Avaliação de dois ciclos de seleção entre e dentro de famílias de meios-irmãos em duas populações de milho no nordeste brasileiro.

Durante os anos agrícolas de 1974/75/76, foram realizados dois ciclos de seleção entre e dentro de famílias de meios-irmãos nas populações do milho (Zea mays L.) Dentado Composto e Flint Composto, em diferentes regiões do Nordeste brasileiro. Em cada ciclo foram avaliadas 500 familias de meios-irmãos, de cada população, em látice simples duplicado 10 x 10, com uma repetição por local. Em 1978, os materiais referentes aos ciclos original I e 11 de cada população foram multiplicados através do cruzamento planta a planta. Em 1979, esses seis tratamentos, juntamente com outras dez populações, foram avaliadas em experimentos, no delineamento de blocos casualizados, cinco repetições e em dois locais, com o objetivo de se averiguar a eficiência da seleção. A análise estatística mostrou ocorrência de variação significativa para ciclos de seleção no Dentado Composto, mas ndo no Flint Composto. Não foi detectada significincia para a interação Ciclos/Dentado x Locais nem para Ciclos/ Flint x Locais. Verificou-se significância. para Restantes x Locais, confirmando a sensibilidade dos materiais do Centro-Sul quanto ao efeito de locais, o que nao ocorreu com as populações que estdo em processo de melhoramento no Nordeste. 0 progresso genético estimado por ciclo anual (coeficiente de regressão linear) foi de 475 kg/ha (15,47%) para o Dentado Compsoto, e de 157,5 kg/ha (5,20%) para o Flint Composto, sendo este último estatisticamente não significativo dentro do nível convencional de probabilidade. Os ganhos observados no presente estudo são indicativos de suficiente variabilidade genética nas duas populações, o que permitirá ganhos substanciais nos subseqiientes ciclos de seleção

Testing angular velocity as a new metric for metabolic demands of slow-moving marine fauna: a case study with Giant spider conchs Lambis truncata

BackgroundQuantifying metabolic rate in free-living animals is invaluable in understanding the costs of behaviour and movement for individuals and communities. Dynamic body acceleration (DBA) metrics, such as vectoral DBA (VeDBA), are commonly used as proxies for the energy expenditure of movement but are of limited applicability for slow-moving species. It has recently been suggested that metrics based on angular velocity might be better suited to characterise their energetics. We investigated whether a novel metric—the ‘Rate of change of Rotational Movement (RocRM)’, calculated from the vectoral sum of change in the pitch, roll and yaw/heading axes over a given length of time, is a suitable proxy for energy expenditure.ResultsWe found that RocRM can be used as an alternative energy expenditure proxy in a slow-moving benthic invertebrate. Eleven Giant spider conchs Lambis truncata (collected in the Red Sea) were instrumented with multiple channel (Daily Diary) tags and kept in sealed chambers for 5 h while their oxygen consumption, V̇O2, was measured. We found RocRM to be positively correlated with V̇O2, this relationship being affected by the time-step (i.e. the range of the calculated differential) of the RocRM. Time steps of 1, 5, 10 and 60 s yielded an explained variability of between 15 and 31%. The relationship between V̇O2 and VeDBA was not statistically significant, suggesting RocRM to provide more accurate estimations of metabolic rates in L. truncata.ConclusionsRocRM proved to be a statistically significant predictor of V̇O2 where VeDBA did not, validating the approach of using angular-based metrics over dynamic movement-based ones for slower moving animals. Further work is required to validate the use of RocRM for other species, particularly in animals with minimally dynamic movement, to better understand energetic costs of whole ecosystems. Unexplained variability in the models might be a consequence of the methodology used, but also likely a result of conch activity that does not manifest in movement of the shell. Additionally, density plots of mean RocRM at each time-step suggest differences in movement scales, which may collectively be useful as a species fingerprint of movement going forward

Evidence-Based Interventions and Strategies for the Grand Challenges Approach: The Need for Judgement

What is the value of evidence-based interventions in addressing “Grand Challenges”? Building upon the EPOS Grand Challenges work (Sakhrani et al., 2017), this paper explores whether evidence-based approaches developed for management and policy are relevant to addressing Grand Challenges. It discusses the criticisms of the Evidence-based Management approach and argues that evidence is a necessary, but not sufficient input in the decisionmaking process of addressing Grand Challenges

Projecting coral responses to intensifying marine heatwaves under ocean acidification

Over this century, coral reefs will run the gauntlet of climate change, as marine heatwaves (MHWs) become more intense and frequent, and ocean acidification (OA) progresses. However, we still lack a quantitative assessment of how, and to what degree, OA will moderate the responses of corals to MHWs as they intensify throughout this century. Here, we first projected future MHW intensities for tropical regions under three future greenhouse gas emissions scenario (representative concentration pathways, RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) for the near-term (2021-2040), mid-century (2041-2060) and late-century (2081-2100). We then combined these MHW intensity projections with a global data set of 1,788 experiments to assess coral attribute performance and survival under the three emissions scenarios for the near-term, mid-century and late-century in the presence and absence of OA. Although warming and OA had predominately additive impacts on the coral responses, the contribution of OA in affecting most coral attributes was minor relative to the dominant role of intensifying MHWs. However, the addition of OA led to greater decreases in photosynthesis and survival under intermediate and unrestricted emissions scenario for the mid- and late-century than if intensifying MHWs were considered as the only driver. These results show that role of OA in modulating coral responses to intensifying MHWs depended on the focal coral attribute and extremity of the scenario examined. Specifically, intensifying MHWs and OA will cause increasing instances of coral bleaching and substantial declines in coral productivity, calcification and survival within the next two decades under the low and intermediate emissions scenario. These projections suggest that corals must rapidly adapt or acclimatize to projected ocean conditions to persist, which is far more likely under a low emissions scenario and with increasing efforts to manage reefs to enhance resilience

Estimates for energy expenditure in free‐living animals using acceleration proxies; a reappraisal

It is fundamentally important for many animal ecologists to quantify the costs of animal activities, although it is not straightforward to do so. The recording of triaxial acceleration by animal-attached devices has been proposed as a way forward for this, with the specific suggestion that dynamic body acceleration (DBA) be used as a proxy for movement-based power. Dynamic body acceleration has now been validated frequently, both in the laboratory and in the field, although the literature still shows that some aspects of DBA theory and practice are misunderstood. Here, we examine the theory behind DBA and employ modelling approaches to assess factors that affect the link between DBA and energy expenditure, from the deployment of the tag, through to the calibration of DBA with energy use in laboratory and field settings. Using data from a range of species and movement modes, we illustrate that vectorial and additive DBA metrics are proportional to each other. Either can be used as a proxy for energy and summed to estimate total energy expended over a given period, or divided by time to give a proxy for movement-related metabolic power. Nonetheless, we highlight how the ability of DBA to predict metabolic rate declines as the contribution of non-movement-related factors, such as heat production, increases. Overall, DBA seems to be a substantive proxy for movement-based power but consideration of other movement-related metrics, such as the static body acceleration and the rate of change of body pitch and roll, may enable researchers to refine movement-based metabolic costs, particularly in animals where movement is not characterized by marked changes in body acceleration

Eficiência de um retrocruzamento no melhoramento de caracteres quantitativos em soja.

Este trabalho foi conduzido para avaliar a eficiência de uma geração de retrocruzamento no desenvolvimento de linhas puras superiores de soja, em uma população derivada de um cruzamento biparental entre os cultivares BRS-134 e EMGOPA-315, em que este último foi utilizado como genitor recorrente, por ser mais produtivo.Resumo

Avaliação de duas populações de soja derivadas do cruzamneto de genitores com alta e baixa divergência genética.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi comparar o desempenho de duas populações de soja derivadas do cruzamento de genitores com baixa DG e alta DG, obtidas a partir de marcadores moleculares AFLP.Resumo