Landscape-level influences of terrestrial snake occupancy within the southeastern United States

Habitat loss and degradation are thought to be the primary drivers of species extirpations, but for many species we have little information regarding specific habitats that influence occupancy. Snakes are of conservation concern throughout North America, but effective management and conservation are hindered by a lack of basic natural history information and the small number of large-scale studies designed to assess general population trends. To address this information gap, we compiled detection/nondetection data for 13 large terrestrial species from 449 traps located across the southeastern United States, and we characterized the land cover surrounding each trap at multiple spatial scales (250-, 500-, and 1000-m buffers). We used occupancy modeling, while accounting for heterogeneity in detection probability, to identify habitat variables that were influential in determining the presence of a particular species. We evaluated 12 competing models for each species, representing various hypotheses pertaining to important habitat features for terrestrial snakes. Overall, considerable interspecific variation existed in important habitat variables and relevant spatial scales. For example, kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula) were negatively associated with evergreen forests, whereas Louisiana pinesnake (Pituophis ruthveni) occupancy increased with increasing coverage of this forest type. Some species were positively associated with grassland and scrub/shrub (e.g., Slowinski's cornsnake, Elaphe slowinskii) whereas others, (e.g., copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix, and eastern diamond-backed rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus) were positively associated with forested habitats. Although the species that we studied may persist in varied landscapes other than those we identified as important, our data were collected in relatively undeveloped areas. Thus, our findings may be relevant when generating conservation plans or restoration goals. Maintaining or restoring landscapes that are most consistent with the ancestral habitat preferences of terrestrial snake assemblages will require a diverse habitat matrix over large spatial scales.     

Conceptual Framework of Connectivity for a National Agroecosystem Model Based on Transport Processes and Management Practices

There is a critical need for a national agroecosystem model for conservation policy and environmental planning, driven by issues including harmful algal blooms, water scarcity, flooding, and other weather‐related extremes. In this study, we illustrate the feasibility of a national agroecosystem model that will downscale processes to individual fields and first‐order channels. We propose to conceptually divide the conterminous United States (U.S.) into process domains as a framework for simulating processes and management at relevant scales. Specifically, we are proposing five domains: field (1–50 ha), transition (0.2–2.0 km²), headwater (1–15 km²), tributaries (15–150 km²), and main river (>150 km²). The proposed conceptual framework hydrologically connects fields across the U.S. using the National Hydrography Dataset (NHDPlus version 2). Parameterizing the Soil and Water Assessment Tool for the national agroecosystem model resulted in 4,880,000 agricultural fields, 2,250,000 non‐agricultural hydrologic response units, and 7,130,000 transition, 1,610,000 headwater, 591,000 tributary, and 432,400 main channels. Application of this framework was shown for Hydrologic Unit Code 07120002 in central Illinois and Indiana to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach using data that is readily available across the U.S. The new connectivity framework has the potential to dramatically improve national conservation and environmental assessments performed by U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.     

Improving species status assessments under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and implications for multispecies conservation challenges worldwide

Despite its successes, the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) has proven challenging to implement due to funding limitations, workload backlog, and other problems. As threats to species survival intensify and as more species come under threat, the need for the ESA and similar conservation laws and policies in other countries to function efficiently has grown. Attempts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to streamline ESA decisions include multispecies recovery plans and habitat conservation plans. We address species status assessment (SSA), a USFWS process to inform ESA decisions from listing to recovery, within the context of multispecies and ecosystem planning. Although existing SSAs have a single-species focus, ecosystem-based research can efficiently inform multiple SSAs within a region and provide a foundation for transition to multispecies SSAs in the future. We considered at-risk grassland species and ecosystems within the southeastern United States, where a disproportionate number of rare and endemic species are associated with grasslands. To initiate our ecosystem-based approach, we used a combined literature-based and structured World Café workshop format to identify science needs for SSAs. Discussions concentrated on 5 categories of threats to grassland species and ecosystems, consistent with recommendations to make shared threats a focus of planning under the ESA: (1) habitat loss, fragmentation, and disruption of functional connectivity; (2) climate change; (3) altered disturbance regimes; (4) invasive species; and (5) localized impacts. For each threat, workshop participants identified science and information needs, including database availability, research priorities, and modeling and mapping needs. Grouping species by habitat and shared threats can make the SSA process and other planning processes for conservation of at-risk species worldwide more efficient and useful. We found a combination of literature review and structured discussion effective for identifying the scientific information and analysis needed to support the development of multiple SSAs. Article impact statement: Species status assessments can be improved by an ecosystem-based approach that groups imperiled species by shared habitats and threats.     

苔藓植物资源保护利用中的生态环境效应研究进展

苔藓植物资源丰富、种类繁多、分布广泛,是一类以孢子繁殖,由水生向陆生过渡的高等植物。苔藓植物的结构相对简单,对环境变化的反应较为敏感,被广泛应用为环境污染的指示植物。苔藓植物生长与所处的环境有关,而它的生长对土壤结皮形成、水土保持、生态小环境改善等方面又发挥着重要的促进作用。综述了苔藓植物的资源分布、苔藓植物对环境污染的响应、苔藓植物的生态效应等方面的研究进展,但是目前的研究领域及其研究角度还存在着各自的不足。随着经济建设快速发展,世界各地大量的矿山开采、水电开发等工程建设对土地、自然环境的破坏日益严重,非农业建设以及农产品需求不断增加造成了农田的生态结构与功能发生着不断变化。针对各地经济社会发展以及城乡建设现状,积极开展工程建设领域以及农田生态系统苔藓植物的生态环境效应研究是今后值得十分重视的研究方向。     

苔藓植物资源保护利用中的生态环境效应研究进展

苔藓植物资源丰富、种类繁多、分布广泛,是一类以孢子繁殖,由水生向陆生过渡的高等植物。苔藓植物的结构相对简单,对环境变化的反应较为敏感,被广泛应用为环境污染的指示植物。苔藓植物生长与所处的环境有关,而它的生长对土壤结皮形成、水土保持、生态小环境改善等方面又发挥着重要的促进作用。综述了苔藓植物的资源分布、苔藓植物对环境污染的响应、苔藓植物的生态效应等方面的研究进展,但是目前的研究领域及其研究角度还存在着各自的不足。随着经济建设快速发展,世界各地大量的矿山开采、水电开发等工程建设对土地、自然环境的破坏日益严重,非农业建设以及农产品需求不断增加造成了农田的生态结构与功能发生着不断变化。针对各地经济社会发展以及城乡建设现状,积极开展工程建设领域以及农田生态系统苔藓植物的生态环境效应研究是今后值得十分重视的研究方向。     

Pathways for the oxidation of sarin in urban atmospheres

The nerve agent sarin has recently been deployed by terrorists in a major city. The molecule is volatile and made its way to many victims by passing as vapor through a highly reactive medium. Here we estimate rates and pathways for the removal of gas phase sarin from a generalized urban atmosphere. Only information from the open scientific literature is used. By structure reactivity comparisons with the organophosphorus pesticides, hydroxyl radical hydrogen abstraction may occur in as little as one hour. Decomposition of side chains after hydroxyl attack leads to organic oxygenates which preserve the phosphonofluoridate and so toxicity. The aqueous aerosol surface is contacted in minutes and offers access to a range of dissolved nucleophiles. Substitution displaces the fluoride leaving group, giving safe phosphoric acid analogs. Because of uncertainties in the electron distribution and in aqueous decay mechanisms, the time constants must be viewed as lower limits.     

Practical guide to coproduction in conservation science

We considered a series of conservation-related research projects on the island of Pemba, Tanzania, to reflect on the broad significance of Beier et al.’s recommendations for linking conservation science with practical conservation outcomes. The implementation of just some of their suggestions can advance a successful coproduction of actionable science by small research teams. Key elements include, first, scientists and managers working together in the field to ensure feedback in real time; second, questions jointly identified by managers and researchers to facilitate engaged collaboration; third, conducting research at multiple sites, thereby broadening managers’ abilities to reach multiple stakeholders; and fourth, establishing a multidisciplinary team because most of the concerns of local managers require input from multiple disciplines.     

Risk management of cost consequences in natural gas transmission and distribution infrastructures

A critical aspect of risk management in energy systems is minimizing pipeline incidents that can potentially affect life, property and economic well-being. Risk measures and scenarios are developed in this paper in order to better understand how consequences of pipeline failures are linked to causes and other incident characteristics. An important risk measure for decision-makers in this field is the association between incident cause and cost consequences. Data from the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) on natural gas transmission and distribution pipeline incidents are used to analyze the association between various characteristics of the incidents and product loss cost and property damage cost. The data for natural gas transmission incidents are for the period 2002 through May 2009 and include 959 incidents. In the case of natural gas distribution incidents the data include 823 incidents that took place during the period 2004 through May 2009. A two-step approach is used in the statistical analyses to model the consequences and the costs associated with pipeline incidents. In the first step the probability that there is a nonzero consequence associated with an incident is estimated as a function of the characteristics of the incident. In the second step the magnitudes of the consequence measures, given that there is a nonzero outcome, are evaluated as a function of the characteristics of the incidents. It is found that the important characteristics of an incident for risk management can be quite different depending on whether the incident involves a transmission or distribution pipeline, and the type of cost consequence being modeled. The application of this methodology could allow decision-makers in the energy industry to construct scenarios to gain a better understanding of how cost consequence measures vary depending on factors such as incident cause and incident type.     

The impact of non‐performance information on ratings of job performance: A policy‐capturing approach

Researchers have suggested that rater motives and the organizational context should be considered as sources of performance appraisal inaccuracies. A review of the performance appraisal literature revealed three primary non‐performance factors that managers consider when rating employee performance: (a) Potential negative consequences of ratings, (b) organizational norms, and (c) the opportunity to advance self‐interests. Using a policy‐capturing methodology, the current study investigated if these three non‐performance factors, as well as individual rater differences (e.g., conscientiousness, agreeableness, and performance appraisal experience), influence performance ratings. A sample of 303 experienced managers rated the performance of a fictitious employee, featured in a series of hypothetical scenarios, in which the above information was manipulated. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the results revealed that each of the three non‐performance related considerations accounted for variance incremental to objective employee performance. Managers' performance appraisal experience also predicted ratings, such that more experience was associated with lower ratings. These results provide support for the view that non‐performance factors can be a substantive component of performance ratings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.