Stable isotope analysis provides new information on winter habitat use of declining avian migrants that is relevant to their conservation

Winter habitat use and the magnitude of migratory connectivity are important parameters when assessing drivers of the marked declines in avian migrants. Such information is unavailable for most species. We use a stable isotope approach to assess these factors for three declining African-Eurasian migrants whose winter ecology is poorly known: wood warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix, house martin Delichon urbicum and common swift Apus apus. Spatially segregated breeding wood warbler populations (sampled across a 800 km transect), house martins and common swifts (sampled across a 3,500 km transect) exhibited statistically identical intra-specific carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios in winter grown feathers. Such patterns are compatible with a high degree of migratory connectivity, but could arise if species use isotopically similar resources at different locations. Wood warbler carbon isotope ratios are more depleted than typical for African-Eurasian migrants and are compatible with use of moist lowland forest. The very limited variance in these ratios indicates specialisation on isotopically restricted resources, which may drive the similarity in wood warbler populations' stable isotope ratios and increase susceptibility to environmental change within its wintering grounds. House martins were previously considered to primarily use moist montane forest during the winter, but this seems unlikely given the enriched nature of their carbon isotope ratios. House martins use a narrower isotopic range of resources than the common swift, indicative of increased specialisation or a relatively limited wintering range; both factors could increase house martins' vulnerability to environmental change. The marked variance in isotope ratios within each common swift population contributes to the lack of population specific signatures and indicates that the species is less vulnerable to environmental change in sub-Saharan Africa than our other focal species. Our findings demonstrate how stable isotope research can contribute to understanding avian migrants' winter ecology and conservation status

Mechanism for secondary electron dopant contrast in the SEM

The growing use of secondary electron imaging in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) to map dopant distributions has stimulated an increasing interest in the mechanism that gives rise to so-called dopant contrast. In this paper a range of experimental results are used to demonstrate the wide applicability of the technique. These results are then incorporated into a model where, in particular, the effect of the surface barrier and the vacuum level are considered. It is found that the dominant contribution to the contrast mechanism is due to the three-dimensional variation of the vacuum level outside the semiconductor

Application of secondary electron dopant contrast imaging to InP/InGaAsP laser structures

Electron microscopy techniques have great potential for dopant profiling because of their high spatial resolution in two-dimensions (2-D). Previous work has shown that contrast arises between p-, n- and i-doped material when observed in the secondary electron (SE) mode of a scanning electron microscope (SEM). This allows the direct 2-D mapping of the dopant distribution in a semiconductor structure. The results presented here apply the SE-technique to real fabrication issues that affect the operational characteristics and lifetimes of InP/InGaAsP capped mesa buried heterostructure (CMBH) laser devices

SEM imaging of contrast arising from different doping concentrations in semiconductors

A technique for the direct imaging of 2-dimensional doping profiles in layered semiconductor structures is reported. The SE signal of standard and field-emission SEMs is used to produce images in which contrast between n- and p-doped layers is visible. The contrast arising from the differently doped layers is electronic in origin. The contrast is small, 1-5%, and the spatial resolution is found to be better than 0.1 mu m for the samples imaged in this work

Physiological characterisation of acuB deletion in Aspergillus niger

The acuB gene of Aspergillus niger is an ortholog of facB in Aspergillus nidulans. Under carbon-repression conditions, facB is repressed, thereby preventing acetate metabolism when the repressing carbon source is present. Even though facB is reported to be repressed directly by CreA, it is believed that a basal level of FacB activity exists under glucose-repressive conditions. In the present study, the effect of deletion of acuB on the physiology of A. niger was assessed. Differences in organic acid and acetate production, enzyme activities and extracellular amino and non-amino organic acid production were determined under glucose-repressing and -derepressing conditions. Furthermore, consumption of alternative carbon sources (e.g. xylose, citrate, lactate and succinate) was investigated. It was shown that AcuB has pleiotropic effects on the physiology of A. niger. The results indicate that metabolic pathways that are not directly involved in acetate metabolism are influenced by acuB deletion. Clear differences in organic acid consumption and production were detected between the a dagger acuB and reference strain. However, the hypothesis that AcuB is responsible for basal AcuA activity necessary for activation of acetate metabolic pathways, even during growth on glucose, could not be confirmed. The experiments demonstrated that also when acuB was deleted, no acetate was formed. Therefore, AcuB cannot be the only activator of AcuA, and another control mechanism has to be available for activating AcuA