Abundance of cetaceans in the oceanic northern Gulf of Mexico from 2003 and 2004 ship surveys

The Gulf of Mexico (GMx) is a subtropical marginal sea of the western North Atlantic Ocean with a diverse cetacean community. Ship-based, line-transect abundance surveys were conducted in oceanic waters (>200 m deep) of the northern GMx within U.S. waters (380,432 square km) during summer 2003 and spring 2004. Data from these surveys were pooled and minimum abundance estimates were based on 10,933 km of effort and 433 sightings of at least 17 species.The most commonly sighted species (number of groups) were pantropical spotted dolphin, Stenella attenuata (115); sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus (85); dwarf/pygmy sperm whale, Kogia sima/breviceps (27); Risso’s dolphin, Grampus griseus (26); and bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus (26). The most abundant species (number of individuals; coefficient of variation) were S. attenuata (34,067; 0.18); Clymene dolphin, S. clymene (6,575; 0.36); T. truncatus (3,708; 0.42); and striped dolphin, S. coeruleoalba (3,325; 0.48). The only large whales sighted were P. macrocephalus (1,665; 0.20) and Bryde’s whale, Balaenoptera edeni (15; 1.98). Abundances for other species or genera ranged from 57 to 2,283 animals. Cetaceanswere sighted throughout the oceanic northern GMx, and whereas many species were widely distributed, some had more regional distributions. Compared to abundance estimates for this area based on 1996-2001 surveys, the estimate for S. attenuata was significantly smaller (P <0.05) and that for the spinner dolphin, S. longirostris, appeared much smaller. Also, P. macrocephalus estimates were based on less negatively biased estimates of group-size using 90-minute counts during 2003 and 2004.

Demographic assessment of the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) in Chesapeake Bay using extractable lipofuscins as age markers

The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) plays an important economic and ecological role in estuaries and coastal habitats from the Gulf of Mexico to the east coast of North America, but demographic assessments are limited by length-based methods. We applied an alternative aging method using biochemical measures of metabolic byproducts (lipofuscins) sequestered in the neural tissue of eyestalks to examine population age structure. From Chesapeake Bay, subsamples of animals collected from the 1998–99 (n=769) and 1999–2000 (n=367) winter dredge surveys were collected and lipofuscin was measured. Modal analysis of the lipofuscin index provided separation into three modes, whereas carapace-width data collected among the same individuals showed two broad modes. Lipofuscin modal analysis indicated that most adults (carapace width >120 mm) were <2 years old. The results indicate that use of extractable lipofuscin can provide a more accurate and better resolved estimation of demographic structure of blue crab populations in the field than size alone.

Age and growth of the blue shark (Prionace glauca) in the North Atlantic Ocean

Age and growth estimates for the blue shark (Prionace glauca) were derived from 411 vertebral centra and 43 tag-recaptured blue sharks collected in the North Atlantic, ranging in length from 49 to 312 cm fork length (FL). The vertebrae of two oxytetracycline-injected recaptured blue sharks support an annual spring deposition of growth bands in the vertebrae in sharks up to 192 cm FL. Males and females were aged to 16 and 15 years, respectively, and full maturity is attained by 5 years of age in both sexes. Both sexes grew similarly to age seven, when growth rates decreased in males and remained constant in females. Growth rates from tag-recaptured individuals agreed with those derived from vertebral annuli for smaller sharks but appeared overestimated for larger sharks. Von Bertalanffy growth parameters derived from vertebral length-at-age data are L∞ = 282 cm FL, K = 0.18, and t0 = –1.35 for males, and L∞ = 310 cm FL, K = 0.13, and t0 = −1.77 for females. The species grows faster and has a shorter life span than previously reported for these waters.

锡林河流域一个放牧草原群落土壤呼吸及其影响因子的研究

本文综述了草原群落土壤呼吸研究的理论、方法、最新进展和主要成果。从2001年6月5日到10月15日，在内蒙古锡林河流域的一个典型草原群落放牧地段用气相色谱法对土壤呼吸进行了测定，并同期观测相应的环境因子，分析了它们之间的相互关系，并根据根系生物量和土壤呼吸的相关性外推出根系呼吸占土壤总呼吸的比例。同时，采用碱液吸收法对该草原群落和一个沼泽化草甸群落的土壤呼吸进行了比对测定，比较在不同生境下土壤呼吸速率的差异。另外，重点比较了两种常用的土壤呼吸测量方法——碱液吸收法和气相色谱法对典型草原群落土壤呼吸的测量效果。主要研究成果如下： 1．在草原群落，生物量（包括地上和地下生物量）、温度（包括气温和土壤温度）和水分及土壤呼吸的季节变化均呈不规则的波动曲线;土壤呼吸与土壤湿度高度相关，与温度尤其是土壤温度以及地下生物量之间存在着一定的相关性，但和地上生物量及绿色生物量之间几乎没有关系。 2．草原群落和草甸群落土壤呼吸的季节动态基本一致，均出现了两个峰值，分别出现在6月底和7月底，它们的变化范围分别为312.8~1738.9 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1 和 354.6 ~2235.6 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1，日平均土壤呼吸速率分别为785.9 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1 和1349.6 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1，草甸群落的土壤呼吸速率明显高于草原群落; 3．土壤水分是草原群落土壤呼吸的主要限制因子，但对草甸群落的土壤呼吸变化却基本没有影响;草甸群落中，地上总生物量与土壤呼吸速率间没有显著的相关关系，但地上部分绿色生物量与土壤呼吸间存在着显著的幂函数关系，而在草原群落中，土壤呼吸速率与地上活生物量或地上总生物量的相关关系均很弱。 4．在草原群落，根系呼吸占土壤总呼吸的比例为60.7% - 93.3%，平均为82%; 5．碱液吸收法和气相色谱法的测定结果具有很高的相关性（R2=0.7563），它们的季节动态基本一致，变化范围分别为从249.3~1795.1 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1和从312.8~1738.9 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1，平均值分别为634.2 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1和802.7 mg C﹒m-2﹒d-1，碱液吸收法的测量值是气相色谱法的约1.4倍。