Serotonin-induced mate rejection in the female cabbage butterfly, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pieris rapae crucivora</Emphasis>

Virgin female cabbage butterflies, Pieris rapae crucivora, accept and mate with courting males, whereas mated females reject them and assume the “mate refusal posture”. This study tested whether the biogenic amines, serotonin (5HT), dopamine (DA), and octopamine (OA), were responsible for this change in behavior. The results showed that 2–3-day-old virgin females fed with 5HT rejected courting males significantly more frequently compared with controls fed on sucrose. In contrast, the proportions of courting males rejected by virgin females fed with either DA or OA did not differ from sucrose-fed controls. Oral application of each amine resulted in significantly increased levels of the amine applied (or its metabolite) in the brain. The results strongly suggest that 5HT or a 5HT metabolite may be responsible for the post-mating change in behavioral response of 2–3-day-old virgin females to courting males. Similar effects of 5HT treatment were observed in 6–8-day-old virgin females, but in this case the results were only marginally different from the controls, suggesting that the effect may decline with increasing female age.     

Linkages between phenology, pollination, photosynthesis, and reproduction in deciduous forest understory plants

Light availability in the understory of deciduous forests changes drastically within the growing season due to the foliage dynamics of canopy trees. Because flowering phenology, photosynthetic characteristics, and fruiting success respond to such strong seasonality in light availability, we hypothesized that understory plants in such ecosystems should describe distinct phenological groups or syndromes where "syndrome" is defined only as a set of characteristics that co-occur. To identify these phenological syndromes, we studied the flowering phenology, fruit or seed set, and photosynthetic characteristics for 18 perennial understory herbaceous species that differed in reproductive strategy over eight years in a deciduous forest in northern Japan. Three phenological groups emerged from this study: (1) spring bloomers, flowering and fruiting before the completion of canopy closure; (2) early-summer bloomers, flowering during the progress of canopy closure and fruiting after canopy closure; and (3) late-summer bloomers, flowering and fruiting after canopy closure. The spring bloomers had high photosynthetic rates and high fruiting abilities, but the flowering time varied considerably among years due to yearly fluctuations of snowmelt date. Bumble bee-pollinated species of spring bloomers showed variable seed-set success, while fly-pollinated species showed relatively stable seed sets over the years. The early-summer bloomers showed low fruiting abilities irrespective of pollination success, reflecting severe resource limitation with decelerating light availability during fruit development. Although the late-summer bloomers showed low photosynthetic rates under low-light conditions, high fruit-set success was attained if pollination was sufficient. These results support our hypothesis that phenological syndromes may be found in deciduous forest understory plants. Given that reproductive success of bee-pollinated spring bloomers is highly susceptible to seasonal fluctuation, climate change may have its strongest impacts on this group.     

Rapid removal of polyacrylamide from wastewater by plasma in the gas–liquid interface

Due to the severe restrictions imposed by legislative frameworks, the removal of polyacrylamide(PAM) rapidly and effectively from produced wastewater in offshore oilfields before discharge is becoming an urgent challenge. In this study, a novel advanced oxidation process based on plasma operated in the gas–liquid interface was used to rapidly decompose PAM, and multiple methods including viscometry, flow field-flow fractionation multi-angle light scattering, UV–visible spectroscopy, and attenuated total reflectanceFourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the changes of PAM.Under a discharge voltage of 25 kV and pH 7.0, the PAM concentration decreased from 100 to 0 mg/L within 20 min and the total organic carbon(TOC) decreased from 49.57 to1.23 mg/L within 240 min, following zero-order reaction kinetics. Even in the presence of background TOC as high as 152.2 mg/L, complete removal of PAM(100 mg/L) was also achieved within 30 min. The biodegradability of PAM improved following plasma treatment for 120 min. Active species(such as O_3 and H_2O_2) were produced in the plasma. Hydroxyl radical was demonstrated to play an important role in the degradation of PAM due to the inhibitory effect observed after the addition of an ·OH scavenger, Na_2CO_3. Meanwhile, the release of ammonia and nitrate nitrogen confirmed the cleavage of the acylamino group.The results of this study demonstrated that plasma, with its high efficiency and chemicalfree features, is a promising technology for the rapid removal of PAM.