Loft features reveal the functioning of the young pigeon’s navigational system

It is thought that young homing pigeons are able to use information acquired en route for their initial homeward orientation. However, the cues involved and mechanisms utilised are under discussion. Blocking light-dependent route-specific information during the first leg of an outward journey detour, together with analysis of pigeons that were raised under different loft conditions, allowed us to correctly evaluate the functioning of this mechanism and, more generally, the navigational map of birds. Pigeons from the same stock were raised and kept in two different lofts. The birds in the experimental groups were transported to the release sites via detours, and light-dependent information was denied during the first half of the outward journey (no compass information was available). Control birds were transported by the most direct route and had access to all available information. In general, the results showed that the low-loft birds preferred to use magnetic compass cues, whereas the high-loft birds preferred to use navigational map cues to collect information of the first part of the outward journey. The impairments observed in the homing performances of the experimental groups highlight the reliability of information collected inside the map area. Relevant to an understanding of the route-reversal mechanism was the evidence that this mechanism is able to function in the absence of compass information (birds raised in a wind-exposed loft show a detour effect). In systems where directional information could be provided by multiple sources, processing and extracting accurate course trajectories through a common mechanism may prove more efficient and reliable.     

Deer predation on leaf miners via leaf abscission

The evergreen oak Quercus gilva Blume sheds leaves containing mines of the leaf miner Stigmella sp. (Lepidoptera: Nepticulidae) earlier than leaves with no mines in early spring in Nara, central Japan. The eclosion rates of the leaf miner in abscised and retained leaves were compared in the laboratory to clarify the effects of leaf abscission on leaf miner survival in the absence of deer. The leaf miner eclosed successfully from both fallen leaves and leaves retained on trees. However, sika deer (Cervus nippon centralis Kishida) feed on the fallen mined leaves. Field observations showed that deer consume many fallen leaves under Q. gilva trees, suggesting considerable mortality of leaf miners due to deer predation via leaf abscission. This is a previously unreported relationship between a leaf miner and a mammalian herbivore via leaf abscission.     

pH值调节对红霉素膜浆中抗生素的降解作用

利用微生物法对红霉素膜浆中的红霉素药物残留量进行测定,红霉素残留量为265．88μg／mL。再通过调节pH值不同对膜浆残留红霉素的降解进一步研究。利用盐酸将膜浆的pH值调到2时,残留红霉素浓度为15．03μg／mL;降解率为94．35％。     

徐州市环境安全监测预警系统的建设与保障

介绍了徐州市环境安全监测预警系统的建设背景、适用范围与构成,明确了环境安全监测预警系统在徐州市国民经济和社会发展中的重要地位,阐述了徐州市应急监测系统与预警系统的职责与建设现状,总结了徐州市环境安全监测预警系统运行保障的思路与措施。     

森林公园景观水系自动监测水质预警体系研究

以奥运森林公园南区景观水系为背景,探讨了如何建立基于自动监测的水质预警体系.水质预警体系中包含5个部分:风险因素自动识别、风险因素定量化分析和预测、水质预测、水质警报指标体系与水质预警、对策及防范措施.结合奥运森林公园南区景观水系的具体情况,分析了上述水质预警体系中各部分的主要实现方法,给出了动态率定法、统计模型法、机...     

不同灌溉方法下保护地土壤盐分分布特征的研究

通过渗灌、滴灌、沟灌3种灌溉方法对保护地土壤pH、全盐含量及水溶性离子组成的影响,探讨了3种灌溉方法在保护地土壤酸化、盐化过程中的演化规律.结果表明:渗灌、滴灌、沟灌:3种处理方法中滴灌处理比渗灌处理和沟灌处理效果更好,表层水溶性盐分和硝酸盐积累较轻,酸化较轻,有利于土壤环境的可持续性发展和有效地保护土壤资源.     

地表水水质自动监测预警方法初探

基于目前我国地表水水质自动监测现状,初步探讨了地表水水质自动监测预警方法体系,提出了水质自动监测预警的整体技术路线,搭建基于突变型预警和渐变型预警的多种预警模型组框架,可以实现对单因子、多因子组合,趋势、状态等不同情况的异常水质数据进行预警,保证了预警的可靠性和准确性。通过实例分析,从水质自动监测数据集成、异常数据判定清洗、预警模型建立与运行、预警信息处理等方面介绍了水质自动监测预警的实现方法。     

中国的地震海啸及其预警服务

本文概述中国历史上地震海啸的发生情况,讨论了中国受远洋地震海啸影响的可能性,重点介绍了1992年初发生在海南岛近海的,首次由仪器记录到的极为鲜见的一次地震海啸,最后叙述了目前中国地震海啸预警的作业力式。     

Risk communication in emergency response to a simulated extreme flood

Risk communication in flood incident management can be improved through developing hydrometeorological and engineering models used as tools for communicating risk between scientists and emergency management professionals. A range of such models and tools was evaluated by participating flood emergency managers during a 4-day, real-time simulation of an extreme event in the Thamesmead area in the Thames estuary close to London, England. Emergency managers have different communication needs and value new tools differently, but the indications are that a range of new tools could be beneficial in flood incident management. Provided they are communicated large model uncertainties are not necessarily unwelcome among flood emergency managers. Even so they are cautious about sharing the ownership of weather and flood modelling uncertainties.     

Developmental stress affects song learning but not song complexity and vocal amplitude in zebra finches

Several recent studies have tested the hypothesis that song quality in adult birds may reflect early developmental conditions, specifically nutritional stress during the nestling period. Whilst all of these earlier studies found apparent links between early nutritional stress and song quality, their results disagree as to which aspects of song learning or production were affected. In this study, we attempted to reconcile these apparently inconsistent results. Our study also provides the first assessment of song amplitude in relation to early developmental stress and as a potential cue to male quality. We used an experimental manipulation in which the seeds on which the birds were reared were mixed with husks, making them more difficult for the parents to obtain. Compared with controls, such chicks were lighter at fledging; they were thereafter placed on a normal diet and had caught up by 100 days. We show that nutritional stress during the first 30 days of life reduced the birds’ accuracy of song syntax learning, resulting in poorer copies of tutor songs. Our experimental manipulations did not lead to significant changes in song amplitude, song duration or repertoire size. Thus, individual differences observed in song performance features probably reflect differences in current condition or motivation rather than past condition.