Increased primary production shifts the structure and composition of a terrestrial arthropod community

Numerous studies have examined relationships between primary production and biodiversity at higher trophic levels. However, altered production in plant communities is often tightly linked with concomitant shifts in diversity and composition, and most studies have not disentangled the direct effects of production on consumers. Furthermore, when studies do examine the effects of plant production on animals in terrestrial systems, they are primarily confined to a subset of taxonomic or functional groups instead of investigating the responses of the entire community. Using natural monocultures of the salt marsh cordgrass Spartina alterniflora, we were able to examine the impacts of increased plant production, independent of changes in plant composition and/or diversity, on the trophic structure, composition, and diversity of the entire arthropod community. If arthropod species richness increased with greater plant production, we predicted that it would be driven by: (1) an increase in the number of rare species, and/or (2) an increase in arthropod abundance. Our results largely supported our predictions: species richness of herbivores, detritivores, predators, and parasitoids increased monotonically with increasing levels of plant production, and the diversity of rare species also increased with plant production. However, rare species that accounted for this difference were predators, parasitoids, and detritivores, not herbivores. Herbivore species richness could be simply explained by the relationship between abundance and diversity. Using nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and analysis of similarity (ANOSIM), we also found significant changes in arthropod species composition with increasing levels of production. Our findings have important implications in the intertidal salt marsh, where human activities have increased nitrogen runoff into the marsh, and demonstrate that such nitrogen inputs cascade to affect community structure, diversity, and abundance in higher trophic levels.     

Global trends in research output by zoos and aquariums

Zoos and aquaria, often regarded as preservation-cum-entertainment enterprises, are also actors in the effort to curb the biodiversity crisis: raising awareness, supporting conservation, and conducting research. We assessed trends in zoo and aquaria research topics and study organisms over time worldwide. For the zoos and aquaria registered in the Species360's Zoological Information Management System and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, we compiled metadata on their research published in the peer-reviewed literature indexed in Scopus and carried out a keyword frequency analysis. The production of scientific papers by zoos increased at a much faster rate than the average accrual of scientific papers in the literature. Evolution of research themes ran parallel to that of biological sciences (e.g., development of molecular genetics or increased awareness about conservation). The focus of 48.5% of zoo-led research was on vertebrates, of which mammal research was 33.7%. Whether zoos are effectively contributing to conservation may still be debatable, but our results highlight their institutional efforts to increase knowledge about the species in their care.     

Pyrite-driven reactive oxygen species formation in simulated lung fluid: implications for coal workers’ pneumoconiosis

The origin of coal worker's pneumoconiosis (CWP) has been long debated. A recent epidemiological study shows a correlation between what is essentially the concentration of pyrite within coal and the prevalence of CWP in miners. Hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radical, both reactive oxygen species (ROS), form as byproducts of pyrite oxidative dissolution in air-saturated water. Motivated by the possible importance of ROS in the pathogenesis of CWP, we conducted an experimental study to evaluate if ROS form as byproducts in the oxidative dissolution of pyrite in simulated lung fluid (SLF) under biologically applicable conditions and to determine the persistence of pyrite in SLF. While the rate of pyrite oxidative dissolution in SLF is suppressed by 51% when compared to that in air-saturated water, the initial amount of hydrogen peroxide formed as a byproduct in SLF is nearly doubled. Hydroxyl radical is also formed in the experiments with SLF, but at lower concentrations than in the experiments with water. The formation of these ROS indicates that the reaction mechanism for pyrite oxidative dissolution in SLF is no different from that in water. The elevated hydrogen peroxide concentration in SLF suggests that the decomposition, via the Fenton mechanism to hydroxyl radical or with Fe(III) to form water and molecular oxygen, is initially inhibited by the presence of SLF components. On the basis of the oxidative dissolution rate of pyrite measured in this paper, it is calculated that a respirable two micron pyrite particle will take over 3?years to dissolve completely.     

Biochemical and genotoxic effects in women exposed to pesticides in Southern Ecuador

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Toxicity refers to the potential of a substance such as a pesticide to cause damage to the structure or functions of an exposed organism. Pesticides...     

A design for EoL approach and metrics to favour closed-loop scenarios for products

Recently, environmentally conscious design and extended producer responsibility have become key aspects for companies that need to develop products that are sustainable along their whole life cycle. Design for End of Life (EoL) is a strategy that aims to reduce landfill waste through the implementation of closed-loop product life cycles. It is important to consider disassembly and EoL scenario management as early as the design phase. For these reasons, this paper presents an approach to help designers in the evaluation and subsequent improvement in product EoL performance. The method is based on four innovative EoL indices that compare different EoL scenarios for each product component. In this way, the designer can modify the product structure or the liaisons to maximise the reuse and remanufacture of components as well as material recycling. The presented case studies confirm the validity of the approach in helping designers during the redesign phase of goods and products to reduce the quantity of materials and industrial wastes sent to landfill.     

Wildlife impacts and vulnerable livelihoods in a transfrontier conservation landscape

Interactions between humans and wildlife resulting in negative impacts are among the most pressing conservation challenges globally. In regions of smallholder livestock and crop production, interactions with wildlife can compromise human well-being and motivate negative sentiment and retaliation toward wildlife, undermining conservation goals. Although impacts may be unavoidable when human and wildlife land use overlap, scant large-scale human data exist quantifying the direct costs of wildlife to livelihoods. In a landscape of global importance for wildlife conservation in southern Africa, we quantified costs for people living with wildlife through a fundamental measure of human well-being, food security, and we tested whether existing livelihood strategies buffer certain households against crop depredation by wildlife, predominantly elephants. To do this, we estimated Bayesian multilevel statistical models based on multicounty household data (n = 711) and interpreted model results in the context of spatial data from participatory land-use mapping. Reported crop depredation by wildlife was widespread. Over half of the sample households were affected and household food security was reduced significantly (odds ratio 0.37 [0.22, 0.63]). The most food insecure households relied on gathered food sources and welfare programs. In the event of crop depredation by wildlife, these 2 livelihood sources buffered or reduced harmful effects of depredation. The presence of buffering strategies suggests a targeted compensation strategy could benefit the region's most vulnerable people. Such strategies should be combined with dynamic and spatially explicit land-use planning that may reduce the frequency of negative human–wildlife impacts. Quantifying and mitigating the human costs from wildlife are necessary steps in working toward human–wildlife coexistence.     

The Influence of Culture on the International Management of Shark Finning

Shark finning is prohibited in many countries, but high prices for fins from the Asian market help maintain the international black-market and poaching. Traditional shark fin bans fail to recognize that the main driver of fin exploitation is linked to cultural beliefs about sharks in traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, shark finning should be addressed considering the social science approach as part of the fishery management scheme. This paper investigates the cultural significance of sharks in traditional Chinese and Hawaiian cultures, as valuable examples of how specific differences in cultural beliefs can drive individuals’ attitudes toward the property of shark finning. We suggest the use of a social science approach that can be useful in the design of successful education campaigns to help change individuals’ attitudes toward shark fin consumption. Finally, alternative management strategies for commercial fishers are provided to maintain self-sustainability of local coastal communities.     

Common Core Themes in Geomorphic, Ecological, and Social Systems

Core themes of geomorphology include: open systems and connectivity; feedbacks and complexity; spatial differentiation of dominant physical processes within a landscape; and legacy effects of historical human use of resources. Core themes of ecology include: open systems and connectivity; hierarchical, heterogeneous, dynamic, and context-dependent characteristics of ecological patterns and processes; nonlinearity, thresholds, hysteresis, and resilience within ecosystems; and human effects. Core themes of environmental governance include: architecture of institutions and decision-making; agency, or ability of actors to prescribe behavior of people in relation to the environment; adaptiveness of social groups to environmental change; accountability and legitimacy of systems of governance; allocation of and access to resources; and thresholds and feedback loops within environmental policy. Core themes common to these disciplines include connectivity, feedbacks, tipping points or thresholds, and resiliency. Emphasizing these points of disciplinary overlap can facilitate interdisciplinary understanding of complex systems, as well as more effective management of landscapes and ecosystems by highlighting drivers of change within systems. We use a previously published conceptual framework to examine how these core themes can be integrated into interdisciplinary research for human–landscape systems via the example of a river.     

Evaluating the efficacy of restoration plantings through DNA barcoding of frugivorous bird diets

Frugivores are critical components of restoration programs because they are seed dispersers. Thus, knowledge about bird–plant trophic relationships is essential in the evaluation of the efficacy of restoration processes. Traditionally, the diet of frugivores is characterized by microscopically identifying plant residues in droppings, which is time‐consuming, requires botanical knowledge, and cannot be used for fragments lacking detectable morphological characteristics (e.g., fragmented seeds and skins). We examined whether DNA barcoding can be used as a universal tool to rapidly characterize the diet of a frugivorous bird, Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla). We used the DNA barcoding results to assess restoration efforts and monitor the diversity of potentially dispersed plants in a protected area in northern Italy. We collected 642 Eurasian Blackcap droppings at the restored site during the autumn migration over 3 years. Intact seeds and fragmented plant material were analyzed at 2 plastidial barcode loci (rbcL and trnH‐psbA), and the resulting plant identifications were validated by comparison with a reference molecular data set of local flora. At least 17 plant species, including 7 of the 11 newly transplanted taxa, were found. Our results demonstrate the potential for DNA barcoding to be used to monitor the effectiveness of restoration plantings and to obtain information about fruit consumption and dispersal of invasive or unexpected plant species. Such an approach provides valuable information that could be used to study local plant biodiversity and to survey its evolution over time.