In this research, the feeding guild composition of the polychaete community was described and analysed in the northern Yellow Sea, China. The polychaete feeding guilds also showed a distinct seasonal abundance fluctuation that was similar to that observed for macrofauna. Burrowers were the most predominant feeding guild, whereas filter feeders and herbivores only constituted a negligible proportion of the total abundance. A Spearman rank correlation was performed to analyse the relationships between the feeding guilds and the environmental parameters. Surface deposit feeders and carnivores appeared to be vulnerable to variations of environmental conditions. However, burrowers and filter feeders were not susceptible to the natural or anthropogenic disturbances, with grain size determined to be the only conclusive factor. These results revealed that the feeding guild of polychaetes showed significant spatial and temporal changes, and spatial heterogeneity was a stronger predictor than temporal variation. The feeding guilds of polychaetes can be applied alone to discern the environmental change, which would be faster and more cost-effective with best equilibrium between the precision of the results and a decrease in taxonomic effort. Furthermore, bimonthly sampling was proved to be unessential and reduction of the sampling frequency was necessary to save expense and effort.

Dans la première partie de cette revue, nous avons examiné, au travers d’une étudebibliographique approfondie, l’influence de différents facteurs liés à l’individu (âge,sexe, consommation d’alcool ou de tabac) sur le taux de translocations. Dans cette secondepartie, notre revue de la littérature s’est attachée à l’étude de facteurs plus toxiquesliés à une exposition professionnelle. Tous les agents toxiques analysés induisent uneaugmentation du taux de translocations au sein des lymphocytes des personnes exposées.Cependant 2 agents (hydrocarbures aromatiques polycycliques –HAPs- et les métaux lourds)augmentent de manière significative le taux des translocations des personnes exposées. Cetype d’agents toxiques augmente le taux de translocations proportionnellement à la dose età la durée d’exposition. La sensibilité de la technique FISH a permis de mettre enévidence la nécessité et le bon fonctionnement des équipements de protection. Pour tousles facteurs toxiques liés à une exposition professionnelle, un équipement de protectionadapté et ergonomique ou bien la période d’exposition ont réduit significativement le tauxde translocations des individus exposés. Ainsi la technique FISH pourrait servird’indicateur d’exposition. En conclusion, afin d’évaluer rétrospectivement l’expositiond’un individu, il est important de connaitre le plus précisément possible son curriculumclastogène et son âge. Ainsi, un taux de translocations limite pourrait être établi enfonction de l’impact des expositions professionnelles et environnementales connuesaujourd’hui et de la connaissance du passé de l’individu.

L’évaluation de l’exposition aux rayonnements ionisants, effectuée longtemps aprèsl’exposition, est actuellement réalisée en dénombrant les aberrations chromosomiques detype translocations. Le taux de ces translocations observées dans les lymphocytes despersonnes exposées est comparé au taux observé au sein d’une population contrôle.Toutefois, la spécificité des translocations vis-à-vis de l’irradiation n’est pasclairement identifiée. Afin d’éviter toute conclusion hâtive, il est nécessaired’identifier tous les facteurs susceptibles d’induire des translocations. À notreconnaissance, aucune synthèse sur l’effet de ces différents facteurs sur le taux detranslocations n’a été réalisée à ce jour. Cette recherche bibliographique a confirmél’impact de certains facteurs personnels sur l’augmentation des translocations. Cetteétude corrobore que l’âge s’avère être le facteur ayant le plus d’impact sur le taux detranslocations, notamment après 60 ans. À ce jour, le facteur « âge » est déjà considérédans l’estimation du taux de translocations après suspicion d’exposition aux rayonnementsionisants pour toutes les classes d’âge. L’étude montre également que ce taux variesignificativement lorsque le patient est exposé simultanément et de manière importante etchronique à une combinaison alcool et tabac. Ainsi, une courbe du taux de translocationsdevrait être établie en fonction de la consommation excessive de ce type d’agent pourchaque individu. Ainsi il serait alors possible de déterminer le taux de translocationsinduit uniquement par une exposition radiologique. Les effets des agents toxiques sur letaux de translocations après exposition professionnelle feront l’objet d’une deuxièmepartie.

At the head of Tanabe Bay, on the Pacific coast of Japan, dense populations of Proboscidactyla ornata medusae were observed at 24°C, 34 psu from July 2001 to September 2002 (maximum 472.4 individuals m−3). In the laboratory, 288 immature medusae of P. ornata collected from Tanabe Bay in May–June 2006 were cultured individually and fed with asphyxiated Artemia nauplii under 12 experimental conditions (four different temperatures (17°C, 20°C, 23°C and 26°C) combined with three different salinities (28 psu, 31 psu and 34 psu)). For 30 days, 94% of the medusae survived at all conditions. The maximum number of clones produced was 0.32 clones medusa−1 day−1 at 20°C, 34 psu; the number of medusae increased 10.5 times in 30 days. The maturation percentage at 23°C (54.2–58.3%) was higher than at 17°C (12.5–25.0%) and was positively correlated with the number of nauplii ingested. Temperature-specificity of energy usage was observed: 20°C for asexual budding and 23°C for sexual reproduction. The direct relationship between budding and temperature is demonstrated among hydromedusae for the first time in this study. Additionally, the influence of salinity on budding suggests a hypothesis on an advantage of budding at offshore and high saline waters.

Clinical studies of twin pairs and families of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients raise questions as to possible genetic predisposition to PTSD. Studies using isogenic animal populations exposed to a stress paradigm could elucidate the relative contributions of genotype and environment to endophenotypic expression. The prevalence of individuals displaying severely compromised behavioural responses to predator scent stress (PSS) was assessed in six inbred strains of mice in an animal model of PTSD that classifies individuals into groups according to the degree of their behavioural response. The choice of strains was based on the frequent use of these mice in transgenic research. The prevalence of extreme behavioural response in the elevated plus maze and the acoustic startle response paradigms, performed in sequence, was assessed at baseline and 7 d after PSS exposure between and within strains, and compared to differences in circulating corticosterone levels. Narrow-sense trait heritability was determined by comparing the between-strain variance to the total variance. Although strain-specific differences in anxiety-like behaviours were demonstrated, the results revealed a significant degree of individual variability in response patterns within each of the inbred strains, yielding a baseline heritability factor for anxiety-like behaviours of 30%, but only 10% for response to stress exposure. Baseline anxiety-like behaviours were found not to be predictive of post-exposure behavioural responses. The response of the individual to stress is multifactorial and environmental factors play a predominant role in characterizing the individual response to stress exposure, although there are significant genetic underpinnings.

Recruitment variability is commonly attributed to variation in spawning stock size and environmental variability. Here, the abundance of Loligo forbesi in the English Channel was estimated using cohort analysis. Environmental and adult biomass effects on recruitment variation were then tested. A stochastic length-age key was included in the cohort analysis, considering inter-individual variability in age at length. The number of recruits and parental stock biomass per monthly age-class were computed for a series of 13 fishing seasons (1989-2002). Recruitment was examined in relation to adult biomass and environmental parameters (sea surface temperature, SST, and the North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO) at the time of hatching. Recruits were approximately 7 months old and recruitment for each annual cohort occurred between April and August. Squid bigger than the length at maturity were assumed to be spawners. In the spawning season (September December), spawners were 11–13 months old. Parametric stock-recruitment curves (Ricker, Beverton and Holt, Shepherd, etc.) fitted poorly, while SST was negatively correlated with recruitment in a simple linear model. Recruitment was unrelated to NAO. A model combining SST and adult biomass showed that recruitment is probably density-dependent when stock size is high, and negatively correlated with temperature. The study did not indicate obvious recruitment overfishing in the English Channel L. forbesi population.

To understand the ecology of the exotic silver European eel Anguilla anguilla introduced into Japanese waters, the migratory behavior of 106 specimens captured in the coastal waters of Japan between April 1997 and March 2002 was analyzed. Their migratory behavior was apparently correlated with various environmental factors, particularly photoperiod, water temperature, lunar phase, and passage of atmospheric depressions, and was similar to the behavior of the species in European waters. These findings suggest that transplanted European eels retain their ability to respond to environmental cues for seaward migration in similar temperate habitats. The timing of the migration of silver European eels coincided with that of the native Japanese eels A. japonica, suggesting that the silver European eel was synchronized physiologically with the native eel by the same environmental factors.