http://www.hindawi.comThe latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/694638Biodiversity-productivity theory predicts that ecosystems with increased productivity due to excessive limiting-nutrient loading will have decreased taxonomic diversity. In this 4-year study, we elevated productivity by adding NPK fertilizer to 20 m diameter plots in an old-field grassland to test the effects of anthropogenically mediated nutrient loading on plant and epigeal arthropod communities. While plants responded as predicted by the biodiversity-productivity theory, the epigeal arthropod community had highest species richness within the fertilized high-productivity treatments. We conclude that the contradictory response of the largely detrital-based epigeal community should alter conventional biodiversity-productivity theory and could affect terrestrial biodiversity conservation strategies.L. Brian Patrick, Lauchlan H. Fraser, and Mark W. Kershner© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/281038An extensive bleaching event in the summer of the year 1997-1998 affected most reefs along East Africa's shores. In the aftermath of that episode, the reefs of Île Alphonse in the Seychelles were examined and it was found that reefs along the seaward slopes of the island lost >95% of their branching coral colonies, with considerably higher survival of massive species. Île Alphonse features a nearly circular shallow lagoon, with steep seaward slopes. Contrary to our expectations, mortality in the warmer lagoon was far lower than of coral colonies on the surrounding slopes, bathed in deeper and cooler waters. We suggest that corals in the lagoon were protected from UV radiation by leachate stemming from seagrass leaves steeped in the lagoon. Our measurements in the lagoon showed a strong attenuation of ultraviolet radiation, not observed in the waters outside the lagoon, and laboratory examination confirmed that the strong UV absorption of substances leached into seawater from decomposing leaves of the seagrass Thalassodendron (=Cymodocea) testudinaceum. Our findings demonstrate the synergism between elevated seawater temperature and UV radiation in triggering bleaching on shallow reefs.David Iluz, Razi Vago, Nanette E. Chadwick, Razi Hoffman, and Zvy Dubinsky© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/260754We assessed nitrogen and phosphorus limitation in a floodplain forest in southern Georgia in USA using two commonly used methods: nitrogen to phosphorus (N:P) ratios in litterfall and fertilized ingrowth cores. We measured nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in litterfall to determine N:P mass ratios. We also installed ingrowth cores within each site containing native soil amended with nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), or nitrogen and phosphorus (N + P) fertilizers or without added fertilizer (C). Litter N:P ratios ranged from 16 to 22, suggesting P limitation. However, fertilized ingrowth cores indicated N limitation because fine-root length density was greater in cores fertilized with N or N + P than in those fertilized with P or without added fertilizer. We feel that these two methods of assessing nutrient limitation should be corroborated with fertilization trials prior to use on a wider basis.Matthew A. Neatrour, Robert H. Jones, and Stephen W. Golladay© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/236907The authors offer a critical analysis of pollution indicators currently applied for the ecological assessment of the thermo power plant's operation. They forward new “energo-ecological” indicators to highlight both the qualitative aspect of polluting emissions and their quantitative aspect, by relating their concentration in the flue gases purged into the atmosphere to the energy produced during the same interval. The application of these indicators contributes to the attenuation of the global warming phenomenon and to the protection of the world's resources of fossil fuels.Mircea Cârdu, Arina Speranţa Negoiţescu, and Dana Sandu© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/185642A significant correlation was observed between satellite derived chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations and the biomass of the invasive comb jellyfish Mnemiopsis leidyi in the southern Caspian Sea. By consuming the herbivorous zooplankton, the predatory ctenophore M. leidyi may have caused levels of Chl a to rise to very high values (∼9 mg m-3) in the southern Caspian Sea. There might also be several other factors concurrent with predation effects of M. leidyi influencing Chl a levels in this region, such as eutrophication and climatic changes which play major roles in nutrient, phytoplankton, and zooplankton variations. The decrease in pelagic fishes due to overfishing, natural, and anthropogenic impacts might have provided a suitable environment for M. leidyi to spread throughout this enclosed basin.Ahmet E. Kideys, Abolghaseem Roohi, Elif Eker-Develi, Frédéric Mélin, and Doug Beare© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/498390Female bottlenose dolphins (genus Tursiops) usually associate at moderate level with other females within social clusters called bands or cliques. It has been suggested that reproductive state may play the predominant role in determining associations within female T. truncatus bands. Here, we test the hypothesis that reproductive state correlates with associations of female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (T. aduncus). We found that females in similar reproductive state, which included females from late pregnancy to the first year of their calves' life or females from early pregnancy to their calves' newborn period, had higher-association coefficients with each other than they did with females in different reproductive states (females with older calves or without calves). This was observed both within and across social clusters suggesting that reproductive state, at least for pregnant females and those with young calves, plays an important role in determining who to associate with. However, a female's most frequent associate was not always with another in similar reproductive state. We suggest that several factors, including reproductive state, may be of importance in determining associations of female bottlenose dolphins. Luciana M. Möller and Robert G. Harcourt© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/140245A new geographic locality for Anorthoneis dulcis is reported. The paper describes the distribution and relative abundance of A. dulcis in Lagoa dos Patos lagoon (a lagoon in Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil) from samples collected between 2004 and 2005, and shows that this rare species is present all year round. This study extends the species distribution to South America indicating that the species can thrive on sand grains in lentic estuarine, and freshwater areas. It widens the range of tolerance to environmental parameters. The valve fine structure, morphology, and dimensions are in agreement with the original diagnosis.Garcia Marinês and Talgatti Dávia Marciana© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/37364Increased woody plant density (woody encroachment or woody thickening) is a globally observed phenomenon. Similarly, increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and decreased pan evaporation rates are globally observed phenomena. In this paper, we propose that the former (increased woody plant density) is a product of the latter. We propose that decreased stomatal conductance and increased rates of carbon fixation arising from an enriched atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, in conjunction with reduced rates of pan evaporation, result in increased woody plant density. We suggest that this is analogous to the increased woody plant density that is observed along rainfall gradients that span arid to mesic environments. From this conceptual model, we make three predictions, namely, that (a) long-term trends in tree water-use-efficiency should reveal increased values; (b) run-off data should show an increase where woody thickening is occurring; (c) enriched CO2 experiments should reveal an enhanced plant water status. These three predictions are discussed and shown to be supported by experimental data.Derek Eamus and Anthony R. Palmer© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/59282Gymnocladus assamicus is a critically endangered leguminous tree species endemic to Northeast India. Mature pods of the trees yield soap material and are collected by local people for domestic purposes and religious activities. G. assamicus grows on hill slopes and along banks of streams. Male and hermaphrodite flowers are borne by separate individual trees. Altogether 28 mature trees were documented from nine populations. Of these, very few regenerating trees were found. This species regenerates only through seeds. The major constraints to natural regeneration are overharvesting of mature fruits, habitat destruction, grazing, predation of seeds by scatter-hoarding animals, poor percentage of seed germination due to their hard-waxy seed coats, and the lack of seed dispersal. Effective conservation initiatives should emphasize sustainable harvesting of mature pods, awareness among local people, and preservation of surviving individuals of the species. Nonetheless, reintroduction of the species to suitable ecological habitats is also recommended.B. I. Choudhury, M. L. Khan, A. Arunachalam, and A. K. Das© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/12571The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) is used to assess the influence of small upland reservoirs (PL566) on watershed nutrient yield. SWAT simulates the impact of collectively increasing and decreasing PL566 magnitudes (size parameters) on the watershed. Totally removing PL566 reservoirs results in a 100% increase in total phosphorus and an 82% increase in total nitrogen, while a total maximum daily load (TMDL) calling for a 50% reduction in total phosphorus can be achieved with a 500% increase in the magnitude of PL566s in the watershed. PL566 reservoirs capture agriculture pollution in surface flow, providing long-term storage of these constituents when they settle to the reservoir beds. A potential strategy to reduce future downstream nutrient loading is to enhance or construct new PL566 reservoirs in the upper basin to better capture agricultural runoff.Shane J. Prochnow, Joseph D. White, Thad Scott, and Christopher Filstrup© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/94587Predators can be important top-down regulators of community structure and are known to have both positive and negative effects on species diversity. However, little is known about the reciprocal effects of species diversity on predators. Across a set of 80 lakes in Connecticut, USA, we found a strong positive correlation between prey species diversity (using the Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index) and growth rates of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). This correlation was strongest for small predators and decreased with body size. Although the underlying mechanisms are not known, the correlation is not driven by total fish abundance, predator abundance, or productivity.Mark H. Olson, Robert P. Jacobs, and Eileen B. O'Donnell© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/84234Host specificity in the parasitic plant Cytinus hypocistis was quantified at four sites in the Algarve region of Portugal from 2002 to 2007. The parasite was found to be locally host specific, and only two hosts were consistently infected: Halimium halimifolium and Cistus monspeliensis. C. hypocistis did not infect hosts in proportion to their abundance; at three sites, 100% of parasites occurred on H. halimifolium which represented just 42.4%, 3% and 19.7% of potential hosts available, respectively. At the remaining site, where H. halimifolium was absent, 100% of parasites occurred on C. monspeliensis which represented 81.1% of potential hosts available. Other species of potential host were consistently uninfected irrespective of their abundance. Ecological niche divergence of host plants H. halimifolium and C. monspeliensis may isolate host-specific races of C. hypocistis, thereby potentially driving allopatric divergence in this parasitic plant.C. J. Thorogood and S. J. Hiscock© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/12813Aiming to provide a unified theory of ionic liquids ecotoxicity, the recent spectral structure activity relationship (S-SAR) algorithm is employed for testing the two additive models of anionic-cationic interaction containing ionic liquid activity: the causal and the endpoint, |0+〉 and |1+〉 models, respectively. As a working system, the Daphnia magna ecotoxicity was characterized through the formulated and applied spectral chemical-ecobiological interaction principles. Specific anionic-cationic-ionic-liquid rules of interaction along the developed mechanistic hypersurface map of the main ecotoxicity paths together with the so-called resonance limitation of the standard statistical correlation analysis were revealed.Mihai V. Putz, Ana-Maria Lacrămă, and Vasile Ostafe© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/54762The constancy of biomass density was considered in an entire plant population p by combining two adjacent populations p1 and p2 for which the self-thinning rule is assumed to be satisfied independently and each biomass density is also assumed to be the same constant value. Under these assumptions, the biomass density d in a population p was formulated as d=c((km−α+1)(km+1)/(km1−α+1)(k+1)), where c is biomass density of p1 and p2, and k and m are stand area and density ratio of p1 to p2, respectively, and α is the self-thinning slope. In the case of m≠1, the value of d in the above equation is always larger than unity. This fact indicates that the biomass density in a combined population p is not equal to the biomass density c in each population p1 or p2 because of systematic error.Kazuharu Ogawa© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/34212Unlike most terrestrial mammals, female bats must supply their offspring with all required nutrients until pups achieve virtually adult size, at which time they are able to fly and become independent. Access to nutrients may be especially challenging for reproductively active females in mineral-poor landscapes such as tropical rainforests. We hypothesized that pregnant and lactating females from tropical landscapes acquire essential nutrients from locally-available mineral licks. We captured ten times as many bats at mineral licks than at control sites in a lowland rainforest in eastern Ecuador. Among bats captured at mineral licks, the sex ratio was heavily biased toward females, and a significantly higher portion of females captured at these sites, compared to control sites, were reproductively active (pregnant and lactating). Enrichment of N15 in relation to N14 in wing tissue indicated that bats captured at mineral licks were mostly fruit-eating species. Given the high visitation rates of reproductive active females at mineral licks, it is likely that mineral licks are important for fruit-eating female bats as a mineral source during late pregnancy and lactation. By sustaining high population densities of fruit-eating bats that disperse seeds, mineral licks may have an indirect influence on local plant species richness.Christian C. Voigt, Dina K. N. Dechmann, Jamie Bender, Benjamin J. Rinehart, Robert H. Michener, and Thomas H. Kunz© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/65083The role that plant-derived smoke plays in promoting seed germination is well documented, but little is known about its ability to inhibit seed germination. To better understand this phenomenon, we tested the effects of eight aerosol smoke treatments on the Columbia-3 ecotype of nondormant Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. seeds. Our results revealed that aerosol smoke significantly inhibits germination when seeds were exposed to prolonged periods of aerosol smoke. Short durations of smoke treatments significantly promoted the rate of germination of A. thaliana seed. We briefly discuss this dual regulation of smoke and its possible impact on conservation and restoration practices. We also propose that plant-derived smoke may be another vehicle by which allelochemicals can be introduced into the environment.Marcello Pennacchio, Lara V. Jefferson, and Kayri Havens© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/18636Cooperation, both intraspecific and interspecific, is a well-documented phenomenon in nature that is not well understood. Evolutionary game theory is a powerful tool to approach this problem. However, it has important limitations. First, very often it is not obvious which game is more appropriate to use. Second, in general, identical payoff matrices are assumed for all players, a situation that is highly unlikely in nature. Third, slight changes in these payoff values can dramatically alter the outcomes. Here, I use an evolutionary spatial model in which players do not have a universal payoff matrix, so no payoff parameters are required. Instead, each is equipped with random values for the payoffs, fulfilling the constraints that define the game(s). These payoff matrices evolve by natural selection. Two versions of this model are studied. First is a simpler one, with just one evolving payoff. Second is the “full” version, with all the four payoffs evolving. The fraction of cooperator agents converges in both versions to nonzero values. In the case of the full version, the initial heterogeneity disappears and the selected game is the “Stag Hunt.”H. Fort© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/92684The Cope’s rule predicts a tendency for species to evolve towards an increase in size. Recently, it has been suggested that such a tendency is due to the fact that large body sizes provide a general increase in individual fitness. Here we highlight evidence that predator species do not always fit the large-size = high-fitness mechanism for Cope’s rule. Given the specific requirements of predators and the complexity of prey-predator relationships, any analysis that does not take into account all animal groups may overlook a significant portion of evolutive trends. Generalisations may not be possible regardless of taxa.Vincenzo Penteriani and Robert Kenward© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/74090The objective of this study was to determine whether endozoochory contributes to the dispersal and colonization of plant species in recently formed coastal dunes. At least 5.7% of species present in the study area are being dispersed by wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus L.). Most dispersed species are perennial herbs with small seeds size. The continuous input of seeds through rabbit feces into newly created areas would ensure the constant arrival of seeds and would facilitate colonization. Therefore, endozoochorous dispersal may play a relevant role for the structure and composition of dune plant communities.C. M. Dellafiore, J. B. Gallego-Fernández, and S. Muñoz Vallés© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.