A neighboring plant species creates associational refuge for consumer and host

Examples of plant-animal and plant-plant associational defenses are common across a variety of systems, yet the potential for them to occur in concert has not been explored. In salt marshes in the Gulf of Mexico, the marsh periwinkle (Littoraria irrorata) is an abundant and conspicuous member of the community, climbing up the stems of marsh plants to remain out of the water at high tide. Though Littoraria are thought to primarily utilize stems of marsh cordgrass Spartina alterniflora as a source of food and refuge, Littoraria were more abundant in mixed assemblages of Spartina and Juncus roemerianus than in Spartina-only areas at the same tidal height. Mesocosm experiments confirmed that Juncus provided a refuge for Littoraria, with predation by Callinectes sapidus (but not Melongena corona) reduced when Juncus was present. However, Littoraria's utilization of Juncus as well as the effectiveness of Juncus as a refuge depended strongly on plant height: when Juncus was experimentally clipped to a shorter height than Spartina, snail abundance on Spartina and snail predation by crabs increased. Interestingly, this plant animal refuge led to a corresponding refuge for Spartina from Littoraria: Spartina plants lost less biomass to snail grazing when growing with Juncus in mesocosm and field experiments, and Spartina plants in natural assemblages were taller when growing with Juncus than when growing alone, even in the presence of abundant snails. This example highlights the potential importance of plant plant and plant-animal associational refuges in competitive plant assemblages.     

Inter-island movements of scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini) and seasonal connectivity in a marine protected area of the eastern tropical Pacific

Marine top predators are common at offshore bathymetric features such as islands, atolls, and seamounts, where most pelagic reef fish reside, while certain sharks perform inter-island movements between these formations. Scalloped hammerhead sharks are known to school in great numbers at small islands and seamounts in the eastern tropical Pacific (ETP) and are very susceptible to fisheries while moving into the open sea. It is, therefore, essential to understand hammerhead inter-island movements and environmental effects to provide baseline information for their conservation and management within and beyond an insular marine protected area. Movements of scalloped hammerheads were analyzed in the Galapagos Marine Reserve (GMR) and ETP, and environmental factors were linked to their movements. Hammerheads were tagged (N = 134) with V16 coded pingers (July 2006 to July 2010) in the northern Galapagos and detected at listening stations around four islands in the GMR and two isolated islands in the ETP, 700 and 1,200 km away. Hammerheads formed daytime schools at specific locations, but dispersed at night. Overall, more daytime than nighttime detections were recorded at all receivers in the northern Galapagos Islands, and more detections in the up-current sides of these islands. Hammerheads remained more days at the northern islands during part of the warm season (December–February) compared to the cool; however, fewer individuals were present in March–June. Movement modes were diel island excursions (24-h cycles) in the northern Galapagos and inter-island in the GMR and ETP at different scales: (1) short back-and-forth (<50 km, SBF), <5 days cycles, (2) medium distance (50–300 km, MDT), 5–20 days, and (3) long distance (>300 km, LDT), 15–52 days. The high degree of inter-island connectivity of hammerheads within the northern GMR is striking compared to the almost nil movement to the central GMR. A seasonal migratory pattern to locations offshore is indicated by (1) fewer hammerheads observed in the northern GMR during part of the warm season (March–June) and (2) evidence of LDT movements from the northern GMR to other islands in the ETP. LDT movements of mature female hammerheads are possibly associated with pupping areas. Our results indicate that currents, season, and individual behavior mainly drive inter-island movements of hammerheads at small (SBF) and medium (MDT) scales. These findings have important implications for the management of a highly mobile and endangered top predator within a marine protected area and beyond.     

Population inertia and its sensitivity to changes in vital rates and population structure

Because the (st)age structure of a population may rarely be stable, studies of transient population dynamics and population momentum are becoming ever more popular. Yet, studies of "population momentum" are restricted in the sense that they describe the inertia of population size resulting from a demographic transition to the stationary population growth rate. Although rarely mentioned, inertia in population size is a general phenomenon and can be produced by any demographic transition or perturbation. Because population size is of central importance in demography, conservation, and management, formulas relating the sensitivity of population inertia to changes in underlying vital rates and population structure could provide much-needed insight into the dynamics of populations with unstable (st)age structure. Here, we derive such formulas, which are readily computable, and provide examples of their potential use in studies of life history and applied arenas of population study.     

Aldehyde Concentrations in Ambient Air of Coastal Georgia, U.S.A.

Aldehydes are an airborne byproduct of many industrialprocesses, vehicle transportation, and emissions fromnumerous natural sources. To characterize aldehydeconcentrations in ambient air of the Savannah, Georgiaarea, air samples for 3 aldehydes (formaldehyde,acetaldehyde, and propionaldehyde) were collected atfive sites on a monthly basis over a 12-month periodfrom December of 1995 through November 1996. Four ofthe sites were in central Savannah and the fifth sitewas located in a rural area about 56 km south ofSavannah. During each 24-hr sampling episode, sampleswere collected in two 12-hr periods approximatingdaylight and nighttime hours, following U.S. EPAMethod TO-11. Formaldehyde concentrations ranged from0.17 to 6.80 g m^-3, acetaldehydeconcentrations ranged from 0.07 to7.60 g m^-3, and propionaldehyde levels rangedfrom 0.02 to 9.10 g m^-3. On average, thefour sites in Savannah had higher aldehydeconcentrations than the rural site (2.0 versus1.2 g m^-3 for formaldehyde, 2.3 versus1.7 g m^-3 for acetaldehyde, and 1.2 versus1.0 g m^-3 for propionaldehyde). The daytimeconcentrations for formaldehyde and acetaldehyde werehigher than the nighttime levels. The data from allthe sites were within published worldwide backgroundvalues for aldehydes.     

Quantifying and mapping species threat abatement opportunities to support national target setting

The successful implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity's post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will rely on effective translation of targets from global to national level and increased engagement across diverse sectors of society. Species conservation targets require policy support measures that can be applied to a diversity of taxonomic groups, that link action targets to outcome goals, and that can be applied to both global and national data sets to account for national context, which the species threat abatement and restoration (STAR) metric does. To test the flexibility of STAR, we applied the metric to vascular plants listed on national red lists of Brazil, Norway, and South Africa. The STAR metric uses data on species’ extinction risk, distributions, and threats, which we obtained from national red lists to quantify the contribution that threat abatement and habitat restoration activities could make to reducing species’ extinction risk. Across all 3 countries, the greatest opportunity for reducing plant species’ extinction risk was from abating threats from agricultural activities, which could reduce species’ extinction risk by 54% in Norway, 36% in South Africa, and 29% in Brazil. Species extinction risk could be reduced by a further 21% in South Africa by abating threats from invasive species and by 21% in Brazil by abating threats from urban expansion. Even with different approaches to red-listing among countries, the STAR metric yielded informative results that identified where the greatest conservation gains could be made for species through threat-abatement and restoration activities. Quantifiably linking local taxonomic coverage and data collection to global processes with STAR would allow national target setting to align with global targets and enable state and nonstate actors to measure and report on their potential contributions to species conservation.     

Spatial and Temporal Variations in Eastern U.S. Hydrology: Responses to Global Climate Variability

Coastal ecosystems are dependent on terrestrial freshwater export which is affected by both climate trends and natural climate variability. However, the relative role of these factors is not clear. Here, both climate trends and internal climate variabilities at different time scales are related to variations in terrestrial freshwater export into the eastern United States (U.S.) coastal region. For the recent 35‐year period, the intensified hydro‐meteorological processes (annual precipitation or evapotranspiration) may explain the observed streamflow variability in the northeast. However, in the southeast, streamflow is positively correlated with climate variability induced by the Pacific Ocean conditions (El Nino‐Southern Oscillation [ENSO] and Pacific Decadal Oscillation) rather than Atlantic Ocean conditions (Atlantic Multi‐decadal Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation). The centroid location for volume of terrestrial freshwater export integrated along the eastern U.S. has a positive temporal trend and is negatively correlated with ENSO conditions, suggesting the northward trend in freshwater export to U.S. eastern coast may be disturbed by the natural climate variability, especially ENSO conditions, i.e., the center of freshwater mass moves southward (northward) during El Nino (La Nina) years. The results indicate the spatial and temporal variations in freshwater export from the eastern U.S. are affected by both climate change and inter‐annual climate variability during the recent 35‐year period (1980‐2014).     

Industrial Pollution Prevention! A Critical Review

Abstract

Pyrolytic product distribution rates and pyrolysis behavior of tire-derived fuels (TDF) were investigated using thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) techniques. A TGA was designed and built to investigate the behavior and products of pyrolysis of typical TDF specimens. The fundamental knowledge of TGA analysis and principal fuel analysis are applied in this study. Thermogravimetry of the degradation temperature of the TDF confirms the overall decomposition rate of the volatile products during the depolymerization reaction. The principal fuel analysis (proximate and ultimate analysis) of the pyrolytic char products show the correlation of volatilization into the gas and liquid phases and the existence of fixed carbon and other compounds that remain as a solid char. The kinetic parameters were calculated using least square with minimizing sum of error square technique. The results show that the average kinetic parameters of TDF are the activation energy, E = 1322 ± 244 kJ/mol, a pre-exponential constant of A = 2.06 ± 3.47 × 10¹⁰ min^?1, and a reaction order n = 1.62 ± 0.31. The model-predicted rate equations agree with the experimental data. The overall TDF weight conversion represents the carbon weight conversion in the sample.     

Optimization of Reburning for Advanced N0x Control on Coal-fired Boilers

This paper summarizes an experimental study which was conducted to investigate the chemical constraints of the reburning process and identify reburning configurations for optimal NO_x reduction in coal-fired boilers. Tests were performed on a bench scale tunnel furnace to characterize and optimize the fuel-rich reburning zone and the fuel-lean burnout zone independently. Detailed measurements ofunburned hydrocarbons, CO, NH₃, and HCN were made at the reburning zone exit. The influence of the concentrations of reactive species was examined as were temperature effects for both the reburning and burnout zone. Results indicated that reburning zone chemistry was not rate limiting. The impacts of temperature and burnout zone oxidation were of major importance. Integration of the optimum reburning and burnout zone configurations resulted in increased NO_x reduction. Over 85 percent reduction in NO_x emissions was achieved with ammonium sulfate injection in the burnout zone under optimum reburning conditions.     

Multifoci effects of injustice on counterproductive work behaviors and the moderating roles of symbolization and victim sensitivity

Past research suggests that employees, in response to workplace experiences, selectively engage in targeted counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Taking a retributive justice and target similarity perspective, we predict that employee perceptions of unfairness from the organization uniquely predict CWB specifically targeted at the organization whereas employee perceptions of supervisory unfairness uniquely predict CWB specifically targeted at the supervisor. We further hypothesized that moral identity‐symbolization would strengthen these target‐similar relationships. Finally, drawing from the sensitivity to mean intentions model, we hypothesized that victim sensitivity would not only strengthen these target‐similar relationships but also lead to cross‐foci effects of multifoci fairness perceptions on targets of CWB. Results from 3 field studies of full‐time employees provided support for most of our hypothesized relationships.