High bat (Chiroptera) diversity in the Early Eocene of India

The geographic origin of bats is still unknown, and fossils of earliest bats are rare and poorly diversified, with, maybe, the exception of Europe. The earliest bats are recorded from the Early Eocene of North America, Europe, North Africa and Australia where they seem to appear suddenly and simultaneously. Until now, the oldest record in Asia was from the Middle Eocene. In this paper, we report the discovery of the oldest bat fauna of Asia dating from the Early Eocene of the Cambay Formation at Vastan Lignite Mine in Western India. The fossil taxa are described on the basis of well-preserved fragments of dentaries and lower teeth. The fauna is highly diversified and is represented by seven species belonging to seven genera and at least four families. Two genera and five species are new. Three species exhibit very primitive dental characters, whereas four others indicate more advanced states. Unexpectedly, this fauna presents strong affinities with the European faunas from the French Paris Basin and the German Messel locality. This could result from the limited fossil record of bats in Asia, but could also suggest new palaeobiogeographic scenarios involving the relative position of India during the Early Eocene.     

Adaptation and mitigation as complementary tools for reducing the risk of climate impacts

This paper uses the likelihood of flooding along Brahmaputra and Ganges Rivers in India to explore the hypothesis that adaptation and mitigation can be viewed as complements rather than sustitutes. For futures where climate change will produce smooth, monotonic and manageable effects, adopting a mitigation strategy is shown to increase the ability of adaptation to reduce the likelihood of crossing critical threshold of tolerable climate. For futures where climate change will produce variable impacts overtime, though, it is possible that mitigation will make adaptation less productive for some time intervals. In cases of exaggerated climate change, adaptation may fail entirely regardless of how much mitigation is applied. Judging the degree of complementarity is therefore an empirical question because the relative efficacy of adaptation is site specific and path dependent. It follows that delibrations over climate policy should rely more on detailed analyses of how the distributions of possible impacts of climate might change over space and time.

LAND COVER AS A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING RISK OF WATER POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: A survey of numerous field studies shows that nitrogen and phosphorous export coefficients are significantly different across forest, agriculture, and urban land‐cover types. We used simulations to estimate the land‐cover composition at which there was a significant risk of nutrient loads representative of watersheds without forest cover. The results suggest that at between 20 percent and 30 percent nonforest cover, there is a 10 percent or greater chance of N or P nutrient loads being equivalent to the median values of predominantly agricultural or urban watersheds. The methods apply to environmental management for assessing the risk to increased nonpoint nutrient pollution. Interpretation of the risk measures are discussed relative to their application for a single watershed and across a region comprised of several watersheds.     

Exploited species impacts on trophic linkages along reef-seagrass interfaces in the Florida Keys

The removal of fish biomass by extensive commercial and recreational fishing has been hypothesized to drastically alter the strength of trophic linkages among adjacent habitats. We evaluated the effects of removing predatory fishes on trophic transfers between coral reefs and adjacent seagrass meadows by comparing fish community structure, grazing intensity, and invertebrate predation potential in predator-rich no-take sites and nearby predator-poor fished sites in the Florida Keys (USA). Exploited fishes were more abundant at the no-take sites than at the fished sites. Most of the exploited fishes were either omnivores or invertivores. More piscivores were recorded at no-take sites, but most (approximately 95%) were moderately fished and unexploited species (barracuda and bar jacks, respectively). Impacts of these consumers on lower trophic levels were modest. Herbivorous and smaller prey fish (< 10 cm total length) densities and seagrass grazing diminished with distance from reefs and were not negatively impacted by the elevated densities of exploited fishes at no-take sites. Predation by reef fishes on most tethered invertebrates was high, but exploited species impacts varied with prey type. The results of the study show that, even though abundances of reef-associated fishes have been reduced at fished sites, there is little evidence that this has produced cascading trophic effects or interrupted cross-habitat energy exchanges between coral reefs and seagrasses.     

Numerical and behavioral effects within a pulse-driven system: consequences for shared prey

Some of the clearest examples of the ramifying effects of resource pulses exist in deciduous forests dominated by mast-producing trees, such as oaks, beech, and hornbeam. Seed production in these forests represents only the first of several pulsed events. Secondary pulses emerge as mast-consuming small rodents numerically respond to seed production and tertiary pulses emerge as generalist predators numerically respond to rodents. Raptors may also respond behaviorally (i.e., diet shifts) to subsequent crashes in small rodents following the crash phase in seed production. In oak-dominated forest in the Hudson Valley, New York, these various pulse and crash phases act synergistically, although not simultaneously, to influence thrush population dynamics through predation on nests, juveniles, and adults. As a consequence, factors limiting population growth rate and their age-specific action vary as a function of past acorn production. We highlight these interactions based on our eight-year study of thrush demography, acorn production, and small mammal abundance coupled with information on regional adult thrush population trends from the Breeding Bird Survey. We use these data sets to demonstrate the sequence of primary to tertiary pulses and how they influence breeding thrush populations. To extend our discussion beyond masting phenomena in the eastern United States, we briefly review the literature of alternative avian prey within pulsed systems to show (1) numerical and behavioral responses by generalist predators are ubiquitous in pulsed systems, and this contributes to (2) variability in reproduction and survivorship of avian prey linked to the underlying dynamics of the pulse. We conclude by exploring the broad consequences of cascading resource pulses for alternative prey based upon the indirect interaction of apparent competition among shared prey and the nature of temporal variability on populations.     

Estimating the Frequency and Extent of Overbank Flow of a Baseflow‐Dominated Stream Flowing through a Wetland

River floodplains provide critical habitat for a wide range of animal and plant species and reduce phosphorus and nitrogen loads in streams. It has been observed that baseflow‐dominated streams flowing through wetlands are commonly at or near bankfull and overflow their banks much more frequently than other streams. However, there is very little published quantitative support for this observation. The study focuses on a 1‐km reach of Black Earth Creek, a stream in the Midwestern United States (U.S.). We used one‐dimensional hydraulic modeling to estimate bankfull discharge at evenly spaced stream cross sections, and two‐dimensional modeling to quantitate the extent of wetland inundation as a function of discharge. We then used historical streamflow data from two U.S. Geological Survey gaging stations to quantitate the frequency of wetland inundation. For the with‐sediment case, the frequency of overbank conditions at the 38 cross sections in the wetland ranged from 3 to 85 days per year and averaged 43 days per year. Ten percent of the wetland was inundated for an average of 35 days per year. For the without‐sediment case, the frequency of overbank conditions ranged from 2.6 to 48 days per year and averaged 14 days per year. Also, 10% of the wetland was inundated for an average of 25 days per year. These unusually high rates of floodplain inundation are likely due in part to the very low stream gradient and shallow depths of overbank flow.     

Malathion dermal permeability in relation to dermal load: Assessment by physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling of in vivo human data

Estimates of dermal permeability (K_p), obtained by fitting an updated human PBPK model for malathion to previously reported data on excreted urinary metabolites after 29 volunteers were dermally exposed to measured values of [¹⁴C]malathion dermal load (L), were used to examine the empirical relationship between K_p and L. The PBPK model was adapted from previously reported human biokinetic and PBPK models for malathion, fit to previously reported urinary excretion data after oral [¹⁴C]malathion intake by volunteers, and then augmented to incorporate a standard K_p approach to modeling dermal-uptake kinetics. Good to excellent PBPK-model fits were obtained to all of 29 sets of cumulative urinary metabolite-excretion data (ave. [±1 SD] R² = 0.953 [±0.064]). Contrary to the assumption that K_p and L are independent typically applied for dermally administered liquids or solutions, the 29 PBPK-based estimates of K_p obtained for malathion exhibit a strong positive association with the 2/3rds power of L (log-log Pearson correlation = 0.925, p = ～0). Possible explanations of this observation involving physico-chemical characteristics and/or in vivo cutaneous effects of malathion are discussed. The PBPK model presented, and our observation that K_p estimates obtained by fitting this model to human experimental urinary-excretion data correlate well with L^2/3, allow more realistic assessments of absorbed and metabolized dose during or after a variety of scenarios involving actual or potential dermal or multi-route malathion exposures, including for pesticide workers or farmers who apply malathion to crops.     

Significant Escherichia coli attenuation by vegetative buffers on annual grasslands

A study was conducted to estimate the retention efficiency of vegetative buffers for Escherichia coli deposited on grasslands in cattle fecal deposits and subject to natural rainfall-runoff conditions. The study was conducted on annual grasslands in California's northern Sierra Nevada foothills, a region with a distinct wet-dry season Mediterranean climate. We used 48, 2.0- by 3.0-m runoff plots to examine the efficacy of 0.1-, 1.1-, and 2.1-m buffers at three land slopes (5, 20, and 35%) and four dry vegetation matter levels (225, 560, 900, and 4500 kg/ha) across 27 rainfall-runoff events during two rainfall seasons. Buffer width treatments were implemented by placement of cattle fecal material containing known loads of E. coli 0.1, 1.1, or 2.1 m upslope of the plot runoff collector. Mean total runoff to total rainfall ratio per plot ranged from 0.014:1 to 0.019:1 and reflected the high infiltration capacity of these soils. Approximately 94.8 to 99.995% of total E. coli load applied to each plot appears to be either retained in the fecal pat and/or attenuated within 0.1 m downslope of the fecal pat, irrespective of the presence of a wider vegetated buffer. Relative to a 0.1-m buffer, we found 0.3 to 3.1 log10 reduction in E. coli discharge per additional meter of vegetative buffer across the range of residual dry vegetation matter levels, land slope, and rainfall and runoff conditions experienced during this project. Buffer efficiency was significantly reduced as runoff increased. These results support the assertion that grassland buffers are an effective method for reducing animal agricultural inputs of waterborne E. coli into surface waters.     

Effect of grinding and heating on Ni2+ uptake properties of waste paper sludge

Uptake properties of Ni2+ were examined for unmilled and milled paper sludge calcined at various temperatures to develop a new usage of waste paper sludge. Since paper sludge mainly consists of cellulose ([C6H(10)O5]n) fibers, calcite (CaCO3), kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) and talc (Mg3Si(4)O(10)(OH)2), amorphous and crystalline CaO(MgO)-Al(2)O(3)-SiO(2) compounds are formed by calcining paper sludge. Wet and dry milling treatments were performed to accelerate solid-state reaction to form the above mentioned target compounds. The crystalline phases originally present decompose at increasing calcining temperature (up to 800 degrees C) in the order cellulose 相似文献