Long-term development of hypolimnetic oxygen depletion rates in the large Lake Constance

This study investigates over 30 years of dissolved oxygen dynamics in the deep interior of Lake Constance (max. depth: 250 m). This lake supplies approximately four million people with drinking water and has undergone strong re-oligotrophication over the past decades. We calculated depth-specific annual oxygen depletion rates (ODRs) during the period of stratification and found that 50% of the observed variability in ODR was already explained by a simple separation into a sediment- and volume-related oxygen consumption. Adding a linear factor for water depth further improved the model indicating that oxygen depletion increased substantially along the depth. Two other factors turned out to significantly influence ODR: total phosphorus as a proxy for the lake’s trophic state and mean oxygen concentration in the respective depth layer. Our analysis points to the importance of nutrient reductions as effective management measures to improve and protect the oxygen status of such large and deep lakes.     

湖鲟(Acipenser fulvescens)早期生命阶段对2,3,7,8-四氯二苯并-p-二恶英和3,3''4,4''5-五氯联苯的敏感性研究

自20世纪中叶以来，五大湖区的水生食物网就已受到多氯联苯化合物(PCBs)的污染。对于长寿命鱼类，如湖鲟(Acipenser fulvescens)，由于缺乏该物种的相对敏感性信息，一直无法确定其PCB暴露的风险。本文的研究目标就是评估湖鲟早期生命阶段对3,3''4,4''5-五氯联苯(PCB-126)或2,3,7,8-四氯二苯并-p-二恶英(TCDD)暴露的敏感性。死亡率、生长、形态和组织病理学、游泳能力和活动水平都被用作评估终点。心包和卵黄囊水肿、管状心脏、卵黄囊出血和体长较小是TCDD和PCB-126暴露中最常见的病理症状，早在受精4 d后就开始出现，其中许多的病理都以一种剂量依赖的方式发生。湖鲟体内PCB-126和TCDD的半致死剂量分别为5.4 ng/g egg(95%置信区间，3.9-7.4 ng/g egg)和0.61 ng/g egg (0.47-0.82 ng/g egg)。由此产生的PCB-126的相对强度因子(0.11)远大于世界卫生组织对鱼的估计值(毒性当量因子=0.005)，这表明目前的风险评估可能低估了PCB对湖鲟的毒性。在受精60 d后，从半致死剂量中幸存的湖鲟的游泳活性和耐力均有所下降。阈值和半数效应毒性值表明，与在北美发现的另一种鲟鱼属Scaphirhynchu相比，湖鲟对PCB和TCDD更为敏感。事实上，在大湖区和其他地方的湖鲟种群都容易受到PCB/ TCDD诱导,使胚胎发育受到影响，游泳能力下降。
精选自Tillitt, D. E., Buckler, J. A., Nicks, D. K., Candrl, J. S., Claunch, R. A., Gale, R. W., Puglis, H. J., Little, E. E., Linbo, T. L. and Baker, M. (2017), Sensitivity of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) early life stages to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-P-dioxin and 3,3′,4,4′,5-pentachlorobiphenyl. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 36: 988–998. doi: 10.1002/etc.3614
详情请见http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/etc.3614/full
     

Modeling tensile strength of materials processed by accumulative roll bonding

Nanostructured materials are a relatively new class of materials that exhibit advanced mechanical properties, thus improving performance and capabilities of products, with potential applications in the automotive, aerospace and defense industries. Among the severe plastic deformation (SPD) methods currently used for achieving nanoscale structures, accumulative roll bonding (ARB) is the most favorable method to produce grain refinement for continuous production of metallic sheets at a bulk scale.In this article, a model that describes the evolution of material strength due to processing via accumulative roll bonding was developed. ARB experiments were conducted on CP-Ti Grade 2 at a selected set of conditions. The results showed significant grain refinement in the microstructure (down to ～120 nm) and a two-fold increase in tensile strength as compared to the as-received material. The developed model was validated using the experimental data, and exhibited a good fit over the entire range of ARB processing cycles. To further validate the model and ensure its robustness for a wider array of materials (beyond CP-Ti), a review of efforts on ARB processing was carried out for five other materials with different initial microstructures, mechanical properties, and even crystalline structures. The model was still able to capture the strengthening trends in all considered materials.     

Western Land Managers will Need all Available Tools for Adapting to Climate Change,Including Grazing: A Critique of Beschta et al.

In a previous article, Beschta et al. (Environ Manag 51(2):474–491, 2013) argue that grazing by large ungulates (both native and domestic) should be eliminated or greatly reduced on western public lands to reduce potential climate change impacts. The authors did not present a balanced synthesis of the scientific literature, and their publication is more of an opinion article. Their conclusions do not reflect the complexities associated with herbivore grazing. Because grazing is a complex ecological process, synthesis of the scientific literature can be a challenge. Legacy effects of uncontrolled grazing during the homestead era further complicate analysis of current grazing impacts. Interactions of climate change and grazing will depend on the specific situation. For example, increasing atmospheric CO₂ and temperatures may increase accumulation of fine fuels (primarily grasses) and thus increase wildfire risk. Prescribed grazing by livestock is one of the few management tools available for reducing fine fuel accumulation. While there are certainly points on the landscape where herbivore impacts can be identified, there are also vast grazed areas where impacts are minimal. Broad scale reduction of domestic and wild herbivores to help native plant communities cope with climate change will be unnecessary because over the past 20–50 years land managers have actively sought to bring populations of native and domestic herbivores in balance with the potential of vegetation and soils. To cope with a changing climate, land managers will need access to all available vegetation management tools, including grazing.     

Monohalogenated acetamide-induced cellular stress and genotoxicity are related to electrophilic softness and thiol/thiolate reactivity

Haloacetamides(HAMs) are cytotoxic, genotoxic, and mutagenic byproducts of drinking water disinfection. They are soft electrophilic compounds that form covalent bonds with the free thiol/thiolate in cysteine residues through an S_N2 reaction mechanism.Toxicity of the monohalogenated HAMs(iodoacetamide, IAM; bromoacetamide, BAM;or chloroacetamide, CAM) varied depending on the halogen substituent. The aim of this research was to investigate how the halogen atom affects the reactivity and toxicological properties of HAMs, measured as induction of oxidative/electrophilic stress response and genotoxicity. Additionally, we wanted to determine how well in silico estimates of electrophilic softness matched thiol/thiolate reactivity and in vitro toxicological endpoints.Each of the HAMs significantly induced nuclear Rad51 accumulation and ARE signaling activity compared to a negative control. The rank order of effect was IAM BAM CAM for Rad51, and BAM ≈ IAM CAM for ARE. In general, electrophilic softness and in chemico thiol/thiolate reactivity provided a qualitative indicator of toxicity, as the softer electrophiles IAM and BAM were more thiol/thiolate reactive and were more toxic than CAM.     

Genetic population structure in a commercial marine invertebrate with long-lived lecithotrophic larvae: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cucumaria</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Italic">frondosa</Emphasis> (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea)

The patterns of genetic diversity and connectivity were investigated in Cucumaria frondosa, the most abundant sea cucumber in the North Atlantic, to assist in the management and conservation of this ecologically important marine invertebrate, which is the target of an emerging fishery. Mitochondrial DNA COI sequences of 334 C. frondosa were obtained and analyzed, mainly from its western North Atlantic range, where the commercial fishery is being developed, with complementary sampling in the mid- and eastern North Atlantic. Analysis of molecular variance showed no significant (P > 0.05) differences among subpopulations in the western region suggesting that it constitutes one panmictic population. The same analysis showed low, but significant differences between eastern and western Atlantic populations. Coalescent analyses using isolation with migration models and a Bayesian skyline plot indicated historical divergence and a general increase in population size prior to the last glacial maximum and highly asymmetric gene flow (nearly 100 times lower from west to east) between sea cucumbers from North America and Norway. Results suggest that subpopulations of C. frondosa within the western North Atlantic have been highly connected. We propose that aided by the high-connectivity local subpopulations can recover rapidly from natural (i.e., ice ages) or anthropogenic (i.e., overfishing) population declines through recruitment from deep refugia.     

The overgeneralized validity of validity generalization

This Incubator contends that the concept of validity generalization has been overgeneralized in its capacity to predict work performance for three reasons: sampling bias in the occupations selected for analysis, the prediction of acceptable performance to the exclusion of superior performance, and the conflation of statistical prediction and psychological meaning. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing Calibration Uncertainty and Automation for Estimating Evapotranspiration from Agricultural Areas Using METRIC

Agricultural irrigation accounts for a large fraction of the total water use in the western United States. The Mapping Evapotranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) remote sensing energy balance model is being used to estimate historical agricultural water use in western Nevada to evaluate basin‐wide water budgets. Each METRIC evapotranspiration (ET) estimate must be calibrated by a trained user, which requires some iterative time investment and results in variation in ET estimates between users. An automated calibration algorithm for the METRIC model was designed to generate ET estimates comparable to those from trained users by mimicking the manual calibration process. Automated calibration allows for rapid generation of METRIC ET estimates with minimal manual intervention, as well as uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of the model. The variation in ET estimates generated by the automated calibration algorithm was found to be similar to the variation in manual ET estimates. Results indicate that uncertainty was highest for fields with low ET levels and lowest for fields with high ET levels, with a seasonal mean uncertainty of approximately 5% for all fields. In addition, in a blind comparison, automated daily and seasonal ET estimates compared well with flux tower measurement ET data at multiple sites. Automated methods can generate first‐order ET estimates that are similar to time intensive manual efforts with less time investment.     

Underwater video as a monitoring tool to detect change in seagrass cover

To date seagrass monitoring has involved the removal of seagrass from its environment. In fragile or highly disturbed systems, monitoring using destructive techniques may interfere with the environment or add to the burden of disturbance. Video photography is a form of non-destructive monitoring that does not require the removal of seagrass or interference with the environment and has the potential to be a valuable tool in monitoring seagrass systems. This study investigated the efficacy of video photography as a tool for detecting change in seagrass cover, using the temperate Australian species Amphibolis antarctica (Labill.) Sonder ex Aschers. Using visual and random point estimates of seagrass cover from video footage, it was possible to determine the minimum sample size (number of random video frames) needed to detect change in seagrass cover, the minimum detectable change in cover and the probability of the monitoring design committing a Type II error. Video footage was examined at three scales: transects (m apart), sites (km apart) and regions (tens of km apart). Using visual and random point estimation techniques, a minimum sample size of ten quadrats per transect was required to detect change in uniform and variable seagrass cover. With ten quadrats it was possible to identify a minimum detectable change in cover of 15% for uniform and 30% for variable seagrass cover. Power analysis was used to determine the probability of committing a Type II error from the data. Region level data had low power, corresponding to a high risk of committing a Type II error. Site and transect level data had high power corresponding to a low risk of committing a Type II error. Based on this study's data, managers using video to monitor for change in seagrass cover are advised to use data from the smaller scale, for example, site and transect level data. By using data from the smaller scale, managers will have a low risk of incorrectly concluding there has not been a disturbance when one has actually occurred.