Parent–offspring resource allocation in domestic pigs

Behavioural research on domestic pigs has included parent–offspring conflict, sibling competition, and the use of signals which influence resource allocation. In this paper, we review key sow–piglet behavioural studies and discuss their relevance to resource allocation theory. Sibling competition begins in the uterus and continues after birth, as piglets compete directly for access to the sow’s teats. This competition is made more severe by a unique dentition, which newborn piglets use to lacerate the faces of siblings during teat disputes. Competition often leads to the death of some littermates, especially those of low birth weight. Piglets also compete indirectly for milk, apparently by stimulating milk production at the teats that they habitually use at the expense of milk production by other teats. The complex nursing behavior of the sow appears designed to prevent the more vigorous piglets from monopolizing the milk. Sows give vocal signals which both attract piglets to suckle and synchronize their behavior during nursing episodes. Piglets give loud vocal signals when separated from the sow; calls which vary in intensity and appear to be honest signals of need. Udder massage by piglets may also serve as an honest signal of need. Parent–offspring conflict has been demonstrated experimentally in pigs. Specifically, when given the opportunity to control contact with their piglets, sows nurse less frequently, provide less milk, and lose less weight during lactation than sows that cannot control their level of contact. Because of this interesting natural history and because they are so amenable to experimentation, domestic pigs provide a rich system for testing ideas drawn from resource allocation theory. This contribution is part of the special issue “Sibling competition and cooperation in mammals” (guest editors: Robyn Hudson and Fritz Trillmich).     

Postcopulatory sexual selection favours intrinsically good sperm competitors

We used guppies to study repeatability in sperm competitiveness and postcopulatory sexual selection on male ornamentation. In a block design involving 25 pairs of males, artificial insemination was used to mate each pair (A and B) to four unrelated females—two that were mated with the combined ejaculates of both males (sperm-competition treatment) and two receiving sperm from each of the two males individually (single-male treatment). Our analysis revealed significantly repeatable patterns of paternity across females in the sperm-competition treatment, suggesting that certain males are intrinsically better sperm competitors than others, irrespective of female identity. Next, we compared mean brood success (number of offspring per brood) between sperm competition and single-male treatments. We found no significant effect of treatment on female fecundity, suggesting that the previously reported direct benefits of polyandry in this species may be due to factors such as differential maternal effects or differences in the number of inseminated sperm between treatments. Our artificial insemination assay was designed to control both factors. Finally, we determined whether variation in relative paternity was random with respect to male phenotype. Unlike previous work on Trinidadian populations, we found no significant relationship between male sexual ornamentation and sperm competitiveness in the focal population.     

Pup production,sex ratios,and survivorship in African wild dogs, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lycaon pictus</Emphasis>

The local resource enhancement (LRE) model predicts that in cooperatively breeding species, sex ratios will be biased in favor of the more helpful sex. In this study, we assess the assumptions underlying the LRE model in a population of cooperatively breeding wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in Northern Botswana monitored over a 15-year period. In this population, litter size and pup survival to 1 year are strongly affected by pack size and the breeding female’s age, but adult males have a stronger and more linear effect on females’ reproductive performance than do adult females. This asymmetry in the benefits derived from male and female helpers is reflected in male-biased sex ratios in litters at the time pups emerge from the den. Sex ratio biases are most pronounced in the litters of the youngest mothers who live in significantly smaller packs than older females. The presence of potential rivals for the dominant female’s position depresses pup production at the time of emergence, suggesting that competition among females for breeding positions may also contribute to the selective forces affecting birth sex ratios.     

Sperm removal and ejaculate size correlate with chelae asymmetry in a freshwater crayfish species

Asymmetry in traits of sexual relevance may impair copulation behaviour and sexual performance of males, ultimately resulting in a fitness cost. Freshwater crayfish males use chelae, a sexually selected trait, to secure and position the female prior to and during mating. Thus, a relatively large chelae asymmetry, resulting from accidental loss and regeneration of one cheliped after autotomy, could have great consequences for male sexual behaviour. We studied copulatory behaviour and sperm expenditure of males paired to a mated female in Austropotamobius italicus, a freshwater crayfish species where both male and female mate multiply and where last-mating males are able to actively remove previously deposited sperm. We aimed at assessing whether male sperm removal and expenditure varied according to sperm allocated by first-mating males, and according to copulation behaviour and phenotypic traits (carapace length, chelae length and relative chelae asymmetry) of second-mating males. Second-mating males did not adjust their ejaculate size in relation to first-mating male ejaculate, nor to the first-mating male’s sperm removed. Moreover, the amount of sperm removed by second-mating males increased with increasing first-mating males ejaculate size, and first-mating male sperm remaining after removal did not correlate with the original first-mating male ejaculate size. Interestingly, the amount of sperm removed by second-mating males decreased with increasing relative chelae asymmetry, while increasing with male body size. However, second-mating (but not first-mating) asymmetric-clawed males produced larger ejaculates than symmetric-clawed ones. Importantly, the proportion of second-mating male sperm remaining after the two matings did not vary with relative chelae asymmetry nor with body size of second-mating males. Thus, small, asymmetric-clawed crayfish males appear to adopt sperm allocation tactics that allow them to fully compensate for their inferior sperm removal ability.     

Influence of male harassment and female competition on female feeding behaviour in a sexual–asexual mating complex of mollies (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Poecilia mexicana</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">P. formosa</Emphasis>)

Differential interests between the sexes regarding the number of copulations can result in sexual harassment. Hence, females may have less time available for foraging. Male sexual harassment often leads to fitness reduction in females. We used the mating complex of the bisexual fish Poecilia mexicana and the co-occurring all-female Poecilia formosa to study sexual harassment and its incurred cost on female feeding efficiency. P. formosa is a sperm-dependent parthenogen that requires mating with host males to induce embryogenesis, but the male genes are not used. We therefore predicted P. mexicana males to prefer conspecific females. Hence, costs of male sexual harassment should not occur in unisexuals. While P. formosa are at a disadvantage compared to P. mexicana females due to male mate choice (leading to sperm limitation), this could be traded-off by suffering less from sexual harassment. In our experiment, we found males to direct significantly more pre-copulatory mating behaviour towards conspecific females, whereas actual mating attempts did not differ between species. Contrary to our prediction, both types of females started feeding later and spent less time feeding in the presence of a male partner compared to the time spent feeding with another female, suggesting that females of both species suffer from male harassment. The focal females' feeding time declined with increasing body size of the female competitor, and the same pattern was found when a male was present. We discuss that—besides sexual harassment—other factors such as food competition and female mate choice may affect female feeding efficiency.     

轻烃类VOCs在活性炭上的动态吸附行为

采用BET,XRD,FTIR技术对两类椰壳活性炭进行了表征,考察了空速和吸附温度对正戊烷和正己烷动态吸附穿透容量(DPC)及穿透时间的影响,并对正戊烷和正己烷的二元竞争吸附过程进行了研究。结果表明:两类活性炭材料的组成和官能团结构相似,具有大量微孔的片状活性炭(FAC)有利于轻烃类VOCs的吸附;采用FAC吸附正己烷时,DPC对空速和温度变化不敏感;二元竞争吸附过程中,开始阶段正戊烷和正己烷同时被吸附,随后已被吸附的正戊烷被强吸附质正己烷部分置换,直至正己烷吸附饱和,与一元吸附相比,正己烷的DPC和饱和吸附容量略有增加,正戊烷的DPC和饱和吸附容量大幅降低。     

不同碳减排政策对内外资企业竞争力的影响比较

一方面,由于我国内外资企业的生产效率和碳排放效率差距较大,不同的碳减排政策势必会对内外资企业的市场竞争力带来不同的影响;另一方面,已有文献大多在完全竞争的框架下对不同减排政策的实施效应进行分析,而事实上我国碳减排政策所覆盖的产业大多是不完全竞争甚至是寡头垄断。由此,我们基于内外资企业存在低碳技术差距这一新的研究视角,通过构建两阶段博弈模型来比较分析相同碳强度减排目标下强制减排、碳税与碳交易等三种减排政策对内外资企业产量、市场份额及其社会总产量的影响,从而有利于我国从妥善处理内外资关系的角度制定更有针对性的减排政策。结果表明:(1)三种减排政策都降低了内资企业的产量和市场份额,且内外资企业低碳技术差距越大时内资企业的市场份额下降越多。(2)强制减排降低了社会总产量,碳税和碳交易同等幅度地减少了社会总产量。(3)最优税率仅仅是减排目标的增函数。(4)市场出清的碳交易价格和碳税税率相等,且其数值仅与减排目标正相关,而与碳排放权的分配无关。(5)碳交易比碳税更有利于"保护"内资企业的市场竞争力。相关政策启示如下:(1)尽快确定普适的碳排放核算标准,核算出各行业内外资企业的低碳技术差距;(2)尽快在全国范围内启动碳交易机制,建立促进缩小内外资企业低碳技术的机制;(3)在碳交易市场条件不成熟的行业可以率先推出碳税政策;(4)政府应该根据内外资企业低碳技术差距来对不同行业采取最适宜的减排政策,而非"一刀切"。     

环境监测市场化若干问题的思考

分析了环境监测市场化迅速发展的原因。论述了政府在环境治理中的角色和环境监测的本质属性,通过环境监测产品使用价值分析,提出了购买者为排污企业时,环境监测产品使用价值的错位概念。论述了环境监测市场化可能导致的恶性竞争。     

间接竞争ELISA法测定稻田土壤中除草剂毒莠定的残留量

通过对反应体系中酶标二抗(辣根过氧化物酶标记羊抗兔IgG)和抗体的最佳稀释浓度等条件的筛选和确定,最终建立了一种快速灵敏地测定污染稻田土壤中毒莠定残留量的方法--间接竞争ELISA分析方法.结果表明,酶标二抗和抗体的最佳稀释度均为1:500(体积比),毒莠定的检出下限达到5 ng·mL-1,在0.07～0.7μg·mL-1浓度范围内有良好的线性;土壤浸出液加样的平均回收率为104.11%,变异系数在3.13%～11.13%之间,符合农药残留分析的要求;样品基质对检测结果没有干扰.     

Socioecological influences on the dispersal of female mountain gorillas—evidence of a second folivore paradox

Socioecological models indicate that the group structure and female dispersal patterns of primates are determined primarily by the abundance and distribution of food, predation pressures, and infanticide risks. In response to those influences, females of folivorous primates are considered relatively free to disperse into groups with the optimal size and structure. Yet some folivores live in small groups despite a potentially higher risk of predation, an apparent inconsistency known as the folivore paradox. This paper examines the female dispersal of a folivorous primate, the Virunga mountain gorillas. Mountain gorillas currently have no natural predators, but this species presents a different version of the folivore paradox: why do 50–60% of females reside in smaller one-male groups despite a higher risk of infanticide? In this study, females left one-male groups more frequently than multimale groups, but transfer destinations were not consistently biased toward multimale groups and those groups did not have higher immigration rates. We found no evidence of dispersal to avoid feeding competition within large groups, even as they have become three to five times larger than average. Thus, the lack of a consistent bias toward multimale groups was not because they are typically larger than one-male groups. Instead, the apparent inconsistencies may reflect limited female transfer opportunities, other influences on dispersal, and possibly an evolutionary disequilibrium in which current behavior does not optimize fitness.