Being well-governed: Including inspectors in a systems approach to fisheries management

Based on 18-months of ethnographic fieldwork in South Africa’s Western Cape province, we suggest ways in which marine resource law enforcement activities can be evaluated at the level of individual fisheries compliance inspectors, to gain a more accurate understanding of the state of marine resource law enforcement. We show that these individual assessments can be scaled up to speak about specific compliance stations, and further, that these local-level assessments can be scaled up to the regional and provincial levels, without losing sight of the needs and value of the individual inspector. This paper contributes to the broader conversation on compliance in marine resource governance, as well as opening a new avenue of discussion: how to incorporate inspector-focussed social indicators. We show that this can be done in ways that take the overlap of the ecological, economic and social dimensions into account, while still being practical in terms of application and evaluation.     

Diuron mobility through vineyard soils contaminated with copper

The herbicide diuron is frequently applied to vineyard soils in Burgundy, along with repeated treatments with Bordeaux mixture (a blend of copper sulfate and calcium hydroxide) that result in elevated copper concentrations. Cu could in principle affect the fate and transport of diuron or its metabolites in the soil either directly by complexation or indirectly by altering the populations or activity of microbes involved in their degradation. To assess the effect of high Cu concentrations on diuron transport, an experiment was designed with ten undisturbed columns of calcareous and acidic soils contaminated with 17--509 mg kg(-1) total Cu (field-applied). Grass was planted on three columns. Diuron was applied to the soils in early May and in-ground lysimeters were exposed to outdoor conditions until November. Less than 1.2% of the diuron applied was found in the leachates as diuron or its metabolites. Higher concentrations were found in the effluents from the grass-covered columns (0.1--0.45%) than from the bare-soil columns (0.02--0.14%), and they were correlated with increases in dissolved organic carbon. The highest amounts of herbicide were measured in acidic-soil column leachates (0.98--1.14%) due to the low clay and organic matter contents of these soils. Cu also leached more readily through the acidic soils (32.8--1042 microg) than in the calcareous soils (9.5--63.4 microg). Unlike in the leachates, the amount of diuron remaining in the soils at the end of the experiment was weakly related to the Cu concentrations in the soils.     

Biotoxizitätstests mit PAK

There is great need for toxicity tests with higher plants for the investigation and monitoring of chemicals in the environment — especially for tests which are quick, easy, and inexpensive. Such tests should add to and improve current guidelines, e.g., OECD- and BBA-Guidelines. This article describes the nodulation of leguminous plants withRhizobium bacteria used in a bioassay with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Plants growing on a solid medium were exposed simultaneously to bacteria and PAH. This axenic culture system allows to observe the impact of PAH on plant growth and the interaction between plant and bacteria (nodulation). Dose-response-experiments indicated that nodulation measured as number of nodules per plant, was more sensitive to the inhibition by PAH than other plant growth parameters.     

Dietary carotenoids and male mating success in the guppy: an environmental component to female choice

Summary This study examined the relationship between dietary carotenoids, female choice, and male mating success in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata. Using a split-brood design, male siblings were either raised on a diet enhanced with astaxanthin and canthaxin or fed a basal diet without carotenoids. Males were photographed, and the location, size, and brightness of their red and orange pigment spots on the body were measured. Courtship behaviors were recorded during visual and mating trials. Males fed the carotenoid-enhanced diet had red and orange spots that averaged 2.5 times brighter, spent significantly more time near the female in visual response trials, were preferred by females in visual choice tests, and had a higher mating success than their siblings raised on the carotenoid-free diet. Diet did not affect male size, location or size of the red and orange pigment spots, or the intensity of courtship behavior. The results of this study show that females respond to environmentally-induced variation in the expression of a secondary sexual trait and that this has important consequences for male mating success.     

Female choice of multiple male criteria in guppies: interacting effects of dominance,coloration and courtship

Summary I experimentally examined the relative importance of social dominance, color patterns, and courtship behavior in male mating and reproductive success in the guppy Poecilia reticulata. Female choice of males is based on a complex set of behavioral and morphological traits. The results of 59 paired-male one-female visual choice and mating trials showed that male mating success was positively correlated with dominance, courtship intensity, and male coloration. Only dominant males engaged in full copoulations, and they sired two-thirds of the broods. An analysis of the paternity of broods and results of mating trials showed that a female's visual response when the sexes are separated by a glass partition is a good predictor of a male's reproductive success when the partition is removed and they are allowed to mate. A canonical correlation analysis of male behavioral and morphological traits indicated that female visual response and male mating success were positively correlated with male courtship and with agonistic behavior. However, the relative importance of color varied. Carotenoid and iridescent spots were important both in attracting the female's attention and in enhancing male mating success. Melanins were not correlated with either mating success or female response. There was a relatively low correlation (48%) between male behavioral and morphological variables and female response variables (full copulation and female visual response). These results suggest that female choice is subtle, and is based on a complex suite of male behavioral and morphological traits as well as on competitive interactions among males.     

Determination of phosphorus speciation in dairy manure using XRD and XANES spectroscopy

Intensive manure application is an important source of diffuse phosphorus (P) pollution. Phosphorus availability from animal manure is influenced by its chemical speciation. The major objective of this study was to investigate the P speciation in raw and anaerobically digested dairy manure with an emphasis on the calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) phosphate phases. Influent and effluent from an on-farm digester in Wisconsin were sampled and sieved, and the 25 to 53 microm size fraction was dried for X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and P K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) analyses. Struvite (MgNH4PO4.6H2O) was identified in both the raw (influent) and anaerobically digested (effluent) manure using XRD. Qualitative analysis of P K-edge XANES spectra indicated that the Ca orthophosphate phases, except dicalcium phosphate anhydrous (DCPA) or monetite (CaHPO4), were not abundant in dairy manure. Linear combination fitting (LCF) of the P standard compounds showed that 57.0 and 43.0% of P was associated with DCPA and struvite, respectively, in the raw manure. In the anaerobically digested sample, 78.2% of P was present as struvite and 21.8% of P was associated with hydroxylapatite (HAp). The P speciation shifted toward Mg orthophosphates and least soluble Ca orthophosphates following anaerobic digestion. Similarity between the aqueous orthophosphate (aq-PO4), newberyite (MgHPO4.3H2O), and struvite spectra can cause inaccurate P speciation determination when dairy manure is analyzed solely using P K-edge XANES spectroscopy; however, XANES can be used in conjunction with XRD to quantify the distribution of inorganic P species in animal manure.     

Differential responses of eubacterial, Mycobacterium, and Sphingomonas communities in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated soil to artificially induced changes in PAH profile

Recent reports suggest that Mycobacterium is better adapted to soils containing poorly bioavailable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) compared to Sphingomonas. To study this hypothesis, artificial conditions regarding PAH profile and PAH bioavailability were induced in two PAH-contaminated soils and the response of the eubacterial, Mycobacterium, and Sphingomonas communities to these changed conditions was monitored during laboratory incubation. Soil K3663 with a relatively high proportion of high molecular weight PAHs was amended with phenanthrene or pyrene to artificially change the soil into a soil with a relatively increased bioavailable PAH contamination. Soil AndE with a relatively high proportion of bioavailable low molecular weight PAHs was treated by a single-step Tenax extraction to remove the largest part of the easily bioavailable PAH contamination. In soil K3663, the added phenanthrene or pyrene compounds were rapidly degraded, concomitant with a significant increase in the number of phenanthrene and pyrene degraders, and minor and no changes in the Mycobacterium community and Sphingomonas community, respectively. However, a transient change in the eubacterial community related to the proliferation of several gamma-proteobacteria was noted in the phenanthrene-amended soil. In the extracted AndE soil, the Sphingomonas community initially developed into a more diverse community but finally decreased in size below the detection limit. Mycobacterium in that soil never increased to a detectable size, while the eubacterial community became dominated by a gamma-proteobacterial population. The results suggest that the relative bioavailability of PAH contamination in soil affects bacterial community structure but that the behavior of Mycobacterium and Sphingomonas in soil is more complex than prospected from studies on their ecology and physiology.