Linking marine resources to ecotonal shifts of water uptake by terrestrial dune vegetation

As evidence mounts that sea levels are rising, it becomes increasingly important to understand the role of ocean water within terrestrial ecosystem dynamics. Coastal sand dunes are ecosystems that occur on the interface of land and sea. They are classic ecotones characterized by zonal distribution of vegetation in response to strong gradients of environmental factors from the ocean to the inland. Despite the proximity of the dune ecosystem to the ocean, it is generally assumed that all vegetation utilizes only freshwater and that water sources do not change across the ecotone. Evidence of ocean water uptake by vegetation would redefine the traditional interpretation of plant-water relations in the dune ecosystem and offer new ideas for assessing maritime influences on function and spatial distribution of plants across the dune. The purpose of this study was to identify sources of water (ocean, ground, and rain) taken up by vegetation using isotopic analysis of stem water and to evaluate water uptake patterns at the community level based on the distribution and assemblage of species. Three coastal dune systems located in southern Florida, USA, and the Bahamian bank/platform system were investigated. Plant distributions across the dune were zonal for 61-94% of the 18 most abundant species at each site. Species with their highest frequency on the fore dune (nearest the ocean) indicate ocean water uptake as evidenced by delta 18O values of stem water. In contrast, species most frequent in the back dune show no evidence of ocean water uptake. Analysis of species not grouped by frequency, but instead sampled along a transect from the ocean toward the inland, indicates that individuals from the vegetation assemblage closest to the ocean had a mixed water-harvesting strategy characterized by plants that may utilize ocean, ground-, and/or rainwater. In contrast, the inland vegetation relies mostly on rainwater. Our results show evidence supporting ocean water use by dune vegetation and demonstrate an exciting relationship between seawater and ecotonal shifts in plant function of a terrestrial ecosystem.     

Associative learning of odor with food- or blood-meal by Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae)

The ability of many insects to learn has been documented. However, a limited number of studies examining associative learning in medically important arthropods has been published. Investigations into the associative learning capabilities of Culex quinquefasciatus Say were conducted by adapting methods commonly used in experiments involving Hymenoptera. Male and female mosquitoes were able to learn a conditioned stimulus that consisted of an odor not normally encountered in nature (synthetic strawberry or vanilla extracts) in association with an unconditioned stimulus consisting of either a sugar (males and females) or blood (females) meal. Such information could lead to a better understanding of the ability of mosquitoes to locate and select host and food resources in nature.     

Dynamics in the global protected-area estate since 2004

Nations of the world have committed to a number of goals and targets to address global environmental challenges. Protected areas have for centuries been a key strategy in conservation and play a major role in addressing current challenges. The most important tool used to track progress on protected-area commitments is the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). Periodic assessments of the world's protected-area estate show steady growth over the last 2 decades. However, the current method, which uses the latest version of the WDPA, does not show the true dynamic nature of protected areas over time and does not provide information on sites removed from the WDPA. In reality, this method can only show growth or remain stable. We used GIS tools in an approach to assess protected-area change over time based on 12 temporally distinct versions of the WDPA that quantify area added and removed from the WDPA annually from 2004 to 2016. Both the narrative of continual growth of protected area and the counter-narrative of protected area removal were overly simplistic. The former because growth was almost entirely in the marine realm and the latter because some areas removed were reprotected in later years. On average 2.5 million km² was added to the WDPA annually and 1.1 million km² was removed. Reasons for the inclusion and removal of protected areas in the WDPA database were in part due to data-quality issues but also to on-the-ground changes. To meet the 17% protected-area component of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 by 2020, which stood at 14.7% in 2016, either the rate of protected-area removal must decrease or the rate of protected-area designation and addition to the WDPA must increase.     

Estimating resource utilization demands in implementing statewide screening,brief intervention,and referral to treatment for alcohol-impaired drivers

Objectives: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) is used to assess the level of alcohol use/misuse and to inform the intensity of intervention delivered within screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) programs. Policy initiatives are recommending delivery of SBIRT within health care settings to reduce alcohol misuse and prevent alcohol-impaired driving. Recent reports are considering extending delivery of SBIRT to criminal justice settings. One consideration in implementing SBIRT delivery is the question of resource utilization; the amount of effort required in delivering the 4 different intensities of intervention in SBIRT: Alcohol education, simple advice, brief counseling and continued monitoring, and brief counseling and referral to specialist (from least to most intense in terms of delivery time, the skill level of the provider, and personnel resources).

Methods: In order to inform expectations about intervention intensity, this article describes the AUDIT scores from 982 adults recently arrested for alcohol-impaired driving. The distribution of scores is extrapolated to state rates for individuals arrested for alcohol-impaired driving by intervention level.

Results: Though alcohol education was the most common intervention category, about one quarter of the sample scored in a range corresponding with the more intensive interventions using the brief counseling, continued monitoring for ongoing alcohol use, and/or referral to specialist for diagnostic evaluation and treatment.

Conclusions: This article provides local distribution of AUDIT scores and state estimates for the number of individuals scoring in each level of risk (AUDIT risk zone) and corresponding intervention type. Routine criminal justice practice is well positioned to deliver alcohol screening, education, simple advice, and continued alcohol monitoring, making delivery of SBIRT feasible for the majority of alcohol-impaired drivers. Challenges to implementing the full range of SBIRT services include resource demands of brief counseling, identifying the appropriate providers within a criminal justice context, and availability of community providers for referral to diagnostic and specialty care. Solutions may vary by state due to differences in population density and incidence rates of alcohol-impaired driving.     

Benefits of integrating complementarity into priority threat management

Conservation decision tools based on cost‐effectiveness analysis are used to assess threat management strategies for improving species persistence. These approaches rank alternative strategies by their benefit to cost ratio but may fail to identify the optimal sets of strategies to implement under limited budgets because they do not account for redundancies. We devised a multiobjective optimization approach in which the complementarity principle is applied to identify the sets of threat management strategies that protect the most species for any budget. We used our approach to prioritize threat management strategies for 53 species of conservation concern in the Pilbara, Australia. We followed a structured elicitation approach to collect information on the benefits and costs of implementing 17 different conservation strategies during a 3‐day workshop with 49 stakeholders and experts in the biodiversity, conservation, and management of the Pilbara. We compared the performance of our complementarity priority threat management approach with a current cost‐effectiveness ranking approach. A complementary set of 3 strategies: domestic herbivore management, fire management and research, and sanctuaries provided all species with >50% chance of persistence for $4.7 million/year over 20 years. Achieving the same result cost almost twice as much ($9.71 million/year) when strategies were selected by their cost‐effectiveness ranks alone. Our results show that complementarity of management benefits has the potential to double the impact of priority threat management approaches.     

Crustacean epifauna of seagrass and macroalgae in Apalachee Bay,Florida, USA

Epifaunal crustaceans on turtlegrass (Thalassia testudinum) and five dominant macroalgae (Anadyomene stellata, Digenia simplex, Halimeda incrassata, Laurencia poitei and Penicillus lamourouxii) were quantitatively sampled bimonthly over a one-year period from September 1979 to September 1980 in a subtropical seagrass meadow in Apalachee Bay, Florida (northeastern Gulf of Mexico). These plant species exhibited a wide range of morphologies, with surface area-to-biomass ratios differing by over 2.5 times. A similar suite of crustaceans occurred on all macrophytes despite differences in shape or architecture among plant species. Relative abundances of many crustaceans, however, varied among plant hosts. Similarity analysis indicated that the epifaunal associates of T. testudinum were distinct from those of the macroalgae. Species richness was generally higher on turtlegrass than on any of the macroalgae. Abundances of total crustaceans per plant biomass or per plant surface area, on the other hand, were greater on all macroalgal species compared to the seagrass. Abundances (per plant biomass or plant surface area) of 14 of the 16 numerically dominant epifaunal species differed significantly among macrophytes. Twelve of the 16 species had greater abundance on one or more macroalgae, while only two species were more abundant on T. testudinum. Almost half of the dominant species had greatest abundances on the branching red alga L. poitei. Although abundances per plant biomass and plant surface area were greater on macroalgae relative to turtlegrass, densities (individuals per meter square of bottom) of animals associated with T. testudinum were significantly greater than those associated with macroalgae, primarily because of the greater abundance of turtlegrass in the grass bed. Both surface area-to-biomass ratios and degree of branching were poorly correlated with epifaunal abundance and number of species. Neither structural feature is an adequate predictor of faunal abundance and species richness among plant species, especially when macrophytes with very different morphologies are compared.     

Temporal stability of gene frequencies within genetically heterogeneous populations of the queen scallop Aequipecten (Chlamys) opercularis

The widely held assumption that gene frequencies within samples of multi-aged organisms are temporally stable has rarely been tested. In order to test this assumption in the commercially exploited bivalve scallop Aequipecten (Chlamys) opercularis (L.), 12 populations were sampled from around the UK over the period 1988–1990 and each was assayed at four putative polymorphic enzyme loci. Most populations were comprised of 3 to 4 year-classes, distinguishable by annual rings laid down on the shell. Three alleles from each locus were used as discriminant-function variables. Discriminant-function analysis based on allele frequencies averaged for each inividual year-class (45 demes) revealed highly significant inter-site heterogeneity. A posteriori classification of individual year-classes based on the discriminant analysis resulted in assignment of year-classes to the correct home site in 80% of cases. If allozyme neutrality is assumed, the phenomenon of predominant local allele frequency-stability through time within populations which are genetically heterogeneous from one site to another raises the possibility that queen scallop populations may be self-recruiting. Despite a planktonic larval phase lasting up to several weeks, this possibility is not excluded by the available hydrographic data.