Unbiased or upper limit estimates of the rate (U) of genomic mutations to mildly deleterious alleles are crucial in genetic and conservation studies and in human health care. However, only a few estimates of the lower bounds of U are available. We present a fairly robust estimation that yields an upper limit of U and a nearly unbiased estimate of the per generation fitness decline due to new de...

Mosquitofish are widely used for biological control of mosquito larvae in rice fields, but the presence of different types of vegetation or alternative arthropod prey affects the performance of the fish. Feeding experiments were conducted in 4 rice field vegetation zones. Overall, predation was maximal in young and mature rice, moderate in the submerged naiad vegetation, and minimal in areas of...

Population structure can be described by genotypic-correlation coefficients between groups of individuals, the most basic of which are the pairwise relatedness coefficients between any two individuals. There are nine pairwise relatedness coefficients in the most general model, and we show that these can be reduced to seven coefficients for biallelic loci. Although all nine coefficients can be e...

Rapid growth could significantly reduce methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in aquatic organisms by causing a greater than proportional gain in biomass relative to MeHg (somatic growth dilution). We hypothesized that rapid growth from the consumption of high-quality algae, defined by algal nutrient stoichiometry, reduces MeHg concentrations in zooplankton, a major source of MeHg for lake fish. ...

In an effort to elucidate the evolutionary mechanisms that determine the genetic architecture of a species, we have analyzed 17 populations of the microcrustacean Daphnia pulex for levels of genetic variation at the level of life-history characters and molecular markers in the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. This species is highly subdivided, with approximately 30% of the variation for nucle...

Daphnia p&x (Crustacea, Cladocera) was fed the blue-green algae (Cyanophyceae) Anacystis nidulans, Synechococcus elongata, S. cedrorum, Merismopedia sp., Anabaena flosaquae, Synechocystis sp., and Gloeocapsa alpicola. The green algae ( Chlorophyceae) Ankistrodesmus falcatus and Chlorella uulgaris were used for comparison. Direct observations were made of D. pulex feeding in depression slides fi...