ALBERT

Description: The transition between the seemingly disparate Ediacaran and Cambrian faunas is both enigmatic and body-fossil poor. The Chapel Island Formation on the Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada, contains a rich diversity of ichnofossils, providing new insight into the nature of the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition and early Fortunian ecosystems. Five ichnoguilds are recognized within the Treptichnus pedum zone. Ichnologic data are analysed from an ecospace perspective, revealing a more protracted transition between Ediacaran and Cambrian ecosystems. Our analysis documents the appearance of limbs, vertical burrows and uncontroversial equilibrium structures, as well as the retention of ‘other’ feeding styles, such as microbial grazing and chemosynthesis.

Description: SUMMARYReducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) has emerged as a potentially important component of the global policy mix to mitigate climate change. Against a background of increasing engagement between private sector entities and conservation organizations, private sector investment has emerged in REDD+. Despite slow developments at the international scale, there continues to be private sector interest in REDD+ and continued voluntary investments in REDD+ projects and initiatives. In order to better understand possible models for private sector engagement in REDD+, this study analysed the motivation of private sector stakeholders to engage in REDD+, the perception of the potential of REDD+, the critical obstacles to making REDD+ functional and how actors perceive themselves as part of future REDD+ scenarios. Based on interviews and a workshop with private sector actors, this study found that few expect a regulatory market for REDD+ to emerge and that credits from the voluntary market have to be tailored to specific needs. As a carbon offset, REDD+ provides insufficient motivation for investment, particularly if cheaper alternatives exist. Co-benefits such as biodiversity conservation and community development are more important when traditional corporate social responsibility motivations play a role. Project scale remains important not only for the fact that smaller projects are viewed as offering more visible benefits to stakeholders but also as a means of having more control over risks on the ground, posing a challenge for the design of jurisdictional REDD+. Moving towards supply chains that are free from deforestation offers an opportunity to tackle commodity-driven deforestation. While questions remain about how such an approach might be integrated into REDD+, it could help address a perceived gap between private sector understanding of the values of REDD+ and the risks associated with these values not arising – termed here as a ‘missing middle’.

Description: The search for life on other planets is an active area of research. Many of the likeliest planetary bodies, such as Europa, Enceladus, and Mars are characterized by cold surface environments and ice-rich terrains. Both Raman and ultraviolet-induced fluorescence (UIF) spectroscopies have been proposed as promising tools for the detection of various kinds of bioindicators in these environments. We examined whether macro-scale Raman and UIF spectroscopy could be applied to the analysis of unprocessed terrestrial frozen peat and clear ground ice samples for detection of bioindicators. It was found that this approach did not provide unambiguous detection of bioindicators, likely for a number of reasons, particularly due to strong broadband induced fluorescence. Other contributing factors may include degradation of organic matter in frozen peat to the point that compound-specific emitted fluorescence or Raman peaks were not resolvable. Our study does not downgrade the utility of either UIF or Raman spectroscopy for astrobiological investigations (which has been demonstrated in previous studies), but does suggest that the choice of instrumentation, operational conditions and sample preparation are important factors in ensuring the success of these techniques.

Description: Although the administration of pregnant mares' serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) to induce superovulation is a well established procedure (see Anderson, Schultz & Melampny, 1963), the unpredictability of the response to this treatment continues to impose a constraint on the commercial application of egg transfer techniques in the large domestic animals. In sheep, the additional use of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) has been mainly centred on attempts to control the time of ovulation (Ortavant, Thibault & Wintenberger, 1949; Braden, Lamond & Radford, 1960; Dziuk et al. 1964; McGovern, Williams & Hancock, 1969). However, Killeen & Moore (1970) found that the proportion of follicles which rupture was increased in PMSG-treated ewes which had been given HCG at the beginning of oestrus. The purpose of the observations recorded here was to examine the possibility that a further gain in ovulation rate in PMSG-treated sheep might be obtained with the use of luteinizing hormone releasing factor (LHRF). No attempt was made to reproduce physiological levels of the releasing factor and dosage was aimed at achieving a superovulatory effect.

Description: SummaryExperiments with wheat describing the effects of crop thinning on grain yield and its components are presented. These were carried out over 5 years in northwest Mexico, using a high-yielding dwarf spring-wheat variety (Triticum aestivum cv. ‘Yecora 70’) grown under irrigation and high fertility. It was shown that thinning largely relieved competition for light, thus increasing photosynthate levels in the plants remaining after thinning. The objective was to evaluate this simple technique as a guide to understanding when grain yield and its components were determined and, in particular, the extent to which post-anthesis photosynthate supply limited yield.There were major responses in grain yield with thinning between about 50 and 100 days after seeding, and in number of spikes and of grains with thinning between 50 and 90 days (50% anthesis was reached at 87 days). Number of spikelets per spike showed small responses to early thinning (before 50 days). Number of grains/spikelet and kernel weight snowed positive responses to thinning between 65 and 90 days, and 90 and 115 days, respectively. These results agreed with adjacent shading and CO2 fertilization studies but, because of certain difficulties in interpretation of responses, pre-anthesis thinning was not considered a very useful technique.Anthesis thinning was carried out on 21 separate crops: the kernel weight increase relative to the unthinned control ranged from 6 to 41%, averaging 20%. Anthesis thinning led to increases in stem weight during the first half of the grain filling period, followed by increases in grain growth rate in the latter half. The increase in final kernel weight was greater with higher temperature and lower radiation during grain filling; these variables explained 64% of the variation in kernel weight response. It is suggested that the kernel weight response does indicate the degree of photosynthate limitation during grain filling, showing reasonable agreement with adjacent shading and CO2 fertilization studies. It was concluded that anthesis thinning, because of its relative simplicity, is a useful technique. Implications for yield improvement in Yecora of the results provided by this technique are discussed.