Real-world vehicle emissions: A summary of the 15th coordinating research council on-road vehicle emissions workshop

The Coordinating Research Council held its 15th workshop in April 2005, with nearly 90 presentations describing the most recent mobile source-related emissions research. In this paper, the authors summarize the presentations from researchers who are engaged in improving our understanding of the contribution of mobile sources to air quality. Participants in the workshop discussed emission models and emission inventories, results from gas- and particle-phase emissions studies from spark-ignition and diesel-powered vehicles (with an emphasis in this workshop on particle emissions), effects of fuels on emissions, evaluation of in-use emissions control programs, and efforts to improve our capabilities in performing on-board emissions measurements, as well as topics for future research.     

Quantifying the erosion of natural darkness in the global protected area system

The nighttime light environment of much of the earth has been transformed by the introduction of electric lighting. This impact continues to spread with growth in the human population and extent of urbanization. This has profound consequences for organismal physiology and behavior and affects abundances and distributions of species, community structure, and likely ecosystem functions and processes. Protected areas play key roles in buffering biodiversity from a wide range of anthropogenic pressures. We used a calibration of a global satellite data set of nighttime lights to determine how well they are fulfilling this role with regard to artificial nighttime lighting. Globally, areas that are protected tend to be darker at night than those that are not, and, with the exception of Europe, recent regional declines in the proportion of the area that is protected and remains dark have been small. However, much of these effects result from the major contribution to overall protected area coverage by the small proportion of individual protected areas that are very large. Thus, in Europe and North America high proportions of individual protected areas (>17%) have exhibited high levels of nighttime lighting in all recent years, and in several regions (Europe, Asia, South and Central America) high proportions of protected areas (32–42%) have had recent significant increases in nighttime lighting. Limiting and reversing the erosion of nighttime darkness in protected areas will require routine consideration of nighttime conditions when designating and establishing new protected areas; establishment of appropriate buffer zones around protected areas where lighting is prohibited; and landscape level reductions in artificial nighttime lighting, which is being called for in general to reduce energy use and economic costs.     

Power-law behaviour and parametric models for the size-distribution of forest fires

This paper examines the distribution of areas burned in forest fires. Empirical size distributions, derived from extensive fire records, for six regions in North America are presented. While they show some commonalities, it appears that a simple power-law distribution of sizes, as has been suggested by some authors, is too simple to describe the distributions over their full range. A stochastic model for the spread and extinguishment of fires is used to examine conditions for power-law behaviour and deviations from it. The concept of the extinguishment growth rate ratio (EGRR) is developed. A null model with constant EGRR leads to a power-law distribution, but this does not appear to hold empirically for the data sets examined. Some alternative parametric forms for the size distribution are presented, with a four-parameter ‘competing hazards’ model providing the overall best fit.     

Brood reduction in the American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrohynchos)

Summary American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) breeding in colonies at East Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada exhibited a mean hatching asynchrony of 2.5 days in 2-egg clutches. This resulted in a size difference between chicks which facilitated sibling dominance, harassment and lack of food for the subordinate chick. Only one young survived per nest. In marked broods, the secondhatched chick survived in 20% of successful nests. Manipulated clutch sizes (1, 2 and 3 eggs or chicks per nest) revealed that the presence of a second chick contributes significantly to the reproductive success of the parents. Results support the hypothesis that the second egg functions as a form of insurance against early loss of the first egg or chick. The parents, by establishing hatching asynchrony, by nonintervention in sibling aggression, and by selectively feeding the dominant chick, maximize their chance of rearing the most viable young.     

Estrus cycle asynchrony in wild female chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii

Although estrous synchrony has been reported in a number of mammalian species, most often among primates, methodological and analytical problems make it difficult to interpret these results. We developed a novel estrous synchrony index and employed a randomization procedure to analyze long-term observations of female chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) estrous cycles at the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania. Our results revealed that female chimpanzees at Mahale avoid synchronizing their estrous periods with each other. We also found that birthrates decreased as the breeding sex ratio increased. We suggest that estrous asynchrony decreases female–female competition for mates. Asynchrony may also reduce the potential for male sexual coercion by nonpreferred mating partners.     

Accounting for variation in prey selectivity by zooplankton

An ingestion-based prey selectivity function (IS) is described specifically to aid the simulation of zooplankton activity in circumstances in which selectivity varies, for example, as functions of prey palatability or abundance. In IS, the ultimate control of the rate of predation is not the external concentration of prey but the total rate of prey capture relative to predator demand. Further, “preference” is not an input (as it is for most prey selection functions) so that the selection or deselection of any or all prey can be freely altered. Hence, if required, all prey could be deselected, or the impact of inert materials or turbulence adversely affecting capture rates of any or all prey can be considered. Capture kinetics are not fixed at a common value for all items. In its basic form IS contains no more variables than other selectivity functions. The construction and use of switches to vary grazing in response to changes in abundance of alternative prey types or in prey nutritional (stoichiometric) quality is demonstrated. The advantages of using IS instead of the widely used ratio-based selectivity function is demonstrated with reference to model fits to experimental datasets for microzooplankton activity.     

Estimating percentiles from composite environmental samples when all observations are nondetectable

Many environmental sampling problems involve some specified regulatory or contractual limit (RL). Often the interest is in estimating the percentile of the underlying contaminant concentration distribution corresponding to RL. The focus of this paper is on obtaining a point estimate and a lower confidence limit for that percentile when all observations are nondetectable, with the ith observation known to be less than some detection limit DLI, where DLi RL. Since composite samples are being considered, it is not unreasonable to assume an underlying normal distribution.     

Genetic Variation and the Immune Response in Natural Populations of Pocket Gophers

It is thought that genetic variation can affect the persistence of a population through its influence on disease susceptibility. We assessed genome-wide genetic variation, variation at a locus involved in the immune system, and acceptance or rejection of skin grafts in three natural populations of the pocket gopher ( Thomomys bottae ). Multilocus DNA fingerprints confirmed previous allozyme data, revealing high levels of variation among Hastings Reserve pocket gophers and almost complete within-population identity for individuals from the two Patricks Point populations (Patricks J and Patricks F), although Patricks J animals were dissimilar to animals from Patricks F despite their proximity. Individuals from the high-variation population consistently rejected within-population reciprocal skin grafts, whereas Patricks J and Patricks F individuals accepted within-population grafts. Patricks J and Patricks F individuals were found to be immunocompetent, however, as revealed by the ability of all individuals to reject between-population grafts, including those that previously accepted within-population grafts. A DNA heteroduplex analysis was then used to directly characterize variability at DQα, a locus of the immune system's major histocompatability complex. Both populations low in genetic variation were fixed for unique DQα alleles, whereas observed heterozygosity in the Hastings population was 0.43, ascribable to at least three unique alleles. These data are in accord with previous cheetah skin-graft results and confirm that skin grafts can be used to assess genetic similarity. We suggest that although many animal populations can persist with extremely low levels of genetic variation in the wild, such populations may be at a greater risk of extinction from particular pathogens because of their genetic uniformity.     

An experimental study of competition for food between male and female nestlings of the red-winged blackbird

Summary Ten experimental broods of red-winged black-bird (Agelaius phoeniceus) nestlings, experimentally manipulated to contain two males and two females of similar age, were observed with the aid of video cameras to determine (a) which nestling characteristics were most important in influencing its chances of being fed and (b) if males and females differed with respect to these characteristics. Nestlings that could reach highest while begging were most successful at obtaining food from parents during individual feeding bouts. However, while there was a tendency for nestlings that begged earlier to be offered food first, a nestling's position in the nest during these bouts did not influence its feeding success. Males begged more than often females and were offered more food by parents. Males were also more likely to be fed when they begged. This was most likely because males, being larger than females, were able to reach higher while begging. Neither sex was more likely to beg sooner or occupy certain positions in the nest. However, while males that had been transferred from other nests received less food than natal males, there were no differences in food acquisition between transferred and natal females. Differences in the relative success of males and females under different conditions may help explain differences in fledgling sex ratios observed in many dimorphic species.