Effects of human footprint and biophysical factors on the body-size structure of fished marine species

Marine fisheries in coastal ecosystems in many areas of the world have historically removed large-bodied individuals, potentially impairing ecosystem functioning and the long-term sustainability of fish populations. Reporting on size-based indicators that link to food-web structure can contribute to ecosystem-based management, but the application of these indicators over large (cross-ecosystem) geographical scales has been limited to either fisheries-dependent catch data or diver-based methods restricted to shallow waters (<20 m) that can misrepresent the abundance of large-bodied fished species. We obtained data on the body-size structure of 82 recreationally or commercially targeted marine demersal teleosts from 2904 deployments of baited remote underwater stereo-video (stereo-BRUV). Sampling was at up to 50 m depth and covered approximately 10,000 km of the continental shelf of Australia. Seascape relief, water depth, and human gravity (i.e., a proxy of human impacts) were the strongest predictors of the probability of occurrence of large fishes and the abundance of fishes above the minimum legal size of capture. No-take marine reserves had a positive effect on the abundance of fishes above legal size, although the effect varied across species groups. In contrast, sublegal fishes were best predicted by gradients in sea surface temperature (mean and variance). In areas of low human impact, large fishes were about three times more likely to be encountered and fishes of legal size were approximately five times more abundant. For conspicuous species groups with contrasting habitat, environmental, and biogeographic affinities, abundance of legal-size fishes typically declined as human impact increased. Our large-scale quantitative analyses highlight the combined importance of seascape complexity, regions with low human footprint, and no-take marine reserves in protecting large-bodied fishes across a broad range of species and ecosystem configurations.     

Engineering meets institutions: an interdisciplinary approach to the management of resilience

Resilience management stretches across the decoupled domains of community, corporate, and public governance. As a result, fostering resilience needs a governance structure that supports collective actions and integrates fragmented fields with different institutional frameworks. In this study, we carry out a review of three different perspectives on resilience -engineering, social, and organizational- in order to explore resilience management in the context of governance of infrastructure systems. We discuss the common practices to address resilience of engineering systems, the need and current trend for integration of institutions into these practices through formal (e.g., policies and regulations) as well as informal mechanisms (e.g., trust, norms, and shared cognitive structures). To illustrate our theorizing, we provide three illustrative case studies. The cases highlight the barriers and enablers across the three perspectives and highlight the inter-organizational context of management of resilience. We uncovered organizational dynamics such as the necessity of establishing critical functionality through organizational capacity for stakeholder engagement, the need for diverse organizations to address institutional complexity in management of resilience, and the importance of decoupling in aligning the outcomes of resilience management practices with policies. We suggest an agenda for future research on managing practices associated with management of resilience.     

Reservoir Sedimentation Rates in the Little Washita River Experimental Watershed,Oklahoma: Measurement and Controlling Factors

Forty‐five flood control reservoirs, authorized in the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act 1954, were installed by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) between 1969 and 1982 in the Little Washita River Experimental Watershed (LWREW), located in central Oklahoma. Over time, these reservoirs have lost sediment and flood storage capacity due to sedimentation, with rates dependent on upstream land use and climate variability. In this study, sedimentation rates for 12 reservoirs representing three major land use categories within LWREW were measured based on bathymetric surveys that used acoustic profiling system. Physiographic and climate attributes of drainage area of surveyed reservoirs were extracted from publicly available data sources including topographic maps, digital elevation models, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service soils, and weather station databases. Correlation, principal component analysis, and stepwise regression were utilized to analyze the relationship between normalized reservoir sedimentation rates (ReSRa) and the drainage area characteristics to determine the major variables controlling sedimentation within the LWREW. Percent of drainage area with extreme slopes, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and maximum daily rainfall event recorded in spring explained most of the variability in ReSRa. It was also found that percent reduction in reservoir surface area can be used as a surrogate for estimating ReSRa. The implications of the results are discussed.     

LCA study of photovoltaic systems based on different technologies

This work deals with the application of a Life Cycle Assessment approach for evaluating the environmental and energy impacts ascribed to the production of photovoltaic (PV) cells of first and second generations. PV technologies based on silicon and CuInSe₂ (CIS) thin films were taken into account herein. PV systems prepared with amorphous silicon (a-Si) showed a low environmental impact and short energy payback time when compared to those ones obtained using crystalline silicon (c-Si). PV technologies associated with mono-crystal (mono-Si) and polycrystalline silicon (multi-Si) showed large emissions of CO₂, nitrogen oxides, non-methane volatile organic compounds, particulates, and SO₂ into air per square meter of PV panel processed. In addition, these technologies displayed a significant fossil fuel demand, biological oxygen demand, and global warming potential, which make them eco-unfriendly. Ribbon silicon (ribbon-Si) and CIS thin films showed intermediate impact scores, but further improvements in their production chain are needed before these devices are commercially used. The technologies examined herein were categorized in first- and second-generation technologies in order to compare their environmental impact and conversion efficiency. Much attention was also paid to the development of third-generation PV cells with improved conversion efficiencies and lower environmental impacts.     

A dominant coalition and policy change: an analysis of shale oil and gas politics in India

This paper identifies the coalitions involved in the topic of shale oil and gas development in India and identifies the circumstances surrounding a change in policy in 2013 by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to promote shale exploration. Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework as the theoretical lens, the data are collected primarily from newspaper articles from 2010 to 2015 to identify coalitions, including actors’ positions, priorities, and interactions. The findings show the presence of a dominant advocacy coalition in favor of shale oil and gas development with priorities about energy security and a regulatory framework. The findings indicate some internal coalition disagreement, but stronger internal coalition agreement. Policy change was preceded by a spike in disagreement internal to the dominant coalition. This paper shows how a change in a dominant coalition can precede a change in policy, offers a replicable method of identifying and measuring coalitions via newspaper content analysis, provides a rare application of the Advocacy Coalition Framework outside of North America and Western Europe, and provides evidence of support for shale oil and gas development in India.     

The influence of lipid and lifestyle factors upon correlations between highly prevalent organochlorine compounds in patients with exocrine pancreatic cancer

We aimed to analyse the influence of cholesterol and triglycerides, and of tobacco, coffee and alcohol consumption upon correlations between serum concentrations of organochlorine compounds (OCs) in patients with exocrine pancreatic cancer (EPC). Incident cases of EPC diagnosed in eastern Spain were prospectively identified (N=144). OCs were analysed by high-resolution gas chromatography with electron-capture detection. A strong correlation was observed between hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (beta-HCH) (Spearman's rho=0.758). beta-HCH showed rho>0.4 with p,p'-DDT, p,p'-DDE, PCB138 and PCB153 (all p<0.001). Some correlations among compounds were slightly affected by tobacco, coffee or alcohol consumption. We observed a striking diversity of correlation patterns by strata of cholesterol and triglycerides. Most correlations were higher in the lowest category of triglycerides than in the lowest category of cholesterol. Most coefficients above 0.7 were seen in the lowest category of triglycerides (e.g., OC pairs p,p'-DDT and HCB, p,p'-DDT and beta-HCH, p,p'-DDE and beta-HCH, or HCB and beta-HCH). Correlations among OCs may be stronger when concentrations of triglycerides are low than when they are high. This is compatible with a dilution in the early phases of cancer and with a concentration effect as triglycerides become lower in the advanced phases of the disease.     

Flow,Organic, and Inorganic Sediment Yields from a Channelized Watershed in the South Carolina Lower Coastal Plain

Many small streams in coastal watersheds in the southeastern United States are modified for agricultural, residential, and commercial development. In the South Carolina Lower Coastal Plain, low‐relief topography and a shallow water table make stream channelization ubiquitous. To quantify the impacts of urbanization and stream channelization, we measured flow and sediment from an urbanizing watershed and a small forested watershed. Flow and sediment export rates were used to infer specific yields from forested and nonforested regions of the urbanizing watershed. Study objectives were to: (1) quantify the range of runoff‐to‐rainfall ratios; (2) quantify the range of specific sediment yields; (3) characterize the quantity and quality of particulate matter exported; and (4) estimate sediment yield attributable to agriculture, development, and channelization activities in the urbanizing watershed. Our results showed that the urban watershed exported over five times more sediment per unit area compared with the forested watershed. Sediment concentration was related to flow flashiness in the urban watershed and to flow magnitude in the forested watershed. Sediments from the forested watershed were dominated by organic matter, whereas mineral matter dominated sediment from the urban stream. Our results indicated that a significant shift in sediment quality and quantity are likely to occur as forested watersheds are transformed by urbanization in coastal South Carolina.     

The Hourglass: A Conceptual Framework for the Transport of Biologically Active Compounds from Agricultural Landscapes

Recent research has suggested that the fate of biologically active compounds (BACs) originating from point sources such as wastewater treatment plants is fundamentally different from that of similar compounds released from nonpoint sources through runoff from agricultural landscapes. Downstream from wastewater treatment plants, BACs will degrade via a variety of mechanisms; however, their concentration in the water adjacent to the point of discharge may not decrease over time, as the compounds are continually released. In contrast, in agricultural systems, BACs are episodically introduced to surface water during snowmelt and rainstorm events, and under these circumstances, may be found in water for only hours or days after a storm event. Recent research in our laboratories as well as others, has suggested that sediments play an important role in the persistence of herbicides and steroids in watersheds after nonpoint source loading events. Conceptually, the sediment serves as both a sink and a source, equilibrating with BACs during storm events then slowly releasing them back into the water over time, long after the initial pulse of chemicals has moved downstream.     

Fathead Minnow and Bluegill Sunfish Life‐Stage Responses to 17β‐Estradiol Exposure in Outdoor Mesocosms

Developmental and reproductive effects of 17β‐estradiol (E2) exposure on two generations of fathead minnows and one generation of bluegill sunfish were assessed. Fish were exposed to E2 for six continuous weeks in outdoor mesocosms simulating natural lake environments. First generation fish were exposed while sexually mature. Second generation fathead minnows were exposed either during early development, sexual maturity, or both stages. Multiple endpoints were measured to assess effects of E2 exposure on fecundity and fish health and development. Plasma vitellogenin concentrations were highly variable in all fish. Differences in egg production timing for both species indicate differences in fecundity between females exposed to E2 and controls. First generation fathead minnows exposed to E2 had lower body condition factors and reduced secondary sexual characteristic expression by males. Only a difference in relative liver weight was observed in second generation fathead minnows. First generation bluegill males exposed to E2 had significantly smaller testes compared to controls. Although fish response was highly variable, results indicate that exposure to E2 at environmentally relevant concentrations affect fathead minnow and bluegill sunfish health and development, which may have implications for the health and sustainability of fish populations. Furthermore, exposure timing and environmental factors affect fish response to E2 exposure.     

Air pollution below WHO levels decreases by 40 % the links of terrestrial microbial networks

Air pollution has a deleterious impact on public health and the environment. There is few knowledge on the effect of air pollution on terrestrial microbial communities, despite the major role of microbes in ecosystems. Here, we designed an in situ trial ecosystem to assess the impact of moderate atmospheric pollution, below World Health Organization (WHO) thresholds, on an indigenous microbial communities, including bacteria, fungi, ciliates, algae, cyanobacteria, testate amoebae, rotifers and nematodes, extracted from terrestrial bryophytes. These micro-ecosystems were placed at a rural, an urban and an industrial site in France and were thus exposed to various levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), from 6.6–67.9 μg·m^?3, and particulate matter, from 0.7–7.9 μg·m^?3. Microbial analysis was performed by microscopy. We determined atmospheric temperature, relative humidity and particulate matter with diameter lower than 10 µm (PM₁₀), Cu, Cr, Fe, Ni, Pb, Zn in PM₁₀, and (NO₂). Results show a significant impact of chronic moderate exposure to NO₂ and copper Cu-associated particulate matter on the global microbial network complexity. This is evidenced by a loss of about 40 % of microbial co-occurrence links during incubation. Most lost microbial links are ecologically positive links. Moreover, most changes in community co-occurrence networks are related to testate amoebae, a major top predator of microbes. Overall, our findings demonstrate that air pollution can have strong deleterious effects on microbial interactions, even at levels below WHO thresholds.