Seasonality and microhabitat selection in a forest-dwelling salamander

Many small terrestrial vertebrates exhibit limited spatial movement and are considerably exposed to changes in local environmental variables. Among such vertebrates, amphibians at present experience a dramatic decline due to their limited resilience to environmental change. Since the local survival and abundance of amphibians is intrinsically related to the availability of shelters, conservation plans need to take microhabitat requirements into account. In order to gain insight into the terrestrial ecology of the spectacled salamander Salamandrina perspicillata and to identify appropriate forest management strategies, we investigated the salamander’s seasonal variability in habitat use of trees as shelters in relation to tree features (size, buttresses, basal holes) and environmental variables in a beech forest in Italy. We used the occupancy approach to assess tree suitability on a non-conventional spatial scale. Our approach provides fine-grained parameters of microhabitat suitability and elucidates many aspects of the salamander’s terrestrial ecology. Occupancy changed with the annual life cycle and was higher in autumn than in spring, when females were found closer to the stream in the study area. Salamanders showed a seasonal pattern regarding the trees they occupied and a clear preference for trees with a larger diameter and more burrows. With respect to forest management, we suggest maintaining a suitable number of trees with a trunk diameter exceeding 30 cm. A practice of selective logging along the banks of streams could help maintain an adequate quantity of the appropriate microhabitat. Furthermore, in areas with a presence of salamanders, a good forest management plan requires leaving an adequate buffer zone around streams, which should be wider in autumn than in spring.     

Postnatal nutrition influences male attractiveness and promotes plasticity in male mating preferences

Poor early-life nutrition could reduce adult reproductive success by negatively affecting traits linked to sexual attractiveness such as song complexity. If so, this might favor strategic mate choice, allowing males with less complex songs to tailor their mating tactics to maximize the reproductive benefits. However, this possibility has been ignored in theoretical and empirical studies. By manipulating the micronutrient content of the diet (e.g., low or high) during the postnatal period of male zebra finches, we show for the first time (1) that males reared on a poor (low) micronutrient diet had less complex songs as adults; (2) that these males, in contrast to the high micronutrient diet group, were more selective in their mating strategies, discriminating against those females most likely to reduce their clutch size when paired with males having less complex songs; and (3) that by following different mating strategies, males reared on the contrasting diets obtained similar reproductive benefits. These results suggest that early-life dietary conditions can induce multiple and long-lasting effects on male and female reproductive traits. Moreover, the results seem to reflect a previously unreported case of adaptive plasticity in mate choice in response to a nutritionally mediated reduction in sexual attractiveness.     

Zinc removal from synthetic waters using magnetite/graphene oxide composites

The removal of heavy metals from wastewater has become a global challenge, which demands the continuous study of efficient and low-cost treatment alternatives such as adsorption. In this research, the removal of zinc was evaluated using batch adsorption processes with nonconventional materials such as graphene oxide (GO), magnetite (MG), and their composites (GO:MG), formulated with three weight ratios (2:1, 1:1, and 1:2). Graphene was synthesized by the modified Marcano method, using pencil lead graphite as a precursor. MG and the composites were synthesized by chemical coprecipitation of ferrous sulfate and ferric chloride. The materials were characterized by Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method to determine the functional groups, microstructural and morphological characteristics, and specific surface area. Batch adsorption tests were carried out to optimize the adsorbent dose and contact time with zinc solutions of 10 ppm. Zinc adsorption reached equilibrium at 2 h, with an optimal dose between 0.25 and 1.0 g/L. The maximum zinc removal efficiencies/adsorption capacities were 98.6%/165.6, 83.4%/47.6, 83.5%/21.9, 72.8%/19.9, and 82.2%/9.25 mg/g using GO, 2GO:1MG, 1GO:1MG, 1GO:2MG, and MG, respectively. Furthermore, the analysis of the isotherm and adsorption kinetics models determined that the adsorption processes using MG and the composites fit the Sips and pseudo-second-order models.     

Analysis of emergency situations at municipal solid waste landfills

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - This work focuses on the issue of emergency prevention in the operation of municipal solid waste landfills. In this work, an emergency is...     

Mapping Adolescents’ Sense of Place and Perceptions of Change in an Urban–Rural Transition Area

Environmental Management - Landscapes are changing, with rural areas becoming increasingly urbanized. Children and adolescents are underrepresented in the sense-of-place literature. Our study aimed...     

Cadmium behavior in a karst environment hydrological cycle

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Karst regions are important water providers, supplying approximately 25% of the world population. These areas present higher vulnerability to...     

Geochemical distribution of selected elements in flotation tailings and soils/sediments from the dam spill at the abandoned antimony mine Stolice,Serbia

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Materials held within mine tailings pose a serious risk to the environment in cases of tailings dam failure. Collapse of the tailing dam at the...     

Waterborne agrichemicals compromise the anti-predatory behavior of zebrafish

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Due to human activities, there is an increasing presence of agrochemicals residues in water bodies, which could be attributed to an increased use of...     

The Influence of Linear Elements on Plant Species Diversity of Mediterranean Rural Landscapes: Assessment of Different Indices and Statistical Approaches

This paper mainly aims to study the linear element influence on the estimation of vascular plant species diversity in five Mediterranean landscapes modeled as land cover patch mosaics. These landscapes have several core habitats and a different set of linear elements -habitat edges or ecotones, roads or railways, rivers, streams and hedgerows on farm land- whose plant composition were examined. Secondly, it aims to check plant diversity estimation in Mediterranean landscapes using parametric and non-parametric procedures, with two indices: Species richness and Shannon index.Land cover types and landscape linear elements were identified from aerial photographs. Their spatial information was processed using GIS techniques. Field plots were selected using a stratified sampling design according to relieve and tree density of each habitat type. A 50×20 m² multi-scale sampling plot was designed for the core habitats and across the main landscape linear elements. Richness and diversity of plant species were estimated by comparing the observed field data to ICE (Incidence-based Coverage Estimator) and ACE (Abundance-based Coverage Estimator) non-parametric estimators.The species density, percentage of unique species, and alpha diversity per plot were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in linear elements than in core habitats. ICE estimate of number of species was 32% higher than of ACE estimate, which did not differ significantly from the observed values. Accumulated species richness in core habitats together with linear elements, were significantly higher than those recorded only in the core habitats in all the landscapes. Conversely, Shannon diversity index did not show significant differences.     

An Analysis of Secondary Pollutants in Buenos Aires City

Air pollutant concentrations from a monitoring campaign in Buenos Aires City, Argentina, are used to investigate the relationships between ambient levels of ozone (O₃), nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) as a function of NO _x (=NO + NO₂). This campaign undertaken by the electricity sector was aimed at elucidating the apportionment of thermal power plants to air quality deterioration. Concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) and sulphur dioxide (SO₂) were also registered. Photo stationary state (PSS) of the NO, NO₂, O₃ and peroxy radicals species has been analysed. The ‘oxidant’ level concept has been introduced, OX (=O₃ + NO₂), which varies with the level of NO _x . It is shown that this level is made up of NO _x -independent and NO _x -dependent contributions. The former is a regional contribution that equates the background O₃ level, whereas the latter is a local contribution that correlates with the level of primary pollution. Furthermore, the anticorrelation between NO₂ and O₃ levels, which is a characteristic of the atmospheric photo stationary cycle has been verified.The analysis of the concentration of the primary pollutants CO and NO strongly suggests that the vehicle traffic is the principal source of them. Levels of continuous measurements of SO₂ for Buenos Aires City are reported in this work as a complement of previously published results.