During the last few decades, researchers have been in the search for environmental friendly ways to cope with agricultural pests, instead of using chemical pesticides. The use of essential oils has a high potential to...During the last few decades, researchers have been in the search for environmental friendly ways to cope with agricultural pests, instead of using chemical pesticides. The use of essential oils has a high potential to become an alternative control strategy against plant parasitic nematodes. This study was conducted to determine the toxicity of 10 essential oils （Artemisia absinthium, Citrus bergamia, Eucalyptus citriodora, Hypericum perforatum, Lavandula officinalis, Mentha arvensis, Ocimum basilicum, Piper nigrum, Thymus serpyllum and Zingiber officinale） against the second stage juveniles of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. The aqueous solutions of these essential oils have been applied to the second stage juveniles in three different concentrations （1%, 3% and 5%） at four different application time intervals （12, 24, 48 and 72 h）. The interactions between the variables have been examined with repeated measure analysis of variance （ANOVA）. This showed that the interactions of essential oil-time and essential oil-concentration were statistically significant, and it is concluded that L. officinalis, A. absinthium, P. nigrum, C. bergamia and M. arvensis have the most toxic effect in all concentrations and times, respectively.展开更多
There are many situations in which the ability of animals to distinguish between two similar looking objects can have significant selective consequences. For example, the objects that require discrimination may be edi...There are many situations in which the ability of animals to distinguish between two similar looking objects can have significant selective consequences. For example, the objects that require discrimination may be edible versus defended prey, predators versus non-predators, or mates of varying quality. Working from the premise that there are situations in which discrimi- nation may be more or less successful, we hypothesized that individuals find it more difficult to distinguish between stimuli when they encounter them sequentially rather than simultaneously. Our study has wide biological and psychological implications from the perspective of signal perception, signal evolution, and discrimination, and could apply to any system where individuals are making relative judgments or choices between two or more stimuli or signals. While this is a general principle that might seem intuitive, it has not been experimentally tested in this context, and is often not considered in the design of models or experiments, or in the interpretation of a wide range of studies. Our study is different from previous studies in psychology in that a） the level of similarity of stimuli are gradually varied to obtain selection gradients, and b） we discuss the implications of our study for specific areas in ecology, such as the level of perfection of mimicry in predator-prey systems. Our experiments provide evidence that it is indeed more difficult to distinguish between stimuli - and to learn to distinguish between stimuli - when they are encountered sequentially rather than simultaneously, even if the intervening time interval is short .展开更多
It is the first time to document the trilobite Mucronaspis(Songxites) wuningensis and the brachiopod ParomalomenaAegiromenella Assemblage from the Xinkailing Bed(Hirnantian, uppermost Ordovician) in Taoyuan and Cili c...It is the first time to document the trilobite Mucronaspis(Songxites) wuningensis and the brachiopod ParomalomenaAegiromenella Assemblage from the Xinkailing Bed(Hirnantian, uppermost Ordovician) in Taoyuan and Cili counties,northwestern Hunan Province. Synecological analysis shows that this is a deep water shelly fauna of South China during the Hirnantian. It lived on the upper Jiangnan Slope in northwestern Hunan, adjacent to the southeast margin of the Upper Yangtze Region, and belongs to the Hirnantia fauna with cool and deep water, and low diversity affinity, similar to its contemporary shelly faunas from the southern Shaanxi Slope adjacent to the north margin of the Upper Yangtze Region, the northern Chongqing depression(new name), and the Jiangxi-Anhui-Jiangsu gentle slope of the Lower Yangtze Region. Paleoecologically,it could be attributed to the BA 4–5 benthic regime(about 60–150 m deep, and deepest to 200 m), and was significantly different from the trilobite M.(S.) mucronata and the typical Hirnantia fauna while the latters may have habited in BA 2–3 benthic regimes(about 5–60 m deep). A new paleogeographic distribution pattern of the Hirnantian shallow and deep water shelly faunas of South China is herein proposed for the first time. Assuming that the depositional rate was constant in northwestern Hunan during the end Ordovician, the duration of the Xinkailing Bed might be only 12 thousand years according to the thickness of the Wufeng Formation and the absolute age values of those relevant graptolitic biozones. Such a short time interval may indicate that the global environmental change during the crisis was much shorter than previously thought, and its influence on the deep water regime was significantly shorter than that on the shallow water regime.展开更多
文摘During the last few decades, researchers have been in the search for environmental friendly ways to cope with agricultural pests, instead of using chemical pesticides. The use of essential oils has a high potential to become an alternative control strategy against plant parasitic nematodes. This study was conducted to determine the toxicity of 10 essential oils （Artemisia absinthium, Citrus bergamia, Eucalyptus citriodora, Hypericum perforatum, Lavandula officinalis, Mentha arvensis, Ocimum basilicum, Piper nigrum, Thymus serpyllum and Zingiber officinale） against the second stage juveniles of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. The aqueous solutions of these essential oils have been applied to the second stage juveniles in three different concentrations （1%, 3% and 5%） at four different application time intervals （12, 24, 48 and 72 h）. The interactions between the variables have been examined with repeated measure analysis of variance （ANOVA）. This showed that the interactions of essential oil-time and essential oil-concentration were statistically significant, and it is concluded that L. officinalis, A. absinthium, P. nigrum, C. bergamia and M. arvensis have the most toxic effect in all concentrations and times, respectively.
文摘There are many situations in which the ability of animals to distinguish between two similar looking objects can have significant selective consequences. For example, the objects that require discrimination may be edible versus defended prey, predators versus non-predators, or mates of varying quality. Working from the premise that there are situations in which discrimi- nation may be more or less successful, we hypothesized that individuals find it more difficult to distinguish between stimuli when they encounter them sequentially rather than simultaneously. Our study has wide biological and psychological implications from the perspective of signal perception, signal evolution, and discrimination, and could apply to any system where individuals are making relative judgments or choices between two or more stimuli or signals. While this is a general principle that might seem intuitive, it has not been experimentally tested in this context, and is often not considered in the design of models or experiments, or in the interpretation of a wide range of studies. Our study is different from previous studies in psychology in that a） the level of similarity of stimuli are gradually varied to obtain selection gradients, and b） we discuss the implications of our study for specific areas in ecology, such as the level of perfection of mimicry in predator-prey systems. Our experiments provide evidence that it is indeed more difficult to distinguish between stimuli - and to learn to distinguish between stimuli - when they are encountered sequentially rather than simultaneously, even if the intervening time interval is short .
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.41290260,41521061,41530103)Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.XDPB05)
文摘It is the first time to document the trilobite Mucronaspis(Songxites) wuningensis and the brachiopod ParomalomenaAegiromenella Assemblage from the Xinkailing Bed(Hirnantian, uppermost Ordovician) in Taoyuan and Cili counties,northwestern Hunan Province. Synecological analysis shows that this is a deep water shelly fauna of South China during the Hirnantian. It lived on the upper Jiangnan Slope in northwestern Hunan, adjacent to the southeast margin of the Upper Yangtze Region, and belongs to the Hirnantia fauna with cool and deep water, and low diversity affinity, similar to its contemporary shelly faunas from the southern Shaanxi Slope adjacent to the north margin of the Upper Yangtze Region, the northern Chongqing depression(new name), and the Jiangxi-Anhui-Jiangsu gentle slope of the Lower Yangtze Region. Paleoecologically,it could be attributed to the BA 4–5 benthic regime(about 60–150 m deep, and deepest to 200 m), and was significantly different from the trilobite M.(S.) mucronata and the typical Hirnantia fauna while the latters may have habited in BA 2–3 benthic regimes(about 5–60 m deep). A new paleogeographic distribution pattern of the Hirnantian shallow and deep water shelly faunas of South China is herein proposed for the first time. Assuming that the depositional rate was constant in northwestern Hunan during the end Ordovician, the duration of the Xinkailing Bed might be only 12 thousand years according to the thickness of the Wufeng Formation and the absolute age values of those relevant graptolitic biozones. Such a short time interval may indicate that the global environmental change during the crisis was much shorter than previously thought, and its influence on the deep water regime was significantly shorter than that on the shallow water regime.
