Made available in DSpace on 2012-05-07T14:48:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) 000003.pdf: 682019 bytes, checksum: 7b51a1dbed78cae7ef4c5ce507a609bf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / O presente trabalho analisa o status das emoções animais na edificação de uma teoria da mente em Charles Darwin, tendo como principais fontes primárias as obras The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (DARWIN, 1998a [1871]) e The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (DARWIN, 1998b [1872]). Defendo que as emoções são um atributo de importância crucial no estabelecimento de uma teoria darwiniana da mente. Dentre os vários componentes da teoria da evolução de Charles Darwin, destaco a noção de “origem comum” (common descent) como a mais diretamente ligada à questão das emoções animais, pois esse conceito fundamenta a tese de uma continuidade mental entre animais e humanos. Chamo atenção para o fato de que há uma tendência na literatura de confundir emoções com expressões emocionais, o que tem reforçado certos equívocos quanto ao papel das emoções na teoria darwiniana. Um desses equívocos diz respeito às próprias fontes, e contrariando a literatura especializada defendo que na verdade as emoções enquanto estados mentais são analisadas por Darwin principalmente em dois capítulos do Descent, e não no Expression.

Made available in DSpace on 2012-05-07T14:48:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) 000034.pdf: 7682007 bytes, checksum: ae4a99401c9890ce881a9faa2ee91309 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / A dissertação tem por objetivo analisar a trajetória científica da naturalista alemã Emília Snethlage (1868-1929), que trabalhou no Brasil a partir de 1905. Algumas características distinguem seu percurso profissional: o fato de ser mulher, de ter formação acadêmica, a grande ênfase no trabalho de campo, que realizou por toda vida e o fato de ter desenvolvido toda sua trajetória em museus de história natural, na Alemanha e no Brasil. Esta configuração singular funciona como contraponto à reflexão sobre algumas das variáveis sociais envolvidas na produção do conhecimento científico no Brasil, nas três primeiras décadas do século XX. O trabalho de campo e o trabalho de gabinete apresentam-se como instâncias complementares na legitimação do trabalho da cientista e é a partir delas que se desenvolve a análise proposta.

Understanding physiological processes is key to answering the questions of why organisms behave in the way they do, and how they interact with each other, and their environment. Despite technological innovations in recent decades, assessment of physiological state in free-living animals still generally requires subjects to be trapped and handled, so tissues or blood can be sampled, or so measurement devices can be attached or implanted. Such methods limit research to species and individuals that can be caught, potentially restricting the generalisability of findings, and introducing bias. Additionally, natural behaviours are interrupted, and subsequent physiology, behaviour or performance may be altered as a result of the stress of capture, the burden of attached apparatus, or the effects of surgery. Consequently, alternative techniques such as inferring physiological state from traits that do not require invasive sampling would be a valuable development. Body temperature is a particularly promising candidate trait, linked with an array of physiological functions, and having previously been used as a proxy for metabolic activity, stress state and immune challenge. With the advent of low cost, highly portable thermal imaging cameras, physiological ecologists are now presented with unprecedented opportunities to measure body surface temperature non-invasively, and at high frequencies from free-living animals. In this thesis, I investigated relationships between body surface temperatures, measured using thermal imaging from free-living blue tits or captive zebra finches, with physiological measures or situations relevant to the assessment of physiological state. I developed reliable thermal imaging techniques to take non-invasive measurements of body surface temperatures in a variety of contexts, allowing characterisation of physiological responses in real time. My studies of captive birds revealed that activity levels influence body surface temperatures measured from free moving animals, and so should be accounted for in experimental designs. I also successfully acquired body surface temperatures from overwintering blue tits visiting food-baited traps, and from breeding blue tits entering and leaving their nest. Using this data, I showed that body surface temperature exhibits a characteristic response to acute stress, which differs with stressor type. While the mechanisms require explanation, much potentially useful information appears to be stored within body surface temperature dynamics during acute stress. Additionally, I established links between body surface temperature and longer term physiological processes in free-living blue tits. I observed near identical correlations between body surface temperature and body condition across differing seasons and life history stages. Also, I found evidence suggesting both that repeated acute stressors (predation risk and human disturbance) had a chronic effect on body condition breeding blue tits, and that surface temperature in those birds was linked to body condition. If confirmed, these results would be particularly interesting in a conservation physiology context, as it may prove possible to detect a signal of persistent physiological effect(s) relating to human disturbance, non-invasively. Furthermore, my discovery of a further correlation between baseline plasma glucocorticoids and body surface temperature in overwintering birds implies links with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. All of these results combined suggest that body surface temperatures measured using thermal imaging are highly likely to prove useful in determining aspects of physiological state non-invasively from free-living animals. While further investigation and validations are necessary, this work has laid the foundations for an exciting new methodology that could help solve many questions that remain unanswerable using current techniques.

Animal colouration is associated with a multitude of ecologically adaptive traits known to drive biological diversification, from predator avoidance to physiological regulation. As such, it is an ideal system in which to study the evolutionary patterns and processes that generate and maintain biological diversity. Within the terrestrial vertebrates, amphibians display some of the greatest complexity and variation in terms of colour patterning, with the salamander genus Salamandra particularly renowned for its colour diversity. Typically, Salamandra species present bright, highly variable yellow-black patterns consisting of spots and/or stripes, which are thought to hold an aposematic (warning) function related to their toxic secretions. In addition to this, individual species and populations have evolved melanic, fully yellow and fully brown colourations, with gradations seen in-between. Importantly, there are also indications of parallel colour pattern evolution, making Salamandra an attractive system for studying the repeated evolution of adaptive phenotypes. However, the genus currently lacks phylogenetic resolution, and the molecular mechanisms underlying amphibian colouration are poorly understood. In this thesis, I aim to fill both of these knowledge gaps through the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques, which offer both unpredicted opportunities to resolve systematically challenging relationships and allow us to study the genetic basis of ecologically adaptive phenotypes in wild non-model organism. In Chapter 2 we reconstruct the controversial interspecies phylogeny of Salamandra using three largely independent phylogenomic data sets. First, using restriction site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-Seq), I genotyped representatives of all six currently recognised Salamandra species (and two outgroup species from its sister genus Lyciasalamandra). This was combined with nuclear protein-coding sequences derived from RNA-Seq and full mitochondrial genomes. Analyses of concatenated RNA-Seq and RAD-Seq data retrieved well supported, fully congruent topologies that placed: (1) S. infraimmaculata as sister to all other species in the genus; (2) S. algira sister to S. salamandra; (3) these two species sister to a clade containing S. atra, S. corsica and S. lanzai; and (4) the Alpine species S. atra and S. lanzai as sister taxa. The phylogeny inferred from mitochondrial genomes differed from this in its placement of S. corsica, as did species tree analyses of RNA-Seq and RAD-Seq data. However, the general congruence among topologies recovered from the RNA-Seq and RAD-Seq data sets gives us confidence in our methodologies and results. In Chapter 3, I perform more in-depth phylogenomic analyses, using RAD-Seq to genotype 231 salamanders from across the taxonomic and geographic breadth of Salamandra. Both Bayesian and maximum likelihood based analyses of concatenated RAD-loci (comprising 187,080–294,300 nt of sequence data) returned well-supported, largely congruent topologies that supported the monophyly of all six currently recognised species. However, the placement of S. corsica was again unclear, and data filtering parameters were found to have a great impact on downstream analyses. Further, I identified undescribed diversity within the North African species (S. algira) and find that 43% of S. salamandra subspecies do not meet a criterion of monophyly. Following this, I use the phylogenetic hypothesis generated to assess the parallel evolution of reproductive (parity) mode and two colour phenotypes (melanism and stripe formation) through ancestral state reconstruction analyses. I find that pueriparity (giving birth to fully metamorphosed juveniles) has independently arisen in at least four lineages, melanism in at least five, and a striped phenotype in least two, all from a common yellow-black spotted larviparous (larvae depositing) ancestor. Finally, in Chapter 4, I leverage and highly colour-variable lineage of the European fire salamander (S. salamandra bernardezi) to identify genetic associations with colour, test for selection on colouration, and test the relationship between colour phenotype and toxicity (the functional basis of aposematism). I show that, within a geographically restricted region, colour phenotypes form a gradient of variation, from fully yellow to fully brown, through a yellow-black striped pattern. Population genetic analyses suggest a sympatric evolutionary origin for this colour variation, and I found no association between a salamanders colour pattern and the metabolomic profile of its toxic secretions, which calls into question the adaptive significance attributed to these striking colourations. Following this, I identified significantly differentially expressed genes between skin colours using transcriptomic (RNA-Seq) analyses and genomic loci associated to representative colour phenotypes (yellow, brown and striped) using RAD-Seq approaches. I also found signals of selection on genomic loci between representative colour phenotypes, several of which overlap with genomic analyses. Overall, my results provide greater phylogenetic resolution for the genus Salamandra than ever before, revealing the need for taxonomic revisions and confirming the convergent (or parallel) evolution of both reproductive and colour phenotypes. My data also represents a significant contribution to our understanding of the genetic basis of amphibian colouration, providing a valuable resource for future comparative research on vertebrate colour evolution.

A number of species of wood decay fungi important for the damage they cause to timber and timber products in Korea were cultured. Trametes versicolor, which is one of the most important, was also cultured from a collection made in the UK and likewise the ascomycete Daldinia concentica was obtained for comparative studies. In the initial testing of the effectiveness of the two wood preservatives, ammoniacal copper quaternary (ACQ) and copper azole (CuAz) preserve injected blocks of Japanese Red Pine and Yellow Poplar were inoculated with T versicolor, Pleurotus ostreatus and D. concentrica. Weight loss(%) of the wood blocks showed that Japanese Red Pine possessed greater natural resistance to decay by the white rot basidiomycete fungus T versicolor, than to the white rot ascomycete D. concentrica. The results for Yellow Poplar were the opposite. It was also found that both preservatives had an inhibitory effect on all three test fungi regardless of tree species. Furthermore ACQ was the most effective preservative in relation to T versicolor, which is the most damaging wood decay fungus in Korea. It has also been found that the absorption of the preservatives by the two different wood types differed with Yellow Poplar exhibiting a slightly greater absorption than the Japanese Red Pine, which might be a result of differences in the anatomical structure of the woods. Fungal biomass was also determined using chitin and ergosterol assays. The results regarding levels of decay caused by T versicolor, P ostreatus and D. concentrica are in close agreement with the weight loss determinations. The assays also confirmed the effectiveness of the copper based preservatives. The application of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) has allowed observations on the damage caused by the test fungi to the untreated blocks of the two wood species and the reduction in damage on blocks treated with the preservatives. Linked studies using the SEM and Atomic Force Microscopy have demonstrated differences in the micromorphology of the hyphal tips of the test fungi.

The foliar uptake by wheat of the wild oat herbicide flampropmethyl has been studied following application of ul droplets of an aqueous solution. The results show that over the time required for the drop to dry the compound does not partition into the surface waxes and crystallises as an external deposit. This deposit is stable to volatilization and photochemical and biochemical degradation, and is depleted by foliar penetration. Adsorbtion by the leaf surface wax is initially rapid and thereafter occurs at a relatively constant rate until the almost complete exhaustion of the surface deposit. Penetration of the epicuticular wax layer generally proceeds at a slower rate than does adsorption of the surface deposit and the herbicide is accumulated in the wax layer. The compound is lost from the epicuticular waxes only slowly to the leaf tissues. Movement within the leaf tissues away from the area of uptake is predominantly acropetal to the leaf tip and it is presumed that the compound moves with the transpiration stream. A similar fate befalls the compound when aqueous solutions of flamprop-methyl are applied as ul droplets to barley or wild oat, no evidence of selectivity between wheat, barley and wild oat as a consequence of preferential uptake was found. Foliar uptake of flamprop-methyl is shown to depend on the amount of compound applied to un1 t area of leaf surface and to increase as the amount applied is increased or as the area to which application is made is increased. These trends are discussed in terms of compartmental model of foliar uptake. Foliar uptake of flamprop-methyl is also shown to be slightly influenced by environmental factors; in an environment in which maximum daily temperatures exceeded 35 o C penetration was especially rapid and tended to completion within 24 hours. The surface properties of aqueous solutions of selected polyoxyethylene non-ionic surfactants have been studied prior to investigating the effect of these compounds on the foliar uptake by cereals of flamprop-methyl. Two types of non-ionic surfactant were included in this study, the alkylphenol ethoxylates as exemplified by the Triton X products (ex Rohn and Haas) and alcohol ethoxylates as exemplified by the Brij products (ex Atlas Chemical Industries). Products from both sources were analysed using instrumental and separational methods; the results of these analyses supported the manufacturers description of the compounds. Surface and interfacial tensions of aqueous solutions of the surfactants were determined at various concentrations. Maximum"reduction of surface tension in the alkylphenol ethoxylate solutions was found with Triton X-35 and Triton X-45. Maximum reduction of surface tension in the alcohol ethoxylate solutions was found with the tetraoxyethylene dodecyl ether (Brij 30) and was reduced with increasing oxyethylene content with anyone hydrophobe. At constant oxyethylene content it was shown that surface activ1 ty was dependent on the nature of the hydrophobe. Critical micelle concentrations were determined from plots of surface tension vs concentration for alkylphenol and alcohol ethoxylates. The spreading and wetting properties of aqueous solutions of alkylphenol ethoxylates were investigated by the Draves test and in terms of calculated spreading coefficients. The foliar uptake by wheat of ethoxy1ated non-ionic surface active agents has been studied following topical application of aqueous solutions. The permeability of the cereal leaf to these compounds has been demonstrated. the rate of uptake was shown to depend on the mean oxyethy1ene content of the surfactant, decreasing as the oxyethy1ene content was increased within the Triton X series of compounds. In quali tati ve terms the trend in uptake was paralleled by changes in both partition coefficient and (estimated) diffusion coefficient. The distribution of oligomers within anyone surfactant was apparently retained during transcuticular movement. Movement of the surfactant across the epicuticular waxes resulted in an accumulation of the penetrant in the tissues underlying the site of application. Movement of the surfactant in treated leaves was acropetal. The foliar uptake of f1amprop-methy1 by wheat has been studied following topical application of the herbicide formulated in aqueous surfactant solutions. Non-ionic ethoxylated surfactants have been found to markedly enhance transcuticular movement of the herbicide but do not promote transport of the compound wi thin treated leaves. The extent to which uptake was enhanced was largely influenced by the concentration of the formulation with respect to the surfactant, was much less dependant on either hydrophobe or hydrophile structure and was apparently independant, within experimental limits, of the herbicide concentration. Optimum surfactant concentrat1ons were between 100 and 1000 ppm. Correlation between penetration enhancement and the surface properties of the formulations was non-existent. The effect of the surfactant on penetration is discussed in terms of a surfactant/lipid interaction which facilitated diffusion of the herbicide. At high surfactant concentrations a variety of responses were identified ranging from varying degrees of enhancement through to an inhibition of transcuticular movement: these responses were shown to correlate with the resistance to uptake afforded by a persistent surfactant residue on the leaf surface.

Redshank breeding biology is examined and reviewed in relation to other sandpiper studies. "Primarily, general aspects are described. The mean clutch size was 3.82 eggs. Fourth eggs laid were significantly smaller and more likely to hatch last. Nest hatching success varied annually from 30-741, with tidal flooding the main cause of nest failure. In successful nests, hatch success was less variable. Chick size at hatch was positively correlated with egg size. Pre-fledging mortality is discussed in relation to overall fledging success. Surviving adults generally remained mate faithful. Experienced birds were found to nest earlier in the season and to produce larger eggs. In all years, female age correlated positively with egg volume. Inexperienced birds laid smaller eggs later in the season. Older birds were more successful at hatching eggs. Experienced breeders were more likely to return to their former breeding grounds than were younger birds, particularly when they were successful the previous year. Birds unsuccessful in the previous year were more likely to divorce. Divorced females were less site faithful than males and were more likely to disperse. Natal philopatry is discussed in relation to pre and postfledging mortality. Philopatry is non sex biased and is estimated at being very high. Chick growth and development is considered and an age determining formula devised for ageing chicks from their weight and bill length. Growth rates were constant between and within years. Annual adult survival (0.75), life expectancy (3.48 years), and study area population are calculated. An estimated 175 pairs breed in the restricted area (168 pairs/km ) and approximately 500 pairs on the Nature Reserve. A model of population dynamics estimates pre-fledging mortality at between 66-74%. Timing of breeding in other waders and a comparison with the related Greenshank are reviewed in the Appendices.

Field isolates of Botrytis cinerea Pers. from tomato crops gave rise to two distinct morphological types after successive single spore isolations; type 1 (T1) characterised by regular, rapidly growing mycelium and type 2 (T2) characterised by sparse, often distorted, slow growing mycelium. The frequency with which isolates produced these morphological types varied considerably. The reaction to benomyl of both types obtained remained the same as that of the parent isolate through successive single spore isolations on fungicide free agar over 10 generations. Benomyl tolerant field isolates could not be distinguished from sensitive isolates on the basis of colony morphology. Examination of 188 isolates of B. cinerea collected from 10 different tomato crops showed that sensitive isolates tended to be more pathogenic to detached tomato cotyledons and grew faster in vitro than tolerant isolates. In vitro and in vivo studies revealed no difference in the competitive ability of benomyl tolerant and sensitive isolates in mixed culture. In a study of 17 Lancashire tomato crops all were found to contain benomyl tolerant strains of B. cinerea although in some cases benzimidazole fungicides had not been used on the nursery for up to three years. Examination of B. cinerea in tomato crops suggested that the majority of stem lesions arose from infected leaf scars and were non-aggressive. Side shoot stumps or scars were also liable to infection and the resulting lesions were more likely to become aggressive than lesions at leaf scars. Conidia were considered to be the major source of inoculum although lesions at leaf scars could take up to 61 days to develop after deleafing. This delay was attributed to latent infection. Artificial infection of the petiole with B. cinerea prior to deleafing greatly reduced the susceptibility of the resulting leaf scar to subsequent attack by B. cinerea. Extracts from infected stems were shown to delay the germination of B. cinerea conidia when compared to extracts from healthy stems. This inhibition of germination was attributed to a resistance factor (RF) produced by the fungus or host in response to infection.

A study of the properties of tree-ring density and ring-width chronologies from five sites in the British Isles, two in Sweden and two sub-fossil sites in Northern Ireland is described. The technique of x-ray densitometry is used to measure density. It is shown that it is possible to use x-ray densitometry on well preserved sub-fossil pine. Chronologies have been constructed for parameters of earlywood and latewood widths, ring-width, maximum and minimum densities for all sites. The statistical properties of chronologies are related to the latitude and altitude of the sites. Sub-fossil chronologies behave differently to any of the living tree chronologies. Response functions on monthly temperature and precipitation data are calculated for the five tree-ring parameters for the living tree chronologies. A principal component analysis involving 25 ring-width chronologies from northwestern Europe is used to examine the spatial relationship between British and European ring-width chronologies. The continuous pattern of density variation across the annual ring is measured for trees from two scottish sites, at Glen Derry and Glen Affric from 1900 to 1979. A method of constructing and comparing annual density profiles by fitting cubic spline functions to the density data is described. This has enabled the effects of growing season climate on density to be examined. The importance of temperature in governing tree-ring density is demonstrated. The use of image analysis techniques to measure the continuous variation in cell dimensions across the annual ring is described. Variations in ring density are explained in terms of changes in wall thickness and lumen diameter. A comprehensive literature review on the physiological mechanisms controlling the response of tree-ring width and density in P. sylvestris to climate is described. The physiological causes-for the climate-growth response in earlywood and latewood widths and densities are summarised seperately. It has been possible to explain some of the results of the response function analysis and the density profile study in terms of physiological processes.

This study develops a fractographic method to diagnose hammerstone- and carnivore induced fracture. This is important because interpretations of hominin entry into the carnivore guild and evolution of meat-eating are based on rare tool and tooth marks in Oldowan (2.5-1.8mya) fossil assemblages. Consequently, estimating hominin and carnivore involvement is difficult, and questions remain about Oldowan hominin’s position in the carnivore guild and socioecology. One aspect of bone damage, fracture surfaces, is ubiquitous, but largely unstudied. The fractographic (study of fracture surfaces) method is based on fracture principals, particularly how differences in static- and impact-loading affect material response and fracture features resulting from loading extremes. The method is applied to analysis of fracture features in a) the Amboseli Hyaena Den assemblage, b) an experimental hammerstone-broken assemblage, c) a Plio-Pleistocene assemblage previously interpreted as a carnivore accumulation, FLK-NN2 (Olduvai Gorge), and d) the zooarchaeological assemblage from FLK-Zinj, (Olduvai Gorge). This is the first zooarchaeological/taphonomic study to demonstrate that a) static and impact fracture differ fundamentally in applied load size and material responses to loading extremes, b) impact-forces are significantly greater than the maximum carnivore bite-force, c) cones, incipient flakes, radiating cracks, and lateral stress features are characteristic of impact fracture, and e) Oldowan hominins at FLK-Zinj were responsible for breakage of 54% of the limb assemblage (a 37% – 40% increase over estimates based on percussion marks). The socioecological implications of the habitual transport of food from death and/or kill sites to secondary locations are explored by examining reasons why social carnivores transport food. Aspects of modern carnivore behaviour suggest general mammalian constraints that may have predicated food transport by early Homo. Early Homo food transport behaviour was structured by anti-predator defense strategies associated with a) foraging in an open habitat rich with competing predators, b) the lack of masticatory and digestive apparatus to quickly consume animal tissue, and c) the presence of altricial young in the hominin group.