Correction to: Determining soil quality in urban agricultural regions by soil enzyme-based index

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - Unfortunately, in the original publication of the article, Prof. Yang Sik Ok’s affiliation was incorrectly published. The author’s affiliation is...     

Correction to: Contrasting effects of engineered carbon nanotubes on plants: a review

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - Unfortunately, in the original publication of the article, Prof. Yong Sik Ok’s affiliation was incorrectly published. The author’s affiliation is...     

Correction to: Effects of carbon nanotube and biochar on bioavailability of Pb,Cu and Sb in multi-metal contaminated soil

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - Unfortunately, in the original publication of the article, Prof. Yong Sik Ok’s affiliation was incorrectly published. The author’s affiliation is...     

Correction to: Influence of physico-chemical properties of soil clay fractions on the retention of dissolved organic carbon

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - Unfortunately, in the original publication of the article, Prof. Yong Sik Ok’s affiliation was incorrectly published. The author’s affiliation is...     

Correction to: Trace elements in surface sediments of the Hooghly (Ganges) estuary: distribution and contamination risk assessment

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - Unfortunately, in the original publication of the article, Prof. Yong Sik Ok’s affiliation was incorrectly published. The author’s affiliation is...     

Correction to: Biosolids application affects the competitive sorption and lability of cadmium,copper, nickel,lead, and zinc in fluvial and calcareous soils

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - Unfortunately, in the original publication of the article, Prof. Yong Sik Ok’s affiliation was incorrectly published.     

Social attributes and associated performance measures in marmots: bigger male bullies and weakly affiliating females have higher annual reproductive success

Studying the structure of social interactions is fundamental in behavioral ecology as social behavior often influences fitness and thus natural selection. However, social structure is often complex, and determining the most appropriate measures of variation in social behavior among individuals can be difficult. Social network analysis generates numerous, but often correlated, measures of individual connectedness derived from a network of interactions. We used measures of individual connectedness in networks of affiliative and agonistic interactions in yellow-bellied marmots, Marmota flaviventris, to first determine how variance was structured among network measures. Principal component analysis reduced our set of network measures to four “social attributes” (unweighted connectedness, affiliation strength, victimization, and bullying), which revealed differences between patterns of affiliative and agonistic interactions. We then used these extracted social attributes to examine the relationship between an individual’s social attributes and several performance measures: annual reproductive success, parasite infection, and basal stress. In male marmots, bullying was positively associated with annual reproductive success, while in females, affiliation strength was negatively associated with annual reproductive success. No other social attributes were significantly associated with any performance measures. Our study highlights the utility of considering multiple dimensions when measuring the structure and functional consequences of social behavior.     

Community sustainability: a holistic approach to measuring the sustainability of rural communities in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Although sustainable development was defined in the Brundtland Report almost 30 years ago, the current usage of the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development remain highly equivocal. In the context of rural communities, multiple interpretations and weak definitions lead to confusion in understanding what comprises a sustainable rural community. Building on existing definitions (e.g. Baker’s, 2006, ‘Ladder of Sustainable Development’), models (principally, The Egan Review’s, 2004, ‘Components of Sustainable Communities’) and findings of this study, a sustainable community is defined and a holistic model of a sustainable place-based rural community is presented. This model, the sustainable community design (SCD) is used as the basis for analysing community sustainability, which is measured using mixed methods and scorecard assessment. Sensitivity of the method is demonstrated with inter- and intra-community variations in sustainability across three diverse Scottish rural communities. Intra-community variations illustrate heterogeneity in community sustainability, explain ambiguity in characterisations of an individual community’s sustainability, and highlight the importance of an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to community development. The SCD framework is presented as a useful tool for meso-level sustainability assessment and to facilitate the sustainable development of rural communities.     

Invasion essentials: does secondary chemistry plasticity contribute to the invasiveness of Thymus vulgaris L.?

Increasing our understanding of spatial patterns of plant secondary chemistry variation may help us understand the mechanisms that underlie plant invasions involving species which exhibit chemical phenotypic variation. We analysed qualitative and quantitative variation in the essential oil terpenes produced by Thymus vulgaris L. (thyme) plants inside and at the edge of thyme-invaded plant communities on north- and south-facing slopes at ten sites across Central Otago, New Zealand. We tested the hypotheses that (1) there are foliar terpene composition quantitative and qualitative differences between the inside and edge of thyme-invaded communities and that these differences vary between north- and south-facing slopes and (2) that environmental variables affect the quantity and quality of thyme essential oil composition. Terpene concentrations were determined using ethanol extraction and GC FID/MS. Environmental data were collected from inside, at the edge and outside of thyme stands. We used multivariate statistical analysis to test differences in foliar terpene composition and linear modelling to investigate the effects of environmental variables on terpene composition. We found no evidence of a link between aspect- and invasion edge-related patterns of variation of thyme’s essential oil chemistry. Site-related differences for aspect and position in thyme stands indicated that thyme’s terpene production may be modulated by environmental factors such as soil moisture, clay, carbon, silt, sand, colloid, N and NH₄ ⁺. The role of thyme’s novel chemistry in the processes that underlie the spatial patterns of thyme’s successful invasion is modulated by environmental factors.     

不同生长基质中叶状地衣共生藻的分离与鉴定

采用形态鉴定及基于ITS及rbcL序列构建ML系统发育树对采自云南省姚安县及南华县的10种叶状地衣中分离纯化培养的共生藻进行分析研究。鉴定结果表明5个编号分别为Z1、Z4、Z5、Z6、Z9的树生地衣共生藻样品鉴定为念珠藻目（Nostocales）念珠藻科（Nostocaceae）念珠藻属（Nostoc）;2个土生地衣共生藻样品Z2、Z10鉴定为四孢藻目（Tetrasporales）胶球藻科（Coccomyxaceae）胶球藻属（Coccomyxa）;3个石生地衣分离藻样品Z3、Z7、Z8鉴定为绿球藻目（Chlorococcales）栅藻科（Scenedesmaceae）链带藻属（Desmodesmus）。另外从地衣采集地及分子系统分析结果可以看出,尽管Z1、Z5、Z9分别是从采自不同区域（姚安县及南华县）的地衣中分离纯化的,但亲缘关系最近;同样Z4、Z6亲缘关系最近;Z2、Z10亲缘关系最近,Z7、Z8亲缘关系最近。所以地衣共生菌与共生藻的共生关系与其生存的地理区域关系不大,但却和其生长基质有明显的相关性。     

Authorship and the Use of Biological Information in Endangered Species Recovery Plans

Abstract: We examined the relationship between authorship and the use of biological information in recovery plans under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Approximately one-third of recovery plans were written solely by federal government employees, and one-third of plans included authors with university affiliations. The number of plans written strictly by federal staff increased significantly over time, whereas the percentage of plans that included authors with university affiliation remained unchanged. We tested three hypotheses posed by Clark et al. (1994) regarding authorship and endangered species recovery and found that (1) groups of authors from diverse affiliations are likely to strengthen the recovery planning process, (2) recovery plans lacking nonfederal participation suffer from inadequate attention to species biology, and (3) academic affiliation is strongly associated with the use of focal-species biology in recovery plans. Our results suggest that modifying the choice of participants in the recovery planning process may increase the use of biological information in recovery measures recommended in recovery plans and thus influence the eventual success of recovery efforts.     

Review on the applications of Tropospheric Emissions Spectrometer to air-quality research: Perspectives for China

The Tropospheric Emissions Spectrometer (TES) aboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Aura satellite launched in July 2004 is the first satellite instrument to provide simultaneous retrievals of ozone (O₃) and carbon monoxide (CO) throughout the Earth’s lower atmosphere. This paper briefly reviews the TES instrument, the retrieval of O₃ and CO profiles, and the validation of the retrievals. The applications of TES O₃ and CO products include mapping the vertical and horizontal distribution of tropospheric O₃ and CO and their correlations, examining the regional and continental outflow, and analyzing the variability of the two species associated with certain weather and climatic conditions, such as El Niño and the Asian monsoon. TES retrievals of O₃ and CO offer an important new source of satellite data over China with good spatial and temporal coverage that can provide evaluation and constraints on the performance of chemical transport models in simulating the general features of ozone pollution over China. Special observations have been conducted and requests may be submitted to the TES team to make geographically focused observations of O₃ and CO over China.     

Practical guide to coproduction in conservation science

We considered a series of conservation-related research projects on the island of Pemba, Tanzania, to reflect on the broad significance of Beier et al.’s recommendations for linking conservation science with practical conservation outcomes. The implementation of just some of their suggestions can advance a successful coproduction of actionable science by small research teams. Key elements include, first, scientists and managers working together in the field to ensure feedback in real time; second, questions jointly identified by managers and researchers to facilitate engaged collaboration; third, conducting research at multiple sites, thereby broadening managers’ abilities to reach multiple stakeholders; and fourth, establishing a multidisciplinary team because most of the concerns of local managers require input from multiple disciplines.     

Using a non-homogeneous Poisson model with spatial anisotropy and change-points to study air pollution data

Environmental and Ecological Statistics - A non-homogeneous Poisson process is used to study the rate at which a pollutant’s concentration exceeds a given threshold of interest. An...     

Translating land-use science to a museum exhibit

For land-use science to engage the general public it must successfully translate its concepts and conclusions and make them public outside of traditional scientific venues. Here we explore science-art exhibits, which blend artistic presentations with specific scientific data or themes, as a possible effective way of communicating scientific information and disrupting misconceptions. We describe the process of producing a science-art exhibit on remote sensing and Puerto Rican landscape history from 1937 to the present, sited at a rural Puerto Rican community museum, and examine the visitor experience and educational outcomes of the museum exhibit through analysis of survey data. The exhibit project engaged undergraduate students from a variety of academic backgrounds, introduced land-use science concepts to the public in an engaging format, and was effective at reshaping visitors’ misconceptions of Puerto Rico’s landscape change history.     

Insect herbivory may cause changes in the visual properties of leaves and affect the camouflage of herbivores to avian predators

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology - An individual’s metabolic competence is important when escalating to costly behaviours in agonistic encounters. The use of broken shells in the wild...     

Manipulating the perceived opportunity to cheat: an experimental test of the active roles of male and female zebra finches in mate guarding behavior

Birds are commonly sexually promiscuous, which can lead to conflict between the sexes and the evolution of paternity assurance strategies, such as mate guarding. Adaptive explanations for mate guarding have tended to focus on fitness consequences for males, but mate guarding and participation in being guarded is also likely adaptive for females in certain contexts. To better understand the adaptive explanations for mate guarding as well as the observed variation in paternity patterns, it is necessary to explore the relative costs and benefits of guarding (and being guarded) from both the male and female perspective. To investigate these costs and benefits, we conducted an experiment with the Australian zebra finch (Teniopygia guttata) in which we independently varied the perceived opportunity for each member of a captive breeding pair to engage in extra-pair copulation (EPC) solicitation behavior; as an individual’s EPC opportunity increased, the partner’s EPC opportunity remained constant. Our results indicate that, for males, mate guarding intensity increases when their female’s EPC opportunity increases but decreases when their own (i.e., male) EPC opportunity increases. We did not find evidence of flexible female guarding behavior, but we found that females do not evade their partners more as female EPC opportunity increases.     

Switching to Plan B: changes in the escape tactics of two grasshopper species (Acrididae: Orthoptera) in response to repeated predatory approaches

Most studies examining escape behaviour have considered single approaches and single fleeing responses; few have considered how organisms’ response is influenced by persistent pursuit. We explored fleeing behaviour of two grasshopper species to test whether they modified escape behaviour when approached repeatedly. Schistocerca alutacea did not increase flight initiation distance (FID) upon repeated approach but fled farther. Psinidia fenestralis increased its FID on the second approach but decreased its flight distance over successive escapes. Both species showed a bimodal pattern of flight direction, either flying directly away or flying perpendicular to the direction of the observer’s approach. Neither species showed a significant pattern of flight direction or change in flight direction with successive escapes. Most (88 %) P. fenestralis initially landed on sand, but after repeated approaches an increasing proportion landed in grass and hid. Both species therefore changed escape behaviour with persistent pursuit but used different tactics, suiting their flight ability or camouflage, and optimised habitat use. Three grasshopper species have now been examined for responses to repeated approach by predators and all show different tactics supporting escape decision theory. Our results emphasise the variety of escape responses across species and how the dynamic nature of escape responses vary according to an animal’s situation. Rather than single optimum escape options, each grasshopper species shows a range of responses, which vary with risk from persistent predators. Although grasshoppers provide an excellent model, it would be profitable to examine responses of a range of species according to levels of predation risk.     

Teil III: Die Verkehrsbilanz der Universität Osnabrück

One central aspect of the environmental management system for universities developed in Osnabrück is the environmental audit of universities, realized by an ecobalance. This article deals with modelling the material and energy flows caused by the University’s commuters (staff and students), and by the business trips of employees, using the software Umberto^®. The result is the University’s traffic balance. 10,000 MWh of energy are consumed yearly by the University’s traffic. 94% of the consumption is caused by commuters (1,300 employees and 11,500 students) and only 6% by business trips. Compared with the whole energy consumption of the University, the traffic’s share is 32% and therefore lies between the electricity’s share (25%) and that of heat (43%). Similarly related are the CO₂ emissions, caused by traffic (3,160 tons per anno). Compared with the whole CO₂ emissions of the University the traffic’s share is 31%, thus putting it between the heat’s share (27%) and that of electricity (42%). Although the average weekly distance the University’s commuters drive (79 km/student and 84 km/employer) is at the bottom of the range for other comparable universities, a transportation demand management for a further reduction of the traffic-caused CO₂ emissions should be implemented.     

Social behavior of free-ranging juvenile sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus atys)

Sooty mangabeys are terrestrial monkeys exhibiting female philopatry and male dispersal. Studies in captivity as well as in the wild have found that adult females form linear dominance hierarchies. However, while captive studies found no evidence for a matrilineal social system, a previous study in Taï National Park, Ivory Coast, suggested that relatedness could influence both dominance rank and affiliation pattern among adult females. Here I test whether the dominance rank, coalitionary behavior, and affiliative behavior of juveniles in a group of free-ranging mangabeys in the Taï National Park are in accordance with a matrilineal, individual, or age-related dominance system. I found that juvenile females' dominance ranks remained stable over time and were highly correlated with the dominance ranks of their mothers, whereas juvenile males' dominance ranks were initially correlated with the ranks of their mothers, but showed greater instability with increasing age. Moreover, coalitions occurred mainly between juveniles and animals that were close in rank, including their mothers and siblings. Finally, juvenile females associated and groomed preferentially with close-ranking juvenile and adult females. Juvenile males showed similar preferences in affiliation with adult females, but when associating with juvenile males, they preferred peers. The observed social behavior of free-ranging juvenile sooty mangabeys resembled the social behavior described for juveniles of many matrilineal primate species.