Farmers,Streams, Information,and Money: Does Informing Farmers About Riparian Management Have Any Effect?

We assessed relationships between the extent to which farmers reported exposure to relevant information and their attitudes towards, knowledge about, and degree of adoption of riparian management strategies. We also examined associations between knowledge of, or receipt of, financial assistance for riparian fencing/planting and intentions for and extent of adoption of this strategy. A mail survey of 718 pastoral farmers in Otago and Southland in New Zealand [294 surveys returned (41%)] yielded 279 usable questionnaires. Indices were developed to reflect range and frequency of information use and range of practices adopted. Attitudes were measured using Likert-type responses to 11 statements, and knowledge as a score on a ten-question true/false test. Positive relationships between information and the three main response variables (attitude, knowledge, and adoption) were weak but significant and systematic. These associations remained significant when important demographic and farm characteristics were taken into account. Informed farmers were more likely to report intentions to carry out riparian fencing or planting within the next year. Farmers who were aware that funding was available were also more likely to state this intention, independent of information level. The reported extent to which waterways had been fenced to exclude stock was related to receipt of funding, but not to information level. Financial factors were the most influential barrier preventing adoption of permanent fencing. Our research shows a positive correlation between the receipt of information and funding and the adoption of specific riparian management measures.     

Recovery Trajectories After In Situ Burning of an Oiled Wetland in Coastal Louisiana,USA

The high degree of physical disturbance associated with conventional response options to oil spills in wetlands is driving the investigation of alternative cleanup methodologies. In March 1995, a spill of gas condensate in a brackish marsh at Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Louisiana was remediated through the use of in situ burning. An assessment of vegetation recovery was initiated in three treatment marshes: (1) oil-impacted and burned, (2) oil impacted and unburned, and (3) a nonoiled unburned reference. We compared percent cover, stem density, and biomass in the treatment marshes to define ecological recovery of the marsh vegetation and soil hydrocarbon content to determine the efficacy of in situ burning as a cleanup technique. Burning led to a rapid decrease in soil hydrocarbon concentrations in the impacted-and-burned marsh to background levels by the end of the first growing season. Although a management fire accidentally burned the oil-impacted-and-unburned and reference marshes in December 1995, stem density, live biomass, and total percent cover values in the oil-impacted-and-burned marsh were equivalent to those in the other treatment marshes after three years. In addition, plant community composition within the oil-impacted-and-burned marsh was similar to the codominant mix of the grasses Distichlis spicata (salt grass) and Spartina patens (wire grass) characteristic of the surrounding marsh after the same time period. Rapid recovery of the oil-impacted-and-unburned marsh was likely due to lower initial hydrocarbon exposure. Water levels inundating the soil surface of this grass-dominated marsh and the timing of the in situ burn early in the growing season were important factors contributing to the rapid recovery of this wetland. The results of this in situ burn evaluation support the conclusion that burning, under the proper conditions, can be relied upon as an effective cleanup response to hydrocarbon spills in herbaceous wetlands.     

Trisomy 16 fetus surviving into the second trimester

A 27-year-old gravida 4, para 3 was found to have anhydramnios at 14 weeks' gestation following a size/date discrepancy noted at her routine prenatal visit. A detailed ultrasound revealed multiple fetal anomalies including congenital heart defect, chest hypoplasia, and bilateral dysplastic kidneys. Karyotype revealed trisomy 16 in 15/15 cells from a tissue specimen obtained from the fetal cord insertion site following elective pregnancy termination.     

Reducing complex diets to simple rules: food selection by olive baboons

Determinants of diet in free-ranging baboons Papio anubis were investigated. Foods and non-foods differed significantly in chemical composition, the former being higher in protein and lower in fibre and phenolics. Within the range of items selected, biomass was found to be the single most important factor affecting percentage of total intake and time spent feeding (Figure 1). When this effect of biomass was statistically controlled, independent effects of chemical composition (primarily protein content) and harvesting rate were found. However, while the harvesting rates of foods were positively related to their percentage contribution to total intake, they were either uncorrelated, or, in one case, actually negatively correlated with the percentage of feeding time. A post-hoc model based on Charnov's (1976) marginal value theorem is developed to account for these latter results, and direct evidence for rate-maximising patch use is then presented. It is argued that the apparent complexity of primate diets may in large part be reducible to relatively simple optimization criteria.     

A comparison of sampling techniques and summary indices for assessment of water quality in the Yamaska River,Québec,based on benthic macroinvertebrates

The Yamaska River drainage basin in Quebec, Canada, is intensively farmed and heavily polluted with poorly treated domestic and industrial wastes. We investigated the responses of the resident and colonizing components of the benthic macroinvertebrate community to municipal/industrial versus agricultural pollution in the basin, and evaluated the performances of seven diversity and biotic indices for assessing water quality. Samples of riffle-dwelling, infaunal and colonizing invertebrates were collected from 13 stations representing a wide range of types and degrees of pollution using Surber, scoop and artificial substrate samplers. The data were summarized using the indices S (number of taxa), N (number of individuals), H (Shannon-Wiener's diversity index), D (Simpson's diversity index), BBI (Belgian Biotic Index), TBI (a modification of Hilsenhoff's Biotic Index), % CHIR (percentage of arthropods consisting of Chironomidae) and %OLIGO (percentage of total organisms consisting of Oligochaeta). Different components of the community generated somewhat different assessments and were, therefore, complementary. Community composition, expressed as the percentage of individuals contributed by major taxonomic groups, reflected the kinds of stresses at a station more consistently than did any of the indices. S and TBI came closest to ranking control, agricultural and municipal/industrial sites in accordance with our a priori classification, both between months and among sampling methods. %OLIGO usually separated municipal/industrial sites from control sites. Other indices were found to be less sensitive, accurate or temporally stable, or were otherwise inappropriate for use with certain sampling methods or for certain types of pollution. With most of our samples, all of the summary indices suggested that the impact of agricultural practices on stream ecosystems may be as severe as the impacts of municipal and industrial wastes.     

A compressed shift schedule: Dealing with some of the problems of shift-work

This study examines some of the psychological and behavioral effects of a 12-hour compressed shift schedule on coal miners in two organizations in Western Canada. It suggests that young, married compressed shift workers are more satisfied with their family relationship. They spend less of their leisure time with spouses when working shifts, and do not spend any more time with them on their days off. They have less time available for many leisure activities on their workdays. The extra time on days off is not reallocated to the leisure activities they were unable to do on their workdays. Some extra leisure time on days off may be spent on personal hobbies. There is no suggestion that the compressed shift schedule has any negative effect on the individual's health.     

Long-Term Landscape Change and Bird Abundance in Amazonian Rainforest Fragments

Abstract:  The rainforests of the Amazon basin are being cut by humans at a rate >20,000 km²/year, leading to smaller and more isolated patches of forest, with remaining fragments often in the range of 1–100 ha. We analyzed samples of understory birds collected over 20 years from a standardized mist-netting program in 1– to 100-ha rainforest fragments in a dynamic Amazonian landscape near Manaus, Brazil. Across bird guilds, the condition of second growth immediately surrounding fragments was often as important as fragment size or local forest cover in explaining variation in abundance. Some fragments surrounded by 100 m of open pasture showed reductions in insectivorous bird abundance of over 95%, even in landscapes dominated by continuous forest and old second growth. These extreme reductions may be typical throughout Amazonia in small (≤10 ha), isolated fragments of rainforest. Abundance for some guilds returned to preisolation levels in 10- and 100-ha fragments connected to continuous forest by 20-year-old second growth. Our results show that the consequences of Amazonian forest loss cannot be accurately described without explicit consideration of vegetation dynamics in matrix habitat. Any dichotomous classification of the landscape into "forest" and "nonforest" misses essential information about the matrix.     

A Mesofilter Conservation Strategy to Complement Fine and Coarse Filters

Abstract:  Setting aside entire ecosystems in reserves is an efficient way to maintain biodiversity because large numbers of species are protected, but ecosystem conservation constitutes a coarse filter that does not address some species. A complementary, fine-filter approach is also required to provide tailored management for some species (e.g., those subject to direct exploitation). Mesofilter conservation is another complementary approach that focuses on conserving critical elements of ecosystems that are important to many species, especially those likely to be overlooked by fine-filter approaches, such as invertebrates, fungi, and nonvascular plants. Critical elements include structures such as logs, snags, pools, springs, streams, reefs, and hedgerows, and processes such as fires and floods. Mesofilter conservation is particularly appropriate for seminatural ecosystems that are managed for both biodiversity and commodity production (e.g., forests managed for timber, grasslands managed for livestock forage, and aquatic ecosystems managed for fisheries) and is relevant to managing some agricultural and urban environments for biodiversity.