Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Gewässergüte im Hahnenmoorkanalgebiet (Landkreis Osnabrück) anhand der Wirbellosenfauna

Über die Zusammensetzung der substratgebundenen Wirbellosenfauna zahlreicher Fließgewässer des Hahnenmoorkanalgebietes, etwa 50 km nordwestlich von Osnabrück in Niedersachsen, wird berichtet. Der jeweilige ökologische Zustand wird beschrieben. Vorschläge werden gemacht, wie mögliche Schadwirkungen auf aquatische Ökosysteme, die nach dem geplanten Gewässerausbau zu erwarten sind, vermieden werden können.The composition of benthic invertebrate communities is determined in numerous running waters in the Hahnenmoorkanalgebiet, about 50 km north-west of Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. Discriptions of the individual ecological situations are given. Proposals are formulated how possible destructive effects on aquatic ecosystems by planned brook regulations can be avoided

Wigner molecules in quantum dots

We perform unrestricted Hartree-Fock (HF) calculations for electrons in a parabolic quantum dot at zero magnetic field. The crossover from Fermi liquid to Wigner molecule behavior is studied for up to eight electrons and various spin components $S_z$. We compare the results with numerically exact path-integral Monte Carlo simulations and earlier HF studies. Even in the strongly correlated regime the symmetry breaking HF solutions provide accurate estimates for the energies and describe the one-particle densities qualitatively. However, the HF approximation favors the formation of a Wigner molecule and produces azimuthal modulations of the density for even numbers of electrons in one spatial shell.Comment: 5 pages, figures include

New markers-old questions: population genetics of seagrasses

Marine angiosperms, or seagrasses, continue to be a major focus of marine biologists because of their important ecological role in many coastal ecosystems. Seagrass population biology could benefit from a population genetic perspective because genetic data enable the extraction of useful demographic information such as isolation and gene flow between demes. Moreover, population genetic processes may contribute to the growing ecological risks of local population extinction. Progress in seagrass genetics is partly driven by novel genetic markers which detect variation at the DNA level and overcome the limited polymorphism of allozymes. Key results of studies in the past decade, mostly using RAPD and microsatellites, were (1) considerable genetic and genotypic (clonal) diversity is present in several species in contrast to earlier notions of low polymorphism detected at allozyme loci, and (2) genetic differentiation among populations seems to be the rule despite earlier reports of genetic uniformity. Pronounced genetic structure was detected between populations of 4 species examined thus far (Posidonia oceanica, P. australis, Zostera marina, Thalassia testudinum). The FST estimates varied widely and ranged from 0.01 to 0.623 across studies and species. Genetic differentiation at a systematic range of scales was only studied in eelgrass Zostera marina, where it was positively correlated with geographic distance. The high polymorphism of RAPD or microsatellite markers will allow the augmention of indirect estimates of gene flow by methods detecting individual immigration events through paternity analysis or assignment tests. Important conservation related issues such as the level of inbreeding and the effective population size have also been obtained from genetic marker data, but results are too scarce at the moment to allow generalizations. In Zostera marina and Posidonia australis, several population genetic attributes such as clonal diversity, mating system and effective population size varied among populations within species, highlighting that there is no Œtypical¹ population. An important gap in our knowledge is whether the effects of natural population fragmentation and patchiness enhance the genetic isolation of populations due to anthropogenic disturbances. It is also unclear whether genetic differentiation displayed at marker loci are correlated with fitness-related plant traits, and whether genetic or genotypic diversity is important for medium- to long-term meadow persistence. An assessment of the genetic and genotypic diversity at marker loci should be combined with experiments on the ecological plasticity and reaction norms of genotypes composing the populations in question. This way, the role of genetic diversity for seagrass population maintenance and growth in the face of changing environmental conditions can be evaluated

1. Wochenbericht AL509

Wochenbericht FS Alkor Reise 509, Fahrtabschnitt 15.05 – 20.05.201