Recilia banda Kramer (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), a vector of Napier stunt phytoplasma in Kenya

Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) is the most important fodder crop in smallholder dairy production systems in East Africa, characterized by small zero-grazing units. It is also an important trap crop used in the management of cereal stemborers in maize in the region. However, production of Napier grass in the region is severely constrained by Napier stunt disease. The etiology of the disease is known to be a phytoplasma, 16SrXI strain. However, the putative insect vector was yet unknown. We sampled and identified five leafhopper and three planthopper species associated with Napier grass and used them as candidates in pathogen transmission experiments. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), based on the highly conserved 16S gene, primed by P1/P6-R16F2n/R16R2 nested primer sets was used to diagnose phytoplasma on test plants and insects, before and after transmission experiments. Healthy plants were exposed for 60 days to insects that had fed on diseased plants and acquired phytoplasma. The plants were then incubated for another 30 days. Nested PCR analyses showed that 58.3% of plants exposed to Recilia banda Kramer (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) were positive for phytoplasma and developed characteristic stunt disease symptoms while 60% of R. banda insect samples were similarly phytoplasma positive. We compared the nucleotide sequences of the phytoplasma isolated from R. banda, Napier grass on which these insects were fed, and Napier grass infected by R. banda, and found them to be virtually identical. The results confirm that R. banda transmits Napier stunt phytoplasma in western Kenya, and may be the key vector of Napier stunt disease in this region.     

Efficient Delineation of Nested Depression Hierarchy in Digital Elevation Models for Hydrological Analysis Using Level‐Set Method

In terrain analysis and hydrological modeling, surface depressions (or sinks) in a digital elevation model (DEM) are commonly treated as artifacts and thus filled and removed to create a depressionless DEM. Various algorithms have been developed to identify and fill depressions in DEMs during the past decades. However, few studies have attempted to delineate and quantify the nested hierarchy of actual depressions, which can provide crucial information for characterizing surface hydrologic connectivity and simulating the fill‐merge‐spill hydrological process. In this paper, we present an innovative and efficient algorithm for delineating and quantifying nested depressions in DEMs using the level‐set method based on graph theory. The proposed level‐set method emulates water level decreasing from the spill point along the depression boundary to the lowest point at the bottom of a depression. By tracing the dynamic topological changes (i.e., depression splitting/merging) within a compound depression, the level‐set method can construct topological graphs and derive geometric properties of the nested depressions. The experimental results of two fine‐resolution Light Detection and Ranging‐derived DEMs show that the raster‐based level‐set algorithm is much more efficient (~150 times faster) than the vector‐based contour tree method. The proposed level‐set algorithm has great potential for being applied to large‐scale ecohydrological analysis and watershed modeling.     

Physical and Chemical Connectivity of Streams and Riparian Wetlands to Downstream Waters: A Synthesis

Streams, riparian areas, floodplains, alluvial aquifers, and downstream waters (e.g., large rivers, lakes, and oceans) are interconnected by longitudinal, lateral, and vertical fluxes of water, other materials, and energy. Collectively, these interconnected waters are called fluvial hydrosystems. Physical and chemical connectivity within fluvial hydrosystems is created by the transport of nonliving materials (e.g., water, sediment, nutrients, and contaminants) which either do or do not chemically change (chemical and physical connections, respectively). A substantial body of evidence unequivocally demonstrates physical and chemical connectivity between streams and riparian wetlands and downstream waters. Streams and riparian wetlands are structurally connected to downstream waters through the network of continuous channels and floodplain form that make these systems physically contiguous, and the very existence of these structures provides strong geomorphologic evidence for connectivity. Functional connections between streams and riparian wetlands and their downstream waters vary geographically and over time, based on proximity, relative size, environmental setting, material disparity, and intervening units. Because of the complexity and dynamic nature of connections among fluvial hydrosystem units, a complete accounting of the physical and chemical connections and their consequences to downstream waters should aggregate over multiple years to decades.     

Integrating a life-cycle assessment with NEPA: Does it make sense?

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 provides the basic national charter for protection of the environment in the United States. Today NEPA provides an environmental policy model, emulated by nations around the world. Recently, questions have been raised regarding the appropriateness and under what conditions it makes sense to combine the preparation of a NEPA analysis with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ISO 14000 standards for Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). This article advances a decision-making tool consisting of six discrete factors for use in determining when it is appropriate to perform an integrated NEPA/LCA analysis. Properly applied, this tool should reduce the risk that an LCA may be inappropriately prepared and integrated with a NEPA analysis.© 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The number of males in primate social groups: a comparative test of the socioecological model

As applied to polygynous mammals, the socioecological model assumes that environmental risks and resources determine the spatial and temporal distribution of females, which then sets male strategies for monopolizing fertile matings. The effects of female spatial distribution (i.e., female number) and temporal overlap (female mating synchrony) have been examined in comparative studies of primates, but the relative influence of these two factors on male monopolization potential (the number of males) remains unclear. One particular problem is that female synchrony is more difficult to estimate than female number. This paper uses multivariate statistical methods and three independent estimates of female synchrony to assess the roles of spatial and temporal effects in the context of a phylogenetically corrected dataset. These analyses are based on sensitivity analyses involving a total of four phylogenies, with two sets of branch length estimates for each tree, and one nonphylogenetic analysis in which species values are used (because male behavior may represent a facultative response to the distribution of females). The results show: (1) that breeding seasonality predicts male number (statistically significant in six out of nine sensitivity tests); (2) that expected female overlap, after controlling for female group size using residuals, also accounts for the number of males in primate groups (significant in eight out of nine tests), and (3) that actual estimates of female mating synchrony predict male number, again after correcting for female group size (significant in five out of nine tests). Nonsignificant results are in the predicted direction, and female group size is significant in all statistical tests. These analyses therefore demonstrate an independent influence of female temporal overlap on male monopolization strategies in mammalian social systems. Received: 24 July 1998 / Received in revised form: 5 February 1999 / Accepted: 7 February 1999     

NABat: A top-down,bottom-up solution to collaborative continental-scale monitoring

Collaborative monitoring over broad scales and levels of ecological organization can inform conservation efforts necessary to address the contemporary biodiversity crisis. An important challenge to collaborative monitoring is motivating local engagement with enough buy-in from stakeholders while providing adequate top-down direction for scientific rigor, quality control, and coordination. Collaborative monitoring must reconcile this inherent tension between top-down control and bottom-up engagement. Highly mobile and cryptic taxa, such as bats, present a particularly acute challenge. Given their scale of movement, complex life histories, and rapidly expanding threats, understanding population trends of bats requires coordinated broad-scale collaborative monitoring. The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) reconciles top-down, bottom-up tension with a hierarchical master sample survey design, integrated data analysis, dynamic data curation, regional monitoring hubs, and knowledge delivery through web-based infrastructure. NABat supports collaborative monitoring across spatial and organizational scales and the full annual lifecycle of bats.     

Disaster risk reduction in developing countries: costs, benefits and institutions

Some 60,000 people worldwide die annually in natural disasters, mostly due to the collapse of buildings in earthquakes, and primarily in the developing world. This is despite the fact that engineering solutions exist that can eliminate almost completely the risk of such deaths. Why is this? The solutions are expensive and technically demanding, so their cost–benefit ratio often is unfavourable as compared to other interventions. Nonetheless, there are various public disaster risk reduction interventions that are highly cost‐effective. That such interventions frequently remain unimplemented or ineffectively executed points to a role for issues of political economy. Building regulations in developing countries appear to have limited impact in many cases, perhaps because of inadequate capacity and corruption. Public construction often is of low quality, perhaps for similar reasons. This suggests the need for approaches that emphasise simple and limited disaster risk regulation covering only the most at‐risk structures—and that, preferably, non‐experts can monitor—as well as numerous transparency and oversight mechanisms for public construction projects.     

Litterfall 15N abundance indicates declining soil nitrogen availability in a free-air CO2 enrichment experiment

Forest productivity increases in response to carbon dioxide (CO2) enrichment of the atmosphere. However, in nitrogen-limited ecosystems, increased productivity may cause a decline in soil nitrogen (N) availability and induce a negative feedback on further enhancement of forest production. In a free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiment, the response of sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) productivity to elevated CO2 concentrations [CO2] has declined over time, but documenting an associated change in soil N availability has been difficult. Here we assess the time history of soil N availability through analysis of natural 15N abundance in archived samples of freshly fallen leaf litterfall. Litterfall delta15N declined from 1998 to 2005, and the rate of decline was significantly faster in elevated [CO2]. Declining leaf litterfall delta15N is indicative of a tighter ecosystem N cycle and more limited soil N availability. By integrating N availability over time and throughout the soil profile, temporal dynamics in leaf litterfall delta15N provide a powerful tool for documenting changes in N availability and the critical feedbacks between C and N cycles that will control forest response to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations.