Studies Of Individual Species Research Articles

Історія вивчення зимової орнітофауни міст України

Knowledge of wintering avifauna and the study of wintering aspects of birds make it possible to obtain information about the diversity and status of the populations of birds during one of the most unfavorable periods of their life. Significant changes in climatic conditions in winter period during the last decades in Europe are noticeable. They affect winter distribution and dynamics of a number of bird species. In particular, new species appear, what may be caused by changes in wintering places or migration routes, or birds that were previously migratory remain for the wintering. Therefore, systematic research of winter avifauna in the territory of urban agglomerations of different levels is a relevant and important task for today. In our opinion, the study of winter avifauna of urban agglomerations can be classified into several groups: year-round, global, partial and selective. The vast majority of winter avifauna studies were partial, conducted by scientists specializing in the study of individual species or groups of birds. Most often, ornithologists focused their attention on predators and birds of the wetland complex. Nowadays, according to the results of research conducted by ornithologists of Ukraine, we can distinguish three distinctive stages, which are not entirely clear, but reflect the development of research on winter avifauna and are indicative in the selection of research objects and territories. The first stage is the study of wintering birds of Ukraine of large water bodies or territories, such as areas with non-freezing ponds; the second – records and study of individual species or groups of birds, in particular wintering of shrikes, representatives of the Corvidae family, and the third – direct research of avifauna in urbocoenoses. The latter stage of research is the most recent. Now, ornithologists drew their attention to avifauna changes in urban agglomerations due to the increasing urbanization rates, which may cause a decrease in the species diversity and number of birds in cities in the nearest future, as a result of their displacement and the impossibility of staying in an anthropogenic environment.

Predictive maps in rats and humans for spatial navigation

Much of our understanding of navigation comes from the study of individual species, often with specific tasks tailored to those species. Here, we provide a novel experimental and analytic framework integrating across humans, rats, and simulated reinforcement learning (RL) agents to interrogate the dynamics of behavior during spatial navigation. We developed a novel open-field navigation task ("Tartarus maze") requiring dynamic adaptation (shortcuts and detours) to frequently changing obstructions on the path to a hidden goal. Humans and rats were remarkably similar in their trajectories. Both species showed the greatest similarity to RL agents utilizing a "successor representation," which creates a predictive map. Humans also displayed trajectory features similar to model-based RL agents, which implemented an optimal tree-search planning procedure. Our results help refine models seeking to explain mammalian navigation in dynamic environments and highlight the utility of modeling the behavior of different species to uncover the shared mechanisms that support behavior.

Effects of CO2 and Temperature on Tritrophic Interactions

There has been a significant increase in studies of how global change parameters affect interacting species or entire communities, yet the combined or interactive effects of increased atmospheric CO2 and associated increases in global mean temperatures on chemically mediated trophic interactions are mostly unknown. Thus, predictions of climate-induced changes on plant-insect interactions are still based primarily on studies of individual species, individual global change parameters, pairwise interactions, or parameters that summarize communities. A clear understanding of community response to global change will only emerge from studies that examine effects of multiple variables on biotic interactions. We examined the effects of increased CO2 and temperature on simple laboratory communities of interacting alfalfa, chemical defense, armyworm caterpillars, and parasitoid wasps. Higher temperatures and CO2 caused decreased plant quality, decreased caterpillar development times, developmental asynchrony between caterpillars and wasps, and complete wasp mortality. The effects measured here, along with other effects of global change on natural enemies suggest that biological control and other top-down effects of insect predators will decline over the coming decades.

Celebrating the golden jubilee of the Journal of Applied Ecology

In our time, as the need to expand the output of foodfor the rapidly rising population of the world becomesmore acutely felt, and as development acceleratesthroughout the world, the scope and tasks of appliedecology cannot but increase. Ours is an age in whichecological thinking and methods have more than everbefore to contribute to the progress of mankind: theJournal of Applied Ecology hopes to play a useful partin the common effort.These aspirations represent the closing statement of thevery first Editorial published in the first issue of Journalof Applied Ecology in 1964 (Bunting & Wynne-Edwards1964), and yet are still highly relevant today. It was withconsiderable vision that the British Ecological Society(BES) launched a new journal that not only spannedplant and animal ecology but addressed issues ofrelevance to human well-being.The Journal of Applied Ecology was founded to publishthe results of original research, particularly of a quantita-tive and experimental kind, on ecological subjects that areof economic or social importance. Fifty years ago, appliedecology was widely viewed as the poor relation of themore glamorous fundamental areas of this young science.Scientific research relating to the conservation of biologi-cal diversity was in its infancy, journals such as Conserva-tion Biology were not even on the horizon, while it wouldbe more than a decade before the integration of agricul-ture and the environment became a recognized area ofresearch with the launch of the journal Agriculture, Eco-system and Environment in the 1970s. The Journal ofApplied Ecology had already celebrated a quarter of acentury of publishing the best applied ecological researchwhen the Ecological Society of America launched Ecologi-cal Applications. Few applied journals can compete withthe Journal of Applied Ecology in terms of its heritage andits contribution to establishing applied ecology as animportant discipline in its own right.To celebrate our golden jubilee, we have launched avirtual issue online (http://www.journalofappliedecology.org/view/0/virtualissues/fiftyyearsvirtualissue.html) that re-views some of the key articles we have published over thelast five decades. Much of the focus of the first decadewas on improving the productivity of agricultural ecosys-tems rather than addressing agriculture’s potential impacton species conservation. Nonetheless, the Journal had aglobal outlook from the start, drawing its examples fromecosystems around the world. Surprisingly, given thelaunch of the journal less than 2 years after the publica-tion of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (Carson, Darling &Darling 1962), studies describing the impact of agrochemi-cals on wildlife only appeared towards the end of the1960s. These studies did, however, include early classics inthe field. Work published at this time continues to haveimpact today. For example, Newman’s (1966) article, on amethod for estimating the total length of root in a sam-ple, is still heavily cited more than four decades later, with62 citations listed in Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.co.uk/) from January 2011 to November 2012.These recent citing articles include authors estimating car-bon stocks in Amazonia, understanding the effects ofmycorrhiza for coffee in Puerto Rico, and investigating thepotential for biocontrol of tomato root rot in Denmark.During the 1970s, much of what was published reflectedthe need for basic information about the biology of pestspecies that had large economic effects. This was a periodof rapid agricultural expansion and modernization, exem-plified by the so-called ‘green revolution’, and researcherswere acutely concerned with pests that lowered crop pro-ductivity. By the 1980s, while pests of agriculture werestill an important focus, models of their populationdynamics became increasingly more realistic and includedcrop phenology in assessments of the likely damage fromdefoliating insects. Furthermore, the management of agri-

What do we really know about the signalling role of plumage colour in blue tits? A case study of impediments to progress in evolutionary biology

Evolutionary biologists seek to explain the origin and maintenance of phenotypes, and a substantial portion of this research is accomplished by thorough study of individual species. For instance, many researchers study individual species to understand evolution of ornamental traits which appear to be products of sexual selection. I explored our understanding of sexual ornaments in a well-studied vertebrate species that may serve as a case study for research programs in evolutionary biology. I attempted to located all published papers examining plumage colour and variables related to sexual selection hypotheses in a common European songbird, the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). Researchers have estimated over 1200 statistical relationships with plumage colour of blue tits in 52 studies. However, of the approximately 1000 main-effect relationships from the 48 studies that are candidates for inclusion in this meta-analysis, more than 400 were reported without details of strength and direction. Circumstantial evidence suggests that an unknown number of other estimated effects remain unpublished. Missing information is a substantial barrier to interpretation of these papers and to meta-analytic synthesis. Examination and analysis of funnel plots indicated that unpublished effects may be a biased sample of all effects, especially for comparisons of plumage colour to age and individual quality, and possibly also to measures of mate choice. Further, type I error was likely elevated by the large number of statistical comparisons evaluated, the frequent use of iterative model-building procedures, and a willingness to interpret a wide variety of results as support for a hypothesis. Type I errors were made more problematic because blue tit plumage researchers only rarely have attempted to replicate important findings in their own work or that of others. Replication is essential to drawing robust scientific conclusions, especially in probabilistic systems with moderate to weak effects or a likelihood of bias. Last, researchers studying blue tit plumage have often developed ad hoc explanations for deviations of results from their predictions. Revising hypotheses in light of data is appropriate, but these revised hypotheses were rarely tested with new data. The only highly robust conclusion supported by meta-analysis is that male blue tits have plumage that reflects more light in the ultraviolet and yellow wavelengths than the plumage of females. Various other effects, including condition-dependence of plumage colour expression and a tendency for females to adjust the sex ratio of their offspring in response to male colour, remain uncertain. These obstacles to progress in the blue tit plumage literature are likely common in evolutionary biology, and so I recommend changes to incentive structures which may improve progress towards scientific understanding in this discipline.

Distribution of clonal growth traits among wetland habitats

Clonality resulting from the growth of specialized organs is common among plants in wetland habitats. We hypothesize that different wetland habitats select for different attributes of clonal traits. This hypothesis is based on studies of individual species but has not been previously tested at the level of habitat. We compared the functional diversity of clonal growth traits of plants in bogs, fens, wet heathlands, floodplains, river beds, open fresh water habitats, salt marshes, and open marine habitats. Clonal traits (including number of offspring, lateral spread, persistence of connections between ramets, and shoot life span) were analysed with multivariate techniques using species frequency data and with permutation tests using presence/absence data. Based on species frequencies, clonal plants in aquatic habitats (open fresh water habitats, open marine habitats, and river beds) were characterized by the abundant production of freely dispersible propagules, annual shoots, and splitting clones. Species of daily flooded salt marshes were characterized by bi-annual connections between ramets and medium dispersability. In contrast, plants in permanently wet bogs were characterized by polycyclic shoots and low offspring production. The specificity of river beds and open freshwater habitats was also confirmed by permutation tests, which gave equal weight to rare and abundant species. However, species in all other wetland habitats were characterized by the entire range of clonal traits, suggesting weak environmental filtering of analyzed traits by habitat at the present scale.

190 Years of Sargassum Taxonomy, Facing the Advent of DNA Phylogenies

Sargassum C. Agardh is one of the morphologically most complex phaeophyceaen genera and represents the most species-rich genus of the brown algal order Fucales Bory de Saint-Vincent (Phaeophyceae). The genus’ classification system dates back to the 19th century and is based on observed differences in macro-morphological characters. Those morphological characters may display important variation within individual species, and several authors have linked the taxonomic complexity of the genus to its highly polymorphic nature and phenotypic plasticity. Among the large choice of existing species and subspecies epithets (about 1000), identifying taxa accurately is a difficult task, often relying on authors’ interpretation of short Latin diagnoses or descriptions published in local Floras. Recently, the study of individual species’ morphological range and DNA phylogenies underlined inconsistencies within low taxonomic levels (sections, subsections, series and species groups). Results highlighted the weak taxonomic value of traditional characters used to classify species, and pointed out significant taxonomic issues. The four Sargassum subgenera (S. subgen. Arthrophycus, Bactrophycus, Sargassum and Phyllotrichia) are now subdivided into a total of 12 sections and further subdivisions were abandoned. Two possible new sections need to be assessed. In the present paper, we raise the hypothesis that S. subgen. Arthrophycus could be merged to S. subgen. Bactrophycus, and that S. subgen. Phyllotrichia could be transferred to the recently reinstated genus Sargassopsis Trevisan. We also propose that two sections of the S. subgen. Bactrophycus: S. sect. Halochloa and Repentia be merged. A summary of the actual classification is given along with an identification key for Sargassum subdivisions.

A Systematic Review of Wild Burro Grazing Effects on Mojave Desert Vegetation, USA

Wild burros (Equus asinus), protected by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act on some federal lands but exotic animals many ecologists and resource mangers view as damaging to native ecosystems, represent one of the most contentious environmental management problems in American Southwest arid lands. This review synthesizes the scattered literature about burro effects on plant communities of the Mojave Desert, a center of burro management contentions. I classified 24 documents meeting selection criteria for this review into five categories of research: (i) diet analyses directly determining which plant species burros consume, (ii) utilization studies of individual species, (iii) control-impact comparisons, (iv) exclosure studies, and (v) forage analyses examining chemical characteristics of forage plants. Ten diet studies recorded 175 total species that burros consumed. However, these studies and two exclosure studies suggested that burros preferentially eat graminoid and forb groups over shrubs. One study in Death Valley National Park, for example, found that Achnatherum hymenoides (Indian ricegrass) was 11 times more abundant in burro diets than expected based on its availability. Utilization studies revealed that burros also exhibit preferences within the shrub group. Eighty-three percent of reviewed documents were produced in a 12-year period, from 1972 to 1983, with the most recent document produced in 1988. Because burros remain abundant on many federal lands and grazing may interact with other management concerns (e.g., desert wildfires fueled by exotic grasses), rejuvenating grazing research to better understand both past and present burro effects could help guide revegetation and grazing management scenarios.

Responses to Fire in Selected Tropical Dry Forest Trees1

ABSTRACTFire is a frequent disturbance in the tropical dry forests of Central America, yet very little is known about how native species respond to such events. We conducted an experimental burn in a tropical dry forest of western Nicaragua to evaluate plant responses to fire with respect to survivorship and recruitment. Measurements of woody vegetation of all size classes were carried out prior to the prescribed burn and three successive years post fire. We selected the 15 most abundant species <10 cm DBH to assess percent survivorship and sprouting responses post fire. Changes in seedling densities for these 15 most abundant species and the 15 least abundant species were analyzed using a repeated measure ANOVA. We also assessed changes in seedling densities for three species of international conservation concern. We found three major fire‐coping strategies among common dry forests plants: resisters (low fire‐induced mortality), resprouters (vigorous sprouting), and recruiters (increased seeding post‐fire). While survivorship was generally high relative to tropical moist forest species, those species with lower survivorship used either seeding or sprouting as an alternative strategy for persisting in the forest community. Seed dispersal mechanisms, particularly wind dispersal, appear to be an important factor in recruitment success post‐fire. Burn treatment led to a significant increase in the density of seedlings for two species of conservation concern: Guaiacum sanctum and Swietenia humilis. Results of this study suggest that common dry forest species in western Nicaragua are fire tolerant. Further study of individual species and their fire responses is merited.

Commentary on “The Gladiator Sparrow: Ethical issues in behavioral research on captive populations of wild animals”

One of the key scientific and ethical arguments for the use of animal models in biomedical research is their usefulness in simulating physiological or pathophysiological processes in humans and/or other animal species. Ethological studies investigate the development, usefulness and evolutionary significance of behavioral patterns using observational rather than experimental approaches. In this respect they differ from classic behavioral experiments because, in a strict sense, the studied species cannot serve as models or surrogates for other species. Consequently, research outcomes from behavioral observations of the Gladiator Sparrow would not be used to draw conclusions for similar behavior observed in other animals, even if those belong in the same taxonomy group. Although behaviors of other species are often held as examples of natural behavior and predictive behavioral models are developed, these should not serve as substitutes for detailed studies of individual species. Although Clarisse’s initial experiments involve passive observation of the research subjects, the descriptive “environmental influences” suggests future manipulations in the form of induced environmental stimuli and/or stressors. Behavioral research with wildlife birds presents unique challenges. In addition, responsible scientific methodology mandates that, prior to initiating these experiments, adequate consideration must be given to the birds’ welfare and any distress, pain or suffering they may experience as a result of or during experiments. Issues that must be addressed include the following: 1. The designated experimental species should be the most appropriate to answer the question(s) asked. Extensive literature reviews in addition to expert advice are necessary to ensure the appropriateness of choice. The usefulness of in-depth literature analysis has been well documented. The standard Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol submission has a three-fold purpose: first, it ensures that previously done experiments will not be unnecessarily repeated; second, it alerts the researcher to any special characteristics of the response variable to be studied; and third, it informs on the merit of alternative approaches to the use of animals in researching this particular response variable, as mandated by Russell and Burch’s 3 Rs approach (refine, reduce and replace). 1

An Introduction to the Ecology of Cerrado Lizards

Nine species of lizards are sympatric in cerrado habitats in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, including one polychrid (Anolis meridionalis), three tropidurids (Tropidurus etheridgei, T. cf. montanus, and T. spinulosus), one scincid (Mabuya frenata), two teiids (Ameiva ameiva and Cnemidophorus ocellifer), and two gymnophthalmids (Micrablepharus maximiliani and Pantodactylus schreibersii. Lizard diversity is lower than that reported for caatinga or lowland rainforest. Most striking in the cerrado lizard fauna is the lack of gekkonids, which are common in other Brazilian habitats studied. The Iguania clearly separate by microhabitat, and microhabitat differences are partially reflected in diets. There is little similarity in habitat use by the primarily arboreal Iguania and the strictly terrestrial teiids and gymnophthalmids. Teiids and gymnophthalmids often occur in the same microhabitats, but the large differences in size among species generally result in utilization of different prey types and/or sizes. Ameiva ameiva and Cnemidophorus ocellifer are very similar in habitat use and prey types, but do not overlap in body size and take prey of very different sizes. Electivity analysis of prey volumes suggests sample size bias as well as a bias based on lizard body size differences. The largest species, A. ameiva, accounts for most of the prey taken by the lizard assemblage. Eight of the nine species are oviparous; the other, Mabuya frenata, is viviparous with extended gestation and typical South American Mabuya matrotrophy. As in other Brazilian lizard assemblages studied, a diversity of life history patterns is evident with each species being more similar to closely-related species in distant and different habitats than to unrelated sympatric species. The cerrados represent one of the largest vegetational zones of South America, extending from southern Brazil to the Amazon Basin and totaling about 1,500,000 km2 (Ferri, 1977). In addition, there are isolated patches north of the Amazon Basin. Cerrados consist of a patchwork of at least four macrohabitats: campo, cerrado, cerradao, and gallery forest (Eiten, 1972), which vary in the size, density, and types of trees. Campo (which means field) contains the lowest density of trees or no trees. Cerrado proper is the most widespread vegetation type in the cerrados, consisting of extensive grasslands covered by varying densities of xeromorphic trees but with an open canopy. The trees appear twisted, have thickened bark usually showing evidence of fire, and the leaves are leathery. Cerradao contains larger trees and the canopy is generally closed or nearly so. Trees may exceed 10 m. Gallery forest (bands of tropical forest along water courses) contains the largest trees and displays a closed canopy. In addition, there are transitional zones between each of these (Eiten, 1975). The most prominent climatological feature of the cerrados is the dry winter (Vanzolini, 1972). Cerrados differ from savannas in containing a permanent deep water table 1 Present Address: Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019, USA. and deep non-stoney, non-lateritic soils (Eiten, 1972). Considering the extensive distribution of the cerrados in South America, it is surprising that there have been no ecological studies of the liza d assemblages inhabiting them since Vanzolini (1948) first described the squamate assemblage in a cerrado site in the state of Sao Paulo. Indeed, the best available data consist of field observations on individual species (Vanzolini, 1972, 1986), general ecological descriptions in taxonomic studies (e.g., Rodrigues, 1987), comments on the origin and biogeography of cerrado faunas (Vanzolini, 1963, 1976), and more recently, studies of individual species (Colli, 1991). Because of the vast distribution of cerrados, the potential exists to examine the influence of climatic and vegetation gradients on the structure of lizard assemblages. In addition, it should be possible to examine interactions between different lizard assemblages where cerrado contacts lowland Amazonian forest to the north, Atlantic rain forest to the east, the Chaco to the southwest, Andean foothills to the west, and semi-arid caatingas to the northeast. Patterns of alpha, beta, and gamma diversity (Cody, 1975) might be particularly instructive considering these major habitat contacts. Vanzolini (1974), for example, has shown that contact zones provide critical information necessary for understanding the ecology and biogeography of Brazilian lizards. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.131 on Sat, 15 Oct 2016 04:27:20 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

The control of mosses in lawns and sports turf

AbstractMosses are one of the commonest weeds in lawns and sports turf. The study of individual species, their methods of multiplication, and the situations in which they are found, is necessary before satisfactory control methods can be devised. Some moss species can be controlled by cultural means but, where this is not practicable, chemical methods have to be employed. The chemicals in the past acted only as a temporary palliative, but with the introduction of lawn sands containing calomel (mercurous chloride) a more permanent control is possible. The results of a trial with one lawn sand containing calomel is recorded.