Land Use Planning and Social Equity in North Carolina’s Compensatory Wetland and Stream Mitigation Programs

The U.S. Clean Water Act requires compensatory mitigation for wetland and stream damage through restoration of damaged aquatic ecosystems. We evaluate the North Carolina’s Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP), a state agency responsible for compensatory mitigation. We compare communities gaining and losing aquatic resources during mitigation, finding new types of socioeconomic disparities that contradict previous studies of mitigation program behavior. We find average distances between impact and mitigation sites for streams (43.53 km) and wetlands (50.3 km) to be larger in North Carolina than in off-site mitigation programs in other regions previously studied. We also find that aquatic resources in the State are lost from urbanized areas that are more affluent, white, and highly educated, and mitigated at sites in rural areas that are less affluent, less well educated, and have a higher percentage of minorities. We also analyze the relationship between urban growth indicators and EEP accumulation of compensation sites. Growth indicators and long-term population projections are uncorrelated with both projected transportation impacts and advance mitigation acquired by the EEP, suggesting that growth considerations can be more effectively incorporated into the EEP’s planning process. We explore the possibility that spatial mismatches could develop between watersheds that are rapidly growing and those that are gaining mitigation. We make recommendations for ways that regulators incorporate growth indicators into the mitigation planning process.     

Experimental evidence of specialised phenotypic roles in a mobbing raptor

Group living is associated with costs but also with potential benefits, such as a decrease in predation risk through, for example, higher defence efficiency. Mobbing is among the most specialised forms of anti-predator strategies involving group defence and has mainly been investigated in passerine birds and some mammals. Variation in the mobbing response has been found in several species according to phenotypic variation such as sex or age. This suggests that there are differential benefits between mobbers, which may have promoted individual specialisation in mobbing behaviour. We studied mobbing behaviour in a communal roosting raptor, the Marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus), which shows active group defence. Our study population exhibits extreme colour polymorphism, with two colour morphs in males, as well as sexual dichromatism and colour variation with age. We used different decoys, placed at different distances from the roost, to manipulate experimentally the perceived predation risk and to elicit mobbing behaviour. Using the experimental design that maximised mobbing response in harriers, we then focused on the sequence and the specific behaviours involved in recruitment of mobbers, and whether individual investment in terms of defence was associated with phenotypic characteristics of individuals (i.e. sex, age and colour morph). We found that the main behaviour involved in successfully attracting mobbers was alarm calling. We also detected differential individual investment in relation to sex and age, but more importantly, we provide the first evidence for specialised male phenotypic roles during mobbing events, signalled by colour polymorphism: grey males tended not to be involved in mobbing and almost never behaved as recruiters or mobbers, while brown males behaved mainly as recruiter birds. These findings suggest that colour morph may signal the individual’s anti-predatory abilities through different behavioural strategies between males.     

Abiotic aging of water- soluble 3- hydroxybutyric acid oligomers as monitored by capillary zone electrophoresis

Oligomers of poly(3-hydroxybutyric acid) (P(3-HB)) were prepared by partial degradation of high molecular weight P(3-HB) dissolved in 1,2-dichloroethane/water mixture in the presence of p-toluene sulfonic acid (p-TSA). The water-soluble fraction of the resulting oligomers was extracted from the mixture with neutral sodium phosphate buffer. Capillary zone electrophoresis showed that the aqueous extracts were composed of two series of oligomers. The first one was composed of one to seven P(3-HB) oligomers (O(3-HB)). In contrast, the second series was composed of four oligomers characterized by the presence of a terminal C=C bond [O’(3-HB)]. Both series of oligomers behaved differently insofar as their fate in aqueous medium was concerned. The 0(3-HB) compounds were stable over a period of 2 months. On the other hand, the population of the O’(3-HB) oligomers varied, the proportion of oligomers increasing with aging time.     

ChemChar process for carbon re-activation

The ChemChar reverse-burn gasification process was evaluated to determine its feasibility for use in the regeneration of spent activated carbon. This non-incinerative, thermochemical gasification process pyrolyzes the sorbed wastes and restores the sorptive capacity of the carbon in one energy-efficient step. The effects of moisture and supplemental fuel addition on regeneration were determined with a laboratory-scale reactor and a flow-through assay method was developed for determining regeneration effectiveness. The process produces good quality regenerated carbon simply and inexpensively with a minimum of carbon loss. Carbons can be regenerated several times and the method is non-polluting.     

Looking for the clock mechanism responsible for circatidal behavior in the oyster Crassostrea gigas

Valve activity rhythm of the oyster Crassostrea gigas is mainly driven by tides in the field, but in the laboratory, only a circadian clock mechanism has been demonstrated. In an attempt to reconcile these results, the mechanisms underlying the circatidal rhythm were studied in the laboratory under different entrainment or free-running regimes and in the field at Arcachon (44°39′N/1°09′W) in February–April 2011). Results confirm the existence of a circadian clock in C. gigas. Under entrainment regimes (12-h dark/12-h light photoperiod and tidal cycles simulated by a reversing current flow), oysters exhibited both circadian and circatidal cycles. Under free-running conditions (e.g., continuous darkness), the endogenous rhythm appeared to be circadian. There was no experimental evidence for an endogenous circatidal rhythm, even in oysters just transferred from the field, where a clear tidal cycle was expressed. There are two possible mechanisms to explain tidal behavior in C. gigas: an exogenous tidal cue that drives tidal activity and masks the circadian rhythm and an endogenous circatidal clock that is sensitive to tidal zeitgebers and runs at tidal frequency.