Biodiversity Consequences of Genetic Variation in Bark Characteristics within a Foundation Tree Species

Abstract: The developing field of community genetics has the potential to broaden the contribution of genetics to conservation biology by demonstrating that genetic variation within foundation plant species can act to structure associated communities of microorganisms, invertebrates, and vertebrates. We assessed the biodiversity consequences of natural patterns of intraspecific genetic variation within the widely distributed Australian forest tree, Eucalyptus globulus. We assessed genetic variation among geographic races of E. globulus (i.e., provenances, seed zones) in the characteristics of tree‐trunk bark in a 17‐year‐old common garden and the associated response of a dependent macroarthropod community. In total, 180 macroarthropod taxa were identified following a collection from 100 trees of five races. We found substantial genetically based variation within E. globulus in the quantity and type of decorticating bark. In the community of organisms associated with this bark, significant variation existed among trees of different races in composition, and there was a two‐fold difference in species richness (7–14 species) and abundance (22–55 individuals) among races. This community variation was tightly linked with genetically based variation in bark, with 60% of variation in community composition driven by bark characteristics. No detectable correlation was found, however, with neutral molecular markers. These community‐level effects of tree genetics are expected to extend to higher trophic levels because of the extensive use of tree trunks as foraging zones by birds and marsupials. Our results demonstrate the potential biodiversity benefits that may be gained through conservation of intraspecific genetic variation within broadly distributed foundation species. The opportunities for enhancing biodiversity values of forestry and restoration plantings are also highlighted because such planted forests are increasingly becoming the dominant forest type in many areas of the world.     

Uncertainties in the assessment of “significant effect” on the Dutch Natura 2000 Wadden Sea site – The mussel seed fishery and powerboat race controversies

Natura 2000, the nature network based on the European Bird and Habitat Directives, is explicitly grounded on ecological science. To acquire a permit under the Dutch Nature Conservation Act, an appropriate assessment of significant effects must be conducted based on the best available scientific knowledge. In this way the scientific and policy world are directly linked. This article focuses on ‘significant effect’ as a boundary object to analyse how science–policy interactions shape the meaning and assessment of significant effect and how these interpretations influence the decision-making process. To this end, two conflicts over significant effect are investigated: the conflict over the 2006-spring permit for the mussel seed fishery, and the 2011 permit for the planned World Championship powerboat races. In both cases nature organisations started a court process against the government-granted permits in protest to the “no significant effect” claim, stating that there was insufficient certainty for this conclusion. These conflicts are approached as controversies between discourse coalitions with different interpretations of the ecological knowledge. We show how significant effect became a focal point in the controversies, limiting the debate to ecological arguments and science-based expertise, but also creating options for parties to advance their protest by articulating uncertainties. Only uncertainty of incomplete knowledge was explicitly addressed, excluding ambiguity of values and unpredictability of the actual ecosystem. We suggest that acknowledging the value aspect in disputes on significant effect would leave more space for effective solutions of the problems under debate.     

Specific Yield Functions for Estimating Evapotranspiration from Diurnal Surface Water Cycles

The White method has been routinely used to estimate evapotranspiration using diurnal variations in groundwater levels. Applications to surface water systems (e.g., wetlands) are less common. For applications to surface water systems, a stage‐dependent specific yield function must be defined. This is especially important for small wetlands formed in topographic depressions with bowl shaped bathymetries. Existing formulations of the specific yield function include weighting factors that impact the relative importance of the soil and open water specific yields on the composite value. Three formulations of the specific yield function from the literature were compared and found to produce varied results. Based on a comparison with empirical estimates of specific yield based on observed ratios of net precipitation to water level rise, one of the existing formulations is generalized and recommended for general use. The recommended function is dependent on wetland bathymetry, magnitude of the diurnal fluctuation, spatial extent of the equilibration area, and soil‐specific yield. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the relative importance of these variables. The specific yield function is independent of wetland size and is strongly dependent on the basin profile coefficient (p), an indication of wetland shape. For most natural wetlands, bathymetry strongly influences specific yield.     

WC/TiO2纳米复合界面光催化剂制备及其光催化降解酚类污染物研究

设计并制备了新型WC/TiO2纳米复合界面光催化剂应用于酚类污染物的光催化降解反应中.采用X射线衍射(XRD)和扫描电子显微镜(SEM)技术分析了WC/TiO2纳米复合界面光催化剂的晶型和表面形貌.结果显示锐钛矿型TiO2纳米颗粒均匀地分散在WC纳米球表面并很好地构筑了WC/TiO2界面.研究了不同WC负载比例的WC/TiO2光催化剂在模拟太阳光照射下降解苯酚的光催化性能.结果表明:WC/TiO2复合界面的形成可以有效地提高TiO2光催化降解性能;其中,3%WC/TiO2(质量分数)光催化降解苯酚的活性最高.利用紫外-可见光谱(UV-Vis)和高效液相色谱-质谱联用技术(HPLC-MS)分析了WC/TiO2纳米复合界面光催化剂降解苯酚的中间产物,提出了苯酚在WC/TiO2界面上可能的降解机理.     

Scientists versus policy-makers: Building capacity for productive interactions across boundaries in the urban water sector

This paper critically reflects on a trial process for building the capacity of researchers to influence policy-makers in the urban water sector in Australia. Framed as an action research inquiry, this study brought together multidisciplinary teams of researchers to make policy pitches to simulated panels of current and former politicians, senior bureaucrats and industry representatives. The simulations were analysed with respect to tactics for pitching, methods of communication, use of evidence and participants’ reflections on the experience. Participants effectively used scientific research evidence to support a broad vision of water sensitive cities, but were less effective in articulating risk analyses, assessing economic impacts, and proposing appropriate policy instruments to enable their proposed visions to be operationalised. Dramaturgical analysis highlighted the implications of positioning scientists versus policy-makers, which ‘typecast’ participants in roles that restricted scientists’ ability to credibly argue policy ideas. It is proposed that teams of scientists and policy-makers ‘rehearse’ together to manage expectations, develop arguments that will cut through in policy contexts, and produce ideas that shape and are shaped and improved by the policy context.     

Glues or poisons: which triggers vein cutting by monarch caterpillars?

Summary. Late instar larvae of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus L., Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) deactivate the latex defense of milkweeds by chewing a furrow in the leaf midrib or petiole. The larva then feeds beyond the cut where latex outflow is minimal. If a larva does encounter latex exudate during feeding, it often returns to its initial cut to damage the midrib or petiole more extensively before resuming feeding. We used this response to latex as an assay for testing what cue triggers vein cutting. A sticky solution of polyethylene glycol and a mixture of cardenolides both were ineffective; drops applied to the mouthparts of feeding monarchs failed to elicit renewed vein cutting. Activity resided instead within a methanol extract of the supernatant obtained from centrifuged latex of the milkweed, Asclepias curassavica L. (Asclepiadaceae). Treatment with proteinase K did not eliminate activity documenting that the active compound is unlikely to be proteinaceous. Our results indicate that latex adhesiveness and low polarity cardenolides are relatively unimportant releasers of vein cutting. We propose that milkweeds contain noncardenolide stimulants of vein cutting; these compounds presumably serve a defensive role for milkweeds. Over 50 species of insects are known to employ vein-cutting before feeding on plants with canal-borne exudates; most of these species are dietary specialists like the monarch. Our behavioral assay provides a novel approach for identifying ecologically-significant compounds in the exudates of their diverse host plants.     

AQUATIC ORGANISMS RESPONSE TO SEVERE STRESS FOLLOWING ACUTELY SUBLETHAL TOXICANT EXPOSURE1

ABSTRACT: Snails, Goniobasis livescens (Menke), were exposed to acutely sublethal concentrations of p-nitrophenol and the lampricide, 3-triflourmethyl-4 nitrophenol(TFM), and then to acutely lethal thermal shocks. The same species were also exposed to acutely sublethal concentrations of zinc followed by exposure to acutely lethal concentrations of p-nitrophenol; and to acutely sublethal concentrations of TFM followed by exposure to acutely lethal concentrations of zinc. Brown trout, Salmo trutta, were exposed to acutely sublethal concentrations of TFM and then to an acutely lethal thermal shock. Results of these experiments indicate that prior exposure to acutely sublethal toxicant concentrations may reduce survival time for a subsequent exposure to acutely lethal concentrations of a second toxicant (e.g., snails exposed to Zn⁺⁺ then p-nitrophenol) but neither prior or concomitant exposure to acutely sublethal toxicant concentrations insures that the median survival time for a lethal exposure will be significantly altered (e.g., snails exposed to 0.2 × 48 hour LC50 for TFM then Zn⁺⁺). However, some acutely sublethal concentrations of a toxicant may significantly alter survival time of snails to a lethal concentration of a different toxicant (e.g., exposure to 0.4 × 48 hour LC50 TFM then a lethal dose of Zn⁺⁺). The brown trout exposed to an acutely sublethal concentration of TFM and then an acutely lethal thermal shock did have significantly altered survival patterns.     

STREAMBED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY FOR RIVERS IN SOUTH‐CENTRAL NEBRASKA1

ABSTRACT: This paper presents hydraulic conductivities of streambeds measured in three rivers in south‐central Nebraska: the Platte, Republican, and Little Blue Rivers. Unlike traditional permeameter tests in streams that determine only the vertical hydraulic conductivity (K_v), the extended permeameter methods used in this study can measure K in both vertical and horizontal as well as oblique directions. As a result, the anisotropy of channel sediments can be determined from streambed tests of similar sediment volumes. Sandy streambeds with occasional silt/clay layers exist in the Republican and Platte Rivers. The average K_v values range from about 15 to 47 m/day for the sandy streambed and about 1.6 m/day for the silt/clay layers. Statistical analyses indicated that the K_v values of sand and gravel in the Platte and Republican Rivers essentially have the same mean; but the K_v values from the Little Blue River have a statistically different mean. K_v is about four times smaller than the horizontal hydraulic conductivity (K_h) for the top 40 cm of sandy streambed. Measured K_h values of the sandy streambed are in the same magnitude as the K_h of the alluvial aquifer determined using pumping tests. The smaller K_v value in the whole aquifer is the result of interbedded layers of silt and clay within the sand and gravel sediments.     

Model-Based Assessment of Aspen Responses to Elk Herbivory in Rocky Mountain National Park,USA

In Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) has been observed to be declining on elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) winter range for many decades. To support elk management decisions, the SAVANNA ecosystem model was adapted to explore interactions between elk herbivory and aspen dynamics. The simulated probability of successful vegetative regeneration for senescent aspen stands declines sharply when elk densities reach levels of 3–5 elk/km², depending on model assumptions for the seasonal duration of elk foraging activities. For aspen stands with a substantial component of younger trees, the simulated regeneration probability declines more continuously with increasing elk density, dropping below 50% from densities at 8–14 elk/km².At the landscape scale, simulated aspen regeneration probability under a scenario of extensive seasonal use was little affected by elk population level, when this level was above 300–600 elk (25%–50% current population) over the ca. 107 km² winter range. This was because elk distribution was highly aggregated, so that a high density of elk occupied certain areas, even at low population levels overall. At approximately current elk population levels (1000–1200 elk), only 35%–45% of senescent aspen stands are simulated as having at least a 90% probability of regeneration, nearly all of them located on the periphery of the winter range. Successful management for aspen persistence on core winter range will likely require some combination of elk population reduction, management of elk distribution, and fencing to protect aspen suckers from elk browsing.     

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN GROUND WATER AND SURFACE WATER IN THE SUWANNEE RIVER BASIN,FLORIDA1

ABSTRACT: Ground water and surface water constitute a single dynamic system in most parts of the Suwannee River basin due to the presence of karst features that facilitate the interaction between the surface and subsurface. Low radon-222 concentrations (below background levels) and enriched amounts of oxygen-18 and deuterium in ground water indicate mixing with surface water in parts of the basin. Comparison of surface water and regional ground water flow patterns indicate that boundaries for ground water basins typically do not coincide with surface water drainage subbasins. There are several areas in the basin where ground water flow that originates outside of the Suwannee River basin crosses surface water basin boundaries during both low-flow and high-flow conditions. In a study area adjacent to the Suwannee River that consists predominantly of agricultural land use, 18 wells tapping the Upper Floridan aquifer and 7 springs were sampled three times during 1990 through 1994 for major dissolved inorganic constituents, trace elements, and nutrients. During a period of above normal rainfall that resulted in high river stage and high ground water levels in 1991, the combination of increased amounts of dissolved organic carbon and decreased levels of dissolved oxygen in ground water created conditions favorable for the natural reduction of nitrate by denitrification reactions in the aquifer. As a result, less nitrate was discharged by ground water to the Suwannee River.