Том 44, № 6 (2017)

The content of Na⁺, K⁺, Cl^–, and Ca²⁺ in blood of farm-raised juveniles of Black Sea trout at the age 10 and 12 months, at the stage of selection of life strategy, was measured. Change in ion exchange related to smoltification in the fish kept in freshwater begins in females earlier than in males. After differentiation of parr in the smolt, the concentrations of Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ decrease and the concentration of K⁺ increases in comparison with that of the resident form. An increase in water salinity does not activate osmoregulatory restructuring of the organism. The decrease in the concentrations of Na⁺ and Cl^– in blood of the Black Sea trout may indicate the beginning of the smoltification process.

We note the special features of the genetic structure of coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch (Walbaum) populations from the rivers of the mainland coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, eastern Kamchatka, and Chukotka. The evolutionary age of the mitochondrial gene pool of this species from the studied localities is estimated. It is shown that the most widespread haplotype K1 appeared in coho salmon populations at the border of Middle and Late Pleistocene. The primary structure of the coho salmon Cytb protein is investigated. Radical substitutions in the amino acid sequence of this polypeptide are detected, which confirms the influence of the positive vector of directional selection.

In 2015–2016, 785887 specimens were scanned at the Herbarium of Moscow State University (MW), which comprised 77.7% of the total collection. The metadata of the digital herbarium include the identifier (ID) of each specimen, its species name, and geographical reference (area code). As the largest in Russia database with respect to biodiversity, the Herbarium includes 712925 images of specimens of vascular plants and 72962 specimens of bryophytes. The digital herbarium is interrelated with the Catalogue of Life international database and has enriched it with 160 new species. Images of 781882 specimens have been put online as JPG files (the resolution is 300 dpi) on the web portal of the National Depository Bank of Live Systems (https://plant.depo.msu.ru/). The portal is open for all Russian biological collections.

Epidermal molting in the bowhead whales that regularly enter Ulbanskiy Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk in summer has been reported and proven by histological methods. Longitudinal delamination and detachment of thin or thick sheets of a considerable area have been established for the surface layer (stratum externum) of the whale epidermis during molting. A correlation of molting intensity to the level of proliferation and regeneration of all epidermal layers has been noted and assumed to stabilize the thickness of the skin. The phenomenon of molting is discussed from the viewpoint of adaptation of the whales to the conditions of the shallow bays of the Sea of Okhotsk that warm up thoroughly in the summer.

In psychophysical experiments on humans, a cochlear compression was revealed by comparing onfrequency and low-frequency masking in the conditions of discrimination of complex spectra of sound signals. It has been established that, with an increase in the level of the masker, the limit of the discriminable density of the spectrum ripples decreases. It was noted that when the signal level increased, the on-frequency masker level at threshold grew proportionally to the level of the signal, whereas the low-frequency masker level grew much more slowly, indicating the compression of the signal, which was not affected by lateral suppression and off-frequency listening.

On the basis of the system of ordination for the geographic zonal and provincial replacement of types of pine forests, gradients, and some geographical trends of the main parameters of the morphostructure, the growth and viability of the cenopopulations of common heather Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull between various subzones of the Russian Plain and the western part of Western Siberia (Tobolsk area) have been revealed.

Ratios between above- and underground phytomass of tree organs were studied for different forest types. The partitioning of phytomass into tree fractions was described using rank distributions characterizing the relationships between the resource volume available for each tree organ and the ranks of biomass fractions. Species-specific parameters of biomass partitioning into tree organs were calculated, and the dependences of these parameters on the forest type and tree size were revealed. Independent verification of the biomass distribution model was performed.