Citizen science has a long history in the ecological sciences and has made substantial contributions to science, education, and society. Developments in information technology during the last few decades have created new opportunities for citizen science to engage ever larger audiences of volunteers to help address some of ecology's most pressing issues, such as global environmental change. Using online tools, volunteers can find projects that match their interests and learn the skills and protocols required to develop questions, collect data, submit data, and help process and analyze data online. Citizen science has become increasingly important for its ability to engage large numbers of volunteers to generate observations at scales or resolutions unattainable by individual researchers. As a coupled natural and human approach, citizen science can also help researchers access local knowledge and implement conservation projects that might be impossible otherwise. In Japan, however, the value of citizen science to science and society is still underappreciated. Here we present case studies of citizen science in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and describe how citizen science is used to tackle key questions in ecology and conservation, including spatial and macro-ecology, management of threatened and invasive species, and monitoring of biodiversity. We also discuss the importance of data quality, volunteer recruitment, program evaluation, and the integration of science and human systems in citizen science projects. Finally, we outline some of the primary challenges facing citizen science and its future.

As a consequence of warming temperatures around the world, spring and autumn phenologies have been shifting, with corresponding changes in the length of the growing season. Our understanding of the spatial and interspecific variation of these changes, however, is limited. Not all species are responding similarly, and there is significant spatial variation in responses even within species. This spatial and interspecific variation complicates efforts to predict phenological responses to ongoing climate change, but must be incorporated in order to build reliable forecasts. Here, we use a long-term dataset (1953 -2005) of plant phenological events in spring (flowering and leaf out) and autumn (leaf colouring and leaf fall) throughout Japan and South Korea to build forecasts that account for these sources of variability. Specifically, we used hierarchical models to incorporate the spatial variability in phenological responses to temperature to then forecast species' overall and site-specific responses to global warming. We found that for most species, spring phenology is advancing and autumn phenology is getting later, with the timing of events changing more quickly in autumn compared with the spring. Temporal trends and phenological responses to temperature in East Asia contrasted with results from comparable studies in Europe, where spring events are changing more rapidly than are autumn events. Our results emphasize the need to study multiple species at many sites to understand and forecast regional changes in phenology.

We have investigated the electronic structures of recently discovered superconductor FeSe by soft-x-ray and hard-x-ray photoemission spectroscopy with high bulk sensitivity. The large Fe 3d spectral weight is located in the vicinity of the Fermi level (EF ), which is demonstrated to be a coherent quasi-particle peak. Compared with the results of the band structure calculation with local-density approximation, Fe 3d band narrowing and the energy shift of the band toward EF are found, suggesting an importance of the electron correlation effect in FeSe. The self energy correction provides the larger mass enhancement value (Z −1 ≃3.6) than in Fe-As superconductors and enables us to separate a incoherent part from the spectrum. These features are quite consistent with the results of recent dynamical mean-field calculations, in which the incoherent part is attributed to the lower Hubbard band.

The strength and direction of phenological responses to changes in climate have been shown to vary significantly both among species and among populations of a species, with the overall patterns not fully resolved. Here, we studied the temporal and spatial variability associated with the response of several insect species to recent global warming. We use hierarchical models within a model comparison framework to analyze phenological data gathered over 40 years by the Japan Meteorological Agency on the emergence dates of 14 insect species at sites across Japan. Contrary to what has been predicted with global warming, temporal trends of annual emergence showed a later emergence day for some species and sites over time, even though temperatures are warming. However, when emergence data were analyzed as a function of temperature and precipitation, the overall response pointed out an earlier emergence day with warmer conditions. The apparent contradiction between the response to temperature and trends over time indicates that other factors, such as declining populations, may be affecting the date phenological events are being recorded. Overall, the responses by insects were weaker than those found for plants in previous work over the same time period in these ecosystems, suggesting the potential for ecological mismatches with deleterious effects for both suites of species. And although temperature may be the major driver of species phenology, we should be cautious when analyzing phenological datasets as many other factors may also be contributing to the variability in phenology.

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A heat-labile alkaline phosphatase has been purified to near homogeneity from HK47, a bacterial strain isolated from Antarctic seawater. The active form of the enzyme has a molecular weight of 68,000 and is uniquely monomeric. The optimal temperature for the enzymatic activity is 250C. Complete and irreversible thermal inactivation of the enzyme occurs in 10 min at 550C. By using this heat-labile enzyme for dephosphorylation followed by a 10-min heat treatment, rapid end-labeling of nucleic acids by T4 polynucleotide kinase has been achieved.The radioactive end-labeling technique of nucleic acids by T4 polynucleotide kinase is a useful tool in studies of the structure and function of nucleic acids (1-3). The technique involves key reactions: first, the removal of the existing phosphates at the 5' termini of DNA, RNA, or oligonucleotides by alkaline phosphatase (APase), and second, the addition of the radioactive phosphates to the same 5' termini by polynucleotide kinase in the presence of ATP (4). Following the first reaction, the APase activity must be eliminated before the second reaction in order to avoid both degradation of ATP and the loss of label from the substrates. However, elimination of the APase activity following dephosphorylation by either removal or inactivation has been difficult because of the great biochemical stability of the known APase enzymes. For example, Escherichia coli APase, which is the most widely used, can be heated for 8 min at 95°C with reten-

Key words: hydrostatic pressure/Schizosaccharomyces pombe/microtubn\Qs/microfila.mQnts/^uorQscQncQmicroscopy/ immunoelectron microscopy ABSTRACT. The effects of hydrostatic pressure on ultrastructure, microtubules and micro filaments of Schizosaccharomyces pombewere investigated by fluorescence microscopy, conventional electron microscopy and immunoelectron microscopy. Cells were treated with hydrostatic pressure from 0.1 to 400 MPafor 10 min at room temperature. The nuclear membranewas disrupted at above 100 MPa. At 150 MPathe matrixes of mitochondria had an electron dense area. At 250 MPathe cytoplasmic substances changed dramatically, the cellular organelles could hardly be detected and the fragmented nuclear membrane was barely visible. The fluorescence in a-tubulin was lost in most of the cells at 100 MPa. The gold particles for anti a-tubulin were not visible in the cells at the same level. Cell cycle specific actin distribution was lost even at 50 MPa, although actin dots localized at the central region remained unchanged. Thick actin cables appeared at 100 MPa. Complete depolymerization of F-actin was observed at 150 MPa. These results suggest that S. pombecells were more sensitive than Saccharomycescerevisiae cells. The damageto microtubules and nuclear membranecaused by hydrostatic pressure was thought to be followed by breakdown of nuclear division apparatus and the inhibition of nuclear division. This damage might contribute to the frequent formation of polyploidy in S. pombe.Our previous investigations by conventional electron microscopyrelated to hydrostatic pressure effects on the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (16) and the dimorphic yeast Candida tropicalis (14, 15) revealed that the membranesystems, especially the nuclear membrane were most susceptible to pressure stress even at 100 MPa.An electron dense matrix appeared in the organelles and cytoplasm above 200 MPa. Under fluorescence microscopycell cycle specific organization of microfilaments and microtubules was altered whenS. cerevisiae and both yeast and hyphal form cells in C. tropicalis were exposed to hydrostatic pressure stress at 100-150 MPa. Hyphal cells were found to be more sensitive to pressure treatment than yeast form cells and microtubules to be more sensitive than micro filaments (14). It was also demonstrated that hydrostatic pressure of 200 to 250 MPa greatly inactivated S. cerevisiae cells while inducing polyploidy at a high frequency of 15% (6).Immunoelectron microscopy (immuno EM) using ultrathin frozen sectioning (9) in S. cerevisiae revealed deposits of gold particles for anti a-tubulin in the nucleus at 150 MPa, although no filamentous structure of microtubules was recognized. The damageto microtubules and nuclear membranecaused by such stress was thought to be followed by a breakdown of nuclear division apparatus and the inhibition of nuclear division. Onozato confirmed that the breakdown of the mitotic spindle after application of hydrostatic pressure induced the formation of polyploidy in salmonid eggs (13).W...