The effect of hunger level on predation dynamics in the spider Nesticodes rufipes: a functional response study

It is well known that a predator has the potential to regulate a prey population only if the predator responds to increases in prey density and inflicts greater mortality rates. Predators may cause such density-dependent mortality depending on the nature of the functional and numerical responses. As spiders are usually faced with a shortage of prey, the killing behavior of the spider Nesticodes rufipes at varying densities of Musca domestica was examined here through laboratory functional response experiments where spiders were deprived of food for 5 (well-fed) or 20 days (hungry). An additional laboratory experiment was also carried out to assess handling time of spiders. The number of prey killed by spiders over 24- and 168-h periods of predator-prey interaction was recorded. Logistic regression analyses revealed the type II functional response for both well-fed and hungry spiders. We found that the lower predation of hungry spiders during the first hours of experimentation was offset later by an increase in predation ( explained by estimated handling times), resulting in similarity of functional response curves for well-fed and hungry spiders. It was also observed that the higher number of prey killed by well-fed spiders over a 24- h period of spider-prey interaction probably occurred due to their greater weights than hungry spiders. We concluded that hungry spiders may be more voracious than well-fed spiders only over longer time periods, since hungry spiders may spend more time handling their first prey items than well-fed spiders.

Stochastic dynamics in exotic and native blowflies: an analysis combining laboratory experiments and a two-patch metapopulation model

In this study we explored the stochastic population dynamics of three exotic blowfly species, Chrysomya albiceps, Chrysomya megacephala and Chrysomya putoria, and two native species, Cochliomyia macellaria and Lucilia eximia, by combining a density-dependent growth model with a two-patch metapopulation model. Stochastic fecundity, survival and migration were investigated by permitting random variations between predetermined demographic boundary values based on experimental data. Lucilia eximia and Chrysomya albiceps were the species most susceptible to the risk of local extinction. Cochliomyia macellaria, C. megacephala and C. putoria exhibited lower risks of extinction when compared to the other species. The simultaneous analysis of stochastic fecundity and survival revealed an increase in the extinction risk for all species. When stochastic fecundity, survival and migration were simulated together, the coupled populations were synchronized in the five species. These results are discussed, emphasizing biological invasion and interspecific interaction dynamics.

Seasonal population dynamics in Lucilia eximia (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Morphological characterization of the ovary and vitellogenesis dynamics in the tick Amblyomma cajennense (Acari : Ixodidae)

In this work we describe the internal morphology of the female reproductive system of the cayenne tick Amblyomma cajennense. This system is represented by a panoistic ovary, which lacks nurse cells in the germarium. This ovary consists of a single tube, in which a large number of oocytes develop asynchronously, thus accompanying the processes of yolk deposition in the oocytes. The oocytes were classified into stages that varied from I to V, according to: cytoplasm appearance, presence of the germ vesicle, presence of yolk granules, and presence of chorion. The study of vitellogenesis dynamics suggest that the yolk elements are deposited in the oocyte following a preferencial sequence, in which the lipids are the first to appear, followed by proteins an finally by the carbohydrates. In this way the yolk of A. cajennense ticks have these three elements that may be free in the cytoplasm or chemically bounded forming glycoprotein or lipoprotein complexes. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Histological study of the dynamics in epidermis regeneration of the carp tail fin (Cyprinus carpio, Linnaeus, 1758)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Bamboo overabundance alters forest structure and dynamics in the Atlantic Forest hotspot

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Effects of flooding regime and woody bamboos on tree community dynamics in a section of tropical semideciduous forest in South-Eastern Brazil

The influence of a population of the understorey woody bamboo Merostachys riedeliana and different flooding regimes on tree community dynamics in a section of tropical semideciduous forest in South-Eastern Brazil was examined. A forest section with an area of 1.6 ha composed of 71 adjacent plots was located on a slope ending at the river margin. The section was divided into five topographical sectors according to the mean duration of river floods. In 1991 and 1998 all trees with a diameter at the base of the trunk greater than or equal to 5 cm were measured, identified and tagged, and all live bamboo culms were counted. Annualised estimates of the rates of tree mortality and recruitment, gain and loss of tree basal area, and change in bamboo density were calculated for each of the 71 plots and five topographical sectors as well as for diameter classes and tree species. To segregate patterns arising from spatially autocorrelated events, geostatistical analyses were used prior to statistical comparisons and correlations. In general, mortality rates were not compensated by recruitment rates but there was a net increase in basal area in all sectors, suggesting that the tree community as a whole was in a building phase. Tree community dynamics of the point bar forest (Depression and Levee sectors) differed from that of the upland forest (Ridgetop, Middle Slope and Lower Slope sectors) in the extremely high rates of gain in basal area. The predominant and specialised species, Inga vera and Salix humboldtiana, are probably favoured by relaxed competition in an environment stressed by long-lasting floods. In the upland forest, mortality rates were highest at the Middle Slope, particularly for smaller trees, while recruitment rates were lowest. As bamboo clumps were concentrated in this sector, the locally higher instability in the tree community probably resulted from the direct interference of bamboos. The density of bamboo culms in the upland forest was negatively correlated with the rates of tree recruitment and gain in basal area, and positively correlated with tree mortality rates. Bamboos therefore seemed to restrict the recruitment, growth and survival of trees.

Tree population and community dynamics in a Brazilian tropical semideciduous forest

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

CHARGED PARTICLE DYNAMICS IN TIME DEPENDENT MAGNETIC FIELDS

In this work we study the behavior of charged particles immersed in a peculiar configuration of magnetic fields, which has a main constant field B(0) and a superimposed, transversal perturbation field B(1) sin(omega(p)t), with B(1) << B(0). By taking Cartesian coordinates and placing B(0) along the z axis and B(1) sin (omega(p)t) on the x axis, an analytical solution for y(t) may be obtained by solving an integrodifferential equation. Besides, the solution z(t) also exhibits a very interesting dynamics, and the entire system is conditioned by resonances between the particle orbit frequencies and the frequency of the magnetic transversal perturbation, omega(p). In this work we also discuss numerical simulations for the related particle trajectories, as well as potential applications in the context of separation phenomena.

Coordinate and time-dependent diffusion dynamics in protein folding

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Statistics and kinetics of single-molecule electron transfer dynamics in complex environments: A simulation model study

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Dynamics in dumbbell domains II. The limiting problem

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

GLOBAL DYNAMICS IN THE POINCARE BALL of THE CHEN SYSTEM HAVING INVARIANT ALGEBRAIC SURFACES

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Infrared dynamics in (2+1) dimensions

In this work we study the asymptotic behavior of (2+1)-dimensional quantum electrodynamics in the infrared region. We show that an appropriate redefinition of the fermion current operator leads to an asymptotic evolution operator that contains a divergent Coulomb phase factor and a contribution from the electromagnetic field at large distances, factored from the evolution operator for free fields, and we conclude that the modified scattering operator maps two spaces of coherent states of the electromagnetic field, as in the Kulish-Faddeev model for QED (quantum electrodynamics) in four space-time dimensions.

Bose-Einstein condensation dynamics in three dimensions by the pseudospectral and finite-difference methods

We suggest a pseudospectral method for solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii (GP) equation, and use it to study the resonance dynamics of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate induced by a periodic variation in the atomic scattering length. When the frequency of oscillation of the scattering length is an even multiple of one of the trapping frequencies along the x, y or z direction, the corresponding size of the condensate executes resonant oscillation. Using the concept of the differentiation matrix, the partial-differential GP equation is reduced to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations, which is solved by a fourth-order adaptive step-size control Runge-Kutta method. The pseudospectral method is contrasted with the finite-difference method for the same problem, where the time evolution is performed by the Crank-Nicholson algorithm. The latter method is illustrated to be more suitable for a three-dimensional standing-wave optical-lattice trapping potential.