Field comparison of chemical attractants and traps for Caribbean fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) in Florida citrus.

Field studies in citrus were conducted to compare the following as attractants for the Caribbean fruit fly, Anastrepha suspensa (Loew): torula yeast-borax; propylene glycol (10%); a two-component lure consisting of ammonium acetate and putrescine; a two-component lure consisting of ammonium bicarbonate and putrescine; and a three-component lure consisting of ammonium bicarbonate, methylamine hydrochloride, and putrescine. Various combinations of these attractants in glass McPhail, plastic McPhail-type (Multi-Lure), and sticky panel traps were investigated in two replicated studies. In one study on wild flies, the most effective and least complex trap-lure combination tested was the Multi-Lure with propylene glycol baited with ammonium acetate and putrescine. This trap-lure combination captured significantly more female and male flies than the standard glass McPhail baited with torula yeast-borax in water. All of the trap-lure combinations were female biased, with an overall average of 80.8% (SEM 1.4) flies captured being female. A second study on laboratory-reared, irradiated flies indicated no significant differences among these trap-lure combinations with respect to number of flies recaptured, although rankings based on mean number of flies recovered per trap per day supported results of the first study. The percentage of flies recaptured that were female (83.0%, SEM 0.9) was statistically the same as in the first study. Weekly percentage recovery of flies during the second study was low, possibly due to our fly release strategy. Future release/recovery studies with laboratory-reared flies would benefit from some basic research on release strategies by using different trap densities and on relating recapture rates of laboratory-reared flies (nonsterile and sterile) to capture rates of wild flies.

Recent patterns and mechanisms of carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems.

Knowledge of carbon exchange between the atmosphere, land and the oceans is important, given that the terrestrial and marine environments are currently absorbing about half of the carbon dioxide that is emitted by fossil-fuel combustion. This carbon uptake is therefore limiting the extent of atmospheric and climatic change, but its long-term nature remains uncertain. Here we provide an overview of the current state of knowledge of global and regional patterns of carbon exchange by terrestrial ecosystems. Atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen data confirm that the terrestrial biosphere was largely neutral with respect to net carbon exchange during the 1980s, but became a net carbon sink in the 1990s. This recent sink can be largely attributed to northern extratropical areas, and is roughly split between North America and Eurasia. Tropical land areas, however, were approximately in balance with respect to carbon exchange, implying a carbon sink that offset emissions due to tropical deforestation. The evolution of the terrestrial carbon sink is largely the result of changes in land use over time, such as regrowth on abandoned agricultural land and fire prevention, in addition to responses to environmental changes, such as longer growing seasons, and fertilization by carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Nevertheless, there remain considerable uncertainties as to the magnitude of the sink in different regions and the contribution of different processes.

The global carbon cycle: a test of our knowledge of earth as a system.

Motivated by the rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 due to human activities since the Industrial Revolution, several international scientific research programs have analyzed the role of individual components of the Earth system in the global carbon cycle. Our knowledge of the carbon cycle within the oceans, terrestrial ecosystems, and the atmosphere is sufficiently extensive to permit us to conclude that although natural processes can potentially slow the rate of increase in atmospheric CO2, there is no natural "savior" waiting to assimilate all the anthropogenically produced CO2 in the coming century. Our knowledge is insufficient to describe the interactions between the components of the Earth system and the relationship between the carbon cycle and other biogeochemical and climatological processes. Overcoming this limitation requires a systems approach.