Nitrogen retention in urban lawns and forests

Lawns are a dominant cover type in urban ecosystems, and there is concern about their impacts on water quality. However, recent watershed-level studies suggest that these pervious areas might be net sinks, rather than sources, for nitrogen (N) in the urban environment. A 15N pulse-labeling experiment was performed on lawn and forest plots in the Baltimore (Maryland, U.S.A.) metropolitan area to test the hypothesis that lawns are a net sink for atmospheric-N deposition and to compare and contrast mechanisms of N retention in these vegetation types. A pulse of 15N-NO3-, simulating a precipitation event, was followed through mineral soils, roots, Oi-layer/thatch, aboveground biomass, microbial biomass, inorganic N, and evolved N2 gas over a one-year period. The 15N label was undetectable in gaseous samples, but enrichment of other pools was high. Gross rates of production and consumption of NO3- and NH4+ were measured to assess differences in internal N cycling under lawns and forests. Rates of N retention were similar during the first five days of the experiment, with lawns showing higher N retention than forests after 10, 70, and 365 days. Lawns had larger pools of available NO3- and NH4+; however, gross rates of mineralization and nitrification were also higher, leading to no net differences in NO3- and NH4+ turnover times between the two systems. Levels of 15N remained steady in forest mineral soils from day 70 to 365 (at 23% of applied 15N), but continued to accumulate in lawn mineral soils over this same time period, increasing from 20% to 33% of applied 15N. The dominant sink for N in lawn plots changed over time. Immobilization in mineral soils dominated immediately (one day) after tracer application (42% of recovered 15N); plant biomass dominated the short term (10 days; 51%); thatch and mineral-soil pools together dominated the medium term (70 days; 28% and 36%, respectively); and the mineral-soil pool alone dominated long-term retention (one year; 70% of recovered 15N). These findings illustrate the mechanisms whereby urban and suburban lawns under low to moderate management intensities are an important sink for atmospheric-N deposition.     

Do yellow-bellied marmots respond to predator vocalizations?

We conducted four experiments to determine whether yellow-bellied marmots, Marmota flaviventris, discriminate among predator vocalizations, and if so, whether the recognition mechanism is learned or experience-independent. First, we broadcast to marmots the social sounds of coyotes, Canis latrans, wolves, Canis lupus, and golden eagles, Aquila chrysaetos, as well as conspecific alarm calls. Coyotes and eagles are extant predators at our study site, while wolves have been absent since the mid-1930s. In three follow-up experiments, we reversed the eagle call and presented marmots with forward and reverse calls to control for response to general properties of call structure rather than those specifically associated with eagles, we tested for novelty by comparing responses to familiar and unfamiliar birds, and we tested for the duration of predator sounds by comparing a wolf howl (that was much longer than the coyote in the first experiment) with a long coyote howl of equal duration to the original wolf. Marmots suppressed foraging and increased looking most after presentation of the conspecific alarm call and least after that of the coyote in the first experiment, with moderate responses to wolf and eagle calls. Marmots responded more to the forward eagle call than the reverse call, a finding consistent with a recognition template. Marmots did not differentiate vocalizations from the novel and familiar birds, suggesting that novelty itself did not explain our results. Furthermore, marmots did not differentiate between a wolf howl and a coyote howl of equal duration, suggesting that the duration of the vocalizations played a role in the marmots’ response. Our results show that marmots may respond to predators based solely on acoustic stimuli. The response to currently novel wolf calls suggests that they have an experience-independent ability to identify certain predators acoustically. Marmots’ response to predator vocalizations is not unexpected because 25 of 30 species in which acoustic predator discrimination has been studied have a demonstrated ability to respond selectively to cues from their predators.     

Spatial variation of otolith elemental signatures among juvenile gray snapper (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Lutjanus griseus</Emphasis>) inhabiting southern Florida waters

Juvenile gray snapper, Lutjanus griseus, are believed to use bays and estuaries in southern Florida as nurseries before moving out to the adjoining reef tract as adults. Using high-resolution sector field-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS), the elemental chemistry of the otoliths of juveniles from five nursery regions was resolved by establishing elemental “signatures” for each region. In this study we simultaneously analyzed 32 elements including a suite of rare earth elements. A stepwise variable selection procedure retained a subset of eight elements that contributed substantially to separating otolith samples, including two rare earth elements; this is one of the first studies in which rare earth elements in otoliths have contributed to separation of fish stocks. The classification success rate in assigning fishes to the correct region of origin was 82%. Resolution of sites less than 10 km apart suggested high site fidelity in juvenile gray snapper and little mixing of water masses between sites. The juvenile nursery signatures will be used to determine the relative contribution of different nurseries to the adult population on an adjoining reef tract.     

Spatial variability of infaunal nematode and polychaete assemblages in two muddy subtidal habitats

Spatial variation of populations and their assemblages is an important component of many aspects of ecology, including the maintenance of species diversity. In nature, organisms are generally aggregated in patches or form gradients or other spatially related patterns. This investigation quantified the degree of spatial structure in benthic invertebrate assemblages. It examined the distribution of infaunal assemblages of different size, mobility and contrasting life-history strategies (i.e. meiofaunal nematodes and macrofaunal polychaetes) in two offshore muddy habitats in the Celtic Deep and the NW Irish Sea off the west coast of the United Kingdom. The more heterogeneous habitat in the NW Irish Sea was characterised by higher tidal stress and bottom temperature while greater water depth, mean particle diameter and organic carbon content was typical for the comparatively homogeneous environment in the Celtic Deep. In both habitats, the environmental conditions became increasingly dissimilar with separation. A total of 125 nematode and 88 polychaete species were recorded with 69% of the nematode and 49% of polychaete species present at both study sites. Occurrence frequency of species, species diversity and average similarity of assemblage composition was higher in the Celtic Deep than in the NW Irish Sea. Results from correlation analyses revealed statistically robust relationships of community similarity and sample distance. Given their small size and low mobility, nematodes were more susceptible to within-habitat physical variability than larger-sized, more mobile polychaetes. This, coupled with limits to long-distance dispersal and likely restrictions in gene flow, resulted in a significant decrease in community similarity with distance at the spatial scales sampled (i.e. within 0.1–23 km). Polychaetes, in contrast, combined a higher dispersal potential (>23 km) with a relatively high tolerance to within-habitat environmental variability and these were the most likely causes for non-significant relationships between the similarity of their assemblages and sample distance. The potential mechanisms causing the observed variation and implications of results for environmental management strategies are discussed. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Long-term changes in coral colony size distributions on Kenyan reefs under different management regimes and across the 1998 bleaching event

Colony size is an important life-history characteristic of corals and changes in colony size will have significant effects on coral populations. This study summarizes ∼21,000 haphazard colony size measurements of 26 common coral taxa (mostly coral genera) collected annually between 1992 and 2006 in seven Kenyan reef lagoons. There was a major coral bleaching and mortality event in early 1998 and all seven reefs were affected. The seven locations include two long-protected Marine National Parks (Malindi and Watamu), one relatively recently established park (Mombasa), and four unprotected locations (Vipingo, Kanamai, Ras Iwatine, and Diani). They span about 150 km and represent three distinct fishery management regimes: old protected (OP), newly protected (NP), and unprotected (UP). Seventeen taxa had statistically significant different sizes for comparisons of the management regimes, with only one genus, Pavona, having larger sizes in the unprotected reefs. The size of eight coral genera showed a significant time and management interaction, and size frequency differences that existed in management areas prior to 1998 were further increased after the bleaching event. Time alone was a significant factor for eleven genera, and in all cases colonies were smaller after 1998. For most taxa, colony size distributions were significantly skewed and had right-tailed distributions. After 1998, the right-tailed distributions of Acropora, Hydnophora, and Montipora were significantly reduced. Most taxa had peaky distributions and only Acropora experienced a statistically significant change from peaky to flat. The mean sizes of taxa were not related to their mortality across 1998, which indicates that the size effect was within rather than between taxa. Astreopora and Platygyra were well-sampled taxa that did not show an effect of management, but had reduced median sizes across 1998. Consequently, no taxa were tolerant of both fishing and bleaching disturbances and the combined effect was to reduce the size of all corals.     

Applying the zoo model to conservation of threatened exceptional plant species

Maintaining a living plant collection is the most common method of ex situ conservation for plant species that cannot be seed banked (i.e., exceptional species). Viability of living collections, and their value for future conservation efforts, can be limited without coordinated efforts to track and manage individuals across institutions. Using a pedigree-focused approach, the zoological community has established an inter-institutional infrastructure to support long-term viability of captive animal populations. We assessed the ability of this coordinated metacollection infrastructure to support the conservation of 4 plant species curated in living collections at multiple botanic gardens around the world. Limitations in current practices include the inability to compile, share, and analyze plant collections data at the individual level, as well as difficulty in tracking original provenance of ex situ material. The coordinated metacollection framework used by zoos can be adopted by the botanical community to improve conservation outcomes by minimizing the loss of genetic diversity in collections. We suggest actions to improve ex situ conservation of exceptional plant species, including developing a central database to aggregate data and track unique individuals of priority threatened species among institutions and adapting a pedigree-based population management tool that incorporates life-history aspects unique to plants. If approached collaboratively across regional, national, and global scales, these actions could transform ex situ conservation of threatened plant species.