Emerging trends in mining industry partnerships

The article analyzes mining company partnerships in terms of four main counterparts, namely: the sovereign, owners and financial backers, the workforce, and local communities. The main characteristics of mining partnerships under the four aspects are discussed. Taxation and financial aspects are also considered. Case studies from the British coal industry and examples from Latin America are part of the article. Downsizing and labour relations are also discussed, as well as indigenous peoples' issues. The article concludes that, successful minerals companies in the future will be those that work with communities, applying the highest standards of social responsibility. This includes safety, environmental management and good business ethics.     

Microscale genetic differentiation in a sessile invertebrate with cloned larvae: investigating the role of polyembryony

Microscale genetic differentiation of sessile organisms can arise from restricted dispersal of sexual propagules, leading to isolation by distance, or from localised cloning. Cyclostome bryozoans offer a possible combination of both: the localised transfer of spermatozoa between mates with limited dispersal of the resulting larvae, in association with the splitting of each sexually produced embryo into many clonal copies (polyembryony). We spatially sampled 157 colonies of Crisia denticulata from subtidal rock overhangs from one shore in Devon, England at a geographic scale of ca. 0.05 to 130 m plus a further 21 colonies from Pembrokeshire, Wales as an outgroup. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that the majority (67%) of genetic variation was distributed among individuals within single rock overhangs, with only 16% of variation among different overhangs within each shore and 17% of variation between the ingroup and outgroup shores. Despite local genetic variation, pairwise genetic similarity analysed by spatial autocorrelation was greatest at the smallest inter-individual distance we tested (5 cm) and remained significant and positive across generally within-overhang comparisons (<4 m). Spatial autocorrelation and AMOVA analyses both indicated that patches of C. denticulata located on different rock overhangs tended to be genetically distinct, with the switch from positive to negative autocorrelation, which is often considered to be the distance within which individuals reproduce with their close relatives or the radius of a patch, occurring at the 4–8 m distance class. Rerunning analyses with twenty data sets that only included one individual of each multilocus genotype (n = 97) or the single data set that contained just the unique genotypes (n = 67) revealed that the presence of repeat genotypes had an impact on genetic structuring (PhiPT values were reduced when shared genotypes were removed from the dataset) but that it was not great and only statistically evident at distances between individuals of 1–2 m. Comparisons to a further 20 randomisations of the data set that were performed irrespective of genotype (n = 97) suggested that this conclusion is not an artefact of reduced sample size. A resampling procedure using kinship coefficients, implemented by the software package GENCLONE gave broadly similar results but the greater statistical power allowed small but significant impacts of repeat genotypes on genetic structure to be also detected at 0.125–0.5 and 4–16 m. Although we predict that a proportion of the repeat multilocus genotypes are shared by chance, such generally within-overhang distances may represent a common distance of cloned larval dispersal. These results suggests that closely situated potential mates include a significant proportion of the available genetic diversity within a population, making it unlikely that, as previously hypothesised, the potential disadvantage of producing clonal broods through polyembryony is offset by genetic uniformity within the mating neighbourhood. We also report an error in the published primer note of Craig et al. (Mol Ecol Notes 1:281–282, 2001): loci Cd5 and Cd6 appear to be the same microsatellite. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Physiological response of the cold-seep mussel Bathymodiolus childressi to acutely elevated temperature

It is predicted that deep-sea animals adapted to thermally stable conditions should be highly sensitive to temperature change and should not have inducible heat-shock responses. This premise was tested with the cold-seep mussel Bathymodiolus childressi Gustafson, 1998 from 750 m depth in the Gulf of Mexico at a site known as Brine Pool NR-1 (27°43.4157N, 91°16.756W). Mussels were collected during February 2003. Site temperature, measured in different months between 1995 and 2005, ranged between 6.5 and 7.2°C. Although Brine Pool NR-1 is stenothermal, hydrogen sulfide, oxygen, and salinity vary over temporal and spatial scales. In laboratory experiments, B. childressi survived increases up to approximately 20°C above ambient temperature for 6 h before suffering greater than 50% mortality. Although a high thermal tolerance was observed, B. childressi did not express an inducible 70 kDa heat-shock protein. However, high constitutive levels of hsp70 were present in B. childressi suggesting a necessity to remediate protein damage from stressors other than elevated temperature; these constitutive proteins probably confer an indirect thermal tolerance.     

Use of Riparian Buffer Strips as Movement Corridors by Forest Birds

We conducted a 3-year field experiment to measure the frequency of bird movements through riparian buffer strips before and after harvesting of adjacent forest. Our study was conducted in the boreal mixed wood forest of Alberta and was designed to determine empirically whether songbirds use riparian buffer strips of forest connecting forest reserves as corridors and if they move along these buffer strips more frequently than they cross adjacent clearcuts. We used mist nets to obtain an index of the frequency of bird movement in the forest, and we observed bird movements across adjacent clearcuts for comparison. We predicted that the frequency of movement would be greater (1) in buffer strips after harvesting of adjacent forest than before harvesting, (2) in buffer strips than across clearcuts and, (3) in buffer strips than at control sites (lakeshore forest with no adjacent clearcuts). After adjusting for year-to-year variation in abundance, we found that capture rates increased significantly from pre- to post-harvest, but only for juveniles. Capture rates of adults decreased immediately after harvesting, probably because of the removal of an adjacent source of birds that previously moved through the lakeside forest. Movement rates of forest species in clearcuts were significantly lower than capture rates in the forest. The number of adults captured was positively correlated with the number of territories in the buffer strips, indicating that most birds captured were probably residents. The number of local territories was a poor predictor of juvenile captures, supporting the notion that juveniles were likely dispersing individuals. Our results indicate that buffer strips enhanced movements of juveniles (i.e., acted as corridors) and maintained movement rates of adults. Furthermore, there appeared to be a threshold distance between reserves below which birds may be less reluctant to fly across openings, making corridor use less important.     

Forest structure and light regimes following moderate wind storms: implications for multi-cohort management.

Moderate-severity disturbances appear to be common throughout much of North America, but they have received relatively little detailed study compared to catastrophic disturbances and small gap dynamics. In this study, we examined the immediate impact of moderate-intensity wind storms on stand structure, opening sizes, and light regimes in three hemlock-hardwood forests of northeastern Wisconsin. These were compared to three stands managed by single-tree and group selection, the predominant forest management system for northern hardwoods in the region. Wind storms removed an average of 41% of the stand basal area, compared to 27% removed by uneven-aged harvests, but both disturbances removed trees from a wide range of size classes. The removal of nearly half of the large trees by wind in two old-growth stands caused partial retrogression to mature forest structure, which has been hypothesized to be a major disturbance pathway in the region. Wind storms resulted in residual stand conditions that were much more heterogeneous than in managed stands. Gap sizes ranged from less than 10 m2 up to 5000 m2 in wind-disturbed stands, whereas the largest opening observed in managed stands was only 200 m2. Wind-disturbed stands had, on average, double the available solar radiation at the forest floor compared to managed stands. Solar radiation levels were also more heterogeneous in wind-disturbed stands, with six times more variability at small scales (0.1225 ha) and 15 times more variability at the whole-stand level. Modification of uneven-aged management regimes to include occasional harvests of variable intensity and spatial pattern may help avoid the decline in species diversity that tends to occur after many decades of conventional uneven-aged management. At the same time, a multi-cohort system with these properties would retain a high degree of average crown cover, promote structural heterogeneity typical of old-growth forests, and maintain dominance by late-successional species.     

Paternity in naturally-occurring Utetheisa ornatrix (Lepidoptera : Arctiidae) as estimated using enzyme polymorphism

Paternity of offspring in natural populations of insects has received little attention due to the difficulties inherent in following females and sampling each of their mates. Here, an existing statistical technique is modified to estimate paternity based on allozyme variation found in the female and her last mate, thus allowing paternity in nature to be studied by collecting copulating pairs of insects. Using this technique, paternity was investigated in naturally-occurring females of the arctiid moth Utetheisa ornatrix. These females mate promiscuously: upon dissection, they were found to contain up to 13 spermatophores. Statistical paternity estimation revealed considerable variation in the share of offspring sired by the female's last mate: approximately 25% of the males sired all the offspring, while another 25% fathered no offspring; the remainder sired at least some offspring. The proportion of offspring sired by the last male did not correlate with latency to oviposition, the extent of previous mating by the female, or male wing length. Male U. ornatrix are known to make substantial nuptial investments during mating, and this study shows that mating males frequently sire few or no offspring. Thus, male moths stand a chance of being cuckolded.     

Environmental News in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and the Philippines

From an environmental perspective, the media have raised the level of environmental awareness and, rightly or wrongly, focused the attention of citizens on specific environmental issues. Public reaction to environmental news can filter back into the media and highlight specific policy issues. The importance of the media in this respect has gained strength, particularly in developing countries, where environmental problems have become legitimate concerns, and where access to 'official' information has been historically difficult. In general, newspapers have been found to be one of the most predominant sources of environmental information available to the public, particularly in developing countries. In this paper, we summarise, briefly analyse and compare the newspaper coverage of environmental issues in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and the Philippines. Among numerous other results, it appears that the coverage of environmental issues fell considerably over the period 1990-94 despite an increase in world-wide environmental awareness. Most news reports actions by the environmental agencies (warnings and rewards, etc.). In the Philippines, however, most environmental news reports investments in pollution abatement activities by the private sector. While citizens' complaints represent a small percentage of the coverage of environmental issues, closer examination reveals that such complaints, in the vast majority of cases, trigger governmental actions (warnings) and ultimately an improvement of firms' environmental performance (investment).     

Life-cycle assessment of 11 kV electrical overhead lines and underground cables

The life-cycle impacts of five different 11 kV electrical power cables (three overhead lines and two underground cables) were analysed. These were compared by their embodied impacts in production and total lifetime operational impacts. The life-cycle results revealed there to be three key issues, the impacts of climate change, fossil fuel depletion, and particulate matter formation (PMF). The former two were of particular significance. The embodied impacts, which are those associated with the materials, were generally determined to be insignificant. The exception was for underground cables at low operating loads. Under these conditions PMF was more significant as a result of the high embodied impacts of the cables. Further analysis revealed that these impacts could be mitigated with an end of life material recovery program. At present the underground cables are not recovered, but if they were the recycling benefits would give rise to a notable improvement in PMF. For the other impact categories operational conductor losses were the dominant cause of impacts. In summary it was concluded that to minimise the life-cycle impacts of 11 kV cables the system with the lowest conductor resistance should be selected.