Adaptation to climate change: changes in farmland use and stocking rate in the U.S.

This paper examines possible adaptations to climate change in terms of pasture and crop land use and stocking rate in the United States (U.S.). Using Agricultural Census and climate data in a statistical model, we find that as temperature and precipitation increases agricultural commodity producers respond by reducing crop land and increasing pasture land. In addition, cattle stocking rate decreases as the summer Temperature-humidity Index (THI) increases and summer precipitation decreases. Using the statistical model with climate data from four General Circulation Models (GCMs), we project that land use shifts from cropping to grazing and the stocking rate declines, and these adaptations are more pronounced in the central and the southeast regions of the U.S. Controlling for other farm production variables, crop land decreases by 6 % and pasture land increases by 33 % from the baseline. Correspondingly, the associated economic impact due to adaptation is around ?14 and 29 million dollars to crop producers and pasture producers by the end of this century, respectively. The national and regional results have implications for farm programs and subsidy policies.     

Genetic Analysis of Norovirus Strains that Caused Gastroenteritis Outbreaks Among River Rafters in the Grand Canyon,Arizona

Toilet solid waste samples collected from five outbreaks among rafters in the Grand Canyon were subjected to sequencing analysis of norovirus partial capsid gene. The results revealed that a GI.3 strain was associated with one outbreak, whereas the other outbreaks were caused by GII.5 whose sequences shared >98.9% homology.     

Phosphogypsum capping depth affects revegetation and hydrology in Western Canada

Phosphogypsum (PG), a byproduct of phosphate fertilizer manufacturing, is commonly stacked and capped with soil at decommissioning. Shallow (0, 8, 15, and 30 cm) and thick (46 and 91 cm) sandy loam caps on a PG stack near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, were studied in relation to vegetation establishment and hydrologic properties. Plant response was evaluated over two growing seasons for redtop ( L.), slender wheatgrass ( (Link) Malte ex H.F. Lewis), tufted hairgrass ( (L.) P. Beauv.), and sheep fescue ( L.) and for a mix of these grasses with alsike clover ( L.). Water content below the soil-PG interface was monitored with time-domain reflectometry probes, and leachate water quantity and quality at a depth of 30 cm was measured using lysimeters. Vegetation responded positively to all cap depths relative to bare PG, with few significant differences among cap depths. Slender wheatgrass performed best, and tufted hairgrass performed poorly. Soil caps <1 m required by regulation were sufficient for early revegetation. Soil water fluctuated more in shallow than in thick caps, and water content was generally between field capacity and wilting point regardless of cap depth. Water quality was not affected by cap depths ≤30 cm. Leachate volumes at 30 cm from distinct rainfall events were independent of precipitation amount and cap depth. The study period had lower precipitation than normal, yet soil caps were hospitable for plant growth in the first 2 yr of establishment.     

Open-plan office noise: Cognitive performance and restoration

The aim of the present study was to investigate cognitive, emotional, and physiological effects of two open-plan office noise conditions (high noise: 51 LAeq and low noise: 39 LAeq) during work in a simulated open-plan office, followed by four restoration conditions (river movie with sound, only river sound, silence, and office noise) after the work period. Students (N = 47) went through one practice session and two experimental sessions, one each with the low and high noise conditions. In each experimental session they worked for 2 h with tasks involving basic working memory processes. We also took physiological measures of stress (cortisol and catecholamines) and self-reports of mood and fatigue. Analyses indicate that the participants remembered fewer words, rated themselves as more tired, and were less motivated with work in noise compared to low noise. In the restoration phase the participants who saw a nature movie (including river sounds) rated themselves as having more energy after the restoration period in comparison with both the participants who listened to noise and river sounds. Remaining in office noise during the restoration phase also affected motivation more negatively than listening to river sounds or watching the nature movie. The findings bear on the appropriateness of open-plan office designs and the possibilities for restoration available in office settings.     

Microbial and chemical markers: runoff transfer in animal manure-amended soils

Fecal contamination of water resources is evaluated by the enumeration of the fecal coliforms and Enterococci. However, the enumeration of these indicators does not allow us to differentiate between the sources of fecal contamination. Therefore, it is important to use alternative indicators of fecal contamination to identify livestock contamination in surface waters. The concentration of fecal indicators (, enteroccoci, and F-specific bacteriophages), microbiological markers (Rum-2-bac, Pig-2-bac, and ), and chemical fingerprints (sterols and stanols and other chemical compounds analyzed by 3D-fluorescence excitation-matrix spectroscopy) were determined in runoff waters generated by an artificial rainfall simulator. Three replicate plot experiments were conducted with swine slurry and cattle manure at agronomic nitrogen application rates. Low amounts of bacterial indicators (1.9-4.7%) are released in runoff water from swine-slurry-amended soils, whereas greater amounts (1.1-28.3%) of these indicators are released in runoff water from cattle-manure-amended soils. Microbial and chemical markers from animal manure were transferred to runoff water, allowing discrimination between swine and cattle fecal contamination in the environment via runoff after manure spreading. Host-specific bacterial and chemical markers were quantified for the first time in runoff waters samples after the experimental spreading of swine slurry or cattle manure.     

No evidence for offspring sex-ratio adjustment to social or environmental conditions in cooperatively breeding purple-crowned fairy-wrens

When fitness returns or production costs vary between male and female offspring, selection is expected to favor females that adjust offspring sex ratio accordingly. However, to what extent vertebrates can do so is the subject of ongoing debate. Here, we explore primary sex ratios in 125 broods of cooperatively breeding purple-crowned fairy-wrens Malurus coronatus. We expected that females might adjust offspring sex ratio because this passerine species experiences considerable variation in social and environmental conditions. (1) However, although helpers substantially increase parental fitness, females (particularly in pairs and small groups) did not overproduce philopatric males (helper-repayment hypothesis). (2) Sex-ratio adjustment based on competition among individuals (helper-competition hypothesis) did not conceal helper-repayment effects or drive sex allocation on its own: while high-quality territories can accommodate more birds, brood sex ratios were independent of territory quality, alone or in interaction with group size. (3) Additionally, males are larger than females and are possibly more costly to produce (costly sex hypothesis), and (4) female offspring may benefit more from long-term effects of favorable conditions early in life (Trivers–Willard hypothesis). Nonetheless, large seasonal variation in food abundance was not associated with a consistent skew in primary sex ratios. Thus, overall, our results did not support the main hypotheses of adaptive sex-ratio adjustment in M. coronatus. We discuss that long-term differential costs and benefits may be insufficient to drive evolution of primary sex-ratio manipulation by M. coronatus females. More investigation is therefore needed to determine the general required sex differences in long-term fitness returns for mechanisms of primary sex-ratio manipulation to evolve.