Environmental analysis of groundwater in Mecosta County, Michigan

Groundwater withdrawal has major economic, social, and environmental implications. In Michigan, recent legislative activity has begun to address the issue of groundwater sustainability. However, more hydrologic data are needed to help inform policy and legislation. A study was conducted in Mecosta County, Michigan to: (1) determine if a relationship could be established between land use/land cover and groundwater quality; and (2) develop a conceptual model for the shallow groundwater system of the study region. In general, groundwater quality was good, with below detection levels of E. coli, low total bacterial counts, and relatively low nutrient concentrations. No statistically significant associations were found between the bacterial numbers and either land use or the physical/chemical attributes measured, which may be because the scale of our spatial analysis was too coarse to detect patterns. Finer-scale, localized processes may have a greater influence on microorganism growth and abundance than coarser-scale, regional processes in this area. Our groundwater analysis suggested that shallow groundwater flow paths are generally consistent with regional surface water flow networks, and that shallow groundwater levels in most of the region have fluctuated within 1–2 m over the past 30 years, with no obvious increasing or decreasing trend.     

The Great Lakes Hydrography Dataset: Consistent,Binational Watersheds for the Laurentian Great Lakes Basin

Ecosystem‐based management of the Laurentian Great Lakes, which spans both the United States and Canada, is hampered by the lack of consistent binational watersheds for the entire Basin. Using comparable data sources and consistent methods, we developed spatially equivalent watershed boundaries for the binational extent of the Basin to create the Great Lakes Hydrography Dataset (GLHD). The GLHD consists of 5,589 watersheds for the entire Basin, covering a total area of approximately 547,967 km², or about twice the 247,003 km² surface water area of the Great Lakes. The GLHD improves upon existing watershed efforts by delineating watersheds for the entire Basin using consistent methods; enhancing the precision of watershed delineation using recently developed flow direction grids that have been hydrologically enforced and vetted by provincial and federal water resource agencies; and increasing the accuracy of watershed boundaries by enforcing embayments, delineating watersheds on islands, and delineating watersheds for all tributaries draining to connecting channels. In addition, the GLHD is packaged in a publically available geodatabase that includes synthetic stream networks, reach catchments, watershed boundaries, a broad set of attribute data for each tributary, and metadata documenting methodology. The GLHD provides a common set of watersheds and associated hydrography data for the Basin that will enhance binational efforts to protect and restore the Great Lakes.     

中国南极长城站室内空气微生物状况

空气微生物是空气洁净程度的重要指标、环境污染状况的真实反映[1] .十年来 ,位于南极半岛的中国长城站常年有考察队员居住和工作 ,尤其在南极之夏 ,不时有各国考察、旅游、观光者出入 .这些都给长城站空气微生物的变化带入了外来因素[2 ] .我们于 1994年 2月 ,随机对站上 19个室内测点作空气微生物考察 ,以监测和比较室内空气微生物含量状况 ,为进一步了解空气微生物的卫生学意义 ,并服务于提高南极考察队员的身体素质 ,加深对南极生态系统的理解而提供一些资料 .1　材料与方法1 .1　测点1994年 2月份分 6天对 19个室内空间作了 2 0次测定 …     

江苏省高宝湖区湖泊群富营养化特征分析

对江苏省高宝湖区高邮湖、宝应湖、邵伯湖和白马湖湖泊富营养化共性与差异性特征进行了分析。结果表明,2009—2014年,4个湖泊总体处于中营养—轻度富营养之间,综合富营养状态指数值在年内均呈波动变化,丰水期明显大于枯水期;主要营养因子水平在4个湖泊之间均存在较明显的差异,尤其是TN和SD 2项指标阶梯状差异较为明显,Chl-a也呈现不同程度的年内分布水平差异,并在春、夏季存在藻类暴发风险;各湖泊Chl-a与环境因子相关性差异较大,宝应湖、白马湖以及总体分析的高宝湖群Chl-a均与水温、TP相关性显著,TP应是高宝湖群藻类生长限制的主导营养因子;各湖泊富营养化特征存在差异性,总体上宝应湖与白马湖富营养化特征较为类似,与高邮湖差异较大,邵伯湖富营养化特征与高邮湖接近,又兼有与宝应湖、白马湖相似性特征。     

The Picturescue Movement: restoring photographs following the 2011 tsunami in Japan

After the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, volunteers participated in the recovery of lost photographs. This effort—which we call the Picturescue Movement—subsequently began to organise photograph restoration gatherings. We conducted field research during the gatherings in Noda, one of the tsunami-stricken areas. We have also carried out research on restoration gatherings in the city of Rikuzentakata. A comparison of findings across these two localities identifies two approaches to photograph restoration gatherings: ‘aiming’ and ‘staying'. The aiming approach, employed in Rikuzentakata, emphasises returning photographs to their owners quickly, whereas the latter approach, used in Noda, is one in which volunteers stay with survivors for some time and encourage them to recall the past at their own pace. We conclude that the staying approach is more likely than the aiming approach to promote disaster recovery among survivors.     

Brood sex ratio is dependent on female mating status in polygynous great reed warblers

Females capable of adjusting the sex ratio of their offspring should be more fit than females lacking such an ability. In polygynous birds where breeding success in males is more strongly influenced by body size and/or attractiveness than in females, females might produce more sons when predicting good conditions or when mating with attractive males. Polygynous great reed warbler, Acrocephalusarundinaceus, males direct most of their feeding effort to the primary (first-hatching) nest and in these nests increase their feeding effort in relation to the brood sex ratio (proportion of sons). Therefore, with the expectation of well-nourished sons, we would predict that females which start breeding first within harems might produce more sons than those which start breeding later, and in anticipation of sons with good genes, that females mated to polygynous males might produce more sons than females mated to monogamous males. I took blood samples from hatchlings and determined the sex using DNA markers. The sex ratio of primary (monogamous and polygynous primary) broods is more male-biased (mean 0.58 males, n = 50) than that of secondary (polygynous secondary and tertiary) broods (mean 0.46, n = 25). Moreover, in the secondary broods with the largest clutch (five eggs), in which offspring are most likely to suffer food shortage, the sex ratio was distinctively female biased (mean 0.33, n = 10). In the primary broods, sex ratio was correlated to harem size. The results suggest that great reed warbler females modify the brood sex ratio to produce both well-nourished sons and sons with good genes, but the former effect is probably stronger than the latter factor. Received: 11 March 1998 / Accepted after revision: 23 May 1998     

Effects of reduced water quality on coral reefs in and out of no‐take marine reserves

Near‐shore marine environments are increasingly subjected to reduced water quality, and their ability to withstand it is critical to their persistence. The potential role marine reserves may play in mitigating the effects of reduced water quality has received little attention. We investigated the spatial and temporal variability in live coral and macro‐algal cover and water quality during moderate and major flooding events of the Fitzroy River within the Keppel Bay region of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park from 2007 to 2013. We used 7 years of remote sensing data on water quality and data from long‐term monitoring of coral reefs to quantify exposure of coral reefs to flood plumes. We used a distance linear model to partition the contribution of abiotic and biotic factors, including zoning, as drivers of the observed changes in coral and macro‐algae cover. Moderate flood plumes from 2007 to 2009 did not affect coral cover on reefs in the Keppel Islands, suggesting the reef has intrinsic resistance against short‐term exposure to reduced water quality. However, from 2009 to 2013, live coral cover declined by ～50% following several weeks of exposure to turbid, low salinity water from major flood plume events in 2011 and subsequent moderate events in 2012 and 2013. Although the flooding events in 2012 and 2013 were smaller than the flooding events between 2007 to 2009, the ability of the reefs to withstand these moderate floods was lost, as evidenced by a ～20% decline in coral cover between 2011 to 2013. Although zoning (no‐take reserve or fished) was identified a significant driver of coral cover, we recorded consistently lower coral cover on reserve reefs than on fished reefs throughout the study period and significantly lower cover in 2011. Our findings suggest that even reefs with an inherent resistance to reduced water quality are not able to withstand repeated disturbance events. The limitations of reserves in mitigating the effects of reduced water quality on near‐shore coral reefs underscores the importance of integrated management approaches that combine effective land‐based management with networks of no‐take reserves.     

The perpetual state of emergency that sacrifices protected areas in a changing climate

A modern challenge for conservation biology is to assess the consequences of policies that adhere to assumptions of stationarity (e.g., historic norms) in an era of global environmental change. Such policies may result in unexpected and surprising levels of mitigation given future climate‐change trajectories, especially as agriculture looks to protected areas to buffer against production losses during periods of environmental extremes. We assessed the potential impact of climate‐change scenarios on the rates at which grasslands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) are authorized for emergency harvesting (i.e., biomass removal) for agricultural use, which can occur when precipitation for the previous 4 months is below 40% of the normal or historical mean precipitation for that 4‐month period. We developed and analyzed scenarios under the condition that policy will continue to operate under assumptions of stationarity, thereby authorizing emergency biomass harvesting solely as a function of precipitation departure from historic norms. Model projections showed the historical likelihood of authorizing emergency biomass harvesting in any given year in the northern Great Plains was 33.28% based on long‐term weather records. Emergency biomass harvesting became the norm (>50% of years) in the scenario that reflected continued increases in emissions and a decrease in growing‐season precipitation, and areas in the Great Plains with higher historical mean annual rainfall were disproportionately affected and were subject to a greater increase in emergency biomass removal. Emergency biomass harvesting decreased only in the scenario with rapid reductions in emissions. Our scenario‐impact analysis indicated that biomass from lands enrolled in the CRP would be used primarily as a buffer for agriculture in an era of climatic change unless policy guidelines are adapted or climate‐change projections significantly depart from the current consensus.     

A model of phosphorus cycling in the epilimnion of oligotrophic and mesotrophic lakes

A dynamic size-based model describing phosphorus (P) cycling in the epilimnion of lakes is established and validated against published data, and some influences of epilimnetic community structure and function on phosphorus cycling are investigated. We used literature values where possible and calibration otherwise to obtain parameter values. The simulation results show good agreement with empirical and experimental data. The model-derived turnover times of nanoplankton and mesoplankton exhibited a positive relationship with total phosphorus (TP), but the turnover times of larger size-functional groups did not. Nanoplankton and picoplankton became similar in their turnover times with increasing TP. Addition of fish altered the size of particulate P pools and turnover rates, decreased phosphate turnover times and decreased phosphorus sedimentation rates as expected from empirical studies. The model predictions appear to be robust and reasonably successful in reproducing the known behaviour of the P-cycle in the epilimnia of oligotrophic and mesotrophic lakes.     

Assessing environmental factors in red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) growth in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA: From conceptual model, envirogram, to simulation model

This study provides a method for assessing a multiplicity of environmental factors in red spruce growth in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) of Southeastern USA. Direct and indirect factors in the annual growth increment are first organized into a schematic input-output envirogram (ARIRS), and this information is then used to construct a simulation model (ARIM). The envirogram represents a structured conceptualization of most environmental factors involved in growth, as developed from relevant literature. This interdisciplinary synthesis distinguishes direct vs. indirect factors in growth and takes account of the systems ecology concept that indirect factors may be as important as or more important than direct ones in regulating growth. The ARIRS envirogram summarizes hierarchically organized, within- and cross-scale, local-to-global interactions, and its construction makes it obvious that growth is influenced by many cross-scale spatiotemporal interactions. More research on genecology is still needed to clarify the role of phenotypic plasticity and adaptive capacity in nutrient cycling, global change, and human disturbance.