An experimental examination of implicit stress theory

Implicit theories lead individuals to make assumptions about one trait based on their knowledge of another trait. This study experimentally examined Implicit Stress Theory under conditions of high and low performance information. The objective was to test for evidence of Implicit Stress Theory in ratings of effectiveness, commitment, and burnout. Results indicated moderate support for Implicit Stress Theory such that raters evaluated employee burnout and commitment as higher when the employee was perceived to be working under stressful conditions. Interestingly, the data suggested stronger support (based on the proportion of variance explained) for an Implicit Performance Theory such that information regarding good performance was associated with higher levels of commitment and less burnout than poor performance.     

Bombs and Butterflies: A Case Study of the Challenges of Post Cold War Environmental Planning and Management for the US Nuclear Weapons Sites

When the cold war ended, the United States stopped developing,testing and building nuclear weapons at nearly all of its former nuclear weapon sites. The Department of Energy (DoE) began a massive environmental remediation programme, which includes engaging surrounding communities in a future land use planning process. Using the Savannah River site as an example, we show that this process faces large obstacles, especially a legacy of mistrust of the DoE and organizational limitations at the federal and local government scales. These hinder open dialogue about future land use. The authors suggest three planning principles for future land use planning and organizational issues that must be addressed before these can be fruitfully explored.     

Correction to: Subnational climate entrepreneurship: innovative climate action in California and São Paulo

The distinct role of subnational governments such as states and provinces in addressing climate change has been increasingly acknowledged. But while most studies investigate the causes and consequences of particular governments’ actions and networking activities, this article argues that subnational governments can develop climate action as a collective entrepreneurial activity. Addressing many elements explored in this special issue, it focuses on the second question and identifies climate entrepreneurship in two subnational governments—the states of California (USA) and São Paulo (Brazil). Examining internal action, as well as interaction with local authorities, national governments and the international regime, entrepreneurial activities are identified in the invention, diffusion and evaluation of subnational climate policy in each case. The article draws from the recent scholarship on policy innovation, entrepreneurship and climate governance. It contributes to the literature by exploring entrepreneurial subnational government activity in addressing climate change and expanding the understanding of the effects of policy innovation at the subnational level.

     

Evaluating complementary networks of restoration plantings for landscape‐scale occurrence of temporally dynamic species

Multibillion dollar investments in land restoration make it critical that conservation goals are achieved cost‐effectively. Approaches developed for systematic conservation planning offer opportunities to evaluate landscape‐scale, temporally dynamic biodiversity outcomes from restoration and improve on traditional approaches that focus on the most species‐rich plantings. We investigated whether it is possible to apply a complementarity‐based approach to evaluate the extent to which an existing network of restoration plantings meets representation targets. Using a case study of woodland birds of conservation concern in southeastern Australia, we compared complementarity‐based selections of plantings based on temporally dynamic species occurrences with selections based on static species occurrences and selections based on ranking plantings by species richness. The dynamic complementarity approach, which incorporated species occurrences over 5 years, resulted in higher species occurrences and proportion of targets met compared with the static complementarity approach, in which species occurrences were taken at a single point in time. For equivalent cost, the dynamic complementarity approach also always resulted in higher average minimum percent occurrence of species maintained through time and a higher proportion of the bird community meeting representation targets compared with the species‐richness approach. Plantings selected under the complementarity approaches represented the full range of planting attributes, whereas those selected under the species‐richness approach were larger in size. Our results suggest that future restoration policy should not attempt to achieve all conservation goals within individual plantings, but should instead capitalize on restoration opportunities as they arise to achieve collective value of multiple plantings across the landscape. Networks of restoration plantings with complementary attributes of age, size, vegetation structure, and landscape context lead to considerably better outcomes than conventional restoration objectives of site‐scale species richness and are crucial for allocating restoration investment wisely to reach desired conservation goals.     

Brevetoxins in sharks and rays (Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii) from Florida coastal waters

In October 2000, a mass mortality of blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) and Atlantic sharpnose sharks (Rhizoprionodon terraenovae) in northwest Florida occurred in conjunction with a Karenia brevis red tide bloom. Before this incident, no information existed on red tide-induced shark mortalities or baseline brevetoxin levels in sharks and rays from red tide-endemic areas. We report here that brevetoxin accumulation in live and red tide-killed elasmobranchs is common during K. brevis blooms and non-bloom periods. Strong relationships were found between the frequency of red tide blooms and the average brevetoxin concentrations in elasmobranch tissues. The presence of brevetoxins in Atlantic coast sharks in the absence of documented K. brevis blooms may suggest that blooms are occurring in areas that are not well monitored. Although red tide-related shark mortalities are rarely observed, the presence of brevetoxins in shark embryos raises questions about the effects these toxins may have on the reproductive success of sharks.     

Vacuolate-attached filaments: highly productive Ridgeia piscesae epibionts at the Juan de Fuca hydrothermal vents

Vacuolate sulfur bacteria with high morphological similarity to vacuolate-attached filaments previously described from shallow hydrothermal vents (White Point, CA) were found at deep-sea hydrothermal vents. These filamentous bacteria grow in dense mats that cover surfaces and potentially provide a significant source of organic carbon where they occur. Vacuolate-attached filaments were collected near vents at the Clam Bed site of the Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge and from the sediment surface at Escanaba Trough on the Gorda Ridge. A phylogenetic analysis comparing their 16S rRNA gene sequences to those collected from the shallow White Point site showed that all vacuolate-attached filament sequences form a monophyletic group within the vacuolate sulfur-oxidizing bacteria clade in the gamma proteobacteria. Abundance of the attached filaments was quantified over the length of the exterior surface of the tubes of Ridgeia piscesae worms collected from the Clam Bed site at Juan de Fuca yielding a per worm average of 0.070 ± 0.018 cm³ (n = 4). In agreement with previous results for White Point filaments, anion measurements by ion chromatography showed no detectable internal nitrate concentrations above ambient seawater (n = 9). For one R. piscesae tube worm “bush” at the Easter Island vent site, potential gross epibiont productivity is estimated to be 15 to 45× the net productivity of the worms.     

Threshold to maturity in a long-lived reptile: interactions of age, size, and growth

Thresholds to sexual maturity—either age or size—are critical life history parameters. Usually investigated in short-lived organisms, these thresholds and interactions among age, size, and growth are poorly known for long-lived species. A 34-year study of captive green turtles (Chelonia mydas) that followed individuals from hatching to beyond maturity provided an opportunity to evaluate these parameters in a long-lived species with late maturity. Age and size at maturity are best predicted by linear growth rate and mass growth rate, respectively. At maturity, resource allocation shifts from growth to reproductive output, regardless of nutrient availability or size at maturity. Although captive turtles reach maturity at younger ages than wild turtles, the extensive variation in captive turtles under similar conditions provides important insights into the variation that would exist in wild populations experiencing stochastic conditions. Variation in age/size at maturity should be incorporated into population models for conservation and management planning.     

The relationship between lunar periodicity and activity of fish-parasitic gnathiid isopods in the Caribbean

Gnathiid isopod larvae are members of the marine demersal zooplankton community and are common ectoparasites of coral reef fishes, emerging from the substratum, mostly at night and crepuscular periods to feed on fish blood. Given that the activity of many marine organisms is often linked to changes in the phase of the moon, we examined the relationship between lunar phase and activity in gnathiid isopods on Caribbean reefs. We employed two sampling methods to quantify gnathiid activity: (1) Emergence traps set on reefs over a 24 h period; and (2) live fish placed in cages on reefs and retrieved during night and dawn peaks in gnathiid activity. These were compared during discrete phases as well as a continuous metric, the lunar “angle”, and an estimate of ambient light availability (luminance). Lunar phase and angle varied in their statistical effect on gnathiid activity patterns by sampling method and/or year. Luminance had a significant but inconsistent effect on measures of gnathiid activity. Our results suggest that changes in the lunar cycle are not a strong predictor of gnathiid activity at our shallow reef study sites.     

Changes in the phytoplankton community at Helgoland, North Sea: lessons from single spot time series analyses

In recent regime shift analyses, the phytoplankton compartment of the marine food web was essentially represented by phytoplankton color or chlorophyll concentration. A detection of changes directly at the species level is highly desirable. The Helgoland Roads data series, a collection of high frequency long-term time series comprising biological and physico-chemical components of the southern North Sea, allow such an investigation at the level of single species. Aiming at a detection and characterization of habitat and community changes in the observation period (1962 until the end of 2008), we selected six species as representatives of certain classes, for example, benthic or neritic species, and applied a combination of novel analysis methods—a fitness-based analysis of the realized niche, a bloom-triggered averaging and a Markovian analysis of co-occurrence and succession patterns—to related abundance time series and concurrent environmental parameter time series. We found a general trend toward enlargement of niche size and shifts of the niche position, interesting salinity patterns around bloom events of two species, and statistically highly significant changes of a phytoplankton community segment after 1965 and after 1998. Interpreting our observations in ecological terms leads to the formulation of testable hypotheses.