbourhood of Huelva city, SW Spain, and in a natural area (Do?ana National Park) for comparison, to estimate the genetic risk induced by environmental pollution in wild mice. Genotoxic effects in a sentinel organism, the Algerian mice (Mus spretus) free living in the industrial area were compared with animals of the same species living in the natural protected area. The single cell gel electrophoresis, or Comet assay, was performed as a genotoxicity test in peripheral blood of mice. Our results clearly show that mice free living in the contaminated area bear a high burden of genetic damage as compared with control individuals. The results suggest that the assessing of genotoxicity levels by the Comet assay in wild mice can be used as a valuable test in pollution monitoring and environmental conservation. 相似文献
Kinetic EDTA and citrate extractions were used to mimic metal mobilization in a soil contaminated by metallurgical fallout. Modeling of metal removal rates vs. time distinguished two metal pools: readily labile (QM1) and less labile (QM2). In citrate extractions, total extractability (QM1+QM2) of Zn and Cd was proportionally higher than for Pb and Cu. Proportions of Pb and Cu extracted with EDTA were three times higher than when using citrate. We observed similar QM1/QM2 ratios for Zn and Cu regardless of the extractant, suggesting comparable binding energies to soil constituents. However, for Pb and Cd, more heterogeneous binding energies were hypothesized to explain different kinetic extraction behaviors. Proportions of citrate-labile metals were found consistent with their short-term, in-situ mobility assessed in the studied soil, i.e., metal amount released in the soil solution or extracted by cultivated plants. Kinetic EDTA extractions were hypothesized to be more predictive for long-term metal migration with depth. 相似文献
Biosolid application to soil may be a supply of nutrients and micronutrients but it may also accumulate toxic compounds which would be absorbed by crops and through them be incorporated to the trophic chain.
The present study deals with the effect of biosolid application on Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, and Zn in agricultural soils. The procedure used is sequential extraction so that the availability of those metals may be estimated and related to their bioavailability as determined through two indicator plants grown in greenhouse: ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) and red clover (Trifolium pratense). Results showed that biosolid application to soil increased total Cu and Zn content. Sequential extraction showed that the more labile Zn fractions increased after biosolid application to soil. This was confirmed when assessing the total content of this metal in shoot and root of the plants under study, since a higher content was found in plant tissues, while no significant differences were found for Cu, Cr, Ni, and Pb. 相似文献
A recently favored hypothesis is that duetting in birds has a mate-guarding function: a male responds vocally to his partner’s
song, thereby forming a duet that repels males who are attracted to her song. Previous studies have not provided unambiguous
tests of the mate-guarding hypothesis because: (1) the probability of a male answering his partner’s song has not been shown
to increase specifically when the female is fertile, and (2) the probability of a male answering his partner’s song has not
been assessed separately from simply a higher song initiation rate. We investigated extra-pair paternity, mate-guarding, and
duetting in the socially monogamous Australian magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca). DNA fingerprinting revealed that 3% of young were the result of extra-pair paternity, and we found that males guarded fertile
females by staying close to them. However, males did not initiate songs at a higher rate when females were fertile and actually
reduced their probability of replying to female song during this period. We conclude that although male magpie-larks did guard
fertile females in an attempt to prevent extra-pair copulations, they did not use duetting for this purpose.
Received: 10 May 1999 / Received in revised form: 27 September 1999 / Accepted: 2 October 1999 相似文献
DNA fingerprinting was combined with field observations over four breeding seasons to investigate the social structure and
mating system of the laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae). Groups comprised a socially dominant pair and up to six helpers of either sex. Helpers were always recruited from young
hatched in the group. Territorial inheritance, which is a feature of other cooperative breeders and an oft-cited benefit of
philopatry, did not occur. Helpers only attained dominant status in an established group by dispersing into a vacant dominant
position in that group. However, helpers could also form new groups by excising a new territory, often through a ”budding”
process. The mating system was overwhelmingly monogamous. There were no cases of extra-group parentage in a sample of 140
nestlings; within groups of three or more birds, dominance predicted parentage almost perfectly (99.2% of 129 nestlings),
irrespective of whether helpers in the group were related to one or both dominant birds. This is contrary to predictions from
models of reproductive skew, possibly because they currently fail to incorporate the willingness of females to share reproduction
among males.
Received: 15 May 1999 / Received in revised form: 2 November 1999 / Accepted: 6 November 1999 相似文献