Do male barn swallows (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Hirundo rustica</Emphasis>) experience a trade-off between the expression of multiple sexual signals?

Some sexual selection models envisage exaggerated male secondary sexual characters to be costly and therefore reliable indicators of the quality of potential mates to choosy females. If male secondary sexual characters have a natural selection cost, they may be linked to each other by reciprocally constraining relationships that would prevent individual males from increasing their level of multiple signaling. Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) males have at least two costly signals relevant to socio-sexual interactions: tail length and song. Under the hypothesis that a trade-off exists between male signals, we manipulated the maintenance cost of tail ornaments to test whether this reduced the quantity and quality of song, a condition-dependent, phenotypically plastic signal. Contrary to our expectation, tail elongation had no effect on singing activity and song complexity. However, tail-elongated males produced songs with longer terminal parts ('rattles'). Long rattles are associated with highly competitive social contexts and high circulating levels of testosterone, suggesting that tail-elongated males were more frequently involved in either male-male aggressive or inter-sexual interactions. Therefore, this study shows that males are not displaying multiple signals at the maximum possible level, implying that this system is open to unreliable communication. However, long-term trade-offs between signal expression and viability may prevent males from displaying both signals at higher rates.Communicated by: M. Webster     

Introducing adaptive waves as a concept to inform mental models of resilience

While ecological resilience is conceptually established, resilience concepts of social–ecological systems (SES) require further development, especially regarding their implementation in society. From the literature, (a) we identify the need for a revised conceptualization of SES resilience to improve its understanding for informing the development of adjusted mental models. (b) We stress the human capacity of social learning, enabling deliberate transformation of SES, for example of SES to higher scales of governance, thereby possibly increasing resilience. (c) We introduce the metaphor of adaptive waves to elucidate the differences between resilience planning and adaptation, by conceptualizing adaptation and transformation as dynamic processes that occur both inadvertently and deliberately in response to both shocks and to gradual changes. In this context, adaptive waves stress the human and social capacity to plan resilience with an intended direction and goal, and to dampen the negative effects of crises while understanding them as opportunities for innovation. (d) We illustrate the adaptive waves’ metaphor with three SES cases from tourism, forestry, and fisheries, where deliberate transformations of the governance structures lead to increased resilience on a higher governance scale. We conclude that conceptual SES resilience communication needs to clarify the role and potential of human and social capital in anticipating change and planning resilience, for example, on different scales of governance. It needs to emphasize the crucial importance of crises for innovation and transformation, relevant for the societal acceptance of crises as drivers of adaptation and transformation. The adaptive waves’ metaphor specifically communicates these aspects and may enhance the societal capacity, understanding, and willingness for planning resilience.     

The key role played by the Augusta basin (southern Italy) in the mercury contamination of the Mediterranean Sea

The Augusta basin, located in SE Sicily (southern Italy), is a semi-enclosed marine area, labelled as a highly contaminated site. The release of mercury into the harbour seawater and its dispersion to the blue water, make the Augusta basin a potential source of anthropogenic pollution for the Mediterranean Sea. A mass balance was implemented to calculate the HgT budget in the Augusta basin. Results suggest that an average of ～0.073 kmol of HgT is released, by diffusion, on a yearly basis, from sediments to the seawater, with a consequent output of 0.162 kmol y(-1) to coastal and offshore waters; this makes the Augusta area an important contributor of mercury to the Mediterranean Sea. Owing to the geographical location of the Augusta basin, its outflowing shelf-waters are immediately intercepted by the surface Atlantic Ionian Stream (AIS) and mixed with the main gyres of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, thus representing a risk for the large-scale marine system.     

Soils and sediments of the Thua Thien-Hue Province (central Vietnam): recognizing trace element sources and the likely influence of natural events

Trace element concentrations have been measured in soil and sediment samples taken from the Thua Thien Hue (TT-H) Province and the Tam Giang-Cau Hai (TG-CH) Lagoon in 2002 and 2004. Results show that the lagoon is only slightly contaminated by elements such as Ag, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn, whereas As, probably naturally enriched in this Asian region, reaches values above the lowest internationally accepted sediment quality guidelines. Concentrations in soils are ascribable to natural sources and distributions in the TG-CH Lagoon are mainly influenced by river inputs, with Ag and Cd undergoing estuarine desorption processes. However, concentration-depth profiles of most trace elements in sediments show a recent increasing trend that might be linked to the economic development of the area. The comparison of porosity and (210)Pb depth profiles (confirmed also by Cd and As) from repeated samplings of the same core locations in the TG-CH Lagoon seems to account for a loss of 5-10 cm of surficial sediment that took place during the time interval between the two samplings. It is hypothesized that extreme meteorological events (e.g. a major typhoon that hit the area in November 2003) could be responsible for such sediment displacement.     

基于游客视角的红色旅游资源开发价值共创机制

以井冈山风景名胜区作为案例地,基于价值共创理论,运用大数据分析与内容分析方法,收集并分析马蜂窝网站上井冈山景区的游记文本,构建红色旅游资源开发的价值共创机制：以历史文化遗产、自然景观资源和标志性景观符号为资源基础,游客通过红色文化体验、学习培训活动、解说服务体验和自然景观体验等实践活动,获得对红色历史文化的认知、情感的联结和价值观的塑造。另外,红色旅游景区现有的价值共创实践仍旧有限,红色旅游资源开发价值共创机制整合了游客需求、景区支持以及可能存在的价值共创实践,对创新红色旅游资源开发利用手段与产业转型升级具有实践意义。     

Evolution of the anthropogenic impact in the Augusta Harbor (Eastern Sicily,Italy) in the last decades: benthic foraminifera as indicators of environmental status

The study of benthic foraminifera in sediment cores provides the opportunity to recognize environmental changes, including those due to the anthropogenic impact. The integration of these data with chemical-physical parameters provides a comprehensive quality assessment. This research was applied to a sediment core collected in the Augusta bay, where a very large commercial and military harbor and one of the largest petrochemical poles in Europe are present. Inside the petrochemical area also operated, from 1958 to 2003, a chlor-alkali plant with mercury cell technology which caused anthropic contamination of surrounding land and marine areas. The sediment core was collected in front of this plant and characterized for grain size and pollutants directly associated to chlor-alkali activity, such as mercury (Hg), barium (Ba), polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Composition of foraminiferal assemblages and faunal parameters such as specific diversity, faunal density, abundance of abnormal specimens, and foraminiferal size were investigated as potential indicators of environmental status. Statistical analysis indicated a main common origin for Hg, Ba, and PCBs and the influence of pollutants on species distribution and faunal diversity and density. Exceptionally high Hg concentrations (63–680 mg/kg d.w.) were recorded in the whole core, where the geochronological study attributed the most contaminated levels to the period of maximum activity of the chlor-alkali plant, while a decrease of contamination was recorded after the stop of the activity. Distinct foraminiferal assemblages identified different ecozones along the core, which suggested decreasing anthropogenic impact from the bottom to the top.     

New regulatory requirements for class v underground injection control wells

New EPA regulations will require closure of certain Class V wells, and will impose significant costs on some well owners and operators. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Role of peat organic matter on isotopic composition of most abundant benthic organisms in intertidal habitats of SW Iceland

The transfer of peat organic matter (OM) from tidal pools of upper littoral to downstream rocky shores and its potential incorporation into marine biota were investigated using the stable isotope approach. Samplings were carried out in September 2004 in two SW Icelandic sites (Osar and Hvassahraun), where we selected (1) areas with shores where grass gently declined towards rocks and, on reaching the sea line, formed small tidal peat pools and (2) areas where grass and rocky shores were not contiguous, rather the grass lower limits were several hundreds of meters back from the shore. In both grass and no grass areas, in the intertidal zone, all benthic organisms and all potential OM sources were sampled. Dominant macroalgae were Ascophyllum nodosum ([Linnaeus] Le Jolis) and Fucus vesiculosus Linnaeus. In grass sites, organisms partially reflected the isotopic composition of peat OM, while in no grass sites, peat represented only a negligible amount of available OM, or its signal was totally absent from the environment. Intertidal organisms could rely on peat both directly by suspension feeding, grazing or scavenging and indirectly by predation (crabs) on low level consumers (barnacles).