The work of which this study is an account was carried out while the author was Deputy Leader of the British Ornithologists' Union Centenary Expedition to Ascension Island , from November 1957 to April 1959. The objects of the expedition were to investigate the general breeding biology of the resident tropical seabirds with a view to discovering how the timing of their breeding was controlled. In most temperate birds the controlling factors are changes in day-length, temperature, and availability of food; the particular interest of the eleven species at Ascension was that they were living in an environment with no seasonal change in day-length or climate, and apparently a uniform availability of food. The author was responsible for studies on three of these species, the White Booby Sula dactylatra, the Brown Booby Sula leucogaster, and the Fairy Tern Gygis alba. A few observations were also made on the ten or so pairs of the Redfooted Booby Sula sula which were present. The bulk of this study is an account of the comparative breeding biology of the White and Brown Boobies. The Fairy Tern is not closely comparable to them, and only those aspects of its biology relevant to the general problem (breeding, food, and moult) are dealt with, in an Appendix. The study is divided into nine sections, of which four deal with the breeding of the boobies, and three with other observations on the species' biology, vis, moult and food (both of which were found to have an important relation to the breeding biology), and behaviour, which had neither been fully described nor analysed before. Section I is introductory, the aims, scope, and methods of study being described, together with the habitat. Ascension Island lies roughly in the middle of the South Atlantic (8°S, 14°25'W). It is a peak of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, triangular in shape, with sides of about eight miles, and rises from coastal plains to 2,800 ft in the middle. Its volcanic origin is clearly seen in the numerous extinct craters, ash-fielda, and lava-flows, which are little weathered by the uniformly warm and sunny climate and the continuous south-east Trade-winds. Vegetation is confined to the slopes above about l,000 ft. As a result of man's introduction of rats and cats, the seabirds are no longer found on the main island and, with the exception of the Wideawake Tern, are now confined to off-shore stacks and islets. The expedition's main work was therefore done on Boatswain-bird Island, a volcanic plug some 300 ft high and 400 yds, across, about 300 yds, off the south-east corner of Ascension. Only intermittent visits could be paid to this island, and the author spent about 130 days, spaced over 15 months, on it. Section II deals with the colonies and breeding seasons. There were 1200-1300 pairs of White Boobies breeding on Boatswain-bird Island, and one or two pairs elsewhere. 600-700 pairs of Brown Boobies bred at Ascension, of which about two-thirds were on Boatswain-bird Island and the reminder on small stacks. In both species there were clearly-marked peaks of laying, with intervening periods when the number of new clutches was very small. In the White Booty breeding appeared to occur annually (only one fun season was studied, but deductions were made about the preceding and following ones), in the Brown about every eight months (two full seasons were seen, and again deductions were made about others). In both species the time taken from laying of eggs to fledging of chicks was the same, six to seven months. Individuals of both species conformed to the breeding seasons of the population, and if out of phase for some reason, they had a longer or shorter "rest" period as necessary to bring them into phase again at the next season, these two discoveries at once suggested that external factors were modifying the birds' internal physiological cycles and controlling the time of breeding. What these factors might be is discussed later in the study, in the light of subsequent discoveries about the species' breeding biology. The two species differed not only in periodicity of casual cycle but also in the time of year at which laying took place. The periodicity was such, however, that every two years the Brown Boobies would lay at almost the same time as the White. The significance of this, and its possible relation to annual variation in oceanic conditions with their origin in the melting of the Antarctic ice, is discussed, together with published information about the species' breeding seasons in other parts of the world. Section III deals with clutch-size and incubation. Both species were found to lay two eggs, with very few exceptions, but only one chick was raised. Incubation is described, and the attentive spells at the nest analysed; the attentive spells of both species were found to be variable, those of the White Booby being about 48 hours and those of the Brown about 24 hours. This probably indicated a difference in the birds' feeding range (partly confirmed by a study of their food), important in the consideration of the two species' ecologlcal differences. Some desertions occurred during the study of attention spells, and the circumstances of these strongly indicated that the birds were experiencing difficulty in finding food, this view subsequently being supported by other events. In Section IV the feeding, care, and growth of the chick are described. Records of growth rates of both normal, and abnormal chicks were obtained, and these provided further evidence of the operation of a food shortage. Losses in weight and reductions of growth rate occurred in chicks of varying ages but at roughly the sane date, August and September 1958. The second chick of the clutch hatched about five days after the first and never lived more than two or three days. The curious circumstances of this are described the smaller chick was apparently expelled from the nest by the larger, and not starved to death as a result of the larger chick's more vigorous demands, as has been shown in some other species of birds. Experiments with twins were carried, out to investigate this situation further; the larger chick's ability to establish a supremacy was found to be so strong as to operate even when the difference in size between artificial twins was very small; and some parents were able to raise twin chicks at apparently the normal rate of growth for two weeks or more. Possible reasons for this striking behaviour amongst the chicks and its relevance to clutch size and breeding success are discussed. In Section V, breeding success is described. Both species had a low breeding success, and big losses of eggs and chicks of the White Booby occurred in August and September 1958, supporting the other evidence concerning shortage of food. In one area of the White Booty colony studied only 4.5% of the eggs laid gave rise to flying young, in another area the figure being 9%. In the Brown Booby 5% of the eggs laid gave rise to flying young in one season, while in the following season the figure was 13%; the difference here was probably due to shortage of food in the first season causing late deaths among chicks. Section VI deals mainly with moult in the White Booby. Less information was obtained about the Brown Booty but the procedure appeared to be the same as in the White; in view of the Brown Booby's shorter sexual cycle, however, more information than could be obtained would have been interesting. The sequence of primary moult was discovered when examining juvenile White Boobies which had returned to the island after a post-fledging dispersal. The change from juvenile to adult plumage took more than two years, the shedding and regrowth of the primaries, from the innermost outwards, occurring in three spaced concurrent cycles.

Population genetic methods can be employed to inform the conservation of a species in a number of ways. For instance, they can be used to determine if a species has gone through a genetic bottleneck (i.e. a drastic reduction in population size that results in reduced genetic variation), and also if a species exhibits local genetic structure, (i.e., whether there is population genetic structure among neighbouring populations of an otherwise widely distributed species). The objectives of this thesis were to investigate the population genetic structure and long-term effective population size of the recently rediscovered subspecies of the masked booby, the Tasman booby, Sula dactylatra tasmani, which unlike masked boobies ,which have a pantropical distribution and are widespread, are range restricted to three island groups in the North Tasman Sea. To achieve this, I apply population genetic methods to mitochondrial control region sequence data, and microsatellite genotype, along with morphometric data. I first examined the cross utility of 43 microsatellite loci developed for the blue-footed (S. nebouxii), red-footed (S. sula) and Peruvian (S. variegata) booby for a population genetic study in my focal subspecies, the Tasman booby. All of these loci amplified in the Tasman booby, and from these 13 independent polymorphic loci were found and used as nuclear data, along with mitochondrial sequence data, to estimate population genetic structure. I also used these two types of data to determine the effective population size of this subspecies, both recently and historically. I found strong population genetic structure from the mitochondrial sequence data, while the microsatellite genotype data revealed weak but significant population genetic structure. I suggest the differences in these two types of marker are most likely due to stochasticity in the mitochondrial genome and/or male-mediated gene flow. Combined, the mitochondrial and microsatellite data revealed the Tasman booby has existed at a relatively stable population size for the last 25,000 years, but estimates of the current effective population size of this subspecies were unreliable. From these combined data I recommend that the Tasman booby should be treated as a single management unit, and conservation efforts from Australia and New Zealand could benefit from communication regarding their management plans. Future work including both autosomal and sex-linked introns could help in resolving the presence or absence of male-mediated gene flow, and/or help estimate an accurate effective population size in this subspecies.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves : [79]-88).

No description available.

Le comportement de recherche alimentaire varie tout au long de la vie des oiseaux marins selon divers facteurs qui peuvent être liés au cycle de vie ou à l’habitat. Cependant, aucune étude n’avait auparavant abordé ces différents facteurs de variation chez une seule et même espèce. L’objectif de cette thèse était de distinguer la part fixe du comportement de recherche alimentaire de ses différents degrés de plasticité chez un oiseau marin pantropical, le fou à pieds rouges (Sula sula). Pour cela, des adultes et des juvéniles issus de différentes colonies ont été équipés de balises GPS afin d’étudier leurs trajets selon différents facteurs de variation intrinsèques (âge et stade de reproduction) et extrinsèques (forçages physiques, productivité primaire, compétition pour la ressource). Le comportement de recherche alimentaire des adultes variait de façon importante au sein d’une même colonie selon le stade de reproduction. Les trajets étaient plus courts pendant l'élevage du poussin, connu pour être particulièrement contraignant d’un point de vue énergétique, et plus longs pendant l’incubation et la période post-envol. Le suivi pluriannuel d’une des colonies a pu mettre en évidence la flexibilité du comportement lors de conditions environnementales défavorables. Des trajets plus longs étaient observés lors de la saison de reproduction qui présentait une diminution de la productivité et de l’activité tourbillonnaire locale. Une importante plasticité du comportement en fonction de l’habitat a pu être mise en évidence à l’échelle de l’aire de répartition de l’espèce. La durée et le rayon de prospection des trajets des adultes variaient considérablement selon les colonies, allant de trajets strictement diurnes à des trajets beaucoup plus longs qui incluaient plusieurs nuits passées en mer. Les fous à pieds rouges ne semblaient pas cibler des zones particulièrement productives et la compétition intra- et interspécifique semblait expliquer en partie les différences observées entre les colonies. En revanche, tous les trajets possédaient généralement une structure similaire et augmentaient leur effort de recherche alimentaire en adoptant un comportement de recherche en zone restreinte (ARS). Le comportement des juvéniles, encore nourris par leurs parents après leur envol pendant une longue période de transition, a pu être décrit pour la première fois. Avec le temps, les juvéniles augmentaient le rayon de prospection de leurs trajets, qui restait considérablement inférieur à celui des adultes. Des associations en mer avec d’autres juvéniles étaient fréquemment identifiées. Cette longue période d’apprentissage semble permettre l’acquisition progressive de compétences complexes nécessaires à la recherche et à la capture de leurs proies. Si la plasticité comportementale des individus tend généralement à amortir les effets des conditions défavorables sur l'état de santé moyen d’une population, cette flexibilité est tout de même limitée. Dans le contexte actuel de changement global, l’évaluation de la plasticité comportementale s’avère alors nécessaire afin de mieux prévoir les conséquences de ces changements sur les populations. / Seabird foraging behaviour varies through time according to factors that may be related to life cycle stage and/or habitat. However, no study has previously investigated variation in these different factors and how they impact foraging behaviour in a single species simultaneously. The aim of this thesis was to distinguish the fixed part of foraging behaviour from its different degrees of plasticity in a pantropical seabird, the Red-footed booby (Sula sula). Adults and juveniles from different colonies were equipped with GPS tags to track their foraging trips according to several intrinsic (age and breeding stage) and extrinsic factors (physical forcing, primary productivity and competition for resources). Adult foraging behaviour varied significantly within the same colony according to breeding stage. Tracks were shorter during brooding, which is known to be a particularly energy-constraining time period, and longer during incubation and fledging. Multi-year monitoring at one of the colonies revealed flexibility in behaviour under adverse environmental conditions. Longer tracks were observed during breeding seasons with decreased productivity and eddy activity. High plasticity in foraging behaviour according to habitat was observed across the range of the species. The length and range of adult trips varied considerably among colonies, ranging from strictly diurnal to longer trips that included several nights spent at sea. Red-footed boobies did not appear to target particularly productive areas, and intra- and interspecific competition seemed to explain partly the differences observed between colonies. On the other hand, all the individuals showed similar trip structuring and increased searching effort by adopting area-restricted search (ARS) behaviours. The behaviour of juveniles, still fed by their parents after fledging during a long transition period, was described for the first time. Over time, juveniles increased trip ranges, which were considerably lower than that of adults. Associations at sea with other juveniles were frequently identified. This long learning period seems to be an adaptation allowing the gradual acquisition of the skills necessary for the search and capture of prey. While the behavioural plasticity of individuals tends to cushion the effects of unfavourable conditions at the population scale, this flexibility is still limited. In the current context of global change, assessment of behavioural plasticity is necessary in order to better predict the consequences of these changes on populations.

<p>Den här uppsatsen är skriven inom ramen för ämnet <em>Krigsvetenskap</em> under författarens studier på <em>Yrkesofficersprogrammet</em> 2006-2009 till arméteknisk officer. I <em>Ammunitions- och minröjning i modern konflikt</em> ges läsaren genom deskriptiv metod en exposé över ammunitions- och minröjningens grunder, historia och nutid. Uppsatsens generella syften är att avhandla problematik som svenska ammunitions- och minröjare i sitt yrkesutövande idag kan ställas inför. Och hur delar av den tekniska organisationen och teknisk utrustning för detektion, lokalisering och klassificering av minor, Explosive remnants of war (ERW), Improvised explosive device (IED) och försåt kan bidra till att lösa denna problematik. Författaren genomför utifrån sina intervjuer och litteraturstudier prediktioner av den kommande utvecklingen på området. Prediktionerna innefattar bland annat tydligare teknisk stödorganisation och multisensorplattformar för detektion, lokalisering och klassificering av minor, ERW och IED. I texten redovisas viss forskning från Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut (FOI) och visst arbete vid Försvarets materielverk (FMV), Totalförsvarets ammunitions- och minröjningscentrum (SWEDEC).</p> / <p>This essay is written in the course of <em>War science</em> during the author’s studies to become an Officer in the technical corps, in the Swedish armed forces. Due to the descriptive method in <em>Explosive Ordnance Disposal and demining in modern conflict </em>the reader gets an exposé of the basics, history, and present time features for the Swedish EOD- and Demining personnel. The main purpose with this essay is to discuss the problems that Swedish Explosive ordnance clearance (EOC) personnel might encounter in their current daily service. The opportunities for parts of the supporting technical corps and the technical equipment for detecting, locating and classifying mines, Explosive remnants of war (ERW), Improvised explosive device (IED) and booby-traps to be at hand in the process of solving these problems are also discussed. From interviews and literature studies the author conducts predictions of the development in the subject area. The predictions contains amongst others a more understandable supporting technical corps and multi-sensing-platforms for detecting, locating and classifying mines, ERW, IED and booby-traps. Some of the research that the Swedish defence research agency (FOI), the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV) and the Swedish EOD- and Demining Centre (SWEDEC) have produced is presented in the essay.</p>

Den här uppsatsen är skriven inom ramen för ämnet Krigsvetenskap under författarens studier på Yrkesofficersprogrammet 2006-2009 till arméteknisk officer. I Ammunitions- och minröjning i modern konflikt ges läsaren genom deskriptiv metod en exposé över ammunitions- och minröjningens grunder, historia och nutid. Uppsatsens generella syften är att avhandla problematik som svenska ammunitions- och minröjare i sitt yrkesutövande idag kan ställas inför. Och hur delar av den tekniska organisationen och teknisk utrustning för detektion, lokalisering och klassificering av minor, Explosive remnants of war (ERW), Improvised explosive device (IED) och försåt kan bidra till att lösa denna problematik. Författaren genomför utifrån sina intervjuer och litteraturstudier prediktioner av den kommande utvecklingen på området. Prediktionerna innefattar bland annat tydligare teknisk stödorganisation och multisensorplattformar för detektion, lokalisering och klassificering av minor, ERW och IED. I texten redovisas viss forskning från Totalförsvarets forskningsinstitut (FOI) och visst arbete vid Försvarets materielverk (FMV), Totalförsvarets ammunitions- och minröjningscentrum (SWEDEC). / This essay is written in the course of War science during the author’s studies to become an Officer in the technical corps, in the Swedish armed forces. Due to the descriptive method in Explosive Ordnance Disposal and demining in modern conflict the reader gets an exposé of the basics, history, and present time features for the Swedish EOD- and Demining personnel. The main purpose with this essay is to discuss the problems that Swedish Explosive ordnance clearance (EOC) personnel might encounter in their current daily service. The opportunities for parts of the supporting technical corps and the technical equipment for detecting, locating and classifying mines, Explosive remnants of war (ERW), Improvised explosive device (IED) and booby-traps to be at hand in the process of solving these problems are also discussed. From interviews and literature studies the author conducts predictions of the development in the subject area. The predictions contains amongst others a more understandable supporting technical corps and multi-sensing-platforms for detecting, locating and classifying mines, ERW, IED and booby-traps. Some of the research that the Swedish defence research agency (FOI), the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV) and the Swedish EOD- and Demining Centre (SWEDEC) have produced is presented in the essay.

Rex Stout maintained his popular readership despite the often controversial and radical political content expressed in his detective fiction. His political ideals often made him many enemies. Stances such as his ardent opposition to censorship, racism, Nazism, Germany, Fascism, Communism, McCarthyism, and the unfettered FBI were potentially offensive to colleagues and readers from various political backgrounds. Yet Stout attempted to present radical messages via the content of his detective fiction with subtlety. As a literary traditionalist, he resisted using his fiction as a platform for an often extreme political agenda. Where political messages are apparent in his work, Stout employs various techniques to mute potentially offensive messages. First, his hugely successful bantering Archie Goodwin-Nero Wolfe detective duo—a combination of both the lippy American and the tidy, sanitary British detective schools—fosters exploration, contradiction, and conflict between political viewpoints. Archie often rejects or criticizes Wolfe's extreme political viewpoints. Second, Stout utilizes the contradictions between values that occur when the form of detective fiction counters his radical political messages. This suggests that the form of detective fiction (in this case the conventional patterns and attitudes reinforced by the genre) is as important as the content (in this case the muted political message or the lack of overt politics) in reinforcing or shaping political, economic, moral, and social viewpoints. An analysis of the novels The Black Mountain (1954) and The Doorbell Rang (1965) and the novellas "Not Quite Dead Enough" and "Booby Trap" (1944) from Stout's Nero Wolfe series demonstrates his use of detective fiction for both the expression of political viewpoints and the muting of those political messages.