Evolution of a stream ecosystem in recently deglaciated terrain

Climate change and associated glacial recession create new stream habitat that leads to the assembly of new riverine communities through primary succession. However, there are still very few studies of the patterns and processes of community assembly during primary succession for stream ecosystems. We illustrate the rapidity with which biotic communities can colonize and establish in recently formed streams by examining Stonefly Creek in Glacier Bay, Alaska (USA), which began to emerge from a remnant glacial ice mass between 1976 and 1979. By 2002, 57 macroinvertebrate and 27 microcrustacea species had become established. Within 10 years of the stream's formation, pink salmon and Dolly Varden charr colonized, followed by other fish species, including juvenile red and silver salmon, Coast Range sculpin, and sticklebacks. Stable-isotope analyses indicate that marine-derived nitrogen from the decay of salmon carcasses was substantially assimilated within the aquatic food web by 2004. The findings from Stonefly Creek are compared with those from a long-term study of a similarly formed but older stream (12 km to the northeast) to examine possible similarities in macroinvertebrate community and biological trait composition between streams at similar stages of development. Macroinvertebrate community assembly appears to have been initially strongly deterministic owing to low water temperature associated with remnant ice masses. In contrast, microcrustacean community assembly appears to have been more stochastic. However, as stream age and water temperature increased, macroinvertebrate colonization was also more stochastic, and taxonomic similarity between Stonefly Creek and a stream at the same stage of development was <50%. However the most abundant taxa were similar, and functional diversity of the two communities was almost identical. Tolerance is suggested as the major mechanism of community assembly. The rapidity with which salmonids and invertebrate communities have become established across an entire watershed has implications for the conservation of biodiversity in freshwater habitats.     

Modelling above- and below-ground mass loss and N dynamics in wooden dowels (LIDET) placed across North and Central America biomes at the decadal time scale

This article focuses on modelling above and below-ground mass loss and nitrogen (N) dynamics based on the wooden dowels (Gonystylus bancanus [Miq.] Kurz) of the decadal Long-term Intersite Decomposition Experiment (LIDET) data. These dowels were placed at 27 locations across North and Central America, involving tropical, temperate and boreal forests, grasslands, wetlands and the tundra. The dowel, inserted vertically into the soil with one half remaining exposed to the air, revealed fast mass and N losses under warm to humid conditions, and slow losses under wet as well as cold to dry conditions. The model formulation, referred to as the Wood Decomposition Model, or WDM, related these losses to (i) mean annual precipitation, mean monthly January and July air temperatures, and (ii) mean annual actual evapotranspiration (AET) at each location. The resulting calibrations conformed well to the time-in-field averages for mass remaining by location: R² = 0.83 and 0.90 for the lower and upper parts, respectively. These values dropped, respectively, to 0.41 and 0.55 for the N concentrations, and to 0.28 and 0.43 for N remaining. These reductions likely refer to error propagation and to as yet unresolved variations in N transference into and out of the wood specific to each individual dowel location. Recalibrating the model parameters by ecosystem type reduced the R² values for actual versus best-fitted mass loss by about 0.15. Doing the same without location- or ecosystem-specific adjustments reduced the R² values further, by about 0.3.     

Provenance, life span, and phylogeny do not affect grass species' responses to nitrogen and phosphorus

Successful conservation management requires an understanding of how species respond to intervention. Native and exotic species may respond differently to management interventions due to differences arising directly from their origin (i.e., provenance) or indirectly due to biased representations of different life history types (e.g., annual vs. perennial life span) or phylogenetic lineages among provenance (i.e., native or exotic origin) groups. Thus, selection of a successful management regime requires knowledge of the life history and provenance-bias in the local flora and an understanding of the interplay between species characteristics across existing environmental gradients in the landscape. Here we tested whether provenance, phylogeny, and life span interact to determine species distributions along natural gradients of soil chemistry (e.g., soil nitrogen and phosphorus) in 10 upland prairie sites along a 600-km latitudinal transect running from southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, USA. We found that soil nitrate, phosphorus, and pH exerted strong control over community composition. However, species distributions along environmental gradients were unrelated to provenance, life span, or phylogenetic groupings. We then used a greenhouse experiment to more precisely measure the response of common grass species to nitrogen and phosphorus supply. As with the field data, species responses to nutrient additions did not vary as a function of provenance, life span, or phylogeny. Native and exotic species differed strongly in the relationship between greenhouse-measured tolerance of low nutrients and field abundance. Native species with the greatest ability to maintain biomass production at low nutrient supply rates were most abundant in field surveys, as predicted by resource competition theory. In contrast, there was no relationship between exotic-species biomass at low nutrient levels and field abundance. The implications of these findings for management of invasive species are substantial in that they overturn a general belief that reduction of nutrient supplies favors native species. The idiosyncratic nature of species response to nutrients in this study suggests that manipulation of nutrient supplies is unlikely to alter the overall balance between native and exotic species, although it may well be useful to control specific exotic species.     

On-road and simulated driving: concurrent and discriminant validation

Introduction

A converging pair of studies investigated the validity of a simulator for measuring driving performance/skill.

Study 1

A concurrent validity study compared novice driver performance during an on-road driving test with their performance on a comparable simulated driving test.

Results

Results showed a reasonable degree of concordance in terms of the distribution of driving errors on-road and errors on the simulator. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between the two when driver performance was rank ordered according to errors, further establishing the relative validity of the simulator. However, specific driving errors on the two tasks were not closely related suggesting that absolute validity could not be established and that overall performance is needed to establish the level of skill.

Study 2

A discriminant validity study compared driving performance on the simulator across three groups of drivers who differ in their level of experience - a group of true beginners who had no driving experience, a group of novice drivers who had completed driver education and had a learner's permit, and a group of fully licensed, experienced drivers.

Results

The findings showed significant differences among the groups in the expected direction -- the various measures of driving errors showed that beginners performed worse than novice drivers and that experienced drivers had the fewest errors. Collectively, the results of the concurrent and discriminant validity studies support the use of the simulator as a valid measure of driving performance for research purposes.

Impact on industry

These findings support the use of a driving simulator as a valid measure of driving performance for research purposes. Future research should continue to examine validity between on-road driving performance and performance on a driving simulator and the use of simulated driving tests in the evaluation of driver education/training programs.     

Chemical techniques for assessing bioavailability of sediment-associated contaminants: SPME versus Tenax extraction

The traditional approach for predicting the risk of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) in sediment is to relate organic carbon normalized sediment concentrations to body residues or toxic effects to organisms. However, due to the multiple variables controlling bioavailability, this method has limitations. A matrix independent method of predicting bioavailability needs to be used in order to be universally applicable. Both chemical activity (freely dissolved chemical concentrations) measured by solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and bioaccessibility (rapidly desorbing fraction) estimated by Tenax extraction have been developed to predict bioavailability of sediment-associated HOCs. The objectives of this review are to summarize a number of studies using matrix-SPME or Tenax extraction to estimate bioavailability and/or toxicity of different classes of HOCs and evaluate the strengths and weakness of these two techniques. Although the two chemical techniques assess different components of the matrix, estimates obtained from both techniques have been correlated to organism body residues. The advantages of SPME fibers are their applicability for use in situ and their potential usage for a wide array of contaminants by selection of appropriate coatings. Single time-point Tenax extraction, however, is more time- and labor-effective. Tenax extraction also has lower detection limits, making it more applicable for highly toxic contaminants. This review also calls for additional research to evaluate the role of sequestrated contaminants and ingestion of sediment particles by organisms on HOC bioavailability. The use of performance reference compounds to reduce SPME sampling time and linking chemical based bioavailability estimates to toxicological endpoints are essential to expand the applications of these methods.     

Flux capacities and acclimation costs in Trichodesmium from the Gulf of Mexico

Phytoplankton function and acclimation are driven by catalytic protein complexes that mediate key physiological transformations, including generation of photosynthetic ATP and reductant, and carbon and nitrogen fixation. Quantitation of capacities for these processes allows estimation of rates for key ecosystem processes, and identification of factors limiting primary productivity. We herein present molar quantitations of PSI, PSII, ATP synthase, RuBisCO and the Fe protein of nitrogenase of Trichodesmium collected from the Gulf of Mexico, in comparison to determinations for a range of cyanobacteria growing in culture. Using these measurements, estimates were generated for Trichodesmium capacities for carbon fixation of 1–3.4 g C g chl a ⁻¹ h⁻¹ and nitrogen fixation of 0.06–0.17 g N g chl a ⁻¹ h⁻¹, with diel variations in capacities. ATP synthase levels show that ATP synthesis capacity is sufficient to support these levels of carbon and nitrogen fixation, and that ATP synthase levels change over the day in accordance with the ATP demands of nitrogenase and RuBisCO activity. Levels of measured complexes indicate that Trichodesmium manifests n-type diel light acclimation through rapid changes in RuBisCO:PSII, supported by significant investment of cellular nitrogen. The plasticity in the levels and stoichiometry of these core complexes show that changes in the abundance of core protein complexes are an important component of acclimation and regulation of metabolic function by Trichodesmium populations. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A Mathematical Model for the Effects of Fertilization on Nitrogen Concentrations in Unsaturated Soil on Blueberry Farms in Southern New Jersey

Nitrogen is commonly known as a food source for crops. However, the nitrogen compounds used in crop fertilizers, most commonly nitrate (NO₃) and ammonium (NH₄), are not widely understood. Blueberry plants do not take up these compounds as efficiently as organic nitrogen so varying amounts of leaching into the soil and groundwater will occur. A biogeochemical model consisting of ordinary and partial differential equations is implemented to computationally predict the concentrations of nitrate and ammonium in unsaturated soil of blueberry plants, specifically in the southern region of New Jersey. The model takes into account the type of soil of the region, the nitrate uptake of the plant, the water content in the roots region, the pressure heads in the soil pores, and the application rates of fertilizers containing nitrate, ammonium, and organic nitrogen. Computational simulations demonstrate that the model accounts for natural processes and, in addition, show that commonly used fertilizer application rates cause unnecessarily high concentrations of both nitrate and ammonium in the unsaturated soil level. Further, simulations show that decreasing nitrate fertilizer applications by 85.7% in annual and 91.8% in bi-annual schedules provides an optimal system for safe reapplication.     

Ecologically Functional Floodplains: Connectivity,Flow Regime,and Scale1

Opperman, Jeffrey J., Ryan Luster, Bruce A. McKenney, Michael Roberts, and Amanda Wrona Meadows, 2010. Ecologically Functional Floodplains: Connectivity, Flow Regime, and Scale. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(2):211-226. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00426.x Abstract: This paper proposes a conceptual model that captures key attributes of ecologically functional floodplains, encompassing three basic elements: (1) hydrologic connectivity between the river and the floodplain, (2) a variable hydrograph that reflects seasonal precipitation patterns and retains a range of both high and low flow events, and (3) sufficient spatial scale to encompass dynamic processes and for floodplain benefits to accrue to a meaningful level. Although floodplains support high levels of biodiversity and some of the most productive ecosystems on Earth, they are also among the most converted and threatened ecosystems and therefore have recently become the focus of conservation and restoration programs across the United States and globally. These efforts seek to conserve or restore complex, highly variable ecosystems and often must simultaneously address both land and water management. Thus, such efforts must overcome considerable scientific, technical, and socioeconomic challenges. In addition to proposing a scientific conceptual model, this paper also includes three case studies that illustrate methods for addressing these technical and socioeconomic challenges within projects that seek to promote ecologically functional floodplains through river-floodplain reconnection and/or restoration of key components of hydrological variability.     

Evaluation of airborne particulate matter and metals data in personal,indoor and outdoor environments using ED-XRF and ICP-MS and co-located duplicate samples

Factors and sources affecting measurement uncertainty associated with monitoring metals in airborne particulate matter (PM) were investigated as part of the Windsor, Ontario Exposure Assessment Study (WOEAS). The assessment was made using co-located duplicate samples and a comparison of two analytical approaches: ED-XRF and ICP-MS. Sampling variability was estimated using relative percent difference (RPD) of co-located duplicate samples. The comparison of ICP-MS and ED-XRF results yields very good correlations (R² ≥ 0.7) for elements present at concentrations that pass both ICP-MS and ED-XRF detection limits (e.g. Fe, Mn, Zn, Pb and Cu). PM concentration ranges (median, sample number) of 24-h indoor PM₁₀ and personal PM₁₀ filters, and outdoor PM_2.5 filters were determined to be 2.2–40.7 (11.0, n = 48) μg m^?3, 8.0–48.3 (11.9, n = 48) μg m^?3, and 17.1–42.3 (21.6, n = 18) μg m^?3, respectively. The gravimetric analytical results reveal that the variations in PM mass measurements for same-day sampling are insignificant compared to temporal or spatial variations: 92%, 100% and 96% of indoor, outdoor and personal duplicate samples, respectively, pass the quality criteria (RPD ≤ 20%). Uncertainties associated with ED-XRF elemental measurements of S, Ca, Mn, Fe and Zn for 24-h filter samples are low: 78%–100% of the duplicate samples passed the quality criteria. In the case of 24-h filter samples using ICP-MS, more elements passed the quality criteria due to the lower detection limits. These were: Li, Na, K, Ca, Si, Al, V, Fe, Mn, Co, Cu, Mo, Ag, Zn, Pb, As, Mg, Sb, Sn, Sr, Th, Ti, Tl, and U. Low air concentrations of metals (near or below instrumental detection limits) and/or inadvertent introduction of metal contamination are the main causes for excluding elements based on the pass/fail criteria. Uncertainty associated with elemental measurements must be assessed on an element-by-element basis.     

Photochemical processing of aldrin and dieldrin in frozen aqueous solutions under arctic field conditions

Organochlorine (OC) contaminants are transported to the Polar Regions, where they have the potential to bioaccumulate, presenting a threat to the health of wildlife and indigenous communities. They deposit onto snowpack during winter, and accumulate until spring, when they experience prolonged solar irradiation until snowmelt occurs. Photochemical degradation rates for aldrin and dieldrin, in frozen aqueous solution made from MilliQ water, 500 μM hydrogen peroxide solution or locally-collected melted snow were measured in a field campaign near Barrow, AK, during spring-summer 2008. Significant photoprocessing of both pesticides occurs; the reactions depend on temperature, depth within the snowpack and whether the predominant phase is ice or liquid water. The effect of species present in natural snowpack is comparable to 500 μM hydrogen peroxide, pointing to the potential significance of snowpack-mediated reactions. Aldrin samples frozen at near 0 °C were more reactive than comparable liquid samples, implying that the microenvironments experienced on frozen ice surfaces are an important consideration.