Environmental refuge from disease-driven amphibian extinction

Species that are tolerant of broad environmental gradients may be less vulnerable to epizootic outbreaks of disease. Chytridriomycosis, caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, has been linked to extirpations and extinctions of amphibian species in many regions. The pathogen thrives in cool, moist environments, and high amphibian mortality rates have commonly occurred during chytridiomycosis outbreaks in amphibian populations in high-elevation tropical rainforests. In Australia several high-elevation species, including the armored mist frog (Litoria lorica), which is designated as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), were believed to have gone extinct during chytridiomycosis outbreaks in the 1980s and early 1990s. Species with greater elevational ranges disappeared from higher elevations, but remained common in the lowlands. In June 2008, we surveyed a stream in a high-elevation dry sclerophyll forest and discovered a previously unknown population of L. lorica and a population of the waterfall frog (Litoria nannotis). We conducted 6 additional surveys in June 2008, September 2008, March 2009, and August 2009. Prevalences of B. dendrobatidis infection (number infected per total sampled) were consistently high in frogs (mean 82.5%, minimum 69%) of both species and in tadpoles (100%) during both winter (starting July) and summer (starting February). However, no individuals of either species showed clinical signs of disease, and they remained abundant (3.25 - 8.75 individuals of L. lorica and 6.5-12.5 individuals of L. nannotis found/person/100 m over 13 months). The high-elevation dry sclerophyll site had little canopy cover, low annual precipitation, and a more defined dry season than a nearby rainforest site, where L. nannotis was more negatively affected by chytridiomycosis. We hypothesize this lack of canopy cover allowed the rocks on which frogs perched to warm up, thereby slowing growth and reproduction of the pathogen on the hosts. In addition, we suggest surveys for apparently extinct or rare species should not be limited to core environments.     

Effects of human footprint and biophysical factors on the body-size structure of fished marine species

Marine fisheries in coastal ecosystems in many areas of the world have historically removed large-bodied individuals, potentially impairing ecosystem functioning and the long-term sustainability of fish populations. Reporting on size-based indicators that link to food-web structure can contribute to ecosystem-based management, but the application of these indicators over large (cross-ecosystem) geographical scales has been limited to either fisheries-dependent catch data or diver-based methods restricted to shallow waters (<20 m) that can misrepresent the abundance of large-bodied fished species. We obtained data on the body-size structure of 82 recreationally or commercially targeted marine demersal teleosts from 2904 deployments of baited remote underwater stereo-video (stereo-BRUV). Sampling was at up to 50 m depth and covered approximately 10,000 km of the continental shelf of Australia. Seascape relief, water depth, and human gravity (i.e., a proxy of human impacts) were the strongest predictors of the probability of occurrence of large fishes and the abundance of fishes above the minimum legal size of capture. No-take marine reserves had a positive effect on the abundance of fishes above legal size, although the effect varied across species groups. In contrast, sublegal fishes were best predicted by gradients in sea surface temperature (mean and variance). In areas of low human impact, large fishes were about three times more likely to be encountered and fishes of legal size were approximately five times more abundant. For conspicuous species groups with contrasting habitat, environmental, and biogeographic affinities, abundance of legal-size fishes typically declined as human impact increased. Our large-scale quantitative analyses highlight the combined importance of seascape complexity, regions with low human footprint, and no-take marine reserves in protecting large-bodied fishes across a broad range of species and ecosystem configurations.     

HYSTAR Sediment Model: Distributed Two‐Dimensional Simulation of Watershed Erosion and Sediment Transport Using Time‐Area Routing

An erosion and sediment transport component incorporated in the HYdrology Simulation using Time‐ARea method (HYSTAR) upland watershed model provides grid‐based prediction of erosion, transport and deposition of sediment in a dynamic, continuous, and fully distributed framework. The model represents the spatiotemporally varied flow in sediment transport simulation by coupling the time‐area routing method and sediment transport capacity approach within a grid‐based spatial data model. This avoids the common, and simplistic, approach of using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) to estimate erosion rates with a delivery ratio to relate gross soil erosion to sediment yield of a watershed, while enabling us to simulate two‐dimensional sediment transport processes without the complexity of numerical solution of the partial differential governing equations. In using the time‐area method for routing sediment, the model offers a novel alternative to watershed‐scale sediment transport simulation that provides detailed spatial representation. In predicting four‐year sediment hydrographs of a watershed in Virginia, the model provided good performance with R² of 0.82 and 0.78 and relative error of ?35% and 11% using the Yalin and Yang's sediment transport capacity equations, respectively. Prediction of spatiotemporal variation in sediment transport processes was evaluated using maps of sediment transport rates, concentrations, and erosion and deposition mass, which compare well with expected behavior of flow hydraulics and sediment transport processes.     

Effects of mussel (Perna canaliculus) biodeposit decomposition on benthic respiration and nutrient fluxes

Suspension-feeding bivalves increase the quantity and quality of sedimenting organic matter through the production of faeces and pseudofaeces that are remineralised in coastal sediments and thus increase sediment oxygen demand and nutrient regeneration. Bivalves are intensively cultivated worldwide; however, no bivalve biodeposit decay rates are available to parameterise models describing the environmental effects of bivalve culture. We examined sediment biogeochemical changes as bivalve biodeposits age by incubating coastal sediments to which we added fresh mussel (Perna canaliculus) biodeposits and measured O₂ and nutrient fluxes as well as sediment characteristics over an 11-day period. Biodeposits elevated organic matter, chlorophyll a, phaeophytin a, organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations in the surface sediments. Sediment oxygen consumption (SOC) increased significantly (P=0.016) by ∼1.5 times to 1,010 μmol m⁻² h⁻¹ immediately after biodeposit addition and remained elevated compared to control cores without additions for the incubation period. This increase is in the range of observed in situ oxygen demand enhancements under mussel farms. To calculate a decay rate for biodeposits in sediments we fitted a first-order G model to the observed increase in SOC. The significant model fit (P=0.001, r ²=0.72) generated a decay rate of 0.16 day⁻¹ (P=0.033, SE=0.05) that corresponds to a half-life time of 4.3 day. This decay rate is 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than published decay rates of coastal sediments without organic enrichment but similar to rates of decaying zooplankton faecal pellets. NH₄⁺ release increased rapidly on the day of biodeposit addition (P=0.013) and reached a maximum of 144 μmol m⁻² h⁻¹ after 5 days which was 3.6 times higher compared to control cores. During this period NH₄⁺ release was significantly (P<0.001 to P=0.043) higher in the cores with biodeposit additions than in control cores.     

Exploring the current status of water governance and outcomes of community-based monitoring across the Oak Ridges Moraine,Southern Ontario,Canada

ABSTRACT

Community-based monitoring (CBM) activities are becoming increasingly prevalent in response to multiple factors, including reduced governmental capacity and increased public interest in environmental management. This research aims to explore how CBM has evolved in the Oak Ridges Moraine (ORM), southern Ontario, including an examination of strengths and challenges. Interviews with CBM stakeholders, provincial government staff, and conservation authority staff were combined with document analysis to explore the evolution and outcomes of ORM CBM activities. Results indicate that there is active CBM on the ORM and conservation authorities play a role in the shaping of CBM activities, although significant barriers remain to civil society participation in water governance. The case study results from the ORM were also considered in light of research emerging from the Nova Scotia experience of numerous civil society organisations involved in CBM.     

Leaching of terbumeton and terbumeton-desethyl from mini-columns packed with soil aggregates in laboratory conditions

Leaching of terbumeton (TER) and terbumeton-desethyl (TED) from mini-columns packed with natural soil aggregates was investigated. Five soil samples from the Champagne area (France) with different physicochemical parameters were used. The soil samples were hand-packed into a 50 mm column in laboratory conditions. An aqueous solution of TER or TED was percolated through the column and collected effluents were analyzed for TER or TED using HPLC-DAD. The leaching experiments showed that TER and TED were moderately mobile. TED was more mobile than TER, possibly because of its higher polarity. The proportion of organic matter affected the mobility of TER and TED through soil columns (r=0.971) and leaching was lowest for soil having the highest organic matter content (5.9%). TER and TED were not significantly influenced by leaching solution composition (deionized water or CaCl(2) solution), but were strongly affected by soil packing. Packing resulted in less rapid release of compounds suggesting that unpacking may have contributed to preferential pathways through the soil columns. Increasing contact time between TER and soils before leaching decreased the mobility of TER and increased its persistence in soils. Indeed, 76% of TER was released when leaching started after a 15 h contact time whereas it was down to 26% after an aging treatment of 360 h. A proportion of TER (from 8% to 32%) and TED (from 8% to 17%) remained in soil. Associated to its high stability in soils this could in part account for a very slow transfer over the years towards the groundwater.     

Deep-time patterns of tissue consumption by terrestrial arthropod herbivores

A survey of the fossil record of land-plant tissues and their damage by arthropods reveals several results that shed light on trophic trends in host-plant resource use by arthropods. All 14 major plant tissues were present by the end of the Devonian, representing the earliest 20 % of the terrestrial biota. During this interval, two types of time lags separate the point between when tissues first originated from their earliest consumption by herbivorous arthropods. For epidermis, parenchyma, collenchyma and xylem, live tissue consumption was rapid, occurring on average 10 m.y. after the earliest tissue records. By contrast, structural tissues (periderm, sclerenchyma), tissues with actively dividing cells (apical, lateral, intercalary meristems), and reproductive tissues (spores, megagametophytes, integuments) experienced approximately a 9-fold (92 m.y.) delay in arthropod herbivory, extending well into the Carboniferous Period. Phloem similarly presents a delay of 85 m.y., but this incongruously long lag-time may be attributed to the lack of preservation of this tissue in early vascular plants. Nevertheless, the presence of phloem can be indicated from planar spaces adjacent well-preserved xylem, or inferred from a known anatomy of the same plant taxon in better preserved material, especially permineralisations. The trophic partitioning of epidermis, parenchyma, phloem and xylem increases considerably to the present, probably a consequence of dietary specialization or consumption of whole leaves by several herbivore functional feeding groups. Structural tissues, meristematic tissues and reproductive tissues minimally have been consumed throughout the fossil record, consistent with their long lags to herbivory during the earlier Paleozoic. Neither angiosperm dominance in floras nor global environmental perturbations had any discernible effect on herbivore trophic partitioning of plant tissues.