Nutrient pathways and their susceptibility to past and future change in the Eurasian Arctic Ocean

Climate change is altering nutrient cycling within the Arctic Ocean, having knock-on effects to Arctic ecosystems. Primary production in the Arctic is principally nitrogen-limited, particularly in the western Pacific-dominated regions where denitrification exacerbates nitrogen loss. The nutrient status of the eastern Eurasian Arctic remains under debate. In the Barents Sea, primary production has increased by 88% since 1998. To support this rapid increase in productivity, either the standing stock of nutrients has been depleted, or the external nutrient supply has increased. Atlantic water inflow, enhanced mixing, benthic nitrogen cycling, and land–ocean interaction have the potential to alter the nutrient supply through addition, dilution or removal. Here we use new datasets from the Changing Arctic Ocean program alongside historical datasets to assess how nitrate and phosphate concentrations may be changing in response to these processes. We highlight how nutrient dynamics may continue to change, why this is important for regional and international policy-making and suggest relevant research priorities for the future.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01673-0.     

Biogeochemical consequences of a changing Arctic shelf seafloor ecosystem

Unprecedented and dramatic transformations are occurring in the Arctic in response to climate change, but academic, public, and political discourse has disproportionately focussed on the most visible and direct aspects of change, including sea ice melt, permafrost thaw, the fate of charismatic megafauna, and the expansion of fisheries. Such narratives disregard the importance of less visible and indirect processes and, in particular, miss the substantive contribution of the shelf seafloor in regulating nutrients and sequestering carbon. Here, we summarise the biogeochemical functioning of the Arctic shelf seafloor before considering how climate change and regional adjustments to human activities may alter its biogeochemical and ecological dynamics, including ecosystem function, carbon burial, or nutrient recycling. We highlight the importance of the Arctic benthic system in mitigating climatic and anthropogenic change and, with a focus on the Barents Sea, offer some observations and our perspectives on future management and policy.     

International trade in meat: the tip of the pork chop

This paper provides an original account of global land, water, and nitrogen use in support of industrialized livestock production and trade, with emphasis on two of the fastest-growing sectors, pork and poultry. Our analysis focuses on trade in feed and animal products, using a new model that calculates the amount of "virtual" nitrogen, water, and land used in production but not embedded in the product. We show how key meat-importing countries, such as Japan, benefit from "virtual" trade in land, water, and nitrogen, and how key meat-exporting countries, such as Brazil, provide these resources without accounting for their true environmental cost. Results show that Japan's pig and chicken meat imports embody the virtual equivalent of 50% of Japan's total arable land, and half of Japan's virtual nitrogen total is lost in the US. Trade links with China are responsible for 15% of the virtual nitrogen left behind in Brazil due to feed and meat exports, and 20% of Brazil's area is used to grow soybean exports. The complexity of trade in meat, feed, water, and nitrogen is illustrated by the dual roles of the US and The Netherlands as both importers and exporters of meat. Mitigation of environmental damage from industrialized livestock production and trade depends on a combination of direct-pricing strategies, regulatory approaches, and use of best management practices. Our analysis indicates that increased water- and nitrogen-use efficiency and land conservation resulting from these measures could significantly reduce resource costs.     

Emotional intelligence and individual performance: evidence of direct and moderated effects

We examined the direct and moderated effects of an ability‐based measure of emotional intelligence (MSCEIT© V2.0) on individual performance in a sample of business undergraduates. Controlling for general mental ability and personality, emotional intelligence explained unique incremental variance in performance ratings on only one of two measures of interpersonal effectiveness (public speaking effectiveness). However, the interaction of emotional intelligence with conscientiousness explained unique incremental variance both in public speaking and group behavior effectiveness, as well as academic performance (cumulative GPA). We conclude that the effects of emotional intelligence on performance are more indirect than direct in nature. Individuals must not only have emotional intelligence, but also must be motivated to use it. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种改进的多学习教与学优化算法

针对传统教与学算法在解决复杂多峰函数优化问题时,具有局部最优且搜索开发能力较差的缺点,提出了一种改进的多学习教与学优化算法,新算法为学员的每一维加入不同的教学因子,设计了基于学员均值比较的教师选择策略和向教师及学员学习的多学习策略。基于多个单峰和多峰函数的仿真结果表明,新算法跟传统的、改进的教与学算法相比,在稳定性、寻优精度和收敛速度方面更具优势。     

Holocene fire history from the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, New South Wales, Australia: the climate, humans and fire nexus

This study presents a reconstruction of the fire activity of the last ~14,200 cal. years BP (before AD 1950) from Gooches Crater Right, located on the Newnes Plateau, approximately 150 km to the west of Sydney (~33°27′S, 150°16′E) within the Blue Mountains National Park. Charcoal analysis and palynology were undertaken with the aim of untangling any inter-relationship between climate, humans and fire. A chronology of the site was provided by radiocarbon dating. The dominant control on fire in this environment during the Holocene appears to be climate. Periods of climate change, identified in previous studies, are associated with higher levels of fire activity. Fire was less ubiquitous between ~9,000 and 6,000 years BP, a period normally described as having a higher effective moisture in south-eastern Australia. The mid-Holocene fluctuations in charcoal may reflect anthropogenic fire, climate forcing or alternatively human responses to any climate change. Coeval changes in palaeoclimatic sequences elsewhere and palynology at the site support a climatic explanation or that Aboriginal people used fire within a climatic framework.     

Coexistence of three specialist aphids on common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca

Coexistence of host-specific herbivores on plants is believed to be governed by interspecific interactions, but few empirical studies have systematically unraveled these dynamics. We investigated the role of several factors in promoting coexistence among the aphids Aphis nerii, Aphis asclepiadis, and Myzocallis asclepiadis that all specialize on common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). Competitive exclusion is thought to occur when interspecific competition is stronger than intraspecific competition. Consequently, we investigated whether predators, mutualists, or resource quality affected the strength of intra- vs. interspecific competition among aphids in factorial manipulations of competition with exposure to predation, ants, and variable plant genotypes in three separate experiments. In the predation x competition experiment, predators reduced aphid per capita growth by 66%, but the strength of intra- and interspecific competition did not depend on predators. In the ants x competition experiment, ants reduced per capita growth of A. nerii and M. asclepiadis (neither of which were mutualists with ants) by approximately one-half. In so doing, ants ameliorated the negative effects of these competitors on ant-tended A. asclepiadis by two-thirds, representing a novel benefit of ant-aphid mutualism. Nevertheless, ants alone did not explain the persistence of competitively inferior A. asclepiadis as, even in the presence of ants, interspecific competition remained stronger than intraspecific competition. In the plant genotype x competition experiment, both A. asclepiadis and M. asclepiadis were competitively inferior to A. nerii, with the strength of interspecific competition exceeding that of intraspecific competition by 83% and 23%, respectively. Yet these effects differed among milkweed genotypes, and there were one or more plant genotypes for each aphid species where coexistence was predicted. A synthesis of our results shows that predators play little or no role in preferentially suppressing competitively dominant A. nerii. Nonetheless, A. asclepiadis benefits from ants, and A. asclepiadis and M. asclepiadis may escape competitive exclusion by A. nerii on select milkweed genotypes. Taken as a whole, the coexistence of three host-specific aphid species sharing the same resource was promoted by the dual action of ants as antagonists and mutualists and by genetic diversity in the plant population itself.     

Natural and waste materials as metal sorbents in permeable reactive barriers (PRBs)

A range of waste products and natural materials including chitin, fly ash, clay soil, cocoa shell, calcified seaweed and the natural zeolite clinoptilolite were tested in batch experiments to assess their ability to remove metals from a synthetic groundwater containing 10 mg l^–1 Cu, Pb and Zn and 1 mg l^–1 Cd. All had the ability to remove more than 70% of the metals from solution with fly ash being the most efficient, then chitin, clinoptilolite, calcified seaweed, clay soil and cocoa shell. After consideration of geochemical and morphological properties, calcified seaweed and clinoptilolite were shown to have potential as barrier materials. Given current issues with regard to the longevity of zero-valent iron barriers alternative materials could be the key to the future adoption of this remediation technology.     

Revegetation of serpentine substrates: Response to phosphate application

Revegetation was studied on stockpiled serpentine substrate. The native vegetation surrounding the revegetation site is annual grassland. The seed mixture applied to both subsoil and topsoil plots was largely ineffective for revegetation. No growth occurred in the subsoil plots and most of the growth in the topsoil plots was from indigenous seed. Phosphate application (100 kg P ha^–1 as NaH₂PO₄ · H₂O) to the topsoil plots resulted in a significant increase in total above-ground productivity. Annual legumes (mostlyLotus subpinnatus Lag.) and, to a lesser degree,Plantago erecta Morris responded to the added phosphate with an increased above-ground productivity. Other annual forbs and annual grasses showed no significant response. The legumes also increased in abundance. Mycorrhizal root colonization forPlantago was not significantly affected by phosphate application, but was lower in this disturbed serpentine site compared to other undisturbed serpentine annual grassland sites nearby.