Seabird species vary in behavioural response to drone census

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide an opportunity to rapidly census wildlife in remote areas while removing some of the hazards. However, wildlife may respond negatively to the UAVs, thereby skewing counts. We surveyed four species of Arctic cliff-nesting seabirds (glaucous gull Larus hyperboreus, Iceland gull Larus glaucoides, common murre Uria aalge and thick-billed murre Uria lomvia) using a UAV and compared censusing techniques to ground photography. An average of 8.5% of murres flew off in response to the UAV, but >99% of those birds were non-breeders. We were unable to detect any impact of the UAV on breeding success of murres, except at a site where aerial predators were abundant and several birds lost their eggs to predators following UAV flights. Furthermore, we found little evidence for habituation by murres to the UAV. Most gulls flew off in response to the UAV, but returned to the nest within five minutes. Counts of gull nests and adults were similar between UAV and ground photography, however the UAV detected up to 52.4% more chicks because chicks were camouflaged and invisible to ground observers. UAVs provide a less hazardous and potentially more accurate method for surveying wildlife. We provide some simple recommendations for their use.We thank T. Leonard and the Seabird Ecological Reserves Advisory Committee for permission to work at Witless Bay, the Canadian Wildlife Service for permits to work at Newfoundland and Nunavut and the Government of Nunavut for permits to work in Nunavut. Newfoundland and Labrador Murre Fund, Bird Studies Canada and the Molson Foundation directly funded the work. An NSERC Discovery Grant, the Canada Research Chair in Arctic Ecology and Polar Continental Shelf Project also helped fund the project. We thank T. Burke, G. Sorenson, T. Lazarus and M. Guigueno for their help and J. Nakoolak for keeping us safe from bear

Does Kin Recognition and Sib-Mating Avoidance Limit the Risk of Genetic Incompatibility in a Parasitic Wasp?

Background: When some combinations of maternal and paternal alleles have a detrimental effect on offspring fitness, females should be able to choose mates on the basis of their genetic compatibility. In numerous Hymenoptera, the sex of an individual depends of the allelic combination at a specific locus (single-locus Complementary Sex Determination), and in most of these species individuals that are homozygous at this sexual locus develop into diploid males with zero fitness. Methods and Findings: In this paper, we tested the hypothesis of genetic incompatibility avoidance by investigating sibmating avoidance in the solitary wasp parasitoid, Venturia canescens. In the context of mate choice we show, for the first time in a non-social hymenopteran species, that females can avoid mating with their brothers through kin recognition. In ‘‘no-choice’ ’ tests, the probability a female will mate with an unrelated male is twice as high as the chance of her mating with her brothers. In contrast, in choice tests in small test arenas, no kin discrimination effect was observed. Further experiments with male extracts demonstrate that chemical cues emanating from related males influence the acceptance rate of unrelated males. Conclusions: Our results are compatible with the genetic incompatibility hypothesis. They suggest that the female wasps recognize sibs on the basis of a chemical signature carried or emitted by males possibly using a ‘‘self-referent phenotyp

Genetic analysis of two distinct reproductive strategies in sexual and asexual field populations of an endoparasitic wasp, Venturia canescens

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.comAsexual (thelytokous) females of the parasitoid Venturia canescens, which develop inside another insect, exhibit evolutionarily stable mixtures of life-history strategies, allowing two genetically distinct wasp lines to coexist sympatrically on the same host resources. Since the two asexual lines differ in a virus-like particle protein-coding gene (VLP1), the question is whether the VLP1 gene is genetically associated with the phenotype. The recent isolation of facultative sexual (arrhenotokous) and asexual V. canescens strains from the same location in Southern France has enabled an investigation of the genetic basis for the observed phenotypic differences, by comparing the two asexual lines with the corresponding homozygous VLP1 genotypes in arrhenotokous strains. This analysis showed similar patterns of morphological and functional differences exist in the ovaries of the two asexual VLP1 lines and in the two homozygous VLP1 genotypes from the field, suggesting that the VLP1 gene alteration either causes the ovarian phenotype or is genetically closely linked to the putative gene. However, the VLP1-gene may not be the only gene contributing to the phenotypic effects observed in the asexual lines. Although the two VLPl-alleles segregate with the relative differences in the ovary distribution of eggs, the absolute egg numbers differ in the corresponding asexual and sexual genotypes. This suggests that an additional unlinked gene may be involved in the transfer of eggs from the ovarioles into the oviduct

Biochar from biomass and waste

There is an increasing realisation that biomass and organic wastes are valuable feedstocks for second generation biorefining processes that give rise to platform chemicals to substitute for dwindling petrochemical resources, and for pyrolysis processes that produce syngas, bio-oil, and biochar from biomass, organic wastes, and the biorefining residuals of the future. The experimental work described has focused on physical properties and compositions of biochars produced from miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus), willow (Salix spp) and pine (Pinus sylvestris) at 500°C and at 400, 500, and 600°C in the case of the miscanthus. Although the morphologies of the cell structures were maintained in the pyrolysis, the surface area of the miscanthus biochar was greatly increased by heating at 600°C for 60 min. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectra showed the disappearance of evidence for the carbohydrate and lignin plant components as the pyrolysis temperature was raised, and the compositions of miscanthus biochars after heating for 10 and for 60 min at 600°C were very similar and composed of fused aromatic structures and with no traces of the aliphatic components in the starting materials. In greenhouse and growth chamber experiments the growth of maize (Zea mays L) seedlings was found to be inhibited by soil amendments with biochar from miscanthus formed at 400°C for 10 min, but stimulated by miscanthus char formed at 600°C for 60 min. In the course of discussion the relevance of the results obtained is related to the roles that soil amendments with biochar can have on soil fertility, carbon sequestration, on the emissions of greenhouse gases from soil, on fertilizer requirements, and on waste management. It is clear that biochar soil amendments can have definite agronomic and environmental benefits, but it will be essential to have clear guidelines for biochar production from various feedstocks and under varying pyrolysis parameters. It will be equally important to have a classification system for biochars that clearly indicate the product compositions that will meet acceptable standards. A case can be made for sets of standard biochars from different substrates that meet the required criteria