A day in autumn

As consumers, waterfowl play an important role in the regulation of benthic community structure and nutrient dynamics of coastal ecosystems. In this study, the amount of benthic organisms consumed by birds in a brackish lake, Lake Akkeshi in northeastern Japan, was estimated from direct observation and from energy requirement equations. The 19 avian species observed foraging in the study site were categorized into four guilds: predators foraging on other avian species, piscivores, invertebrate feeders foraging mainly on bivalves, and herbivores consuming seagrass and seaweed. Each guild comprised from one to three tropho-species, three of which were investigated in detail. The dominant piscivore, the grey heron, consumed about 100 kg of fish per day in spring and summer. The dominant invertebrate feeders, diving ducks, consumed about 6500 kg and 2000 kg of clams per day in autumn and winter, respectively. Herbivorous ducks consumed about 9000 kg of seagrass and seaweed per day in autumn and about 900 kg in winter. Nearly all of these amounts estimated from the observations were very similar to those estimated indirectly from energy requirement equations. Even when the agreement was very similar, however, some of the assumptions used for the energy requirement equations did not correspond to the actual energetic requirements of birds in the field. We conclude, therefore, that although the amount of benthic organisms consumed by birds can be estimated using energetic requirement equations, selection of a particular energetic requirement equation must take into account the field condition of the birds.

Purpose. The article examines the change in the elegiac genre in V. Ya. Bryusov’s cycles “Autumn Day” and “Snows” with particular attention to the transformation of the lyrical addressee. The study also examines the chronotope of both cycles, emphasizing how spatial-temporal structures and symbolic landscape imagery participate in reshaping the genre. Special focus is placed on the two female figures of the lost beloved, interpreted through the semantic aura of their anthroponyms, Nina and Maria, which serve as markers of distinct emotional and cultural codes. Results. The analysis demonstrates that these female images are embedded in the broader Russian literary tradition that opposes two recurrent heroine types – the idyllic and the demonic – yet Bryusov complicates this binary through nuanced psychological and symbolic layering. In addition, the article examines how Bryusov’s possible use of allusions broadens the interpretive field of the elegiac narrative. In Snows, particular attention is given to typological parallels between the heroine and motives traceable to classical Chinese literature. The article also proposes a potential connection between the heroines and the Gnostic myth of Sophia, which enriches the metaphysical dimension within the elegiac plot. Conclusion. It is noted that Bryusov ultimately rejects a simple antithetical understanding of these types, instead developing their dynamic, antinomic interrelations as a means of renewing addressee in the elegiac genre.

After diapause was initiated in reproductively active adults, short-day (LD 12:12) maintained diapause and prevented oviposition for 66 ± 22 days. Subsequently all females remaining in the conditions that produced diapause (LD 12:12), began to lose the red-brown diapause coloration and began to oviposit. When animals were transferred to long-day at various intervals during diapause, oviposition resumed within similar time periods, thereby indicating that the intensity of diapause did not differ at the times tested.We suggest that in nature the short days of early autumn induce diapause, that the short days of late autumn maintain this diapause, that subsequently diapause ends under short-day conditions and that factors other than photoperiod, such as temperature accumulations, play a primary role in timing the initiation of reproduction in late spring.

Summary Growth of Acer pseudoplatanu s was compared with the New Zealand species Fuchsia excorticata . Aristotelia serrata , and Hoheria glabrata (deciduous) and Nothofagus menziesii , N. fusca , and N. solandri (evergreen) under long, short, and natural days in a greenhouse and outdoors. Acer rapidly became dormant in short days, as has been reported from the Northern Hemisphere. The New Zealand species, however, continued growth through the summer in all day lengths, and stopped only when temperatures began to decline with the approach of winter. Then all species became dormant, most rapidly in natural day lengths with the plants in short days usually soon following. In Hoheria and Fuchsia, however, dormancy was delayed in short days. In all species it was delayed in long days. It thus appears that the shortening days of autumn are involved in producing the natural dormancy of New Zealand trees, but are effective only in conjunction with declining temperature. In Northern Hemisphere trees, by contrast, it is known that short days fail to bring on dormancy at low temperatures and that low temperatures break dormancy already induced The temperature at which short days became effective for the New Zealand trees was not, however, as low as is needed to break dormancy in Northern trees, for Acer did not come into leaf after wintering in the greenhouse in which the New Zealand trees ceased growth in the winter and came into leaf quite normally the following spring. It thus appears that the winter quiescence of New Zealand trees is different from the dormancy induced by short days in Acer . Internode length was not affected by day length in Aristotelia . but in the rest, including Acer , it was less in short days. All species had shorter internodes outdoors than in the greenhouse. Leaf fall followed dormancy in response to short days in Acer . The native species lost leaves sporadically through the year in controlled day lengths 11 in nature, but the autumn peak periods were earlier out‐of‐doors than in the greenhouse, indicating an effect of temperature.

Mediterranean ecosystems harbor a very important part of Earth’s biodiversity, and they are a conservation priority due to the effects of global change. Here, we examined the performance of the semi-deciduous shrub Cistus albidus under Mediterranean conditions during winter, including changes in leaf angle governed by diurnal, seasonal, and positional effects and their relationship with winter photoinhibition and photoprotection. We found marked diurnal variations in leaf angle during the day in autumn, which disappeared as the photoperiod shortened during winter due to a progressive decrease in the predawn leaf angle from November to January. During this period, auxin contents decreased, while those of melatonin increased, and the Fv/Fm ratio, chlorophyll, and tocopherol contents kept unaltered, thus indicating the absence of photoinhibitory damage. A marked decrease in the leaf angle toward the shoot apex occurred during winter, which was associated with slightly higher Fv/Fm ratios. An analysis of the inter-individual variability and sun orientation effects on leaf movements in a population growing in the Montserrat mountains revealed a very marked variability of 46.8% in the leaf angle, while Fv/Fm ratio showed a variation of 7.5% only. West orientation, which was associated with reduced leaf temperatures, but with no differences in the photosynthetic photon flux density, led to enhanced tocopherol contents, while leaf angle, Fv/Fm ratio, chlorophyll, auxin, and melatonin contents kept unaltered. It is concluded that (1) C. albidus has very effective and fine-regulated photoprotection mechanisms, including an adequate orientation of decussate leaves as part of the developmental program, (2) leaf angle is modulated on a diurnal and seasonal basis, thus contributing to prevent photoinhibition as a first line of defense, and (3) enhanced tocopherol contents help withstand combined high light with low temperature stress in C. albidus growing at high elevation.

Abstract: Dendrolimus tabulaeformis overwinters as third to fourth instar larvae at short days in autumn. Using 24‐h light–dark cycles, the photoperiodic response curves were similar at 24 and 28°C. The critical night length was 9 h 20 min at 24°C and 9 h 50 min at 28°C. Under non‐24 h light–dark cycles, duration of scotophase proved crucial in the determination of diapause. In night interruption experiments using 24‐h light–dark cycle, a 1‐h light pulse falling 8 h in the darkness strongly averted diapause in comparison with other light pulses. Nanda–Hamner experiments showed two weak troughs of diapause inhibition, suggesting the possible involvement of the circadian system. However, Bünsow experiments did not support the evidence of the involvement of circadian oscillatory system in photoperiodic time measurement. These results suggest that photoperiodic time measurement in this moth shows a non‐oscillatory ‘hourglass‐like’ response model or a rapidly damping oscillator model.

A new shadow for my soul.Behind my dream, a young tree quietly falls.Although I am a shadow of a passenger on this planet, my soul is always absorbed in play.Whose voice??I wanted a tattoo.Yura yura (sway-ing, sway-ing) I, also, (a young tree) with sleepy eyes, the remnants of the garden's light, my eyes dreamed.The voice came from behind the temple.A pearl began to speak softly.I fell down.In a dream the tenor's eyes lit up.The serpent stands and walks away.The smell of apples.

Long-term climate observations reveal a significant upward trend in global average temperatures in recent years. This has led to changes in the timing of frost events throughout the year. Understanding changes in frost-free season length is essential for adapting agricultural production to climatic conditions and minimizing frost-related damage. This study examined the spatial and temporal changes in the parameters of first frost day in autumn (FFA), last frost day in spring (LFS), and frost-free season (FFS) using daily minimum temperature data recorded in the Meriç-Ergene Basin from 1980 to 2024. Spatial distributions were mapped using the inverse distance weighted (IDW) method. Temporal trends were evaluated using the Mann–Kendall test and trend magnitudes were calculated using Sen's slope method. The findings reveal that the average frost-free season in the region lasts approximately 7.6 months. Long-term trend analysis revealed that while LFS shifted backward by approximately 1.6 days per decade, FFA advanced by approximately 5.5 days per decade. Consequently, the frost-free season lengthened by approximately 7.4 days per decade, primarily due to the delayed FFA.

The performance of an efficient dairy system using a combination of nitrogen leaching mitigation strategies in a variable climate

Climate change is expected to have stronger effects on water resources in higher latitude regions. Despite intensive research on possible hydrological responses in those regions to a warmer environment, our knowledge on erosion and sediment yield induced by the climate change in high-latitude headwaters is still limited. In this study, we estimated suspended sediment yields from 2021 to 2050 in a typical headwater area of far Northeast China to elucidate potential impacts of future climate change on surface runoff and erosion in higher latitude regions. We first parameterized the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) using historical measurements to estimate runoff from the river basin. The model performed well in both the calibration (2006–2011) and the validation (2012–2014) periods, with an R2 of 0.85 and 0.88 and a Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.7 and 0.73, respectively. We also utilized historical measurements on sediment yields from the period 2006–2014 to develop a runoff-sediment yield rating curve, and the rating curve obtained an excellent goodness of fit (R2 = 0.91, p < 0.001). We then applied the calibrated SWAT model to two climate change projections, also known as Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5), for the period from 2021 to 2050 to obtain future runoff estimates. These runoff estimates were then used to predict future sediment yield by using the developed runoff-sediment yield rating curve. Our study found a significant increase of annual sediment yield (p < 0.05) for both climate change projections (RCP4.5 = 237%; RCP8.5 = 133%) in this, China’s high-latitude region. The increases of sediment yield were prevalent in summer and autumn, varying from 102–299% between the two RCPs scenarios. Precipitation was the dominated factor that determined the variation of runoff and sediment yield. A warming climate could bring more snowmelt-induced spring runoff and longer rainy days in autumn, hence leading to higher erosion. These findings demonstrate that under the changing climate, soils in this high-latitude headwater area would be eroded twice to three times that of the baseline period (1981–2010), indicating a potential risk to the downstream water quality and reservoir management.

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a major atmospheric pollutant and abiotic stressor. Although physiological studies on abiotic stressors have focused on fully expanded leaves, the resistance of leaf functional traits to SO2 during individual leaf development has not been studied. Thus, this study aimed to conduct SO2 static artificial fumigation experiments to evaluate changes in leaf functional traits and resistance to SO2 for three common landscape tree species (Syringa oblata Lindl. (S. oblata), Prunus cerasifera var. atropurpurea Jack. (P. cerasifera), and Ulmus pumila ‘Jinye’ (U. pumila)) in Changchun City and ontogeny under SO2 stress. Samples were collected on three days in autumn (1 September, 9 September, and 19 September 2019) for two different leaf stages (10 days and 40 days). In addition, remote sensing data were combined to explore the resistance mechanisms of broadleaf forests to different SO2 concentration classes during different seasons on a large scale. The results showed that the chlorophyll content, leaf temperature, green-peak reflectance, and Fv/Fm (maximal photochemical efficiency) at 10 days were significantly lower than that at 40 days, regardless of sampling date or SO2 concentration. Additionally, in general the SO2 resistance for 10 days leaves was consistently smaller than those for 40 days leaves in 3 tree species. On 9 September, 10 days leaves of the three tree species showed different leaf resistance performances under different SO2 concentrations in the order: P. cerasifera > S. oblata > U. pumila. Lastly, the extent of resistance decreased with increasing ρ(SO2) classes in different seasons, and the SO2 resistance was affected by season. We conclude that mature leaves are more resistant to SO2 stress than young leaves are. These results will provide scientific guidance on artificial plant community construction and prevention of future vegetation degradation.

In this research, suitability of different kriging and inverse distance weighted (IDW) methods in estimating occurrence date of frost was evaluated. Data included minimum daily air temperature values from 27 meteorological stations of Fars province in southern Iran from 18 to 45 years. Data ranges of 0 to −1.5, −1.5 to −3 and below −3°C were considered as mild, moderate and severe frost intensities, respectively. Starting with the first day of autumn, iso-occurrence days for the frost intensities and occurrence probabilities (25%, 50%, 75% and 90%) were estimated using ordinary kriging, cokriging, residual kriging type 1 (RK1), residual kriging type 2 (RK2), universal kriging and IDW methods. In these models, the errors of estimated frost intensities at different probabilities were lowest in the RK2 model, but lack of establishment of spatial structure due to long distance between stations caused the predictions not to be acceptable in some cases. In a proposed method (modified inverse distance weighted, MIDW), the trend between the first and last days of frost occurrence with earth elevation was removed, and the reminder values were estimated by (IDW) method. Although, the errors for estimated frost dates by MIDW and RK2 methods were the same, but the MIDW method did not have the spatial establishment shortcoming. Furthermore, the simplicity and practicality of the MIDW method makes it a reasonable selection.

The Arctic is a highly seasonal environment with a harsh climate and extensive sea ice cover during the winter. Consequently, most Arctic-breeding seabirds migrate south to reach more benign environmental conditions. Knowledge of migration routes and wintering areas is integral for successful conservation of these globally important breeding populations. In this study, we deployed light-level geolocators on female common eiders Somateria mollissima breeding in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, to track movements during the non-breeding season. We retrieved functioning loggers from 47 individual birds in 2009–2013 and mapped their migration routes and wintering areas. Thirty-six birds (77 %) wintered around the Icelandic coast and 11 (23 %) off the coasts of North Norway. Autumn migration took place between late August and late December, and spring migration from late March to late May. The migration (ca 1700 km to Iceland and 1300 km to North Norway) lasted for about 4 days in autumn and 3 days in spring. Later arrival resulted in later nest initiation, implying a carry-over effect of winter conditions on subsequent breeding. Birds that migrated to Norway departed later from Svalbard in autumn and consequently spent less time in the wintering area than individuals that migrated to Iceland. As just two countries, Iceland and Norway, appear to host all common eiders from Svalbard during the winter, the new information provided by this study on the core areas and timing of migration should provide the impetus for improved bilateral conservation management of this important Arctic breeding population of common eiders.

SummarySeventy-five maiden Border Leicester × Merino ewes were divided into three treatment groups of 25: 1N, injected with PMSG on day 13 of a natural oestrous cycle in autumn (May); 1S, injected with PMSG on withdrawal of a progestagen sponge inserted for 13 days in autumn; 2S, treated as 1S but in spring (November). Five ewes in each treatment received each of 0, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 i.u. PMSG (dose, D). From 16 h after PMSG injection until oestrus, detected by entire rams, all ewes were bled from the jugular vein at 4 h intervals and plasma oestradiol-17β (E2) concentrations measured by radioimmunoassay. Time to onset of oestrus was recorded. Samples for estimation of plasma progesterone were taken on days 6 and 13 of the subsequent oestrous cycle. The ewes were laparotomized on day 5 or 6 of the cycle and all active corpora lutea, cystic follicles > 8 mm (most of which were luteinized) and follicles > 5 mm in diameter were recorded; the sum of these was taken as the total follicular stimulation at oestrus.There were significant (P < 0·001) linear dose-responses to PMSG in terms of corpora lutea, total follicular development, progesterone, and E2. The covariance of E2 on total follicles was significant (P < 0·001). Progesterone concentrations were more highly correlated with the sum of corpora lutea and cystic follicles than with corporalutea alone (τ = 0·80 ν 0·73, both with 73 D.F.; P < 0·001). The time to onset of oestrus for treatment 1N ewes was highly variable due to the relative asynchrony of the time of PMSG injection but, when treatments 1S and 2S were analysed together, there were significant linear (P < 0·001) and quadratic (P < 0·01) effects of dose of PMSG, resulting in a decrease of 14 h in time to onset between the 0 and 1600 i.u. treatments. The covariance with E2 was significant (P < 0·05).There was no difference between treatments in total follicular development but the number of corpora lutea was less (P < 0·05) in treatment 1N ewes than in the two sponge treatments (1S and 2S), again reflecting the asynchrony of treatment. There was no difference in progesterone concentration between treatments, but peak E2 was significantly less (P < 0·05) in treatment 2S (spring) than in 1N and 1S (autumn). Since there was no difference in the numbers of follicles which developed it appears that follicles in spring-treated ewes secreted oestrogen less intensively than in autumn. The lower oestrogen concentration was associated with a longer interval to onset of oestrus; linear regressions of time on dose PMSG (reciprocal) for treatments 1S and 2S separately had a common slope but significantly different intercepts (P < 0·01), so that oestrus was delayed by a mean of 6·4 h at all PMSG doses in spring compared with autumn.Of the 73 ewes alive at lambing, 48 (66%) lambed producing 69 lambs. There was no significant effect of treatment on percentage of ewes which lambed but the lambing rate of those ewes with large numbers of ovulations (7–14) tended to be lower than that of the remainder (P ≃ 0·1). Of the nine ewes in this category, only four lambed and failure to lamb was significantly associated with excessively high plasma E2 (P < 0·05).

Climate change in Italy indicated by agrometeorological indices over 122 years