We investigated the direct and indirect effects of elevated atmospheric CO(2) on freshwater container habitats and their larval mosquito occupants. We predicted that a doubling of atmospheric CO(2) would (1) alter the chemical properties of water in this system, (2) slow degradation of leaf litter, and (3) decrease larval growth of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) mosquitoes raised on that litter under...

Carnivorous plants allocate more resources to carnivorous structures under nutrient-limited conditions, and relative investment can also be influenced by animals (infauna) that live in association with these plants and feed on their prey. We investigated these effects within a population of the pitcher plant Cephalotus follicularis containing varying densities of larvae of the fly Badisis ambul...

The sunßower midge, Contarinia schulzi Gagné (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), is a pest of cultivated sunßower (Helianthus annuus L.). Larval feeding can cause damage and yield loss to the sunßower head. Adult emergence is extended and larvae are well protected in the sunßower receptacle, making chemical control methods difÞcult and expensive. Sunßower midge enter sunßower Þelds at the edges but Þeldw...

The relative stabilities of specific embryonic mRNAs that persist in Drosophila melanogaster larvae were determined using an approach that combined RNA density labeling with cell-free translation. Unlike the other methods commonly used to measure the decay of individual mRNAs, the density labeling approach does not depend on the use of transcriptional inhibitors or on the measurement of precurs...

A mathematical model for the growth of a population of fish in the larval stage is proposed. The emphasis is put on the first part of the larval stage, when the larvae are still passive. It is assumed that during this stage, the larvae move with the phytoplankton on which they feed and share their food equally, leading to ratio-dependence. The other stages of the life cycle are modeled using si...

forest fragmentation results in a loss of forest interior and an increase in edge habitat. we studied how understorey bird community composition and habitat variables changed along an edge-to-interior gradient in a 1248-ha lowland rainforest patch in peninsular malaysia. birds and environmental variables such as vegetation structure and litter depth were detected within a 25-m radius of each of...

Availability of food is often a limiting factor in nature. Periods of food abundance are followed by times of famine, often in unpredictable patterns. Reliable information about the environment is a critical ingredient of successful survival strategy. One way to improve accuracy is to integrate information communicated by other organisms. To test whether such exchange of information may play a ...

As coral reefs change in their composition, the dynamics of organisms that depend on them will likely also be affected. Traditionally, marine ecologists have recognized that settlement of fishes (and invertebrates) is tremendously variable in space and time, and changes in coral communities might therefore be expected to operate through effects on settlement. However, recent work demonstrates t...

To compare the reproductive performance of the wild and cultured stocks of beluga, Huso huso males, some spermatological parameters were measured including: sperm motility, sperm density, spermatocrit and also fertilization rate, hatching rate and larval growth and survival rates. The semen samples were sampled from 11 wild spawners and 12 cultured brooders. A half of each semen sample was allo...

The feasibility of synthetic sex pheromone as a communication disruption agent for the control of the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Hübner), was examined by dispensing a 7:3 mixture of (Z,E)-9, 12-tetradecadienyl acetate and (Z)-9-tetradecen-1-o1. When this mixture was dispensed into a 155 ha field, the attraction of male moths to sex pheromone traps was completely inhibited, while the dens...