University of Stirling

About: University of Stirling is a education organization based out in Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 7722 authors who have published 20549 publications receiving 732940 citations. The organization is also known as: Stirling University.

Sleep, sleeping sites, and sleep-related activities : Awakening to their significance

Abstract: Since primates spend about half of their life at sleeping sites, knowledge of behavior in the vicinity of sleeping sites and analysis of factors influencing their use is important for understanding the diversity of primates' adaptations to their environment. The present paper reviews recent progress in the ethology and ecology of sleep in diurnal monkeys and apes. Emphasis is given to the following topics: safety from predators at sleeping sites, physical comfort, social behavior, and psychophysiology of sleep. In all cases, study at the group level and at the individual level can provide insights into behavioral adaptations. As well as increasing understanding of behavior in the wild, knowledge of sleep-related behavior can be applied with a view to improving the environment for captive primates.

Genetic impact of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) on native populations: use of DNA profiling to assess freshwater performance of wild, farmed, and hybrid progeny in a natural river environment

Abstract: McGinnity, P., Stone, C., Taggart, J. B., Cooke, D., Cotter, D., Hynes, R., McCamley, C., Cross, T., and Ferguson, A. 1997. Genetic impact of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon (Sulmo salar L.) on native populations: use of DNA profiling to assess freshwater performance of wild, farmed, and hybrid progeny in a natural river environment. - ICES Journal of Marine Science, 54: 998-1008. Since Atlantic salmon (Salmo salur L.) used for farming are usually genetically different from local wild populations, breeding of escaped farmed salmon potentially results in genetic changes in wild populations. To determine the likelihood and impact of such genetic change, an experiment was undertaken, in a natural spawning tributary of the Burrishoole system in western Ireland, to compare the performance of wild, farmed, and hybrid Atlantic salmon progeny. Juveniles were assigned to family and group parentage by DNA profiling based on composite genotypes at seven minisatellite loci. Survival of the progeny of farmed salmon to the smolt stage was significantly lower than that of wild salmon, with increased mortality being greatest in the period from the eyed egg to the first summer. However, progeny of farmed salmon grew fastest and competitively displaced the smaller native fish downstream. The offspring of farmed salmon showed a reduced incidence of male parr maturity compared with native fish. The latter also showed a greater tendency to migrate as autumn pre-smolts. Growth and performance of hybrids were generally either intermediate or not significantly different from the wild fish. The demonstration that farmed and hybrid progeny can survive in the wild to the smolt stage, taken together with unpublished data that show that these smolts can survive at sea and home to their river of origin, indicates that escaped farmed salmon can produce long-term genetic changes in natural populations. These changes affect both single-locus and high-heritability quantitative traits, e.g. growth, sea age of maturity. While some of these changes may be advantageous from an angling management perspective, they are likely, in specific circumstances, to reduce population fitness and productivity. Full assessment of these changes will require details of marine survival, homing and reproductive performance of the adults together with information on the F, generation. 0 1997 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea

Defence mechanisms in fish

Abstract: The lympho-reticular tissues in the plaice were investigated for their phagocytic properties on colloidal carbon after its intraperitoneal injection. Fish were killed at intervals ranging from 10 min to 25 days after injection. Although peritoneal macrophages constituted a large population of phagocytic cells, most of the carbon apparently gained access to the circulation as free particles and phagocytosis was performed predominantly by the ellipsoids of the spleen, the network of reticulo-endothelial (RE) cells throughout the haemopoietic tissue of the kidney, and by the RE cells occupying intermuscular spaces in the atrium of the heart. The cardiac macrophages rapidly emigrated from the organ while the carbon containing macrophages in the kidney and spleen formed aggregates in the lymphoid areas, either within or outwith pre-existing aggregates of melano-macrophages. The possible significance of phagocyte aggregations, including melano-macrophages, in association with lymphoid elements in the kidney and spleen is discussed in the context of immune mechanisms.