Resource availability alters breeding strategies in a small mammal community.

Following a resource pulse, animals may finance reproduction by consuming concurrently available resources (income breeding) or by storing resources for future reproduction (capital breeding). Understanding how these reproductive strategies are used is important for determining the ecological mechanisms that structure timing of reproduction and that drive interannual population fluctuations in animals. We gathered a reproductive dataset for five small mammal species over a 12-year period in Northeastern USA during which six masting events of American beech (Fagus grandifolia) and eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) occurred. Masting created alternate years where seeds were either available late (masting year) or early (cached from the previous year) in the breeding season. The small mammal species differed in reliance on seeds and overwintering strategies. We quantified the diet using stable isotopes and recorded reproduction timing, proportion breeding and litter size in females and testes size in males. Timing of seed availability minimally affected litter size but strongly affected proportion breeding and timing of reproduction. During masting years (late seed availability), a higher proportion of females reproduced, with breeding taking place later in the season (lactation timed with peak seed availability), although the delay was restricted in Napaeozapus insignis, an obligate hibernator. After a fall mast, cached seeds were used as capital in the following spring (early seed availability) to support a litter that, depending on the species, occurred 24-79 days sooner than a mast year. No late-season reproduction occurred in years with early seed availability except for Myodes gapperi which produced a second litter, likely financed by fungal consumption. Males also showed strong responses to seed availability, mirroring female reproduction with testes size staying constant in years with late seed availability and sharply decreasing over the breeding season in years with early seed availability. Our results highlight that although photoperiod and temperature broadly set bounds of the breeding season in temperate environments, resource availability influences the reproductive strategies that species use, which in turn alters reproductive timing and can drive large inter-annual population fluctuations. Differences in overwintering strategies and diet may further modulate reproductive timing and output relative to resource pulses.

[Influence of documenting lunch menu details on subsequent snack intake].

In this study we examined the effect on subsequent snack intake of having participants document their lunch menus. In Experiment 1, we asked all participants to have lunch as usual. However, some were instructed to document their lunch menus before eating. These participants demonstrated lower snack intake than control condition participants who had not documented their lunch menus. In Experiment 2, participants in both groups ate snacks freely while viewing TV, which functioned as a stimulus interfering with recall of lunch menus. There was no difference in snack intake between participants who had documented their lunch menus and those who had not.

Radioactive iodine waste treatment using electrodialysis with an anion exchange paper membrane.

In order to simply and safely treat radioactive iodine waste, a study of the removal of iodide ion from radioactive waste using electrodialysis with an anion exchange paper membrane, in which trimethylhydroxylpropylammonium groups were homogeneously dispersed with high density. In Na125I and Na36Cl concentration-cell system, electric ion and water conductances, phenomenological coefficients, have been experimentally determined on basis of nonequilibrium thermodynamics. Prepared paper membrane had higher permselectivity of 125I ion than 36Cl ions by approximately 21%. On the other hand, water flux that was accompanied by an ionic transference in prepared paper membrane was greatly larger than that in typical synthesized membrane. It is suggested that a depression of water mobility is important to practice an ideal radioactive iodide waste electrodialysis system with a novel anion exchange paper membrane.