Quantifying Plant Population Persistence in Human-Dominated Landscapes

Abstract:  We assessed population performance of rare plants across a gradient from rural to urban landscapes and evaluated 2 hypotheses central to strategic conservation planning: (1) population performance declines with increasing human dominance and (2) small populations perform poorly relative to larger ones. Assessing these hypotheses is critical to strategic conservation planning. The current conservation paradigm adheres to the well-established ecology theory that small isolated populations, particularly those in human-dominated landscapes, are the least likely to succeed over the long term. Consequently, conservation planning has strongly favored large, remote targets for protection. This shift in conservation toward ecosystem-based programs and protection of populations within large, remote systems has been at the expense of protection of the rarest of the rare species, the dominant paradigm for conservation driven by the endangered species act. Yet, avoiding conservation of small populations appears to be based more on theoretical understanding and expert opinion than empiricism. We used Natural Heritage data from California in an assessment of population performance of rare plants across a landscape with an urban-rural gradient. Population performance did not decrease in urban settings or for populations that were initially small. Our results are consistent with a pattern of few species extinctions within these landscapes over the past several decades. We conclude that these populations within compromised landscapes can contribute to overall biodiversity conservation. We further argue that conservation planning for biodiversity preservation should allocate relatively more resources to protecting urban-associated plant taxa because they may provide conservation benefit beyond simply protecting isolated populations; they may be useful in building social interest in conservation.     

Scale-dependent variation in coral community similarity across sites, islands, and island groups

Community similarity is the proportion of species richness in a region that is shared on average among communities within that region. The slope of local richness (alpha diversity) regressed on regional richness (gamma diversity) can serve as an index of community similarity across regions with different regional richness. We examined community similarity in corals at three spatial scales (among transects at a site, sites on an island, and islands within an island group) across a 10 000-km longitudinal diversity gradient in the west-central Pacific Ocean. When alpha diversity was regressed on gamma diversity, the slopes, and thus community similarity, increased with scale (0.085, 0.261, and 0.407, respectively) because a greater proportion of gamma diversity was subsumed within alpha diversity as scale increased. Using standard randomization methods, we also examined how community similarity differed between observed and randomized assemblages and how this difference was affected by spatial separation of species within habitat types and specialization of species to three habitat types (reef flats, crests, and slopes). If spatial separation within habitat types and/or habitat specialization (i.e., underdispersion) occurs, fewer species are shared among assemblages than the random expectation. When the locations of individual coral colonies were randomized within and among habitat types, community similarity was 46-47% higher than that for observed assemblages at all three scales. We predicted that spatial separation of coral species within habitat types should increase with scale due to dispersal/extinction dynamics in this insular system, but that specialization of species to different habitat types should not change because habitat differences do not change with scale. However, neither habitat specialization nor spatial separation within habitat types differed among scales. At the two larger scales, each accounted for 22-24% of the difference in community similarity between observed and randomized assemblages. At the smallest scale (transect-site), neither spatial separation within habitat types nor habitat specialization had significant effects on community similarity, probably due to the small size of transect samples. The results suggest that coral species can disperse among islands in an island group as easily as they can among sites on an island over time scales that are relevant to their establishment and persistence on reefs.     

Plant competition varies with community composition in an edaphically complex landscape

There is currently no consensus on how physical and biological factors affect competitive intensity. Tests of whether competitive intensity varies along axes of environmental change have commonly been conducted in systems with a single strong environmental gradient, such as productivity, a soil resource, or an environmental stress. Frequently, these same axes are associated with changes in species composition, yet few studies have asked whether shifts in the identity of competitors affect competitive intensity. We ask whether resources (nutrients, water), stressors (heavy metals, Ca:Mg ratio), productivity (aboveground biomass), or species identity (an ordination axis of plant community composition) were the best predictors of the intensity of competition in a heterogeneous grassland landscape that included multiple independent environmental gradients. The reproductive fitness of six annual plant species was measured in the presence and absence of competitors and used to calculate relative interaction intensity (RII). We found that RII was best predicted by community composition. Nutrient availability was also important, and a post hoc test showed that competitive intensity was best explained by the combined effects of community composition and nutrient availability. We argue that community composition may be the most effective metric for predicting competitive intensity in many ecosystems because it includes both the competitive effects of the local community and information about covarying environmental characteristics.     

Do source-sink dynamics promote the spread of an invasive grass into a novel habitat?

Models of source-sink and other spatial patch dynamics have generated a number of ideas and predictions about species range expansion, the evolution of local adaptation, and the factors influencing population persistence, but relatively few empirical studies have applied these ideas due to the difficulty of measuring both patch-specific demography and movement rates. In this study, I used a combination of mark-recapture experiments, model fitting, and demographic approaches to ask how habitat-specific differences in population growth and dispersal affect spread of the invasive grass Aegilops triuncialis into serpentine environments. A. triuncialis germinated at lower rates but exhibited equivalent survival and greater growth in edge (extreme serpentine) than in core populations, even accounting for density differences between habitats. Estimated growth rates (lambda) for four of five edge subpopulations were strongly positive, ranging from lambda = 1.32 to 2.09 without propagule input from adjacent habitat. Local dispersal was best described by an exponential kernel, with a mean dispersal distance about twice as long on the edge (0.24-0.40 m) as in the core (0.18 m). Twenty-five percent of marked spikes in the edge were not relocated within the patch, suggesting greater rates of either seed predation or long-distance dispersal that reduced population growth. These results suggest that A. triuncialis can successfully spread into extreme serpentine habitats without sustained propagule input from adjacent populations. Further, asymmetric dispersal that may be both habitat- and density-dependent could slow growth rates on the edge. This pattern may also increase the importance of harsh edge patches as a source of long-distance dispersers.     

基于地理加权回归模型评估土地利用对地表水质的影响

针对传统线性回归模型大多忽视空间数据局部变化特征这一缺陷,引入地理加权回归模型(GWR)用于评估土地利用对地表水质的影响,分析了不同子流域内两者关系出现空间变化的规律并阐释了原因.同时,对比了GWR模型与普通最小二乘模型(OLS)的校正R2、Akaike信息准则(AICc)及残差的空间自相关指数(Moran's I),验证了GWR模型在预测精度和处理空间自相关过程中是否优于OLS模型.结果表明,同一土地利用类型对水质的影响随空间位置的改变而发生方向或大小的变化.以温瑞塘河流域总氮(TN)与农用地的关系为例,从GWR模型局部回归系数的方向分析,两者关系表现为农村正、城区负的现象,从大小分析,旧城区TN与农用地回归系数的绝对值高于其它区域;在溶解氧(DO)与人口密度所构建的GWR模型中,两者关系在整个研究区域内均表现为负值,与OLS结果吻合,从回归系数的大小分析,人口密度对DO的作用在郊区及农村更为显著.针对此类关系出现空间变化的原因分析表明,相邻子流域土地利用百分比的改变及水体主要污染源的不同,是导致土地利用对水质作用发生变化的根本因素.最后,对比所构建的80个GWR与OLS模型校正R2、AICc指标,验证了GWR作为一种局部统计模型,其预测精度优于OLS等传统全局模型且更能反映实际空间特征.     

Enhanced struvite recovery from wastewater using a novel cone-inserted fluidized bed reactor

The feasibility of struvite recovery at low （12.5 mg/L） and high （120 mg[L） phosphorus concentrations was studied by constructing a novel fluidized bed reactor with cones （FBRwc） and without cones （FBRwoc）. The crystallization process was continuously operated for 133 days under different hydraulic retention times （HRT = 1-10 hr）, pH （7.5-10）, and molar ratios of Mg/P （0.75-1.75）, N/P （1-10） and Ca/Mg （0-2）. The optimum operating conditions of HRT, pH, Mg/P and N/P molar ratios were found to be 2 hr, 9, 1.25, and 7.5, respectively. Under these optimum conditions, the phosphorus precipitation efficiencies of FBRwc were 93% for low and 98% for high phosphorus influent; however, the efficiencies were 78% and 81% for FBRwoc, respectively. Due to crystal losses at each junction （17%-31%）, the crystal recovery efficiency of FBRwoc was relatively low （47%-65%） for both influent concentrations. However, the losses were minimal in FBRwc, which showed 75% and 92% crystal recovery for low and high phosphorus concentrations, respectively. At low calcium concentration, crystal chemical analysis showed the product to be pure struvite （〉 99%）. The scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction results further confirmed that the crystal recovered from FBRwc contained pure struvite, which could be considered a high quality fertilizer. Except HRT, all parameters （pH, Mg/P, N/P and Ca/Mg） were found to be influencing factors for FBRwc performance. Overall, inserting cones in each part of the reactor played a significant role in enhancing struvite recovery from a wide range of phosphorus-containing wastewater.     

Temporal and Spatial Trends in Nutrient and Sediment Loading to Lake Tahoe,California‐Nevada,USA

Since 1980, the Lake Tahoe Interagency Monitoring Program (LTIMP) has provided stream‐discharge and water quality data—nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and suspended sediment—at more than 20 stations in Lake Tahoe Basin streams. To characterize the temporal and spatial patterns in nutrient and sediment loading to the lake, and improve the usefulness of the program and the existing database, we have (1) identified and corrected for sources of bias in the water quality database; (2) generated synthetic datasets for sediments and nutrients, and resampled to compare the accuracy and precision of different load calculation models; (3) using the best models, recalculated total annual loads over the period of record; (4) regressed total loads against total annual and annual maximum daily discharge, and tested for time trends in the residuals; (5) compared loads for different forms of N and P; and (6) tested constituent loads against land use‐land cover (LULC) variables using multiple regression. The results show (1) N and P loads are dominated by organic N and particulate P; (2) there are significant long‐term downward trends in some constituent loads of some streams; and (3) anthropogenic impervious surface is the most important LULC variable influencing water quality in basin streams. Many of our recommendations for changes in water quality monitoring and load calculation methods have been adopted by the LTIMP.     

The use of Br/Pb ratios in atmospheric particles to discriminate between vehicular and industrial lead aerosol sources in the vicinity of a lead works—II. Ellesmere port,Cheshire

Lead and bromide in atmospheric particles were measured at two sites in the vicinity of a tetraalkyllead manufacturing plant. The Br results were used to estimate the relative proportions of vehicular and non-vehicular (presumably industrially-derived) particulate lead present in the atmosphere. The non-vehicular component was very variable over the 2-month study period, overall contributing about a quarter of the observed Pb. The relative proportions were found to be in good agreement with estimates of ground-level concentrations of Pb originating from the lead works stack derived from a Gaussian plume dispersion model.