Emergent conservation outcomes of shared risk perception in human-wildlife systems

Human perception of risks related to economic damages caused by nearby wildlife can be transmitted through social networks. Understanding how sharing risk information within a human community alters the spatial dynamics of human-wildlife interactions has important implications for the design and implementation of effective conservation actions. We developed an agent-based model that simulates farmer livelihood decisions and activities in an agricultural landscape shared with a population of a generic wildlife species (wildlife-human interactions in shared landscapes [WHISL]). In the model, based on risk perception and economic information, farmers decide how much labor to allocate to farming and whether and where to exclude wildlife from their farms (e.g., through fencing, trenches, or vegetation thinning). In scenarios where the risk perception of farmers was strongly influenced by other farmers, exclusion of wildlife was widespread, resulting in decreased quality of wildlife habitat and frequency of wildlife damages across the landscape. When economic losses from encounters with wildlife were high, perception of risk increased and led to highly synchronous behaviors by farmers in space and time. Interactions between wildlife and farmers sometimes led to a spillover effect of wildlife damage displaced from socially and spatially connected communities to less connected neighboring farms. The WHISL model is a useful conservation-planning tool because it provides a test bed for theories and predictions about human-wildlife dynamics across a range of different agricultural landscapes.     

Identification of policies for a sustainable legal trade in rhinoceros horn based on population projection and socioeconomic models

Between 1990 and 2007, 15 southern white (Ceratotherium simum simum) and black (Diceros bicornis) rhinoceroses on average were killed illegally every year in South Africa. Since 2007 illegal killing of southern white rhinoceros for their horn has escalated to >950 individuals/year in 2013. We conducted an ecological–economic analysis to determine whether a legal trade in southern white rhinoceros horn could facilitate rhinoceros protection. Generalized linear models were used to examine the socioeconomic drivers of poaching, based on data collected from 1990 to 2013, and to project the total number of rhinoceroses likely to be illegally killed from 2014 to 2023. Rhinoceros population dynamics were then modeled under 8 different policy scenarios that could be implemented to control poaching. We also estimated the economic costs and benefits of each scenario under enhanced enforcement only and a legal trade in rhinoceros horn and used a decision support framework to rank the scenarios with the objective of maintaining the rhinoceros population above its current size while generating profit for local stakeholders. The southern white rhinoceros population was predicted to go extinct in the wild <20 years under present management. The optimal scenario to maintain the rhinoceros population above its current size was to provide a medium increase in antipoaching effort and to increase the monetary fine on conviction. Without legalizing the trade, implementing such a scenario would require covering costs equal to approximately $147,000,000/year. With a legal trade in rhinoceros horn, the conservation enterprise could potentially make a profit of $717,000,000/year. We believe the 35‐year‐old ban on rhinoceros horn products should not be lifted unless the money generated from trade is reinvested in improved protection of the rhinoceros population. Because current protection efforts seem to be failing, it is time to evaluate, discuss, and test alternatives to the present policy.     

Sardine (Sardina pilchardus) spawning seasonality in European waters of the northeast Atlantic

Egg data from ichthyoplankton monitoring sites in the western English Channel (1988–2003) and northern Spain (1990–2000) and macroscopic maturity data from biological samples of purse seine landings in western and southern Iberia (1980–2004) are used to describe the spawning seasonality of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) in European waters of the northeast Atlantic using generalised additive models. The fitted models reveal a double peak in spawning activity during early summer and autumn in the western Channel, a wider spring peak off northern Spain and a broad winter season in the western and southern Iberian Peninsula. At all sites, a high probability of spawning activity was observed over at least 3 months of the year, with the duration of the season increasing with both decreasing latitude and increasing fish size. Off western and southern Iberia there are indications that the spawning season has been of longer duration in recent years for all size classes (reaching in some cases 8 months of the year for large fish). These patterns are in general agreement with existing literature and theoretical expectations of sardine spawning being driven locally by the seasonal cycle of water temperature, assuming preferences for spawning at 14 –15°C and avoidance for temperatures below 12°C and above 16°C. Regional quotient plots indicated that spawning tolerance to higher temperatures increases progressively with decreasing latitude. Despite the weak evidence for geographical differences in temperature tolerance that may have some genetic origin, the degree of spatio-temporal overlap in sardine-spawning activity within Atlantic European waters is unlikely to promote any reproductive isolation in that area.     

液相色谱/质谱用于饮用水和地下水中的苯脲及三嗪草类除草剂的确认分析

本文介绍了液相色谱／大气压化学电离-质谱联用技术作为确认方法，检测饮用水和地下水中苯脲及三嗪草类除草剂的残留。共分析了16种除草剂，同时对分析方法进行了验证，其中标准偏差、离散度等结果均能满足饮用水的标准方法指南。     

马氏甲烷八叠球菌S－6的一个染色体区段的表达、序列分析和结构分析

用一组多克隆抗体对马氏甲烷八叠球菌（Ｍｅｔｈａｎｏｓａｒｃｉｎａｍａｚｅｉ）Ｓ－６菌株的基因组ＤＮＡ文库进行了筛选．仅选出ｐ６０Ａ克隆能对马氏甲烷八叠球菌中可发生细胞形态学变化菌株的抗血清发生阳性反应．对ｐ６０Ａ克隆的双链ＤＮＡ进行了序列分析．识别出一开式阅读框架（ｏｐｅｎｒｅａｄｉｎｇｆｒａｍｅＰ，ＯＲＦＰ）．表达的蛋白是ＯＲＦＰ编码的蛋白的３倍，并得到ＯＲＦＰ蛋白的三聚体，在ＳＤＳ－ＰＡＧＥ中表现出整体蛋白的迁移行为．同时，此表达蛋白抗１０％ＳＤＳ，６ｍｏｌ／Ｌ尿素及热处理．基因结构分析表明，ＯＲＦＰ具有与Ｍ．ｂａｒｋｒｉｍｃｒＡ有同源性的核糖体结合位点和一个与甲烷细菌启动子共有序列相似度达７７％的启动子序列．使用参照序列分析表明，由ＯＲＦＰ演绎的氨基酸序列，具有高密度的带电荷的氨基酸和占优势的β－层迭构型．对此表达蛋白作了Ｎｅｕｒｏｓｒｏｒａｃｒａｓｓａ的ｐｏｒｉｎ蛋白抗血清试验，以研究其可能功能．检验了Ｍ．ｍａｚｅｉＳ－６细胞的蔗糖梯度制备物，对此原细胞中的ＯＲＦＰ蛋白作了定位．结果表明，ＯＲＦＰ蛋白可能是一种古细菌Ｐｏｒｉｎ，其在Ｍ．ｍａｚｅｉＳ－６中的表达，可能象大肠杆菌那样与渗透压调节有关．     

Occurrence of lysozyme in the common cockle Cerastoderma edule and the effect of the tidal cycle on lysozyme activity

In 1983 a sample of cockles [Cerastoderma edule (L.)] was removed from the mid-tide level at Booterstown Strand, County Dublin, Ireland at 2-h intervals, for a period of 24 h. The gills, mantle and visceral mass tissues contained significant levels of lysozyme, with the gills containing the highest, weight-specific levels. A tidal rhythm of lysozyme activity in the gills, mantle and visceral mass was inversely related to the tidal cycle. The data were best described by a tidal curve shifted-5 hours out of phase, with maximum and minimum levels of activity occurring one hour after low and high tides, respectively. In marine bivalves, lysozyme may be involved in the extracellular digestion and absorption of bacteria during low tide. In this context the present use of bivalves as biological indicators of bacterial pollution is discussed.Constribution No. 6282 from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution     

Predatory behavior and chemical communication in two Metapone species (Hymenoptera:Formicidae)

Summary. Colonies of two species of Metapone (M. madagascarica, M. new species.) were collected in Madagascar and established in laboratory nests. It could be demonstrated that both species are specialist predators of termites (Cryptotermes kirbyi). During hunting the ants sting the termites and thereby paralyze and preserve the prey alive. In this way prey can be stored in the ant nest for extended periods. During foraging and colony emigrations the ants lay chemical trails with poison gland secretions. Among the seven compounds identified in the venom only methyl pyrrole-2-carboxylate elicits trail following behavior in both Metapone species. Received 11 February 2002, accepted 23 February 2002.     

Deep distributions of oceanic cirripede larvae in the Sargasso Sea and surrounding North Atlantic Ocean

From deep ( 1000 m), multi-depth zooplankton samples taken in the Azores frontal region from November 1980 to June 1981, high numbers of the two larval forms ofLepas pectinata, the commonest lepadid cirripede in this area, were sampled. The nauplii and cyprid larvae are large and long-lived. Nauplii were sampled where they feed, in the upper 150 m, closely associated with the fluorescence maximum. The cyprids were mainly sampled between 300 and 400 m, with a sharp cut-off in numbers just below the distribution peak. This deep distribution is intriguing, as the cyprids, which were not migrating diurnally, are non-feeding. To complete their life cycle they must settle on floating debris at the surface, where very few were sampled. They are negatively buoyant and there is no apparent physical reason for this deep distribution. There was no obvious pattern of changes in individual length or length/dry weight distribution with depth, the population appeared homogeneous. There was also no accumulation of other zooplankton at the same depth, or evidence from gut contents of large carnivores that the distribution pattern was caused by selective predation. A close association exists betweenL. pectinata andSargassum spp. weed, the cyprids preferentially settling on small fragments of weathered weed, the supply of which may be enhanced after winter. During winter, the harsh environment at the surface of the northern Sargasso Sea may discourage cyprid settlement. The deep distribution may be an ontogenetic migration conferring some survival advantage and saving energy due to the lower temperature and oxygen levels at depth. If it is a behavioural mechanism, duration of the cyprid stage will be extended until a more clement time of year, allowing them to settle over a longer period. The cyprids of other species were also sampled at depth, so the phenomenon appears to be widespread. If subsequent research confirms these observations as an ontogenetic migration, our current understanding of the fouling behaviour of oceanic lepadid cirripedes would be considerably modified.     

Insecticidal and growth-reducing activity of foliar extracts from Meliaceae

Summary Thirty-one species in twenty genera of the plant family Meliaceae were assayed for the production of growth-inhibiting phytochemicals, using the generalist herbivorePeridroma saucia. Most species were inhibitory when methanolic extracts were incorporated into artificial diets at concentrations at or below those occurring naturally. In general members of the subfamily Melioideae were more inhibitory than members of the Swietenioideae. Extracts of deciduous species with short leaf lifetimes were significantly more inhibitory than those of evergreen species with longer leaf lifetimes. In a smaller sample of species, evergreen species showed a trend towards having tougher leaves than deciduous species. These results support the resource availability hypothesis of Coleyet al. (1985), and suggest that life history attributes may be of some value in selecting plants for phytochemical prospecting.