The population cycles of rodents at northern latitudes have puzzled people for centuries, and their impact is manifest throughout the alpine ecosystem. Climate change is known to be able to drive animal population dynamics between stable and cyclic phases, and has been suggested to cause the recent changes in cyclic dynamics of rodents and their predators. But although predator-rodent interactions are commonly argued to be the cause of the Fennoscandian rodent cycles, the role of the environment in the modulation of such dynamics is often poorly understood in natural systems. Hence, quantitative links between climate-driven processes and rodent dynamics have so far been lacking. Here we show that winter weather and snow conditions, together with density dependence in the net population growth rate, account for the observed population dynamics of the rodent community dominated by lemmings (Lemmus lemmus) in an alpine Norwegian core habitat between 1970 and 1997, and predict the observed absence of rodent peak years after 1994. These local rodent dynamics are coherent with alpine bird dynamics both locally and over all of southern Norway, consistent with the influence of large-scale fluctuations in winter conditions. The relationship between commonly available meteorological data and snow conditions indicates that changes in temperature and humidity, and thus conditions in the subnivean space, seem to markedly affect the dynamics of alpine rodents and their linked groups. The pattern of less regular rodent peaks, and corresponding changes in the overall dynamics of the alpine ecosystem, thus seems likely to prevail over a growing area under projected climate change.

The synchrony of initiation of chromosome replication at multiple origins within individual Escherichia coli cells was studied by a novel method. Initiation of replication was inhibited with rifampicin or chloramphenicol and after completion of ongoing rounds of replication the numbers of fully replicated chromosomes in individual cells were measured by flow cytometry. In rapidly growing cultures, with parallel replication of several chromosomes, cells will end up with 2n (n = 1, 2, 3) chromosomes if initiation occurs simultaneously at all origins. A culture with asynchronous initiation may in addition contain cells with irregular numbers (not equal to 2n) of chromosomes. The frequency of cells with irregular numbers of chromosomes is a measure of the degree of asynchrony of initiation. After inhibition of initiation and run‐out of replication in rapidly growing B/r A and K‐12 cultures, a small fraction of the cells (2‐7%) contained 3, 5, 6 or 7 chromosomes. From these measurements it was calculated that initiation at four origins in a single cell occurred within a small fraction, 0.1, of the doubling time (tau). A dnaA(Ts) mutant strain grown at permissive temperature exhibited a very large fraction of cells with irregular numbers of chromosomes after drug treatment demonstrating virtually random timing of initiation. A similar pattern of chromosome number per cell was found after treatment of a recA strain.

The Arctic icescape is rapidly transforming from a thicker multiyear ice cover to a thinner and largely seasonal first-year ice cover with significant consequences for Arctic primary production. One critical challenge is to understand how productivity will change within the next decades. Recent studies have reported extensive phytoplankton blooms beneath ponded sea ice during summer, indicating that satellite-based Arctic annual primary production estimates may be significantly underestimated. Here we present a unique time-series of a phytoplankton spring bloom observed beneath snow-covered Arctic pack ice. The bloom, dominated by the haptophyte algae Phaeocystis pouchetii, caused near depletion of the surface nitrate inventory and a decline in dissolved inorganic carbon by 16 ± 6 g C m−2. Ocean circulation characteristics in the area indicated that the bloom developed in situ despite the snow-covered sea ice. Leads in the dynamic ice cover provided added sunlight necessary to initiate and sustain the bloom. Phytoplankton blooms beneath snow-covered ice might become more common and widespread in the future Arctic Ocean with frequent lead formation due to thinner and more dynamic sea ice despite projected increases in high-Arctic snowfall. This could alter productivity, marine food webs and carbon sequestration in the Arctic Ocean.

No abstract

Aim  An understanding of the non‐breeding distribution and ecology of migratory species is necessary for successful conservation. Many seabirds spend the non‐breeding season far from land, and information on their distribution during this time is very limited. The black‐legged kittiwake, Rissa tridactyla, is a widespread and numerous seabird in the North Atlantic and Pacific, but breeding populations throughout the Atlantic range have declined recently. To help understand the reasons for the declines, we tracked adults from colonies throughout the Atlantic range over the non‐breeding season using light‐based geolocation. Location  North Atlantic. Methods  Geolocation data loggers were deployed on breeding kittiwakes from 19 colonies in 2008 and 2009 and retrieved in 2009 and 2010. Data from 236 loggers were processed and plotted using GIS. Size and composition of wintering populations were estimated using information on breeding population size. Results  Most tracked birds spent the winter in the West Atlantic, between Newfoundland and the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge, including in offshore, deep‐water areas. Some birds (mainly local breeders) wintered in the North Sea and west of the British Isles. There was a large overlap in winter distributions of birds from different colonies, and colonies closer to each other showed larger overlap. We estimated that 80% of the 4.5 million adult kittiwakes in the Atlantic wintered west of the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge, with only birds from Ireland and western Britain staying mainly on the European side. Main conclusions  The high degree of mixing in winter of kittiwakes breeding in various parts of the Atlantic range implies that the overall population could be sensitive to potentially deteriorating environmental conditions in the West Atlantic, e.g. owing to lack of food or pollution. Our approach to estimating the size and composition of wintering populations should contribute to improved management of birds faced with such challenges.

1. In Fennoscandia during winter small rodents spend most of their time in the subnivean space, between the snow cover and the ground. The subnivean space is probably not a uniform habitat, but broken into accessible and inaccessible patches by ice covering the vegetation. This might reduce access to otherwise available food resources. 2. To test whether ice formations reduce access to food and thus limit winter survival of small rodents, we conducted an experiment where we increased subnivean space by adding corrugated aluminium sheets on the ground before onset of winter. The sheets prevented ice formation, thus mimicking natural occurring subnivean space, and providing more room for animals living in the subnivean space to forage. 3. During the experiment 142 Microtus oeconomus were passive induced transponder (PIT)-tagged, and a system consisting of fixed tube-shaped antennas and PIT-tag readers were used to provide data to analyse winter survival and individual subnivean space use. The extent of winter grazing was measured after snow melt by examining percentage area grazed. 4. The treatment resulted in increased survival which corresponded well with significantly higher space use and more grazing under the sheets. 5. Females showed a positive correlation between probability of survival and body mass while no such effect was observed in males. 6. The results suggest that the snow cover reduces survival in winter by physically enclosing the vegetation in ice and thus reducing access to otherwise available food resources. The amount of ice and its configuration might vary between years due to changing weather patterns. Our results offer a mechanistic explanation for variations in winter survival and suggest incorporating climate variables in future small rodent models. 7. Directional and long-term changes in climate might result in increased ice formation in the subnivean system. Such deterioration may lead to reduced winter survival and act by stabilizing population dynamics and dampening vole cyclicity.

It is widely accepted that the initiation mass of Escherichia coli is constant and independent of growth rate, and therefore is an important parameter in the regulation of initiation of DNA replication. We

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Ecological Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Ecology.Abstract. Life history theory suggests that animals should balance their current investment in young against their chances to reproduce in the future. One fundamental prediction from the theory is that long-lived species should be restrictive in any increase of their current investment. It has been suggested that long-lived species, therefore, have evolved a fixed level of investment in young in order to maximize their own adult survival. However, recent experimental studies have shown that long-lived seabirds have a flexible reproductive performance and adjust their effort in raising young, both according to their own body condition and to the need of the chicks. In this study, we present a model of the optimal balance between reproductive effort and adult survival for long-lived birds breeding in a stochastic environment. During poor breeding conditions, maximum fitness is achieved either by not breeding at all, or by abandoning the brood. Beyond a certain threshold in breeding conditions, there is a steep increase in reproductive effort and an equally steep decrease in adult survival. The model is applied to two hypothetical long-lived seabirds differing in their potential fecundity. For the genotype with a potentially high fecundity, the model predicts a high threshold for breeding (i.e., breeding conditions need to be very good for the species to attempt breeding); above the threshold, the value of reproduction in terms of fitness is high. For the genotype with potentially low fecundity, the model predicts a low threshold for breeding, and the value of reproduction in terms of fitness is low. By increasing clutch size in the model, we examine the optimal response of the two genotypes to an experimental brood size manipulation. For both genotypes, the model predicts that the threshold for breeding is lower among controls than among enlarged broods, giving a range of possible outcomes of the experiment depending on breeding conditions. The few studies on brood enlargements in long-lived species carried out so far may support the predictions from the model.