Pollution,habitat loss,fishing, and climate change as critical threats to penguins

Cumulative human impacts across the world's oceans are considerable. We therefore examined a single model taxonomic group, the penguins (Spheniscidae), to explore how marine species and communities might be at risk of decline or extinction in the southern hemisphere. We sought to determine the most important threats to penguins and to suggest means to mitigate these threats. Our review has relevance to other taxonomic groups in the southern hemisphere and in northern latitudes, where human impacts are greater. Our review was based on an expert assessment and literature review of all 18 penguin species; 49 scientists contributed to the process. For each penguin species, we considered their range and distribution, population trends, and main anthropogenic threats over the past approximately 250 years. These threats were harvesting adults for oil, skin, and feathers and as bait for crab and rock lobster fisheries; harvesting of eggs; terrestrial habitat degradation; marine pollution; fisheries bycatch and resource competition; environmental variability and climate change; and toxic algal poisoning and disease. Habitat loss, pollution, and fishing, all factors humans can readily mitigate, remain the primary threats for penguin species. Their future resilience to further climate change impacts will almost certainly depend on addressing current threats to existing habitat degradation on land and at sea. We suggest protection of breeding habitat, linked to the designation of appropriately scaled marine reserves, including in the High Seas, will be critical for the future conservation of penguins. However, large‐scale conservation zones are not always practical or politically feasible and other ecosystem‐based management methods that include spatial zoning, bycatch mitigation, and robust harvest control must be developed to maintain marine biodiversity and ensure that ecosystem functioning is maintained across a variety of scales. Contaminación, Pérdida de Hábitat, Pesca y Cambio Climático como Amenazas Críticas para los Pingüinos     

青岛奥帆赛场及邻近海域赤潮防治行动

为保障2008年青岛奥帆赛及其测试赛的正常进行,青岛市政府适时启动了青岛奥帆赛场及邻近海域赤潮防治行动项目。行动内容包括四大部分,一是开展针对性监测,找出青岛近海赤潮多发的主要影响因素;二是建设并运行赤潮监测预警体系;三是建设并运行赤潮应急消除系统;四是制定赤潮应急反应预案。本文简要介绍了青岛奥帆赛场及邻近海域赤潮防治行动项目建设主要目标、内容及预期效益。     

紫外线辐射对小麦和燕麦竞争性平衡的影响--小麦和燕麦生物量结构与冠层结构

在模拟１５％臭氧层减薄条件下讨论了紫外线辐射增强对大田中小麦和燕麦在单独种植与混合种植时的生物量结构和冠层结构的影响。紫外辐射使两物种的生物量减少，使节间缩短，叶片着生高度下降，但使根冠比和单株有效穗数增加。两物种在单种和混种时对紫外辐射的反应有所不同，种间竞争有时加强紫外辐射的影响，但有时则又能抵消其作用。紫外辐射使竞争性平衡向有利于小麦的方向发展，这一改变可以部分地由两物种的生物量及冠层结构对     

Cross-Hauling of Polluting Factors

This paper analyzes the investment/environment overlap using a two stage model of two jurisdictions. Capital exports are modeled as choice variables for capital owners who weigh income considerations against the effects of capital exports on the quality of their local environments and on environmental policy. This framework reveals that capital owners have an incentive to cross-haul polluting factors across jurisdictions when direct controls are used to regulate emissions and that this cross-hauling induces policymakers to ratchet up environmental policies in both locations. The importance of instrument type and commitment on environmental policy is also analyzed.     

Towards an ecological solution to the folivore paradox: patch depletion as an indicator of within-group scramble competition in red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus tephrosceles)

A number of socioecological models assume that within-group food competition is either weak or absent among folivorous primates. This assumption is made because their food resources are presumed to be superabundant and evenly dispersed. However, recent evidence increasingly suggests that folivore group size is food-limited, that the primates prefer patchily distributed high-quality foods, and display some of the expected responses to within-group scramble competition. To investigate this apparent contradiction between theoretical models and recent empirical data, we examined the foraging behaviour of red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus tephrosceles) in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We found that red colobus monkeys foraged in a manner that suggests they deplete patches of preferred foods: intake rate slowed significantly during patch occupancy while movement rate, an index of foraging effort, increased. Furthermore, patch occupancy was related to the size of the feeding group and the size of the patch. These results suggest that within-group scramble competition occurs, may limit folivore group size, and should be considered in models of folivore behavioural ecology.     

Female yellowhammers (Emberiza citrinella) prefer yellower males: a laboratory experiment

The importance of male plumage coloration as a signal of male dominance and a cue for female choice in the monogamous yellowhammer, Emberiza citrinella, was tested in two sets of experiments in an indoor aviary. Dominance was tested by introducing two individuals, with no previous experience of each other, in an aviary with food and water. Aggression occurred more often between two males than between a male and a female and more frequently between pairs of males including at least one old male than between two young males. Dominance was not related to male colour in trials between males of the same age class, but it was in trials between an old and a young male, often differing in colour. Thus, age may be a more important determinant of dominance than colour. Female preference for more colourful males was tested by allowing hormone-induced females to choose between a more and a less colourful dummy male. Females spent more time in front of more colourful than drabber males and also more often perched beside colourful males than duller individuals. Although male colour cannot be ruled out as a dominance signal, the results suggest that male colour is primarily used as a signal in mate choice. Female choice may hence be responsible for maintenance of bright plumage in the male yellowhammer.     

Immune function, dominance and mating success in drumming male wolf spiders Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata

In this study, we provide a piece of experimental evidence that immune function is related to dominance and mating success in wild caught male wolf spiders, Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata. In the mating season, H. rubrofasciata males are actively searching for receptive females, and while searching males often engage in agonistic behavior (i.e., agonistic drumming signals, chases, and fights) with each other. The present results demonstrate that dominant males had higher lytic activities in their hemolymph than subordinates. Lytic activity estimates the concentration of antimicrobial peptides with lysozyme-like activity in hemolymph, which have been shown to play an important role in defense against bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Dominants also had higher courtship drumming rates than subordinates. Moreover, winners in mating competition had higher lytic activities than losers, but this was measured nonindependently of dominance status. Among males with mating failure, there was a moderate negative correlation between encapsulation rate and courtship drumming rate, suggesting that low quality males might not be able to bear the immunological costs of courtship behavior. These results suggest that females might gain immunological benefits by preferring vigorous males.     

Learning during competitive positioning in the nest: do nestlings use ideal free ‘foraging’ tactics?

Begging behaviour of nestling birds may involve more than a simple, honest source of information for parents to use in provisioning. Many aspects of begging behaviour relate instead to sibling competition for food items within the nest, and we might expect evidence of adaptive learning and behavioural adjustment in response to experience of the competitive environment. In this study, we consider begging in different locations within the nest as analogous to foraging in different patches, varying in food availability. Using hand-feeding trials, we created zones of differing profitability within an artificial nest by adjusting either the prey size or number of items delivered, and allowed only indirect competition between pairs of southern grey shrike (Lanius meridionalis) nestlings. Nestlings demonstrated the ability to detect differences in zone profitability and position themselves accordingly. By the end of both the prey size and delivery rate trials nestlings had increased the amount of time spent in the high quality zone. Such movement in response to differences in load quality, as well as frequency, demonstrates the ability of nestlings to learn about their environment and to facultatively adjust their begging in order to maximise energetic rewards.     

天目山自然保护区柳杉种群种内和种间竞争

调查了天目山自然保护区老殿、大树王和禅源寺3个柳杉典型样地,以研究竞争在柳杉种群衰退中的作用。结果表明,柳杉基本上是柳杉群落的单一优势种,相对优势度占58.79%～93.34%;单位面积内柳杉胸高截面积达59.96m2·hm-2,材积达904.9m3·hm-2。柳杉群落存在较严重的竞争,单木竞争指数以老殿最大,平均达4.35;大树王最小,平均为0.58。以竞争指数测度的竞争强度表明,种内竞争大于种间竞争。柳杉单株竞争强度与胸径成反比。认为种内竞争是导致柳杉种群衰退的重要原因之一。