The holocene dynamics of vegetation and environmental conditions on the eastern slope of the Northern Urals

Consideration is given to changes in the vegetation and climatic conditions on the eastern slope of the Northern Urals in the second half of the Holocene as reconstructed on the basis of integrated palynological, botanical, paleocarpological, and radiocarbon analysis of material from a peat bog section in the floodplain of the Loz’va River. The results show that the northern taiga zone of the study region in the period between approximately 5000 and 700 years BP was occupied by forests of southern taiga facies, as the climate was significantly warmer than it is today.     

Evolutionarily stable strategies in competition for resource intake rate maximization

Summary This paper presents and empirical study concerned with the question whether animals competing by resource exploitation can estimate the relative sizes of their opponents and modify their own behavior accordingly. Females of flour beetles T. Confusum competed for limited oviposition sites. The problem addressed was: can the asymmetry in size and hence in the rate of egg laying determine the decisions of competitors about leaving or staying together? The results reveal that females of flour beetles do recognize their relative sizes and apply a common sense strategy, whereby smaller competitors withdraw. The procedure applied in the experiments allowed a standarization of the animals, where size was the sole phenotypic difference. It is possible that the ability to estimate opponent's size is innate, and, therefore, previous experience is not necessary.     

A Method for Evaluating the Morphological Diversity of Strawberry Leaves in Natural Populations

A method for comparing polymorphic characters is proposed. As an example, the morphological diversity of strawberry leaves is evaluated. Initially, the factors determining leaf shape and the main directions of its variation are identified. These directions are used as coordinates outlining the space of possible realizations of the character. The polymorphic sets of real leaves from individual populations differ in being located in different parts of this space.     

The Holocene Dynamics of Vegetation and Ecological Conditions in the Polar Urals

Palynological, paleocarpological, and paleoentomological analyses of frozen peat deposits near Lake Pereval'noe, the Polar Urals, were performed to reveal the main stages of change in the pattern of vegetation over the period from the beginning of warming after the last Pleistocene glaciation to the late Holocene. Nine to four thousand years ago, the study region (at the present-day upper boundary of open larch forests) was covered with taiga forests, as the climate there was significantly warmer. These were larch–birch forests with an admixture of spruce and, later, spruce forests with larch and birch.