A&WMA Honors Five Individuate and One Company In 1989 Awards Program

A repository of 39 and 34 gaseous organic compounds in compressed gas cylinders at PPM (5 to 700) and PPB levels (1 to 10,000) respectively has been established by EPA for use in performance audits. In this program, to ensure that the concentration of each gas standard has not changed, each standard is periodically analyzed for stability. The gas mixtures were initially analyzed once or twice by the manufacturer before shipment to Research Triangle Institute (RTI). The gas mixtures were then analyzed at RTI upon receipt from the gas manufacturer and then reanalyzed at 2, 6 and 12 months, and annually thereafter, to determine any change in concentration.

An examination of the stability data shows that concentrations for all the organics tested usually varied by less than 10 percent over a period of several years. Ethylene oxide and propylene oxide and trans 1, 4-dichloro-2-butene below the 10 ppb level have been found to be unstable. Six other compounds at the PPM level (aniline, cyclohexanone, p-dichlorobenzene, ethylamine 1, 2-dibromoethylene, and formaldehyde) have been found to be unstable in compressed gas cylinders.     

Testing the Potential for Predictive Modeling and Mapping and Extending Its Use as a Tool for Evaluating Management Scenarios and Economic Valuation in the Baltic Sea (PREHAB)

We evaluated performance of species distribution models for predictive mapping, and how models can be used to integrate human pressures into ecological and economic assessments. A selection of 77 biological variables (species, groups of species, and measures of biodiversity) across the Baltic Sea were modeled. Differences among methods, areas, predictor, and response variables were evaluated. Several methods successfully predicted abundance and occurrence of vegetation, invertebrates, fish, and functional aspects of biodiversity. Depth and substrate were among the most important predictors. Models incorporating water clarity were used to predict increasing cover of the brown alga bladderwrack Fucus vesiculosus and increasing reproduction area of perch Perca fluviatilis, but decreasing reproduction areas for pikeperch Sander lucioperca following successful implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan. Despite variability in estimated non-market benefits among countries, such changes were highly valued by citizens in the three Baltic countries investigated. We conclude that predictive models are powerful and useful tools for science-based management of the Baltic Sea.     

Vegetation dynamics, and land use and land cover change in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia

Shifts in biological communities are occurring at rapid rates as human activities induced global climate change increases. Understanding the effects of the change on biodiversity is important to reduce loss of biodiversity and mass extinction, and to insure the long-term persistence of natural resources and natures’ services. Especially in remote landscapes of developing countries, precise knowledge about on-going processes is scarce. Here we apply satellite imagery to assess spatio-temporal land use and land cover change (LULCC) in the Bale Mountains for a period of four decades. This study aims to identify the main drivers of change in vegetation patterns and to discuss the implications of LULCC on spatial arrangements and trajectories of floral communities. Remote sensing data acquired from Landsat MSS, Landsat ETM + and SPOT for four time steps (1973, 1987, 2000, and 2008) were analyzed using 11 LULC units defined based on the dominant plant taxa and cover types of the habitat. Change detection matrices revealed that over the last 40?years, the area has changed from a quite natural to a more cultural landscape. Within a representative subset of the study area (7,957.5?km^?2), agricultural fields have increased from 1.71% to 9.34% of the total study area since 1973. Natural habitats such as upper montane forest, afroalpine grasslands, afromontane dwarf shrubs and herbaceous formations, and water bodies also increased. Conversely, afromontane grasslands have decreased in size by more than half (going from 19.3% to 8.77%). Closed Erica forest also shrank from 15.0% to 12.37%, and isolated Erica shrubs have decreased from 6.86% to 5.55%, and afroalpine dwarf shrubs and herbaceous formations reduced from 5.2% to 1.56%. Despite fluctuations the afromontane rainforest (Harenna forest), located south of the Bale Mountains, has remained relatively stable. In conclusion this study documents a rapid and ecosystem-specific change of this biodiversity hotspot due to intensified human activities (e.g., deforestation, agriculture, infrastructure expansion). Specifically, the ecotone between the afromontane and the afroalpine area represent a “hotspot of biodiversity loss” today. Taking into consideration the projections of regional climate warming and modified precipitation regimes, LULCC can be expected to become even more intensive in the near future. This is likely to impose unprecedented pressures on the largely endemic biota of the area.     

Association between biotic and abiotic parameters and the occurrence of cyanobacteria in a Brazilian reservoir

The water reservoir of Vargem das Flores, Brazil, has been subject to eutrophication problems. The occurrence of cyanobacterial blooms in this water body has raised concerns regarding the presence of toxic metabolites. In order to understand the factors that promote the proliferation and distribution of cyanobacteria in the reservoir, physicochemical parameters, species composition, and toxicity of the reservoir water column were analyzed at monthly intervals over a 3-year period (2004-2007) using a range of analytical techniques. The results showed that cyanobacteria were absent in the dry period, returning after the onset of stratification. A succession pattern was observed within this group. The Aphanocapsa genus was dominant in the last rainy period of the study (October 2006 to March 2007). However toxicity was only detected when the genera Microcystis and Sphaerocavum were present (October 2005). The principal components analysis showed negative correlation between cyanobacteria and orthophosphate. The change of dominant cyanobacteria along the 3 years of study and the final prevalence of nontoxic genera in the reservoir is an evidence of water quality improvement in response to the management techniques implemented in the reservoir basin.     

Detecting and correcting sensor drifts in long-term weather data

Quality control of long-term monitoring data of thousands and millions of individual records as present in meteorological data is cumbersome. In such data series, sensor drifts, stalled values, and scale shifts may occur and potentially result in flawed conclusions if not noticed and handled properly. However, there is no established standard procedure to perform quality control of high-frequency meteorological data. In this paper, we outline a procedure to remove sensor drift in high-frequency data series using the example of 15-year-long sets of hourly relative humidity (RH) data from 28 stations subdivided into 202 individual sensor operation periods. The procedure involves basic quality control, relative homogeneity testing, and drift removal. Significant sensor drifts were observed in 40.6 % of all sensor operation periods. The drifts varied between data series and depended in a complex, usually inconsistent way on absolute RH values; within single series for instance, a drift could be negative in the lower RH range and positive in the upper RH range. Detrending changed RH values by, on average, 1.96 %. For one fifth of the detrended data, adjustments were 2.75 % and more of the measured value, and in one tenth 4.75 % and more. Overall, drifts were strongest for RH values close to 100 %. The detrending procedure proved to effectively remove sensor drifts. The principles of the procedure also apply to other meteorological parameters and more generally to any time series of data for which comparable reference data are available.     

Genetic variability and relationships among geographically widely separated populations of Petitia amphophthalma (Polychaeta: Syllidae). Results from RAPD-PCR investigations

An analysis of the population genetics of the meiofaunal polychaete Petitia amphophthalma Siewing, 1956, in which the RAPD-PCR method was applied to 103 individuals from eight populations, some of them very far apart (Atlantic: Florida, Tenerife, France; Mediterranean: two Greek islands, Tunisia; Red Sea: Egypt), gave closely reproducible results. In the band patterns produced with 13 decamer primers, a total of 195 genetic characters was detected. The data were evaluated by a number of methods, including the cluster programs UPGMA, WPGMA and neighbour-joining. The detected genetic distances between the populations vary between 58.9 and 66.6, but 97% of the genetic characters, although polymorphic, are found in at least two populations and usually in all the others as well. Phenograms of the analyses find four population clusters [Florida, France (Atlantic), the Mediterranean and Tenerife]. They are, however, not completely congruent and show low bootstrap values at the junction points of the clusters (with the exception of the Tenerife cluster). Mediterranean P. amphophthalma form a cohesive population, although within it the genetic distances are graded in parallel with the geographic distances between the sites. The colonization of Tenerife, an island of relatively recent volcanic origin, can be taken as evidence that this meiofaunal species can become dispersed not only along coastlines but also across expanses of open water. However, the severely restricted variability of these populations implies that in this case a founder effect has operated, and that transport over open water is not a routine event but extremely rare. The absence of the species on the Australian coast and, for instance, on the Galapagos Islands indicates that there has been no continuous gene flow across the oceans. The idea that all the populations investigated belong to one cosmopolitan species is discussed. Received: 17 October 1997 / Accepted: 15 April 1998     

'All hazards approach' to disaster management: the role of information and knowledge management, Boyd's OODA Loop, and network-centricity

The ever-increasing complexity of disasters demands utilisation of knowledge that exists outside domains traditionally drawn upon in disaster management. To be operationally useful, such knowledge must he extracted, combined with information generated by the disaster itself, and transformed into actionable knowledge. The process, though, is hampered by existing, business-oriented approaches to knowledge management, by technical issues related to access to relevant, multi-domain information/knowledge, and by executive decision-making processes based predominantly on historical knowledge. Consequently, as shown by many recent incidents, the management of large-scale (mega) disasters is often inefficient and exceedingly costly. This paper demonstrates that the integration of modified information and knowledge management into the concepts of network-centric operations and network-enabled capabilities, and the employment of Boyd's OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act) Loop-based decision-making in unpredictable and dynamically changing environments, may address some of these problems.     

Comparative morphology and secretion chemistry of the scoli in caterpillars of<Emphasis Type="Italic"> Hyalophora cecropia</Emphasis>

The morphology of the variously coloured scoli (bristle-bearing structures on the integument, producing an exocrine secretion) on caterpillars of Hyalophora cecropia and the secondary chemistry of the discharged secretions have been investigated for the first time and compared. According to our scanning electron microscopic study, the red/orange, yellow and blue coloured groups of these glands differ morphologically. Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analyses showed that the patterns of secondary compounds in the respective glandular secretions are also different. Furthermore, the secretion of the penultimate larval instar is chemically distinct from that of the last instar, as are both secretions from the respective haemolymph. The results favour the idea that the differences in scoli colour, morphology and chemistry could affect various predator species differently.Electronic Supplementary Material  Supplementary material is available for this article if you access the article at . A link in the frame on the left on that page takes you directly to the supplementary material.