Foraging responses of wild house mice to accumulations of conspecific odor as a predation risk

Many predators hunt using the social and waste odors of their prey. It is unknown, however, whether potential prey modify their behavior in response to the risks of predation associated with accumulations of conspecific odor. We examined this question by measuring foraging trade-offs of wild house mice (Mus domesticus) in the field where we increased both predation risk and conspecific odor at artificial food patches in a two-factor design. Mouse giving-up densities (GUDs) were significantly higher in open habitats than in closed habitats but did not differ with the addition of mouse odors. Fine-scale behavioral observations of captive mice confirmed their attraction to the conspecific odor in an enclosure experiment, without any change to the GUD. These results indicate that house mice continue to visit and forage at food patches despite accumulations of predator-attracting odors. This most likely occurs for the social benefits obtained from conspecific odor exploration; however, such behavior may cause mice to become vulnerable to considerable olfactory exploitation by their predators. Future work must therefore focus on how mice trade off the social benefits of investigating odors that also attract their enemies.     

Long-term observations of tropospheric NO2, SO2 and HCHO by MAX-DOAS in Yangtze River Delta area, China

Yangtze River Delta(YRD) area is one of the important economic zones in China. However,this area faces increasing environmental problems. In this study, we use ground-based multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy(MAX-DOAS) network in Eastern China to retrieve variations of NO_2, SO_2, and formaldehyde(HCHO) in the YRD area. Three cities of YRD(Hefei, Nanjing, and Shanghai) were selected for long-term observations. This paper presents technical performance and characteristics of instruments, their distribution in YRD, and results of vertical column densities(VCDs) and profiles of NO_2, SO_2, and HCHO.Average diurnal variations of tropospheric NO_2 and SO_2 in different seasons over the three stations yielded minimum values at noon or in the early afternoon, whereas tropospheric HCHO reached the maximum during midday hours. Slight reduction of the pollutants in weekends occurred in all the three sites. In general trace gas concentrations gradually reduced from Shanghai to Hefei. Tropospheric VCDs of NO_2, SO_2, and HCHO were compared with those from Ozone Monitoring Instrument(OMI) satellite observations, resulting in R~2 of 0.606, 0.5432, and 0.5566, respectively. According to analysis of regional transports of pollutants, pollution process happened in YRD under the north wind with the pollution dissipating in the southeast wind. The feature is significant in exploring transport of tropospheric trace gas pollution in YRD, and provides basis for satellite and model validation.     

利用SCIAMACHY遥感资料研究我国NO2柱浓度及其时空分布

利用SCIAMACHYENVISAT 2003—2009年月均观测数据,结合1∶4 000 000行政区划图,得到了近7 a来我国城市级别NO₂柱浓度的时空分布和变化趋势,并采用Seasonal Mann-Kendall非参数检验方法对各城市的变化趋势进行了显著性分析. 结果表明:我国NO₂分布东高西低,NO₂柱浓度高值区主要分布在京津冀及环渤海区域、长江三角洲北部及广东省等地区. 近7 a来我国北部和中部地区的NO₂增长趋势显著,NO₂柱浓度平均值最高和增速最快的前20个城市主要分布在江苏、山东和安徽等省的二级城市郊县和小城市. 与统计年鉴工业废气排放数据的比较表明,工业废气排放与NO₂柱浓度及其时空分布具有较好的一致性. 这种新的NO₂污染格局应该引起重视并采取有针对性的污染监管措施.      

Optimization of the recovery of plastics for recycling by density media separation cyclones

Material recovery processes are presented as the optimum option for recycling plastic wastes as a means of recovering hydrocarbon resources. There exist a large variety of automated material recovery processes for recycling of such wastes but each with significant limitations. Of these, the separation based on differences in densities is advocated as the optimum process either for producing recycled products or preparing wastes for subsequent recovery processing.Density separation processes based on cyclone type density media separation (DMS) is presented as an important, potential method for increasing plastics recycling process capacities. It is demonstrated to have the capacity to separate a significantly larger range of particle sizes than those presently processed industrially. The mathematical relationship for the prediction of quality of typical LARCODEMS type density media separations by particle size and density as expressed by the Ecart Probable is presented.A proposed device configuration is presented for density media separation to optimize the recovery and purity of both density fractions produced. It is also suggested that to be economically viable, a large scale of operation is required for industrial plastics recycling operations recovering and producing a number of different plastics with a purity to be used as a substitute for virgin material.     

TiO2光催化降解哒螨酮机理研究

以TiO2 为催化剂对非均相纳米光催化降解杀虫剂哒螨酮进行了机理研究 .结果表明该反应遵循一级动力学方程 .速率常数为 0 0 2 95 7min-1 ,半衰期为 2 3 4 4min .重点利用气质联用 (GC MS)结合与标准品 ,合成化合物相对照的方法 ,鉴定出反应过程中可能产生的 8种中间产物 .据此 ,提出了降解路线 .同时用PM3算法计算模拟前线电子密度 (FED2 ) .证明哒螨酮分子中S原子上分布的FED2 最大 ,是诱发降解系列反应的起始位点 .此结论与实验结果———光催化降解哒螨酮的初始步骤是分子的苯环和杂环之间碳硫键的断裂相一致     

A review of major factors influencing plant responses to recreation impacts

This article reviews some of the more important factors found to influence the susceptibility of plants to trampling impacts associated with recreational use of natural areas. A three-way interaction mediates plant responses to impacts: plant x environment x stress level(s). Plant responses vary in part according to the genetic constitution of the plant, life and growth form, the adaptive flexibility of the plant, and anatomical differences inherent to growth habit and morphology. Other factors that influence plant sensitivities to impacts are the habitat environments in which plants grow, since a number of conditions such as moisture excesses or deficiencies, nitrogen or oxygen starvation, late frosts, etc., cause physiological injury and may increase plant sensitivity to impacts. Among the environmental factors that may increase or lessen plant sensitivities to impacts are soil moisture levels, canopy density, elevation, aspect, microclimate, soil drainage, texture, fertility and productivity. Seasonal influences also bear consideration since environmental changes and phonological and physiological events are mediated by time of year. Stresses are caused by both direct and indirect forms of impact and vary according to season of use, frequency and amount of use, and the type of activity. These interactions are further complicated by evidence that inter- and intraspecific competition, antagonism, and commensalism may influence differences in the sensitivity of plant communities to impacts.     

贵州西部4种林型土壤有机碳及其剖面分布特征

在气候变化背景下,森林土壤碳库已成为全球碳循环研究重点之一。以贵州西部桦木（Betula luminifera H.Wilk.）、柳杉（Cryptomeria fortunei Hooibrenk ex Otto et Dietr.）、华山松（Pinus armandii Franch.）和杉木（Cunninghamia lanceilata（Lamb.）Hook.）4种主要森林类型为对象,对其土壤有机碳、碳密度及其垂直分配特征等进行了研究。结果表明：4种林型土壤有机碳含量和碳密度均表现为华山松林（51.09 g.kg-1,30.56 kg.m-2）〉杉木林（39.47 g.kg-1,22.97 kg.m-2）〉柳杉林（37.49g.kg-1,21.00 kg.m-2）〉桦木林（36.31 g.kg-1,20.13 kg.m-2）,华山松林土壤有机碳含量和碳密度显著大于其它三种林型,而另外三种林型间差异不明显;4种林型土壤有机碳含量和碳密度均随土层深度增加而逐渐降低,土壤有机碳含量均为0-10 cm最大,分别是剖面均值的1.45-1.61倍,而0-20 cm层土壤碳密度占整个土壤剖面的32.69%-38.08%,显著高于其他各层,大于20 cm的土层中,各层间的变化较小,土壤碳密度具有一定程度的表聚性;4种林型土壤有机碳含量与土壤pH均表现极强的负相关,与土壤全N和碱解N均表现极强的正相关,与全P、速效P、全K、速效K和阳离子交换量的相关性不尽一致,建立的方程具有较高的回归精度,土壤N和P状况对4种林型土壤有机碳含量有重要影响。     

ON PRECIPITATION SENSOR NETWORK DENSITIES FOR EVALUATING WINTERTIME OROGRAPHIC CLOUD SEEDING EXPERIMENTS1

Principal component analysis is used to investigate density requirements of wintertime orographic cloud seeding experiment precipitation sensor networks. Three passes in the vicinity of Climax, Colorado are studied. The eighteen or more evenly spaced precipitation sensors of each pass are almost completely described by three principal components. These three principal components appear to represent (i) mean precipitation, (ii) slope orientation to storm systems, and (iii) elevation. Evaluation of these principal components is implemented with two distribution-free tests, a proportionality test and the runs test. The results of this study suggest that the loss of experimental information caused by low density precipitation sensor networks may be of little consequence.     

A patch use model to separate effects of foraging costs on giving-up densities: an experiment with white-tailed deer (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Odocoileus virginianus</Emphasis>)

The giving-up density of food (GUD), the amount of food remaining in a patch when a forager ceases foraging there, can be used to compare the costs of foraging in different food patches. But, to draw inferences from GUDs, specific effects of foraging costs (predation risk, metabolic and missed opportunities costs) on GUDs have to be identified. As high predation risk, high metabolic costs and abundant food all should produce high GUDs, this does not allow us to infer directly the quality of a habitat. In order to separate the effect of each foraging cost, we developed an optimal foraging model based on food supplementation. We illustrate the use of our model in a study where we assessed the impact of a power line right-of-way in a white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) winter yard by determining whether the negative effects of cover loss outweigh the positive effects of browse regeneration.     

External drift kriging of NOx concentrations with dispersion model output in a reduced air quality monitoring network

In the mid nineteen eighties the Dutch NO_x air quality monitoring network was reduced from 73 to 32 rural and city background stations, leading to higher spatial uncertainties. In this study, several other sources of information are being used to help reduce uncertainties in parameter estimation and spatial mapping. For parameter estimation, we used Bayesian inference. For mapping, we used kriging with external drift (KED) including secondary information from a dispersion model. The methods were applied to atmospheric NO_x concentrations on rural and urban scales. We compared Bayesian estimation with restricted maximum likelihood estimation and KED with universal kriging. As a reference we also included ordinary least squares (OLS). Comparison of several parameter estimation and spatial interpolation methods was done by cross-validation. Bayesian analysis resulted in an error reduction of 10 to 20% as compared to restricted maximum likelihood, whereas KED resulted in an error reduction of 50% as compared to universal kriging. Where observations were sparse, the predictions were substantially improved by inclusion of the dispersion model output and by using available prior information. No major improvement was observed as compared to OLS, the cause presumably being that much good information is contained in the dispersion model output, so that no additional spatial residual random field is required to explain the data. In all, we conclude that reduction in the monitoring network could be compensated by modern geostatistical methods, and that a traditional simple statistical model is of an almost equal quality.