Do honey bees tune error in their dances in nectar-foraging and house-hunting?

The "tuned-error" hypothesis states that natural selection has tuned the divergence angle in the dances of the honey bee to produce an optimal scatter of recruits across a resource. Weidenmüller and Seeley (Behav Ecol Sociobiol 46:190–199, 1999) supported this hypothesis by finding smaller divergence angles in dances indicating potential home sites, which are always point sources, than in dances indicating food sources, which often occur in patches. This study tested for the same effect, but controlled for variables, e.g., substrate and context, that may have confounded those results. When performed on the same substrate, divergence angle does not differ between dances for the two resources. Furthermore, dances performed for food within an observation hive exhibit significantly greater divergence angle when performed on comb (as Weidenmüller and Seeley measured food dances) than on hardware cloth (as they measured home-site dances on a swarm). These findings suggest that the angular variance in direction indication in dances is more likely an artifact of physical constraints, rather than an adaptive modification of a behavior that a bee could perform more precisely.     

Monitoring long-term variation of aerosol composition: a dual particle-size approach applied to Hong Kong

The 1990's time series in Hong Kong for various components oftotal suspended particulate matter (TSP) and PM₁₀ have beenanalyzed in order to assess two distinct types of anthropogenicinput. The first of these relates to the immense reclamation andconstruction activities for new developments and airportconstruction. The concentrations of crustal components inPM₁₀ (= TSP – PM₁₀) were found to peak at the time ofthis maximum activity. A second type of anthropogenic input,ambient lead from petrol vehicles, has decreased in Hong Kongand now represents a regional background. Ambient bromine nowarises mainly from the seasalt source.     

‘Subjective resilience’: using perceptions to quantify household resilience to climate extremes and disasters

How should we measure a household’s resilience to climate extremes, climate change or other evolving threats? As resilience gathers momentum on the international stage, interest in this question continues to grow. So far, efforts to measure resilience have largely focused on the use of ‘objective’ frameworks and methods of indicator selection. These typically depend on a range of observable socio-economic variables, such as levels of income, the extent of a household’s social capital or its access to social safety nets. Yet while objective methods have their uses, they suffer from well-documented weaknesses. This paper advocates for the use of an alternative but complementary method: the measurement of ‘subjective’ resilience at the household level. The concept of subjective resilience stems from the premise that people have an understanding of the factors that contribute to their ability to anticipate, buffer and adapt to disturbance and change. Subjective household resilience therefore relates to an individual’s cognitive and affective self-evaluation of their household’s capabilities and capacities in responding to risk. We discuss the advantages and limitations of measuring subjective household resilience and highlight its relationships with other concepts such as perceived adaptive capacity, subjective well-being and psychological resilience. We then put forward different options for the design and delivery of survey questions on subjective household resilience. While the approach we describe is focused at the household level, we show how it has the potential to be aggregated to inform sub-national or national resilience metrics and indicators. Lastly, we highlight how subjective methods of resilience assessment could be used to improve policy and decision-making. Above all, we argue that, alongside traditional objective measures and indicators, efforts to measure resilience should take into account subjective aspects of household resilience in order to ensure a more holistic understanding of resilience to climate extremes and disasters.     

Searching for evidence of acid-catalyzed enhancement of secondary organic aerosol formation using ambient aerosol data

Laboratory experiments suggest that strong acids promote formation of enhanced levels of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), and organic aerosols may contribute to the health impacts of fine PM. We report results from examining hourly speciated fine particle data for evidence of ambient aerosol acidity-catalyzed SOA formation, as indicated by larger increases in the concentrations of organic aerosol mass occurring on days and in locations where more acidic aerosol (lower NH₄⁺/SO₄⁼ molar ratios) exists. Data sets from the southeastern U.S. were examined for which hourly acidity of PM_2.5 aerosols could be estimated, and for which hourly organic carbon (OC) content had been measured simultaneously. Within-day organic aerosol changes during selected periods were statistically related to concurrent aerosol acidity levels estimated from nitrate-corrected ammonium-to-sulfate ratios. Data from the Look Rock, TN, TVA/IMPROVE site for mid-July to mid-August 2004 showed average compositions frequently as acidic as NH₄HSO₄, however, no apparent increases in OC levels with increasing aerosol acidity were observed, even when [OC] changes were compared with time-delayed aerosol acidity estimates. SEARCH network data (2003–2004) for rural Centreville, AL (CTR) and Yorkville, GA (YRK) sites were also examined. Warm-season acidity levels were higher at CTR than at YRK, and daytime levels exceeded those at night at both sites. At the YRK site no consistent positive correlations were found between changes in OC or TC levels and aerosol acidity, even with time lags up to 6 h. Aerosol acidity at this site, however, is relatively low due to nearby agricultural sources of NH₃. In contrast, during selected periods from April to October 2004, at CTR, 6-h lagged OC changes were weakly correlated with daytime, nitrate-corrected NH₄⁺/SO₄⁼ molar ratios, but distinguishing this apparent relationship from meteorological effects on measured OC levels is challenging.     

Approaches for quantifying reactive and low-volatility biogenic organic compound emissions by vegetation enclosure techniques - part B: applications

The focus of the studies presented in the preceding companion paper (Part A: Review) and here (Part B: Applications) is on defining representative emission rates from vegetation for determining the roles of biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions in atmospheric chemistry and aerosol processes. The review of previously published procedures for identifying and quantifying BVOC emissions has revealed a wide variety of experimental methods used by various researchers. Experimental details become increasingly critical for quantitative emission measurements of low volatility monoterpenes (MT) and sesquiterpenes (SQT). These compounds are prone to be lost inadvertently by uptake to materials in contact with the sample air or by reactions with atmospheric oxidants. These losses become more prominent with higher molecular weight compounds, potentially leading to an underestimation of their emission rates. We present MT and SQT emission rate data from numerous experiments that include 23 deciduous tree species, 14 coniferous tree species, 8 crops, and 2 shrubs. These data indicate total, normalized (30 degrees C) basal emission rates from <10 to 5600ngCg(-1)h(-1) for MT, and from <10 to 1150ngCg(-1)h(-1) for SQT compounds. Both MT and SQT emissions have exponential dependencies on temperature (i.e. rates are proportional to e(betaT)). The inter-quartile range of beta-values for MT was between 0.12 and 0.17K(-1), which is higher than the value commonly used in models (0.09K(-1)). However many of the MT emissions also exhibited light dependencies, making it difficult to separate light and temperature influences. The primary light-dependent MT was ocimene, whose emissions were up to a factor of 10 higher than light-independent MT emissions. The inner-quartile range of beta-values for SQT was between 0.15 and 0.21K(-1).     

Observational and modeling study of dry deposition on surrogate surfaces in a South China city: implication of removal of atmospheric crustal particles

Dry deposition samples collected during 1999–2001 at a South China site using surrogate surfaces were analyzed by capillary electrophoresis. Collector surface properties played important roles to the dry deposition. The deposition velocities for various species ranged from 0.02 to 1.69 cm s^???1, in general agreement with literature values. More than 90% of Ca^2?+? was deposited by sedimentation and its comparable values of dry or wet removal residence times imply that dry deposition is an important atmospheric removal process for the ubiquitous crustal species in South China, compared with precipitation scavenging. Relatively good agreement was found when the species deposition velocities were modeled based on up-to-date knowledge of particle dry deposition. The total depositions for anthropogenic and crustal species in northern China are likely to be much higher than those in the south, including our site where the fluxes of the acidic species SO₄ ^2??? and NO₃ ^??? were 4.4 and 2.2 g m^???2 year^???1, respectively. The sum of dry deposition for cations Na^?+?, Ca^2?+?, Mg^2?+?, and K^?+? contributes 44% of the total flux, which is equivalent to the value estimated in Europe.     

The Evolution of Particles in the Plume from a Large Coal-Fired Boiler with Flue Gas Desulfurization

ABSTRACT

Airborne measurements were made of gaseous and particulate species in the plume of a large coal-fired power plant after flue gas desulfurization (FGD) controls were installed. These measurements were compared with measurements made before the controls were installed. The light scattering and number and volume distributions of plume excess particles were determined by nephelometry and optical particle counting techniques. The plume impact based on optical techniques was much lower than that observed in earlier measurements. Indeed, plume excess volumes as a function of particle size were of the same magnitude as the variability of the background volume distribution. In situ excess plume scattering actually decreased with distance from the source, in contrast to pre-FGD conditions. The upper limit for the dry rate of SO₂-to-SO₄ ^2- conversion was estimated from plume excess volume measurements to be about 4% lir¹. This is slightly greater than the upper limit, 3.5% lir¹, estimated by earlier researchers, but the same as that estimated using the present technique with the earlier data. The cross-plume profile of volume suggests SO₂-to-SO₄ ^2- conversion is highest at the plume edges. The greatest benefit of SO₂ reduction on plume excess volume and visibility appears to occur far downwind of the source.