Ecological literacy and socio-demographics: who are the most eco-literate in our community,and why?

Ecological literacy is founded upon knowledge and understanding about how the ecological systems of the Earth function and support life. A widespread concern that levels of ecological literacy within many contemporary human communities are inadequate to enable effective decision-making about sustainable ways of living led to a rigorous and carefully designed assessment of over 1000 South Australian adults from diverse sectors including industry, government, nongovernment, business and community organisations. This assessment tested for local and global knowledge, including an understanding of the interconnection of natural systems with human society. Quantitative analyses revealed significant relationships between scores and a range of socio-demographic characteristics. Scores varied significantly with gender, age, education, employment, place of growing up and time spent in South Australia (SA). Highest average scores were found in males, middle-age groups, the most highly educated, those with science-related educational backgrounds, those working in environment-related fields, those who grew up in small town environments rather than in large towns or cities and in those who had spent more than 10 years in SA. These findings contribute to a broader study of factors associated with ecologically literate individuals and groups within the western and industrialised adult community of SA. They form a valuable foundation on which to build efforts to further understand and develop ecological literacy within our citizenry and governing bodies.     

Ecological risk assessment from the perspective of soil heavy metal accumulations in Xiamen city,China

Contamination of soils by heavy metals is of rising concern in many cities in China undergoing rapid urbanization. Here, we evaluate the severity of soil contamination by four heavy metals (arsenic, chromium, copper, and lead) at 146 urban and suburban sites within the city of Xiamen, Fujian, China. A multivariate regression model was proposed and developed to simulate heavy metals accumulation in urban and suburban soils, to identify the concentration and spatial distribution of heavy metals in soils, and to assess ecological risks by 2020. Results showed that, overall, Xiamen soils should be subject to low ecological risks due to heavy metals contamination by 2020, the ecological risks for urban soils were greater than suburban soils, nearly half of Xiamen soils are at moderate ecological risks, and many suburban soils experience low ecological risks. The methods demonstrate the potential to predict future ecological risks from heavy metals contamination which could inform pollution prevention and control measures.     

On the consequences of aggregation and balancing of networks on system properties derived from ecological network analysis

In the ecological network analysis (ENA) of complex flow food webs the assumption is often made that the models characterizing the flows and stocks of ecosystems occur in a steady state where inflows equals outflows. An assessment of the system indices derived from ENA of six balanced and unbalanced system models, respectively, indicate to differences between indices. The aggregation of highly articulated flow models into models with fewer compartments also has drastic effects on the system metrics, particularly on the information indices.     

Exergetic assessment for ecological economic system: Chinese agriculture

Based on the thermodynamic concept of exergy as a unified measure for environmental resources and economic products, a framework for systems assessment is presented for ecological economies. With a typical systems diagram devised for a general ecological economy with four arm fluxes for free local natural resources, purchased economic investment, environmental impact and economic yield, system indices of the renewability index, exergy yield ratio, exergy investment ratio, environmental resource to yield ratio, system transformity and environmental stress index are defined for a congregated systems ecological assessment with essential implications to sustainability. As a detailed case study to the Chinese agriculture from 1980 to 2000 with cropping, forestry, stockbreeding and fishery sectors, extensive exergy account and systems assessment are carried out with emphasis on annual and structural variations against social political transitions. For the overall agriculture as a congregated ecological stage, the value of the system transformity is found around 10, the typical value for the general ecological hierarchy as well devised by Odum associated with Lindeman's Tenth Law.     

Using data augmentation via the Gibbs Sampler to incorporate missing covariate structure in linear models for ecological assessments

Missing covariate values in linear regression models can be an important problem facing environmental researchers. Existing missing value treatment methods such as Multiple Imputation (MI), the EM algorithm and Data Augmentation (DA) have the assumption that both observed and unobserved data come from the same distribution, most commonly a multivariate normal or a conditionally multivariate normal family. These methods do try to incorporate the missing data mechanism and rely on the assumption of Missing At Random (MAR). We present a DA method which does not rely on the MAR assumption and can model missing data mechanisms and covariate structure. This method utilizes the Gibbs Sampler as a tool for incorporating these structures and mechanisms. We apply this method to an ecological data set that relates fish condition to environmental variables. Notice that the presented DA method detects relationships that are not detected when other missing data methods are employed.

Phytoplankton patchiness and their role in the modelled productivity of a large, seasonally stratified lake

Phytoplankton concentration in Lake Kinneret (Israel) has varied up to 10-fold in space and time, with horizontal patches ranging from a couple of kilometres to a basin scale. Previous studies have used a 1D model to reproduce the temporal evolution of physical and biogeochemical variables in this lake. The question that arises then is how appropriate is a 1D approach to represent the dynamic of a spatially heterogeneous system, where there are non-linear dependencies between variables. Field data, a N-P-Z model coupled to both a 1D and a 3D hydrodynamic model, a 1D diffusion-reaction equation and scaling analysis are used to understand the role of spatial variability, expressed as phytoplankton patchiness, in the modelling of primary production. The analysis and results are used to investigate the effect of horizontal variability in the forcing and in the free mechanisms that affect the growth of patterns. The study shows that the use of averaged properties in a 1D approach may produce misleading results in the presence of localised patches, in terms of both concentration and composition of phytoplankton. The reason lies in the fact that the calibration process of ecological parameters in the 1D model appears to be site and process specific. That is, it depends on the pattern's characteristics and the underlying physical processes causing them. And this is a critical point for the success of numerical simulations under spatial variability. In this study, it is also shown that a length scale based on diffusion and growth rate of phytoplankton could be used as a criterion to assess the appropriateness of the 1D assumption.     

Trade-offs associated with dietary specialization in corallivorous butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Chaetodon</Emphasis>)

Increasing dietary specialization is an inherently risky strategy because it increases a species’ vulnerability to resource depletion. However, risks associated with dietary specialization may be offset by increased performance when feeding on preferred prey. Although rarely demonstrated, highly specialized species are expected to outperform generalists when feeding on their preferred prey, whereas generalists are predicted to have more similar performance across a range of different prey. To test this theory, we compared the growth rates of two obligate coral-feeding butterflyfishes (Chaetodon trifascialis and Chaetodon plebeius) maintained on exclusive diets of preferred vs nonpreferred prey. In the field, C. trifascialis was the most specialized species, feeding almost exclusively on just one coral species, Acropora hyacinthus. C. plebeius meanwhile, was much less specialized, but fed predominantly on Pocillopora damicornis. During growth experiments, C. trifascialis grew fastest when feeding on A. hyacinthus and did not grow at all when feeding on less preferred prey (P. damicornis and Porites cylindrica). C. plebeius performed equally well on both A. hyacinthus and P. damicornis (its preferred prey), but performed poorly when feeding on P. cylindrica. Both butterflyfishes select coral species that maximize juvenile growth, but contrary to expectations, the more specialized species (C. trifascialis) did not outperform the generalist species (C. plebeius) when both consumed their preferred prey. Increased dietary specialization, therefore, appears to be a questionable strategy, as there was no evidence of any increased benefits to offset increases in susceptibility to disturbance.     

Varying levels of female promiscuity in four <Emphasis Type="Italic">Apodemus</Emphasis> mice species

Sexual selection in most vertebrates is based on the evolution of fitness optimization strategies such as multiple-male mating (MMM). Several ecological correlates of MMM have been identified in bird and fish populations; however, only few studies have documented the effects of environmental change on promiscuity in mammals. In this study, the 127 pregnant females from four central European and ecologically diverse species of field mice (genus Apodemus) were studied to assess the role of ecological factors that may have shaped the evolution of particular mating systems. MMM was found in all analyzed species: in Apodemus uralensis and Apodemus flavicollis, up to two males could be identified as the fathers of a particular litter, while three males sired 9.1% of analyzed litters of Apodemus sylvaticus and 20.6% of Apodemus agrarius. Furthermore, there were obvious differences between species in relative testes size and the proportion of multiple sired litters during those seasons when the opportunity for multiple mating was high. The species with the smallest testes and the least promiscuous was A. uralensis (only 43.5% of multiple sired litters), while the species with the biggest testes and the most promiscuous was A. agrarius (69.2%). MMM was significantly associated with higher litter size in A. flavicollis, and the probability of MMM strongly increased with season in A. agrarius and with abundance in A. uralensis. These results indicate that ecological factors are associated with MMM rates in Apodemus field mice and more research is needed to fully understand the evolution of mating strategies at different levels of biological resolution.     

Dynamic female preference for multiple signals in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rhinogobius brunneus</Emphasis>

Many species base their choice of mates on multiple signals which provide them with different kinds of information. Choosers may assess the signals together to evaluate the overall quality of potential mates, but individuals often pay attention to different signals in different contexts. In Rhinogobius brunneus, a fish displaying exclusive male parental care, females generally prefer males showing larger first dorsal fins (FDF) and more active courtship displays as mates. Females choosing a mate usually initially assess the FDF and later utilize courtship for the final decision. In our experiments, females with different hunger states used different signals when selecting mates. Females in both hunger states preferred males with larger FDF in the first stage. In the second stage, well-fed females showed highly repeatable choice, whereas poorly fed females responded only to variation in the courtship activity of males. The males preferred by poorly fed females exhibited significantly higher offspring survival than nonpreferred males. Under conditions of food shortage, males allocate more energy to future reproduction at the expense of the present brood, and females may prioritize signals predictive of offspring survivorship over signals reflecting other aspects in male quality to minimize the losses in direct benefits. We conclude that R. brunneus females may employ information from both signals but dynamically adjust their prioritization of each signal to current conditions to ensure the choice that is currently most adaptive.     

Informative content of multiple plumage-coloured traits in female and male European Rollers

Animals may assess the quality of other individuals by using information that different ornaments may provide. The European Roller (Coracias garrulus) is a socially monogamous species in which males and females display highly conspicuous plumage colouration. According to the mutual selection hypothesis, we predicted that, in this species, plumage coloration could signal individual quality in both sexes because both female and male rollers invest a considerable amount of time caring for their offspring. We used spectrophotometric measurements to investigate the information content of multiple plumage colour traits. We found that the roller is actually a sexually dimorphic and dichromatic species. Different plumage colours from different origins were correlated within individual. Head and back brightness correlated with body condition in both sexes, and in males, head brightness correlated with the number of fledglings in successful nests, while head green-yellow saturation correlated with parental provisioning. Meanwhile, in females, back brightness was related to the number of fledglings in successful nests and to parental provisioning rate. In addition, there was a positive assortative mating in relation to weight, body condition, head green-yellow saturation and back brightness. Finally, we found a positive correlation between parent and offspring coloration. Altogether, these results suggest that multiple colour traits may act as quality indicators in the roller and that they may be used by the two sexes to assess potential mate quality.