Effects of pollinator density-dependent preferences on field margin visitations in the midst of agricultural monocultures: A modelling approach

Managed field margins offer a means of reducing the impact of agricultural monocultures within intensively managed environments. By providing refuge for wild plants and the pollinators associated with them, field margins can also contribute to enhancing the pollination services within the monoculture. However, the effects of the monoculture on pollinator behaviour need to be carefully considered. It is known that pollinators may show density-dependent preferences such as neophobia (an avoidance of unfamiliar items) when different types of flower are available within their environment, and the dominance of monoculture crops within the environment may consequently have adverse effects upon the preferences shown by pollinators living in the field margins within them. In order to examine how pollinator preferences for wild flowers are affected by monocultures, we modelled the effects of density-dependent preferences, flower densities, and the geometry of field margins within a monoculture landscape using numerical simulations. This was done by considering how the placement of pollinator nests within a simple, spatially explicit landscape consisting of fields of monoculture crops separated by margins containing wild flowers affected the ratio of wild and monoculture crops experienced by the pollinator, given that it could only forage within a limited distance from its nest. Increasing field margin width and decreasing monoculture field width both led to an increase in pollinators visiting wild flowers (which levelled off as width increased). The size of the monoculture fields had little additional effect once they had passed an intermediate width. Increasing wild flower density within the margins led to a shift away from preferring monocultures. When wild flowers were at low densities compared to the monoculture, even the addition of small amounts of extra wild flowers had a large effect in shifting foraging preferences away from the monoculture. The distance which pollinators normally forage over only has an effect upon preferences for wild flowers when the travel distance is small. This suggests that careful consideration of margin design might be extremely important for those species which do not travel far. Innate preferences for density-dependence and particular crop types may also have an effect on preference behaviour. We demonstrate that the way in which resources are presented to indigenous pollinators may be extremely important in influencing where they choose to forage within agricultural landscapes. Careful margin design, as well as increasing the density of wild flowers (such as by enhancing the wild seed bank within the margins), may lead to overall improvements in ecosystem function within intensively farmed monocultures.     

Computer-based training for food services workers at a hospital

INTRODUCTION: Interactive computer-based safety instruction (CBI) was given to 73 workers in the food services department of an urban hospital. RESULTS: Post-test accuracy (95%) improved significantly (p < or = 0.0001) from the pre-test (74.5 %), d = 1.09. Generalization was confirmed by increased accuracy in answering questions, posed on-the-job, that required application of knowledge to the work setting (from 46% to 79%; p < 0.0001). Problematic kitchen conditions such as puddles increased slightly after training, but adjustment for increasing production/workload revealed an overall post-training decline in problems from 0.58 to 0.32 (p = 0.0001, d = 0.89). Work practice improvement was seen in 79% of workers (p < 0.0001, d = 1.00). Effect sizes (d) of knowledge, location, and work practice improvements are large and demonstrate that the benefits of CBI extend to the workplace floor. Further, the decrease between knowledge and behavior change (d = 0.09-0.2) is less than reported following other forms of training.     

The Impact of Conifer Harvesting on Stream Water Quality: A Case Study in Mid-Wales

A 12-year record of water quality data for runoff from a spruce forested hillslope with podzolic soils shows the impacts of conifer harvesting and replanting in relation to nitrate generation and its influence on surface water acidification. With felling, nitrate increases from a background of 18 Eq/l to about 50 Eq/l after 1 to 2 years and then declines to background levels over the next 1 to 2 years and to lower concentrations thereafter. This change is mirrored by an acidification process as manifest by a change in Gran alkalinity, acid neutralization capacity (ANC) and aluminium concentrations as well as pH. For example, Gran alkalinity and ANC, which start at negative concentrations prior to felling (about –20 and –50 Eq/l, respectively), become more negative (–30 and –100 Eq/l, respectively) at high nitrate concentrations. Correspondingly, pH decreases from about 4.7 to 4.5 and aluminium concentrations increase from about 14 to 16 M. Subsequently, the acidification is reversed as nitrate concentrations decline and after five years post-felling the system has higher pH, Gran alkalinity and ANC together with lower aluminium concentrations than even before the felling took place (the post-felling values are about 4.9, -15 Eq/l, –20 Eq/l and 7 M/l, respectively).Other determinands show clear changes over time. For example, there is a marked increase in sodium and chloride prior to and around the time of felling (200 to 300 and 230 to 400 Eq/l, respectively), with a subsequent decline in concentration to pre-felling and to lower values of around 160 and 170 Eq/l, respectively, thereafter. This change is probably associated with abnormally high inputs of sea-salts from the atmosphere during the first quarter of the year of felling, and dilution thereafter, rather than a direct consequence of the felling activity itself: this change in sea salt loading has had an impact on stream acidity. Dissolved organic carbon and iron also change with concentrations increasing over time (60 to 200 and 1.0 to 1.5 M/l, respectively) and this mirrors a general pattern observed across the Plynlimon catchments irrespective of whether or not there has been felling activity.The implications of the findings are discussed in relations to environmental management and hydrochemical processes.     

An Investigation Into the Mechanism by Which Synthetic Zeolites Reduce Labile Metal Concentrations in Soils

The addition of synthetic zeolites and similar materials to metal contaminated soils has been shown to reduce soil phytotoxicity and to improve the quality of plant growth on such amended soils. To gain an understanding of the mechanism by which the phytotoxicity of contaminated soils is reduced when treated with synthetic zeolites, sequential extraction procedures and soil solution techniques have been used to identify changes associated with metal speciation in amended soils. Sequential extraction data and changes in soil solution composition are presented for three different contaminated soils, amended with three synthetic zeolites (P, 4A and Y) at concentrations of 0.5%, 1% and 5% w/w, or lime at 1%. The soils were collected from the site of a metal refinery, an old lead zinc mine spoil tip and from a field which had been treated with sewage sludge. After incubation of the zeolite treated soils for between one and three months, results showed a reduction in the metal content of the ammonium acetate fraction between 42% and 70%, depending on soil, zeolite and rate of addition, compared with the unamended soils. In addition, soil solution experiments indicated that synthetic zeolite amendments were more efficient at reducing metal content than comparable lime treatment. The mechanism by which synthetic zeolites reduce metal bioavailability in contaminated soils is discussed and compared to other amendments.     

Bench-scale testing of a novel soil PFAS treatment train for informed remedial planning and decision-making

Bench-scale batch tests were conducted to assess the potential applicability of a combined separation/concentration/destruction treatment train to address soils and sediments impacted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination at Schriever Space Force Base with historic aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF). Specifically, a novel treatment train coupling soil washing (for treatment of impacted soil/sediment) with foam fractionation (for treatment of the wash water [WW] generated during soil washing) and electrochemical oxidation (ECO, for treatment of the foam fractionate generated during foam fractionation) was evaluated at the bench scale using site-specific materials. Results presented herein show that the AFFF-impacted sandy soils with low organic content were amenable to treatment via soil washing. However, the removal of hydrophobic PFAS, such as perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), from the organic-rich sediments was challenging. Results from batch desorption experiments were within a factor of 2 of those generated by soil washing bench studies, suggesting that simple batch tests can potentially be used to reasonably predict the treatment efficacy of soil washing. Long-chained perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) within the WW were removed more effectively in the foam fractionation studies as compared to short-chain PFAAs. Addition of a surfactant, such as cetrimonium bromide (CTAB), enhanced foaming but only marginally improved the treatment of short-chained PFAAs and in some cases inhibited PFOS removal. ECO reduced PFAS concentrations in the foam fractionate generated during foam fractionation by several orders of magnitude. However, generation of unwanted byproducts may warrant further treatment and/or disposal. Overall, results from this study provide a novel data set highlighting the site-dependent nature of these PFAS remedial technologies and how simple, low-cost bench tests can be reliably leveraged for informed decision-making during PFAS remedial planning.     

Switching state-space models for modeling penguin population dynamics

Environmental and Ecological Statistics - Tracking individual animals through time using mark-recapture methods is the gold standard for understanding how environmental conditions influence...