Recent Invasions of the Gulf of Maine: Three Contrasting Ecological Histories

Introduced species are common members of estuarine communities where their role as competitors and predators is of concern, This paper examines the invasion of Gulf of Maine benthic habitats by the ecologically similar alien invertebrates Styela clava, Botrylloides diegensis , and Membranipora membranacea .
Styela clava increased slowly in abundance at study sites in Beverly, Massachusetts and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We found no evidence of competitive dominance by S. clava , even though it is the competitive dominant in similar habitats elsewhere. Botrylloides diegensis rapidly became a dominant species after its arrival in the Great Bay Estuary, but this dominance was short-lived. B. diegensis persists in the estuary as an early colonist of primary space and as an epibiont on secondary substrates in established communities. Membranipora membranacea became the dominant epiphyte on laminarian kelps within two years. Although M. membranacea overgrew the native epiphytes Obelia geniculata and Electra pilosa in the overwhelming majority of encounters these native species are more common on other algal hosts. Therefore, competitive dominance is not likely a factor in the successful invasion of the Gulf of Maine by M. membranacea .
These species provide evidence for opposing views of the role of competition in mediating community invasion. We show that ecological similarity among species is not an accurate criterion to predict either the mechanism of invasion or the means of persistence. In addition, these data indicate that biological invasions must be examined on broad spatial and temporal scales; short-term or narrowly focused studies can lead to incorrect conclusions.     

Von der Erkenntnis zur Entscheidung

This contribution highlights the role and importance of ecotoxicology in regulatory decisions of chemicals legislation focussing on the responsibilities of the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA). Therefore, organisational structures and processes relevant for making decisions concerning the risks of chemicals to men and the environment are described. As any regulatory decision starts with scientific findings, a brief overview of UBA’s activities with regard to own research and to initiate research in the area of ecotoxicology is provided. In addition, the vast importance of standardisation and international harmonisation of guidelines for testing and assessment of chemicals is illustrated, including the time- and ressource consuming character of these harmonisation processes. Subsequently, the involvement of regulatory decision making in intense and controversial scientific and political debates is emphasised. The transparency of these discussions and the independence of science is critically addressed in this context. In a final chapter the job requirements and options for qualification in Germany are described, ending up with a brief summary of the positive experiences with UBA’s contribution to the new advanced training course in ecotoxiciology realised by GDCh/SETAC GLB. A summary of the discussions on these different topics emphasises the specific challenge in regulatory ecotoxicology: To generate knowledge relevant for decision making, while acting in an area of conflict between scientific demands and economical as well as political interests.     

Bewertung der Luftqualität in Rheinland-Pflaz mittels verschiedener Luftqualitätsindizes

Goal and Scope

The constant increase of traffic and the rising energy and material consumption both in industry and trade as well as in private households mean a constant challenge to environmental protection and to the air pollution control. With the commencement of the Federal ambient pollution control act in April 1974, the legal basis for the monitoring of air pollution was created. In future, the limit values laid down in the Council Directive 1999/30/EG, 2000/69/EG and 96/62/EG, will be valid. In town and regional planning there is a great demand for a simple index to evaluate the air quality. From the available data of PM₁₀, NO₂, O₃, CO, SO₂, trends of the air quality will be derived.

Methods

The indices LQI and TLQ suggested by Mayer et al. (2002) were calculated for selected stations of the air pollution monitoring network (ZIMEN) in Rhineland-Palatine. All analysis are based on hourly recorded value, Mean values and frequency distributions are used for the interpretation. Furthermore, the characteristics and trends of the indices under different weather conditions were examined and discussed.

Results

The examination figures out that the air pollutions indices at all stations show similar patterns in the period between January 2001 and December 2002. Neither the LQI, nor the TLQ shows an annual variation. Existing variations are mainly controlled by the general weather situation and the air temperature. High values of the indices appear at extremely high or low mean daily air temperature. The absolute value of the air pollution index is determined by local pollution factors.

Outlook and Recommendations

Both indices are well suitable to evaluate the air quality and to assess the effects of state-aided measures for air pollutant control. Therefore, the indices TLQ and LQI should be published as an additional information in the world wide web.     

Propagation of olfactory information within the honeybee hive

Transfer of information about food source characteristics within insect societies is essential to colony-foraging success. The food odor communicated within honeybee hives has been shown to be important for food source exploitation. When successful foragers return to the nest and transfer the collected nectar to hive mates through mouth-to-mouth contacts (trophallaxis), potential recruits receiving these samples learn the food odor by associative learning. The food then becomes rapidly distributed among colony members, which is mainly a consequence of the numerous trophallaxes between hive-mates of all ages during food processing. We tested whether the distribution of food among hive mates causes a propagation of olfactory information within the hive. Using the proboscis extension response paradigm, we show that large proportions of bees of the age groups representing the main worker castes, 4 to 9-day-old bees (nurse-aged bees), 12 to 16-day-old bees (food processor-aged bees), and actual foragers (about 17+ day old bees) associatively learn the food odor in the course of processing food that has been collected by only a few foragers. Results further suggest that the information is shared more or less equally between bees of the three age groups. This shows that olfactory information about the flower species exploited by foragers is distributed within the entire colony and is acquired by bees of all age groups, which may influence many behaviors inside and outside the hive.     

Baselines for land-use change in the tropics: application to avoided deforestation projects

Although forest conservation activities, particularly in the tropics, offer significant potential for mitigating carbon (C) emissions, these types of activities have faced obstacles in the policy arena caused by the difficulty in determining key elements of the project cycle, particularly the baseline. A baseline for forest conservation has two main components: the projected land-use change and the corresponding carbon stocks in applicable pools in vegetation and soil, with land-use change being the most difficult to address analytically. In this paper we focus on developing and comparing three models, ranging from relatively simple extrapolations of past trends in land use based on simple drivers such as population growth to more complex extrapolations of past trends using spatially explicit models of land-use change driven by biophysical and socioeconomic factors. The three models used for making baseline projections of tropical deforestation at the regional scale are: the Forest Area Change (FAC) model, the Land Use and Carbon Sequestration (LUCS) model, and the Geographical Modeling (GEOMOD) model. The models were used to project deforestation in six tropical regions that featured different ecological and socioeconomic conditions, population dynamics, and uses of the land: (1) northern Belize; (2) Santa Cruz State, Bolivia; (3) Paraná State, Brazil; (4) Campeche, Mexico; (5) Chiapas, Mexico; and (6) Michoacán, Mexico. A comparison of all model outputs across all six regions shows that each model produced quite different deforestation baselines. In general, the simplest FAC model, applied at the national administrative-unit scale, projected the highest amount of forest loss (four out of six regions) and the LUCS model the least amount of loss (four out of five regions). Based on simulations of GEOMOD, we found that readily observable physical and biological factors as well as distance to areas of past disturbance were each about twice as important as either sociological/demographic or economic/infrastructure factors (less observable) in explaining empirical land-use patterns. We propose from the lessons learned, a methodology comprised of three main steps and six tasks can be used to begin developing credible baselines. We also propose that the baselines be projected over a 10-year period because, although projections beyond 10 years are feasible, they are likely to be unrealistic for policy purposes. In the first step, an historic land-use change and deforestation estimate is made by determining the analytic domain (size of the region relative to the size of proposed project), obtaining historic data, analyzing candidate baseline drivers, and identifying three to four major drivers. In the second step, a baseline of where deforestation is likely to occur–a potential land-use change (PLUC) map—is produced using a spatial model such as GEOMOD that uses the key drivers from step one. Then rates of deforestation are projected over a 10-year baseline period based on one of the three models. Using the PLUC maps, projected rates of deforestation, and carbon stock estimates, baseline projections are developed that can be used for project GHG accounting and crediting purposes: The final step proposes that, at agreed interval (e.g., about 10 years), the baseline assumptions about baseline drivers be re-assessed. This step reviews the viability of the 10-year baseline in light of changes in one or more key baseline drivers (e.g., new roads, new communities, new protected area, etc.). The potential land-use change map and estimates of rates of deforestation could be re-done at the agreed interval, allowing the deforestation rates and changes in spatial drivers to be incorporated into a defense of the existing baseline, or the derivation of a new baseline projection.     

The influence of humic acids on the phytoextraction of cadmium from soil

Cadmium poses a major environmental and human health threat because of its constant release through anthropogenic activities. A need, therefore, exists for cost-effective remediation procedures. Phytoremediation, the use of plants to extract contaminants from soils and groundwater, has revealed great potential. However, it is limited by the fact that plants need time, nutrient supply and, moreover, have a limited metal uptake capacity. Synthetic chelators have shown positive effects in enhancing heavy metal extraction through phytoremediation, but they have also revealed a vast number of negative side-effects. The objective of this research was to investigate the use of humic acids as an alternative to synthetic chelators. Humic acids were applied to a cadmium-contaminated soil at various dosages, and the uptake of cadmium into Nicotiana tabacum SR-1 was determined in relation to the amounts of total and bioavailable cadmium in the soil. It was found that the theoretical bioavailability of cadmium, as determined by diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) extraction, did not change, but its plant uptake was enhanced significantly, in some cases up to 65%. Humic acids added at a rate of 2 g kg(-1) soil increased the cadmium concentration in the shoots from 30.9 to 39.9 mg kg(-1). A possible reason for this enhancement is the decrease in pH, resulting in higher cadmium availability. Another possibility taken into account is that plants may take up cadmium complexes with humic acid fragments, which result from microbiological degradation or, self-dissociation.