Reactive volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are known to affect atmospheric chemistry. Biogenic VOCs (BVOCs) have a significant impact on regional air quality due to their large emission rates and high reactivities. Diterpenes (most particularly, kaur-16-ene) were detected in all of the 205 enclosure air samples collected over multiple seasons at two different sites from Cryptomeria japonica and...

The distribution of F-actin in the complex tissues of a higher plant organ has been visualized by fluorescence labeling the roots of the conifers Chamaecyparis obtusa and Pseudotsuga menziesii with F-actin-specific fluorescent dye-conjugated phallicidin. F-actin is present in the parenchymatous cells of the vascular tissue. Some vascular parenchyma cells possess larger numbers of F-actin-contai...

I investigated the prediction that parasitic castrators can reduce host population density. A survey of the salt marsh snail Cerithidea californica suggested a negative association between snail density and the prevalence of larval trematodes which castrate parasitized snails. Field experiments were conducted to determine the mechanisms by which larval trematodes might affect snail populat ion~...

In this study, we assessed the antitumor activity of the methanol extract from wood chips of the heartwood of the Taiwan red cypress, Chamaecyparis formosensis Matsumura, which is a precious tree species endemic to Taiwan. A brine shrimp lethality test (BST) indicated that the ethyl acetate (EtOAc)-soluble extract from the MeOH extract was a suitable candidate (LC (50) = 15.36 microg/mL) for fu...

A robust food web is one in which few secondary extinctions occur after removing species. We investigated how parasites affected the robustness of the Carpinteria Salt Marsh food web by conducting random species removals and a hypothetical, but plausible, species invasion. Parasites were much more likely than free-living species to suffer secondary extinctions following the removal of a free-li...