We collected Vimba vimba throughout the spawning season （mid April to mid June, 2007） in Gorgan Bay （south-western Iran） and investigated its age, growth, and reproductive traits. The maximum age was 5＋ years. Bo...We collected Vimba vimba throughout the spawning season （mid April to mid June, 2007） in Gorgan Bay （south-western Iran） and investigated its age, growth, and reproductive traits. The maximum age was 5＋ years. Both sexes grew allometrically （positive for males： b=3.140 9 and negative for females： b=2.791 4）. The von Bertalanffy growth functions were described by the formulae Lf=32.565（1-e-0.184（t＋0.530）） for males and Lt=35.950（1-e-0.179（t＋0.529）） for females. The overall sex ratio was balanced, but males were predominant in the smaller size classes and females in the larger size classes. Based on the gonadosomatic index （GSI） values, spawning appears to occur between late April and late May in the bay. The highest mean GSI was 6.44 for males in early May and 20.36 for females in late April Absolute fecundity varies from the minimum of 5 436 eggs for age 3＋ fish to the maximum of 36 141 eggs for age 5＋ fish. Fecundity was also positively correlated with fish size （length and weight）. Egg diameter ranged from 1.05 to 1.70 nun in the mean of 1.42 mm. There was no correlation between female size and ova diameter.展开更多
Wildlife resources are important strategic bioresources in China. This paper analyzes the current threats to China’s wildlife, outlines achievements made by Chinese conservation biologists, and presents suggestions f...Wildlife resources are important strategic bioresources in China. This paper analyzes the current threats to China’s wildlife, outlines achievements made by Chinese conservation biologists, and presents suggestions for future developments in this field. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) plays an important role in the conservation of wildlife and provides significant intellectual support for conservation research and sustainable development.展开更多
Fear and anxiety may be adaptive responses to life-threatening situations, and animals may communicate fear to others vocally. A fundamental understanding of fear inducing sounds is important for both wildlife conserv...Fear and anxiety may be adaptive responses to life-threatening situations, and animals may communicate fear to others vocally. A fundamental understanding of fear inducing sounds is important for both wildlife conservation and management because it helps us understand how to design repellents and also how （and why） animals may be negatively impacted by anthropogenic sounds. Nonlinear phenomena--sounds produced by the desynchronization of vibrations in a sound production system-are commonly found in stress-induced animal vocalizations, such as in alarm calls, mobbing calls, and fear screams. There are several functional hypotheses for these nonlinear phenomena. One specific hypothesis is the unpredictability hypothesis, which suggests that because nonlinear phenomena are more variable and somewhat unpredictable, animals are less likely to habituate to them. Animals should, therefore, have a prolonged response to sounds with nonlinear phenomena than sounds without them. Most of the studies involving nonlinear phenomena have used mammalian subjects and conspecific stimuli. Our study fo- cused on white-crowned sparrows （Zonotrichia leucophrys ssp. oriantha） and used synthesized acoustic stimuli to investigate behavioral responses to stimuli with and without nonlinear phenomena. We predicted that birds would be less relaxed after hearing a stimulus with a nonlinear component. We calculated the difference from baseline of proportion of time spent in relaxed behaviors and performed pair-wise comparisons between a pure tone control stimulus and each of three experimental stimuli, including a frequency jump up, a frequency jump down, and white noise. These comparisons showed that in the 30q50 s after the playback experiment, birds were significantly less relaxed after hearing noise or an abrupt frequency jump down an octave but not an abrupt frequency jump up an octave or a pure tone. Nonlinear phenomena, therefore, may be generally arousing to animals and may explain why these acoustic properties are commonly found in animal signals associated with fear [Current Zoology 60 （4）： 534-541, 2014].展开更多
Global climate change is impacting organisms, biological communities and ecosystems around the world. While most research has focused on characterizing how the climate is changing, including modeling future climatic c...Global climate change is impacting organisms, biological communities and ecosystems around the world. While most research has focused on characterizing how the climate is changing, including modeling future climatic conditions and predicting the impacts of these conditions on biodiversity, it is also the case that climate change is altering the environmental impacts of chemical pollution. Future climate conditions are expected to influence both the worldwide distribution of chemicals and the toxi- cological consequences of chemical exposures to organisms. Many of the environmental changes associated with a warming global climate （e.g., increased average - and possibly extreme - temperatures; intense periods of drier and wetter conditions; reduced ocean pH; altered salinity dynamics in estuaries） have the potential to enhance organism susceptibility to chemical toxicity. Addi- tionally, chemical exposures themselves may impair the ability of organisms to cope with the changing environmental conditions of the shifting climate. Such reciprocity in the interactions between climate change and chemicals illustrates the complexity inherent in predicting the toxicological consequences of chemical exposures under future climate scenarios. Here, we summarize what is currently known about the potential reciprocal effects of climate change and chemical toxicity on wildlife, and depict current approaches and ongoing challenges for incorporating climate effects into chemical testing and assessment. Given the rapid pace of new man-made chemistries, the development of accurate and rapid methods to evaluate multiple chemical and non-chemical stressors in an ecologically relevant context will be critical to understanding toxic and endocrine-disrupting effects of chemical pollutants under future climate scenarios [Current Zoology 61 （4）： 669-689, 2015].展开更多
文摘We collected Vimba vimba throughout the spawning season （mid April to mid June, 2007） in Gorgan Bay （south-western Iran） and investigated its age, growth, and reproductive traits. The maximum age was 5＋ years. Both sexes grew allometrically （positive for males： b=3.140 9 and negative for females： b=2.791 4）. The von Bertalanffy growth functions were described by the formulae Lf=32.565（1-e-0.184（t＋0.530）） for males and Lt=35.950（1-e-0.179（t＋0.529）） for females. The overall sex ratio was balanced, but males were predominant in the smaller size classes and females in the larger size classes. Based on the gonadosomatic index （GSI） values, spawning appears to occur between late April and late May in the bay. The highest mean GSI was 6.44 for males in early May and 20.36 for females in late April Absolute fecundity varies from the minimum of 5 436 eggs for age 3＋ fish to the maximum of 36 141 eggs for age 5＋ fish. Fecundity was also positively correlated with fish size （length and weight）. Egg diameter ranged from 1.05 to 1.70 nun in the mean of 1.42 mm. There was no correlation between female size and ova diameter.
文摘Wildlife resources are important strategic bioresources in China. This paper analyzes the current threats to China’s wildlife, outlines achievements made by Chinese conservation biologists, and presents suggestions for future developments in this field. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) plays an important role in the conservation of wildlife and provides significant intellectual support for conservation research and sustainable development.
文摘Fear and anxiety may be adaptive responses to life-threatening situations, and animals may communicate fear to others vocally. A fundamental understanding of fear inducing sounds is important for both wildlife conservation and management because it helps us understand how to design repellents and also how （and why） animals may be negatively impacted by anthropogenic sounds. Nonlinear phenomena--sounds produced by the desynchronization of vibrations in a sound production system-are commonly found in stress-induced animal vocalizations, such as in alarm calls, mobbing calls, and fear screams. There are several functional hypotheses for these nonlinear phenomena. One specific hypothesis is the unpredictability hypothesis, which suggests that because nonlinear phenomena are more variable and somewhat unpredictable, animals are less likely to habituate to them. Animals should, therefore, have a prolonged response to sounds with nonlinear phenomena than sounds without them. Most of the studies involving nonlinear phenomena have used mammalian subjects and conspecific stimuli. Our study fo- cused on white-crowned sparrows （Zonotrichia leucophrys ssp. oriantha） and used synthesized acoustic stimuli to investigate behavioral responses to stimuli with and without nonlinear phenomena. We predicted that birds would be less relaxed after hearing a stimulus with a nonlinear component. We calculated the difference from baseline of proportion of time spent in relaxed behaviors and performed pair-wise comparisons between a pure tone control stimulus and each of three experimental stimuli, including a frequency jump up, a frequency jump down, and white noise. These comparisons showed that in the 30q50 s after the playback experiment, birds were significantly less relaxed after hearing noise or an abrupt frequency jump down an octave but not an abrupt frequency jump up an octave or a pure tone. Nonlinear phenomena, therefore, may be generally arousing to animals and may explain why these acoustic properties are commonly found in animal signals associated with fear [Current Zoology 60 （4）： 534-541, 2014].
文摘Global climate change is impacting organisms, biological communities and ecosystems around the world. While most research has focused on characterizing how the climate is changing, including modeling future climatic conditions and predicting the impacts of these conditions on biodiversity, it is also the case that climate change is altering the environmental impacts of chemical pollution. Future climate conditions are expected to influence both the worldwide distribution of chemicals and the toxi- cological consequences of chemical exposures to organisms. Many of the environmental changes associated with a warming global climate （e.g., increased average - and possibly extreme - temperatures; intense periods of drier and wetter conditions; reduced ocean pH; altered salinity dynamics in estuaries） have the potential to enhance organism susceptibility to chemical toxicity. Addi- tionally, chemical exposures themselves may impair the ability of organisms to cope with the changing environmental conditions of the shifting climate. Such reciprocity in the interactions between climate change and chemicals illustrates the complexity inherent in predicting the toxicological consequences of chemical exposures under future climate scenarios. Here, we summarize what is currently known about the potential reciprocal effects of climate change and chemical toxicity on wildlife, and depict current approaches and ongoing challenges for incorporating climate effects into chemical testing and assessment. Given the rapid pace of new man-made chemistries, the development of accurate and rapid methods to evaluate multiple chemical and non-chemical stressors in an ecologically relevant context will be critical to understanding toxic and endocrine-disrupting effects of chemical pollutants under future climate scenarios [Current Zoology 61 （4）： 669-689, 2015].
