Learning during competitive positioning in the nest: do nestlings use ideal free ‘foraging’ tactics?

Begging behaviour of nestling birds may involve more than a simple, honest source of information for parents to use in provisioning. Many aspects of begging behaviour relate instead to sibling competition for food items within the nest, and we might expect evidence of adaptive learning and behavioural adjustment in response to experience of the competitive environment. In this study, we consider begging in different locations within the nest as analogous to foraging in different patches, varying in food availability. Using hand-feeding trials, we created zones of differing profitability within an artificial nest by adjusting either the prey size or number of items delivered, and allowed only indirect competition between pairs of southern grey shrike (Lanius meridionalis) nestlings. Nestlings demonstrated the ability to detect differences in zone profitability and position themselves accordingly. By the end of both the prey size and delivery rate trials nestlings had increased the amount of time spent in the high quality zone. Such movement in response to differences in load quality, as well as frequency, demonstrates the ability of nestlings to learn about their environment and to facultatively adjust their begging in order to maximise energetic rewards.     

A review on detection of heavy metals from aqueous media using nanomaterial-based sensors

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The extensive release of heavy metals into the natural water bodies has become globally prevalent from past few decades. Heavy metal toxicity is...     

Environmental impact and diversity of protease-producing bacteria in areas of leather tannery effluents of Sialkot,Pakistan

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Massive discharge of wastes produced by the processing of leather so far confers the most important environmental challenge facing the tanneries...     

Interpreting Images of Fracking: How Visual Frames and Standing Attitudes Shape Perceptions of Environmental Risk and Economic Benefit

The news media’s increased reliance on visual communication to illustrate complex processes and promote learning stresses the importance of investigating how visual content impacts the understanding of scientific issues. In this paper, we investigate how members of the public interpret and make sense of differentially framed images of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) depicting environmental risk, economic benefit, or issue protest. For the analysis, a repeated measures online experiment was conducted with 250 participants to evaluate 40 photographs of fracking operations and consequences. Quantitative coding and thematic analysis of open-ended responses to the images reveal that standing attitudes, operationalized as support, opposition, or indecision about fracking, segments viewers into distinct groups and shapes interpretations of environmental risk and economic benefit. Issue opponents are more likely to indicate concern for the environment regardless of frame shown, whereas undecideds and supporters cite the impact on human health more frequently, largely in relation to job site safety. Supporters also see the least ambiguity, and most economic gains, in images about the controversial production practice.     

The relationship between lunar periodicity and activity of fish-parasitic gnathiid isopods in the Caribbean

Gnathiid isopod larvae are members of the marine demersal zooplankton community and are common ectoparasites of coral reef fishes, emerging from the substratum, mostly at night and crepuscular periods to feed on fish blood. Given that the activity of many marine organisms is often linked to changes in the phase of the moon, we examined the relationship between lunar phase and activity in gnathiid isopods on Caribbean reefs. We employed two sampling methods to quantify gnathiid activity: (1) Emergence traps set on reefs over a 24 h period; and (2) live fish placed in cages on reefs and retrieved during night and dawn peaks in gnathiid activity. These were compared during discrete phases as well as a continuous metric, the lunar “angle”, and an estimate of ambient light availability (luminance). Lunar phase and angle varied in their statistical effect on gnathiid activity patterns by sampling method and/or year. Luminance had a significant but inconsistent effect on measures of gnathiid activity. Our results suggest that changes in the lunar cycle are not a strong predictor of gnathiid activity at our shallow reef study sites.     

Associations and lags between air pollution and acute respiratory visits in an ambulatory care setting: 25-month results from the aerosol research and inhalation epidemiological study

Particulate matter (PM) has been associated with adverse respiratory outcomes in numerous studies that utilized data from emergency room visits, hospital admissions, and mortality records. This study is unique in its investigation of associations of air pollution measures, including components of PM, with health outcomes in an ambulatory-care setting. Visit data were collected from Kaiser Permanente, a not-for-profit health maintenance organization in the metropolitan Atlanta, GA, area. Kaiser Permanente collaborated on the Aerosol Research Inhalation Epidemiological Study (ARIES), which provided detailed information on the characteristics of air pollutants. The Kaiser Permanente study was a time-series investigation of the possible associations between daily levels of suspended PM, inorganic gases, and polar volatile organic compounds and ambulatory care acute visit rates during the 25-month period from August 1, 1998, to August 31, 2000. For this interim analysis, the a priori 0-2 days lagged moving average, as well as the 3-5 days and 6-8 days lagged moving averages, of air quality measures were investigated. Single-pollutant Poisson general linear modeling was used to model daily visit counts for asthma and upper and lower respiratory infections (URI and LRI) by selected air quality metrics, controlling for temporal trends and meteorological variables. Most of the statistically significant positive associations were for the 3-5 days lagged air quality metrics with child asthma and LRI.     

Development of the crop residue and rangeland burning in the 2014 National Emissions Inventory using information from multiple sources

Biomass burning has been identified as an important contributor to the degradation of air quality because of its impact on ozone and particulate matter. One component of the biomass burning inventory, crop residue burning, has been poorly characterized in the National Emissions Inventory (NEI). In the 2011 NEI, wildland fires, prescribed fires, and crop residue burning collectively were the largest source of PM_2.5. This paper summarizes our 2014 NEI method to estimate crop residue burning emissions and grass/pasture burning emissions using remote sensing data and field information and literature-based, crop-specific emission factors. We focus on both the postharvest and pre-harvest burning that takes place with bluegrass, corn, cotton, rice, soybeans, sugarcane and wheat. Estimates for 2014 indicate that over the continental United States (CONUS), crop residue burning excluding all areas identified as Pasture/Grass, Grassland Herbaceous, and Pasture/Hay occurred over approximately 1.5 million acres of land and produced 19,600 short tons of PM_2.5. For areas identified as Pasture/Grass, Grassland Herbaceous, and Pasture/Hay, biomass burning emissions occurred over approximately 1.6 million acres of land and produced 30,000 short tons of PM_2.5. This estimate compares with the 2011 NEI and 2008 NEI as follows: 2008: 49,650 short tons and 2011: 141,180 short tons. Note that in the previous two NEIs rangeland burning was not well defined and so the comparison is not exact. The remote sensing data also provided verification of our existing diurnal profile for crop residue burning emissions used in chemical transport modeling. In addition, the entire database used to estimate this sector of emissions is available on EPA’s Clearinghouse for Inventories and Emission Factors (CHIEF, http://www3.epa.gov/ttn/chief/index.html).Implications: Estimates of crop residue burning and rangeland burning emissions can be improved by using satellite detections. Local information is helpful in distinguishing crop residue and rangeland burning from all other types of fires.