The digestibility of waste activated sludges.

Laboratory digestion studies using waste activated sludges (WAS) were conducted to compare the digestion performance between anaerobic and aerobic processes. Nine samples of WAS from seven wastewater treatment plants were collected and batch-digested under both anaerobic and aerobic conditions for 30 days at 25 degrees C. The cation content of wastewater (both floc and solution phases) and solution biopolymer (protein and polysaccharide) was measured before and after digestion and compared with volatile solids destruction data. The study revealed that each digestion process was associated with a distinct biopolymer fraction, which accounted for differences in volatile solids reduction under anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The anaerobic digestion data showed strong correlations between soluble protein generation, ammonium production, percent volatile solids reduction, and floc iron (Fe). These data suggest that the amount of volatile solids destroyed by anaerobic digestion depends on the Fe content of floc. In aerobic digestion, polysaccharide accumulated in solution along with calcium and magnesium. For aerobic digestion, correlations between divalent cation release and the production of inorganic nitrogen were found. This implies that divalent cation-bound biopolymer, thought to be lectin-like protein, was the primary organic fraction degraded under aerobic conditions. The results of the study show that the cation content in wastewater is an important indicator of the material that will digest under anaerobic or aerobic conditions and that some of the volatile solids will digest only under either anaerobic or aerobic conditions.     

A trait specific model of competition in a spatially structured plant community

The non-random dispersal of plant propagules is thought to counter competitive exclusion and thus promote the survival of competitively inferior species. We investigated this process by modelling the outcome of interactions between species with competitive ability defined as a function of both life-history traits and the environment with both random and clustered dispersal strategies and in environmentally homogeneous and heterogeneous environments. Four main results emerged: (1) environmental heterogeneity was seen to promote co-existence in conjunction with associated trait variation for tolerance to the environmental variable and where this trait variation was effectively limited by ‘trade-off’ such that no single species had an overall competitive advantage, (2) consistent with theory, random dispersal appeared to enhance the likelihood of competitive exclusion, whereas clustering favoured co-existence, (3) the ecological outcome of interactions between dispersal and competitive relationships varied as a function of the trait determining the competitive advantage within a particular environment, and (4) promotion of co-existence by clustered dispersal was most marked when associated with environmental heterogeneity. It is argued that these results suggest that current ecological models of species interactions may need to be modified to incorporate a more realistic understanding of competitive ability if we are to better understand the factors effecting species co-existence.     

Patterns in species composition of rocky shore communities in sub-arctic fjords of eastern Iceland

Quantitative data on plants and animals from 20 transects of the eulittoral zone in 8 fjords of sub-arctic east Iceland were analysed by a number of classification and ordination techniques. Field work was carried out during two periods of spring tides in June and July 1987. The study was restricted to gently sloping stable bedrock, but transects were otherwise randomly chosen. Species composition was strongly influenced by the relative position of the transects along the length of the fjords. Species richness increased from heads towards mouths. Increased temperature fluctuations towards inner parts of fjords are suggested as an explanation for these patterns, while salinity is unlikely to be a critical factor. The analyses also indicate that degree of exposure, as measured both by a physically derived index and by a simple biological index, is an important factor in structuring these eulittoral communities, although affecting species richness only slightly, if at all. Classification of transects results in a number of community types which, however, are not well defined. A classification based on the presence/absence of three canopy-forming fucoids yields groups of transects differing in species composition and in degree of exposure. The rocky eulittoral communities of the fjords of eastern Iceland resemble those of northern Norway, but differ in that several key species of the latter communities are missing, probably largely due to the isolation of Iceland.     

Preliminary Measurements of Turbulence and Environmental Parameters in a Sub-Tropical Estuary of Eastern Australia

In natural systems, mixing is driven by turbulence, but current knowledge is limited in estuarine zones where predictions of contaminant dispersion are often inaccurate. A series of detailed field studies was conducted in a small sub-tropical creek in eastern Australia. Hydrodynamic, physio-chemical and ecological measurements were conducted simultaneously to assess the complexity of the estuarine zone, notably the interactions between turbulence and environment. The measurements were typically performed at high frequency over a tidal cycle. The results provide an original data set to complement long-term monitoring and a basis for a more detailed study of mixing in sub-tropical systems. Unlike many long-term observations, velocity and water quality scalars were measured herein with sufficient spatial and temporal resolutions to determine quantities of interest in the study of turbulence, while ecological indicators were sampled systematically and simultaneously. In particular the results yielded contrasted outcomes, and the finding impacts on the selection process for key water quality indicators.     

Modeling the Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on Source and Sink Demography of Neotropical Migrant Birds

Many songbird populations in the midwestem United States are structured as a network of sources and sinks that are linked by dispersal. We used a modeling approach to examine explicitly how populations respond to incremental fragmentation of source habitat and how this response may vary depending upon two life-history attributes: fidelity to natal habitat type and reproductive strength of the source. Fragmentation of source habitat led to a predictable decline in population for both attributes examined, but the manner in which populations declined varied depending upon the reproductive strength of the source and the level of fidelity. When the source was weak and produced few excess individuals, fragmentation of source habitats resulted in a predictable and parallel population decline of adults in both the source and the sink. In this situation high fidelity to natal habitats was important for maintenance of population size and structure. Low fidelity to weak sources resulted in population extinction; populations experienced a demographic cost by dispersing from high quality source habitat to low quality sink habitat. In contrast, when the source was strong and produced many excess individuals, fragmentation of the source led to population declines in both the source and the sink, but this decline was more abrupt in sink habitats. When the source was strong and produced a large excess of individuals, nonfidelity to natal habitats had little effect on metapopulation size and structure.     

Distribution normality of pH and H<Superscript>+</Superscript> activity in soil

Soil pH, a log-transformed form of hydrogen ion (H⁺) activity, is often used for various statistics. However whether soil pH meets the requirement of distribution normality for statistical analyses is unknown. We studied the statistical suitability of both soil pH and H⁺ activity by examining their distribution normalities. Results show that the variability of H⁺ activity is higher and its distribution is skewer, which is significantly different from the normal and soil pH, regardless of soil conditions and analytical methods. Here we demonstrate that soil pH is more appropriate than the H⁺ activity for performing statistical analysis in terms of distribution normality.     

The relationship between presumed gamete contribution and parental investment in a communally breeding bird

Summary Measures of relative gamete contribution were related to degree of parental investment for both males and females from six groups of communally breeding pukeko (Porphyrio porphyrio). If there is a fitness cost to participation in parental duties, then for males parental investment should relate to degree of confidence of paternity while for females investment should relate to the number of eggs laid. Data were analysed in two ways: (1) by looking at individuals of the same sex within the same group to see if males that had a greater probability of paternity and females that had greater number of eggs in a nest subsequently invested relatively more in parental duties and (2) by pooling the data from the six groups and determining if there was a positive correlation between measures of presumed gamete contribution and amount of parental investment. The results from both types of analyses are variable and give no clear support for a positive relationship between presumed gamete contribution and parental investment even though a possible fitness cost is suggested. Factors which might influence investment are discussed.     

Wet and dry epoch durations of spatially averaged rain rate,their probability distributions and scaling properties

This article is concerned with the notion of duration of wet and dry epochs in stochastic processes of spatially averaged (instantaneous) rain rate over a given region. Gamma, Lognormal, and Inverse Gaussian parametric families of probability distributions have been considered as candidate models for the distribution of such durations. Goodness of these model's fit to data of dry and wet epoch durations obtained from real time series of spatially averaged rain rate, has been tested with Pearson's -test. The parameters of each of these models have been estimated by maximum likelihood and method of moments, based on TOGA-COARE measurements of tropical rainfall. The hypotheses of independence and identical distribution (i.i.d.) among durations of dry or wet epochs have also been tested using a certain version of the Wald-Wolfowitz test. Finally, the effect of spatial scale on the moments of dry and wet epoch durations has also been investigated, pointing to self-similarity of the underlying random structures over space. The main result of this study is that among the three candidate models, Inverse Gaussian is the one conforming most adequately with all the classical testing criteria implemented here, and also with the newly established scaling behavior of both dry and wet epoch duration processes over space. This is a remarkable finding, considering that the Inverse Gaussian family has recently been also justified from a theoretical viewpoint as a reasonable model for the probability distributions of dry and wet epoch durations.