Foraging impact on zooplankton by age-0 walleye pollock (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Theragra chalcogramma</Emphasis>) around a front in the southeast Bering Sea

The waters around the Pribilof Islands in the southeast Bering Sea are a center of abundance for age-0 walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). Each spring and summer a tidal front is formed around the islands separating a well-mixed inshore habitat from a stratified offshore habitat. The objective of this study was to assess the foraging impact on zooplankton by age-0 pollock in the vicinity of this frontal structure. A bioenergetic model was used to estimate age-0 pollock food consumption from field estimates of water temperature, age-0 pollock density, diet and growth. Sampling of field variables took place over three hydrographic habitats along an inshore–offshore transect located north of the islands. The bioenergetics analysis was applied for a 2-week period during the late summer of four consecutive years, 1994–1997. Model results of age-0 pollock food consumption indicated variable levels of food depletion, changing with prey type, year and habitat. The foraging impact of age-0 pollock on copepods and euphausiids (most common prey) ranged from about 3% to 77% of the biomass available at the start of the simulation. Copepod depletion was typically greater than euphausiid depletion. Consequently, juvenile pollock <60 mm in standard length were more likely to experience food limitation due to the greater proportion of copepods in their diet. We present evidence of severe foraging impact during 1996, when one of the primary prey items of juvenile pollock (i.e. large copepods) was scarcely represented both in their diet and in the water column. In all years, most instances of prey depletion were found at the inshore and front habitats; age-0 pollock densities were too low relative to their prey to severely impact the offshore zooplankton populations. We discuss these results with respect to modeling assumptions and in the context of previously acquired knowledge of fish behavior around frontal regions.Communicated by T. Ikeda, Hakodate     

Goal striving,idiosyncratic deals,and job behavior

Two important gaps remain to be filled in the idiosyncratic deals (i‐deals) literature. First, it is unclear which employees are predisposed to seek and receive i‐deals. Second, it is unclear how employees' perceptions of whether their coworkers are receiving i‐deals affect their own i‐deal experiences. This study proposed a theoretical model suggesting that (a) three key motivational goals identified in human development research, that is, achievement, status, and communion striving, predispose employees to seek and receive i‐deals; (b) employees' perceptions of whether their coworkers are receiving i‐deals moderate these relationships; and (c) employees' i‐deals are related to their job behavior. Data collected from more than 400 working adults in Italy showed that employees' motivational goals (particularly achievement and status striving) were positively related to the levels of i‐deals they received, and that these i‐deals were in turn positively related to supervisors' assessments of their in‐role job performance, voice behavior, and interpersonal citizenship behavior. High perceptions of the extent to which coworkers received i‐deals further strengthened the relationship between status striving and employees' perceptions of their own i‐deals, highlighting a trait‐situation interactionist perspective on employees' i‐deal experiences. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multi-scale study of Orthoptera species richness and human population size controlling for sampling effort

Recent large-scale studies have shown that biodiversity-rich regions also tend to be densely populated areas. The most obvious explanation is that biodiversity and human beings tend to match the distribution of energy availability, environmental stability and/or habitat heterogeneity. However, the species–people correlation can also be an artefact, as more populated regions could show more species because of a more thorough sampling. Few studies have tested this sampling bias hypothesis. Using a newly collated dataset, we studied whether Orthoptera species richness is related to human population size in Italy’s regions (average area 15,000 km²) and provinces (2,900 km²). As expected, the observed number of species increases significantly with increasing human population size for both grain sizes, although the proportion of variance explained is minimal at the provincial level. However, variations in observed Orthoptera species richness are primarily associated with the available number of records, which is in turn well correlated with human population size (at least at the regional level). Estimated Orthoptera species richness (Chao2 and Jackknife) also increases with human population size both for regions and provinces. Both for regions and provinces, this increase is not significant when controlling for variation in area and number of records. Our study confirms the hypothesis that broad-scale human population–biodiversity correlations can in some cases be artefactual. More systematic sampling of less studied taxa such as invertebrates is necessary to ascertain whether biogeographical patterns persist when sampling effort is kept constant or included in models.     

Decisive factors in the creation and execution of municipal action plans in the field of sustainable development in the European Union

The process of raising public awareness around the world concerning the need to apply criteria of sustainable development was basically set in motion at the Rio de Janeiro Summit in 1992. There it was decided that the most suitable context for fostering the process is the local level, and the Local Action Plan forms a basic element in this process.Some preliminary studies have shown the evidence of great advancement in the creation of Local Action Plans in municipalities. However, their execution is frequently paralyzed by a lack of necessary resources and suitable State policies.The aim of this paper is to verify the effect that different factors might have on the degree of progress made by the Local Action Plan in the municipalities of the European Union.The results show that the public works policies of the EU and the governments of the member states fail to impact the level of commitment of municipal governments; however, when the supporting policy originates from administrations closer to the municipality and are made concrete in the form of economic support and technical advice, they prove to be relevant. Strictly political factors, such as stability, have a more limited yet significant effect on the execution of Local Action Plans.     

Flue gas desulfurization gypsum and coal fly ash as basic components of prefabricated building materials

The manufacture of prefabricated building materials containing binding products such as ettringite (6CaO·Al₂O₃·3SO₃·32H₂O) and calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) can give, in addition to other well-defined industrial activities, the opportunity of using wastes and by-products as raw materials, thus contributing to further saving of natural resources and protection of the environment.Two ternary mixtures, composed by 40% flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum or natural gypsum (as a reference material), 35% calcium hydroxide and 25% coal fly ash, were submitted to laboratory hydrothermal treatments carried out within time and temperature ranges of 2 h–7 days and 55–85 °C, respectively. The formation of (i) ettringite, by hydration of calcium sulfate given by FGD or natural gypsum, alumina of fly ash and part of calcium hydroxide, and (ii) CSH, by hydration of silica contained in fly ash and residual lime, was observed within both the reacting systems. For the FGD gypsum-based mixture, the conversion toward ettringite and CSH was highest at 70 °C and increased with curing time. Some discrepancies in the hydration behavior between the mixtures were ascribed to differences in mineralogical composition between natural and FGD gypsum.     

Evidence for declining levels of heavy-metals in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel, U.K. and their spatial distribution in sediments

Levels of heavy-metals (Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn) in suspended particulate and in surface and subsurface sediments were determined at seven locations in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel. Sediment metal concentrations were highest at sites close to industrial centres but levels have decreased significantly over the last 30 years so that they are now close to, or meet, environmental quality guidelines. The greatest metal concentrations in deposited sediments were usually associated with the finest particulates at locations with muddy sediments, but this was not always true at sites with predominantly sandy sediments. The metals bound to suspended particulates at all sites were remarkably consistent, presumably reflecting the mixing capacity of this macro-tidal estuary. The re-exposure of older, more contaminated sediments could explain the observed differences between deposited and suspended material. Sediment redistribution due to strong seasonal currents might also explain the differences between winter and summer samples.