CORRESPONDENCE

Conserving biological
resources
C.W. Clark makes two substantive criticisms in his
recent TREE review1 of our book, Conservation of
Biological Resources2. First, he objects to two
phrases that both appear on p. 28. However, he
has been selective in his reading. He says that it is
irresponsible to suggest that limiting harvesting to
a constant level of effort can be administered
without monitoring population size. We agree that,
in isolation, this phrase might send the wrong
message to resource managers. But elsewhere on
the same page, and on previous pages, we give a
lengthy discussion of the dangers of using CPUE
(catch per unit effort) in resource management,
including a stable CPUE could be due to
undetected increases in technological efficiency,
giving a false picture of stability as the population
declines If a population aggregates into large
groups even at low population sizes, or if its
location is always predictable, then the costs of
harvesting are not related linearly to population
size The population declines dramatically without

The structure of carotenoids

19

16

much of resource management, stressing both

their strengths and their weaknesses. And then, for
the next 350 pages, we explore how ecological,
social and political complexities can be taken into
account when managing the interaction between
people and the resources upon which they depend.

carotenoids are necessary, and their structures

should be represented as in the figure below.

Sexual selection and

the Y chromosome

Centre for Cellular and Molecular

Biology, Tarnaka, Hyderabad-500007,
India (jagan@ccmb.ap.nic.in)
References
1 Olson,V.A. and Owens, I.P.F. (1998) Trends Ecol.
Evol. 13, 510514
2 Johnson, E.A. and Schroeder, W.A. (1995) Adv.
Biochem. Eng. Biotechnol. 53, 119178
3 Jagannadham, M.V., Rao, V.J. and Shivaji, S.
(1991) J. Bacteriol. 173, 79117917
4 Chattopadhyay, M.K. et al. (1997) Biochem.
Biophys. Res. Commun. 239, 8590
5 Gabrielska, J. and Gruszecki, W.I. (1996)
Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1285, 167174
6 Di Mascio, P., Kaiser, S. and Sies, H. (1989)
Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 274, 532538
7 Strand, A., Shivaji, S. and Liaaen-Jensen, S.
(1997) Biochem. Syst. Ecol. 25, 547552
8 Straub, O. (1987) in Key to Carotenoids (2nd
edn) (Pfander, H., ed.), pp. 9276, Birkhuser
9 Kull, D. and Pfander, H. (1995) in Carotenoids
(Vol. 1A) (Britton, G., Liaaen-Jensen, S. and
Pfander, H., eds), pp. 295317, Birkhuser

-Carotene

1
3

5
18

13

9'

20'

19'

15'

6'

Dept of Anthropology, University College

London, Gower Street, London,
UK WC1E 6BT (r.mace@ucl.ac.uk)
References
1 Clark, C.W. (1999) Trends Ecol. Evol. 14, 161
2 Milner-Gulland, E.J. and Mace, R. (1998)
Conservation of Biological Resources, Blackwell
3 Clark, C.W. (1976) Mathematical Bioeconomics:
the Optimal Management of Renewable
Resources, John Wiley & Sons

In a very interesting article, Roldan and

Gomendio1 suggest that sexual selection could
have favored genes on the mammalian
Y chromosome, and that these would include
genes on the Y with effects on embryonic
growth and tooth size, as well as on
spermatogenesis. There are other effects of the
Y chromosome on brain and behavior in mice.
These include effects of the Y on hippocampal
morphology, whole-brain levels of serotonin,
open field activity, copulation, aggression and
learning2. There are sex differences in these
brain and behavior traits that might be due to
sexual selection3. Also, the Sry gene (sex
determining region on the Y) is expressed in
brains of adult mice and humans4,5; this gene
may have effects on the above-mentioned brain
and behavioral traits2.

Stephen C. Maxson
Dept of Psychology and Biobehavioral
Sciences Graduate Degree Program,
The University of Connecticut Storrs,
CT 06269-4154, USA
(maxtiger@aol.com)
References

1'

16'

17'

0169-5347/99/$ see front matter 1999 Elsevier Science. All rights reserved.

(Online: Fig. 1)

HO
O

236

Ruth Mace

5' 3'
13'

OH

Astaxanthin
(a common
xanthophyll)

Renewable Resources Assessment Group,

Imperial College London,
8 Princes Gardens, London, UK SW7 1NA
(e.j.milner-gulland@ic.ac.uk)

18'

20
15

E.J. Milner-Gulland

M.V. Jagannadham

In a recent perspective in TREE, Olson and Owens1

presented some important points about the
significance of carotenoids in sexual signalling.
Carotenoids occur in a wide variety of bacteria, fungi
and plants and carry out diverse biological
functions. They have also been proposed to play a
crucial role in evolution, cold adaptation, sexual
signalling, etc.14 The individual structures of these
molecules have an important role in these
respective biological functions57.
Carotenoids are isoprenoids containing a
characteristic polyene chain of conjugated double
bonds and are either acyclic or cyclic with one or
two cyclic end groups. The hydrocarbons are
called carotenes and the oxygenated derivatives
are called xanthophylls. About 600 structurally
distinct carotenoids have been chemically
characterized8,9. The structures of the molecules
shown in Box 1 of Olson and Owens article do
not contain 19,20 199,209 methyl groups, and the
double bond in the b-cyclic ring was represented
between positions 19 and 29. The double bond
cannot exist between these positions and should
be between positions 59 and 69. (The positions
referred to here are numbered in a conventional
manner.) More details on the structures of
17

any reduction in harvesting effort These

conditions are common in fisheries.
The second phrase referred to a means of
controlling harvest by allowing a constant proportion
of the population to be taken each year. We said
harvesters do not make constant attempts to
circumvent the regulations if they are free to use
any technology they please in comparison with
what happens under rules limiting effort, when
there is an incentive for the hunters to use
technological innovation to circumvent the
regulations. By quoting phrases out of context, he
misrepresents our argument.
He suggests that another way of approaching the
problem of natural resource harvesting is to treat
resources as natural capital. This is indeed a well
known alternative approach, and one that he
discusses in his pioneering work on resource
economics3. However, this method is subject to the
same problems of oversimplification as the simple
models that we analyse in the first chapter of our
book; it has now been superseded by approaches
that emphasize the importance of the social and
institutional frameworks within which people live.
In chapter 1, we outline simple, theoretical
models that were, and still are, fundamental to

1 Roldan, E.R.S. and Gomendio, M. (1999) Trends

Ecol. Evol. 14, 5962
2 Maxson, S.C. (1996) Behav. Genet. 26,
471476
3 Maxson, S.C. (1997) Biomed. Rev. 7,
8590
4 Lahr, G. et al. (1995) Mol. Brain Res. 33,
179182
5 Mayer, A. et al. (1998) Neurogenetics 1,
281288
TREE vol. 14, no. 6 June 1999