Toward quantification of the impact of 21st‐century deforestation on the extinction risk of terrestrial vertebrates

Conservation actions need to be prioritized, often taking into account species’ extinction risk. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List provides an accepted, objective framework for the assessment of extinction risk. Assessments based on data collected in the field are the best option, but the field data to base these on are often limited. Information collected through remote sensing can be used in place of field data to inform assessments. Forests are perhaps the best‐studied land‐cover type for use of remote‐sensing data. Using an open‐access 30‐m resolution map of tree cover and its change between 2000 and 2012, we assessed the extent of forest cover and loss within the distributions of 11,186 forest‐dependent amphibians, birds, and mammals worldwide. For 16 species, forest loss resulted in an elevated extinction risk under red‐list criterion A, owing to inferred rapid population declines. This number increased to 23 when data‐deficient species (i.e., those with insufficient information for evaluation) were included. Under red‐list criterion B2, 484 species (855 when data‐deficient species were included) were considered at elevated extinction risk, owing to restricted areas of occupancy resulting from little forest cover remaining within their ranges. The proportion of species of conservation concern would increase by 32.8% for amphibians, 15.1% for birds, and 24.7% for mammals if our suggested uplistings are accepted. Central America, the Northern Andes, Madagascar, the Eastern Arc forests in Africa, and the islands of Southeast Asia are hotspots for these species. Our results illustrate the utility of satellite imagery for global extinction‐risk assessment and measurement of progress toward international environmental agreement targets.     

Pastoralists' responses to variation of rangeland resources in time and space.

We explore the response of pastoralists to rangeland resource variation in time and space, focusing on regions where high variation makes it unlikely that an economically viable herd can be maintained on a single management unit. In such regions, the need to move stock to find forage in at least some years has led to the evolution of nomadism and transhumance, and reciprocal grazing agreements among the holders of common-property rangeland. The role of such informal institutions in buffering resource variation is well documented in some Asian and African rangelands, but in societies with formally established private-property regimes, where we focus, such institutions have received little attention. We examine agistment networks, which play an important role in buffering resource variation in modern-day Australia. Agistment is a commercial arrangement between pastoralists who have less forage than they believe they require and pastoralists who believe they have more. Agistment facilitates the movement of livestock via a network based largely on trust. We are concerned exclusively with the link between the characteristics of biophysical variation and human aspects of agistment networks, and we developed a model to test the hypothesis that such a link could exist. Our model builds on game theory literature, which explains cooperation between strangers based on the ability of players to learn whom they can trust. Our game is played on a highly stylized landscape that allows us to control and isolate the degree of spatial variation and spatial covariation. We found that agistment networks are more effective where spatial variation in resource availability is high, and generally more effective when spatial covariation is low. Policy design that seeks to work with existing social networks in rangelands has potential, but this potential varies depending on localized characteristics of the biophysical variability.     

Home range and social behavior of three species of European Pitymys (Mammalia,Rodentia)

Summary Habits, home range, and social behavior of three species of voles of the genus Pitymys, P. multiplex, P. subterraneus, and P. savii, were studied in Tessin (Switzerland) by radioactive tagging. P. multiplex and P. savii are fossorial and often use the burrow systems of moles (Talpa); P. subterraneus moves around on the surface under dense vegetation. Males and females of P. multiplex were territorial and their home ranges averaged 342 and 229 m² respectively. The mating system appeared to be monogamous. P. savii male and female home ranges averaged 445 and 298 m² respectively. Groups of up to one to three adult females, one or more adult males, and several young, occupied exclusive communal territories. The mating system appeared to be flexible, including monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry. P. subterraneus females occupied exclusive territories (mean 256 m²) overlapped by the home ranges of one or more males (1025 m²). The mating system appeared to be promiscuous. Individuals of the three species occupied one to seven nests. In P. savii all family members utilized three or more communal nests at the same time or alternatively. Co-nesting between males and females of P. multiplex or P. subterraneus were observed less frequently.     

Investigation on the chemical structure of nonextractable residues of the fungicide cyprodinil in spring wheat using 13C-C1-phenyl-cyprodinil on 13C-depleted plants-an alternative approach to investigate nonextractable residues

13C-labelled cyprodinil was applied on 13C-depleted wheat plants with 27-fold field application rate. A control experiment applying same amounts of 14C-cyprodinil showed that main portions of the residues were detected in the cellulose (15% NER), hemicellulose (28.3% NER), and lignin fraction (23.3% NER). 16.7% were detected in water soluble polymers, 6% in both, pectin and protein fraction, and 4% in the starch containing fraction. Free cyprodinil was detectable by TLC in all fractions except lignin. A direct characterization of the residues in vivo by CP-MAS was not successful. Cell wall fractions were further analysed by liquid state NMR to determine the structure of the mobilized highly polymer/polar residues: Within lignin, where most of the residues were located at field application rate, neither intact cyprodinil nor its metabolites could not be detected. The 13C-label introduced was probably incorporated in the polymer as natural lignin monomers and thus are not considered as bound residues according to IUPAC definition.     

Prediction of pesticide volatilization with PELMO 3.31

In the current EU risk assessment for pesticide registration, the European Community requires prediction of the concentration of each pesticide in air. A number of mathematical models are used to assess the fate of pesticides in groundwater, surface water and soil. PELMO 3.20 calculates the volatilization fluxes from bare soil and was improved in the new version PELMO 3.31 to include the effect of temperature and sorption in dry soil. The objective of this study was to evaluate the new version of PELMO 3.31 in predicting the pesticide volatilization under field conditions. Procymidone, malathion, and ethoprophos were the test compounds in two different seasons (autumn and winter). Comparing simulation results obtained with PELMO 3.31, after calibration, with the previous version PELMO 3.20 shows that the estimated volatilization results seems improved for malathion, similar or slightly overestimating in the warmer season for ethoprophos, and similar or slightly underestimating in the colder season for procymidone. The new release of PELMO allows a more accurate estimation of pesticides volatilization from soil as function of meteorological factors, especially for medium or low volatility pesticides. Some difficulties remain, such as the determination of the active air layer and the sorption increment with the soil drying.     

The burrowing crab Neohelice granulata as potential bioindicator of heavy metals in estuarine systems of the Atlantic coast of Argentina

This paper presents the concentrations of total copper, lead, cadmium, and zinc in hepatopancreas of the burrowing crab Neohelice granulata from the Samboromb??n Bay (La Plata River estuary) and the Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon, Argentina. The highest accumulation of lead was observed in Mar Chiquita samples, whereas copper, zinc, and cadmium concentrations were higher in those from Samboromb??n Bay. Marked temporal and geographic availability differences were observed, while sexual differences only were observed for zinc. Finally, the validity of using this species as bioindicator of heavy-metal pollution within the assessed estuarine ecosystems is discussed.     

Exploratory field trial of motorcycle autonomous emergency braking (MAEB): Considerations on the acceptability of unexpected automatic decelerations

Objective: Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) acts to slow down a vehicle when an unavoidable impending collision is detected. In addition to documented benefits when applied to passenger cars, AEB has also shown potential when applied to motorcycles (MAEB). However, the feasibility of MAEB as practically applied to motorcycles in the real world is not well understood.

Methods: In this study we performed a field trial involving 16 riders on a test motorcycle subjected to automatic decelerations, thus simulating MAEB activation. The tests were conducted along a rectilinear path at nominal speed of 40 km/h and with mean deceleration of 0.15 g (15% of full braking) deployed at random times. Riders were also exposed to one final undeclared brake activation with the aim of providing genuinely unexpected automatic braking events.

Results: Participants were consistently able to manage automatic decelerations of the vehicle with minor to moderate effort. Results of undeclared activations were consistent with those of standard runs.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated the feasibility of a moderate automatic deceleration in a scenario of motorcycle travelling in a straight path, supporting the notion that the application of AEB on motorcycles is practicable. Furthermore, the proposed field trial can be used as a reference for future regulation or consumer tests in order to address safety and acceptability of unexpected automatic decelerations on a motorcycle.     

Variability of ozone concentration in a montane environment,northern Italy

To evaluate the spatial variability of ozone concentrations, two studies were undertaken in the montane environment of Trentino region, northern Italy, in 2007. In the first study, a 225 km² area was considered. Here, a randomized design was used to evaluate the variability of ozone concentration at 1 and 225 km² scale. Measurements were carried out by passive samplers between May and June 2007. In a second study, the whole 6207 km² area of Trentino was considered. The area is covered by five grid cells of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP). A systematic 15 × 15 km grid was used to allocate 15 passive samplers over the entire province, resulting into 1–4 samplers for each of the 5 EMEP grid cells (2500 km² each) overlapping the study area. Measurements were carried out between June and September 2007. Accuracy of passive samplers was checked by direct comparison with conventional ozone analysers. Significant differences (P = 0.034) were found in ozone concentration among 1 × 1 km quadrates within the 225 km² study area, while variability within the 1 × 1 km grid cells (coefficient of variation, CV′ = 0.12) slightly exceed the measurement error (CV′ = 0.08). At larger scales (225, 2500 and 6207 km²), ozone concentration shows much higher variability (CV′ from 0.18 to 0.28, with peak values at 0.40). Reported differences lead to very different AOT40 estimates even within the same EMEP grid cell. These findings suggest that 1 × 1 km resolution seems appropriate for ozone concentration modelling. On the other hand, significant sub-grid variation may exist at the resolution adopted by the EMEP model. Coupled with the likely variability of other important meteorological, soil and vegetation variables, our findings suggest that ozone risk assessment for vegetation based on large-scale modelled AOT40 and flux needs to be considered with great caution. The evidence reported in this paper asks for more detailed national-scale modelling, and the development of methods to incorporate local scale variations into large-scale models.