Michelle L. Sauther Department of Anthropology Washington University St. Louis, MO 63130 U.S.A. Stresses imposed on female lemurs by adapting their reproductive events to seasonal resource availability may be exacerbated by high preand post-natal maternal investment and by group living. Within such a context female dominance can be seen as a critical behavior, enabling females to coexist with m...

The hedgehog has not been widely studied in the conservation context in New Zealand. As an introduced mammal, its role in New Zealand ecosystems is not well understood. Through the use of three years of trapping data from Trounson Kauri Park in Northland, and the analysis of 51 gut samples taken over a one-year period from Trounson, seasonal patterns of abundance and diet of hedgehogs were inve...

UNLABELLED Seasonal influenza viruses evolve rapidly, allowing them to evade immunity in their human hosts and reinfect previously infected individuals. Similarly, vaccines against seasonal influenza need to be updated frequently to protect against an evolving virus population. We have thus developed a processing pipeline and browser-based visualization that allows convenient exploration and an...

The seasonality of litter insect abundance and its relationship with rainfall was analyzed in a wet evergreen forest on the windward side of south Western Ghats. Monthly litter samples were collected using Berlese funnels during 4 seasons of a year: southwest monsoon season June-August), northeast monsoon season (September-November), summer (March -May) and pre-summer season (December-February)...

Data are presented on ring-tailed lemur feeding ecology and resource use at the Beza Mahafaly Special Reserve in southwestern Madagascar. The phenological availability of food resources was sampled monthly from 199 trees and 31 species. Results indicate that Lemur catta feeding ecology is finely tuned to the seasonal nature of specific food resources. Key species provide important food items du...

The major source of vitamin D in humans is ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation in sunshine. It has been estimated that vitamin D production in skin provides between 80-100% of the body’s vitamin D requirements [2], and that food sources play a lesser role. Vitamin D is produced when UVB radiation reaches 7-dehydrocholestol in the skin, and there are a number of personal and environmental factors that...

The amount of food and when it is available affect both the timing of reproduction and the number of gametes produced by purple sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. To investigate this further, the effects of food availability on feeding rates, gonad growth, and gamete development were examined in S. purpuratus collected from the Point Loma kelp forest near San Diego, California, USA (32...

1. Organisms must contend with seasonal fluctuations in energy availability. To maintain a positive energy balance year-round, a number of adaptations have evolved including seasonal changes in reproduction, energetics and immunity. Photoperiod is the primary environmental signal most animals use to predict seasonal events. Despite the established link between energetics and immune function, li...

Seasonal cycles of body weight provide a natural model system to understand the central control of energy balance. Studies of such cycles in Siberian hamsters suggest that a change in the hypothalamic availability of thyroid hormone is the key determinant of annual weight regulation. Uptake of thyroid hormone into the hypothalamus from the peripheral circulation occurs largely through a specifi...

The physiological response of plants growing in their natural habitat is strongly determined by seasonal variations in environmental conditions and the interaction of abiotic and biotic stresses. Here, leaf water and nutrient contents, changes in cellular redox state and endogenous levels of stress-related phytohormones (abscisic acid (ABA), salicylic acid and jasmonates) were examined during t...