Simulating population variation and movement within fragmented landscapes: An application to the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus)

As the human activity footprint grows, land-use decisions play an increasing role in determining the future of plant and animal species. Studies have shown that urban and agricultural development cannot only harm species populations directly through habitat destruction, but also by destroying the corridors that connect habitat patches and populations within a metapopulation. Without these pathways, populations can encounter inbreeding depression and degeneration, which can increase death rates and lower rates of reproduction. This article describes the development and application of the FRAGGLE model, a spatial system dynamics model designed to calculate connectivity indices among populations. FRAGGLE can help planners and managers identify the relative contribution of populations associated with habitat patches to future populations in those patches, taking into account the importance of interstitial land to migration success. The model is applied to the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus), a threatened species whose southeastern U.S. distribution has diminished significantly within its native range due to agricultural and urban development over the last several decades. This model is parameterized with life history and movement traits of the gopher tortoise in order to simulate population demographics and spatial distribution within an area in west-central Georgia that supports a significant tortoise population. The implications of this simulation modeling effort are demonstrated using simple landscape representations and a hypothetical on land-use management scenario. Our findings show that development resulting in even limited habitat losses (10%) may lead to significant increases in fragmentation as measured by a loss in the rate of dispersions (31%) among area subpopulations.     

IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONING AND HEALTH1

ABSTRACT: We review published analyses of the effects of climate change on goods and services provided by freshwater ecosystems in the United States. Climate-induced changes must be assessed in the context of massive anthropogenic changes in water quantity and quality resulting from altered patterns of land use, water withdrawal, and species invasions; these may dwarf or exacerbate climate-induced changes. Water to meet instream needs is competing with other uses of water, and that competition is likely to be increased by climate change. We review recent predictions of the impacts of climate change on aquatic ecosystems in eight regions of North America. Impacts include warmer temperatures that alter lake mixing regimes and availability of fish habitat; changed magnitude and seasonality of runoff regimes that alter nutrient loading and limit habitat availability at low flow; and loss of prairie pothole wetlands that reduces waterfowl populations. Many of the predicted changes in aquatic ecosystems are a consequence of climatic effects on terrestrial ecosystems; shifts in riparian vegetation and hydrology are particularly critical. We review models that could be used to explore potential effects of climate change on freshwater ecosystems; these include models of instream flow, bioenergetics models, nutrient spiraling models, and models relating riverine food webs to hydrologic regime. We discuss potential ecological risks, benefits, and costs of climate change and identify information needs and model improvements that are required to improve our ability to predict and identify climate change impacts and to evaluate management options.     

Characterization of non-extractable ¹⁴C- and ¹³C-sulfadiazine residues in soil including simultaneous amendment of pig manure

Recently, we reported on soil fate of SDZ residues amended with pig manure treated with 1?C-labeled sulfadiazine 1?C-SDZ). The first objective of the present study was to determine whether this strategy can be substituted by application of 1?C-SDZ to soil. The second objective was to characterize non-extractable SDZ residues by fractionation, size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and solid state 13C-NMR. The fate of 1?C-SDZ was examined for 28 d, using two soils with and without amendment of pig manure. Mineralization of 1?C-SDZ was low; extractable residues decreased to 7-30%. Compared to the previous study, results were similar. 1?C-SDZ derived bound radioactivity was found in HCl-washings, fulvic, humic acids and humin. According to SEC, one bound 1?C portion (70%) co-eluted with fulvic acids (above 910 g mol?1); the other consisted of adsorbed/entrapped 1?C-SDZ. The 13C-SDZ study was performed for 30 d; humic acids were examined by 13C-NMR. A signal (100-150 ppm) was referred to 13C-SDZ. SEC and 13C-NMR demonstrated rapid integration of SDZ into humics.     

Comparison of Two Spatial Optimization Techniques: A Framework to Solve Multiobjective Land Use Distribution Problems

Two spatial optimization approaches, developed from the opposing perspectives of ecological economics and landscape planning and aimed at the definition of new distributions of farming systems and of land use elements, are compared and integrated into a general framework. The first approach, applied to a small river catchment in southwestern France, uses SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) and a weighted goal programming model in combination with a geographical information system (GIS) for the determination of optimal farming system patterns, based on selected objective functions to minimize deviations from the goals of reducing nitrogen and maintaining income. The second approach, demonstrated in a suburban landscape near Leipzig, Germany, defines a GIS-based predictive habitat model for the search of unfragmented regions suitable for hare populations (Lepus europaeus), followed by compromise optimization with the aim of planning a new habitat structure distribution for the hare. The multifunctional problem is solved by the integration of the three landscape functions (“production of cereals,” “resistance to soil erosion by water,” and “landscape water retention”). Through the comparison, we propose a framework for the definition of optimal land use patterns based on optimization techniques. The framework includes the main aspects to solve land use distribution problems with the aim of finding the optimal or best land use decisions. It integrates indicators, goals of spatial developments and stakeholders, including weighting, and model tools for the prediction of objective functions and risk assessments. Methodological limits of the uncertainty of data and model outcomes are stressed. The framework clarifies the use of optimization techniques in spatial planning.     

A GIS Framework for Regional Modeling of Riverine Nitrogen Transport: Case Study,San Antonio and Guadalupe Basins

This article presents a framework for integrating a regional geographic information system (GIS)‐based nitrogen dataset (Texas Anthropogenic Nitrogen Dataset, TX‐ANB) and a GIS‐based river routing model (Routing Application for Parallel computation of Discharge) to simulate steady‐state riverine total nitrogen (TN) transport in river networks containing thousands of reaches. A two‐year case study was conducted in the San Antonio and Guadalupe basins during dry and wet years (2008 and 2009, respectively). This article investigates TN export in urbanized (San Antonio) vs. rural (Guadalupe) drainage basins and considers the effect of reservoirs on TN transport. Simulated TN export values are within 10 percent of measured export values for selected stations in 2008 and 2009. Results show that in both years the San Antonio basin contributed a larger quantity than the Guadalupe basin of delivered TN to the coastal ocean. The San Antonio basin is affected by urban activities including point sources, associated with the city of San Antonio, in addition to greater agricultural activities. The Guadalupe basin lacks major metropolitan areas and is dominated by rangeland, rather than fertilized agricultural fields. Both basins delivered more TN to coastal waters in 2009 than in 2008. Furthermore, TN removal in the San Antonio and Guadalupe basins is inversely related to stream orders: the higher the order the more TN delivery (or the less TN removal).     

Evaluation of a four year intervention to reduce musculoskeletal hazards among berry growers

PROBLEM: Fresh market berry production workers are exposed to physical risk factors for musculoskeletal injury. METHOD: We disseminated information through trade publications and other sources to berry managers in seven U.S. states about five prevention through design practices that were both safer and more profitable than traditional methods. We administered mail evaluation questionnaires prior to the intervention and after each of four intervention years to rolling, independent U.S. samples and to comparison New Zealand berry farm manager samples after years one through three. RESULTS: U.S. manager self-reports of reading trade publication information increased compared to baseline values for two of five practices and self-reported awareness increased for four of five practices. There were no increases in adoption. More U.S. than New Zealand managers reported getting information about two practices from trade publications and about four practices from public events. No U.S. versus New Zealand differences were observed in reported awareness or adoption for any practice. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: This study showed that even a modest campaign can build awareness of safer practices fairly quickly in three to four years among small agricultural firms but that increasing adoption apparently requires more time. Widespread adoption of safer practices could help keep operators in business longer as they age by reducing the workload and musculoskeletal strain associated with labor intensive crop production for them and their workforce. Adoption of practices that also improve profits, like the five practices featured in this study, could also help managers stay in business.     

Origin of the antitropical distribution pattern in marine mussels (Mytilus spp.): routes and timing of transequatorial migration

Many marine species, including mussels in the Mytilus edulis species group (i.e. M. edulis L., M. galloprovincialis Lamarck, and M. trossulus Gould), have an antitropical distribution pattern, with closely related taxa occurring in high latitudes of the northern and southern hemispheres but being absent from the tropics. We tested four hypotheses to explain the timing and route of transequatorial migration by species with antitropical distributions. These hypotheses yield different predictions for the phylogenetic relationship of southern hemisphere taxa relative to their northern counter-parts. The three Mytilus species were used to test these hypotheses since they exhibit a typical antitropical distribution and representative taxa occur in both the Pacific and Atlantic. Two types of mtDNA lineages were found among populations of mussels collected from the southern hemisphere between 1988 and 1996; over 90% of the mtDNA lineages formed a distinct subclade which, on average, had 1.4% divergence from haplotypes found exclusively in northern Atlantic populations of M. galloprovincialis. These data indicate that southern hemisphere mussels arose from a migration event from the northern hemisphere during the Pleistocene via an Atlantic route. The remainder of the southern hemisphere lineages (<10%) were very closely related to mtDNA haplotypes found in both M. edulis and M. galloprovincialis in the northern hemisphere, suggesting a second, more recent migration to the southern hemisphere. There was no evidence that southern hemisphere mussels arose from Pacific populations of mussels. Received: 8 December 1998 / Accepted: 8 November 1999     

A global perspective on the use, sales, exposure pathways, occurrence, fate and effects of veterinary antibiotics (VAs) in the environment

Veterinary antibiotics (VAs) are widely used in many countries worldwide to treat disease and protect the health of animals. They are also incorporated into animal feed to improve growth rate and feed efficiency. As antibiotics are poorly adsorbed in the gut of the animals, the majority is excreted unchanged in faeces and urine. Given that land application of animal waste as a supplement to fertilizer is often a common practice in many countries, there is a growing international concern about the potential impact of antibiotic residues on the environment. Frequent use of antibiotics has also raised concerns about increased antibiotic resistance of microorganisms. We have attempted in this paper to summarize the latest information available in the literature on the use, sales, exposure pathways, environmental occurrence, fate and effects of veterinary antibiotics in animal agriculture. The review has focused on four important groups of antibiotics (tylosin, tetracycline, sulfonamides and, to a lesser extent, bacitracin) giving a background on their chemical nature, fate processes, occurrence, and effects on plants, soil organisms and bacterial community. Recognising the importance and the growing debate, the issue of antibiotic resistance due to the frequent use of antibiotics in food-producing animals is also briefly covered. The final section highlights some unresolved questions and presents a way forward on issues requiring urgent attention.     

Biogeochemical consequences of rapid microbial turnover and seasonal succession in soil

Soil microbial communities have the metabolic and genetic capability to adapt to changing environmental conditions on very short time scales. In this paper we combine biogeochemical and molecular approaches to reveal this potential, showing that microbial biomass can turn over on time scales of days to months in soil, resulting in a succession of microbial communities over the course of a year. This new understanding of the year-round turnover and succession of microbial communities allows us for the first time to propose a temporally explicit N cycle that provides mechanistic hypotheses to explain both the loss and retention of dissolved organic N (DON) and inorganic N (DIN) throughout the year in terrestrial ecosystems. In addition, our results strongly support the hypothesis that turnover of the microbial community is the largest source of DON and DIN for plant uptake during the plant growing season. While this model of microbial biogeochemistry is derived from observed dynamics in the alpine, we present several examples from other ecosystems to indicate that the general ideas of biogeochemical fluxes being linked to turnover and succession of microbial communities are applicable to a wide range of terrestrial ecosystems.