Complimentary protein extraction methods increase the identification of the Park Grass Experiment metaproteome

Although the Park Grass Experiment is an important international reference soil for temperate grasslands, it still lacks the direct extraction of its metaproteome. The identification of these proteins can be crucial to our understanding of soil ecology and major biogeochemical processes. However, the extraction of protein from soil is a technically fraught process due to difficulties with co-extraction of humic material and lack of compatible databases to identify proteins. To address these issues, we combined two protein extraction techniques on Park Grass experiment soil, one based on humic acid removal, namely a modified freeze-dry, heat/thaw/phenol/chloroform (HTPC) method and another which co-extracts humic material, namely an established surfactant method. A broad range of proteins were identified by matching the mass spectra of extracted soil proteins against a tailored Park Grass proteome database. These were mainly in the categories of “protein metabolism”, “membrane transport”, “carbohydrate metabolism”, “respiration” “ribosomal and nitrogen cycle” proteins, enabling reconstitution of specific processes in grassland soil. Protein annotation using NCBI and EBI databases inferred that the Park Grass soil is dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Firmicutes at phylum level and Bradyrhizobium, Rhizobium, Acidobacteria, Streptomyces and Pseudolabrys at genus level. Further functional enrichment analysis enabled us to connect protein identities to regulatory and signalling networks of key biogeochemical cycles, notably the nitrogen cycle. The newly identified Park Grass metaproteome thus provides a baseline on which future targeted studies of important soil processes and their control can be built

Calling where it counts:Subordinate pied babblers target the audience of their vocal advertisements

For territorial group-living species, opportunities to reproduce on the natal territory can be limited by a number of factors including the availability of resources within a territory, access to unrelated individuals, and monopolies on reproduction by dominant group members. Individuals looking to reproduce are therefore faced with the options of either waiting for a breeding opportunity to arise in the natal territory, or searching for reproductive opportunities in non-natal groups. In the cooperatively breeding Southern pied babbler, Turdoides bicolor, most individuals who achieve reproductive success do so through taking up dominant breeding positions within non-natal groups. For subordinate pied babblers therefore, searching for breeding opportunities in non-natal groups is of primary importance as this represents the major route to reproductive success. However, prospecting (where individuals leave the group to search for reproductive opportunities within other groups) is costly and individuals rapidly lose weight when not part of a group. Here we demonstrate that subordinate pied babblers adopt an alternative strategy for mate attraction by vocal advertisement from within their natal territories. We show that subordinates focus their calling efforts on the edges of their territory, and specifically near boundaries with neighbouring groups that have potential breeding partners (unrelated individuals of the opposite sex). In contrast to prospecting, calling individuals showed no body mass loss associated with this behaviour, suggesting that calling from within the group may provide a 'cheap' advertisement strategy. Additionally, we show that subordinates use information regarding the composition of neighbouring groups to target the greatest number of potential mating partners

Monitoring ecological consequences of efforts to restore landscape-scale connectivity

© 2017 Elsevier LtdManaging and restoring connectivity that enables wildlife movement through landscapes is the primary approach to reduce harmful effects of habitat loss and fragmentation. Improved connectivity is also increasingly invoked as a strategy to mitigate negative impacts of climate change by enabling species to track preferred environments and maintain evolutionary processes. Although initiatives to improve connectivity using restoration are becoming commonplace, we do not know how successful these actions are, nor which mechanisms underlie biotic responses. Most ecological monitoring focuses on site condition or quality rather than those landscape-scale processes that connectivity is intended to facilitate. To assess biodiversity responses to connectivity initiatives, we argue that new monitoring approaches are needed that distinguish the roles of connectivity restoration from those of habitat augmentation or improvement. To address this critical gap, we developed a conceptual model of the hypothesised roles of connectivity in complex landscapes and a linked framework to guide design of connectivity monitoring approaches in an adaptive management context. We demonstrate that integrated monitoring approaches using complementary methods are essential to reveal whether long-term landscape-scale goals are being achieved, and to determine whether connectivity management and restoration are the mechanisms responsible. We summarize a real-world example of applying our approach to assist government develop a monitoring plan for a large-scale connectivity conservation initiative in the Australian Capital Territory. As well as highlighting the utility of the framework to help managers make informed choices about monitoring, this example illustrates the difficulties of convincing funding bodies to include monitoring in project budgets and the questions more likely to be answered with limited funds. Synthesis and applications. Implementing an effective strategy to monitor connectivity conservation initiatives necessarily involves more work but we argue it is an essential investment rather than an additional cost. By optimizing allocation of limited monitoring resources, we can more effectively implement management that improves functional connectivity, and understand how changing connectivity affects population persistence

3. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft fuer Biologische Strahlenforschung (GBS '99) Proceedings

These proceedings contain the abstracts of all papers presented at the conference dealing with the following headings: Radiation chemistry, radiobiological models, non-ionizing radiation, unconventional radiation qualities, stochastic radiation effects, dna repair, cellular radiobiology, as well as radiobiology of tumors and tissues. (MG)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Reservoir sediment stacks : their potential for determining post-fire history, severity and frequency from selected sediment characteristics

Forest fires tend to cause accelerated soil erosion with some of the redistributed sediment entering the fluvial system. Where there is a reservoir downstream, enhanced sediment accumulation will tend to take place on its floor. This paper concerns the application of different techniques to sediment cores obtained from the floor of Lake Burragorang, the main water supply reservoir for Sydney and explores the possibility not only of discriminating between sediment from burnt and unburnt sources but also between sediment derived from areas subject to different fire severities. Two main soil properties have been investigated: mineral magnetism and thermal activation characteristics (TAC). Laboratory heating experiments have been conducted on long unburnt material (>30 years) to ascertain temperature thresholds at which changes to the soil characteristics occur. Owing to the dominance of the mineral magnetite in soils from the study area, only high severity fires can be detected using mineral magnetic analysis due to the high temperature at which magnetite properties transform (577 °C). Lower temperature thresholds have been explored by TAC analysis. Using this technique it is possible to detect whether temperatures in excess of 110 °C have been reached. These experiments have shown that individual soil grains have retained a ‘memory’ effect of previous fire events, so that it has been necessary to find sources of material not previously exposed to fire (unexposed bedrock) to test the validity of the assumptions of the technique. The influence of the well-documented fire history has been explored in different parts of the Lake Burragorang catchment using mineral magnetic analysis and reference to SCA records of burn events within the catchment since 1960. This has enabled assessment of the influence of (i) different landscape units, (ii) the number of fires, and (iii) the time since the last fire on various magnetic signatures derived from within the catchment, which could possibly be used to build a picture of the sources of sediment within the catchment deposited on the lake floor. The potential and limitations of applying these techniques to sediment stacks for the purpose of reconstructing fire history, severity and frequency are discussed.2 page(s