An emergent disease causes directional changes in forest species composition in coastal California

Treesearch

Margaret Metz; Kerri Frangioso; Allison Wickland; Ross Meentemeyer; David Rizzo

2012-01-01

Non-native forest pathogens can cause dramatic and long-lasting changes to the composition of forests, and these changes may have cascading impacts on community interactions and ecosystem functioning. Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of the emergent forest disease sudden oak death (SOD), has a wide host range, but mortality is concentrated in...

Forest fragmentation and bird community dynamics: inference at regional scales

Treesearch

Thierry Boulinier; James D. Nichols; James E. Hines; John R. Sauer; Curtis H. Flather; Kenneth H. Pollock

2001-01-01

With increasing fragmentation of natural areas and a dramatic reduction of forest cover in several parts of the world, quantifying the impact of such changes on species richness and community dynamics has been a subject of much concern. Here, we tested whether in more fragmented landscapes there was a lower number of area-sensitive species and higher local extinction...

Regional climatic warming drives long-term community changes of British marine fish.

PubMed Central

Genner, Martin J.; Sims, David W.; Wearmouth, Victoria J.; Southall, Emily J.; Southward, Alan J.; Henderson, Peter A.; Hawkins, Stephen J.

2004-01-01

Climatic change has been implicated as the cause of abundance fluctuations in marine fish populations worldwide, but the effects on whole communities are poorly understood. We examined the effects of regional climatic change on two fish assemblages using independent datasets from inshore marine (English Channel, 1913-2002) and estuarine environments (Bristol Channel, 1981-2001). Our results show that climatic change has had dramatic effects on community composition. Each assemblage contained a subset of dominant species whose abundances were strongly linked to annual mean sea-surface temperature. Species' latitudinal ranges were not good predictors of species-level responses, however, and the same species did not show congruent trends between sites. This suggests that within a region, populations of the same species may respond differently to climatic change, possibly owing to additional local environmental determinants, interspecific ecological interactions and dispersal capacity. This will make species-level responses difficult to predict within geographically differentiated communities. PMID:15156925

Herbivores and nutrients control grassland plant diversity via light limitation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Human alterations to nutrient cycles and herbivore communities are dramatically altering global biodiversity. Theory predicts these changes to be strongly counteractive: nutrient addition drives plant species loss through intensified competition for light, whereas herbivores prevent competitive excl...

Scenarios of nutrient alterations and responses of phytoplankton in a changing Daya Bay, South China Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Mei-Lin; Wang, You-Shao; Wang, Yu-Tu; Yin, Jian-Ping; Dong, Jun-De; Jiang, Zhao-Yu; Sun, Fu-Lin

2017-01-01

The coastal ecosystem in the Daya Bay is sensitive to the environmental changes induced by highly intensive human activities. We obtained and compiled the recent 30 years' field observational data on nutrients and phytoplankton communities to explore the changing ecosystem. Dissolved inorganic nitrogen concentration (DIN) has significantly increased, while phosphate concentration (DIP) dramatically decreased because of costal anthropogenic influence. The limited factors for phytoplankton have changed from nitrogen in the 1980s to phosphate in the mid-1990s. The net-collected phytoplankton communities has the miniaturized trend, while there is drastic increase of Chlorophyll a (Chl-a) concentration. Even though the diatoms still dominate in phytoplankton community, the dominant species have slightly changed. The alga bloom greatly changed from diatoms dominated to dinoflagellates due to changes of nutrient structure. All these changes on nutrients and phytoplankton communities appear to be closely associated with human activities along the coast of the Daya Bay.

Fires of differing intensities rapidly select distinct soil fungal communities in a Northwest US ponderosa pine forest ecosystem

Treesearch

C. Reazin; S. Morris; Jane Smith; A.D. Cowan; A. Jumpponen

2016-01-01

Environmental change and long-term fire management in the western United States have created conditions that facilitate high-intensity burn areas in forested systems. Such burns may have dramatic effects on the soil microbial communities. In this study, we utilized experimental infrastructure in the Pringle Falls Experimental Forest in Oregon, where ten pairs of sites...

Youth Voice in School Finance: The Building Healthy Communities Initiative and Young People's Involvement in Shaping Local Control Accountability Plans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terriquez, Veronica; Rogers, John; Lin, May

2016-01-01

Over the last quarter century, California youth affiliated with community-based organizations have participated in a variety of local and state campaigns to influence educational policy and practice. But, until recently, youth have had limited say in school budgets. Dramatic changes to this historic trend have emerged in the last few years. In…

Biocrusts in the context of global change

USGS Publications Warehouse

Reed, Sasha C.; Maestre, Fernando T.; Ochoa-Hueso, Raul; Kuske, Cheryl; Darrouzet-Nardi, Anthony N.; Darby, Brian; Sinsabaugh, Bob; Oliver, Mel; Sancho, Leo; Belnap, Jayne

2016-01-01

A wide range of studies show global environmental change will profoundly affect the structure, function, and dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. The research synthesized here underscores that biocrust communities are also likely to respond significantly to global change drivers, with a large potential for modification to their abundance, composition, and function. We examine how elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, climate change (increased temperature and altered precipitation), and nitrogen deposition affect biocrusts and the ecosystems they inhabit. We integrate experimental and observational data, as well as physiological, community ecology, and biogeochemical perspectives. Taken together, these data highlight the potential for biocrust organisms to respond dramatically to environmental change and show how changes to biocrust community composition translate into effects on ecosystem function (e.g., carbon and nutrient cycling, soil stability, energy balance). Due to the importance of biocrusts in regulating dryland ecosystem processes and the potential for large modifications to biocrust communities, an improved understanding and predictive capacity regarding biocrust responses to environmental change are of scientific and societal relevance.

An assessment of educational needs in the Alaskan forest products industry.

Treesearch

Jon Thomas; Eric Hansen; Allen M. Brackley

2005-01-01

Major changes in federal forest policy in Alaska have resulted in a dramatic downsizing of the state's forest industry. These changes have driven efforts for economic restructuring and improved support for Alaskan communities. The University of Alaska Sitka Forest Products program at the University of Alaska Southeast is one example of efforts to better support...

An assessment of educational needs in the Alaskan forest products industry

Treesearch

J. Thomas; E. Hansen; A. Brackley

2005-01-01

Major changes in federal forest policy in Alaska have resulted in a dramatic downsizing of the state's forest industry. These changes have driven efforts for economic restructuring and improved support for Alaskan communities. The University of Alaska Sitka Forest Products program at the University of Alaska Southeast is one example of efforts to better support...

Phytoplankton Biogeography and Community Stability in the Ocean

PubMed Central

Cermeño, Pedro; de Vargas, Colomban; Abrantes, Fátima; Falkowski, Paul G.

2010-01-01

Background Despite enormous environmental variability linked to glacial/interglacial climates of the Pleistocene, we have recently shown that marine diatom communities evolved slowly through gradual changes over the past 1.5 million years. Identifying the causes of this ecological stability is key for understanding the mechanisms that control the tempo and mode of community evolution. Methodology/Principal Findings If community assembly were controlled by local environmental selection rather than dispersal, environmental perturbations would change community composition, yet, this could revert once environmental conditions returned to previous-like states. We analyzed phytoplankton community composition across >104 km latitudinal transects in the Atlantic Ocean and show that local environmental selection of broadly dispersed species primarily controls community structure. Consistent with these results, three independent fossil records of marine diatoms over the past 250,000 years show cycles of community departure and recovery tightly synchronized with the temporal variations in Earth's climate. Conclusions/Significance Changes in habitat conditions dramatically alter community structure, yet, we conclude that the high dispersal of marine planktonic microbes erases the legacy of past environmental conditions, thereby decreasing the tempo of community evolution. PMID:20368810

Graptolite community responses to global climate change and the Late Ordovician mass extinction.

PubMed

Sheets, H David; Mitchell, Charles E; Melchin, Michael J; Loxton, Jason; Štorch, Petr; Carlucci, Kristi L; Hawkins, Andrew D

2016-07-26

Mass extinctions disrupt ecological communities. Although climate changes produce stress in ecological communities, few paleobiological studies have systematically addressed the impact of global climate changes on the fine details of community structure with a view to understanding how changes in community structure presage, or even cause, biodiversity decline during mass extinctions. Based on a novel Bayesian approach to biotope assessment, we present a study of changes in species abundance distribution patterns of macroplanktonic graptolite faunas (∼447-444 Ma) leading into the Late Ordovician mass extinction. Communities at two contrasting sites exhibit significant decreases in complexity and evenness as a consequence of the preferential decline in abundance of dysaerobic zone specialist species. The observed changes in community complexity and evenness commenced well before the dramatic population depletions that mark the tipping point of the extinction event. Initially, community changes tracked changes in the oceanic water masses, but these relations broke down during the onset of mass extinction. Environmental isotope and biomarker data suggest that sea surface temperature and nutrient cycling in the paleotropical oceans changed sharply during the latest Katian time, with consequent changes in the extent of the oxygen minimum zone and phytoplankton community composition. Although many impacted species persisted in ephemeral populations, increased extinction risk selectively depleted the diversity of paleotropical graptolite species during the latest Katian and early Hirnantian. The effects of long-term climate change on habitats can thus degrade populations in ways that cascade through communities, with effects that culminate in mass extinction.

Graptolite community responses to global climate change and the Late Ordovician mass extinction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheets, H. David; Mitchell, Charles E.; Melchin, Michael J.; Loxton, Jason; Štorch, Petr; Carlucci, Kristi L.; Hawkins, Andrew D.

2016-07-01

Mass extinctions disrupt ecological communities. Although climate changes produce stress in ecological communities, few paleobiological studies have systematically addressed the impact of global climate changes on the fine details of community structure with a view to understanding how changes in community structure presage, or even cause, biodiversity decline during mass extinctions. Based on a novel Bayesian approach to biotope assessment, we present a study of changes in species abundance distribution patterns of macroplanktonic graptolite faunas (˜447-444 Ma) leading into the Late Ordovician mass extinction. Communities at two contrasting sites exhibit significant decreases in complexity and evenness as a consequence of the preferential decline in abundance of dysaerobic zone specialist species. The observed changes in community complexity and evenness commenced well before the dramatic population depletions that mark the tipping point of the extinction event. Initially, community changes tracked changes in the oceanic water masses, but these relations broke down during the onset of mass extinction. Environmental isotope and biomarker data suggest that sea surface temperature and nutrient cycling in the paleotropical oceans changed sharply during the latest Katian time, with consequent changes in the extent of the oxygen minimum zone and phytoplankton community composition. Although many impacted species persisted in ephemeral populations, increased extinction risk selectively depleted the diversity of paleotropical graptolite species during the latest Katian and early Hirnantian. The effects of long-term climate change on habitats can thus degrade populations in ways that cascade through communities, with effects that culminate in mass extinction.

Chronicles of Change: Models of Mexican Immigrant Identity in Suburban Community Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wortham, Stanton; Allard, Elaine; Mortimer, Katherine

2006-01-01

In the past fifteen years, the town of New Marshall has experienced major changes that have influenced the ways its residents view each other. Mexican immigration to New Marshall, a suburb of 30,000 located outside a large Eastern city, grew dramatically between 1990 and 2000. Where once Mexicans comprised less than 0.5% of the population, they…

A microbial perspective of human developmental biology.

PubMed

Charbonneau, Mark R; Blanton, Laura V; DiGiulio, Daniel B; Relman, David A; Lebrilla, Carlito B; Mills, David A; Gordon, Jeffrey I

2016-07-07

When most people think of human development, they tend to consider only human cells and organs. Yet there is another facet that involves human-associated microbial communities. A microbial perspective of human development provides opportunities to refine our definitions of healthy prenatal and postnatal growth and to develop innovative strategies for disease prevention and treatment. Given the dramatic changes in lifestyles and disease patterns that are occurring with globalization, we issue a call for the establishment of 'human microbial observatories' designed to examine microbial community development in birth cohorts representing populations with diverse anthropological characteristics, including those undergoing rapid change.

Human developmental biology viewed from a microbial perspective

PubMed Central

Charbonneau, Mark R.; Blanton, Laura V.; DiGiulio, Daniel B.; Relman, David A.; Lebrilla, Carlito B.; Mills, David A.; Gordon, Jeffrey I.

2017-01-01

Preface Most people think of human development only in terms of ‘human’ cells and organs. Here, we discuss another facet involving human-associated microbial communities. A microbial perspective of human development provides opportunities to refine our definitions of healthy pre- and postnatal growth and to develop new strategies for disease prevention and treatment. Considering the dramatic changes in lifestyles and disease patterns that are occurring with globalization, we issue a call for human microbial observatory programs designed to examine microbial community development in birth cohorts representing populations with diverse anthropologic characteristics, including those undergoing rapid change. PMID:27383979

Towards more accurate vegetation mortality predictions

DOE PAGES

Sevanto, Sanna Annika; Xu, Chonggang

2016-09-26

Predicting the fate of vegetation under changing climate is one of the major challenges of the climate modeling community. Here, terrestrial vegetation dominates the carbon and water cycles over land areas, and dramatic changes in vegetation cover resulting from stressful environmental conditions such as drought feed directly back to local and regional climate, potentially leading to a vicious cycle where vegetation recovery after a disturbance is delayed or impossible.

Stakeholder Alignment and Changing Geospatial Information Capabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winter, S.; Cutcher-Gershenfeld, J.; King, J. L.

2015-12-01

Changing geospatial information capabilities can have major economic and social effects on activities such as drought monitoring, weather forecasts, agricultural productivity projections, water and air quality assessments, the effects of forestry practices and so on. Whose interests are served by such changes? Two common mistakes are assuming stability in the community of stakeholders and consistency in stakeholder behavior. Stakeholder communities can reconfigure dramatically as some leave the discussion, others enter, and circumstances shift — all resulting in dynamic points of alignment and misalignment . New stakeholders can bring new interests, and existing stakeholders can change their positions. Stakeholders and their interests need to be be considered as geospatial information capabilities change, but this is easier said than done. New ways of thinking about stakeholder alignment in light of changes in capability are presented.

Elevated enzyme activities in soils under the invasive nitrogen-fixing tree Falcataria moluccana

Treesearch

Steven D. Allison; Caroline Nielsen; R. Flint Hughes

2006-01-01

Like other N-fixing invasive species in Hawaii, Falcataria moluccana dramatically alters forest structure, litterfall quality and quantity, and nutrient dynamics. We hypothesized that these biogeochemical changes would also affect the soil microbial community and the extracellular enzymes responsible for carbon and nutrient mineralization. Across...

Connecting Classrooms and Community: Engaged Scholarship, Nonacademic Voices, and Organizational Communication Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garner, Johny T.; Barnes, Jessica

2013-01-01

Organizations have changed dramatically over the last decade as globalization, new technology, and generational shifts shape almost every aspect of twenty-first century American society. Ideally, communication education would prepare students for experiences in the workplaces they will join after they graduate, but some have suggested that…

A New Campus Police Agency: A Florida Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parfitt, Rick

2012-01-01

Campus policing is a geographically focused police practice and the epitome of community oriented policing. Campus law enforcement agencies deal not only with a racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse population, they also deal with populations that change dramatically every year. While some campuses are enclaves unto themselves, many are…

New Perspectives Through Data Discovery and Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vorosmarty, C. J.; McGuire, A. D.; Hinzman, L.; Holland, M.; Murray, M.; Schimel, J.; Warnick, W.; Weatherly, J.; Wiggins, H.

2007-07-01

Arctic System Synthesis Workshop, Seattle, Washington, 2-4 April 2007 Dramatic changes in the Arctic have captured the attention of the public. Understanding changes such as the decline of sea ice, the fate of polar bears and other marine mammals, melting of the Greenland ice sheet, changes in the terrestrial carbon budget, and impacts on and feedbacks from the human community require a new approach to research involving synthesis of linkages between system components and threshold behaviors.

Constructing financial network based on PMFG and threshold method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nie, Chun-Xiao; Song, Fu-Tie

2018-04-01

Based on planar maximally filtered graph (PMFG) and threshold method, we introduced a correlation-based network named PMFG-based threshold network (PTN). We studied the community structure of PTN and applied ISOMAP algorithm to represent PTN in low-dimensional Euclidean space. The results show that the community corresponds well to the cluster in the Euclidean space. Further, we studied the dynamics of the community structure and constructed the normalized mutual information (NMI) matrix. Based on the real data in the market, we found that the volatility of the market can lead to dramatic changes in the community structure, and the structure is more stable during the financial crisis.

The 21st Century: The Century of the American Research University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirwan, William E.

2010-01-01

Higher education in America has experienced periodic "inflection points" that have served to significantly alter the higher education landscape and dramatically change the focus and actions of the American research university community. We are on the leading edge of a new inflection point that could be--despite prevailing economic challenges--an…

Back to the Future: The Potential Relationship between Leisure and Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fleming, David S.; Allen, Lawrence R.; Barcelona, Robert J.

2011-01-01

Leisure and education have been inextricably linked since the beginning of Greek civilization. However, the current view of and relationship among these notions has changed dramatically. The personnel, standards, vocational preparation, and contexts for each are largely separated. Given their central place in community life and the resources that…

John Collier's Crusade for Indian Reform: 1920-1954.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Philp, Kenneth R.

For many years federal government policy sought to break up Indian communal land holdings, destroy tribal communities, and absorb Indians into the mainstream of American Society. This policy changed dramatically in the 1920's and 30's, and John Collier stands at the forefront of those responsible. Collier questioned the wisdom of a policy which…

In Wake of Riots, France Refashions Priority Zones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hendrie, Caroline

2006-01-01

This article deals with an initiative embarked upon by the government of France one year after widespread youth violence broke out in many disadvantaged communities in France. The initiative is aimed at adapting its 25-year-old "priority education" program to a landscape that has dramatically changed. The initiative is the centerpiece of…

Changes in the bacterial community in the fermentation process of kôso, a Japanese sugar-vegetable fermented beverage.

PubMed

Chiou, Tai-Ying; Suda, Wataru; Oshima, Kenshiro; Hattori, Masahira; Takahashi, Tomoya

2017-02-01

Kôso is a Japanese fermented beverage made with over 20 kinds of vegetables, mushrooms, and sugars. The changes in the bacterial population of kôso during fermentation at 25 °C over a period of 10 days were studied using 454 pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The analysis detected 224 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) clustered from 8 DNA samples collected on days 0, 3, 7, and 10 from two fermentation batches. Proteobacteria were the dominant phylum in the starting community, but were replaced by Firmicutes within three days. Seventy-eight genera were identified from the 224 OTUs, in which Bifidobacterium, Leuconostoc, Lactococcus, and Lactobacillus dominated, accounting for over 96% of the total bacterial population after three days' fermentation. UniFrac-Principal Coordinate Analysis of longitudinal fermented samples revealed dramatic changes in the bacterial community in kôso, resulting in significantly low diversity at the end of fermentation as compared with the complex starting community.

Disease and community structure: white-nose syndrome alters spatial and temporal niche partitioning in sympatric bat species

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jachowski, David S.; Dobony, Christopher A.; Coleman, Laci S.; Ford, W. Mark; Britzke, Eric R.; Rodrigue, Jane L.

2014-01-01

AimEmerging infectious diseases present a major perturbation with apparent direct effects such as reduced population density, extirpation and/or extinction. Comparatively less is known about the potential indirect effects of disease that likely alter community structure and larger ecosystem function. Since 2006, white-nose syndrome (WNS) has resulted in the loss of over 6 million hibernating bats in eastern North America. Considerable evidence exists concerning niche partitioning in sympatric bat species in this region, and the unprecedented, rapid decline in multiple species following WNS may provide an opportunity to observe a dramatic restructuring of the bat community.LocationWe conducted our study at Fort Drum Army Installation in Jefferson and Lewis counties, New York, USA, where WNS first impacted extant bat species in winter 2007–2008.MethodsAcoustical monitoring during 2003–2011 allowed us to test the hypothesis that spatial and temporal niche partitioning by bats was relaxed post-WNS.ResultsWe detected nine bat species pre- and post-WNS. Activity for most bat species declined post-WNS. Dramatic post-WNS declines in activity of little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus, MYLU), formerly the most abundant bat species in the region, were associated with complex, often species-specific responses by other species that generally favoured increased spatial and temporal overlap with MYLU.Main conclusionsIn addition to the obvious direct effects of disease on bat populations and activity levels, our results provide evidence that disease can have cascading indirect effects on community structure. Recent occurrence of WNS in North America, combined with multiple existing stressors, is resulting in dramatic shifts in temporal and spatial niche partitioning within bat communities. These changes might influence long-term population viability of some bat species as well as broader scale ecosystem structure and function.

Re-Shuffling of Species with Climate Disruption: A No-Analog Future for California Birds?

PubMed Central

Stralberg, Diana; Jongsomjit, Dennis; Howell, Christine A.; Snyder, Mark A.; Alexander, John D.; Wiens, John A.; Root, Terry L.

2009-01-01

By facilitating independent shifts in species' distributions, climate disruption may result in the rapid development of novel species assemblages that challenge the capacity of species to co-exist and adapt. We used a multivariate approach borrowed from paleoecology to quantify the potential change in California terrestrial breeding bird communities based on current and future species-distribution models for 60 focal species. Projections of future no-analog communities based on two climate models and two species-distribution-model algorithms indicate that by 2070 over half of California could be occupied by novel assemblages of bird species, implying the potential for dramatic community reshuffling and altered patterns of species interactions. The expected percentage of no-analog bird communities was dependent on the community scale examined, but consistent geographic patterns indicated several locations that are particularly likely to host novel bird communities in the future. These no-analog areas did not always coincide with areas of greatest projected species turnover. Efforts to conserve and manage biodiversity could be substantially improved by considering not just future changes in the distribution of individual species, but including the potential for unprecedented changes in community composition and unanticipated consequences of novel species assemblages. PMID:19724641

Stormwater runoff drives viral community composition changes in inland freshwaters.

PubMed

Williamson, Kurt E; Harris, Jamie V; Green, Jasmin C; Rahman, Faraz; Chambers, Randolph M

2014-01-01

Storm events impact freshwater microbial communities by transporting terrestrial viruses and other microbes to freshwater systems, and by potentially resuspending microbes from bottom sediments. The magnitude of these impacts on freshwater ecosystems is unknown and largely unexplored. Field studies carried out at two discrete sites in coastal Virginia (USA) were used to characterize the viral load carried by runoff and to test the hypothesis that terrestrial viruses introduced through stormwater runoff change the composition of freshwater microbial communities. Field data gathered from an agricultural watershed indicated that primary runoff can contain viral densities approximating those of receiving waters. Furthermore, viruses attached to suspended colloids made up a large fraction of the total load, particularly in early stages of the storm. At a second field site (stormwater retention pond), RAPD-PCR profiling showed that the viral community of the pond changed dramatically over the course of two intense storms while relatively little change was observed over similar time scales in the absence of disturbance. Comparisons of planktonic and particle-associated viral communities revealed two completely distinct communities, suggesting that particle-associated viruses represent a potentially large and overlooked portion of aquatic viral abundance and diversity. Our findings show that stormwater runoff can quickly change the composition of freshwater microbial communities. Based on these findings, increased storms in the coastal mid-Atlantic region predicted by most climate change models will likely have important impacts on the structure and function of local freshwater microbial communities.

Stormwater runoff drives viral community composition changes in inland freshwaters

PubMed Central

Williamson, Kurt E.; Harris, Jamie V.; Green, Jasmin C.; Rahman, Faraz; Chambers, Randolph M.

2014-01-01

Storm events impact freshwater microbial communities by transporting terrestrial viruses and other microbes to freshwater systems, and by potentially resuspending microbes from bottom sediments. The magnitude of these impacts on freshwater ecosystems is unknown and largely unexplored. Field studies carried out at two discrete sites in coastal Virginia (USA) were used to characterize the viral load carried by runoff and to test the hypothesis that terrestrial viruses introduced through stormwater runoff change the composition of freshwater microbial communities. Field data gathered from an agricultural watershed indicated that primary runoff can contain viral densities approximating those of receiving waters. Furthermore, viruses attached to suspended colloids made up a large fraction of the total load, particularly in early stages of the storm. At a second field site (stormwater retention pond), RAPD-PCR profiling showed that the viral community of the pond changed dramatically over the course of two intense storms while relatively little change was observed over similar time scales in the absence of disturbance. Comparisons of planktonic and particle-associated viral communities revealed two completely distinct communities, suggesting that particle-associated viruses represent a potentially large and overlooked portion of aquatic viral abundance and diversity. Our findings show that stormwater runoff can quickly change the composition of freshwater microbial communities. Based on these findings, increased storms in the coastal mid-Atlantic region predicted by most climate change models will likely have important impacts on the structure and function of local freshwater microbial communities. PMID:24672520

The promise and pitfalls of community resilience.

PubMed

Uscher-Pines, Lori; Chandra, Anita; Acosta, Joie

2013-12-01

An important shift in terminology has occurred in emergency preparedness, and the concept of community resilience has become ubiquitous. Although enhancing community resilience is broader than preparedness, and emphasizes a distinct set of activities and participants, the terms are often used interchangeably. The implications of this shift have not been fully explored. This commentary describes the potential promise and pitfalls of the concept of community resilience and recommends strategies to overcome its limitations. We believe that resilience has the power to dramatically change this field in immense, positive ways, but some important challenges such as confusion about definitions and lack of accountability must first be overcome. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2013;7:603-606).

Mediating equity in shared water between community and industry: The effects of an after school program that addresses adolescents' knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of water science and environmental issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patton, Mary Chandler

This critical ethnography deconstructs how one participant researcher came to understand young adults' changing knowledge about water science and environmental issues in an after school program in Colombia. The program intended to empower self-identified young community leaders by teaching participants to engage community members in discourse related to how environmental factors impact one's level of health and quality of life. The data presented in this study illustrate how student participants responded to long-term teacher engagement and to particular curricular components that included hands-on science teaching and social justice coaching. I assessed how student interest in and knowledge of local water ecology and sanitation infrastructure changed throughout the program. Students' responses to the use of technology and digital media were also included in the analysis. The data demonstrates a dramatic change in student's attitudes and perceptions related to their environment and how they feel about their ability to make positive changes in their community.

Community Economic Identity: The Coal Industry and Ideology Construction in West Virginia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Shannon Elizabeth; York, Richard

2010-01-01

Economic changes and the machinations of the treadmill of production have dramatically reduced the number of jobs provided by extractive industries, such as mining and timber, in the United States and other affluent nations in the post-World War II era. As the importance of these industries to national, regional, and local economies wanes,…

World of Learning: Houston Independent School District 2014 Annual Report and 2015 Calendar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houston Independent School District, 2015

2015-01-01

No other city in the nation more clearly exemplifies the dramatically changing social, political, and economic landscape of America's urban centers than Houston. Houston has transformed from a bi-racial southern city on the bayou to one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse communities in the nation. Houston Independent School District…

A visual progression of the Fort Valley Restoration Project treatments using remotely sensed imagery (P-53)

Treesearch

Joseph E. Crouse; Peter Z. Fule

2008-01-01

The landscape surrounding the Fort Valley Experimental Forest in northern Arizona has changed dramatically in the past decade due to the Fort Valley Restoration Project, a collaboration between the Greater Flagstaff Forest Partnership, Coconino National Forest, and Rocky Mountain Research Station. Severe wildfires in 1996 sparked community concern to start restoration...

Effects of Exposure to Part-Time Faculty on Community College Transfer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eagan, M. Kevin, Jr.; Jaeger, Audrey J.

2009-01-01

Over the past several decades, one of the most significant changes in the delivery of postsecondary education involves the dramatic increase in the use of contingent or part-time faculty. Although the increased use of part-time faculty within higher education makes sense from an administrative point of view, its use does not come without…

Distinct Soil Microbial Communities in habitats of differing soil water balance on the Tibetan Plateau

PubMed Central

Li, Yuntao; Adams, Jonathan; Shi, Yu; Wang, Hao; He, Jin-Sheng; Chu, Haiyan

2017-01-01

Global change may be a severe threat to natural and agricultural systems, partly through its effects in altering soil biota and processes, due to changes in water balance. We studied the potential influence of changing soil water balance on soil biota by comparing existing sites along a natural water balance gradient in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. In this study, the community structure of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes differed between the different soil water conditions. Soil moisture was the strongest predictor of bacterial and eukaryotic community structure, whereas C/N ratio was the key factor predicting variation in the archaeal community. Bacterial and eukaryotic diversity was quite stable among different soil water availability, but archaeal diversity was dramatically different between the habitats. The auxotype of methanogens also varied significantly among different habitats. The co-varying soil properties among habitats shaped the community structure of soil microbes, with archaea being particularly sensitive in terms of community composition, diversity and functional groups. Bacterial and archaeal phylogenetic community turnover was mainly driven by deterministic processes while stochastic processes had stronger effects on eukaryotic phylogenetic community turnover. Our work provides insight into microbial community, functional group and phylogenetic turnover under different soil conditions in low-latitude alpine ecosystem. PMID:28401921

Distinct Soil Microbial Communities in habitats of differing soil water balance on the Tibetan Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yuntao; Adams, Jonathan; Shi, Yu; Wang, Hao; He, Jin-Sheng; Chu, Haiyan

2017-04-01

Global change may be a severe threat to natural and agricultural systems, partly through its effects in altering soil biota and processes, due to changes in water balance. We studied the potential influence of changing soil water balance on soil biota by comparing existing sites along a natural water balance gradient in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. In this study, the community structure of bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes differed between the different soil water conditions. Soil moisture was the strongest predictor of bacterial and eukaryotic community structure, whereas C/N ratio was the key factor predicting variation in the archaeal community. Bacterial and eukaryotic diversity was quite stable among different soil water availability, but archaeal diversity was dramatically different between the habitats. The auxotype of methanogens also varied significantly among different habitats. The co-varying soil properties among habitats shaped the community structure of soil microbes, with archaea being particularly sensitive in terms of community composition, diversity and functional groups. Bacterial and archaeal phylogenetic community turnover was mainly driven by deterministic processes while stochastic processes had stronger effects on eukaryotic phylogenetic community turnover. Our work provides insight into microbial community, functional group and phylogenetic turnover under different soil conditions in low-latitude alpine ecosystem.

Does Community Context Have an Important Impact on Divorce Risk? A Fixed-Effects Study of Twenty Norwegian First-Marriage Cohorts

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

The decision to divorce may be affected by the characteristics of the local community. Community characteristics may be barriers to divorce, or they may increase the attractiveness of divorcing (e.g., access to a good remarriage market), but our knowledge of such influences is sparse. This study examines two such community-level factors: socio-economic conditions and the local marriage market. In this study, discrete-time hazard models with community-level fixed effects are estimated using register-based data on Norwegian first marriages during the period from 1980 to 1999, with longitudinal information on both the community and couple levels (N = 283,493). The results show that there are important community-level influences on couples’ divorce risk, but these change dramatically when fixed effects are introduced. PMID:21350587

Changing times, changing stories: Generational differences in climate change perspectives from four remote indigenous communities in Subarctic Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Herman-Mercer, Nicole M.; Matkin, Elli; Laituri, Melinda J.; Toohey, Ryan C; Massey, Maggie; Elder, Kelly; Schuster, Paul F.; Mutter, Edda A.

2016-01-01

Indigenous Arctic and Subarctic communities currently are facing a myriad of social and environmental changes. In response to these changes, studies concerning indigenous knowledge (IK) and climate change vulnerability, resiliency, and adaptation have increased dramatically in recent years. Risks to lives and livelihoods are often the focus of adaptation research; however, the cultural dimensions of climate change are equally important because cultural dimensions inform perceptions of risk. Furthermore, many Arctic and Subarctic IK climate change studies document observations of change and knowledge of the elders and older generations in a community, but few include the perspectives of the younger population. These observations by elders and older generations form a historical baseline record of weather and climate observations in these regions. However, many indigenous Arctic and Subarctic communities are composed of primarily younger residents. We focused on the differences in the cultural dimensions of climate change found between young adults and elders. We outlined the findings from interviews conducted in four indigenous communities in Subarctic Alaska. The findings revealed that (1) intergenerational observations of change were common among interview participants in all four communities, (2) older generations observed more overall change than younger generations interviewed by us, and (3) how change was perceived varied between generations. We defined “observations” as the specific examples of environmental and weather change that were described, whereas “perceptions” referred to the manner in which these observations of change were understood and contextualized by the interview participants. Understanding the differences in generational observations and perceptions of change are key issues in the development of climate change adaptation strategies.

How Are Fishing Patterns and Fishing Communities Responding to Climate Change? A Test Case from the Northwest Atlantic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, T.; Fuller, E.; Coleman, K.; Provost, M.; Pinsky, M. L.; St Martin, K.

2016-02-01

We know climate is changing and fish are moving in response to those changes. But we understand less about how harvesters are responding to these changes in fish distribution and the ramifications of those changes for fishing communities. Ecological and evolutionary theory suggests that organisms must move, adapt, or die in response to environmental changes, and a related frame may be relevant for human harvesters in the face of climate change. Furthermore, research suggests that there may be a portfolio effect: a wider diversity of catch may buffer harvesters from some effects of climate change. To get at these questions, we explored changes in fishing patterns among commercial fishing communities in the northeast US from 1997-2014 using NOAA-collected logbook data. We found that communities using more mobile gear (large trawl vessels) demonstrated a greater range of latitudinal shift than communities using any other gear. Latitudinal shift was also inversely related to species diversity of catch and port latitude in those communities: southern communities that caught few species shifted dramatically northward, and northern communities that caught many species did not demonstrate marked latitudinal shifts. Those communities that demonstrated larger latitudinal shifts also demonstrated smaller changes in catch composition than their more stationary counterparts. We also found that vessels are indeed leaving many, but not all, fisheries in this region. These results suggest that harvesters are moving, adapting, and leaving fisheries, and that there does appear to be a portfolio effect, with catch diversity mediating some of these responses. While these changes in fishing patterns cannot all be directly attributed to climate change per se, marine fishes in this region are shifting north rapidly, as is expected under climate change. This study provides a valuable test case for exploring the potential ramifications of climate change on coastal socio-ecological systems.

'Changing climate, changing health, changing stories' profile: using an EcoHealth approach to explore impacts of climate change on inuit health.

PubMed

Harper, S L; Edge, V L; Cunsolo Willox, A

2012-03-01

Global climate change and its impact on public health exemplify the challenge of managing complexity and uncertainty in health research. The Canadian North is currently experiencing dramatic shifts in climate, resulting in environmental changes which impact Inuit livelihoods, cultural practices, and health. For researchers investigating potential climate change impacts on Inuit health, it has become clear that comprehensive and meaningful research outcomes depend on taking a systemic and transdisciplinary approach that engages local citizens in project design, data collection, and analysis. While it is increasingly recognised that using approaches that embrace complexity is a necessity in public health, mobilizing such approaches from theory into practice can be challenging. In 2009, the Rigolet Inuit Community Government in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Canada partnered with a transdisciplinary team of researchers, health practitioners, and community storytelling facilitators to create the Changing Climate, Changing Health, Changing Stories project, aimed at developing a multi-media participatory, community-run methodological strategy to gather locally appropriate and meaningful data to explore climate-health relationships. The goal of this profile paper is to describe how an EcoHealth approach guided by principles of transdisciplinarity, community participation, and social equity was used to plan and implement this climate-health research project. An overview of the project, including project development, research methods, project outcomes to date, and challenges encountered, is presented. Though introduced in this one case study, the processes, methods, and lessons learned are broadly applicable to researchers and communities interested in implementing EcoHealth approaches in community-based research.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Allison, Steven D.

The role of specific micro-organisms in the carbon cycle, and their responses to environmental change, are unknown in most ecosystems. This knowledge gap limits scientists’ ability to predict how important ecosystem processes, like soil carbon storage and loss, will change with climate and other environmental factors. The investigators addressed this knowledge gap by transplanting microbial communities from different environments into new environments and measuring the response of community composition and carbon cycling over time. Using state-of-the-art sequencing techniques, computational tools, and nanotechnology, the investigators showed that microbial communities on decomposing plant material shift dramatically with natural and experimentally-imposed drought. Microbialmore » communities also shifted in response to added nitrogen, but the effects were smaller. These changes had implications for carbon cycling, with lower rates of carbon loss under drought conditions, and changes in the efficiency of decomposition with nitrogen addition. Even when transplanted into the same conditions, microbial communities from different environments remained distinct in composition and functioning for up to one year. Changes in functioning were related to differences in enzyme gene content across different microbial groups. Computational approaches developed for this project allowed the conclusions to be tested more broadly in other ecosystems, and new computer models will facilitate the prediction of microbial traits and functioning across environments. The data and models resulting from this project benefit the public by improving the ability to predict how microbial communities and carbon cycling functions respond to climate change, nutrient enrichment, and other large-scale environmental changes.« less

Exploiting water versus tolerating drought: water-use strategies of trees in a secondary successional tropical dry forest

Treesearch

Fernando Pineda-García; Horacio Paz; Frederick C. Meinzer; Guillermo Angeles; Guillermo Goldstein

2015-01-01

In seasonal plant communities where water availability changes dramatically both between and within seasons, understanding the mechanisms that enable plants to exploit water pulses and to survive drought periods is crucial. By measuring rates of physiological processes, we examined the trade-off between water exploitation and drought tolerance among seedlings of trees...

All Hands on Deck: Organizing for the Schools Saint Paul Children Deserve

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fought, Eric S.

2015-01-01

This article describes a group of dedicated educators who, in the midst of a constant barrage of attacks, dramatically changed the conversation. It is the story of a union that recognized that, in order to bring about the transformation necessary for the betterment of the entire community, its members needed to transform the way in which it…

Illinois Community College Board FY 2006 Adult Education and Family Literacy Report to the Governor and General Assembly

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Illinois Community College Board, 2007

2007-01-01

Economic and demographic changes are dramatically increasing the need for adult education, basic literacy, and English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) programs. Millions of Illinois residents lack the level of literacy skills needed to obtain good jobs, perform well on the job, and function well in an increasingly complex society. Addressing the scope…

Illinois Community College Board FY 2005 Adult Education and Family Literacy Report to the Governor and General Assembly

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Illinois Community College Board, 2006

2006-01-01

Economic and demographic changes are dramatically increasing the need for adult education, basic literacy, and English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) programs. Millions of Illinois residents lack the level of literacy skills needed to obtain good jobs, perform well on the job, and function well in an increasingly complex society. Addressing the scope…

The Development of Drury University's Undergraduate Global Awareness Curriculum: An Appreciative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Suzanne K.

2013-01-01

The United States is becoming more culturally diverse. One hundred years ago, "1 out of 8 Americans was of a race other than White; at the end of the century, the ratio was 1 out of 4" (Hobbs & Stoops, 2002, p. 71). With this changing ratio, communities and school populations have dramatically diversified; however, the methods for…

Recolonization of the intertidal and shallow subtidal community following the 2008 eruption of Alaska’s Kasatochi Volcano

USGS Publications Warehouse

Jewett, S.C.; Drew, Gary S.

2014-01-01

The intertidal and nearshore benthic communities of Kasatochi Island are described following a catastrophic volcanic eruption in 2008. Prior to the eruption, the island was surrounded by a dense bed of canopy-forming dragon kelp Eualaria fistulosa which supported a productive nearshore community. The eruption extended the coastline of the island approximately 400 m offshore to roughly the 20 m isobath. One year following the eruption a reconnaissance survey found the intertidal zone devoid of life. Subtidally, the canopy kelp, as well as limited understory algal species and associated benthic fauna on the hard substratum, were buried by debris from the eruption. The resulting substrate was comprised almost entirely of medium and coarse sands with a depauperate benthic community. Comparisons of habitat and biological communities with other nearby Aleutian Islands and the Icelandic submarine volcanic eruption of Surtsey confirm dramatic reductions in flora and fauna consistent with the initial stages of recovery from a large-scale disturbance event. Four and five years following the eruption brief visits revealed dramatic intertidal and subtidal recolonization of the flora and fauna in some areas. Signs of nesting and fledging of young pigeon guillemots Cepphus columba suggest that the recovery of the nearshore biota may have begun affecting higher trophic levels. Recolonization or lack thereof was tied to bathymetric changes from coastal and nearshore erosion over the study period.

Recolonization of the intertidal and shallow subtidal community following the 2008 eruption of Alaska's Kasatochi Volcano

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jewett, S. C.; Drew, G. S.

2014-03-01

The intertidal and nearshore benthic communities of Kasatochi Island are described following a catastrophic volcanic eruption in 2008. Prior to the eruption, the island was surrounded by a dense bed of canopy-forming dragon kelp Eualaria fistulosa which supported a productive nearshore community. The eruption extended the coastline of the island approximately 400 m offshore to roughly the 20 m isobath. One year following the eruption a reconnaissance survey found the intertidal zone devoid of life. Subtidally, the canopy kelp, as well as limited understory algal species and associated benthic fauna on the hard substratum, were buried by debris from the eruption. The resulting substrate was comprised almost entirely of medium and coarse sands with a depauperate benthic community. Comparisons of habitat and biological communities with other nearby Aleutian Islands and the Icelandic submarine volcanic eruption of Surtsey confirm dramatic reductions in flora and fauna consistent with the initial stages of recovery from a large-scale disturbance event. Four and five years following the eruption brief visits revealed dramatic intertidal and subtidal recolonization of the flora and fauna in some areas. Signs of nesting and fledging of young pigeon guillemots Cepphus columba suggest that the recovery of the nearshore biota may have begun affecting higher trophic levels. Recolonization or lack thereof was tied to bathymetric changes from coastal and nearshore erosion over the study period.

Impacts on Coralligenous Outcrop Biodiversity of a Dramatic Coastal Storm

PubMed Central

Teixidó, Núria; Casas, Edgar; Cebrián, Emma; Linares, Cristina; Garrabou, Joaquim

2013-01-01

Extreme events are rare, stochastic perturbations that can cause abrupt and dramatic ecological change within a short period of time relative to the lifespan of organisms. Studies over time provide exceptional opportunities to detect the effects of extreme climatic events and to measure their impacts by quantifying rates of change at population and community levels. In this study, we show how an extreme storm event affected the dynamics of benthic coralligenous outcrops in the NW Mediterranean Sea using data acquired before (2006–2008) and after the impact (2009–2010) at four different sites. Storms of comparable severity have been documented to occur occasionally within periods of 50 years in the Mediterranean Sea. We assessed the effects derived from the storm comparing changes in benthic community composition at sites exposed to and sheltered from this extreme event. The sites analyzed showed different damage from severe to negligible. The most exposed and impacted site experienced a major shift immediately after the storm, represented by changes in the species richness and beta diversity of benthic species. This site also showed higher compositional variability immediately after the storm and over the following year. The loss of cover of benthic species resulted between 22% and 58%. The damage across these species (e.g. calcareous algae, sponges, anthozoans, bryozoans, tunicates) was uneven, and those with fragile forms were the most impacted, showing cover losses up to 50 to 100%. Interestingly, small patches survived after the storm and began to grow slightly during the following year. In contrast, sheltered sites showed no significant changes in all the studied parameters, indicating no variations due to the storm. This study provides new insights into the responses to large and rare extreme events of Mediterranean communities with low dynamics and long-lived species, which are among the most threatened by the effects of global change. PMID:23326496

Hierarchical spatial structure of stream fish colonization and extinction

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hitt, N.P.; Roberts, J.H.

2012-01-01

Spatial variation in extinction and colonization is expected to influence community composition over time. In stream fish communities, local species richness (alpha diversity) and species turnover (beta diversity) are thought to be regulated by high extinction rates in headwater streams and high colonization rates in downstream areas. We evaluated the spatiotemporal structure of fish communities in streams originally surveyed by Burton and Odum 1945 (Ecology 26: 182-194) in Virginia, USA and explored the effects of species traits on extinction and colonization dynamics. We documented dramatic changes in fish community structure at both the site and stream scales. Of the 34 fish species observed, 20 (59%) were present in both time periods, but 11 (32%) colonized the study area and three (9%) were extirpated over time. Within streams, alpha diversity increased in two of three streams but beta diversity decreased dramatically in all streams due to fish community homogenization caused by colonization of common species and extirpation of rare species. Among streams, however, fish communities differentiated over time. Regression trees indicated that reproductive life-history traits such as spawning mound construction, associations with mound-building species, and high fecundity were important predictors of species persistence or colonization. Conversely, native fishes not associated with mound-building exhibited the highest rates of extirpation from streams. Our results demonstrate that stream fish colonization and extinction dynamics exhibit hierarchical spatial structure and suggest that mound-building fishes serve as keystone species for colonization of headwater streams.

Climate Change and Health: A Position Paper of the American College of Physicians.

PubMed

Crowley, Ryan A

2016-05-03

Climate change could have a devastating effect on human and environmental health. Potential effects of climate change on human health include higher rates of respiratory and heat-related illness, increased prevalence of vector-borne and waterborne diseases, food and water insecurity, and malnutrition. Persons who are elderly, sick, or poor are especially vulnerable to these potential consequences. Addressing climate change could have substantial benefits to human health. In this position paper, the American College of Physicians (ACP) recommends that physicians and the broader health care community throughout the world engage in environmentally sustainable practices that reduce carbon emissions; support efforts to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change; and educate the public, their colleagues, their community, and lawmakers about the health risks posed by climate change. Tackling climate change is an opportunity to dramatically improve human health and avert dire environmental outcomes, and ACP believes that physicians can play a role in achieving this goal.

The tropicalization of temperate marine ecosystems: climate-mediated changes in herbivory and community phase shifts

PubMed Central

Vergés, Adriana; Steinberg, Peter D.; Hay, Mark E.; Poore, Alistair G. B.; Campbell, Alexandra H.; Ballesteros, Enric; Heck, Kenneth L.; Booth, David J.; Coleman, Melinda A.; Feary, David A.; Figueira, Will; Langlois, Tim; Marzinelli, Ezequiel M.; Mizerek, Toni; Mumby, Peter J.; Nakamura, Yohei; Roughan, Moninya; van Sebille, Erik; Gupta, Alex Sen; Smale, Dan A.; Tomas, Fiona; Wernberg, Thomas; Wilson, Shaun K.

2014-01-01

Climate-driven changes in biotic interactions can profoundly alter ecological communities, particularly when they impact foundation species. In marine systems, changes in herbivory and the consequent loss of dominant habitat forming species can result in dramatic community phase shifts, such as from coral to macroalgal dominance when tropical fish herbivory decreases, and from algal forests to ‘barrens’ when temperate urchin grazing increases. Here, we propose a novel phase-shift away from macroalgal dominance caused by tropical herbivores extending their range into temperate regions. We argue that this phase shift is facilitated by poleward-flowing boundary currents that are creating ocean warming hotspots around the globe, enabling the range expansion of tropical species and increasing their grazing rates in temperate areas. Overgrazing of temperate macroalgae by tropical herbivorous fishes has already occurred in Japan and the Mediterranean. Emerging evidence suggests similar phenomena are occurring in other temperate regions, with increasing occurrence of tropical fishes on temperate reefs. PMID:25009065

"Can I Ask a Question?" ESOL and Mainstream Teachers Engaging in Distributed and Distributive Learning to Support English Language Learners' Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peercy, Megan Madigan; Martin-Beltrán, Melinda; Silverman, Rebecca D.; Nunn, Stephanie J.

2015-01-01

The population of U.S. schools has shifted dramatically in the past two decades to include many more linguistically and culturally diverse learners, while the teacher population has remained largely White and monolingual, with limited connections to immigrant communities. Among the many changes diverse learners have brought to U.S. schools is the…

Human migration and natural resources: implications for land managers and challenges for researchers.

Treesearch

Stephen F. McCool; Linda E. Kruger

2003-01-01

Rural areas of the Pacific Northwest experienced a dramatic growth in population during the late 1980s to early 1990s. This growth was fueled by both push and pull factors, including environmental and natural resource based amenities. Such growth has not only stressed the capacity of rural counties and communities to cope with change but also has raised important...

Analysis of long-term forest bird monitoring data from national forests of the western Great Lakes Region

Treesearch

Gerald J. Niemi; Robert W. Howe; Brian R. Sturtevant; Linda R. Parker; Alexis R. Grinde; Nicholas P. Danz; Mark D. Nelson; Edmund J. Zlonis; Nicholas G. Walton; Erin E. Gnass Giese; Sue M. Lietz

2016-01-01

Breeding bird communities in forests of the western Great Lakes region are among the most diverse in North America, but the forest environment in this region has changed dramatically during the past 150 years. To address concerns about loss of biodiversity due to ongoing forest harvesting and to better inform forest planning, researchers have systematically monitored...

Interspecies chemical communication in bacterial development.

PubMed

Straight, Paul D; Kolter, Roberto

2009-01-01

Our view of bacteria, from the earliest observations through the heyday of antibiotic discovery, has shifted dramatically. We recognize communities of bacteria as integral and functionally important components of diverse habitats, ranging from soil collectives to the human microbiome. To function as productive communities, bacteria coordinate metabolic functions, often requiring shifts in growth and development. The hallmark of cellular development, which we characterize as physiological change in response to environmental stimuli, is a defining feature of many bacterial interspecies interactions. Bacterial communities rely on chemical exchanges to provide the cues for developmental change. Traditional methods in microbiology focus on isolation and characterization of bacteria in monoculture, separating the organisms from the surroundings in which interspecies chemical communication has relevance. Developing multispecies experimental systems that incorporate knowledge of bacterial physiology and metabolism with insights from biodiversity and metagenomics shows great promise for understanding interspecies chemical communication in the microbial world.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Oehler, G.C.

As dramatic as are the recent changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union political happenings, some other factors are having at least as important an impact on the intelligence community's business. For example, new and more global problems have arisen, such as the proliferation of advanced weapons, economic competitiveness, and environmental concerns. It is obvious that intelligence requirements are on the increase. For the intelligence community whose business is information gathering and processing, advanced information management tools are needed. Fortunately, recent technical advances offer these tools. Some of the more notable advances in information documentation, storage, and retrieval aremore » described.« less

Managing the Delivery of Health Care: What Can Health Care Learn From the Business Community?

PubMed

Sharan, Alok D; Millhouse, Paul W; West, Michael E; Schroeder, Gregory D; Vaccaro, Alexander R

2015-08-01

The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March 2010 has resulted in dramatic changes to the delivery of health care in the United States toward a value-based system. While this is a significant change from the previous model, it presents an opportunity for high-quality health care providers to improve patient outcomes while also increasing revenue. However, those that lack a clear strategy to effectively implement change and communicate the increased value to the patients likely will suffer, regardless of how successful or prestigious they seem today.

Community Gender Norms Change as a Part of a Multilevel Approach to Sexual Health Among Married Women in Mumbai, India

PubMed Central

Singh, Rajendra; Schensul, Jean J.; Verma, Ravi K.; Burleson, Joseph A.; Nastasi, Bonnie K.

2015-01-01

Inequitable gender norms in societies and communities negatively contribute to women’s sexual and reproductive health. While the need for change in gender norms is well recognized, the task is highly challenging in terms of intervention design, implementation and assessment of impact. This paper describes a methodology for identification of gender norms, the design of community level intervention, community participation and the assessment of intervention impact in a low income, predominately Muslim community of 600,000 people in Mumbai, India. Formative research focused on in-depth interviews with women, men and couples yielding gender normative statements and assessment of community resources to facilitate change. A Gender Equity Scale (GES) based on this formative research was developed and administered annually for a three-year period to random, cross-sectional samples in the intervention and control communities, and to community based, non-governmental organizations (NGO) staff and Imams (religious leaders) in the intervention community. NGO staff disseminated gender oriented messages to their female constituency through their regular outreach activities and through special events and festivals in the community. Imams disseminated gender messages through lectures on social issues for men attending Friday prayers. The results showed that the NGO staff and Imams, assumed more gender equitable attitudes across time. The intervention was associated with a significant improvement in attitudes towards gender equity in the intervention relative to the control community. Men showed a dramatic change in more positive gender attitudes, while women lagged behind in their GES scores. The meaning of these results are explored and the implications assessed for the generalizability of the methodology for other countries, cultures and communities. PMID:26136202

Community Gender Norms Change as a Part of a Multilevel Approach to Sexual Health Among Married Women in Mumbai, India.

PubMed

Schensul, Stephen L; Singh, Rajendra; Schensul, Jean J; Verma, Ravi K; Burleson, Joseph A; Nastasi, Bonnie K

2015-09-01

Inequitable gender norms in societies and communities negatively contribute to women's sexual and reproductive health. While the need for change in gender norms is well recognized, the task is highly challenging in terms of intervention design, implementation and assessment of impact. This paper describes a methodology for identification of gender norms, the design of community level intervention, community participation and the assessment of intervention impact in a low income, predominately Muslim community of 600,000 people in Mumbai, India. Formative research focused on in-depth interviews with women, men and couples yielding gender normative statements and assessment of community resources to facilitate change. A Gender Equity Scale (GES) based on this formative research was developed and administered annually for a three-year period to random, cross-sectional samples in the intervention and control communities, and to community based, non-governmental organizations (NGO) staff and Imams (religious leaders) in the intervention community. NGO staff disseminated gender oriented messages to their female constituency through their regular outreach activities and through special events and festivals in the community. Imams disseminated gender messages through lectures on social issues for men attending Friday prayers. The results showed that the NGO staff and Imams, assumed more gender equitable attitudes across time. The intervention was associated with a significant improvement in attitudes towards gender equity in the intervention relative to the control community. Men showed a dramatic change in more positive gender attitudes, while women lagged behind in their GES scores. The meaning of these results are explored and the implications assessed for the generalizability of the methodology for other countries, cultures and communities.

Rapid response of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities to short-term fertilization in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

PubMed

Xiang, Xingjia; Gibbons, Sean M; He, Jin-Sheng; Wang, Chao; He, Dan; Li, Qian; Ni, Yingying; Chu, Haiyan

2016-01-01

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is home to the vast grassland in China. The QTP grassland ecosystem has been seriously degraded by human land use practices and climate change. Fertilization is used in this region to increase vegetation yields for grazers. The impact of long-term fertilization on plant and microbial communities has been studied extensively. However, the influence of short-term fertilization on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities in the QTP is largely unknown, despite their important functional role in grassland ecosystems. We investigated AMF community responses to three years of N and/or P addition at an experimental field site on the QTP, using the Illumina MiSeq platform (PE 300). Fertilization resulted in a dramatic shift in AMF community composition and NP addition significantly increased AMF species richness and phylogenetic diversity. Aboveground biomass, available phosphorus, and NO3 (-) were significantly correlated with changes in AMF community structure. Changes in these factors were driven by fertilization treatments. Thus, fertilization had a large impact on AMF communities, mediated by changes in aboveground productivity and soil chemistry. Prior work has shown how plants often lower their reliance on AMF symbioses following fertilization, leading to decrease AMF abundance and diversity. However, our study reports a rise in AMF diversity with fertilization treatment. Because AMF can provide stress tolerance to their hosts, we suggest that extreme weather on the QTP may help drive a positive relationship between fertilizer amendment and AMF diversity.

Effects of scoria-cone eruptions upon nearby human communities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ort, M.H.; Elson, M.D.; Anderson, K.C.; Duffield, W.A.; Hooten, J.A.; Champion, D.E.; Waring, G.

2008-01-01

Scoria-cone eruptions are typically low in volume and explosivity compared with eruptions from stratovolcanoes, but they can affect local populations profoundly. Scoria-cone eruption effects vary dramatically due to eruption style, tephra blanket extent, climate, types of land use, the culture and complexity of the affected group, and resulting governmental action. A comparison of a historic eruption (Pari??cutin, Me??xico) with prehistoric eruptions (herein we primarily focus on Sunset Crater in northern Arizona, USA) elucidates the controls on and effects of these variables. Long-term effects of lava flows extend little beyond the flow edges. These flows, however, can be used for defensive purposes, providing refuges from invasion for those who know them well. In arid lands, tephra blankets serve as mulches, decreasing runoff and evaporation, increasing infiltration, and regulating soil temperature. Management and retention of these scoria mulches, which can open new areas for agriculture, become a priority for farming communities. In humid areas, though, the tephra blanket may impede plant growth and increase erosion. Cultural responses to eruptions vary, from cultural collapse, through fragmentation of society, dramatic changes, and development of new technologies, to little apparent change. Eruptions may also be viewed as retribution for poor behavior, and attempts are made to mollify angry gods. ?? 2008 Geological Society of America.

Nutrient addition dramatically accelerates microbial community succession.

PubMed

Knelman, Joseph E; Schmidt, Steven K; Lynch, Ryan C; Darcy, John L; Castle, Sarah C; Cleveland, Cory C; Nemergut, Diana R

2014-01-01

The ecological mechanisms driving community succession are widely debated, particularly for microorganisms. While successional soil microbial communities are known to undergo predictable changes in structure concomitant with shifts in a variety of edaphic properties, the causal mechanisms underlying these patterns are poorly understood. Thus, to specifically isolate how nutrients--important drivers of plant succession--affect soil microbial succession, we established a full factorial nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilization plot experiment in recently deglaciated (∼3 years since exposure), unvegetated soils of the Puca Glacier forefield in Southeastern Peru. We evaluated soil properties and examined bacterial community composition in plots before and one year after fertilization. Fertilized soils were then compared to samples from three reference successional transects representing advancing stages of soil development ranging from 5 years to 85 years since exposure. We found that a single application of +NP fertilizer caused the soil bacterial community structure of the three-year old soils to most resemble the 85-year old soils after one year. Despite differences in a variety of soil edaphic properties between fertilizer plots and late successional soils, bacterial community composition of +NP plots converged with late successional communities. Thus, our work suggests a mechanism for microbial succession whereby changes in resource availability drive shifts in community composition, supporting a role for nutrient colimitation in primary succession. These results suggest that nutrients alone, independent of other edaphic factors that change with succession, act as an important control over soil microbial community development, greatly accelerating the rate of succession.

Nutrient Addition Dramatically Accelerates Microbial Community Succession

PubMed Central

Knelman, Joseph E.; Schmidt, Steven K.; Lynch, Ryan C.; Darcy, John L.; Castle, Sarah C.; Cleveland, Cory C.; Nemergut, Diana R.

2014-01-01

The ecological mechanisms driving community succession are widely debated, particularly for microorganisms. While successional soil microbial communities are known to undergo predictable changes in structure concomitant with shifts in a variety of edaphic properties, the causal mechanisms underlying these patterns are poorly understood. Thus, to specifically isolate how nutrients – important drivers of plant succession – affect soil microbial succession, we established a full factorial nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fertilization plot experiment in recently deglaciated (∼3 years since exposure), unvegetated soils of the Puca Glacier forefield in Southeastern Peru. We evaluated soil properties and examined bacterial community composition in plots before and one year after fertilization. Fertilized soils were then compared to samples from three reference successional transects representing advancing stages of soil development ranging from 5 years to 85 years since exposure. We found that a single application of +NP fertilizer caused the soil bacterial community structure of the three-year old soils to most resemble the 85-year old soils after one year. Despite differences in a variety of soil edaphic properties between fertilizer plots and late successional soils, bacterial community composition of +NP plots converged with late successional communities. Thus, our work suggests a mechanism for microbial succession whereby changes in resource availability drive shifts in community composition, supporting a role for nutrient colimitation in primary succession. These results suggest that nutrients alone, independent of other edaphic factors that change with succession, act as an important control over soil microbial community development, greatly accelerating the rate of succession. PMID:25050551

Persistence and diversification of the Holarctic shrew, Sorex tundrensis (Family Soricidae), in response to climate change

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hope, Andrew G.; Waltari, Eric; Fedorov, Vadim B.; Goropashnaya, Anna V.; Talbot, Sandra; Cook, Joseph A.

2011-01-01

Environmental processes govern demography, species movements, community turnover and diversification and yet in many respects these dynamics are still poorly understood at high latitudes. We investigate the combined effects of climate change and geography through time for a widespread Holarctic shrew, Sorex tundrensis. We include a comprehensive suite of closely related outgroup taxa and three independent loci to explore phylogeographic structure and historical demography. We then explore the implications of these findings for other members of boreal communities. The tundra shrew and its sister species, the Tien Shan shrew (Sorex asper), exhibit strong geographic population structure across Siberia and into Beringia illustrating local centres of endemism that correspond to Late Pleistocene refugia. Ecological niche predictions for both current and historical distributions indicate a model of persistence through time despite dramatic climate change. Species tree estimation under a coalescent process suggests that isolation between populations has been maintained across timeframes deeper than the periodicity of Pleistocene glacial cycling. That some species such as the tundra shrew have a history of persistence largely independent of changing climate, whereas other boreal species shifted their ranges in response to climate change, highlights the dynamic processes of community assembly at high latitudes.

Persistence and diversification of the Holarctic shrew, Sorex tundrensis (Family Soricidae), in response to climate change

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hope, Andrew G.; Waltari, Eric; Fedorov, V.B.; Goropashnaya, A.V.; Talbot, Sandra; Cook, Joseph A.

2014-01-01

Environmental processes govern demography, species movements, community turnover and diversification and yet in many respects these dynamics are still poorly understood at high latitudes. We investigate the combined effects of climate change and geography through time for a widespread Holarctic shrew, Sorex tundrensis. We include a comprehensive suite of closely related outgroup taxa and three independent loci to explore phylogeographic structure and historical demography. We then explore the implications of these findings for other members of boreal communities. The tundra shrew and its sister species, the Tien Shan shrew (Sorex asper), exhibit strong geographic population structure across Siberia and into Beringia illustrating local centres of endemism that correspond to Late Pleistocene refugia. Ecological niche predictions for both current and historical distributions indicate a model of persistence through time despite dramatic climate change. Species tree estimation under a coalescent process suggests that isolation between populations has been maintained across timeframes deeper than the periodicity of Pleistocene glacial cycling. That some species such as the tundra shrew have a history of persistence largely independent of changing climate, whereas other boreal species shifted their ranges in response to climate change, highlights the dynamic processes of community assembly at high latitudes.

Man induced change in community control in the north-western Black Sea: The top-down bottom-up balance.

PubMed

Bănaru, Daniela; Harmelin-Vivien, Mireille; Boudouresque, Charles F

2010-05-01

The present study shows how marine commercial fish food webs dramatically changed in the north-western Black Sea on both pelagic and benthic environments. Fisheries landings, diversity and equitability strongly decreased between 1965-1970 and 2001-2005. Fishes adapted their feeding behaviour to the increasingly low species diversity of the Black Sea communities. Their food web became poor and simplified following the loss of many top predator species and their trophic links. Linkage density, connectivity and Lyapunov stability proxy strongly decreased. The north-western Black Sea system switched from a complex top-down and bottom-up functioning pattern to a dominantly bottom-up functioning pattern. This study contributes to a better understanding of these transformations within the Danube-Black Sea system in the last decades. An attempt is made to relate these changes with river inputs, fisheries and coastal pollution. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dynamics of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community structure and functioning along a nitrogen enrichment gradient in an alpine meadow ecosystem.

PubMed

Jiang, Shengjing; Liu, Yongjun; Luo, Jiajia; Qin, Mingsen; Johnson, Nancy Collins; Öpik, Maarja; Vasar, Martti; Chai, Yuxing; Zhou, Xiaolong; Mao, Lin; Du, Guozhen; An, Lizhe; Feng, Huyuan

2018-03-30

Nitrogen (N) availability is increasing dramatically in many ecosystems, but the influence of elevated N on the functioning of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in natural ecosystems is not well understood. We measured AM fungal community structure and mycorrhizal function simultaneously across an experimental N addition gradient in an alpine meadow that is limited by N but not by phosphorus (P). AM fungal communities at both whole-plant-community (mixed roots) and single-plant-species (Elymus nutans roots) scales were described using pyro-sequencing, and the mycorrhizal functioning was quantified using a mycorrhizal-suppression treatment in the field (whole-plant-community scale) and a glasshouse inoculation experiment (single-plant-species scale). Nitrogen enrichment progressively reduced AM fungal abundance, changed AM fungal community composition, and shifted mycorrhizal functioning towards parasitism at both whole-plant-community and E. nutans scales. N-induced shifts in AM fungal community composition were tightly linked to soil N availability and/or plant species richness, whereas the shifts in mycorrhizal function were associated with the communities of specific AM fungal lineages. The observed changes in both AM fungal community structure and functioning across an N enrichment gradient highlight that N enrichment of ecosystems that are not P-limited can induce parasitic mycorrhizal functioning and influence plant community structure and ecosystem sustainability. © 2018 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2018 New Phytologist Trust.

The Impact of Road Construction on Subjective Well-Being in Communities in Madre de Dios, Peru.

PubMed

Riley-Powell, Amy R; Lee, Gwenyth O; Naik, Nehal S; Jensen, Kelly E; O'Neal, Christina; Salmón-Mulanovich, Gabriela; Hartinger, Stella M; Bausch, Daniel G; Paz-Soldan, Valerie A

2018-06-15

The interoceanic highway (IOH) in Madre de Dios, Peru has driven dramatic change in the Peruvian Amazon basin. We conducted a mixed methods study to examine the impact of these changes on the subjective well-being (SWB) of four communities on the IOH. Themes that emerged qualitatively included changing health threats, environmental degradation, and the impact of increased migration. To achieve a higher level of SWB, respondents emphasized the need for higher incomes, opportunities to learn new skills, and a better education for their children. Potential threats to SWB included marital problems and poorer health. Quantitative analyses suggested that social support and a sense of security impacted reported SWB scores based on life satisfaction, and the impact of income on life satisfaction was mediated by food security. Although long-term residents felt that specific determinants of SWB had both increased (food variety, transport and access to work) and decreased (access to natural resources and hunting), the majority reported that their lives had improved overall. Health had been affected by the IOH in both negative ways (increased dengue and road accidents) and positive ways (improved access to health services). Our results suggest that the rapidly-changing communities near the IOH link well-being to health, income, community, and the environment.

Functional tradeoffs underpin salinity-driven divergence in microbial community composition.

PubMed

Dupont, Chris L; Larsson, John; Yooseph, Shibu; Ininbergs, Karolina; Goll, Johannes; Asplund-Samuelsson, Johannes; McCrow, John P; Celepli, Narin; Allen, Lisa Zeigler; Ekman, Martin; Lucas, Andrew J; Hagström, Åke; Thiagarajan, Mathangi; Brindefalk, Björn; Richter, Alexander R; Andersson, Anders F; Tenney, Aaron; Lundin, Daniel; Tovchigrechko, Andrey; Nylander, Johan A A; Brami, Daniel; Badger, Jonathan H; Allen, Andrew E; Rusch, Douglas B; Hoffman, Jeff; Norrby, Erling; Friedman, Robert; Pinhassi, Jarone; Venter, J Craig; Bergman, Birgitta

2014-01-01

Bacterial community composition and functional potential change subtly across gradients in the surface ocean. In contrast, while there are significant phylogenetic divergences between communities from freshwater and marine habitats, the underlying mechanisms to this phylogenetic structuring yet remain unknown. We hypothesized that the functional potential of natural bacterial communities is linked to this striking divide between microbiomes. To test this hypothesis, metagenomic sequencing of microbial communities along a 1,800 km transect in the Baltic Sea area, encompassing a continuous natural salinity gradient from limnic to fully marine conditions, was explored. Multivariate statistical analyses showed that salinity is the main determinant of dramatic changes in microbial community composition, but also of large scale changes in core metabolic functions of bacteria. Strikingly, genetically and metabolically different pathways for key metabolic processes, such as respiration, biosynthesis of quinones and isoprenoids, glycolysis and osmolyte transport, were differentially abundant at high and low salinities. These shifts in functional capacities were observed at multiple taxonomic levels and within dominant bacterial phyla, while bacteria, such as SAR11, were able to adapt to the entire salinity gradient. We propose that the large differences in central metabolism required at high and low salinities dictate the striking divide between freshwater and marine microbiomes, and that the ability to inhabit different salinity regimes evolved early during bacterial phylogenetic differentiation. These findings significantly advance our understanding of microbial distributions and stress the need to incorporate salinity in future climate change models that predict increased levels of precipitation and a reduction in salinity.

Assessing hazards along our Nation's coasts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hapke, Cheryl J.; Brenner, Owen; Henderson, Rachel E.; Reynolds, B.J.

2013-01-01

Coastal areas are essential to the economic, cultural, and environmental health of the Nation, yet by nature coastal areas are constantly changing due to a variety of events and processes. Extreme storms can cause dramatic changes to our shorelines in a matter of hours, while sea-level rise can profoundly alter coastal environments over decades. These changes can have a devastating impact on coastal communities, such as the loss of homes built on retreating sea cliffs or protective dunes eroded by storm waves. Sometimes, however, the changes can be positive, such as new habitat created by storm deposits. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is meeting the need for scientific understanding of how our coasts respond to different hazards with continued assessments of current and future changes along U.S. coastlines. Through the National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards (NACCH), the USGS carries out the unique task of quantifying coastal change hazards along open-ocean coasts in the United States and its territories. Residents of coastal communities, emergency managers, and other stakeholders can use science-based data, tools, models, and other products to improve planning and enhance resilience.

Climate change and physical disturbance manipulations result in distinct biological soil crust communities.

PubMed

Steven, Blaire; Kuske, Cheryl R; Gallegos-Graves, La Verne; Reed, Sasha C; Belnap, Jayne

2015-11-01

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) colonize plant interspaces in many drylands and are critical to soil nutrient cycling. Multiple climate change and land use factors have been shown to detrimentally impact biocrusts on a macroscopic (i.e., visual) scale. However, the impact of these perturbations on the bacterial components of the biocrusts remains poorly understood. We employed multiple long-term field experiments to assess the impacts of chronic physical (foot trampling) and climatic changes (2°C soil warming, altered summer precipitation [wetting], and combined warming and wetting) on biocrust bacterial biomass, composition, and metabolic profile. The biocrust bacterial communities adopted distinct states based on the mechanism of disturbance. Chronic trampling decreased biomass and caused small community compositional changes. Soil warming had little effect on biocrust biomass or composition, while wetting resulted in an increase in the cyanobacterial biomass and altered bacterial composition. Warming combined with wetting dramatically altered bacterial composition and decreased Cyanobacteria abundance. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing identified four functional gene categories that differed in relative abundance among the manipulations, suggesting that climate and land use changes affected soil bacterial functional potential. This study illustrates that different types of biocrust disturbance damage biocrusts in macroscopically similar ways, but they differentially impact the resident soil bacterial communities, and the communities' functional profiles can differ depending on the disturbance type. Therefore, the nature of the perturbation and the microbial response are important considerations for management and restoration of drylands. Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Climate change and physical disturbance manipulations result in distinct biological soil crust communities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Steven, Blaire; Kuske, Cheryl R.; Gallegos-Graves, La Verne; Reed, Sasha C.; Belnap, Jayne

2015-01-01

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) colonize plant interspaces in many drylands and are critical to soil nutrient cycling. Multiple climate change and land use factors have been shown to detrimentally impact biocrusts on a macroscopic (i.e., visual) scale. However, the impact of these perturbations on the bacterial components of the biocrusts remain poorly understood. We employed multiple long-term field experiments to assess the impacts of chronic physical (foot trampling) and climatic changes (2 °C soil warming, altered summer precipitation (wetting), and combined warming and wetting) on biocrust bacterial biomass, composition, and metabolic profile. The biocrust bacterial communities adopted distinct states based on the mechanism of disturbance. Chronic trampling decreased biomass and caused small community compositional change. Soil warming had little effect on biocrust biomass or composition, while wetting resulted in an increase in cyanobacterial biomass and altered bacterial composition. Warming combined with wetting dramatically altered bacterial composition and decreased cyanobacteria abundance. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing identified four functional gene categories that differed in relative abundance among the manipulations, suggesting that climate and land use changes affected soil bacterial functional potential. This study illustrates that different types of biocrust disturbance damage biocrusts in macroscopically similar ways, but they differentially impact the resident soil bacterial communities and the community functional profile can differ depending on the disturbance type. Therefore, the nature of the perturbation and the microbial response are important considerations for management and restoration of drylands.

Revisiting the Early Use of Technology: A Critical Shift from "How Young Is Too Young?" to "How Much Is 'Just Right'?"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lentz, C. Lorelle; Seo, Kay Kyeong-Ju; Gruner, Bridget

2014-01-01

The conversation about young children and their use of technology has dramatically changed over the past ten years in the early childhood education community and in the general public. It appears the debate has moved forward from the question posed by Vail (2001) in her article titled, "How Young Is Too Young? When It Comes to Computer Use,…

Human nutrition, the gut microbiome, and immune system: envisioning the future

PubMed Central

Kau, Andrew L.; Ahern, Philip P.; Griffin, Nicholas W.; Goodman, Andrew L.; Gordon, Jeffrey I.

2012-01-01

Summary Paragraph Dramatic changes in socioeconomic status, cultural traditions, population growth, and agriculture are affecting diets worldwide. Understanding how our diet and nutritional status influence the composition and dynamic operations of our gut microbial communities, and the innate and adaptive arms of our immune system, represents an area of scientific need, opportunity and challenge. The insights gleaned should help address a number of pressing global health problems. PMID:21677749

The tropicalization of temperate marine ecosystems: climate-mediated changes in herbivory and community phase shifts.

PubMed

Vergés, Adriana; Steinberg, Peter D; Hay, Mark E; Poore, Alistair G B; Campbell, Alexandra H; Ballesteros, Enric; Heck, Kenneth L; Booth, David J; Coleman, Melinda A; Feary, David A; Figueira, Will; Langlois, Tim; Marzinelli, Ezequiel M; Mizerek, Toni; Mumby, Peter J; Nakamura, Yohei; Roughan, Moninya; van Sebille, Erik; Gupta, Alex Sen; Smale, Dan A; Tomas, Fiona; Wernberg, Thomas; Wilson, Shaun K

2014-08-22

Climate-driven changes in biotic interactions can profoundly alter ecological communities, particularly when they impact foundation species. In marine systems, changes in herbivory and the consequent loss of dominant habitat forming species can result in dramatic community phase shifts, such as from coral to macroalgal dominance when tropical fish herbivory decreases, and from algal forests to 'barrens' when temperate urchin grazing increases. Here, we propose a novel phase-shift away from macroalgal dominance caused by tropical herbivores extending their range into temperate regions. We argue that this phase shift is facilitated by poleward-flowing boundary currents that are creating ocean warming hotspots around the globe, enabling the range expansion of tropical species and increasing their grazing rates in temperate areas. Overgrazing of temperate macroalgae by tropical herbivorous fishes has already occurred in Japan and the Mediterranean. Emerging evidence suggests similar phenomena are occurring in other temperate regions, with increasing occurrence of tropical fishes on temperate reefs. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Community structure of the metabolically active rumen bacterial and archaeal communities of dairy cows over the transition period

PubMed Central

Zhu, Zhigang; Noel, Samantha Joan; Difford, Gareth Frank; Al-Soud, Waleed Abu; Brejnrod, Asker; Sørensen, Søren Johannes; Lassen, Jan; Løvendahl, Peter; Højberg, Ole

2017-01-01

Dairy cows experience dramatic changes in host physiology from gestation to lactation period and dietary switch from high-forage prepartum diet to high-concentrate postpartum diet over the transition period (parturition +/- three weeks). Understanding the community structure and activity of the rumen microbiota and its associative patterns over the transition period may provide insight for e.g. improving animal health and production. In the present study, rumen samples from ten primiparous Holstein dairy cows were collected over seven weeks spanning the transition period. Total RNA was extracted from the rumen samples and cDNA thereof was subsequently used for characterizing the metabolically active bacterial (16S rRNA transcript amplicon sequencing) and archaeal (qPCR, T-RFLP and mcrA and 16S rRNA transcript amplicon sequencing) communities. The metabolically active bacterial community was dominated by three phyla, showing significant changes in relative abundance range over the transition period: Firmicutes (from prepartum 57% to postpartum 35%), Bacteroidetes (from prepartum 22% to postpartum 18%) and Proteobacteria (from prepartum 7% to postpartum 32%). For the archaea, qPCR analysis of 16S rRNA transcript number, revealed a significant prepartum to postpartum increase in Methanobacteriales, in accordance with an observed increase (from prepartum 80% to postpartum 89%) in relative abundance of 16S rRNA transcript amplicons allocated to this order. On the other hand, a significant prepartum to postpartum decrease (from 15% to 2%) was observed in relative abundance of Methanomassiliicoccales 16S rRNA transcripts. In contrast to qPCR analysis of the 16S rRNA transcripts, quantification of mcrA transcripts revealed no change in total abundance of metabolically active methanogens over the transition period. According to T-RFLP analysis of the mcrA transcripts, two Methanobacteriales genera, Methanobrevibacter and Methanosphaera (represented by the T-RFs 39 and 267 bp), represented more than 70% of the metabolically active methanogens, showing no significant changes over the transition period; minor T-RFs, likely to represent members of the order Methanomassiliicoccales and with a relative abundance below 5% in total, decreased significantly over the transition period. In accordance with the T-RFLP analysis, the mcrA transcript amplicon sequencing revealed Methanobacteriales to cover 99% of the total reads, dominated by the genera Methanobrevibacter (75%) and Methanosphaera (24%), whereas the Methanomassiliicoccales order covered only 0.2% of the total reads. In conclusion, the present study showed that the structure of the metabolically active bacterial and archaeal rumen communities changed over the transition period, likely in response to the dramatic changes in physiology and nutritional factors like dry matter intake and feed composition. It should be noted however that for the methanogens, the observed community changes were influenced by the analyzed gene (mcrA or 16S rRNA). PMID:29117259

Rapid response of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities to short-term fertilization in an alpine grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

PubMed Central

Xiang, Xingjia; Gibbons, Sean M.; He, Jin-Sheng; Wang, Chao; He, Dan; Li, Qian; Ni, Yingying

2016-01-01

Background: The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) is home to the vast grassland in China. The QTP grassland ecosystem has been seriously degraded by human land use practices and climate change. Fertilization is used in this region to increase vegetation yields for grazers. The impact of long-term fertilization on plant and microbial communities has been studied extensively. However, the influence of short-term fertilization on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities in the QTP is largely unknown, despite their important functional role in grassland ecosystems. Methods: We investigated AMF community responses to three years of N and/or P addition at an experimental field site on the QTP, using the Illumina MiSeq platform (PE 300). Results: Fertilization resulted in a dramatic shift in AMF community composition and NP addition significantly increased AMF species richness and phylogenetic diversity. Aboveground biomass, available phosphorus, and NO3− were significantly correlated with changes in AMF community structure. Changes in these factors were driven by fertilization treatments. Thus, fertilization had a large impact on AMF communities, mediated by changes in aboveground productivity and soil chemistry. Discussion: Prior work has shown how plants often lower their reliance on AMF symbioses following fertilization, leading to decrease AMF abundance and diversity. However, our study reports a rise in AMF diversity with fertilization treatment. Because AMF can provide stress tolerance to their hosts, we suggest that extreme weather on the QTP may help drive a positive relationship between fertilizer amendment and AMF diversity. PMID:27478711

The Submarine Volcano Eruption off El Hierro Island: Effects on the Scattering Migrant Biota and the Evolution of the Pelagic Communities

PubMed Central

Ariza, Alejandro; Kaartvedt, Stein; Røstad, Anders; Garijo, Juan Carlos; Arístegui, Javier; Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio; Hernández-León, Santiago

2014-01-01

The submarine volcano eruption off El Hierro Island (Canary Islands) on 10 October 2011 promoted dramatic perturbation of the water column leading to changes in the distribution of pelagic fauna. To study the response of the scattering biota, we combined acoustic data with hydrographic profiles and concurrent sea surface turbidity indexes from satellite imagery. We also monitored changes in the plankton and nekton communities through the eruptive and post-eruptive phases. Decrease of oxygen, acidification, rising temperature and deposition of chemicals in shallow waters resulted in a reduction of epipelagic stocks and a disruption of diel vertical migration (nocturnal ascent) of mesopelagic organisms. Furthermore, decreased light levels at depth caused by extinction in the volcanic plume resulted in a significant shallowing of the deep acoustic scattering layer. Once the eruption ceased, the distribution and abundances of the pelagic biota returned to baseline levels. There was no evidence of a volcano-induced bloom in the plankton community. PMID:25047077

The submarine volcano eruption off El Hierro Island: effects on the scattering migrant biota and the evolution of the pelagic communities.

PubMed

Ariza, Alejandro; Kaartvedt, Stein; Røstad, Anders; Garijo, Juan Carlos; Arístegui, Javier; Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio; Hernández-León, Santiago

2014-01-01

The submarine volcano eruption off El Hierro Island (Canary Islands) on 10 October 2011 promoted dramatic perturbation of the water column leading to changes in the distribution of pelagic fauna. To study the response of the scattering biota, we combined acoustic data with hydrographic profiles and concurrent sea surface turbidity indexes from satellite imagery. We also monitored changes in the plankton and nekton communities through the eruptive and post-eruptive phases. Decrease of oxygen, acidification, rising temperature and deposition of chemicals in shallow waters resulted in a reduction of epipelagic stocks and a disruption of diel vertical migration (nocturnal ascent) of mesopelagic organisms. Furthermore, decreased light levels at depth caused by extinction in the volcanic plume resulted in a significant shallowing of the deep acoustic scattering layer. Once the eruption ceased, the distribution and abundances of the pelagic biota returned to baseline levels. There was no evidence of a volcano-induced bloom in the plankton community.

Diversity partitioning during the Cambrian radiation

PubMed Central

Na, Lin; Kiessling, Wolfgang

2015-01-01

The fossil record offers unique insights into the environmental and geographic partitioning of biodiversity during global diversifications. We explored biodiversity patterns during the Cambrian radiation, the most dramatic radiation in Earth history. We assessed how the overall increase in global diversity was partitioned between within-community (alpha) and between-community (beta) components and how beta diversity was partitioned among environments and geographic regions. Changes in gamma diversity in the Cambrian were chiefly driven by changes in beta diversity. The combined trajectories of alpha and beta diversity during the initial diversification suggest low competition and high predation within communities. Beta diversity has similar trajectories both among environments and geographic regions, but turnover between adjacent paleocontinents was probably the main driver of diversification. Our study elucidates that global biodiversity during the Cambrian radiation was driven by niche contraction at local scales and vicariance at continental scales. The latter supports previous arguments for the importance of plate tectonics in the Cambrian radiation, namely the breakup of Pannotia. PMID:25825755

Evaluation of phytoplankton community composition in the eutrophic Masan Bay by HPLC pigment analysis.

PubMed

Kim, Jeong Bae; Hong, Sokjin; Lee, Won-Chan; Lee, Yong-Woo; Kim, Hyung Chul; Cho, Yoonsik

2015-03-01

To assess the spatiotemporal changes in phytoplankton community composition in relation to the environment of Masan Bay, a semi-enclosed bay on the southern coast of Korea, photosynthetic pigments and environmental variables were analyzed in seawater, every month between March and November 2010. The level of dissolved inorganic nutrients was highest between July and September when the freshwater influx was at its peak, whereas chlorophyll a level was highest in April and August. Phosphate concentration was low in April (average: 0.22 +/- 0.17 microM), indicating the role of phosphate as a growth-limiting factor for phytoplankton. The results of pigment analysis indicate that dinoflagellate blooms occurred under favorable conditions, where competition with diatoms occurred. Fucoxanthin- and chlorophyll b-containing phytoplankton dominated the surface layer of Masan Bay from July to September. The composition of phytoplankton community in Masan Bay changed dramatically each month according to variations in the amount and composition of nutrients introduced through surface runoff.

Changes in assembly processes in soil bacterial communities following a wildfire disturbance.

PubMed

Ferrenberg, Scott; O'Neill, Sean P; Knelman, Joseph E; Todd, Bryan; Duggan, Sam; Bradley, Daniel; Robinson, Taylor; Schmidt, Steven K; Townsend, Alan R; Williams, Mark W; Cleveland, Cory C; Melbourne, Brett A; Jiang, Lin; Nemergut, Diana R

2013-06-01

Although recent work has shown that both deterministic and stochastic processes are important in structuring microbial communities, the factors that affect the relative contributions of niche and neutral processes are poorly understood. The macrobiological literature indicates that ecological disturbances can influence assembly processes. Thus, we sampled bacterial communities at 4 and 16 weeks following a wildfire and used null deviation analysis to examine the role that time since disturbance has in community assembly. Fire dramatically altered bacterial community structure and diversity as well as soil chemistry for both time-points. Community structure shifted between 4 and 16 weeks for both burned and unburned communities. Community assembly in burned sites 4 weeks after fire was significantly more stochastic than in unburned sites. After 16 weeks, however, burned communities were significantly less stochastic than unburned communities. Thus, we propose a three-phase model featuring shifts in the relative importance of niche and neutral processes as a function of time since disturbance. Because neutral processes are characterized by a decoupling between environmental parameters and community structure, we hypothesize that a better understanding of community assembly may be important in determining where and when detailed studies of community composition are valuable for predicting ecosystem function.

Changes in assembly processes in soil bacterial communities following a wildfire disturbance

PubMed Central

Ferrenberg, Scott; O'Neill, Sean P; Knelman, Joseph E; Todd, Bryan; Duggan, Sam; Bradley, Daniel; Robinson, Taylor; Schmidt, Steven K; Townsend, Alan R; Williams, Mark W; Cleveland, Cory C; Melbourne, Brett A; Jiang, Lin; Nemergut, Diana R

2013-01-01

Although recent work has shown that both deterministic and stochastic processes are important in structuring microbial communities, the factors that affect the relative contributions of niche and neutral processes are poorly understood. The macrobiological literature indicates that ecological disturbances can influence assembly processes. Thus, we sampled bacterial communities at 4 and 16 weeks following a wildfire and used null deviation analysis to examine the role that time since disturbance has in community assembly. Fire dramatically altered bacterial community structure and diversity as well as soil chemistry for both time-points. Community structure shifted between 4 and 16 weeks for both burned and unburned communities. Community assembly in burned sites 4 weeks after fire was significantly more stochastic than in unburned sites. After 16 weeks, however, burned communities were significantly less stochastic than unburned communities. Thus, we propose a three-phase model featuring shifts in the relative importance of niche and neutral processes as a function of time since disturbance. Because neutral processes are characterized by a decoupling between environmental parameters and community structure, we hypothesize that a better understanding of community assembly may be important in determining where and when detailed studies of community composition are valuable for predicting ecosystem function. PMID:23407312

Space Technology Mission Directorate: Game Changing Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gaddis, Stephen W.

2015-01-01

NASA and the aerospace community have deep roots in manufacturing technology and innovation. Through it's Game Changing Development Program and the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Project NASA develops and matures innovative, low-cost manufacturing processes and products. Launch vehicle propulsion systems are a particular area of interest since they typically comprise a large percentage of the total vehicle cost and development schedule. NASA is currently working to develop and utilize emerging technologies such as additive manufacturing (i.e. 3D printing) and computational materials and processing tools that could dramatically improve affordability, capability, and reduce schedule for rocket propulsion hardware.

Nutrient-enhanced n-alkanes biodegradation and succession of bacterial communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Yanyu; Wang, Hui; Li, Junde; Wang, Bin; Qi, Cancan; Hu, Xiaoke

2017-11-01

Bioremediation, is an effective and environment-friendly method of cleaning up crude oil pollution after an oil spill. However, the in situ bioremediation of crude oil is usually inhibited by deficiency of inorganic nutrients. To understand the effects of nutrient addition on the bioremediation of crude oil and the succession of bacterial communities during process of bioremediation, microcosms containing oil-contaminated sediments were constructed and biodegradation of crude oil was assessed based on the depletion of different ingredients. We used two culture-independent methods, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and a 16S rRNA gene based clone library, to analyze the succession of bacterial communities. The results suggested n-alkanes were degraded after 30 days and that nutrient amendments significantly improved the efficiency of their biodegradation. Moreover, oil contamination and nutrient amendments could dramatically change bacterial community structures. Lower diversity was detected after being contaminated with oil. For instance, bacterial clones affiliated with the phylum Armatimonadetes, Firmicutes, Gemmatimonadetes, and Planctomycetes and the class Deltaproteobacteria and Epsilonproteobacteria could not be identified after 30 days of incubation with crude oil. However, "professional hydrocarbonocastic bacteria" became abundant in samples treated with oil during the bioremediation period, while these clones were almost completely absent from the control plots. Interestingly, bioinformatics analysis showed that even when dramatic differences in oil biodegradation efficiency were observed, bacterial communities in the plots with nutrient amendments were not significantly different from those in plots treated with oil alone. These findings indicated that nutrient amendments could stimulate the process of biodegradation but had less impact on bacterial communities. Overall, nutrient amendments might be able to stimulate the growth of n-alkane degrading bacteria.

New Mexico Community Health Councils: Documenting Contributions to Systems Changes.

PubMed

Sánchez, Victoria; Andrews, Mark L; Carrillo, Christina; Hale, Ron

2015-01-01

Coalition research has shifted from delineating structures and processes to identifying intermediate, systems changes (e.g., changes in policies) that contribute to longterm community health improvement. The University of New Mexico, the New Mexico Department of Health, and community health councils entered a multiyear participatory evaluation process to answer: What actions did health councils take that led to improving health through intermediate, systems changes? The evaluation system was created over several phases through an iterative, participatory process. Data were collected for councils' health priority areas (e.g., substance abuse) from 2009 to 2011. Twenty-three community health councils participated. Intermediate systems changes were measured: 1) networking and partnering, 2) joint planning of strategies, programs, and services, 3) leveraging resources, and 4) policy initiatives. Health councils reported data for each intermediate outcome by health priority area. Data showed councils identified local public health priorities and addressed those priorities through strengthening networks and partnerships, which lead to the creation and enhancement of strategies, services, and programs. Data also showed councils influenced policies in several ways (e.g., developing policy, identifying new policy, or sponsoring informational forums). Additionally, data showed councils leveraged $1.10 for every dollar invested by the state. When funding was suspended in July 2010, data showed dramatic decreases in activity levels from 2010 to 2011. The data demonstrate the feasibility and utility of an Internet-based system designed to gather intermediate systems changes evaluation data. This process is a model for similar efforts to capture common outcomes across diverse coalitions and partnerships.

Modeling evolution of spatially distributed bacterial communities: a simulation with the haploid evolutionary constructor

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Background Multiscale approaches for integrating submodels of various levels of biological organization into a single model became the major tool of systems biology. In this paper, we have constructed and simulated a set of multiscale models of spatially distributed microbial communities and study an influence of unevenly distributed environmental factors on the genetic diversity and evolution of the community members. Results Haploid Evolutionary Constructor software http://evol-constructor.bionet.nsc.ru/ was expanded by adding the tool for the spatial modeling of a microbial community (1D, 2D and 3D versions). A set of the models of spatially distributed communities was built to demonstrate that the spatial distribution of cells affects both intensity of selection and evolution rate. Conclusion In spatially heterogeneous communities, the change in the direction of the environmental flow might be reflected in local irregular population dynamics, while the genetic structure of populations (frequencies of the alleles) remains stable. Furthermore, in spatially heterogeneous communities, the chemotaxis might dramatically affect the evolution of community members. PMID:25708911

The NorWeST summer stream temperature model and scenarios for the western U.S.: A crowd-sourced database and new geospatial tools foster a user community and predict broad climate warming of rivers and streams

Treesearch

Daniel J. Isaak; Seth J. Wenger; Erin E. Peterson; Jay M. Ver Hoef; David E. Nagel; Charles H. Luce; Steven W. Hostetler; Jason B. Dunham; Brett B. Roper; Sherry P. Wollrab; Gwynne L. Chandler; Dona L. Horan; Sharon Parkes-Payne

2017-01-01

Thermal regimes are fundamental determinants of aquatic ecosystems, which makes description and prediction of temperatures critical during a period of rapid global change. The advent of inexpensive temperature sensors dramatically increased monitoring in recent decades, and although most monitoring is done by individuals for agency-specific purposes, collectively these...

Albedo feedbacks to future climate via climate change impacts on dryland biocrusts.

PubMed

Rutherford, William A; Painter, Thomas H; Ferrenberg, Scott; Belnap, Jayne; Okin, Gregory S; Flagg, Cody; Reed, Sasha C

2017-03-10

Drylands represent the planet's largest terrestrial biome and evidence suggests these landscapes have large potential for creating feedbacks to future climate. Recent studies also indicate that dryland ecosystems are responding markedly to climate change. Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) ‒ soil surface communities of lichens, mosses, and/or cyanobacteria ‒ comprise up to 70% of dryland cover and help govern fundamental ecosystem functions, including soil stabilization and carbon uptake. Drylands are expected to experience significant changes in temperature and precipitation regimes, and such alterations may impact biocrust communities by promoting rapid mortality of foundational species. In turn, biocrust community shifts affect land surface cover and roughness-changes that can dramatically alter albedo. We tested this hypothesis in a full-factorial warming (+4 °C above ambient) and altered precipitation (increased frequency of 1.2 mm monsoon-type watering events) experiment on the Colorado Plateau, USA. We quantified changes in shortwave albedo via multi-angle, solar-reflectance measurements. Warming and watering treatments each led to large increases in albedo (>30%). This increase was driven by biophysical factors related to treatment effects on cyanobacteria cover and soil surface roughness following treatment-induced moss and lichen mortality. A rise in dryland surface albedo may represent a previously unidentified feedback to future climate.

Albedo feedbacks to future climate via climate change impacts on dryland biocrusts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rutherford, William A.; Painter, Thomas H.; Ferrenberg, Scott; Belnap, Jayne; Okin, Gregory S.; Flagg, Cody; Reed, Sasha C.

2017-03-01

Drylands represent the planet’s largest terrestrial biome and evidence suggests these landscapes have large potential for creating feedbacks to future climate. Recent studies also indicate that dryland ecosystems are responding markedly to climate change. Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) ‒ soil surface communities of lichens, mosses, and/or cyanobacteria ‒ comprise up to 70% of dryland cover and help govern fundamental ecosystem functions, including soil stabilization and carbon uptake. Drylands are expected to experience significant changes in temperature and precipitation regimes, and such alterations may impact biocrust communities by promoting rapid mortality of foundational species. In turn, biocrust community shifts affect land surface cover and roughness—changes that can dramatically alter albedo. We tested this hypothesis in a full-factorial warming (+4 °C above ambient) and altered precipitation (increased frequency of 1.2 mm monsoon-type watering events) experiment on the Colorado Plateau, USA. We quantified changes in shortwave albedo via multi-angle, solar-reflectance measurements. Warming and watering treatments each led to large increases in albedo (>30%). This increase was driven by biophysical factors related to treatment effects on cyanobacteria cover and soil surface roughness following treatment-induced moss and lichen mortality. A rise in dryland surface albedo may represent a previously unidentified feedback to future climate.

Albedo feedbacks to future climate via climate change impacts on dryland biocrusts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rutherford, William A.; Painter, Thomas H.; Ferrenberg, Scott; Belnap, Jayne; Okin, Gregory S.; Flagg, Cody B.; Reed, Sasha C.

2017-01-01

Drylands represent the planet’s largest terrestrial biome and evidence suggests these landscapes have large potential for creating feedbacks to future climate. Recent studies also indicate that dryland ecosystems are responding markedly to climate change. Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) ‒ soil surface communities of lichens, mosses, and/or cyanobacteria ‒ comprise up to 70% of dryland cover and help govern fundamental ecosystem functions, including soil stabilization and carbon uptake. Drylands are expected to experience significant changes in temperature and precipitation regimes, and such alterations may impact biocrust communities by promoting rapid mortality of foundational species. In turn, biocrust community shifts affect land surface cover and roughness—changes that can dramatically alter albedo. We tested this hypothesis in a full-factorial warming (+4 °C above ambient) and altered precipitation (increased frequency of 1.2 mm monsoon-type watering events) experiment on the Colorado Plateau, USA. We quantified changes in shortwave albedo via multi-angle, solar-reflectance measurements. Warming and watering treatments each led to large increases in albedo (>30%). This increase was driven by biophysical factors related to treatment effects on cyanobacteria cover and soil surface roughness following treatment-induced moss and lichen mortality. A rise in dryland surface albedo may represent a previously unidentified feedback to future climate.

Persistence and diversification of the Holarctic shrew, Sorex tundrensis (Family Soricidae), in response to climate change

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hope, A.G.; Waltari, Eric; Fedorov, V.B.; Goropashnaya, A.V.; Talbot, S.L.; Cook, J.A.

2011-01-01

Environmental processes govern demography, species movements, community turnover and diversification and yet in many respects these dynamics are still poorly understood at high latitudes. We investigate the combined effects of climate change and geography through time for a widespread Holarctic shrew, Sorex tundrensis. We include a comprehensive suite of closely related outgroup taxa and three independent loci to explore phylogeographic structure and historical demography. We then explore the implications of these findings for other members of boreal communities. The tundra shrew and its sister species, the Tien Shan shrew (Sorex asper), exhibit strong geographic population structure across Siberia and into Beringia illustrating local centres of endemism that correspond to Late Pleistocene refugia. Ecological niche predictions for both current and historical distributions indicate a model of persistence through time despite dramatic climate change. Species tree estimation under a coalescent process suggests that isolation between populations has been maintained across timeframes deeper than the periodicity of Pleistocene glacial cycling. That some species such as the tundra shrew have a history of persistence largely independent of changing climate, whereas other boreal species shifted their ranges in response to climate change, highlights the dynamic processes of community assembly at high latitudes. ?? 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Variations of algal communities cause darkening of a Greenland glacier.

PubMed

Lutz, Stefanie; Anesio, Alexandre M; Jorge Villar, Susana E; Benning, Liane G

2014-08-01

We have assessed the microbial ecology on the surface of Mittivakkat glacier in SE-Greenland during the exceptional high melting season in July 2012 when the so far most extreme melting rate for the Greenland Ice Sheet has been recorded. By employing a complementary and multi-disciplinary field sampling and analytical approach, we quantified the dramatic changes in the different microbial surface habitats (green snow, red snow, biofilms, grey ice, cryoconite holes). The observed clear change in dominant algal community and their rapidly changing cryo-organic adaptation inventory was linked to the high melting rate. The changes in carbon and nutrient fluxes between different microbial pools (from snow to ice, cryoconite holes and glacial forefronts) revealed that snow and ice algae dominate the net primary production at the onset of melting, and that they have the potential to support the cryoconite hole communities as carbon and nutrient sources. A large proportion of algal cells is retained on the glacial surface and temporal and spatial changes in pigmentation contribute to the darkening of the snow and ice surfaces. This implies that the fast, melt-induced algal growth has a high albedo reduction potential, and this may lead to a positive feedback speeding up melting processes. © 2014 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved.

Response of marine copepods to a changing tropical environment: winners, losers and implications.

PubMed

Chew, Li Lee; Chong, Ving Ching

2016-01-01

Background. Climate change concurrent with anthropogenic disturbances can initiate serial changes that reverberate up the food chain with repercussions for fisheries. To date, there is no information available concerning the combined effects of global warming and human impacts on tropical marine food webs. While temperate copepods respond differently to warming and environmental stressors, the extent to which tropical copepods can adapt to rising temperature of already warm waters remains unknown. We hypothesize that sea warming and other anthropogenic disturbances over the long term will have the greatest impact on the copepod community in nearshore waters where their effects are accentuated, and therefore vulnerable and resilient species could be identified. Methods. Zooplankton samples were collected during two time periods (1985-86 and 2014-15) interposed by marked anthropogenic disturbances, and at the same five stations located progressively from inshore to offshore in Klang Strait, Malaysia, following the asymmetrical before-after-control-impact (BACI) design. Copepods were identified to species, and results were interpreted by univariate (ANOVA) and multivariate (PERMANOVA, PCO) analyses of the computed species abundance and diversity measures. Results. Copepod total abundance was not significantly different among stations but higher after disturbance than before disturbance. However, changes in the abundance of particular species and the community structure between time periods were dramatic. Coastal large-bodied calanoid species (e.g., Acartia spinicauda, Calanopia thompsoni, Pseudodiaptomus bowmani and Tortanus forcipatus) were the most vulnerable group to disturbance. This however favored the opportunistic species (e.g., Oithona simplex, O. attenuata, Hemicyclops sp., Pseudomacrochiron sp. and Microsetella norvegica). Small-bodied copepods (e.g., Paracalanus sp., Parvocalanus crassirostris and Euterpina acutifrons) were unaffected. Centropages tenuiremis was likely an introduced species. There was no significant loss in species richness of copepods despite the dramatic changes in community structure. Discussion. Sea warming and other human-induced effects such as eutrophication, acidification and coastal habitat degradation are likely the main factors that have altered copepod community structure. The large-bodied estuarine and coastal calanoid copepods are surmised to be vulnerable to eutrophication and hypoxia, while both resilient and opportunistic species are largely unaffected by, or adaptable to, degraded coastal environments and observed sea surface temperature (SST) rise. It is forecasted that SST rise with unmitigated anthropogenic impacts will further reduce large-bodied copepod species the favoured food for fish larvae with dire consequences for coastal fish production.

Response of marine copepods to a changing tropical environment: winners, losers and implications

PubMed Central

Chew, Li Lee

2016-01-01

Background. Climate change concurrent with anthropogenic disturbances can initiate serial changes that reverberate up the food chain with repercussions for fisheries. To date, there is no information available concerning the combined effects of global warming and human impacts on tropical marine food webs. While temperate copepods respond differently to warming and environmental stressors, the extent to which tropical copepods can adapt to rising temperature of already warm waters remains unknown. We hypothesize that sea warming and other anthropogenic disturbances over the long term will have the greatest impact on the copepod community in nearshore waters where their effects are accentuated, and therefore vulnerable and resilient species could be identified. Methods. Zooplankton samples were collected during two time periods (1985–86 and 2014–15) interposed by marked anthropogenic disturbances, and at the same five stations located progressively from inshore to offshore in Klang Strait, Malaysia, following the asymmetrical before-after-control-impact (BACI) design. Copepods were identified to species, and results were interpreted by univariate (ANOVA) and multivariate (PERMANOVA, PCO) analyses of the computed species abundance and diversity measures. Results. Copepod total abundance was not significantly different among stations but higher after disturbance than before disturbance. However, changes in the abundance of particular species and the community structure between time periods were dramatic. Coastal large-bodied calanoid species (e.g., Acartia spinicauda, Calanopia thompsoni, Pseudodiaptomus bowmani and Tortanus forcipatus) were the most vulnerable group to disturbance. This however favored the opportunistic species (e.g., Oithona simplex, O. attenuata, Hemicyclops sp., Pseudomacrochiron sp. and Microsetella norvegica). Small-bodied copepods (e.g., Paracalanus sp., Parvocalanus crassirostris and Euterpina acutifrons) were unaffected. Centropages tenuiremis was likely an introduced species. There was no significant loss in species richness of copepods despite the dramatic changes in community structure. Discussion. Sea warming and other human-induced effects such as eutrophication, acidification and coastal habitat degradation are likely the main factors that have altered copepod community structure. The large-bodied estuarine and coastal calanoid copepods are surmised to be vulnerable to eutrophication and hypoxia, while both resilient and opportunistic species are largely unaffected by, or adaptable to, degraded coastal environments and observed sea surface temperature (SST) rise. It is forecasted that SST rise with unmitigated anthropogenic impacts will further reduce large-bodied copepod species the favoured food for fish larvae with dire consequences for coastal fish production. PMID:27257540

Prokaryotic communities in pit mud from different-aged cellars used for the production of Chinese strong-flavored liquor.

PubMed

Tao, Yong; Li, Jiabao; Rui, Junpeng; Xu, Zhancheng; Zhou, Yan; Hu, Xiaohong; Wang, Xiang; Liu, Menghua; Li, Daping; Li, Xiangzhen

2014-04-01

Chinese strong-flavored liquor (CSFL) accounts for more than 70% of all Chinese liquor production. Microbes in pit mud play key roles in the fermentation cellar for the CSFL production. However, microbial diversity, community structure, and cellar-age-related changes in pit mud are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the prokaryotic community structure and diversity in pit-mud samples with different cellar ages (1, 10, 25, and 50 years) using the pyrosequencing technique. Results indicated that prokaryotic diversity increased with cellar age until the age reached 25 years and that prokaryotic community structure changed significantly between three cellar ages (1, 10, and 25 years). Significant correlations between prokaryotic communities and environmental variables (pH, NH4(+), lactic acid, butyric acid, and caproic acid) were observed. Overall, our study results suggested that the long-term brewing operation shapes unique prokaryotic community structure and diversity as well as pit-mud chemistry. We have proposed a three-phase model to characterize the changes of pit-mud prokaryotic communities. (i) Phase I is an initial domestication period. Pit mud is characterized by abundant Lactobacillus and high lactic acid and low pH levels. (ii) Phase II is a transition period. While Lactobacillus abundance decreases dramatically, that of Bacteroidetes and methanogens increases. (iii) Phase III is a relative mature period. The prokaryotic community shows the highest diversity and capability to produce more caproic acid as a precursor for synthesis of ethyl caproate, the main flavor component in CSFL. This research provides scientific evidence to support the practical experience that old fermentation cellars produce high-quality liquor.

Dramatic response to climate change in the Southwest: Robert Whittaker's 1963 Arizona Mountain plant transect revisited

PubMed Central

Brusca, Richard C; Wiens, John F; Meyer, Wallace M; Eble, Jeff; Franklin, Kim; Overpeck, Jonathan T; Moore, Wendy

2013-01-01

Models analyzing how Southwestern plant communities will respond to climate change predict that increases in temperature will lead to upward elevational shifts of montane species. We tested this hypothesis by reexamining Robert Whittaker's 1963 plant transect in the Santa Catalina Mountains of southern Arizona, finding that this process is already well underway. Our survey, five decades after Whittaker's, reveals large changes in the elevational ranges of common montane plants, while mean annual rainfall has decreased over the past 20 years, and mean annual temperatures increased 0.25°C/decade from 1949 to 2011 in the Tucson Basin. Although elevational changes in species are individualistic, significant overall upward movement of the lower elevation boundaries, and elevational range contractions, have occurred. This is the first documentation of significant upward shifts of lower elevation range boundaries in Southwestern montane plant species over decadal time, confirming that previous hypotheses are correct in their prediction that mountain communities in the Southwest will be strongly impacted by warming, and that the Southwest is already experiencing a rapid vegetation change. PMID:24223270

Functional Tradeoffs Underpin Salinity-Driven Divergence in Microbial Community Composition

PubMed Central

Yooseph, Shibu; Ininbergs, Karolina; Goll, Johannes; Asplund-Samuelsson, Johannes; McCrow, John P.; Celepli, Narin; Allen, Lisa Zeigler; Ekman, Martin; Lucas, Andrew J.; Hagström, Åke; Thiagarajan, Mathangi; Brindefalk, Björn; Richter, Alexander R.; Andersson, Anders F.; Tenney, Aaron; Lundin, Daniel; Tovchigrechko, Andrey; Nylander, Johan A. A.; Brami, Daniel; Badger, Jonathan H.; Allen, Andrew E.; Rusch, Douglas B.; Hoffman, Jeff; Norrby, Erling; Friedman, Robert; Pinhassi, Jarone; Venter, J. Craig; Bergman, Birgitta

2014-01-01

Bacterial community composition and functional potential change subtly across gradients in the surface ocean. In contrast, while there are significant phylogenetic divergences between communities from freshwater and marine habitats, the underlying mechanisms to this phylogenetic structuring yet remain unknown. We hypothesized that the functional potential of natural bacterial communities is linked to this striking divide between microbiomes. To test this hypothesis, metagenomic sequencing of microbial communities along a 1,800 km transect in the Baltic Sea area, encompassing a continuous natural salinity gradient from limnic to fully marine conditions, was explored. Multivariate statistical analyses showed that salinity is the main determinant of dramatic changes in microbial community composition, but also of large scale changes in core metabolic functions of bacteria. Strikingly, genetically and metabolically different pathways for key metabolic processes, such as respiration, biosynthesis of quinones and isoprenoids, glycolysis and osmolyte transport, were differentially abundant at high and low salinities. These shifts in functional capacities were observed at multiple taxonomic levels and within dominant bacterial phyla, while bacteria, such as SAR11, were able to adapt to the entire salinity gradient. We propose that the large differences in central metabolism required at high and low salinities dictate the striking divide between freshwater and marine microbiomes, and that the ability to inhabit different salinity regimes evolved early during bacterial phylogenetic differentiation. These findings significantly advance our understanding of microbial distributions and stress the need to incorporate salinity in future climate change models that predict increased levels of precipitation and a reduction in salinity. PMID:24586863

Committee on air pollution effects research: 40 years of UK air pollution.

PubMed

Fowler, David; Dise, Nancy; Sheppard, Lucy

2016-01-01

The UK Committee on Air Pollution Effects Research (CAPER) was established 40 years ago. This special section was compiled to mark this anniversary. During this time there have been dramatic changes in the composition of the air over the UK. The four papers in this special section of Environmental Pollution represent the current air pollution effects research focus on ozone and nitrogen deposition, two related issues and are proving from a policy perspective to be quite intractable issues. The UK CAPER research community continues to advance the underpinning science and engages closely with the user community in government departments. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

PhyloChip microarray analysis reveals altered gastrointestinal microbial communities in a rat model of colonic hypersensitivity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nelson, T.A.; Holmes, S.; Alekseyenko, A.V.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic, episodic gastrointestinal disorder that is prevalent in a significant fraction of western human populations; and changes in the microbiota of the large bowel have been implicated in the pathology of the disease. Using a novel comprehensive, high-density DNA microarray (PhyloChip) we performed a phylogenetic analysis of the microbial community of the large bowel in a rat model in which intracolonic acetic acid in neonates was used to induce long lasting colonic hypersensitivity and decreased stool water content and frequency, representing the equivalent of human constipation-predominant IBS. Our results revealed a significantly increased compositionalmore » difference in the microbial communities in rats with neonatal irritation as compared with controls. Even more striking was the dramatic change in the ratio of Firmicutes relative to Bacteroidetes, where neonatally irritated rats were enriched more with Bacteroidetes and also contained a different composition of species within this phylum. Our study also revealed differences at the level of bacterial families and species. The PhyloChip is a useful and convenient method to study enteric microflora. Further, this rat model system may be a useful experimental platform to study the causes and consequences of changes in microbial community composition associated with IBS.« less

Discrimination, developmental science, and the law: addressing dramatic shifts in civil rights jurisprudence.

PubMed

Levesque, Roger J R

2014-01-01

The civil rights movement fostered dramatic shifts in legal responses to discrimination based on race, gender, and a host of other group characteristics. The legal system now evinces yet another dramatic shift, as it moves from considering difference to focusing on neutrality, from efforts that seek to counter subjugation to those that adopt a "color-blind" approach. The shifting approach already has reached laws regulating responses to the group that spurred massive civil rights reform: minority youth. The shift requires a different body of empirical evidence to address it and a new look at equality jurisprudence. This article notes the need to turn to the current understanding of prejudice and discrimination for guidance, and uses, as illustration, developmental science to shed light on the development, manifestation, and alleviation of invidious discrimination. Using that understanding, the analysis details how the legal system can benefit from that research and better address discrimination in light of dramatic changes in law. The article articulates the need to address discrimination by recognizing and enlisting the law's inculcative powers through multiple sites of inculcation, ranging from families, schools, health and justice systems to religious and community groups. The discussion concludes with brief suggestions for reform benefiting from understandings of prejudice and its expression. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Community-based approaches to address childhood undernutrition and obesity in developing countries.

PubMed

Shetty, Prakash

2009-01-01

Community-based approaches have been the mainstay of interventions to address the problem of child malnutrition in developing societies. Many programs have been in operation in several countries for decades and originated largely as social welfare, food security and poverty eradication programs. Increasingly conceptual frameworks to guide this activity have been developed as our understanding of the complex nature of the determinants of undernutrition improves. Alongside this evolution, is the accumulation of evidence on the types of interventions in the community that are effective, practical and sustainable. The changing environment is probably determining the altering scenario of child nutrition in developing societies, with rapid developmental transition and urbanization being responsible for the emerging problems of obesity and other metabolic disorders that are largely the result of the now well-recognized linkages between child undernutrition and early onset adult chronic diseases. This dramatic change is contributing to the double burden of malnutrition in developing countries. Community interventions hence need to be integrated and joined up to reduce both aspects of malnutrition in societies. The evidence that community-based nutrition interventions can have a positive impact on pregnancy outcomes and child undernutrition needs to be evaluated to enable programs to prioritize and incorporate the interventions that work in the community. Programs that are operational and successful also need to be evaluated and disseminated in order to enable countries to generate their own programs tailored to tackling the changing nutritional problems of the children in their society. Copyright (c) 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Dynamic bacterial community changes in the autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion process with cell lysis activities, shaking and temperature increase.

PubMed

Cheng, Huijun; Asakura, Yuya; Kanda, Kosuke; Fukui, Ryo; Kawano, Yoshihisa; Okugawa, Yuki; Tashiro, Yukihiro; Sakai, Kenji

2018-04-12

Autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion (ATAD) is conducted for stabilization of sludge waste and is driven by the action of various microorganisms under aerobic conditions. However, the mechanism controlling bacterial community changes during ATAD via three (initial, middle and final) phases is currently unclear. To investigate this mechanism, activity analysis and a microcosm assay with shaking were performed on a bacterial community during the initial, middle, and final phases of incubation. Cell lysis activities toward gram-negative bacteria, but not gram-positive bacteria, were detected in the ATAD samples in the middle and final phases. During shaking incubation in initial-phase samples at 30 °C, major operational taxonomic units (OTUs) related to Acinetobacter indicus and Arcobacter cibarius dramatically increased along with decreases in several major OTUs. In middle-phase samples at 45 °C, we observed a major alteration of OTUs related to Caldicellulosiruptor bescii and Aciditerrimonas ferrireducens, together with distinct decreases in several other OTUs. Final-phase samples maintained a stable bacterial community with major OTUs showing limited similarities to Heliorestis baculata, Caldicellulosiruptorbescii, and Ornatilinea apprima. In conclusion, the changes in the bacterial community observed during ATAD could be partially attributed to the cell lysis activity toward gram-negative bacteria in the middle and final phases. The microcosm assay suggested that certain physical factors, such as a high oxygen supply and shearing forces, also might contribute to bacterial community changes in the initial and middle phases, and to the stable bacterial community in the final phase of ATAD. Copyright © 2018 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Local extinction of a coral reef fish explained by inflexible prey choice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brooker, R. M.; Munday, P. L.; Brandl, S. J.; Jones, G. P.

2014-12-01

While global extinctions of marine species are infrequent, local extinctions are becoming common. However, the role of habitat degradation and resource specialisation in explaining local extinction is unknown. On coral reefs, coral bleaching is an increasingly frequent cause of coral mortality that can result in dramatic changes to coral community composition. Coral-associated fishes are often specialised on a limited suite of coral species and are therefore sensitive to these changes. This study documents the local extinction of a corallivorous reef fish, Oxymonacanthus longirostris, following a mass bleaching event that altered the species composition of associated coral communities. Local extinction only occurred on reefs that also completely lost a key prey species, Acropora millepora, even though coral cover remained high. In an experimental test, fish continued to select bleached A. millepora over the healthy, but less-preferred prey species that resisted bleaching. These results suggest that behavioural inflexibility may limit the ability of specialists to cope with even subtle changes to resource availability.

Understanding women's burdens: preliminary findings on psychosocial health among Datoga and Iraqw women of northern Tanzania.

PubMed

Pike, Ivy L; Patil, Crystal L

2006-09-01

This preliminary, community-based study examines major stressors identified by Iraqw and Datoga women of Mbulu District, Tanzania, and describes steps in creating a culturally specific questionnaire to assess mental health burdens. This area of Tanzania is remote, with limited access to goods and services, and is undergoing dramatic social and economic changes. Iraqw and Datoga reside in close proximity and often intermarry but have different cultural and subsistence responses to this rapid social change. Data were collected from May to October 2002, with 49 Datoga women and 64 Iraqw women interviewed. In-home interviews were conducted to have women (1) free-list their primary concerns and (2) answer questions from a translated (in Datoga and Iraqw) and modified standardized mental health questionnaire. Both groups of women identified hunger, the lack of animals, particularly cattle, and health/illnesses as the most common major stressors. Other frequently cited stressors included crop failure, general fears of violence, paying taxes, and no money for basic needs. Additional refinements are required for the mental health questionnaire, with strengths and limitations discussed. Such data, while preliminary, augment efforts to analyze the emotional burdens associated with dramatic social change.

New Age of Fishes initiated by the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sibert, Elizabeth C.; Norris, Richard D.

2015-07-01

Ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) comprise nearly half of all modern vertebrate diversity, and are an ecologically and numerically dominant megafauna in most aquatic environments. Crown teleost fishes diversified relatively recently, during the Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene, although the exact timing and cause of their radiation and rise to ecological dominance is poorly constrained. Here we use microfossil teeth and shark dermal scales (ichthyoliths) preserved in deep-sea sediments to study the changes in the pelagic fish community in the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene. We find that the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) extinction event marked a profound change in the structure of ichthyolith communities around the globe: Whereas shark denticles outnumber ray-finned fish teeth in Cretaceous deep-sea sediments around the world, there is a dramatic increase in the proportion of ray-finned fish teeth to shark denticles in the Paleocene. There is also an increase in size and numerical abundance of ray-finned fish teeth at the boundary. These changes are sustained through at least the first 24 million years of the Cenozoic. This new fish community structure began at the K/Pg mass extinction, suggesting the extinction event played an important role in initiating the modern "age of fishes."

New Age of Fishes initiated by the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction.

PubMed

Sibert, Elizabeth C; Norris, Richard D

2015-07-14

Ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) comprise nearly half of all modern vertebrate diversity, and are an ecologically and numerically dominant megafauna in most aquatic environments. Crown teleost fishes diversified relatively recently, during the Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene, although the exact timing and cause of their radiation and rise to ecological dominance is poorly constrained. Here we use microfossil teeth and shark dermal scales (ichthyoliths) preserved in deep-sea sediments to study the changes in the pelagic fish community in the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene. We find that the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) extinction event marked a profound change in the structure of ichthyolith communities around the globe: Whereas shark denticles outnumber ray-finned fish teeth in Cretaceous deep-sea sediments around the world, there is a dramatic increase in the proportion of ray-finned fish teeth to shark denticles in the Paleocene. There is also an increase in size and numerical abundance of ray-finned fish teeth at the boundary. These changes are sustained through at least the first 24 million years of the Cenozoic. This new fish community structure began at the K/Pg mass extinction, suggesting the extinction event played an important role in initiating the modern "age of fishes."

Interactions between metals and microbial communities in New Bedford Harbor, Massachusetts.

PubMed Central

Ford, T; Sorci, J; Ika, R; Shine, J

1998-01-01

The fate of toxic metals in marine sediments depends on a combination of the physical, chemical, and biologic conditions encountered in any given environment. These conditions may vary dramatically, both spatially and temporally, in response to factors ranging from seasonal changes and storm events to human activities such as dredging or remediation efforts. This paper describes a program designed to evaluate the interrelationships between the microbial community and pollutants in the New Bedford Harbor, Massachusetts, area, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated Superfund site. Research has focused on establishing distributional relationships between contaminant metals, fluxes of metals between sediments and the overlying water, changes in microbial diversity in response to metals, and potential use of the microbial community as a biomarker of contaminant availability. This research has shown that a significant flux of metals to the water column is mediated by benthic biologic activity, and that microbial communities may be a responsive marker of contaminant stress. A combination of biogeochemical studies and the use of molecular tools can be used to improve our understanding of the fate and effect of heavy metals released to aquatic systems. Images Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 4 PMID:9703489

Awareness in the Home: The Nuances of Relationships, Domestic Coordination and Communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greenberg, Saul; Neustaedter, Carman; Elliot, Kathryn

Computing has changed dramatically over the last decade. While some changes arose from technological advances, the most profound effects are in how technologies are used by everyday people for activities other than task-oriented work. Computers are now central to new ways of engaging in play, interpersonal and small group communication, community interaction, entertainment, personal creativity dissemination, personal publication, and so on. We are particularly interested in domestic computing, where technology mediates how families and other inhabitants interact within the context of the home. While domestic computing can incorporate many things, we focus in this chapter on the role awareness plays in domestic coordination and communication.

Microbial communities of the Lemon Creek Glacier show subtle structural variation yet stable phylogenetic composition over space and time

PubMed Central

Sheik, Cody S.; Stevenson, Emily I.; Den Uyl, Paul A.; Arendt, Carli A.; Aciego, Sarah M.; Dick, Gregory J.

2015-01-01

Glaciers are geologically important yet transient ecosystems that support diverse, biogeochemically significant microbial communities. During the melt season glaciers undergo dramatic physical, geochemical, and biological changes that exert great influence on downstream biogeochemical cycles. Thus, we sought to understand the temporal melt-season dynamics of microbial communities and associated geochemistry at the terminus of Lemon Creek Glacier (LCG) in coastal southern Alaska. Due to late season snowfall, sampling of LCG occurred in three interconnected areas: proglacial Lake Thomas, the lower glacial outflow stream, and the glacier’s terminus. LCG associated microbial communities were phylogenetically diverse and varied by sampling location. However, Betaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, and Bacteroidetes dominated communities at all sampling locations. Strict anaerobic groups such as methanogens, SR1, and OP11 were also recovered from glacier outflows, indicating anoxic conditions in at least some portions of the LCG subglacial environment. Microbial community structure was significantly correlated with sampling location and sodium concentrations. Microbial communities sampled from terminus outflow waters exhibited day-to-day fluctuation in taxonomy and phylogenetic similarity. However, these communities were not significantly different from randomly constructed communities from all three sites. These results indicate that glacial outflows share a large proportion of phylogenetic overlap with downstream environments and that the observed significant shifts in community structure are driven by changes in relative abundance of different taxa, and not complete restructuring of communities. We conclude that LCG glacial discharge hosts a diverse and relatively stable microbiome that shifts at fine taxonomic scales in response to geochemistry and likely water residence time. PMID:26042114

Changes in microbial communities, photosynthesis and calcification of the coral Acropora gemmifera in response to ocean acidification.

PubMed

Zhou, Guowei; Yuan, Tao; Cai, Lin; Zhang, Weipeng; Tian, Renmao; Tong, Haoya; Jiang, Lei; Yuan, Xiangcheng; Liu, Sheng; Qian, Peiyuan; Huang, Hui

2016-10-27

With the increasing anthropogenic CO 2 concentration, ocean acidification (OA) can have dramatic effects on coral reefs. However, the effects of OA on coral physiology and the associated microbes remain largely unknown. In the present study, reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera collected from a reef flat with highly fluctuating environmental condition in the South China Sea were exposed to three levels of partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO 2 ) (i.e., 421, 923, and 2070 μatm) for four weeks. The microbial community structures associated with A. gemmifera under these treatments were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene barcode sequencing. The results revealed that the microbial community associated with A. gemmifera was highly diverse at the genus level and dominated by Alphaproteobacteria. More importantly, the microbial community structure remained rather stable under different pCO 2 treatments. Photosynthesis and calcification in A. gemmifera, as indicated by enrichment of δ 18 O and increased depletion of δ 13 C in the coral skeleton, were significantly impaired only at the high pCO 2 (2070 μatm). These results suggest that A. gemmifera can maintain a high degree of stable microbial communities despite of significant physiological changes in response to extremely high pCO 2 .

Changes in microbial communities, photosynthesis and calcification of the coral Acropora gemmifera in response to ocean acidification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, Guowei; Yuan, Tao; Cai, Lin; Zhang, Weipeng; Tian, Renmao; Tong, Haoya; Jiang, Lei; Yuan, Xiangcheng; Liu, Sheng; Qian, Peiyuan; Huang, Hui

2016-10-01

With the increasing anthropogenic CO2 concentration, ocean acidification (OA) can have dramatic effects on coral reefs. However, the effects of OA on coral physiology and the associated microbes remain largely unknown. In the present study, reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera collected from a reef flat with highly fluctuating environmental condition in the South China Sea were exposed to three levels of partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) (i.e., 421, 923, and 2070 μatm) for four weeks. The microbial community structures associated with A. gemmifera under these treatments were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene barcode sequencing. The results revealed that the microbial community associated with A. gemmifera was highly diverse at the genus level and dominated by Alphaproteobacteria. More importantly, the microbial community structure remained rather stable under different pCO2 treatments. Photosynthesis and calcification in A. gemmifera, as indicated by enrichment of δ18O and increased depletion of δ13C in the coral skeleton, were significantly impaired only at the high pCO2 (2070 μatm). These results suggest that A. gemmifera can maintain a high degree of stable microbial communities despite of significant physiological changes in response to extremely high pCO2.

Changes in microbial communities, photosynthesis and calcification of the coral Acropora gemmifera in response to ocean acidification

PubMed Central

Zhou, Guowei; Yuan, Tao; Cai, Lin; Zhang, Weipeng; Tian, Renmao; Tong, Haoya; Jiang, Lei; Yuan, Xiangcheng; Liu, Sheng; Qian, Peiyuan; Huang, Hui

2016-01-01

With the increasing anthropogenic CO2 concentration, ocean acidification (OA) can have dramatic effects on coral reefs. However, the effects of OA on coral physiology and the associated microbes remain largely unknown. In the present study, reef-building coral Acropora gemmifera collected from a reef flat with highly fluctuating environmental condition in the South China Sea were exposed to three levels of partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) (i.e., 421, 923, and 2070 μatm) for four weeks. The microbial community structures associated with A. gemmifera under these treatments were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene barcode sequencing. The results revealed that the microbial community associated with A. gemmifera was highly diverse at the genus level and dominated by Alphaproteobacteria. More importantly, the microbial community structure remained rather stable under different pCO2 treatments. Photosynthesis and calcification in A. gemmifera, as indicated by enrichment of δ18O and increased depletion of δ13C in the coral skeleton, were significantly impaired only at the high pCO2 (2070 μatm). These results suggest that A. gemmifera can maintain a high degree of stable microbial communities despite of significant physiological changes in response to extremely high pCO2. PMID:27786309

Public health preparedness for the impact of global warming on human health.

PubMed

Wassel, John J

2009-01-01

To assess the changes in weather and weather-associated disturbances related to global warming; the impact on human health of these changes; and the public health preparedness mandated by this impact. Qualitative review of the literature. Articles will be obtained by searching PubMed database, Google, and Google Scholar search engines using terms such as "global warming," "climate change," "human health," "public health," and "preparedness." Sixty-seven journal articles were reviewed. The projections and signs of global environmental changes are worrisome, and there are reasons to believe that related information may have been conservatively interpreted and presented in the recent past. Although the challenges are great, there are many opportunities for devising beneficial solutions at individual, community, and global levels. It is essential for public health professionals to become involved in advocating for change at all of these levels, as well as through professional organizations. We must begin "greening" our own lives and clinical practice, and start talking about these issues with patients. As we build walkable neighborhoods, change methods of energy production, and make water use and food production and distribution more sustainable, the benefits to improved air quality, a stabilized climate, social support, and individual and community health will be dramatic.

Successional changes in the chicken cecal microbiome during 42 days of growth are independent of organic acid feed additives.

PubMed

Oakley, Brian B; Buhr, R Jeff; Ritz, Casey W; Kiepper, Brian H; Berrang, Mark E; Seal, Bruce S; Cox, Nelson A

2014-11-27

Poultry remains a major source of foodborne bacterial infections. A variety of additives with presumed anti-microbial and/or growth-promoting effects are commonly added to poultry feed during commercial grow-out, yet the effects of these additives on the gastrointestinal microbial community (the GI microbiome) as the bird matures remain largely unknown. Here we compared temporal changes in the cecal microbiome to the effects of formic acid, propionic acid, and medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA) added to feed and/or drinking water. Cecal bacterial communities at day of hatch (n = 5 birds), 7d (n = 32), 21d (n = 27), and 42d (n = 36) post-hatch were surveyed using direct 454 sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons from each bird in combination with cultivation-based recovery of a Salmonella Typhimurium marker strain and quantitative-PCR targeting Clostridium perfringens. Treatment effects on specific pathogens were generally non-significant. S. Typhimurium introduced by oral gavage at day of hatch was recovered by cultivation from nearly all birds sampled across treatments at 7d and 21d, but by 42d, S. Typhimurium was only recovered from ca. 25% of birds, regardless of treatment. Sequencing data also revealed non-significant treatment effects on genera containing known pathogens and on the cecal microbiome as a whole. In contrast, temporal changes in the cecal microbiome were dramatic, highly significant, and consistent across treatments. At 7d, the cecal community was dominated by three genera (Flavonifractor, Pseudoflavonifractor, and a Lachnospiracea sequence type) that accounted for more than half of sequences. By 21d post-hatch, a single genus (Faecalibacterium) accounted for 23-55% of sequences, and the number of Clostridium 16S rRNA gene copies detected by quantitative-PCR reached a maximum. Over the 42 d experiment, the cecal bacterial community changed significantly as measured by a variety of ecological metrics and increases in the complexity of co-occurrence networks. Management of poultry to improve animal health, nutrition, or food safety may need to consider the interactive effects of any treatments with the dramatic temporal shifts in the taxonomic composition of the cecal microbiome as described here.

Dryland feedbacks to climatic change: Results from a climate manipulation experiment on the Colorado Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reed, S.; Belnap, J.; Ferrenberg, S.; Wertin, T. M.; Darrouzet-Nardi, A.; Tucker, C.; Rutherford, W. A.

2015-12-01

Arid and semiarid ecosystems cover ~40% of Earth's terrestrial surface and make up ~35% of the U.S., yet we know surprisingly little about how climate change will affect these widespread landscapes. Like many dryland regions, the Colorado Plateau in the southwestern U.S. is predicted to experience climate change as elevated temperature and altered timing and amount of annual precipitation. We are using a long-term (>10 yr) factorial warming and supplemental rainfall experiment on the Colorado Plateau to explore how predicted changes in climate will affect vascular plant and biological soil crust community composition, biogeochemical cycling, and energy balance (biocrusts are a surface soil community of moss, lichen, and cyanobacteria that can make up as much as 70% of the living cover in drylands). While some of the responses we have observed were expected, many of the results are surprising. For example, we documented biocrust community composition shifts in response to altered climate that were significantly faster and more dramatic than considered likely for these soil communities that typically change over decadal and centennial timescales. Further, while we continue to observe important climate change effects on carbon cycling - including reduced net photosynthesis in vascular plants, increased CO2 losses from biocrust soils during some seasons, and changes to the interactions between water and carbon cycles - we have also found marked treatment effects on the albedo and spectral signatures of dryland soils. In addition to demonstrating the effects of these treatments, the strong relationships we observed in our experiments between biota and climate provide a quantitative framework for improving our representation of dryland responses to climate change. In this talk we will cover a range of datasets that, taken together, show: (1) large climate-driven changes to dryland biogeochemical cycling may be the result of both effects on existing communities, as well of relatively rapid shifts in community composition; (2) drylands could provide feedbacks to future climate not only though altered carbon cycling but also via changes to surface albedo; and (3) models of dryland responses to climate change may need significant revision, but such a revision is well within reach.

Prokaryotic Communities in Pit Mud from Different-Aged Cellars Used for the Production of Chinese Strong-Flavored Liquor

PubMed Central

Tao, Yong; Li, Jiabao; Rui, Junpeng; Xu, Zhancheng; Zhou, Yan; Hu, Xiaohong; Wang, Xiang; Liu, Menghua; Li, Daping

2014-01-01

Chinese strong-flavored liquor (CSFL) accounts for more than 70% of all Chinese liquor production. Microbes in pit mud play key roles in the fermentation cellar for the CSFL production. However, microbial diversity, community structure, and cellar-age-related changes in pit mud are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the prokaryotic community structure and diversity in pit-mud samples with different cellar ages (1, 10, 25, and 50 years) using the pyrosequencing technique. Results indicated that prokaryotic diversity increased with cellar age until the age reached 25 years and that prokaryotic community structure changed significantly between three cellar ages (1, 10, and 25 years). Significant correlations between prokaryotic communities and environmental variables (pH, NH4+, lactic acid, butyric acid, and caproic acid) were observed. Overall, our study results suggested that the long-term brewing operation shapes unique prokaryotic community structure and diversity as well as pit-mud chemistry. We have proposed a three-phase model to characterize the changes of pit-mud prokaryotic communities. (i) Phase I is an initial domestication period. Pit mud is characterized by abundant Lactobacillus and high lactic acid and low pH levels. (ii) Phase II is a transition period. While Lactobacillus abundance decreases dramatically, that of Bacteroidetes and methanogens increases. (iii) Phase III is a relative mature period. The prokaryotic community shows the highest diversity and capability to produce more caproic acid as a precursor for synthesis of ethyl caproate, the main flavor component in CSFL. This research provides scientific evidence to support the practical experience that old fermentation cellars produce high-quality liquor. PMID:24487528

The role of community acceptance over time for costs of HIV and STI prevention interventions: analysis of the Masaka Intervention Trial, Uganda, 1996-1999.

PubMed

Terris-Prestholt, Fern; Kumaranayake, Lilani; Foster, Susan; Kamali, Anatoli; Kinsman, John; Basajja, Vincent; Nalweyso, Nora; Quigley, Maria; Kengeya-Kayondo, Jane; Whitworth, James

2006-10-01

The objective of this study is to estimate the annual costs of information, education, and communication (IEC), both community- and school-based; strengthened public and private sexually transmitted infections treatment; condom social marketing (CSM); and voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) implemented in Masaka, Uganda, over 4 years, and to explore how unit costs change with varying population use/uptake. Total economic provider's costs and intervention outputs were collected annually to estimate annual unit costs between 1996 and 1999. In early intervention years, uptake of all activities grew dramatically and continued to grow for public STI treatment, CSM, and VCT. Attendance at IEC performances started to drop in year 4. Unit costs dropped rapidly with increasing uptake of and participation in interventions. When implementing long-term community-based interventions, it is important to take into account that it takes time for communities to scale up their participation, since this can lead to large variations in unit costs.

Yearly fluctuations of flower landscape in a Mediterranean scrubland: Consequences for floral resource availability.

PubMed

Flo, Víctor; Bosch, Jordi; Arnan, Xavier; Primante, Clara; Martín González, Ana M; Barril-Graells, Helena; Rodrigo, Anselm

2018-01-01

Species flower production and flowering phenology vary from year to year due to extrinsic factors. Inter-annual variability in flowering patterns may have important consequences for attractiveness to pollinators, and ultimately, plant reproductive output. To understand the consequences of flowering pattern variability, a community approach is necessary because pollinator flower choice is highly dependent on flower context. Our objectives were: 1) To quantify yearly variability in flower density and phenology; 2) To evaluate whether changes in flowering patterns result in significant changes in pollen/nectar composition. We monitored weekly flowering patterns in a Mediterranean scrubland community (23 species) over 8 years. Floral resource availability was estimated based on field measures of pollen and nectar production per flower. We analysed inter-annual variation in flowering phenology (duration and date of peak bloom) and flower production, and inter-annual and monthly variability in flower, pollen and nectar species composition. We also investigated potential phylogenetic effects on inter-annual variability of flowering patterns. We found dramatic variation in yearly flower production both at the species and community levels. There was also substantial variation in flowering phenology. Importantly, yearly fluctuations were far from synchronous across species, and resulted in significant changes in floral resources availability and composition at the community level. Changes were especially pronounced late in the season, at a time when flowers are scarce and pollinator visitation rates are particularly high. We discuss the consequences of our findings for pollinator visitation and plant reproductive success in the current scenario of climate change.

Yearly fluctuations of flower landscape in a Mediterranean scrubland: Consequences for floral resource availability

PubMed Central

Primante, Clara; Martín González, Ana M.; Barril-Graells, Helena

2018-01-01

Species flower production and flowering phenology vary from year to year due to extrinsic factors. Inter-annual variability in flowering patterns may have important consequences for attractiveness to pollinators, and ultimately, plant reproductive output. To understand the consequences of flowering pattern variability, a community approach is necessary because pollinator flower choice is highly dependent on flower context. Our objectives were: 1) To quantify yearly variability in flower density and phenology; 2) To evaluate whether changes in flowering patterns result in significant changes in pollen/nectar composition. We monitored weekly flowering patterns in a Mediterranean scrubland community (23 species) over 8 years. Floral resource availability was estimated based on field measures of pollen and nectar production per flower. We analysed inter-annual variation in flowering phenology (duration and date of peak bloom) and flower production, and inter-annual and monthly variability in flower, pollen and nectar species composition. We also investigated potential phylogenetic effects on inter-annual variability of flowering patterns. We found dramatic variation in yearly flower production both at the species and community levels. There was also substantial variation in flowering phenology. Importantly, yearly fluctuations were far from synchronous across species, and resulted in significant changes in floral resources availability and composition at the community level. Changes were especially pronounced late in the season, at a time when flowers are scarce and pollinator visitation rates are particularly high. We discuss the consequences of our findings for pollinator visitation and plant reproductive success in the current scenario of climate change. PMID:29346453

Bacterial community shift during the startup of a full-scale oxidation ditch treating sewage.

PubMed

Chen, Yajun; Ye, Lin; Zhao, Fuzheng; Xiao, Lin; Cheng, Shupei; Zhang, Xu-Xiang

2016-10-06

Oxidation ditch (OD) is one of the most widely used processes for treating municipal wastewater. However, the microbial communities in the OD systems have not been well characterized and little information about the shift of bacterial community during the startup process of the OD systems is available. In this study, we investigated the bacterial community changes during the startup period (over 100 days) of a full-scale OD. The results showed that the bacterial community dramatically changed during the startup period. Similar to the activated sludge samples in other studies, Proteobacteria (accounting for 26.3%~48.4%) was the most dominant bacterial phylum in the OD system but its relative abundance declined nearly 40% during the startup process. It was also found that Planctomycetes proliferated greatly (from 4.79% to 13.5%) and finally replaced Bacteroidetes as the second abundant phylum in the OD system. Specifically, some bacteria affiliated with Flavobacterium genus of exhibited remarkable decreasing trends, while bacterial species belonging to OD1 candidate division and Saprospiraceae family were found to increase during the startup process. Despite of the bacterial community shift, the organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus in the effluent were always in low concentrations, suggesting the functional redundancy of the bacterial community. Moreover, by comparing with the bacterial community in other municipal wastewater treatment bioreactors, some potentially novel bacterial species were found to be present in the OD system. Collectively, this study improved our understandings of bacterial community structure and the microbial ecology during the startup of full-scale wastewater treatment bioreactor.

Ecole et communaute au Portugal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Melo, Alberto

1980-09-01

Since 1974 Portugal has experienced some dramatic changes in educational practices at the local level. The school has been opened to the community and the community to the school. Teacher education now includes community studies, designed to prepare teachers for an active role in this process and for the better understanding of the social background of pupils. One new practice is the publication of local newspapers or news-sheets to enhance the understanding of the community by teachers and pupils. The development of a school garden for the cultivation of flowers and vegetables serves as another bridge between school and community. Other examples of community action are adult literacy classes, the creation of voluntary organisations for women, the running of youth clubs, the formation of co-operatives, and local projects like the purchase of an old tram-car to be converted into a library. The introduction of `Civic and Polytechnic Education' for 13-16 year olds was an important innovation. One half-day a week was to be devoted to the integration of the school with the locality, young people's participation in society as agents of change, the linking of study and productive work, and the involvement of young people in the solution of national problems, working from a concrete knowledge of local and regional life. However, since 1976 there has been a more conservative approach, and only in places with a strong consensus amongst teachers has the new relationship between school and community been maintained.

Energy flow and functional compensation in Great Basin small mammals under natural and anthropogenic environmental change

PubMed Central

Terry, Rebecca C.; Rowe, Rebecca J.

2015-01-01

Research on the ecological impacts of environmental change has primarily focused at the species level, leaving the responses of ecosystem-level properties like energy flow poorly understood. This is especially so over millennial timescales inaccessible to direct observation. Here we examine how energy flow within a Great Basin small mammal community responded to climate-driven environmental change during the past 12,800 y, and use this baseline to evaluate responses observed during the past century. Our analyses reveal marked stability in energy flow during rapid climatic warming at the terminal Pleistocene despite dramatic turnover in the distribution of mammalian body sizes and habitat-associated functional groups. Functional group turnover was strongly correlated with climate-driven changes in regional vegetation, with climate and vegetation change preceding energetic shifts in the small mammal community. In contrast, the past century has witnessed a substantial reduction in energy flow caused by an increase in energetic dominance of small-bodied species with an affinity for closed grass habitats. This suggests that modern changes in land cover caused by anthropogenic activities—particularly the spread of nonnative annual grasslands—has led to a breakdown in the compensatory dynamics of energy flow. Human activities are thus modifying the small mammal community in ways that differ from climate-driven expectations, resulting in an energetically novel ecosystem. Our study illustrates the need to integrate across ecological and temporal scales to provide robust insights for long-term conservation and management. PMID:26170294

Structure of local interactions in complex financial dynamics

PubMed Central

Jiang, X. F.; Chen, T. T.; Zheng, B.

2014-01-01

With the network methods and random matrix theory, we investigate the interaction structure of communities in financial markets. In particular, based on the random matrix decomposition, we clarify that the local interactions between the business sectors (subsectors) are mainly contained in the sector mode. In the sector mode, the average correlation inside the sectors is positive, while that between the sectors is negative. Further, we explore the time evolution of the interaction structure of the business sectors, and observe that the local interaction structure changes dramatically during a financial bubble or crisis. PMID:24936906

Seismographs, sensors, and satellites: Better technology for safer communities

USGS Publications Warehouse

Groat, C.G.

2004-01-01

In the past 25 years, our ability to measure, monitor, and model the processes that lead to natural disasters has increased dramatically. Equally important has been the improvement in our technological capability to communicate information about hazards to those whose lives may be affected. These innovations in tracking and communicating the changes-floods, earthquakes, wildfires, volcanic eruptions-in our dynamic planet, supported by a deeper understanding of earth processes, enable us to expand our predictive capabilities and point the way to a safer future. ?? 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Unravelling Linkages between Plant Community Composition and the Pathogen-Suppressive Potential of Soils

PubMed Central

Latz, Ellen; Eisenhauer, Nico; Rall, Björn Christian; Scheu, Stefan; Jousset, Alexandre

2016-01-01

Plant diseases cause dramatic yield losses worldwide. Current disease control practices can be deleterious for the environment and human health, calling for alternative and sustainable management regimes. Soils harbour microorganisms that can efficiently suppress pathogens. Uncovering mediators driving their functioning in the field still remains challenging, but represents an essential step in order to develop strategies for increased soil health. We set up plant communities of varying richness to experimentally test the potential of soils differing in plant community history to suppress the pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. The results indicate that plant communities shape soil-disease suppression via changes in abiotic soil properties and the abundance of bacterial groups including species of the genera Actinomyces, Bacillus and Pseudomonas. Further, the results suggest that pairwise interactions between specific plant species strongly affect soil suppressiveness. Using structural equation modelling, we provide a pathway orientated framework showing how the complex interactions between plants, soil and microorganisms jointly shape soil suppressiveness. Our results stress the importance of plant community composition as a determinant of soil functioning, such as the disease suppressive potential of soils. PMID:27021053

Finding The Most Important Actor in Online Crowd by Social Network Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuliana, I.; Santosa, P. I.; Setiawan, N. A.; Sukirman

2017-02-01

Billion of people create trillions of connections through social media every single day. The increasing use of social media has led to dramatic changes in the of way science, government, healthcare, entertainment and enterprise operate. Large-scale participation in Technology-Mediated Social Participation (TMSP) system has opened up incredible new opportunities to deploy online crowd. This descriptive-correlational research used social network analysis (SNA) on data gathered from Fanpage Facebook of Greenpeace Indonesia related to important critical issues, the bushfires in 2015. SNA identifies relations on each member by sociometrics parameter such as three centrality (degree, closeness and betweenesse) for measuring and finding the most important actor in the online community. This paper use Fruchterman Rein-gold algorithm to visualize the online community in a graph, while Clauset-Newman-Moore is a technique to identify groups in community. As the result found 3735 vertices related to actors, 6927 edges as relation, 14 main actors in size order and 22 groups in Greenpeace Indonesia online community. This research contributes to organize some information for Greenpeace Indonesia managing their potency in online community to identify human behaviour.

Working families' health insurance coverage, 1997-2001.

PubMed

Strunk, Bradley C; Reschovsky, James D

2002-08-01

Despite a booming U.S. economy, falling unemployment and moderate health insurance premium growth, the percentage of working Americans and their families with employer-sponsored health insurance failed to increase substantially between 1997 and 2001, according to findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) Community Tracking Study Household Survey. There were, however, dramatic changes in the insurance status of people who lacked access to or did not take up employer coverage: fewer uninsured, more public program enrollment and a decline in coverage by individual insurance and other sources. While the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) clearly reduced uninsurance among low-income children, evidence also suggests a fair amount of substitution of public insurance for private coverage.

Florida Community College Finance: Update. Report 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Florida State Postsecondary Education Planning Commission, Tallahassee.

In Florida, community college enrollments have increased by 41% over the past 5 years. The use of a 3-year average to fund enrollment has penalized those colleges which have grown dramatically. This report analyzes the range of community college expenditures by instructional program; the relationship of instructional expenditures to support…

New Age of Fishes initiated by the Cretaceous−Paleogene mass extinction

PubMed Central

Sibert, Elizabeth C.; Norris, Richard D.

2015-01-01

Ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) comprise nearly half of all modern vertebrate diversity, and are an ecologically and numerically dominant megafauna in most aquatic environments. Crown teleost fishes diversified relatively recently, during the Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene, although the exact timing and cause of their radiation and rise to ecological dominance is poorly constrained. Here we use microfossil teeth and shark dermal scales (ichthyoliths) preserved in deep-sea sediments to study the changes in the pelagic fish community in the latest Cretaceous and early Paleogene. We find that the Cretaceous−Paleogene (K/Pg) extinction event marked a profound change in the structure of ichthyolith communities around the globe: Whereas shark denticles outnumber ray-finned fish teeth in Cretaceous deep-sea sediments around the world, there is a dramatic increase in the proportion of ray-finned fish teeth to shark denticles in the Paleocene. There is also an increase in size and numerical abundance of ray-finned fish teeth at the boundary. These changes are sustained through at least the first 24 million years of the Cenozoic. This new fish community structure began at the K/Pg mass extinction, suggesting the extinction event played an important role in initiating the modern “age of fishes.” PMID:26124114

Lost, a desert river and its native fishes: A historical perspective of the lower Colorado River

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mueller, Gordon A.; Marsh, Paul C.

2002-01-01

The Colorado River had one of the most unique fish communities in the world. Seventy-five percent of those species were found no where else in the world. Settlement of the lower basin brought dramatic changes to both the river and its native fish. Those changes began more than 120 years ago as settlers began stocking nonnative fishes. By 1930, nonnative fish had spread throughout the lower basin and replaced native communities. All resemblance of historic river conditions faded with the construction of Hoover Dam in 1935 and other large water development projects. Today, few remember what the Colorado River was really like. Seven of the nine mainstream fishes are now federally protected as endangered. Federal and state agencies are attempting to recover these fish; however, progress has been frustrated due to the severity of human impact. This report presents testimony, old descriptions, and photographs describing the changes that have taken place in hopes that it will provide managers, biologists, and the interested public a better appreciation of the environment that shaped these unique fish.

Shift in a Large River Fish Assemblage: Body-Size and Trophic Structure Dynamics

PubMed Central

Broadway, Kyle J.; Pyron, Mark; Gammon, James R.; Murry, Brent A.

2015-01-01

As the intensity and speed of environmental change increase at both local and global scales it is imperative that we gain a better understanding of the ecological implications of community shifts. While there has been substantial progress toward understanding the drivers and subsequent responses of community change (e.g. lake trophic state), the ecological impacts of food web changes are far less understood. We analyzed Wabash River fish assemblage data collected from 1974-2008, to evaluate temporal variation in body-size structure and functional group composition. Two parameters derived from annual community size-spectra were our major response variables: (1) the regression slope is an index of ecological efficiency and predator-prey biomass ratios, and (2) spectral elevation (regression midpoint height) is a proxy for food web capacity. We detected a large assemblage shift, over at least a seven year period, defined by dramatic changes in abundance (measured as catch-per-unit-effort) of the dominant functional feeding groups among two time periods; from an assemblage dominated by planktivore-omnivores to benthic invertivores. There was a concurrent increase in ecological efficiency (slopes increased over time) following the shift associated with an increase in large-bodied low trophic level fish. Food web capacity remained relatively stable with no clear temporal trends. Thus, increased ecological efficiency occurred simultaneous to a compensatory response that shifted biomass among functional feeding groups. PMID:25902144

The changing nature of rural health care.

PubMed

Ricketts, T C

2000-01-01

The rural health care system has changed dramatically over the past decade because of a general transformation of health care financing, the introduction of new technologies, and the clustering of health services into systems and networks. Despite these changes, resources for rural health systems remain relatively insufficient. Many rural communities continue to experience shortages of physicians, and the proportion of rural hospitals under financial stress is much greater than that of urban hospitals. The health care conditions of selected rural areas compare unfavorably with the rest of the nation. The market and governmental policies have attempted to address some of these disparities by encouraging network development and telemedicine and by changing the rules for Medicare payments to providers. The public health infrastructure in rural America is not well understood but is potentially the most fragile aspect of the rural health care continuum.

Increased seawater temperature increases the abundance and alters the structure of natural Vibrio populations associated with the coral Pocillopora damicornis

PubMed Central

Tout, Jessica; Siboni, Nachshon; Messer, Lauren F.; Garren, Melissa; Stocker, Roman; Webster, Nicole S.; Ralph, Peter J.; Seymour, Justin R.

2015-01-01

Rising seawater temperature associated with global climate change is a significant threat to coral health and is linked to increasing coral disease and pathogen-related bleaching events. We performed heat stress experiments with the coral Pocillopora damicornis, where temperature was increased to 31°C, consistent with the 2–3°C predicted increase in summer sea surface maxima. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing revealed a large shift in the composition of the bacterial community at 31°C, with a notable increase in Vibrio, including known coral pathogens. To investigate the dynamics of the naturally occurring Vibrio community, we performed quantitative PCR targeting (i) the whole Vibrio community and (ii) the coral pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus. At 31°C, Vibrio abundance increased by 2–3 orders of magnitude and V. coralliilyticus abundance increased by four orders of magnitude. Using a Vibrio-specific amplicon sequencing assay, we further demonstrated that the community composition shifted dramatically as a consequence of heat stress, with significant increases in the relative abundance of known coral pathogens. Our findings provide quantitative evidence that the abundance of potential coral pathogens increases within natural communities of coral-associated microbes as a consequence of rising seawater temperature and highlight the potential negative impacts of anthropogenic climate change on coral reef ecosystems. PMID:26042096

Bacterioplankton communities of Crater Lake, OR: Dynamic changes with euphotic zone food web structure and stable deep water populations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Urbach, E.; Vergin, K.L.; Larson, G.L.; Giovannoni, S.J.

2007-01-01

The distribution of bacterial and archaeal species in Crater Lake plankton varies dramatically over depth and with time, as assessed by hybridization of group-specific oligonucleotides to RNA extracted from lakewater. Nonmetric, multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis of relative bacterial phylotype densities revealed complex relationships among assemblages sampled from depth profiles in July, August and September of 1997 through 1999. CL500-11 green nonsulfur bacteria (Phylum Chloroflexi) and marine Group I crenarchaeota are consistently dominant groups in the oxygenated deep waters at 300 and 500 m. Other phylotypes found in the deep waters are similar to surface and mid-depth populations and vary with time. Euphotic zone assemblages are dominated either by ??-proteobacteria or CL120-10 verrucomicrobia, and ACK4 actinomycetes. MDS analyses of euphotic zone populations in relation to environmental variables and phytoplankton and zooplankton population structures reveal apparent links between Daphnia pulicaria zooplankton population densities and microbial community structure. These patterns may reflect food web interactions that link kokanee salmon population densities to community structure of the bacterioplankton, via fish predation on Daphnia with cascading consequences to Daphnia bacterivory and predation on bacterivorous protists. These results demonstrate a stable bottom-water microbial community. They also extend previous observations of food web-driven changes in euphotic zone bacterioplankton community structure to an oligotrophic setting. ?? 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Pronounced daily succession of phytoplankton, archaea and bacteria following a spring bloom.

PubMed

Needham, David M; Fuhrman, Jed A

2016-02-29

Marine phytoplankton perform approximately half of global carbon fixation, with their blooms contributing disproportionately to carbon sequestration(1), and most phytoplankton production is ultimately consumed by heterotrophic prokaryotes(2). Therefore, phytoplankton and heterotrophic community dynamics are important in modelling carbon cycling and the impacts of global change(3). In a typical bloom, diatoms dominate initially, transitioning over several weeks to smaller and motile phytoplankton(4). Here, we show unexpected, rapid community variation from daily rRNA analysis of phytoplankton and prokaryotic community members following a bloom off southern California. Analysis of phytoplankton chloroplast 16S rRNA demonstrated ten different dominant phytoplankton over 18 days alone, including four taxa with animal toxin-producing strains. The dominant diatoms, flagellates and picophytoplankton varied dramatically in carbon export potential. Dominant prokaryotes also varied rapidly. Euryarchaea briefly became the most abundant organism, peaking over a few days to account for about 40% of prokaryotes. Phytoplankton and prokaryotic communities correlated better with each other than with environmental parameters. Extending beyond the traditional view of blooms being controlled primarily by physics and inorganic nutrients, these dynamics imply highly heterogeneous, continually changing conditions over time and/or space and suggest that interactions among microorganisms are critical in controlling plankton diversity, dynamics and fates.

Triggers and maintenance of multiple shifts in the state of a natural community

PubMed Central

Schmitt, Russell J.; Holbrook, Sally J.

2010-01-01

Ecological communities can undergo sudden and dramatic shifts between alternative persistent community states. Both ecological prediction and natural resource management rely on understanding the mechanisms that trigger such shifts and maintain each state. Differentiating between potential mechanisms is difficult, however, because shifts are often recognized only in hindsight and many occur on such large spatial scales that manipulative experiments to test their causes are difficult or impossible. Here we use an approach that focuses first on identifying changes in environmental factors that could have triggered a given state change, and second on examining whether these changes were sustained (and thus potentially maintained the new state) or transitory (explaining the shift but not its persistence). We use this approach to evaluate a community shift in which a benthic marine species of filter feeding sea cucumber (Pachythyone rubra) suddenly came to dominate subtidal rocky reefs that had previously supported high abundances of macroalgae, persisted for more than a decade, then abruptly declined. We found that a sustained period without large wave events coincided with the shift to sea cucumber dominance, but that the sea cucumbers persisted even after the end of this low wave period, indicating that different mechanisms maintained the new community. Additionally, the period of sea cucumber dominance occurred when their predators were rare, and increases in the abundance of these predators coincided with the end of sea cucumber dominance. These results underscore the complex nature of regime shifts and illustrate that focusing separately on the causes and maintenance of state change can be a productive first step for analyzing these shifts in a range of systems. PMID:20526781

Measuring the level of activity in community built bio-ontologies.

PubMed

Malone, James; Stevens, Robert

2013-02-01

In this paper we explore the measurement of activity in ontology projects as an aspect of community ontology building. When choosing whether to use an ontology or whether to participate in its development, having some knowledge of how actively that ontology is developed is an important issue. Our knowledge of biology grows and changes and an ontology must adapt to keep pace with those changes and also adapt with respect to other ontologies and organisational principles. In essence, we need to know if there is an 'active' community involved with a project or whether a given ontology is inactive or moribund. We explore the use of additions, deletions and changes to ontology files, the regularity and frequency of releases, and the number of ontology repository updates to an ontology as the basis for measuring activity in an ontology. We present our results of this study, which show a dramatic range of activity across some of the more prominent community ontologies, illustrating very active and mature efforts through to those which appear to have become dormant for a number of possible reasons. We show that global activity within the community has remained at a similar level over the last 2 years. Measuring additions, deletions and changes, together with release frequency, appear to be useful metrics of activity and useful pointers towards future behaviour. Measuring who is making edits to ontologies is harder to capture; this raises issues of record keeping in ontology projects and in micro-credit, although we have identified one ontologist that appears influential across many community efforts; a Super-Ontologist. We also discuss confounding factors in our activity metric and discuss how it can be improved and adopted as an assessment criterion for community ontology development. Overall, we show that it is possible to objectively measure the activity in an ontology and to make some prediction about future activity. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

TOO MANY MEN? SEX RATIOS AND WOMEN’S PARTNERING BEHAVIOR IN CHINA

PubMed Central

Trent, Katherine; South, Scott J.

2011-01-01

The relative numbers of women and men are changing dramatically in China, but the consequences of these imbalanced sex ratios have received little attention. We merge data from the Chinese Health and Family Life Survey with community-level data from Chinese censuses to examine the relationship between cohort- and community-specific sex ratios and women’s partnering behavior. Consistent with demographic-opportunity theory and sociocultural theory, we find that high sex ratios (indicating more men relative to women) are associated with an increased likelihood that women marry before age 25. However, high sex ratios are also associated with an increased likelihood that women engage in premarital and extramarital sexual relationships and have had more than one sexual partner, findings consistent with demographic-opportunity theory but inconsistent with sociocultural theory. PMID:22199403

The impacts of Cenozoic climate and habitat changes on small mammal diversity of North America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samuels, Joshua X.; Hopkins, Samantha S. B.

2017-02-01

Through the Cenozoic, paleoclimate records show general trends of global cooling and increased aridity, and environments in North America shifted from predominantly forests to more open habitats. Paleobotanical records indicate grasses were present on the continent in the Eocene; however, paleosol and phytolith studies indicate that open habitats did not arise until the late Eocene or even later in the Oligocene. Studies of large mammalian herbivores have documented changes in ecomorphology and community structure through time, revealing that shifts in mammalian morphology occurred millions of years after the environmental changes thought to have triggered them. Smaller mammals, like rodents and lagomorphs, should more closely track climate and habitat changes due to their shorter generation times and smaller ranges, but these animals have received much less study. To examine changes in smaller mammals through time, we have assembled and analyzed an ecomorphological database of all North American rodent and lagomorph species. Analyses of these data found that rodent and lagomorph community structure changed dramatically through the Cenozoic, and shifts in diversity and ecology correspond closely with the timing of habitat changes. Cenozoic rodent and lagomorph species diversity is strongly biased by sampling of localities, but sampling-corrected diversity reveals diversity dynamics that, after an initial density-dependent diversification in the Eocene, track habitat changes and the appearance of new ecological adaptations. As habitats became more open and arid through time, rodent and lagomorph crown heights increased while burrowing, jumping, and cursorial adaptations became more prevalent. Through time, open-habitat specialists were added during periods of diversification, while closed-habitat taxa were disproportionately lost in subsequent diversity declines. While shifts among rodents and lagomorphs parallel changes in ungulate communities, they started millions of years earlier than in larger mammals. This is likely a consequence of the smaller mammals' greater sensitivity to environmental changes and more rapid evolution. These results highlight the importance of examining understudied members of vertebrate faunas for understanding the evolution of terrestrial communities through time.

The evolution of health administration education for public health: responding to a changing environment.

PubMed

Kilpatrick, K E; Romani, J H

1995-01-01

Health administration education in schools of public health has undergone a steady but remarkable evolution over the last five decades. What was once taught was simply an enumeration of statutory requirements and programs managed by public health agencies. This changed dramatically in the 1960s with the incorporation of both theoretical concepts and skills from the fields of public administration and business administration. In the 1990s, the differentiation between training required for public health administration and for health services administration has become increasingly blurred as institutional responsibility for the health of defined populations has necessitated the adoption of the community epidemiology perspective, long the centerpiece of public health programs, by all health services administration programs. The future challenge for programs located in schools of public health is to identify the unique characteristics of public health practice and to prepare graduates to assure that core public health functions are met adequately in the communities in which they will serve.

Community Context, Land Use and First Birth

PubMed Central

Ghimire, Dirgha J.; Axinn, William G.

2010-01-01

This paper examines the influence of community context and land use on the monthly odds of first birth in a society in the midst of dramatic fertility transition. The theoretical framework guiding our work predicts that proximity to non-family services should delay first births by creating opportunities for competing non-family activities and spreading new ideas that change expectations about family life. On the other hand, living in agricultural settings that provide opportunities for higher returns to the child labor should speed first births. We use a longitudinal, multilevel, mixed-method data from the Nepalese Himalayas to test these predictions. The empirical results reveal that non-family services during childhood and during early adulthood both have important independent influences on the odds of first birth. Also, as predicted, a high density of agricultural land use affects the odds of first births in the opposite direction, speeding first births. This clear pattern of contrasting effects provides important new evidence of the contextual dynamics that produce watershed changes in post-marital birth timing. PMID:20877584

Mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction: experience with a bilingual inner-city program.

PubMed

Roth, B; Creaser, T

1997-03-01

This article describes a bilingual mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction program in an inner-city setting. Mindfulness meditation is defined, and the practices of breathing meditation, eating meditation, walking meditation, and mindful yoga are described. Data analysis examined compliance, medical and psychologic symptom reduction, and changes in self-esteem, of English- and Spanish-speaking patients who completed the 8-week Stress Reduction and Relaxation Program at the Community Health Center in Meriden, Conn. Statistically significant decreases in medical and psychologic symptoms and improvement in self-esteem were found. Many program completers reported dramatic changes in attitudes, beliefs, habits, and behaviors. Despite the limitations of the research design, these findings suggest that a mindfulness meditation course can be an effective health care intervention when utilized by English- and Spanish-speaking patients in an inner-city community health center. The article includes a discussion of factors to be considered when establishing a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction program in a health care setting.

Community Context, Land Use and First Birth.

PubMed

Ghimire, Dirgha J; Axinn, William G

2010-09-01

This paper examines the influence of community context and land use on the monthly odds of first birth in a society in the midst of dramatic fertility transition. The theoretical framework guiding our work predicts that proximity to non-family services should delay first births by creating opportunities for competing non-family activities and spreading new ideas that change expectations about family life. On the other hand, living in agricultural settings that provide opportunities for higher returns to the child labor should speed first births. We use a longitudinal, multilevel, mixed-method data from the Nepalese Himalayas to test these predictions. The empirical results reveal that non-family services during childhood and during early adulthood both have important independent influences on the odds of first birth. Also, as predicted, a high density of agricultural land use affects the odds of first births in the opposite direction, speeding first births. This clear pattern of contrasting effects provides important new evidence of the contextual dynamics that produce watershed changes in post-marital birth timing.

Effects of behavioral changes in a smallpox attack model.

PubMed

Del Valle, S; Hethcote, H; Hyman, J M; Castillo-Chavez, C

2005-06-01

The impact of individual and community behavioral changes in response to an outbreak of a disease with high mortality is often not appreciated. Response strategies to a smallpox bioterrorist attack have focused on interventions such as isolation of infectives, contact tracing, quarantine of contacts, ring vaccination, and mass vaccination. We formulate and analyze a mathematical model in which some individuals lower their daily contact activity rates once an epidemic has been identified in a community. Transmission parameters are estimated from data and an expression is derived for the effective reproduction number. We use computer simulations to analyze the effects of behavior change alone and in combination with other control measures. We demonstrate that the spread of the disease is highly sensitive to how rapidly people reduce their contact activity rates and to the precautions that the population takes to reduce the transmission of the disease. Even gradual and mild behavioral changes can have a dramatic impact in slowing an epidemic. When behavioral changes are combined with other interventions, the epidemic is shortened and the number of smallpox cases is reduced. We conclude that for simulations of a smallpox outbreak to be useful, they must consider the impact of behavioral changes. This is especially true if the model predictions are being used to guide public health policy.

Indirect evolutionary rescue: prey adapts, predator avoids extinction

PubMed Central

Yamamichi, Masato; Miner, Brooks E

2015-01-01

Recent studies have increasingly recognized evolutionary rescue (adaptive evolution that prevents extinction following environmental change) as an important process in evolutionary biology and conservation science. Researchers have concentrated on single species living in isolation, but populations in nature exist within communities of interacting species, so evolutionary rescue should also be investigated in a multispecies context. We argue that the persistence or extinction of a focal species can be determined solely by evolutionary change in an interacting species. We demonstrate that prey adaptive evolution can prevent predator extinction in two-species predator–prey models, and we derive the conditions under which this indirect evolutionary interaction is essential to prevent extinction following environmental change. A nonevolving predator can be rescued from extinction by adaptive evolution of its prey due to a trade-off for the prey between defense against predation and population growth rate. As prey typically have larger populations and shorter generations than their predators, prey evolution can be rapid and have profound effects on predator population dynamics. We suggest that this process, which we term ‘indirect evolutionary rescue’, has the potential to be critically important to the ecological and evolutionary responses of populations and communities to dramatic environmental change. PMID:26366196

The Obesity Prevention Initiative: A Statewide Effort to Improve Child Health in Wisconsin.

PubMed

Adams, Alexandra K; Christens, Brian; Meinen, Amy; Korth, Amy; Remington, Patrick L; Lindberg, Sara; Schoeller, Dale

2016-11-01

Obesity rates have increased dramatically, especially among children and disadvantaged populations. Obesity is a complex issue, creating a compelling need for prevention efforts in communities to move from single isolated programs to comprehensive multisystem interventions. To address these issues, we have established a childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative (Initiative) for Wisconsin. This Initiative seeks to test community change frameworks that can support multisystem interventions and provide data for local action as a means for influencing policies, systems, and environments that support individuals’ healthy eating and physical activity. The Initiative is comprised of three components: (1) infrastructure to support a statewide obesity prevention and health promotion network with state- and local-level public messaging and dissemination of evidence-based solutions (healthTIDE); (2) piloting a local, multisetting community-led intervention study in 2 Wisconsin counties; and (3) developing a geocoded statewide childhood obesity and fitness surveillance system. This Initiative is using a new model that involves both coalition action and community organizing to align resources to achieve health improvement at local and state levels. We expect that it will help lead to the implementation of cohesive and sustainable policy, system, and environment health promotion and obesity prevention strategies in communities statewide, and it has the potential to help Wisconsin become a national model for multisetting community interventions to address obesity. Addressing individual-level health through population-level changes ultimately will result in reductions in the prevalence of childhood obesity, current and future health care costs, and chronic disease mortality.

The Obesity Prevention Initiative: A Statewide Effort to Improve Child Health in Wisconsin.

PubMed

Adams, Alexandra K; Christens, Brian; Meinen, Amy; Korth, Amy; Remington, Patrick L; Lindberg, Sara; Schoeller, Dale

2016-11-01

Obesity rates have increased dramatically, especially among children and disadvantaged populations. Obesity is a complex issue, creating a compelling need for prevention efforts in communities to move from single isolated programs to comprehensive multisystem interventions. To address these issues, we have established a childhood Obesity Prevention Initiative (Initiative) for Wisconsin. This Initiative seeks to test community change frameworks that can support multisystem interventions and provide data for local action as a means for influencing policies, systems, and environments that support individuals' healthy eating and physical activity. The Initiative is comprised of three components: (1) infrastructure to support a statewide obesity prevention and health promotion network with state- and local-level public messaging and dissemination of evidence-based solutions (healthTIDE); (2) piloting a local, multisetting community-led intervention study in 2 Wisconsin counties; and (3) developing a geocoded statewide childhood obesity and fitness surveillance system. This Initiative is using a new model that involves both coalition action and community organizing to align resources to achieve health improvement at local and state levels. We expect that it will help lead to the implementation of cohesive and sustainable policy, system, and environment health promotion and obesity prevention strategies in communities statewide, and it has the potential to help Wisconsin become a national model for multisetting community interventions to address obesity. Addressing individual-level health through population-level changes ultimately will result in reductions in the prevalence of childhood obesity, current and future health care costs, and chronic disease mortality.

Predicting ecosystem vulnerability to biodiversity loss from community composition.

PubMed

Heilpern, Sebastian A; Weeks, Brian C; Naeem, Shahid

2018-05-01

Ecosystems vary widely in their responses to biodiversity change, with some losing function dramatically while others are highly resilient. However, generalizations about how species- and community-level properties determine these divergent ecosystem responses have been elusive because potential sources of variation (e.g., trophic structure, compensation, functional trait diversity) are rarely evaluated in conjunction. Ecosystem vulnerability, or the likely change in ecosystem function following biodiversity change, is influenced by two types of species traits: response traits that determine species' individual sensitivities to environmental change, and effect traits that determine a species' contribution to ecosystem function. Here we extend the response-effect trait framework to quantify ecosystem vulnerability and show how trophic structure, within-trait variance, and among-trait covariance affect ecosystem vulnerability by linking extinction order and functional compensation. Using in silico trait-based simulations we found that ecosystem vulnerability increased when response and effect traits positively covaried, but this increase was attenuated by decreasing trait variance. Contrary to expectations, in these communities, both functional diversity and trophic structure increased ecosystem vulnerability. In contrast, ecosystem functions were resilient when response and effect traits covaried negatively, and variance had a positive effect on resiliency. Our results suggest that although biodiversity loss is often associated with decreases in ecosystem functions, such effects are conditional on trophic structure, and the variation within and covariation among response and effect traits. Taken together, these three factors can predict when ecosystems are poised to lose or gain function with ongoing biodiversity change. © 2018 by the Ecological Society of America.

Dynamics of bacterial communities before and after distribution in a full-scale drinking water network.

PubMed

El-Chakhtoura, Joline; Prest, Emmanuelle; Saikaly, Pascal; van Loosdrecht, Mark; Hammes, Frederik; Vrouwenvelder, Hans

2015-05-01

Understanding the biological stability of drinking water distribution systems is imperative in the framework of process control and risk management. The objective of this research was to examine the dynamics of the bacterial community during drinking water distribution at high temporal resolution. Water samples (156 in total) were collected over short time-scales (minutes/hours/days) from the outlet of a treatment plant and a location in its corresponding distribution network. The drinking water is treated by biofiltration and disinfectant residuals are absent during distribution. The community was analyzed by 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing and flow cytometry as well as conventional, culture-based methods. Despite a random dramatic event (detected with pyrosequencing and flow cytometry but not with plate counts), the bacterial community profile at the two locations did not vary significantly over time. A diverse core microbiome was shared between the two locations (58-65% of the taxa and 86-91% of the sequences) and found to be dependent on the treatment strategy. The bacterial community structure changed during distribution, with greater richness detected in the network and phyla such as Acidobacteria and Gemmatimonadetes becoming abundant. The rare taxa displayed the highest dynamicity, causing the major change during water distribution. This change did not have hygienic implications and is contingent on the sensitivity of the applied methods. The concept of biological stability therefore needs to be revised. Biostability is generally desired in drinking water guidelines but may be difficult to achieve in large-scale complex distribution systems that are inherently dynamic. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A community change in the algal endosymbionts of a scleractinian coral following a natural bleaching event: field evidence of acclimatization.

PubMed

Jones, A M; Berkelmans, R; van Oppen, M J H; Mieog, J C; Sinclair, W

2008-06-22

The symbiosis between reef-building corals and their algal endosymbionts (zooxanthellae of the genus Symbiodinium) is highly sensitive to temperature stress, which makes coral reefs vulnerable to climate change. Thermal tolerance in corals is known to be substantially linked to the type of zooxanthellae they harbour and, when multiple types are present, the relative abundance of types can be experimentally manipulated to increase the thermal limits of individual corals. Although the potential exists for this to translate into substantial thermal acclimatization of coral communities, to date there is no evidence to show that this takes place under natural conditions. In this study, we show field evidence of a dramatic change in the symbiont community of Acropora millepora, a common and widespread Indo-Pacific hard coral species, after a natural bleaching event in early 2006 in the Keppel Islands (Great Barrier Reef). Before bleaching, 93.5% (n=460) of the randomly sampled and tagged colonies predominantly harboured the thermally sensitive Symbiodinium type C2, while the remainder harboured a tolerant Symbiodinium type belonging to clade D or mixtures of C2 and D. After bleaching, 71% of the surviving tagged colonies that were initially C2 predominant changed to D or C1 predominance. Colonies that were originally C2 predominant suffered high mortality (37%) compared with D-predominant colonies (8%). We estimate that just over 18% of the original A. millepora population survived unchanged leaving 29% of the population C2 and 71% D or C1 predominant six months after the bleaching event. This change in the symbiont community structure, while it persists, is likely to have substantially increased the thermal tolerance of this coral population. Understanding the processes that underpin the temporal changes in symbiont communities is key to assessing the acclimatization potential of reef corals.

European seaweeds under pressure: Consequences for communities and ecosystem functioning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mineur, Frédéric; Arenas, Francisco; Assis, Jorge; Davies, Andrew J.; Engelen, Aschwin H.; Fernandes, Francisco; Malta, Erik-jan; Thibaut, Thierry; Van Nguyen, Tu; Vaz-Pinto, Fátima; Vranken, Sofie; Serrão, Ester A.; De Clerck, Olivier

2015-04-01

Seaweed assemblages represent the dominant autotrophic biomass in many coastal environments, playing a central structural and functional role in several ecosystems. In Europe, seaweed assemblages are highly diverse systems. The combined seaweed flora of different European regions hold around 1550 species (belonging to nearly 500 genera), with new species continuously uncovered, thanks to the emergence of molecular tools. In this manuscript we review the effects of global and local stressors on European seaweeds, their communities, and ecosystem functioning. Following a brief review on the present knowledge on European seaweed diversity and distribution, and the role of seaweed communities in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, we discuss the effects of biotic homogenization (invasive species) and global climate change (shifts in bioclimatic zones and ocean acidification) on the distribution of individual species and their effect on the structure and functioning of seaweed communities. The arrival of new introduced species (that already account for 5-10% of the European seaweeds) and the regional extirpation of native species resulting from oceans' climate change are creating new diversity scenarios with undetermined functional consequences. Anthropogenic local stressors create additional disruption often altering dramatically assemblage's structure. Hence, we discuss ecosystem level effects of such stressors like harvesting, trampling, habitat modification, overgrazing and eutrophication that impact coastal communities at local scales. Last, we conclude by highlighting significant knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to anticipate the combined effects of global and local stressors on seaweed communities. With physical and biological changes occurring at unexpected pace, marine phycologists should now integrate and join their research efforts to be able to contribute efficiently for the conservation and management of coastal systems.

Social Landscapes of the Inter-Mountain West: A Comparison of "Old West" and "New West" Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winkler, Richelle; Field, Donald R.; Luloff, A. E.; Krannich, Richard S.; Williams, Tracy

2007-01-01

Rural communities have experienced dramatic demographic, social, and economic transformations over the past 30 years. Historically characterized by close links between natural resources and social, cultural, and economic structures, few of today's rural communities remain heavily dependent upon traditional extractive industries like ranching,…

Perceptions of the Other: Voices of Adjunct and Fulltime Community College Faculty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Backlin, William Wayne

2012-01-01

The practice of hiring adjunct instructors was initially considered to be an anomalous event (Todd, 2004). Community college employment of adjunct instructors, however, witnessed a 50% increase during the 1970s (Cain, 1999) and, by 1984, adjunct instructor utilization in community colleges rose dramatically with an additional 80% growth. Over a…

Building a Business Case for Going Green

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Bill; Maldeis, Neil

2011-01-01

Community college enrollments usually rise during tough economic times and the recent recession and slow recovery are no exception. According to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the number of students attending community colleges has grown dramatically in the last decade to about 12.4 million last fall. The AACC says that 1.4…

A Way Forward: Cooperative Solutions to Our Climate Challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Little, L. J.; Byrne, J. M.

2014-12-01

Solving the global climate crisis is a multidisciplinary challenge. The world is seeking solutions to climate change. The climate research and education community must move beyond the realm of debating the science - we MUST provide the solutions. The research community understands the science and many of the solutions very well. This project will address the specifics of solutions involving social, political and science disciplines. The content is targeted to multidisciplinary education at the senior undergraduate and graduate levels in universities and colleges. Humanity has already changed the climate and current greenhouse gas emission (GHG) projections indicate our world will warm 2-6° C within a young person's lifetime. We must coordinate societal mitigation and adaptation policies, programs and technology transformations. There is now a dramatic need for many, many highly trained multidisciplinary climate change solutions professionals that understand the complexities of the challenges and can work through the social, political and science tribulations needed to sustain communities around the world. This proposed education project: Provides an introduction to the social, political, technical, health and well-being challenges of climate change; Defines and describes the unprecedented changes to personal and community lifestyle, and consumption of energy and other resources; Examines ways and means for rapid transition of energy systems from fossil fuels to clean renewable technologies. Evaluates redevelopment of our infrastructure to withstand increasing weather extremes; Inventories possible abandonment and/or protection of infrastructure that cannot be redeveloped or reworked, particularly with respect to coastal zones where substantial populations currently live. We propose an online living textbook project. Chapter contributions will be invited from outstanding solutions research professionals from around the world. The online presence is the best means to facilitate a multimedia presentation of the core content of the proposed text.

Adapting a 1% or less milk campaign for a Hispanic/Latino population: the Adelante Con Leche Semi-descremada 1% experience.

PubMed

Hinkle, Arnell J; Mistry, Ritesh; McCarthy, William J; Yancey, Antronette K

2008-01-01

Describe and evaluate a media campaign to encourage 1% or nonfat milk consumption. Uncontrolled pre/post test. One largely rural (Santa Paula) and one urban (East Los Angeles) California community. Community residents and milk vendors in primarily low-income Latino/Hispanic communities. The "1% or Less" milk campaign, which promotes substitution of 2% fat or whole milk with 1% or less fat milk was adapted and implemented. Comparison of post-campaign milk sales with pre-campaign sales. Chi-square tests of independence used to compare precampaign and postcampaign sales. There were decreases in the proportion of whole milk sold and increases in the proportion of reduced-fat, low-fat, and nonfat milk sold in the weeks following each campaign (Santa Paula: p = .0165; East Los Angeles: p < .0001). However, follow-up data from East Los Angeles suggest that these changes were not sustained. The proportions of the different units of milk sold also changed in the weeks following each campaign (p < .0001). Sales of whole milk gallon units decreased from 36.3% to 28.4% in Santa Paula, and from 43.5% to 10.2% in East Los Angeles. Highly focused campaigns to promote substitution of high-fat milk with low-fat or nonfat milk can show dramatic initial changes in sales patterns. However, whether such campaigns can have a sustained impact in largely Latino/Hispanic communities is not evident.

Structure and composition of oligohaline marsh plant communities exposed to salinity pulses

USGS Publications Warehouse

Howard, R.J.; Mendelssohn, I.A.

2000-01-01

The response of two oligohaline marsh macrophyte communities to pulses of increased salinity was studied over a single growing season in a greenhouse experiment. The plant communities were allowed a recovery period in freshwater following the pulse events. The experimental treatments included: (1) salinity influx rate (rate of salinity increase from 0 to 12 gl-1); (2) duration of exposure to elevated salinity; and (3) water depth. The communities both included Sagittaria lancifolia L.; the codominant species were Eleocharis palustris (L.) Roemer and J.A. Schultes in community 1 and Schoenoplectus americanus (Pers.) Volk. ex Schinz and R. Keller in community 2. Effects of the treatments on sediment chemical characteristics (salinity, pH, redox potential, and sulfide and ammonium concentrations) and plant community attributes (aboveground and belowground biomass, stem density, leaf tissue nutrients, and species richness) were examined. The treatment effects often interacted to influence sediment and plant communities characteristics following recovery in fresh water. Salinity influx rate per se, however, had little effect on the abiotic or biotic response variables; significant influx effects were found when the 0 gl-1 (zero influx) treatment was compared to the 12 gl-1 treatments, regardless of the rate salinity was raised. A salinity level of 12 gl-1 had negative effects on plant community structure and composition; these effects were usually associated with 3 months of salinity exposure. Water depth often interacted with exposure duration, but increased water depth did independently decrease the values of some community response measures. Community 1 was affected more than community 2 in the most extreme salinity treatment (3 months exposure/15-cm water depth). Although species richness in both communities was reduced, structural changes were more dramatic in community 1. Biomass and stem density were reduced in community 1 overall and in both dominant species. Structural changes in community 2 consisted of reduced biomass and stem density in the community overall and in S. lancifolia; S. americanus was not affected by salinity. In this most extreme treatment, community 2 tended to change to a monospecific S. americanus stand while community 1 was reduced to a few surviving stems of secondary species. Our results suggest that vegetation recovery or establishment of new species following a temporary increase in soil water salinity will vary with exposure duration and water depth. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.

Modeling attitude towards drug treament: the role of internal motivation, external pressure, and dramatic relief.

PubMed

Conner, Bradley T; Longshore, Douglas; Anglin, M Douglas

2009-04-01

Motivation for change has historically been viewed as the crucial element affecting responsiveness to drug treatment. Various external pressures, such as legal coercion, may engender motivation in an individual previously resistant to change. Dramatic relief may be the change process that is most salient as individuals internalize such external pressures. Results of structural equation modeling on data from 465 drug users (58.9% male; 21.3% Black, 34.2% Hispanic/Latino, and 35.1% White) entering drug treatment indicated that internal motivation and external pressure significantly and positively predicted dramatic relief and that dramatic relief significantly predicted attitudes towards drug treatment: chi (2) = 142.20, df = 100, p < 0.01; Robust Comparative Fit Index = 0.97, Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation = 0.03. These results indicate that when external pressure and internal motivation are high, dramatic relief is also likely to be high. When dramatic relief is high, attitudes towards drug treatment are likely to be positive. The findings indicate that interventions to get individuals into drug treatment should include processes that promote Dramatic Relief. Implications for addictions health services are discussed.

Novel competitors shape species' responses to climate change.

PubMed

Alexander, Jake M; Diez, Jeffrey M; Levine, Jonathan M

2015-09-24

Understanding how species respond to climate change is critical for forecasting the future dynamics and distribution of pests, diseases and biological diversity. Although ecologists have long acknowledged species' direct physiological and demographic responses to climate, more recent work suggests that these direct responses can be overwhelmed by indirect effects mediated via other interacting community members. Theory suggests that some of the most dramatic impacts of community change will probably arise through the assembly of novel species combinations after asynchronous migrations with climate. Empirical tests of this prediction are rare, as existing work focuses on the effects of changing interactions between competitors that co-occur today. To explore how species' responses to climate warming depend on how their competitors migrate to track climate, we transplanted alpine plant species and intact plant communities along a climate gradient in the Swiss Alps. Here we show that when alpine plants were transplanted to warmer climates to simulate a migration failure, their performance was strongly reduced by novel competitors that could migrate upwards from lower elevation; these effects generally exceeded the impact of warming on competition with current competitors. In contrast, when we grew the focal plants under their current climate to simulate climate tracking, a shift in the competitive environment to novel high-elevation competitors had little to no effect. This asymmetry in the importance of changing competitor identity at the leading versus trailing range edges is best explained by the degree of functional similarity between current and novel competitors. We conclude that accounting for novel competitive interactions may be essential to predict species' responses to climate change accurately.

Coordinating Environmental Genomics and Geochemistry Reveals Metabolic Transitions in a Hot Spring Ecosystem

PubMed Central

Swingley, Wesley D.; Meyer-Dombard, D’Arcy R.; Shock, Everett L.; Alsop, Eric B.; Falenski, Heinz D.; Havig, Jeff R.; Raymond, Jason

2012-01-01

We have constructed a conceptual model of biogeochemical cycles and metabolic and microbial community shifts within a hot spring ecosystem via coordinated analysis of the “Bison Pool” (BP) Environmental Genome and a complementary contextual geochemical dataset of ∼75 geochemical parameters. 2,321 16S rRNA clones and 470 megabases of environmental sequence data were produced from biofilms at five sites along the outflow of BP, an alkaline hot spring in Sentinel Meadow (Lower Geyser Basin) of Yellowstone National Park. This channel acts as a >22 m gradient of decreasing temperature, increasing dissolved oxygen, and changing availability of biologically important chemical species, such as those containing nitrogen and sulfur. Microbial life at BP transitions from a 92°C chemotrophic streamer biofilm community in the BP source pool to a 56°C phototrophic mat community. We improved automated annotation of the BP environmental genomes using BLAST-based Markov clustering. We have also assigned environmental genome sequences to individual microbial community members by complementing traditional homology-based assignment with nucleotide word-usage algorithms, allowing more than 70% of all reads to be assigned to source organisms. This assignment yields high genome coverage in dominant community members, facilitating reconstruction of nearly complete metabolic profiles and in-depth analysis of the relation between geochemical and metabolic changes along the outflow. We show that changes in environmental conditions and energy availability are associated with dramatic shifts in microbial communities and metabolic function. We have also identified an organism constituting a novel phylum in a metabolic “transition” community, located physically between the chemotroph- and phototroph-dominated sites. The complementary analysis of biogeochemical and environmental genomic data from BP has allowed us to build ecosystem-based conceptual models for this hot spring, reconstructing whole metabolic networks in order to illuminate community roles in shaping and responding to geochemical variability. PMID:22675512

Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI): Resources for Mining Mouse Genetic, Genomic, and Biological Data in Support of Primary and Translational Research.

PubMed

Eppig, Janan T; Smith, Cynthia L; Blake, Judith A; Ringwald, Martin; Kadin, James A; Richardson, Joel E; Bult, Carol J

2017-01-01

The Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI), resource ( www.informatics.jax.org ) has existed for over 25 years, and over this time its data content, informatics infrastructure, and user interfaces and tools have undergone dramatic changes (Eppig et al., Mamm Genome 26:272-284, 2015). Change has been driven by scientific methodological advances, rapid improvements in computational software, growth in computer hardware capacity, and the ongoing collaborative nature of the mouse genomics community in building resources and sharing data. Here we present an overview of the current data content of MGI, describe its general organization, and provide examples using simple and complex searches, and tools for mining and retrieving sets of data.

Development of soils and communities of plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on West Virginia surface mines.

PubMed

Levy, Michael A; Cumming, Jonathan R

2014-11-01

Surface mining followed by reclamation to pasture is a major driver of land use and cover change in Appalachia. Prior research suggests that many aspects of ecosystem recovery are either slow or incomplete. We examined ecosystem structure-including soil physical and chemical properties, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) infectivity and community composition, and plant diversity and community composition-on a chronosequence of pasture-reclaimed surface mines and a non-mined pasture in northern West Virginia. Surface mining and reclamation dramatically altered ecosystem structure. Some aspects of ecosystem structure, including many measures of soil chemistry and infectivity of AMF, returned rapidly to levels found on the non-mined reference site. Other aspects of ecosystem structure, notably soil physical properties and AMF and plant communities, showed incomplete or no recovery over the short-to-medium term. In addition, invasive plants were prevalent on reclaimed mine sites. The results point to the need for investigation on how reclamation practices could minimize establishment of exotic invasive plant species and reduce the long-term impacts of mining on ecosystem structure and function.

Development of Soils and Communities of Plants and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on West Virginia Surface Mines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Levy, Michael A.; Cumming, Jonathan R.

2014-11-01

Surface mining followed by reclamation to pasture is a major driver of land use and cover change in Appalachia. Prior research suggests that many aspects of ecosystem recovery are either slow or incomplete. We examined ecosystem structure—including soil physical and chemical properties, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) infectivity and community composition, and plant diversity and community composition—on a chronosequence of pasture-reclaimed surface mines and a non-mined pasture in northern West Virginia. Surface mining and reclamation dramatically altered ecosystem structure. Some aspects of ecosystem structure, including many measures of soil chemistry and infectivity of AMF, returned rapidly to levels found on the non-mined reference site. Other aspects of ecosystem structure, notably soil physical properties and AMF and plant communities, showed incomplete or no recovery over the short-to-medium term. In addition, invasive plants were prevalent on reclaimed mine sites. The results point to the need for investigation on how reclamation practices could minimize establishment of exotic invasive plant species and reduce the long-term impacts of mining on ecosystem structure and function.

Examining Factors Related to Academic Success of Military-Connected Students at Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams-Klotz, Denise N.; Gansemer-Topf, Ann M.

2018-01-01

The number of military-connected students enrolling in community colleges has increased dramatically in the past decade, and this trend is expected to continue. This research focused on examining factors that contribute to the academic success of community college students. Specifically, the purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the…

Community College Estimated Growth: Fall 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillippe, Kent; Mullin, Christopher M.

2011-01-01

A survey from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) found that enrollment growth in fall 2010 slowed its pace at community colleges, increasing 3.2% from the previous year. This contrasts with more dramatic increases in recent years: more than 11% between fall 2008 and fall 2009, and nearly 17% between fall 2007 and fall 2009,…

The partnership between park wild life management policy and landscape wild life management policy. How shall we then manage?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Halvorson, William L.; Eastin, Chris

1999-01-01

Resources management practices are changing in North America, not only based on greater understanding of the resources that are being managed, but also on some critical sociological relationship changes between human beings and between humans and nature. The entire way that humans look at the natural world and our own society is changing dramatically as we come to the end of the twentieth century. Managers are changing from making belief-based decisions to making informed knowledge-based decisions through better science programs. Society appears to increasingly be making a shift to a community mind-set, a mind-set of connectedness and interdependence, and away from strict individualism. Managers appear to be ready to embrace the concept of unity and wholeness; to understand that humans and nature are inextricably tied to each other’s wellbeing

Plant Biodiversity Change Across Scales During the Anthropocene.

PubMed

Vellend, Mark; Baeten, Lander; Becker-Scarpitta, Antoine; Boucher-Lalonde, Véronique; McCune, Jenny L; Messier, Julie; Myers-Smith, Isla H; Sax, Dov F

2017-04-28

Plant communities have undergone dramatic changes in recent centuries, although not all such changes fit with the dominant biodiversity-crisis narrative used to describe them. At the global scale, future declines in plant species diversity are highly likely given habitat conversion in the tropics, although few extinctions have been documented for the Anthropocene to date (<0.1%). Nonnative species introductions have greatly increased plant species richness in many regions of the world at the same time that they have led to the creation of new hybrid polyploid species by bringing previously isolated congeners into close contact. At the local scale, conversion of primary vegetation to agriculture has decreased plant diversity, whereas other drivers of change-e.g., climate warming, habitat fragmentation, and nitrogen deposition-have highly context-dependent effects, resulting in a distribution of temporal trends with a mean close to zero. These results prompt a reassessment of how conservation goals are defined and justified.

Dominant predators mediate the impact of habitat size on trophic structure in bromeliad invertebrate communities.

PubMed

Petermann, Jana S; Farjalla, Vinicius F; Jocque, Merlijn; Kratina, Pavel; MacDonald, A Andrew M; Marino, Nicholas A C; De Omena, Paula M; Piccoli, Gustavo C O; Richardson, Barbara A; Richardson, Michael J; Romero, Gustavo Q; Videla, Martin; Srivastava, Diane S

2015-02-01

Local habitat size has been shown to influence colonization and extinction processes of species in patchy environments. However, species differ in body size, mobility, and trophic level, and may not respond in the same way to habitat size. Thus far, we have a limited understanding of how habitat size influences the structure of multitrophic communities and to what extent the effects may be generalizable over a broad geographic range. Here, we used water-filled bromeliads of different sizes as a natural model system to examine the effects of habitat size on the trophic structure of their inhabiting invertebrate communities. We collected composition and biomass data from 651 bromeliad communities from eight sites across Central and South America differing in environmental conditions, species pools, and the presence of large-bodied odonate predators. We found that trophic structure in the communities changed dramatically with changes in habitat (bromeliad) size. Detritivore : resource ratios showed a consistent negative relationship with habitat size across sites. In contrast, changes in predator: detritivore (prey) ratios depended on the presence of odonates as dominant predators in the regional pool. At sites without odonates, predator: detritivore biomass ratios decreased with increasing habitat size. At sites with odonates, we found odonates to be more frequently present in large than in small bromeliads, and predator: detritivore biomass ratios increased with increasing habitat size to the point where some trophic pyramids became inverted. Our results show that the distribution of biomass amongst food-web levels depends strongly on habitat size, largely irrespective of geographic differences in environmental conditions or detritivore species compositions. However, the presence of large-bodied predators in the regional species pool may fundamentally alter this relationship between habitat size and trophic structure. We conclude that taking into account the response and multitrophic effects of dominant, mobile species may be critical when predicting changes in community structure along a habitat-size gradient.

Soil temperature and water content drive microbial carbon fixation in grassland of permafrost area on the Tibetan plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kong, W.; Guo, G.; Liu, J.

2014-12-01

Soil microbial communities underpin terrestrial biogeochemical cycles and are greatly influenced by global warming and global-warming-induced dryness. However, the response of soil microbial community function to global change remains largely uncertain, particularly in the ecologically vulnerable Tibetan plateau permafrost area with large carbon storage. With the concept of space for time substitution, we investigated the responses of soil CO2-fixing microbial community and its enzyme activity to climate change along an elevation gradient (4400-5100 m) of alpine grassland on the central Tibetan plateau. The elevation gradient in a south-facing hill slope leads to variation in climate and soil physicochemical parameters. The autotrophic microbial communities were characterized by quantitative PCR (qPCR), terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (T-RFLP) and cloning/sequencing targeting the CO2-fixing gene (RubisCO). The results demonstrated that the autotrophic microbial community abundance, structure and its enzyme activity were mainly driven by soil temperature and water content. Soil temperature increase and water decrease dramatically reduced the abundance of the outnumbered form IC RubisCO-containing microbes, and significantly changed the structure of form IC, IAB and ID RubisCO-containing microbial community. Structural equation model revealed that the RubisCO enzyme was directly derived from RubisCO-containing microbes and its activity was significantly reduced by soil temperature increase and water content decrease. Thus our results provide a novel positive feedback loop of climate warming and warming-induced dryness by that soil microbial carbon fixing potential will reduce by 3.77%-8.86% with the soil temperature increase of 1.94oC and water content decrease of 60%-70%. This positive feedback could be capable of amplifying the climate change given the significant contribution of soil microbial CO2-fixing up to 4.9% of total soil organic carbon.

Changing landscapes and the cosmopolitism of the eastern Colorado avifauna

USGS Publications Warehouse

Knopf, Fritz L.

1986-01-01

The avifauna of continental North America has changed dramatically since colonial times. Excessive hunting contributed, at least in part, to the extinction of birds such as the great auk (Pinguinus impennis) and passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), while more recently organochlorine insecticide residues have resulted in drastic reductions in numbers of brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) (Anderson et al. 1975) and other species. Generally, however, vertebrate populations change in direct response to changes in their habitats. For example, herring gulls (Larus argentatus) have increased in numners (Kadlec and Drury 1968) with urbanization of the New England coastline, in the same locations formerly occupied by the extinct heath hen (Tympanuchus cupido cupido). Also, passerine birds of forest interiors have declined in numbers with fragmentation of the eastern deciduous forest into small stands; this fragmentation has led to increases in numbers of edge species (Robbins 1979, Ambuel and Temple 1983). Even subtle community shifts can introduce new competitive processes that can augment population changes among species (Brittingham and Temple 1983). Such studies of broad-scale changes in vegetative communities and their influence on native wildlife species have fostered the recent topical emphasis on "conservation biology" (Soule and Wilcox 1980, Soule 1985) and "landscape ecology" (Burgess and Sharpe 1981, Harris 1984:25-43). As changes in landscapes are causing subtle (but potentially dramatic) changes in the distribution of native species, conservation biologists are finding that mere presence-absence data on populations, or even accurate information on reproductive success, is inadequate to evaluate management activities or environmental perturbations. The principles of "conservation genetics" are attracting interest in the management of natural preserves especially (Schonewald-Cox et al. 1983). Changing patterns in landscape complexion or genetic makeup of a population are difficult to detect locally. Contemporary issues in the conservation of native species demand regional and continental perspectives (Samson and Knopf 1982). Thus, management activities at specific sites are often viewed as short-sighted by planners and conservation critics. This paper illustrates how these contemporary theories can influence a local conservation perspective. That perspective is developed around historical processes that have led to cosmopolitism of the local avifauna on the Colorado Division of Wildlife's South Platte Wildlife Management Area (SPWMA) near Crook, Colorado.

Investigating the causes and consequences of symbiont shuffling in a multi-partner reef coral symbiosis under environmental change.

PubMed

Cunning, R; Silverstein, R N; Baker, A C

2015-06-22

Dynamic symbioses may critically mediate impacts of climate change on diverse organisms, with repercussions for ecosystem persistence in some cases. On coral reefs, increases in heat-tolerant symbionts after thermal bleaching can reduce coral susceptibility to future stress. However, the relevance of this adaptive response is equivocal owing to conflicting reports of symbiont stability and change. We help reconcile this conflict by showing that change in symbiont community composition (symbiont shuffling) in Orbicella faveolata depends on the disturbance severity and recovery environment. The proportion of heat-tolerant symbionts dramatically increased following severe experimental bleaching, especially in a warmer recovery environment, but tended to decrease if bleaching was less severe. These patterns can be explained by variation in symbiont performance in the changing microenvironments created by differentially bleached host tissues. Furthermore, higher proportions of heat-tolerant symbionts linearly increased bleaching resistance but reduced photochemical efficiency, suggesting that any change in community structure oppositely impacts performance and stress tolerance. Therefore, even minor symbiont shuffling can adaptively benefit corals, although fitness effects of resulting trade-offs are difficult to predict. This work helps elucidate causes and consequences of dynamism in symbiosis, which is critical to predicting responses of multi-partner symbioses such as O. faveolata to environmental change. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

Ecology of greater sage-grouse in the Dakotas

Treesearch

Christopher C. Swanson

2009-01-01

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) populations and the sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) communities that they rely on have dramatically declined from historic levels. Moreover, information regarding sage-grouse annual life-history requirements at the eastern-most extension of sagebrush steppe communities is lacking....

Small Town in Mass Society Revisited.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Frank W.

1996-01-01

A 1958 New York community study dramatized the thesis that macro forces (urbanization, industrialization, bureaucratization) have undermined all small communities' autonomy. Such "oppositional case studies" succeed when they render the dominant view immediately obsolete, have plausible origins, are testable, and generate new research.…

Designing a Community-Based Population Health Model.

PubMed

Durovich, Christopher J; Roberts, Peter W

2018-02-01

The pace of change from volume-based to value-based payment in health care varies dramatically among markets. Regardless of the ultimate disposition of the Affordable Care Act, employers and public-private payers will continue to increase pressure on health care providers to assume financial risk for populations in the form of shared savings, bundled payments, downside risk, or even capitation. This article outlines a suggested road map and practical considerations for health systems that are building or planning to build population health capabilities to meet the needs of their local markets. The authors review the traditional core capabilities needed to address the medical determinants of health for a population. They also share an innovative approach to community service integration to address the social determinants of health and the engagement of families to improve their own health and well-being. The foundational approach is to connect insurance products, the health care delivery system, and community service agencies around the family's well-being goals using human-centered design strategy.

Planning building energy conservation research in the US

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abel, F.; LaMontagne, J.

1988-01-01

In the US, the federal government plays a key role in the development of energy conserving technologies and practices for buildings. The Office of Buildings and Community Systems (BCS) of the US Department of Energy provides federal leadership for both private and public sector activities in building energy conservation. The federal role in recent years has been largely limited to the development of technical options; behavioral and institutional factors are considered only to the extent necessary to inform the research planning process. Planning in the US requires dealing with uncertainties regarding the federal approach to energy conservation; this can change,more » often dramatically, with changes in administrations or changing economic and energy conditions. Thus federal research plans must be designed to be useful in a wide variety of circumstances. 7 refs.« less

A microbial clock provides an accurate estimate of the postmortem interval in a mouse model system

PubMed Central

Metcalf, Jessica L; Wegener Parfrey, Laura; Gonzalez, Antonio; Lauber, Christian L; Knights, Dan; Ackermann, Gail; Humphrey, Gregory C; Gebert, Matthew J; Van Treuren, Will; Berg-Lyons, Donna; Keepers, Kyle; Guo, Yan; Bullard, James; Fierer, Noah; Carter, David O; Knight, Rob

2013-01-01

Establishing the time since death is critical in every death investigation, yet existing techniques are susceptible to a range of errors and biases. For example, forensic entomology is widely used to assess the postmortem interval (PMI), but errors can range from days to months. Microbes may provide a novel method for estimating PMI that avoids many of these limitations. Here we show that postmortem microbial community changes are dramatic, measurable, and repeatable in a mouse model system, allowing PMI to be estimated within approximately 3 days over 48 days. Our results provide a detailed understanding of bacterial and microbial eukaryotic ecology within a decomposing corpse system and suggest that microbial community data can be developed into a forensic tool for estimating PMI. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.01104.001 PMID:24137541

Long-term species loss and homogenization of moth communities in Central Europe.

PubMed

Valtonen, Anu; Hirka, Anikó; Szőcs, Levente; Ayres, Matthew P; Roininen, Heikki; Csóka, György

2017-07-01

As global biodiversity continues to decline steeply, it is becoming increasingly important to understand diversity patterns at local and regional scales. Changes in land use and climate, nitrogen deposition and invasive species are the most important threats to global biodiversity. Because land use changes tend to benefit a few species but impede many, the expected outcome is generally decreasing population sizes, decreasing species richness at local and regional scales, and increasing similarity of species compositions across sites (biotic homogenization). Homogenization can be also driven by invasive species or effects of soil eutrophication propagating to higher trophic levels. In contrast, in the absence of increasing aridity, climate warming is predicted to generally increase abundances and species richness of poikilotherms at local and regional scales. We tested these predictions with data from one of the few existing monitoring programmes on biodiversity in the world dating to the 1960s, where the abundance of 878 species of macro-moths have been measured daily at seven sites across Hungary. Our analyses revealed a dramatic rate of regional species loss and homogenization of community compositions across sites. Species with restricted distribution range, specialized diet or dry grassland habitat were more likely than others to disappear from the community. In global context, the contrasting effects of climate change and land use changes could explain why the predicted enriching effects from climate warming are not always realized. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Animal Ecology © 2017 British Ecological Society.

The influence of vines on an oligohaline marsh community: Results of a removal and fertilization study

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gough, L.; Grace, J.B.

1997-01-01

The effects of competitive suppression by vines on the non-vine plant community have received little attention in temperate habitats. This study investigated the impact vines have on their herbaceous hosts in a wetland community at two soil fertility levels. Plots in an oligohaline marsh were treated in a 2 x 2 factorial design with vine removal and fertilization over two growing seasons. There was no significant interaction between removal and fertilization treatments on any of the measured variables. Vine removal initially caused an increase in light penetration through the canopy, but by the end of the study, plots with vines removed had less light due to a 25% increase in biomass by the plants released from competition with vines. For plots with vines removed, species richness was higher during a brief period in the spring of the second year, but by the end of the study, richness in removal plots decreased relative to controls. Fertilization caused a 40% increase in biomass overall, although only two species, Sagittaria lancifolia L. and Polygonum punctatum Ell., showed dramatic increases. Despite fertilization causing a 40% decrease in light penetration to the ground, no change in species richness was observed. Overall, these results show that vine cover in this wetland suppresses non-vine species and reduces community biomass. Removal of vines increased biomass of non-vine dominants but resulted in only an ephemeral change in species richness. Fertilization did not increase the effects of vines on the non-vine community.

Effects of Volcanic Pumice Inputs on Microbial Community Composition and Dissolved C/P Ratios in Lake Waters: an Experimental Approach.

PubMed

Modenutti, B E; Balseiro, E G; Bastidas Navarro, M A; Lee, Z M; Souza, M S; Corman, J R; Elser, J J

2016-01-01

Volcanic eruptions discharge massive amounts of ash and pumice that decrease light penetration in lakes and lead to concomitant increases in phosphorus (P) concentrations and shifts in soluble C/P ratios. The consequences of these sudden changes for bacteria community composition, metabolism, and enzymatic activity remain unclear, especially for the dynamic period immediately after pumice deposition. Thus, the main aim of our study was to determine how ambient bacterial communities respond to pumice inputs in lakes that differ in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and P concentrations and to what extent these responses are moderated by substrate C/P stoichiometry. We performed an outdoor experiment with natural lake water from two lakes that differed in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration. We measured nutrient concentrations, alkaline phosphatase activity (APA), and DOC consumption rates and assessed different components of bacterial community structure using next-generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Pumice inputs caused a decrease in the C/P ratio of dissolved resources, a decrease in APA, and an increase in DOC consumption, indicating reduced P limitation. These changes in bacteria metabolism were coupled with modifications in the assemblage composition and an increase in diversity, with increases in bacterial taxa associated with biofilm and sediments, in predatory bacteria, and in bacteria with gliding motility. Our results confirm that volcanic eruptions have the potential to alter nutrient partitioning and light penetration in receiving waterways which can have dramatic impacts on microbial community dynamics.

Changes in the Geographic Patterns of Heart Disease Mortality in the United States

PubMed Central

Casper, Michele; Kramer, Michael R.; Quick, Harrison; Schieb, Linda J.; Vaughan, Adam S.; Greer, Sophia

2016-01-01

Background Although many studies have documented the dramatic declines in heart disease mortality in the United States at the national level, little attention has been given to the temporal changes in the geographic patterns of heart disease mortality. Methods and Results Age-adjusted and spatially smoothed county-level heart disease death rates were calculated for 2-year intervals from 1973 to 1974 to 2009 to 2010 for those aged ≥35 years. Heart disease deaths were defined according to the International Classification of Diseases codes for diseases of the heart in the eighth, ninth, and tenth revisions of the International Classification of Diseases. A fully Bayesian spatiotemporal model was used to produce precise rate estimates, even in counties with small populations. A substantial shift in the concentration of high-rate counties from the Northeast to the Deep South was observed, along with a concentration of slow-decline counties in the South and a nearly 2-fold increase in the geographic inequality among counties. Conclusions The dramatic change in the geographic patterns of heart disease mortality during 40 years highlights the importance of small-area surveillance to reveal patterns that are hidden at the national level, gives communities the historical context for understanding their current burden of heart disease, and provides important clues for understanding the determinants of the geographic disparities in heart disease mortality. PMID:27002081

Changes in the Geographic Patterns of Heart Disease Mortality in the United States: 1973 to 2010.

PubMed

Casper, Michele; Kramer, Michael R; Quick, Harrison; Schieb, Linda J; Vaughan, Adam S; Greer, Sophia

2016-03-22

Although many studies have documented the dramatic declines in heart disease mortality in the United States at the national level, little attention has been given to the temporal changes in the geographic patterns of heart disease mortality. Age-adjusted and spatially smoothed county-level heart disease death rates were calculated for 2-year intervals from 1973 to 1974 to 2009 to 2010 for those aged ≥35 years. Heart disease deaths were defined according to the International Classification of Diseases codes for diseases of the heart in the eighth, ninth, and tenth revisions of the International Classification of Diseases. A fully Bayesian spatiotemporal model was used to produce precise rate estimates, even in counties with small populations. A substantial shift in the concentration of high-rate counties from the Northeast to the Deep South was observed, along with a concentration of slow-decline counties in the South and a nearly 2-fold increase in the geographic inequality among counties. The dramatic change in the geographic patterns of heart disease mortality during 40 years highlights the importance of small-area surveillance to reveal patterns that are hidden at the national level, gives communities the historical context for understanding their current burden of heart disease, and provides important clues for understanding the determinants of the geographic disparities in heart disease mortality. © 2016 American Heart Association, Inc.

An Imaginary Community--Hotel.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allan, Jan

1969-01-01

An English class at Newtyle Secondary School, Scotland, spent four periods a week for 6 weeks on an anthological project entitled "hotel". Students assumed roles in an imaginary hotel community, wrote advertisements, brochures, and business letters, and participated in interviews, discussions, and dramatizations of specific hotel problems. Besides…

Bacterial succession across seasonal transitions in the coastal waters of the western Antarctic Peninsula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luria, C.; Rich, J. J.; Amaral-Zettler, L. A.; Ducklow, H. W.

2016-02-01

The marine ecosystem west of the Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) undergoes a dramatic seasonal transition every spring, from almost total darkness to almost continuous sunlight, resulting in a cascade of environmental changes, including the intense phytoplankton blooms that support a highly productive food web. Despite having important implications for the microbial loop and the biological carbon pump, the degree of trophic coupling between phytoplankton and bacteria is unclear. In particular, due to the difficulties inherent in sampling this remote system during the Antarctic winter and spring, little is known about how phytoplankton blooms may or may not drive bacterial seasonal succession. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we assessed bacterial community composition in 68 samples from 24 dates that spanned the cold, dark winter, spring transitional period, and summer phytoplankton bloom. Our analysis resulted in 15 million sequences and 12,000 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). We found that mid-winter bacterial communities had the highest richness ( 1,800 observed OTUs in rarefied libraries) and a greater abundance of oligotrophic and potentially chemoautolithotrophic taxa. The bacterial community changed only gradually up until the onset of a mid-summer phytoplankton bloom, which coincided with a 100-fold increase in bacterial production, a rapid decline in richness to 700 OTUs, and a shift in community composition toward copiotrophic taxa. This period lasted only a few weeks, at the end of which the bacterial community had largely reverted to its mid-winter state. Our findings provide new evidence of trophic coupling between bacteria and phytoplankton and highlight the importance of higher-resolution time series sampling in order to capture rapid seasonal changes.

Modeling Attitude towards Drug Treament: The Role of Internal Motivation, External Pressure, and Dramatic Relief

PubMed Central

Longshore, Douglas; Anglin, M. Douglas

2009-01-01

Motivation for change has historically been viewed as the crucial element affecting responsiveness to drug treatment. Various external pressures, such as legal coercion, may engender motivation in an individual previously resistant to change. Dramatic relief may be the change process that is most salient as individuals internalize such external pressures. Results of structural equation modeling on data from 465 drug users (58.9% male; 21.3% Black, 34.2% Hispanic/Latino, and 35.1% White) entering drug treatment indicated that internal motivation and external pressure significantly and positively predicted dramatic relief and that dramatic relief significantly predicted attitudes towards drug treatment: χ2=142.20, df=100, p<0.01; Robust Comparative Fit Index=0.97, Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation=0.03. These results indicate that when external pressure and internal motivation are high, dramatic relief is also likely to be high. When dramatic relief is high, attitudes towards drug treatment are likely to be positive. The findings indicate that interventions to get individuals into drug treatment should include processes that promote Dramatic Relief. Implications for addictions health services are discussed. PMID:18535908

Community, Diversity, and Conflict among Schoolteachers: The Ties That Blind. Advances in Contemporary Educational Thought Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Achinstein, Betty

This book explores how teacher communities differ dramatically in how they deal with conflict, collaborate, think about the purposes of schooling in relation to issues of conflict, frame and seek solutions, and utilize mechanisms to manage their differences. It reflects on current social theories of community and democracy to promote values that…

Effects of seed predators of different body size on seed mortality in Bornean logged forest.

PubMed

Hautier, Yann; Saner, Philippe; Philipson, Christopher; Bagchi, Robert; Ong, Robert C; Hector, Andy

2010-07-19

The Janzen-Connell hypothesis proposes that seed and seedling enemies play a major role in maintaining high levels of tree diversity in tropical forests. However, human disturbance may alter guilds of seed predators including their body size distribution. These changes have the potential to affect seedling survival in logged forest and may alter forest composition and diversity. We manipulated seed density in plots beneath con- and heterospecific adult trees within a logged forest and excluded vertebrate predators of different body sizes using cages. We show that small and large-bodied predators differed in their effect on con- and heterospecific seedling mortality. In combination small and large-bodied predators dramatically decreased both con- and heterospecific seedling survival. In contrast, when larger-bodied predators were excluded small-bodied predators reduced conspecific seed survival leaving seeds coming from the distant tree of a different species. Our results suggest that seed survival is affected differently by vertebrate predators according to their body size. Therefore, changes in the body size structure of the seed predator community in logged forests may change patterns of seed mortality and potentially affect recruitment and community composition.

Effects of Seed Predators of Different Body Size on Seed Mortality in Bornean Logged Forest

PubMed Central

Hautier, Yann; Saner, Philippe; Philipson, Christopher; Bagchi, Robert; Ong, Robert C.; Hector, Andy

2010-01-01

Background The Janzen-Connell hypothesis proposes that seed and seedling enemies play a major role in maintaining high levels of tree diversity in tropical forests. However, human disturbance may alter guilds of seed predators including their body size distribution. These changes have the potential to affect seedling survival in logged forest and may alter forest composition and diversity. Methodology/Principal Findings We manipulated seed density in plots beneath con- and heterospecific adult trees within a logged forest and excluded vertebrate predators of different body sizes using cages. We show that small and large-bodied predators differed in their effect on con- and heterospecific seedling mortality. In combination small and large-bodied predators dramatically decreased both con- and heterospecific seedling survival. In contrast, when larger-bodied predators were excluded small-bodied predators reduced conspecific seed survival leaving seeds coming from the distant tree of a different species. Conclusions/Significance Our results suggest that seed survival is affected differently by vertebrate predators according to their body size. Therefore, changes in the body size structure of the seed predator community in logged forests may change patterns of seed mortality and potentially affect recruitment and community composition. PMID:20657841

Ocean acidification changes the structure of an Antarctic coastal protistan community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hancock, Alyce M.; Davidson, Andrew T.; McKinlay, John; McMinn, Andrew; Schulz, Kai G.; van den Enden, Rick L.

2018-04-01

Antarctic near-shore waters are amongst the most sensitive in the world to ocean acidification. Microbes occupying these waters are critical drivers of ecosystem productivity, elemental cycling and ocean biogeochemistry, yet little is known about their sensitivity to ocean acidification. A six-level, dose-response experiment was conducted using 650 L incubation tanks (minicosms) adjusted to a gradient in fugacity of carbon dioxide (fCO2) from 343 to 1641 µatm. The six minicosms were filled with near-shore water from Prydz Bay, East Antarctica, and the protistan composition and abundance was determined by microscopy during 18 days of incubation. No CO2-related change in the protistan community composition was observed during the initial 8 day acclimation period under low light. Thereafter, the response of both autotrophic and heterotrophic protists to fCO2 was species-specific. The response of diatoms was mainly cell size related; microplanktonic diatoms ( > 20 µm) increased in abundance with low to moderate fCO2 (343-634 µatm) but decreased at fCO2 ≥ 953 µatm. Similarly, the abundance of Phaeocystis antarctica increased with increasing fCO2 peaking at 634 µatm. Above this threshold the abundance of micro-sized diatoms and P. antarctica fell dramatically, and nanoplanktonic diatoms ( ≤ 20 µm) dominated, therefore culminating in a significant change in the protistan community composition. Comparisons of these results with previous experiments conducted at this site show that the fCO2 thresholds are similar, despite seasonal and interannual differences in the physical and biotic environment. This suggests that near-shore microbial communities are likely to change significantly near the end of this century if anthropogenic CO2 release continues unabated, with profound ramifications for near-shore Antarctic ecosystem food webs and biogeochemical cycling.

[Succession pattern of artificial vegetation community and its ecological mechanism in an arid desert region].

PubMed

Xu, Cailin; Li, Zizhen

2003-09-01

Focusing on the artificial vegetation protection system of the Shapotou section of Baotou-Lanzhou railway in the arid desert region of China, this paper examined the dynamics of dominant plant species and the succession pattern of artificial plant community in the process of establishing and developing regional artificial vegetation. It also studied the driving force and the ecologically intrinsic mechanism of the community succession. The results demonstrated that the species composition of the artificial vegetation dramatically changed after 40 years of succession, from original artificial plant community of shrub and semi-shrub to artificial-natural desert plant community with annual herb dominated. During the process of succession, the importance values of artificial shrubs, such as Caragana korshinskii and Hedysarum scoparius, decreased and gradually retreated from the artificial plant community, while the naturally multiplied annual herb, such as Eragrostis poaeoides, Bassia dasyphylla, Salsola ruthenica, Chloris virgata and etc., were presented one after another and gradually became dominant. Besides, Artemisia ordosica always played a key role in the community due to its ability of naturally sowing and self-replacement. This type of succession pattern was closely related to the shortage of precipitation resource in this region and the formation of soil crust which inhibited the reproduction of shrub and perennial herb with deep root systems. This study provided a theoretical ground for realizing persistent development of artificial plant community.

Intraspecific leaf trait variability along a boreal-to-tropical community diversity gradient

PubMed Central

Bastias, Cristina C.; Fortunel, Claire; Valladares, Fernando; Baraloto, Christopher; Benavides, Raquel; Cornwell, William; Markesteijn, Lars; de Oliveira, Alexandre A.; Sansevero, Jeronimo B. B.; Vaz, Marcel C.; Kraft, Nathan J. B.

2017-01-01

Disentangling the mechanisms that shape community assembly across diversity gradients is a central matter in ecology. While many studies have explored community assembly through species average trait values, there is a growing understanding that intraspecific trait variation (ITV) can also play a critical role in species coexistence. Classic biodiversity theory hypothesizes that higher diversity at species-rich sites can arise from narrower niches relative to species-poor sites, which would be reflected in reduced ITV as species richness increases. To explore how ITV in woody plant communities changes with species richness, we compiled leaf trait data (leaf size and specific leaf area) in a total of 521 woody plant species from 21 forest communities that differed dramatically in species richness, ranging from boreal to tropical rainforests. At each forest, we assessed ITV as an estimate of species niche breadth and we quantified the degree of trait overlap among co-occurring species as a measure of species functional similarity. We found ITV was relatively invariant across the species richness gradient. In addition, we found that species functional similarity increased with diversity. Contrary to the expectation from classic biodiversity theory, our results rather suggest that neutral processes or equalizing mechanisms can be acting as potential drivers shaping community assembly in hyperdiverse forests. PMID:28241033

School Choice Today.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeSchryver, Dave

With the increasing demand for better schools, states and communities are providing more options to families. By doing so, they are not only improving educational opportunity for those children, but also having a dramatic impact on how schools operate in their communities. The most important options are full school-choice programs, charter…

Annual changes in seasonal river water temperatures in the eastern and western United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wagner, Tyler; Midway, Stephen R.; Whittier, Joanna B.; DeWeber, Jefferson T.; Paukert, Craig P.

2017-01-01

Changes in river water temperatures are anticipated to have direct effects on thermal habitat and fish population vital rates, and therefore, understanding temporal trends in water temperatures may be necessary for predicting changes in thermal habitat and how species might respond to such changes. However, many investigations into trends in water temperatures use regression methods that assume long-term monotonic changes in temperature, when in fact changes are likely to be nonmonotonic. Therefore, our objective was to highlight the need and provide an example of an analytical method to better quantify the short-term, nonmonotonic temporal changes in thermal habitat that are likely necessary to determine the effects of changing thermal conditions on fish populations and communities. To achieve this objective, this study uses Bayesian dynamic linear models (DLMs) to examine seasonal trends in river water temperatures from sites located in the eastern and western United States, regions that have dramatically different riverine habitats and fish communities. We estimated the annual rate of change in water temperature and found little evidence of seasonal changes in water temperatures in the eastern U.S. We found more evidence of warming for river sites located in the western U.S., particularly during the fall and winter seasons. Use of DLMs provided a more detailed view of temporal dynamics in river thermal habitat compared to more traditional methods by quantifying year-to-year changes and associated uncertainty, providing managers with the information needed to adapt decision making to short-term changes in habitat conditions that may be necessary for conserving aquatic resources in the face of a changing climate.

Stability, Bistability, and Critical Thresholds in Fire-prone Forested Landscapes: How Frequency and Intensity of Disturbance Interact and Influence Forest Cover

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, A. D.

2015-12-01

Many aspects of disturbance processes can have large impacts on the composition of plant communities, and associated changes in land cover type in turn have biogeochemical feedbacks to climate. In particular, changes to disturbance regimes can potentially change the number and stability of equilibrial states, and plant community states can differ dramatically in their carbon (C) dynamics, energy balance, and hydrology. Using the Klamath region of northern California as a model system, we present a theoretical analysis of how changes to climate and associated fire dynamics can disrupt high-carbon, long-lived conifer forests and replace them with shrub-chaparral communities that have much lower biomass and are more pyrogenic. Specifically, we develop a tractable model of plant community dynamics, structured by size class, life-history traits, lottery-type competition, and species-specific responses to disturbance. We assess the stability of different states in terms of disturbance frequency and intensity, and quantitatively partition long-term low-density population growth rates into mechanisms that influence critical transitions from stable to bistable behavior. Our findings show how different aspects of disturbance act and interact to control competitive outcomes and stable states, hence ecosystem-atmosphere C exchange. Forests tend to dominate in low frequency and intensity regimes, while shrubs dominate at high fire frequency and intensity. In other regimes, the system is bistable, and the fate of the system depends both on initial conditions and random chance. Importantly, the system can cross a critical threshold where hysteresis prevents easy return to the prior forested state. We conclude that changes in disturbance-recovery dynamics driven by projected climate change can shift this system away from forest dominated in the direction of shrub-dominated landscape. This will result in a large net C release from the landscape, and alter biophysical ecosystem-climate interactions.

Impacts and responses to environmental change in coastal livelihoods of south-west Bangladesh.

PubMed

Hossain, Mostafa A R; Ahmed, Munir; Ojea, Elena; Fernandes, Jose A

2018-05-12

Aquatic ecosystems are of global importance for maintaining high levels of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and for the number of livelihoods dependent on them. In Bangladesh, coastal and delta communities rely on these systems for a livelihood, and the sustainability of the productivity is seriously threatened by both climate change and unsustainable management. These multiple drivers of change shape the livelihood dependence and adaptation responses, where a better understanding is needed to achieve sustainable management in these systems, while maintaining and improving dependent livelihoods. This need has been addressed in this study in the region of Satkhira, in the southwest coast of Bangladesh, where livelihoods are highly dependent on aquatic systems for food supply and income. Traditional wild fish harvest in the rivers and aquaculture systems, including ghers, ponds, and crab points have been changing in terms of the uses and intensity of management, and suffering from climate change impacts as well. By means of six focus groups with 50 participants total, and validated by expert consultations, we conduct an analysis to understand the main perceived impacts from climate and human activities; and the adaptation responses from the aquatic system livelihoods. We find that biodiversity has decreased drastically, while farmed species have increased and shrimp gher farming turned more intensive becoming the main source of income. All these changes have important implications for food supply in the region and environmental sustainability. Dramatic responses taken in the communities include exit the fisheries and migration, and more adaptive responses include species diversification, crab fattening and working more on the pond and gher infrastructure. This study evidences the results of the combination of multiple stressors in productive systems and the barriers to adaptation in aquatic ecosystem dependent communities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

At Issue: Developmental Education and the Success of Our Community College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daiek, Deborah; Dixon, Shirley; Talbert, Linda

2012-01-01

The growing national evidence on the number of students who enter community colleges with weak academic skills demonstrates the dramatic increase in the incidence of underprepared students matriculating into postsecondary education. But the same evidence demonstrates that what happens to these developmental students upon enrolling into…

The Expansion of Dreissena and Long-term Shifts in Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community Structure in Lake Ontario, 1998-2008

EPA Science Inventory

The introduction of Dreissena to the Great lakes has profoundly impacted benthic ecosystems, resulting in the decline of native species and dramatic community restructuring. In Lake Ontario, long-term monitoring has yielded a wealth of detailed information regarding both the exp...

Diagnostic phytoliths for a ponderosa pine-bunchgrass community near Flagstaff, Arizona

Treesearch

Becky K.: Kerns

2001-01-01

Phytolith analysis could play an important role in understanding vegetation dynamics in southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests, which have been dramatically altered by fire suppression and other factors. My objectives were to develop a phytolith reference collection and classification system for a ponderosa pine-bunchgrass community...

The legacy of deer overabundance: long-term delays in herbaceous understory recovery

Treesearch

Thomas H. Pendergast; Shane M. Hanlon; Zachary M. Long; Alex Royo; Walter P. Carson

2016-01-01

Decades of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780)) overpopulation have dramatically homogenized forests across much of the eastern United States, creating depauperate forest understory communities. The rate at which these communities recover once deer browsing has been reduced remains an open question. We evaluate overbrowsing...

Community Context, Land Use, and First Birth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghimire, Dirgha J.; Axinn, William G.

2010-01-01

This article examines the influence of community context and land use on the monthly odds of first birth in a society in the midst of dramatic fertility transition. The theoretical framework guiding our work predicts that proximity to nonfamily services should delay first births by creating opportunities for competing nonfamily activities and…

Noise pollution alters ecological services: enhanced pollination and disrupted seed dispersal

PubMed Central

Francis, Clinton D.; Kleist, Nathan J.; Ortega, Catherine P.; Cruz, Alexander

2012-01-01

Noise pollution is a novel, widespread environmental force that has recently been shown to alter the behaviour and distribution of birds and other vertebrates, yet whether noise has cumulative, community-level consequences by changing critical ecological services is unknown. Herein, we examined the effects of noise pollution on pollination and seed dispersal and seedling establishment within a study system that isolated the effects of noise from confounding stimuli common to human-altered landscapes. Using observations, vegetation surveys and pollen transfer and seed removal experiments, we found that effects of noise pollution can reverberate through communities by disrupting or enhancing these ecological services. Specifically, noise pollution indirectly increased artificial flower pollination by hummingbirds, but altered the community of animals that prey upon and disperse Pinus edulis seeds, potentially explaining reduced P. edulis seedling recruitment in noisy areas. Despite evidence that some ecological services, such as pollination, may benefit indirectly owing to noise, declines in seedling recruitment for key-dominant species such as P. edulis may have dramatic long-term effects on ecosystem structure and diversity. Because the extent of noise pollution is growing, this study emphasizes that investigators should evaluate the ecological consequences of noise alongside other human-induced environmental changes that are reshaping human-altered landscapes worldwide. PMID:22438504

Noise pollution alters ecological services: enhanced pollination and disrupted seed dispersal.

PubMed

Francis, Clinton D; Kleist, Nathan J; Ortega, Catherine P; Cruz, Alexander

2012-07-22

Noise pollution is a novel, widespread environmental force that has recently been shown to alter the behaviour and distribution of birds and other vertebrates, yet whether noise has cumulative, community-level consequences by changing critical ecological services is unknown. Herein, we examined the effects of noise pollution on pollination and seed dispersal and seedling establishment within a study system that isolated the effects of noise from confounding stimuli common to human-altered landscapes. Using observations, vegetation surveys and pollen transfer and seed removal experiments, we found that effects of noise pollution can reverberate through communities by disrupting or enhancing these ecological services. Specifically, noise pollution indirectly increased artificial flower pollination by hummingbirds, but altered the community of animals that prey upon and disperse Pinus edulis seeds, potentially explaining reduced P. edulis seedling recruitment in noisy areas. Despite evidence that some ecological services, such as pollination, may benefit indirectly owing to noise, declines in seedling recruitment for key-dominant species such as P. edulis may have dramatic long-term effects on ecosystem structure and diversity. Because the extent of noise pollution is growing, this study emphasizes that investigators should evaluate the ecological consequences of noise alongside other human-induced environmental changes that are reshaping human-altered landscapes worldwide.

Beyond Conflict and Kinetics: Airpower Strategy for Human Security Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-08-26

America to a leadership role of the international community while dramatically altering its security environment. After World War II, American security...health, environmental, personal, community , and political security. At the same time it stopped short of providing a finite definition, instead...seven areas of human security are economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community and political security. These components are a “universal

Astronaut to Zoologist: Changing the Dramatic Play Area!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brouette, Scott J.

Changing the dramatic play area in a child care setting promotes creativity and gives children the chance to experience a place they may never experience in real life. Whenever possible, the children should be involved in the process of changing the area, by moving furniture and exchanging props, as well as brainstorming ideas for changes. The…

Microorganism-regulated mechanisms of temperature effects on the performance of anaerobic digestion.

PubMed

Lin, Qiang; He, Guihua; Rui, Junpeng; Fang, Xiaoyu; Tao, Yong; Li, Jiabao; Li, Xiangzhen

2016-06-03

Temperature is an important factor determining the performance and stability of the anaerobic digestion process. However, the microorganism-regulated mechanisms of temperature effects on the performance of anaerobic digestion systems remain further elusive. To address this issue, we investigated the changes in composition, diversity and activities of microbial communities under temperature gradient from 25 to 55 °C using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing approach based on genomic DNA (refer to as "16S rDNA") and total RNA (refer to as "16S rRNA"). Microbial community structure and activities changed dramatically along the temperature gradient, which corresponded to the variations in digestion performance (e.g., daily CH4 production, total biogas production and volatile fatty acids concentration). The ratios of 16S rRNA to 16S rDNA of microbial taxa, as an indicator of the potentially relative activities in situ, and whole activities of microbial community assessed by the similarity between microbial community based on 16S rDNA and rRNA, varied strongly along the temperature gradient, reflecting different metabolic activities. The daily CH4 production increased with temperature from 25 to 50 °C and declined at 55 °C. Among all the examined microbial properties, the whole activities of microbial community and alpha-diversity indices of both microbial communities and potentially relative activities showed highest correlations to the performance. The whole activities of microbial community and alpha-diversity indices of both microbial communities and potentially relative activities were sensitive indicators for the performance of anaerobic digestion systems under temperature gradient, while beta-diversity could predict functional differences. Microorganism-regulated mechanisms of temperature effects on anaerobic digestion performance were likely realized through increasing alpha-diversity of both microbial communities and potentially relative activities to supply more functional pathways and activities for metabolic network, and increasing the whole activities of microbial community, especially methanogenesis, to improve the strength and efficiency in anaerobic digestion process.

Uganda's HIV prevention success: the role of sexual behavior change and the national response.

PubMed

Green, Edward C; Halperin, Daniel T; Nantulya, Vinand; Hogle, Janice A

2006-07-01

There has been considerable interest in understanding what may have led to Uganda's dramatic decline in HIV prevalence, one of the world's earliest and most compelling AIDS prevention successes. Survey and other data suggest that a decline in multi-partner sexual behavior is the behavioral change most likely associated with HIV decline. It appears that behavior change programs, particularly involving extensive promotion of "zero grazing" (faithfulness and partner reduction), largely developed by the Ugandan government and local NGOs including faith-based, women's, people-living-with-AIDS and other community-based groups, contributed to the early declines in casual/multiple sexual partnerships and HIV incidence and, along with other factors including condom use, to the subsequent sharp decline in HIV prevalence. Yet the debate over "what happened in Uganda" continues, often involving divisive abstinence-versus-condoms rhetoric, which appears more related to the culture wars in the USA than to African social reality.

Decreasing Abundance, Increasing Diversity and Changing Structure of the Wild Bee Community (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) along an Urbanization Gradient

PubMed Central

Fortel, Laura; Henry, Mickaël; Guilbaud, Laurent; Guirao, Anne Laure; Kuhlmann, Michael; Mouret, Hugues; Rollin, Orianne; Vaissière, Bernard E.

2014-01-01

Background Wild bees are important pollinators that have declined in diversity and abundance during the last decades. Habitat destruction and fragmentation associated with urbanization are reported as part of the main causes of this decline. Urbanization involves dramatic changes of the landscape, increasing the proportion of impervious surface while decreasing that of green areas. Few studies have investigated the effects of urbanization on bee communities. We assessed changes in the abundance, species richness, and composition of wild bee community along an urbanization gradient. Methodology/Principal Findings Over two years and on a monthly basis, bees were sampled with colored pan traps and insect nets at 24 sites located along an urbanization gradient. Landscape structure within three different radii was measured at each study site. We captured 291 wild bee species. The abundance of wild bees was negatively correlated with the proportion of impervious surface, while species richness reached a maximum at an intermediate (50%) proportion of impervious surface. The structure of the community changed along the urbanization gradient with more parasitic species in sites with an intermediate proportion of impervious surface. There were also greater numbers of cavity-nesting species and long-tongued species in sites with intermediate or higher proportion of impervious surface. However, urbanization had no effect on the occurrence of species depending on their social behavior or body size. Conclusions/Significance We found nearly a third of the wild bee fauna known from France in our study sites. Indeed, urban areas supported a diverse bee community, but sites with an intermediate level of urbanization were the most speciose ones, including greater proportion of parasitic species. The presence of a diverse array of bee species even in the most urbanized area makes these pollinators worthy of being a flagship group to raise the awareness of urban citizens about biodiversity. PMID:25118722

Decreasing abundance, increasing diversity and changing structure of the wild bee community (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) along an urbanization gradient.

PubMed

Fortel, Laura; Henry, Mickaël; Guilbaud, Laurent; Guirao, Anne Laure; Kuhlmann, Michael; Mouret, Hugues; Rollin, Orianne; Vaissière, Bernard E

2014-01-01

Wild bees are important pollinators that have declined in diversity and abundance during the last decades. Habitat destruction and fragmentation associated with urbanization are reported as part of the main causes of this decline. Urbanization involves dramatic changes of the landscape, increasing the proportion of impervious surface while decreasing that of green areas. Few studies have investigated the effects of urbanization on bee communities. We assessed changes in the abundance, species richness, and composition of wild bee community along an urbanization gradient. Over two years and on a monthly basis, bees were sampled with colored pan traps and insect nets at 24 sites located along an urbanization gradient. Landscape structure within three different radii was measured at each study site. We captured 291 wild bee species. The abundance of wild bees was negatively correlated with the proportion of impervious surface, while species richness reached a maximum at an intermediate (50%) proportion of impervious surface. The structure of the community changed along the urbanization gradient with more parasitic species in sites with an intermediate proportion of impervious surface. There were also greater numbers of cavity-nesting species and long-tongued species in sites with intermediate or higher proportion of impervious surface. However, urbanization had no effect on the occurrence of species depending on their social behavior or body size. We found nearly a third of the wild bee fauna known from France in our study sites. Indeed, urban areas supported a diverse bee community, but sites with an intermediate level of urbanization were the most speciose ones, including greater proportion of parasitic species. The presence of a diverse array of bee species even in the most urbanized area makes these pollinators worthy of being a flagship group to raise the awareness of urban citizens about biodiversity.

Making Diversity Conform? An Intersectional, Longitudinal Analysis of LGBT-Specific Mainstream Media Advertisements.

PubMed

Nölke, Ana-Isabel

2018-01-01

This study introduces an intersectional analysis of explicit LGBT portrayals in mainstream advertising between 2009 and 2015. The analysis provides insights into the (in)visibility of the LGBT community over a period of significant social change. It finds that although the number of explicit representations of LGBT characters has risen dramatically, 230 out of 240 intersections of sexuality, class, age, and race remain invisible. In using a new ad format-human interest ads-advertisers move away from hypersexualization, toward real individuals' stories of love and families. Nonetheless, the analysis highlights how the erasure of multiply marginalized groups in mainstream advertising continues to perpetuate a heteronormative, domesticized version of "gayness" and discusses the adverse effects that lie herein. It is proposed that non-LGBT consumers are the underlying target group of LGBT-explicit advertising, causing non-target market effects that alienate large parts of the LGBT community despite their overt inclusion.

Socioeconomic Status and the Increased Prevalence of Autism in California

PubMed Central

King, Marissa D.; Bearman, Peter S.

2011-01-01

The prevalence of autism has increased precipitously—roughly 10-fold in the past 40 years—yet no one knows exactly what caused this dramatic rise. Using a large and representative dataset that spans the California birth cohorts from 1992 through 2000, we examine individual and community resources associated with the likelihood of an autism diagnosis over time. This allows us to identify key social factors that have contributed to increased autism prevalence. While individual-level factors, such as birth weight and parental education, have had a fairly constant effect on likelihood of diagnosis over time, we find that community-level resources drive increased prevalence. This study suggests that neighborhoods dynamically interact with the people living in them in different ways at different times to shape health outcomes. By treating neighborhoods as dynamic, we can better understand the changing socioeconomic gradient of autism and the increase in prevalence. PMID:21547238

Electronic Health Services

PubMed Central

Khalil, Mounir M; Jones, Ray

2007-01-01

Information and communication technologies have made dramatic changes in our lives. Healthcare communities also made use of these technologies. Using computerized medical knowledge, electronic patients’ information and telecommunications a lot of applications are now established throughout the world. These include better ways of information management, remote education, telemedicine and public services. Yet, a lot of people don't know about these technologies and their applications. Understanding the concepts and ideologies behind these terms, knowing how they will be implemented, what is it like to use them and what benefit will be gained, are basic knowledge steps approaching these technologies. Difficulties using these services, especially in developing countries should not be neglected or underestimated. PMID:21503245

Examining the Cross-Roads: School Segregation in Indiana

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moon, Jodi S.; Krull, Lauren

2017-01-01

Demographics in the U.S. have changed dramatically over the last three decades. Indiana's demographics are changing, too--albeit less dramatically. To explore how demographic shifts are changing the composition of Indiana's schools, the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) uses Common Core of Data (CCD) school enrollment data from the…

Fulcrum of Change: Leveraging 50 States to Turn around 5000 Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rhim, Lauren Morando; Redding, Sam

2011-01-01

In 2010, unprecedented levels of resources began to flow through state education agencies (SEAs) to support dramatic change in persistently low-performing schools under the expanded federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) program. The challenge for states is to leverage the federal investment to drive dramatic and sustainable change efforts in…

Functional identity and functional structure change through succession in a rocky intertidal marine herbivore assemblage.

PubMed

Aguilera, Moisés A; Navarrete, Sergio A

2012-01-01

Despite the great interest in characterizing the functional structure and resilience of functional groups in natural communities, few studies have examined in which way the roles and relationships of coexisting species change during community succession, a fundamental and natural process that follows the release of new resources in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Variation in algal traits that characterize different phases and stages of community succession on rocky shores are likely to influence the magnitude, direction of effects, and the level of redundancy and complementarity in the diverse assemblage of herbivores. Two separate field experiments were conducted to quantify per capita and population effects and the functional relationship (i.e., redundancy or complementarity) of four herbivore species found in central Chile during early and late algal succession. The first experiment examined grazer effects on the colonization and establishment of early-succession algal species. The second experiment examined effects on the late-successional, dominant corticated alga Mazzaella laminarioides. Complementary laboratory experiments with all species and under natural environmental conditions allowed us to further characterize the collective effects of these species. We found that, during early community succession, all herbivore species had similar effects on the ephemeral algae, ulvoids, but only during the phase of colonization. Once these algae were established, only a subset of the species was able to control their abundance. During late succession, only the keyhole limpet Fissurella crassa could control corticated Mazzaella. The functional relationships among these species changed dramatically from redundant effects on ephemeral algae during early colonization, to a more complementary role on established early-successional algae, to a dominant (i.e., keystone) effect on late succession. This study highlights that functional relationship within consumer assemblages can vary at different phases and times of community succession. Differentiation in herbivore roles emphasizes the need to evaluate consumer's impacts through different times of community succession, and through experimental manipulations to make even broad predictions about the resilience or vulnerability of diverse intertidal assemblages to human disturbances.

Ichthyoplankton Time Series: A Potential Ocean Observing Network to Provide Indicators of Climate Impacts on Fish Communities along the West Coast of North America

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koslow, J. A.; Brodeur, R.; Duffy-Anderson, J. T.; Perry, I.; jimenez Rosenberg, S.; Aceves, G.

2016-02-01

Ichthyoplankton time series available from the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska and California Current (Oregon to Baja California) provide a potential ocean observing network to assess climate impacts on fish communities along the west coast of North America. Larval fish abundance reflects spawning stock biomass, so these data sets provide indicators of the status of a broad range of exploited and unexploited fish populations. Analyses to date have focused on individual time series, which generally exhibit significant change in relation to climate. Off California, a suite of 24 midwater fish taxa have declined > 60%, correlated with declining midwater oxygen concentrations, and overall larval fish abundance has declined 72% since 1969, a trend based on the decline of predominantly cool-water affinity taxa in response to warming ocean temperatures. Off Oregon, there were dramatic differences in community structure and abundance of larval fishes between warm and cool ocean conditions. Midwater deoxygenation and warming sea surface temperature trends are predicted to continue as a result of global climate change. US, Canadian, and Mexican fishery scientists are now collaborating in a virtual ocean observing network to synthesize available ichthyoplankton time series and compare patterns of change in relation to climate. This will provide regional indicators of populations and groups of taxa sensitive to warming, deoxygenation and potentially other stressors, establish the relevant scales of coherence among sub-regions and across Large Marine Ecosystems, and provide the basis for predicting future climate change impacts on these ecosystems.

An eye witness perspective of the changing patterns of food allergy.

PubMed

Walker-Smith, John

2005-12-01

Food allergy may affect the gastrointestinal tract of children and adults too, albeit less commonly. The changing clinico-pathological expression of such food allergy in children over a 30 year period is related, from the eye witness perspective of a paediatric gastroenterologist in London. Tissue diagnosis by biopsy, related to dietary elimination and challenge has been the basis for the first clinico-pathological descriptions and accurate clinical diagnosis of these syndromes as they affect the gastrointestinal tract. In the 1970s cow's milk sensitive enteropathy presenting as chronic diarrhoea and failure to thrive in infancy often after infective gastroenteritis, especially with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, was an important problem. By the late 1990s such presentations had become most uncommon in developed communities but they continue to occur in developing communities. By contrast in more recent times, multiple food allergy associated with minor small intestinal enteropathy and gastro-oesophageal reflux in older children has become an important clinical problem in children seen in developed communities. Accompanying these changes has been a dramatic fall in the number of children with clinically severe gastroenteritis with severe dehydration requiring hospital admission. Furthermore, the widespread diagnostic use of endoscopy of the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract in children with multiple biopsies has expanded gastroenterological diagnosis in children. This approach gives information about the oesophagus and ileo-colon not available in the earlier studies, which largely concentrated upon small intestinal biopsies, obtained by Crosby capsule biopsy. So, over this 30 year period clinico-pathological expression has altered but also the diagnostic approach has technically changed.

Space weather services: now and in the future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kunches, J.; Murtagh, W.

The NOAA Space Environment Center has provided continuous 24 hours per day 7 days per week space weather products and services to the United States and the international community via the International Space Environment Service for more than 30 years Over that time span an evolutionary process has occurred In the early days the products consisted of short text and coded messages to accommodate the communications technologies of the period The birth of the Internet made the sharing of graphical imagery and real-time data possible enabling service providers to communicate more information more quickly to the users Now in parallel with the advances in telecommunications the space weather user community has grown dramatically and is enunciating ever-stronger requirements back to the service providers The commercial airline community is probably the best example of an industry wanting more from space weather How are the users going to continue to change over the next 10-20 years and what services might they need How will they get this information and how might they use it This is the overall thrust of the presentation offering a look to the future and a challenge to the space weather community

Perturbations to trophic interactions and the stability of complex food webs

PubMed Central

O'Gorman, Eoin J.; Emmerson, Mark C.

2009-01-01

The pattern of predator–prey interactions is thought to be a key determinant of ecosystem processes and stability. Complex ecological networks are characterized by distributions of interaction strengths that are highly skewed, with many weak and few strong interactors present. Theory suggests that this pattern promotes stability as weak interactors dampen the destabilizing potential of strong interactors. Here, we present an experimental test of this hypothesis and provide empirical evidence that the loss of weak interactors can destabilize communities in nature. We ranked 10 marine consumer species by the strength of their trophic interactions. We removed the strongest and weakest of these interactors from experimental food webs containing >100 species. Extinction of strong interactors produced a dramatic trophic cascade and reduced the temporal stability of key ecosystem process rates, community diversity and resistance to changes in community composition. Loss of weak interactors also proved damaging for our experimental ecosystems, leading to reductions in the temporal and spatial stability of ecosystem process rates, community diversity, and resistance. These results highlight the importance of conserving species to maintain the stabilizing pattern of trophic interactions in nature, even if they are perceived to have weak effects in the system. PMID:19666606

Membrane adaptive optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marker, Dan K.; Wilkes, James M.; Ruggiero, Eric J.; Inman, Daniel J.

2005-08-01

An innovative adaptive optic is discussed that provides a range of capabilities unavailable with either existing, or newly reported, research devices. It is believed that this device will be inexpensive and uncomplicated to construct and operate, with a large correction range that should dramatically relax the static and dynamic structural tolerances of a telescope. As the areal density of a telescope primary is reduced, the optimal optical figure and the structural stiffness are inherently compromised and this phenomenon will require a responsive, range-enhanced wavefront corrector. In addition to correcting for the aberrations in such innovative primary mirrors, sufficient throw remains to provide non-mechanical steering to dramatically improve the Field of regard. Time dependent changes such as thermal disturbances can also be accommodated. The proposed adaptive optic will overcome some of the issues facing conventional deformable mirrors, as well as current and proposed MEMS-based deformable mirrors and liquid crystal based adaptive optics. Such a device is scalable to meter diameter apertures, eliminates high actuation voltages with minimal power consumption, provides long throw optical path correction, provides polychromatic dispersion free operation, dramatically reduces the effects of adjacent actuator influence, and provides a nearly 100% useful aperture. This article will reveal top-level details of the proposed construction and include portions of a static, dynamic, and residual aberration analysis. This device will enable certain designs previously conceived by visionaries in the optical community.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schostag, Morten; Stibal, Marek; Jacobsen, Carsten S.

The active layer of soil overlaying permafrost in the Arctic is subjected to dramatic annual changes in temperature and soil chemistry, which likely affect bacterial activity and community structure. We studied seasonal variations in the bacterial community of active layer soil from Svalbard (78°N) by co-extracting DNA and RNA from 12 soil cores collected monthly over a year. PCR amplicons of 16S rRNA genes (DNA) and reverse transcribed transcripts (cDNA) were quantified and sequenced to test for the effect of low winter temperature and seasonal variation in concentration of easily degradable organic matter on the bacterial communities. The copy numbermore » of 16S rRNA genes and transcripts revealed no distinct seasonal changes indicating potential bacterial activity during winter despite soil temperatures well below -10°C. Multivariate statistical analysis of the bacterial diversity data (DNA and cDNA libraries) revealed a season-based clustering of the samples, and, e.g., the relative abundance of potentially active Cyanobacteria peaked in June and Alphaproteobacteria increased over the summer and then declined from October to November. The structure of the bulk (DNA-based) community was significantly correlated with pH and dissolved organic carbon, while the potentially active (RNA-based) community structure was not significantly correlated with any of the measured soil parameters. A large fraction of the 16S rRNA transcripts was assigned to nitrogen-fixing bacteria (up to 24% in June) and phototrophic organisms (up to 48% in June) illustrating the potential importance of nitrogen fixation in otherwise nitrogen poor Arctic ecosystems and of phototrophic bacterial activity on the soil surface.« less

Ghosts of Yellowstone: Multi-Decadal Histories of Wildlife Populations Captured by Bones on a Modern Landscape

PubMed Central

Miller, Joshua H.

2011-01-01

Natural accumulations of skeletal material (death assemblages) have the potential to provide historical data on species diversity and population structure for regions lacking decades of wildlife monitoring, thereby contributing valuable baseline data for conservation and management strategies. Previous studies of the ecological and temporal resolutions of death assemblages from terrestrial large-mammal communities, however, have largely focused on broad patterns of community composition in tropical settings. Here, I expand the environmental sampling of large-mammal death assemblages into a temperate biome and explore more demanding assessments of ecological fidelity by testing their capacity to record past population fluctuations of individual species in the well-studied ungulate community of Yellowstone National Park (Yellowstone). Despite dramatic ecological changes following the 1988 wildfires and 1995 wolf re-introduction, the Yellowstone death assemblage is highly faithful to the living community in species richness and community structure. These results agree with studies of tropical death assemblages and establish the broad capability of vertebrate remains to provide high-quality ecological data from disparate ecosystems and biomes. Importantly, the Yellowstone death assemblage also correctly identifies species that changed significantly in abundance over the last 20 to ∼80 years and the directions of those shifts (including local invasions and extinctions). The relative frequency of fresh versus weathered bones for individual species is also consistent with documented trends in living population sizes. Radiocarbon dating verifies the historical source of bones from Equus caballus (horse): a functionally extinct species. Bone surveys are a broadly valuable tool for obtaining population trends and baseline shifts over decadal-to-centennial timescales. PMID:21464921

Stable isotope analysis as an early monitoring tool for community-scale effects of rat eradication

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nigro, Katherine M.; Hathaway, Stacie A.; Wegmann, Alex; Miller-ter Kuile, Ana; Fisher, Robert N.; Young, Hillary S.

2017-01-01

Invasive rats have colonized most of the islands of the world, resulting in strong negative impacts on native biodiversity and on ecosystem functions. As prolific omnivores, invasive rats can cause local extirpation of a wide range of native species, with cascading consequences that can reshape communities and ecosystems. Eradication of rats on islands is now becoming a widespread approach to restore ecosystems, and many native island species show strong numerical responses to rat eradication. However, the effect of rat eradication on other consumers can extend beyond direct numerical effects, to changes in behavior, dietary composition, and other ecological parameters. These behavioral and trophic effects may have strong cascading impacts on the ecology of restored ecosystems, but they have rarely been examined. In this study, we explore how rat eradication has affected the trophic ecology of native land crab communities. Using stable isotope analysis of rats and crabs, we demonstrate that the diet or trophic position of most crabs changed subsequent to rat eradication. Combined with the numerical recovery of two carnivorous land crab species (Geograpsus spp.), this led to a dramatic widening of the crab trophic niche following rat eradication. Given the established importance of land crabs in structuring island communities, particularly plants, this suggests an unappreciated mechanism by which rat eradication may alter island ecology. This study also demonstrates the potential for stable isotope analysis as a complementary monitoring tool to traditional techniques, with the potential to provide more nuanced assessments of the community- and ecosystem-wide effects of restoration.

How Does the ASAP Model Align with Guided Pathways Implementation in Community Colleges?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MDRC, 2016

2016-01-01

Community colleges that are exploring ways to dramatically improve outcomes for their students frequently seek a better understanding of the relationship between two "branded" approaches receiving significant publicity: Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) and guided pathways. ASAP was created by the City University of New York…

Recolonization by warmwater fishes and crayfishes after severe drought in upper coastal plain hill streams

Treesearch

Susan B. Adams; Melvin L. Warren

2005-01-01

Extreme hydrologic disturbance, such as a supraseasonal drought, can dramatically influence aquatic communities. Documentation of the responses of aquatic communities after such disturbances provides insight into the timing, order, and mechanisms of recolonization. Postdisturbance recolonization of streams depends on many factors, including the region and...

Community Mental Health Systems Generate New Chronics: The Study of a Pure Case.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lieberman, Harvey J.; And Others

1988-01-01

Study indicated that, although well-integrated comprehensive community mental health system (CMHS) dramatically reduces utilization of long-stay inpatient beds compared to traditional health care systems, it does not banish appearance of "new chronic" patients from a catchment area. CMHS new chronic patients were younger, mostly male,…

Drama in the Dale: Transformation through Community Drama

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward, Julie; Mills, Helen Frances; Anderson, Alan

2013-01-01

During the winter of 2011-2012, Weardale, England, was the setting for an ambitious informal adult education project. In this rural area in the northeast part of the country, the local arts collective, Jack Drum Arts, established a community play project entitled "The Bonny Moorhen." This dramatic undertaking aimed to retell the story of…

Profile Changes in the Soil Microbial Community When Desert Becomes Oasis

PubMed Central

Li, Chen-hua; Tang, Li-song; Jia, Zhong-jun; Li, Yan

2015-01-01

The conversion of virgin desert into oasis farmland creates two contrasting types of land-cover. During oasis formation with irrigation and fertilizer application, however, the changes in the soil microbial population, which play critical roles in the ecosystem, remain poorly understood. We applied high-throughput pyrosequencing to investigate bacterial and archaeal communities throughout the profile (0–3 m) in an experimental field, where irrigation and fertilization began in 1990 and cropped with winter wheat since then. To assess the effects of cultivation, the following treatments were compared with the virgin desert: CK (no fertilizer), PK, NK, NP, NPK, NPKR, and NPKM (R: straw residue; M: manure fertilizer). Irrigation had a greater impact on the overall microbial community than fertilizer application. The greatest impact occurred in topsoil (0–0.2 m), e.g., Cyanobacteria (25% total abundance) were most abundant in desert soil, while Actinobacteria (26%) were most abundant in oasis soil. The proportions of extremophilic and photosynthetic groups (e.g., Deinococcus-Thermus and Cyanobacteria) decreased, while the proportions of R-strategy (e.g., Gammaproteobacteria including Xanthomonadales), nitrifying (e.g., Nitrospirae), and anaerobic bacteria (e.g., Anaerolineae) increased throughout the oasis profile. Archaea occurred only in oasis soil. The impact of fertilizer application was mainly reflected in the non-dominant communities or finer taxonomic divisions. Oasis formation led to a dramatic shift in microbial community and enhanced soil enzyme activities. The rapidly increased soil moisture and decreased salt caused by irrigation were responsible for this shift. Furthermore, difference in fertilization and crop growth altered the organic carbon contents in the soil, which resulted in differences of microbial communities within oasis. PMID:26426279

Distinct summer and winter bacterial communities in the active layer of Svalbard permafrost revealed by DNA- and RNA-based analyses

DOE PAGES

Schostag, Morten; Stibal, Marek; Jacobsen, Carsten S.; ...

2015-04-30

The active layer of soil overlaying permafrost in the Arctic is subjected to dramatic annual changes in temperature and soil chemistry, which likely affect bacterial activity and community structure. We studied seasonal variations in the bacterial community of active layer soil from Svalbard (78°N) by co-extracting DNA and RNA from 12 soil cores collected monthly over a year. PCR amplicons of 16S rRNA genes (DNA) and reverse transcribed transcripts (cDNA) were quantified and sequenced to test for the effect of low winter temperature and seasonal variation in concentration of easily degradable organic matter on the bacterial communities. The copy numbermore » of 16S rRNA genes and transcripts revealed no distinct seasonal changes indicating potential bacterial activity during winter despite soil temperatures well below -10°C. Multivariate statistical analysis of the bacterial diversity data (DNA and cDNA libraries) revealed a season-based clustering of the samples, and, e.g., the relative abundance of potentially active Cyanobacteria peaked in June and Alphaproteobacteria increased over the summer and then declined from October to November. The structure of the bulk (DNA-based) community was significantly correlated with pH and dissolved organic carbon, while the potentially active (RNA-based) community structure was not significantly correlated with any of the measured soil parameters. A large fraction of the 16S rRNA transcripts was assigned to nitrogen-fixing bacteria (up to 24% in June) and phototrophic organisms (up to 48% in June) illustrating the potential importance of nitrogen fixation in otherwise nitrogen poor Arctic ecosystems and of phototrophic bacterial activity on the soil surface.« less

Distinct summer and winter bacterial communities in the active layer of Svalbard permafrost revealed by DNA- and RNA-based analyses

PubMed Central

Schostag, Morten; Stibal, Marek; Jacobsen, Carsten S.; Bælum, Jacob; Taş, Neslihan; Elberling, Bo; Jansson, Janet K.; Semenchuk, Philipp; Priemé, Anders

2015-01-01

The active layer of soil overlaying permafrost in the Arctic is subjected to dramatic annual changes in temperature and soil chemistry, which likely affect bacterial activity and community structure. We studied seasonal variations in the bacterial community of active layer soil from Svalbard (78°N) by co-extracting DNA and RNA from 12 soil cores collected monthly over a year. PCR amplicons of 16S rRNA genes (DNA) and reverse transcribed transcripts (cDNA) were quantified and sequenced to test for the effect of low winter temperature and seasonal variation in concentration of easily degradable organic matter on the bacterial communities. The copy number of 16S rRNA genes and transcripts revealed no distinct seasonal changes indicating potential bacterial activity during winter despite soil temperatures well below −10°C. Multivariate statistical analysis of the bacterial diversity data (DNA and cDNA libraries) revealed a season-based clustering of the samples, and, e.g., the relative abundance of potentially active Cyanobacteria peaked in June and Alphaproteobacteria increased over the summer and then declined from October to November. The structure of the bulk (DNA-based) community was significantly correlated with pH and dissolved organic carbon, while the potentially active (RNA-based) community structure was not significantly correlated with any of the measured soil parameters. A large fraction of the 16S rRNA transcripts was assigned to nitrogen-fixing bacteria (up to 24% in June) and phototrophic organisms (up to 48% in June) illustrating the potential importance of nitrogen fixation in otherwise nitrogen poor Arctic ecosystems and of phototrophic bacterial activity on the soil surface. PMID:25983731

Athletic equipment microbiota are shaped by interactions with human skin

DOE PAGES

Wood, Mariah; Gibbons, Sean M.; Lax, Simon; ...

2015-06-19

Background: Americans spend the vast majority of their lives in built environments. Even traditionally outdoor pursuits, such as exercising, are often now performed indoors. Bacteria that colonize these indoor ecosystems are primarily derived from the human microbiome. The modes of human interaction with indoor surfaces and the physical conditions associated with each surface type determine the steady-state ecology of the microbial community. Results: Bacterial assemblages associated with different surfaces in three athletic facilities, including floors, mats, benches, free weights, and elliptical handles, were sampled every other hour (8 am to 6 pm) for 2 days. Surface and equipment type hadmore » a stronger influence on bacterial community composition than the facility in which they were housed. Surfaces that were primarily in contact with human skin exhibited highly dynamic bacterial community composition and non-random co-occurrence patterns, suggesting that different host microbiomes—shaped by selective forces—were being deposited on these surfaces through time. Bacterial assemblages found on the floors and mats changed less over time, and species co-occurrence patterns appeared random, suggesting more neutral community assembly. Conclusions: These longitudinal patterns highlight the dramatic turnover of microbial communities on surfaces in regular contact with human skin. By uncovering these longitudinal patterns, this study promotes a better understanding of microbe-human interactions within the built environment.« less

Transient changes in bacterioplankton communities induced by the submarine volcanic eruption of El Hierro (Canary Islands).

PubMed

Ferrera, Isabel; Arístegui, Javier; González, José M; Montero, María F; Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio; Gasol, Josep M

2015-01-01

The submarine volcanic eruption occurring near El Hierro (Canary Islands) in October 2011 provided a unique opportunity to determine the effects of such events on the microbial populations of the surrounding waters. The birth of a new underwater volcano produced a large plume of vent material detectable from space that led to abrupt changes in the physical-chemical properties of the water column. We combined flow cytometry and 454-pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons (V1-V3 regions for Bacteria and V3-V5 for Archaea) to monitor the area around the volcano through the eruptive and post-eruptive phases (November 2011 to April 2012). Flow cytometric analyses revealed higher abundance and relative activity (expressed as a percentage of high-nucleic acid content cells) of heterotrophic prokaryotes during the eruptive process as compared to post-eruptive stages. Changes observed in populations detectable by flow cytometry were more evident at depths closer to the volcano (~70-200 m), coinciding also with oxygen depletion. Alpha-diversity analyses revealed that species richness (Chao1 index) decreased during the eruptive phase; however, no dramatic changes in community composition were observed. The most abundant taxa during the eruptive phase were similar to those in the post-eruptive stages and to those typically prevalent in oceanic bacterioplankton communities (i.e. the alphaproteobacterial SAR11 group, the Flavobacteriia class of the Bacteroidetes and certain groups of Gammaproteobacteria). Yet, although at low abundance, we also detected the presence of taxa not typically found in bacterioplankton communities such as the Epsilonproteobacteria and members of the candidate division ZB3, particularly during the eruptive stage. These groups are often associated with deep-sea hydrothermal vents or sulfur-rich springs. Both cytometric and sequence analyses showed that once the eruption ceased, evidences of the volcano-induced changes were no longer observed.

Transient Changes in Bacterioplankton Communities Induced by the Submarine Volcanic Eruption of El Hierro (Canary Islands)

PubMed Central

Ferrera, Isabel; Arístegui, Javier; González, José M.; Montero, María F.; Fraile-Nuez, Eugenio; Gasol, Josep M.

2015-01-01

The submarine volcanic eruption occurring near El Hierro (Canary Islands) in October 2011 provided a unique opportunity to determine the effects of such events on the microbial populations of the surrounding waters. The birth of a new underwater volcano produced a large plume of vent material detectable from space that led to abrupt changes in the physical-chemical properties of the water column. We combined flow cytometry and 454-pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons (V1–V3 regions for Bacteria and V3–V5 for Archaea) to monitor the area around the volcano through the eruptive and post-eruptive phases (November 2011 to April 2012). Flow cytometric analyses revealed higher abundance and relative activity (expressed as a percentage of high-nucleic acid content cells) of heterotrophic prokaryotes during the eruptive process as compared to post-eruptive stages. Changes observed in populations detectable by flow cytometry were more evident at depths closer to the volcano (~70–200 m), coinciding also with oxygen depletion. Alpha-diversity analyses revealed that species richness (Chao1 index) decreased during the eruptive phase; however, no dramatic changes in community composition were observed. The most abundant taxa during the eruptive phase were similar to those in the post-eruptive stages and to those typically prevalent in oceanic bacterioplankton communities (i.e. the alphaproteobacterial SAR11 group, the Flavobacteriia class of the Bacteroidetes and certain groups of Gammaproteobacteria). Yet, although at low abundance, we also detected the presence of taxa not typically found in bacterioplankton communities such as the Epsilonproteobacteria and members of the candidate division ZB3, particularly during the eruptive stage. These groups are often associated with deep-sea hydrothermal vents or sulfur-rich springs. Both cytometric and sequence analyses showed that once the eruption ceased, evidences of the volcano-induced changes were no longer observed. PMID:25671714

Insect-Flower Interaction Network Structure Is Resilient to a Temporary Pulse of Floral Resources from Invasive Rhododendron ponticum

PubMed Central

Tiedeken, Erin Jo; Stout, Jane C.

2015-01-01

Invasive alien plants can compete with native plants for resources, and may ultimately decrease native plant diversity and/or abundance in invaded sites. This could have consequences for native mutualistic interactions, such as pollination. Although invasive plants often become highly connected in plant-pollinator interaction networks, in temperate climates they usually only flower for part of the season. Unless sufficient alternative plants flower outside this period, whole-season floral resources may be reduced by invasion. We hypothesized that the cessation of flowering of a dominant invasive plant would lead to dramatic, seasonal compositional changes in plant-pollinator communities, and subsequent changes in network structure. We investigated variation in floral resources, flower-visiting insect communities, and interaction networks during and after the flowering of invasive Rhododendron ponticum in four invaded Irish woodland sites. Floral resources decreased significantly after R. ponticum flowering, but the magnitude of the decrease varied among sites. Neither insect abundance nor richness varied between the two periods (during and after R. ponticum flowering), yet insect community composition was distinct, mostly due to a significant reduction in Bombus abundance after flowering. During flowering R. ponticum was frequently visited by Bombus; after flowering, these highly mobile pollinators presumably left to find alternative floral resources. Despite compositional changes, however, network structural properties remained stable after R. ponticum flowering ceased: generality increased, but quantitative connectance, interaction evenness, vulnerability, H’2 and network size did not change. This is likely because after R. ponticum flowering, two to three alternative plant species became prominent in networks and insects increased their diet breadth, as indicated by the increase in network-level generality. We conclude that network structure is robust to seasonal changes in floral abundance at sites invaded by alien, mass-flowering plant species, as long as alternative floral resources remain throughout the season to support the flower-visiting community. PMID:25764085

When the forest dies: the response of forest soil fungi to a bark beetle-induced tree dieback

PubMed Central

Štursová, Martina; Šnajdr, Jaroslav; Cajthaml, Tomáš; Bárta, Jiří; Šantrůčková, Hana; Baldrian, Petr

2014-01-01

Coniferous forests cover extensive areas of the boreal and temperate zones. Owing to their primary production and C storage, they have an important role in the global carbon balance. Forest disturbances such as forest fires, windthrows or insect pest outbreaks have a substantial effect on the functioning of these ecosystems. Recent decades have seen an increase in the areas affected by disturbances in both North America and Europe, with indications that this increase is due to both local human activity and global climate change. Here we examine the structural and functional response of the litter and soil microbial community in a Picea abies forest to tree dieback following an invasion of the bark beetle Ips typographus, with a specific focus on the fungal community. The insect-induced disturbance rapidly and profoundly changed vegetation and nutrient availability by killing spruce trees so that the readily available root exudates were replaced by more recalcitrant, polymeric plant biomass components. Owing to the dramatic decrease in photosynthesis, the rate of decomposition processes in the ecosystem decreased as soon as the one-time litter input had been processed. The fungal community showed profound changes, including a decrease in biomass (2.5-fold in the litter and 12-fold in the soil) together with the disappearance of fungi symbiotic with tree roots and a relative increase in saprotrophic taxa. Within the latter group, successive changes reflected the changing availability of needle litter and woody debris. Bacterial biomass appeared to be either unaffected or increased after the disturbance, resulting in a substantial increase in the bacterial/fungal biomass ratio. PMID:24671082

Enhancement mechanisms of short-time aerobic digestion for waste activated sludge in the presence of cocoamidopropyl betaine.

PubMed

Xia, Siqing; Zhou, Yun; Eustance, Everett; Zhang, Zhiqiang

2017-10-18

Cocoamidopropyl betaine (CAPB), which is a biodegradable ampholytic surfactant, has recently been found to dramatically enhance the aerobic digestion of waste activated sludge (WAS) in short-time aerobic digestion (STAD) systems. Therefore, it is important to understand the mechanisms in which CAPB enhances WAS aerobic digestion performance. Results showed that CAPB could dramatically enhance the solubilization of soluble proteins (PN), polysaccharides (PS), nucleic acids (NA) and humic-like substances (HS) in the STAD system within the initial 2 h. Then PN, PS and NA gradually decreased, while HS showed only minor decease. In addition, CAPB increased the proportion of low MW fractions (<20 kDa) from 4.22% to 39.4%, which are more biodegradable. Specific oxygen uptake rates and dehydrogenase enzyme activity results indicated that CAPB markedly improved the aerobic microorganism activities. Microbial community analyses and principle coordinate analyses (PCoA) revealed that CAPB increased the proportion of some functional microorganisms, including Proteobacteria, Planctomycetales, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Aeromonas. The changes driven by CAPB could explain the enhanced performance of the STAD system for WAS aerobic treatment.

High Temperature Equation of State of Enstatite and Forsterite: Implications for Thermal Origins and Evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fratanduono, D.

2015-12-01

The thermal history of terrestrial planets depends upon the melt boundary as it represents the largest rheological transition a material can undergo. This change in rheological behavior with solidification corresponds to a dramatic change in the thermal and chemical transport properties. Because of this dramatic change in thermal transport, recent work by Stixrude et al.[1] suggests that the silicate melt curve sets the thermal profile within super-Earths during their early thermal evolution. Here we present recent decaying shock wave experiments studying both enstatite and forsterite. The continuously measured shock pressure and temperature in these studies ranged from 8 to 1.5 Mbar and 20,000-4,000 K, respectively. We find a point on the MgSiO3 liquidus at 6800 K and 285 GPa, which is nearly a factor of two higher pressure than previously measured and provides a strong constraint on the temperature profile within super-Earths. Our shock temperature measurements on forsterite and enstatite provide much needed equation of state information to the planetary impact modeling community since the shock temperature data can be used to constrain the initial entropy state of a growing planet. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. 1. Stixrude, L., Melting in super-earths. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 2014. 372(2014).

Comparison of characterization and microbial communities in rice straw- and wheat straw-based compost for Agaricus bisporus production.

PubMed

Wang, Lin; Mao, Jiugeng; Zhao, Hejuan; Li, Min; Wei, Qishun; Zhou, Ying; Shao, Heping

2016-09-01

Rice straw (RS) is an important raw material for the preparation of Agaricus bisporus compost in China. In this study, the characterization of composting process from RS and wheat straw (WS) was compared for mushroom production. The results showed that the temperature in RS compost increased rapidly compared with WS compost, and the carbon (C)/nitrogen (N) ratio decreased quickly. The microbial changes during the Phase I and Phase II composting process were monitored using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. Bacteria were the dominant species during the process of composting and the bacterial community structure dramatically changed during heap composting according to the DGGE results. The bacterial community diversity of RS compost was abundant compared with WS compost at stages 4-5, but no distinct difference was observed after the controlled tunnel Phase II process. The total amount of PLFAs of RS compost, as an indicator of microbial biomass, was higher than that of WS. Clustering by DGGE and principal component analysis of the PLFA compositions revealed that there were differences in both the microbial population and community structure between RS- and WS-based composts. Our data indicated that composting of RS resulted in improved degradation and assimilation of breakdown products by A. bisporus, and suggested that the RS compost was effective for sustaining A. bisporus mushroom growth as well as conventional WS compost.

The microbial community at laguna Figueroa, Baja California Mexico: From miles to microns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stolz, John F.

1985-12-01

Laguna Figueroa is a lagoonal complex on the Pacific coast of the Baja California penisula 200 km south of the Mexican-United States border. The hypersaline lagoon is 16 km long and 2 3 km wide with a salt marsh and evaporite flat and is separated from the ocean by a barrier dune and beach. At the salt marsh-evaporite flat interface a stratified microbial community dominated byMicrocoleus chthonoplastes is depositing laminated sediments. Similar stratiform deposits with associated microbial mat communities have been found in cherts of the Fig Tree Group, South Africa which are 3.4 GE in age. Heavy rains in the winters of 1978 1979 and 1979 1980 flooded the evaporite flat with 1 3 meters of meteoric water and buried the laminated sediment under 5 10 cm of siliciclastic and clay sediment. These flooding events had a dramatic effect on the composition of the mat community. TheMicrocoleus dominated community, with species ofChloroflexus sp. and anEctothiorhodospira-like filamentous purple phototroph, disappeared leaving a community dominated by the purple phototrophsChromatium sp. andThiocapsa sp. Recolonization of the surface by species of the cyanobacteriaOscillatoria sp. andSpirulina sp. preceded the return of theMicrocoleus community. Field conditions were monitored by ground based observations and supplemented with LandSat and Skylab imagery. The microbial community was studied with light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The change in dominating microbial species was correlated with the episodes of flooding.

Dramatic action: A theater-based paradigm for analyzing human interactions

PubMed Central

Raindel, Noa; Alon, Uri

2018-01-01

Existing approaches to describe social interactions consider emotional states or use ad-hoc descriptors for microanalysis of interactions. Such descriptors are different in each context thereby limiting comparisons, and can also mix facets of meaning such as emotional states, short term tactics and long-term goals. To develop a systematic set of concepts for second-by-second social interactions, we suggest a complementary approach based on practices employed in theater. Theater uses the concept of dramatic action, the effort that one makes to change the psychological state of another. Unlike states (e.g. emotions), dramatic actions aim to change states; unlike long-term goals or motivations, dramatic actions can last seconds. We defined a set of 22 basic dramatic action verbs using a lexical approach, such as ‘to threaten’–the effort to incite fear, and ‘to encourage’–the effort to inspire hope or confidence. We developed a set of visual cartoon stimuli for these basic dramatic actions, and find that people can reliably and reproducibly assign dramatic action verbs to these stimuli. We show that each dramatic action can be carried out with different emotions, indicating that the two constructs are distinct. We characterized a principal valence axis of dramatic actions. Finally, we re-analyzed three widely-used interaction coding systems in terms of dramatic actions, to suggest that dramatic actions might serve as a common vocabulary across research contexts. This study thus operationalizes and tests dramatic action as a potentially useful concept for research on social interaction, and in particular on influence tactics. PMID:29518101

Targeted discovery of glycoside hydrolases from a switchgrass-adapted compost community

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Allgaier, M.; Reddy, A.; Park, J. I.

2009-11-15

Development of cellulosic biofuels from non-food crops is currently an area of intense research interest. Tailoring depolymerizing enzymes to particular feedstocks and pretreatment conditions is one promising avenue of research in this area. Here we added a green-waste compost inoculum to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and simulated thermophilic composting in a bioreactor to select for a switchgrass-adapted community and to facilitate targeted discovery of glycoside hydrolases. Small-subunit (SSU) rRNA-based community profiles revealed that the microbial community changed dramatically between the initial and switchgrass-adapted compost (SAC) with some bacterial populations being enriched over 20-fold. We obtained 225 Mbp of 454-titanium pyrosequence datamore » from the SAC community and conservatively identified 800 genes encoding glycoside hydrolase domains that were biased toward depolymerizing grass cell wall components. Of these, {approx}10% were putative cellulases mostly belonging to families GH5 and GH9. We synthesized two SAC GH9 genes with codon optimization for heterologous expression in Escherichia coli and observed activity for one on carboxymethyl cellulose. The active GH9 enzyme has a temperature optimum of 50 C and pH range of 5.5 to 8 consistent with the composting conditions applied. We demonstrate that microbial communities adapt to switchgrass decomposition using simulated composting condition and that full-length genes can be identified from complex metagenomic sequence data, synthesized and expressed resulting in active enzyme.« less

Targeted Discovery of Glycoside Hydrolases from a Switchgrass-Adapted Compost Community

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reddy, Amitha; Allgaier, Martin; Park, Joshua I.

2011-05-11

Development of cellulosic biofuels from non-food crops is currently an area of intense research interest. Tailoring depolymerizing enzymes to particular feedstocks and pretreatment conditions is one promising avenue of research in this area. Here we added a green-waste compost inoculum to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and simulated thermophilic composting in a bioreactor to select for a switchgrass-adapted community and to facilitate targeted discovery of glycoside hydrolases. Smallsubunit (SSU) rRNA-based community profiles revealed that the microbial community changed dramatically between the initial and switchgrass-adapted compost (SAC) with some bacterial populations being enriched over 20-fold. We obtained 225 Mbp of 454-titanium pyrosequence datamore » from the SAC community and conservatively identified 800 genes encoding glycoside hydrolase domains that were biased toward depolymerizing grass cell wall components. Of these, ,10percent were putative cellulasesmostly belonging to families GH5 and GH9. We synthesized two SAC GH9 genes with codon optimization for heterologous expression in Escherichia coli and observed activity for one on carboxymethyl cellulose. The active GH9 enzyme has a temperature optimum of 50uC and pH range of 5.5 to 8 consistent with the composting conditions applied. We demonstrate that microbial communities adapt to switchgrass decomposition using simulated composting condition and that full-length genes can be identified from complex metagenomic sequence data, synthesized and expressed resulting in active enzyme.« less

Sea Ice Summer Camp: Bringing Together Arctic Sea Ice Modelers and Observers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Perovich, D. K.; Holland, M. M.

2016-12-01

The Arctic sea ice has undergone dramatic change and numerical models project this to continue for the foreseeable future. Understanding the mechanisms behind sea ice loss and its consequences for the larger Arctic and global systems is of critical importance if we are to anticipate and plan for the future. One impediment to progress is a disconnect between the observational and modeling communities. A sea ice summer camp was held in Barrow Alaska from 26 May to 1 June 2016 to overcome this impediment and better integrate the sea ice community. The 25 participants were a mix of modelers and observers from 13 different institutions at career stages from graduate student to senior scientist. The summer camp provided an accelerated program on sea ice observations and models and also fostered future collaborative interdisciplinary activities. Each morning was spent in the classroom with a daily lecture on an aspect of modeling or remote sensing followed by practical exercises. Topics included using models to assess sensitivity, to test hypotheses and to explore sources of uncertainty in future Arctic sea ice loss. The afternoons were spent on the ice making observations. There were four observational activities; albedo observations, ice thickness measurements, ice coring and physical properties, and ice morphology surveys. The last field day consisted of a grand challenge where the group formulated a hypothesis, developed an observational and modeling strategy to test the hypothesis, and then integrated the observations and model results. The impacts of changing sea ice are being felt today in Barrow Alaska. We opened a dialog with Barrow community members to further understand these changes. This included an evening discussion with two Barrow sea ice experts and a community presentation of our work in a public lecture at the Inupiat Heritage Center.

"Nothing is going to change three months from now": A mixed methods characterization of food bank use in Greater Vancouver.

PubMed

Holmes, Eleanor; Black, Jennifer L; Heckelman, Amber; Lear, Scott A; Seto, Darlene; Fowokan, Adeleke; Wittman, Hannah

2018-03-01

North American food bank use has risen dramatically since the 1980s, and over 850,000 Canadians were estimated to have visited a food bank monthly in 2015. Food banks serve multiple roles in communities, ranging from 'emergency responses' to individualized and short-term experiences of hunger, to 'chronic' supports as part of long-term subsistence strategies. This study used a mixed-methods design to examine the spectrum of food bank user experiences in a large urban context, as part of a community-based project aiming to envision a redesign of the food bank to contribute to broader community food security outcomes. Survey (n = 77) and focus group (n = 27) results suggested that participants widely viewed food banks as a long-term food-access strategy. Inadequate financial resources, steep increases in housing and food costs, and long-term health challenges emerged as the most prominent factors influencing food bank use. Participants commonly reported unmet food needs despite food bank use, limited agency over factors influencing access to sufficient food, and anticipated requiring food bank services in future. These findings contest global constructions of food banks as "emergency" food providers and support growing evidence that food banks are an insufficient response to chronic poverty, lack of affordable housing and insufficient social assistance rates underlying experiences of food insecurity. Participants envisioned changes to the food bank system to increase community food security including improved food quality and quantity (short-term), changes to service delivery and increased connections with health services (capacity building), and a greater role in poverty reduction advocacy (system redesign). Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

INMATE SOCIETY IN THE ERA OF MASS INCARCERATION*

PubMed Central

Kreager, Derek A.; Kruttschnitt, Candace

2017-01-01

Inmate social organization was once a central area within criminology that stalled just as incarceration rates dramatically climbed. In this review, we return to seminal works on this topic before summarizing the changes that mass incarceration wrought in correctional contexts and the potential impacts of these changes for inmate society. We then review the few recent studies that document contemporary inmate social life and call for increased researcher-practitioner partnerships that embed criminologists within carceral settings. We suggest that network approaches are particularly useful for building on past qualitative and ethnographic insights to provide replicable results that are also easily conveyed to correctional authorities. As the era of mass incarceration peaks, we argue that the time is ripe for renewed interest in inmate society and its connections to prison stability, rehabilitation, and community reintegration. PMID:29542738

Glacier shrinkage and water resources in the Andes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Francou, Bernard; Coudrain, Anne

For more than a century glaciers around the world have been melting as air temperatures rise due to a combination of natural processes and human activity. The disappearance of these glaciers can have wide-ranging effects, such as the creation of new natural hazards or changes in stream flow that could threaten water suppliesSome of the most dramatic melting has occurred in the Andes mountain range in South America. To highlight the climatic and glacial change in the Andes and to encourage the scientific community to strengthen the glacier observation network that stretches from Colombia to the Patagonian ice fields, the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales (INRENA), Perú, and the Institute of Research and Development (IRD), France, recently organized the second Symposium on Mass Balance of Andean Glaciers in Huaráz,Perú.

Mars: On the Path Or In The Way?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherwood, Brent

2012-01-01

Explore Mars may not be the highest and best use of government-? funded human space flight. However, Explore Mars is pervasively accepted as the ultimate goal for human space flight. This meme has become refractory within the human space flight community despite dramatic contextual changes since Apollo: human space flight is no longer central to commonly-?held national priorities, NASA's fraction of the federal budget has diminished 8 fold, over 60 enabling technology challenges have been identified, and the stunning achievements of robotic Mars exploration have accelerated. The Explore Mars vision has not kept pace with these changes.An unprecedented budgetary commitment would have to be sustained for an unprecedented number of decades to achieve the Explore Mars goal. Further, the goal's justification as uniquely able to definitively determine Mars habitability is brittle, and not driving current planning in any case; yet NASA owns the choice of this goal and has authority to change it. Three alternative goals for government investment in human space flight meet NASA's own expressed rationale at least as well as Explore Mars, some with far greater capacity to regain the cultural centrality of human space flight and to grow by attracting private capital. At a minimum the human space flight advocacy community should address the pragmatics of choosing such a vulnerable goal.

Effects of global warming on ancient mammalian communities and their environments.

PubMed

DeSantis, Larisa R G; Feranec, Robert S; MacFadden, Bruce J

2009-06-03

Current global warming affects the composition and dynamics of mammalian communities and can increase extinction risk; however, long-term effects of warming on mammals are less understood. Dietary reconstructions inferred from stable isotopes of fossil herbivorous mammalian tooth enamel document environmental and climatic changes in ancient ecosystems, including C(3)/C(4) transitions and relative seasonality. Here, we use stable carbon and oxygen isotopes preserved in fossil teeth to document the magnitude of mammalian dietary shifts and ancient floral change during geologically documented glacial and interglacial periods during the Pliocene (approximately 1.9 million years ago) and Pleistocene (approximately 1.3 million years ago) in Florida. Stable isotope data demonstrate increased aridity, increased C(4) grass consumption, inter-faunal dietary partitioning, increased isotopic niche breadth of mixed feeders, niche partitioning of phylogenetically similar taxa, and differences in relative seasonality with warming. Our data show that global warming resulted in dramatic vegetation and dietary changes even at lower latitudes (approximately 28 degrees N). Our results also question the use of models that predict the long term decline and extinction of species based on the assumption that niches are conserved over time. These findings have immediate relevance to clarifying possible biotic responses to current global warming in modern ecosystems.

Response of an arctic predator guild to collapsing lemming cycles

PubMed Central

Schmidt, Niels M.; Ims, Rolf A.; Høye, Toke T.; Gilg, Olivier; Hansen, Lars H.; Hansen, Jannik; Lund, Magnus; Fuglei, Eva; Forchhammer, Mads C.; Sittler, Benoit

2012-01-01

Alpine and arctic lemming populations appear to be highly sensitive to climate change, and when faced with warmer and shorter winters, their well-known high-amplitude population cycles may collapse. Being keystone species in tundra ecosystems, changed lemming dynamics may convey significant knock-on effects on trophically linked species. Here, we analyse long-term (1988–2010), community-wide monitoring data from two sites in high-arctic Greenland and document how a collapse in collared lemming cyclicity affects the population dynamics of the predator guild. Dramatic changes were observed in two highly specialized lemming predators: snowy owl and stoat. Following the lemming cycle collapse, snowy owl fledgling production declined by 98 per cent, and there was indication of a severe population decline of stoats at one site. The less specialized long-tailed skua and the generalist arctic fox were more loosely coupled to the lemming dynamics. Still, the lemming collapse had noticeable effects on their reproductive performance. Predator responses differed somewhat between sites in all species and could arise from site-specific differences in lemming dynamics, intra-guild interactions or subsidies from other resources. Nevertheless, population extinctions and community restructuring of this arctic endemic predator guild are likely if the lemming dynamics are maintained at the current non-cyclic, low-density state. PMID:22977153

Response of an arctic predator guild to collapsing lemming cycles.

PubMed

Schmidt, Niels M; Ims, Rolf A; Høye, Toke T; Gilg, Olivier; Hansen, Lars H; Hansen, Jannik; Lund, Magnus; Fuglei, Eva; Forchhammer, Mads C; Sittler, Benoit

2012-11-07

Alpine and arctic lemming populations appear to be highly sensitive to climate change, and when faced with warmer and shorter winters, their well-known high-amplitude population cycles may collapse. Being keystone species in tundra ecosystems, changed lemming dynamics may convey significant knock-on effects on trophically linked species. Here, we analyse long-term (1988-2010), community-wide monitoring data from two sites in high-arctic Greenland and document how a collapse in collared lemming cyclicity affects the population dynamics of the predator guild. Dramatic changes were observed in two highly specialized lemming predators: snowy owl and stoat. Following the lemming cycle collapse, snowy owl fledgling production declined by 98 per cent, and there was indication of a severe population decline of stoats at one site. The less specialized long-tailed skua and the generalist arctic fox were more loosely coupled to the lemming dynamics. Still, the lemming collapse had noticeable effects on their reproductive performance. Predator responses differed somewhat between sites in all species and could arise from site-specific differences in lemming dynamics, intra-guild interactions or subsidies from other resources. Nevertheless, population extinctions and community restructuring of this arctic endemic predator guild are likely if the lemming dynamics are maintained at the current non-cyclic, low-density state.

Impact of land-use change and soil organic carbon quality on microbial diversity in soils across Europe.

PubMed

Szoboszlay, Márton; Dohrmann, Anja B; Poeplau, Christopher; Don, Axel; Tebbe, Christoph C

2017-12-01

Land-use and their change have dramatic consequences for above-ground biodiversity, but their impact on soil microbial communities is poorly understood. In this study, soils from 19 European sites representing conversion of croplands to grasslands or forests and of grasslands to croplands or forests were characterized for microbial abundance and bacterial diversity. The abundance of Bacteria and Fungi but not Archaea responded to land-use change. Site was the major determinant of the soil bacterial community structure, explaining 32% of the variation in 16S rRNA gene diversity. While the quantity of soil organic carbon (SOC) only explained 5% of the variation, SOC when differentiated by its quality could explain 22%. This was similar to the impact of soil pH (21%) and higher than that of land-use type (15%). Croplands had the highest bacterial diversity. Converting croplands to grassland caused an increase of Verrucomicrobia; croplands to forest increased Rhizobiales but decreased Bacteroidetes and Nitrospirae; and grasslands to cropland increased Gemmatimonadetes but decreased Verrucomicrobia and Planctomycetes. Network analysis identified associations between particular SOC fractions and specific bacterial taxa. We conclude that land-use-related effects on soil microorganisms can be consistently observed across a continental scale. © FEMS 2017. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Changes in biocrust cover drive carbon cycle responses to climate change in drylands.

PubMed

Maestre, Fernando T; Escolar, Cristina; de Guevara, Mónica Ladrón; Quero, José L; Lázaro, Roberto; Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel; Ochoa, Victoria; Berdugo, Miguel; Gozalo, Beatriz; Gallardo, Antonio

2013-12-01

Dryland ecosystems account for ca. 27% of global soil organic carbon (C) reserves, yet it is largely unknown how climate change will impact C cycling and storage in these areas. In drylands, soil C concentrates at the surface, making it particularly sensitive to the activity of organisms inhabiting the soil uppermost levels, such as communities dominated by lichens, mosses, bacteria and fungi (biocrusts). We conducted a full factorial warming and rainfall exclusion experiment at two semiarid sites in Spain to show how an average increase of air temperature of 2-3 °C promoted a drastic reduction in biocrust cover (ca. 44% in 4 years). Warming significantly increased soil CO2 efflux, and reduced soil net CO2 uptake, in biocrust-dominated microsites. Losses of biocrust cover with warming through time were paralleled by increases in recalcitrant C sources, such as aromatic compounds, and in the abundance of fungi relative to bacteria. The dramatic reduction in biocrust cover with warming will lessen the capacity of drylands to sequester atmospheric CO2 . This decrease may act synergistically with other warming-induced effects, such as the increase in soil CO2 efflux and the changes in microbial communities to alter C cycling in drylands, and to reduce soil C stocks in the mid to long term. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Dramatic Data: The Possibilities of Ethnodramatic Writing for Understanding the Experiences of English Learners in Community College Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cannon, Anneliese; Blair, Alissa

2014-01-01

In this article, we demonstrate how ethnodramatic writing can offer critically needed insights into the language learning and educational trajectories of a significant yet little researched group of immigrant English learners in community college settings. The participants' reflections and impressions about learning English and about U.S. culture…

Rechoreographing Intercultural Encounters: The Power and Limits of Dramatic Play in Segregated Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leffler, Elliot

2016-01-01

This article examines an Applied Theatre project that was jointly launched by a black Baptist church and a reform synagogue in a US suburb to foster relationships among their members. The suburban community is quite segregated, so the emotional intimacy that develops between the members is striking. Equally significant, however, is the fact that…

What about Certificates? Evidence on the Labor Market Returns to Nondegree Community College Awards in Two States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Di; Trimble, Madeline

2016-01-01

The annual number of certificates awarded by community colleges has increased dramatically, but relatively little research has been conducted on the economic benefits of certificates in the labor market. Based on detailed student-level information from matched college transcript and employment data in two states, this article estimates the…

Determined To Succeed: Re-Entry Women in Community Colleges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kartje, Jean Van Landuyt

The number of women who elect to study at the community college has escalated dramatically during the last three decades. The U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that of the 111,607 associate degrees awarded in 1965-1966, 47,828 (43%) were earned by women. In 1993-1994, 542,449 associate degrees…

Modeling the Role of Community Colleges in Increasing Educational Attainment and Workforce Preparedness. BHEF Working Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Business-Higher Education Forum (NJ1), 2010

2010-01-01

In light of recent data showing that educational attainment rates in the United States have stagnated, the Obama administration and others have called for renewed efforts to bolster higher education outcomes. Strengthening the role of community colleges is undoubtedly an important component of any plan to dramatically increase the number of…

Keeping School Sport Rivalries Respectful: In a Sports-Obsessed World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCollum, Sean

2012-01-01

Great rivalries represent sports at their most dramatic. These contests and the histories behind them can inspire the best in athletes and bring together communities in shared enthusiasm like few other public events can. This is shown in venues large and small, from national pride during the Olympic Games to the community spirit on display when…

Insider's Guide to Community College Administration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jensen, Robert; Giles, Ray; Kirklin, Pat

This book offers advice on the skills and attitudes needed to succeed as a community college leader. As one begins to move up the organizational ladder from program director or assistant dean to dean or vice president, the sphere of influence expands dramatically. There is a greater need to be able to see how programs and decisions affect the…

Developing a Play-Based Communication Assessment through Collaborative Action Research with Teachers in Northern Canadian Indigenous Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stagg Peterson, Shelley

2017-01-01

With the goal of developing culturally appropriate approaches for assessing and supporting children's language use, teachers of 4-to 6-year-old children in northern Canadian rural and Indigenous communities are involved in a 6-year collaborative action research project. Teachers video record children's interactions during dramatic and construction…

Risk and Resilience in Orphaned Adolescents Living in a Community Affected by AIDS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wild, Lauren G.; Flisher, Alan J.; Robertson, Brian A.

2013-01-01

The AIDS pandemic has resulted in a dramatic rise in the number of orphans in South Africa. This study was designed to investigate the associations between family, peer, and community factors and resilience in orphaned adolescents. Self-report questionnaires were administered verbally to 159 parentally bereaved adolescents (aged 10-19) in an…

Putting Community College Enrollment Trends in Perspective by the Use of Census Data and Market Measurement Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boughan, Karl; Robinson, Ophelia

2003-01-01

Over the decade of the 1990s, the student body of Prince George's Community College underwent dramatic shifts in its demographic makeup, as did the school's service area. This paper illustrates the importance, especially in these circumstances, of systematically comparing college enrollment trends with the demographic vectors of the surrounding…

What Happens to Students Who Take Community College "Dual Enrollment" Courses in High School?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fink, John; Jenkins, Davis; Yanagiura, Takeshi

2017-01-01

The number of students taking college courses while they are in high school has grown dramatically over the past two decades--particularly at community colleges--but many colleges and states do not track participants' outcomes. Using student enrollment and degree records from the National Student Clearinghouse, this report is the first to look…

Forest fragmentation and bird community dynamics: inference at regional scales

USGS Publications Warehouse

Boulinier, T.; Nichols, J.D.; Hines, J.E.; Sauer, J.R.; Flather, C.H.; Pollock, K.H.

2001-01-01

With increasing fragmentation of natural areas and a dramatic reduction of forest cover in several parts of the world, quantifying the impact of such changes on species richness and community dynamics has been a subject of much concern. Here, we tested whether in more fragmented landscapes there was a lower number of area-sensitive species and higher local extinction and turnover rates, which could explain higher temporal variability in species richness. To investigate such potential landscape effects at a regional scale, we merged two independent, large-scale monitoring efforts: the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and the Land Use and Land Cover Classification data from the U.S. Geological Survey. We used methods that accounted for heterogeneity in the probability of detecting species to estimate species richness and temporal changes in the bird communities for BBS routes in three mid-Atlantic U.S. states. Forest breeding bird species were grouped prior to the analyses into area-sensitive and non-area-sensitive species according to previous studies. We tested predictions relating measures of forest structure at one point in time (1974) to species richness at that time and to parameters of forest bird community change over the following 22-yr-period (1975-1996). We used the mean size of forest patches to characterize landscape structure, as high correlations among landscape variables did not allow us to disentangle the relative roles of habitat fragmentation per se and habitat loss. As predicted, together with lower species richness for area-sensitive species on routes surrounded by landscapes with lower mean forest-patch size, we found higher mean year-to-year rates of local extinction. Moreover, the mean year-to-year rates of local turnover (proportion of locally new species) for area-sensitive species were also higher in landscapes with lower mean forest-patch size. These associations were not observed for the non-area-sensitive species group. These results suggest that landscape structure may influence forest bird communities at regional scales through its effects on the total number of species but also on the temporal rates of change in community composition. Evidence for higher rates of local extinction and turnover in more fragmented landscapes suggests that bird communities function as metapopulations at a regional scale, and points out the importance of colonizations and recolonizations from surrounding landscapes to local community dynamics. Further, our results illustrate that the methods used to estimate the community parameters can be a powerful statistical tool in addressing questions relative to the dynamics of communities.

Monitoring Hawaiian biodiversity: Pilot study to assess changes to forest birds and their habitat

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gorresen, P. Marcos; Camp, Richard J.; Gaudioso, Jacqueline; Brinck, Kevin W.; Berkowitz, Paul; Jacobi, James D.

2017-01-01

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variety and abundance of species in a defined area, and is one of the oldest and most basic descriptions of biological communities. Understanding how populations and communities are structured and change over space and time in response to internal and external forces is a management priority. Effective management practices and conservation strategies depend on our understanding of the relationship between changes in biodiversity and ecological drivers such as invasive species, land use and climate change. To demonstrate how changes in biodiversity may be monitored over a large (400 km2) tract of native forest habitat, we compared bird and plant community composition and structure in an upper montane region of Hawai‘i Island originally surveyed in 1977 as part of the Hawai‘i Forest Bird Survey (Scott et al. 1986) with a comprehensive sample of the same region in 2015.Our findings suggest that across a region spanning an elevation range of 600 to 2,000 m considerable changes occurred in the plant and bird communities between 1977 and 2015. Endemic and indigenous plants species richness (i.e., total number of species) decreased dramatically in the low and middle elevations below an invasive weed front, whereas naturalized plant species richness did not change between the two periods at any elevation. Endemic bird abundance decreased and two species were lost in the lower elevations (< 1,100 m) between 1977 and 2015, while naturalized bird abundance and the numbers of species increased in the same area. In addition to changes in community composition, the structure of the forest showed evidence of changes in dominant and sub-dominant tree canopy cover, shrub and herbaceous cover, dominant tree canopy height, and matted fern cover. Biodiversity monitoring helps to define specific conservation targets and to measure progress towards reaching those targets. It is difficult to ascribe causative factors to a change in biodiversity without directly manipulating the environment. Forest habitat in a variety of settings (i.e., islands and regions with differing land-use histories and elevation ranges), however, can provide opportunities to evaluate the influence of ecological drivers. Declines in native bird biodiversity in low-elevation areas may be attributed to invasive species as land use and climate conditions have remained relatively similar over the 40-year period. Thus, the shift from an endemic-naturalized co-dominated community in 1977 to one dominated by naturalized, alien birds in 2015, and reduction in native bird abundance over that period, may reflect increasing dominance by naturalized plants within this forested area. Inferences drawn from analyses of region-wide surveys, especially with replicate datasets, will facilitate the identification of broad-scale changes in biodiversity, and provide a needed current datum in Hawaiian plant and bird biodiversity monitoring.

Dramatic Teaching for Dramatic Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graves, Julie

2010-01-01

Ressler's "Dramatic Changes" is a powerful guide for anyone brave enough to create a space for young people to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity. Her accessible style and tangible suggestions describe a creative and educationally sound approach to supporting youth in thoughtfully wrestling with one of the most controversial social…

[Responses of plant community structure and species composition to warming and N addition in an alpine meadow, northern Tibetan Plateau, China].

PubMed

Zong, Ning; Chai, Xi; Shi, Pei Li; Jiang, Jing; Niu, Ben; Zhang, Xian Zhou; He, Yong Tao

2016-12-01

Global climate warming and increasing nitrogen (N) deposition, as controversial global environmental issues, may distinctly affect the functions and processes of terrestrial ecosystems. It has been reported that the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been experiencing significant warming in recent decades, especially in winter. Previous studies have mainly focused on the effects of warming all the year round; however, few studies have tested the effects of winter warming. To investigate the effects of winter warming and N addition on plant community structure and species composition of alpine meadow, long-term N addition and simulated warming experiment was conducted in alpine meadow from 2010 in Damxung, northern Tibet. The experiment consisted of three warming patterns: Year-round warming (YW), winter warming (WW) and control (NW), crossed respectively with five N gradients: 0, 10, 20, 40, 80 kg N·hm -2 ·a -1 . From 2012 to 2014, both warming and N addition significantly affected the total coverage of plant community. Specifically, YW significantly decreased the total coverage of plant community. Without N addition, WW remarkably reduced the vegetation coverage. However, with N addition, the total vegetation coverage gradually increased with the increase of N level. Warming and N addition had different effects on plants from different functional groups. Warming significantly reduced the plant coverage of grasses and sedges, while N addition significantly enhanced the plant coverage of grasses. Regression analyses showed that the total coverage of plant community was positively related to soil water content in vigorous growth stages, indicating that the decrease in soil water content resulted from warming during dry seasons might be the main reason for the decline of total community coverage. As soil moisture in semi-arid alpine meadow is mainly regulated by rainfalls, our results indicated that changes in spatial and temporal patterns of rainfalls under the future climate change scenarios would dramatically influence the vegetation coverage and species composition. Additionally, the effects of increasing atmospheric N deposition on vegetation community might also depend on the change of rainfall patterns.

Buckling of Carbon Nanotubes: A State of the Art Review

PubMed Central

Shima, Hiroyuki

2011-01-01

The nonlinear mechanical response of carbon nanotubes, referred to as their “buckling" behavior, is a major topic in the nanotube research community. Buckling means a deformation process in which a large strain beyond a threshold causes an abrupt change in the strain energy vs. deformation profile. Thus far, much effort has been devoted to analysis of the buckling of nanotubes under various loading conditions: compression, bending, torsion, and their certain combinations. Such extensive studies have been motivated by (i) the structural resilience of nanotubes against buckling and (ii) the substantial influence of buckling on their physical properties. In this contribution, I review the dramatic progress in nanotube buckling research during the past few years. PMID:28817032

Geographies of displacement: Latina/os, oral history, and the politics of gentrification in San Francisco's Mission District.

PubMed

Mirabal, Nancy Raquel

2009-05-01

During the 1990s and early 2000s, working-class and poor neighborhoods in San Francisco underwent dramatic economic and racial changes. One of the most heavily gentrified neighborhoods was the Mission District. As a result of local politics, housing and rental policies, real estate speculation, and development, thousands of Latina/o families were displaced. Using oral historical and ethnographic methodologies, print media, archival sources, and policy papers, this article traces the gentrification of the Mission District from the perspective of the Latina/o community. It also examines how gentrification was articulated as a positive turn within the larger public discourse on space and access.

Regional Approach for Linking Ecosystem Services and Livelihood Strategies Under Climate Change of Pastoral Communities in the Mongolian Steppe Ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ojima, D. S.; Galvin, K.; Togtohyn, C.

2012-12-01

Dramatic changes due to climate and land use dynamics in the Mongolian Plateau affecting ecosystem services and agro-pastoral systems in Mongolia. Recently, market forces and development strategies are affecting land and water resources of the pastoral communities which are being further stressed due to climatic changes. Evaluation of pastoral systems, where humans depend on livestock and grassland ecosystem services, have demonstrated the vulnerability of the social-ecological system to climate change. Current social-ecological changes in ecosystem services are affecting land productivity and carrying capacity, land-atmosphere interactions, water resources, and livelihood strategies. The general trend involves greater intensification of resource exploitation at the expense of traditional patterns of extensive range utilization. Thus we expect climate-land use-land cover relationships to be crucially modified by the social-economic forces. The analysis incorporates information about the social-economic transitions taking place in the region which affect land-use, food security, and ecosystem dynamics. The region of study extends from the Mongolian plateau in Mongolia. Our research indicate that sustainability of pastoral systems in the region needs to integrate the impact of climate change on ecosystem services with socio-economic changes shaping the livelihood strategies of pastoral systems in the region. Adaptation strategies which incorporate integrated analysis of landscape management and livelihood strategies provides a framework which links ecosystem services to critical resource assets. Analysis of the available livelihood assets provides insights to the adaptive capacity of various agents in a region or in a community. Sustainable development pathways which enable the development of these adaptive capacity elements will lead to more effective adaptive management strategies for pastoral land use and herder's living standards. Pastoralists will have the opportunity to utilize seasonal resources and enhance their ability to process and manufacture products from the available ecosystem services in these dynamic social-ecological systems.

Warming shelf seas drive the subtropicalization of European pelagic fish communities.

PubMed

Montero-Serra, Ignasi; Edwards, Martin; Genner, Martin J

2015-01-01

Pelagic fishes are among the most ecologically and economically important fish species in European seas. In principle, these pelagic fishes have potential to demonstrate rapid abundance and distribution shifts in response to climatic variability due to their high adult motility, planktonic larval stages, and low dependence on benthic habitat for food or shelter during their life histories. Here, we provide evidence of substantial climate-driven changes to the structure of pelagic fish communities in European shelf seas. We investigated the patterns of species-level change using catch records from 57,870 fisheries-independent survey trawls from across European continental shelf region between 1965 and 2012. We analysed changes in the distribution and rate of occurrence of the six most common species, and observed a strong subtropicalization of the North Sea and Baltic Sea assemblages. These areas have shifted away from cold-water assemblages typically characterized by Atlantic herring and European sprat from the 1960s to 1980s, to warmer-water assemblages including Atlantic mackerel, Atlantic horse mackerel, European pilchard and European anchovy from the 1990s onwards. We next investigated if warming sea temperatures have forced these changes using temporally comprehensive data from the North Sea region. Our models indicated the primary driver of change in these species has been sea surface temperatures in all cases. Together, these analyses highlight how individual species responses have combined to result in a dramatic subtropicalization of the pelagic fish assemblage of the European continental shelf. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Life history trade-off moderates model predictions of diversity loss from climate change.

PubMed

Moor, Helen

2017-01-01

Climate change can trigger species range shifts, local extinctions and changes in diversity. Species interactions and dispersal capacity are important mediators of community responses to climate change. The interaction between multispecies competition and variation in dispersal capacity has recently been shown to exacerbate the effects of climate change on diversity and to increase predictions of extinction risk dramatically. Dispersal capacity, however, is part of a species' overall ecological strategy and are likely to trade off with other aspects of its life history that influence population growth and persistence. In plants, a well-known example is the trade-off between seed mass and seed number. The presence of such a trade-off might buffer the diversity loss predicted by models with random but neutral (i.e. not impacting fitness otherwise) differences in dispersal capacity. Using a trait-based metacommunity model along a warming climatic gradient the effect of three different dispersal scenarios on model predictions of diversity change were compared. Adding random variation in species dispersal capacity caused extinctions by the introduction of strong fitness differences due an inherent property of the dispersal kernel. Simulations including a fitness-equalising trade-off based on empirical relationships between seed mass (here affecting dispersal distance, establishment probability, and seedling biomass) and seed number (fecundity) maintained higher initial species diversity and predicted lower extinction risk and diversity loss during climate change than simulations with variable dispersal capacity. Large seeded species persisted during climate change, but developed lags behind their climate niche that may cause extinction debts. Small seeded species were more extinction-prone during climate change but tracked their niches through dispersal and colonisation, despite competitive resistance from residents. Life history trade-offs involved in coexistence mechanisms may increase community resilience to future climate change and are useful guides for model development.

From cooperation to combat: adverse effect of thermal stress in a symbiotic coral-crustacean community.

PubMed

Stella, J S; Munday, P L; Walker, S P W; Pratchett, M S; Jones, G P

2014-04-01

Although mutualisms are ubiquitous in nature, our understanding of the potential impacts of climate change on these important ecological interactions is deficient. Here, we report on a thermal stress-related shift from cooperation to antagonism between members of a mutualistic coral-dwelling community. Increased mortality of coral-defending crustacean symbionts Trapezia cymodoce (coral crab) and Alpheus lottini (snapping shrimp) was observed in response to experimentally elevated temperatures and reduced coral-host (Pocillopora damicornis) condition. However, strong differential numerical effects occurred among crustaceans as a function of species and sex, with shrimp (75%), and female crabs (55%), exhibiting the fastest and greatest declines in numbers. These declines were due to forceful eviction from the coral-host by male crabs. Furthermore, surviving female crabs were impacted by a dramatic decline (85%) in egg production, which could have deleterious consequences for population sustainability. Our results suggest that elevated temperature switches the fundamental nature of this interaction from cooperation to competition, leading to asymmetrical effects on species and/or sexes. Our study illustrates the importance of evaluating not only individual responses to climate change, but also potentially fragile interactions within and among susceptible species.

Seasonal-related effects on ammonium removal in activated carbon filter biologically enhanced by heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria for drinking water treatment.

PubMed

Qin, Wen; Li, Wei-Guang; Gong, Xu-Jin; Huang, Xiao-Fei; Fan, Wen-Biao; Zhang, Duoying; Yao, Peng; Wang, Xiao-Ju; Song, Yang

2017-08-01

To determine the potential effects of seasonal changes on water temperature and water quality upon removal of ammonium and organic carbon pollutants and to characterize the variations in microbial characteristics, a pilot-scale activated carbon filter biologically enhanced with heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria was investigated for 528 days. The results show that 69.2 ± 28.6% of ammonium and 23.1 ± 11.6% of the dissolved organic carbon were removed by the biologically enhanced activated carbon (BEAC) reactor. It is shown that higher biodegradable dissolved organic carbon enhances ammonium removal, even at low temperatures. The C/N ratio consumed by the BEAC reactor reached a steady value (i.e., 3.3) after 2 months of operation. Despite seasonal fluctuations and competition of the indigenous community, the heterotrophic nitrifying bacteria (Acinetobacter sp. HRBLi 16 and Acinetobacter harbinensis strain HITLi 7) remained relatively stable. The amount of carbon source was the most significant environmental parameter and dramatically affected the microbial community compositions in the BEAC reactor. The present study provides new insights into the application of a BEAC reactor for ammonium removal from drinking water, resisting strong seasonal changes.

Newborn survival in Nepal: a decade of change and future implications.

PubMed

Pradhan, Y V; Upreti, Shyam Raj; Pratap K C, Naresh; K C, Ashish; Khadka, Neena; Syed, Uzma; Kinney, Mary V; Adhikari, Ramesh Kant; Shrestha, Parashu Ram; Thapa, Kusum; Bhandari, Amit; Grear, Kristina; Guenther, Tanya; Wall, Stephen N

2012-07-01

Nepal is on target to meet the Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child health despite high levels of poverty, poor infrastructure, difficult terrain and recent conflict. Each year, nearly 35,000 Nepali children die before their fifth birthday, with almost two-thirds of these deaths occurring in the first month of life, the neonatal period. As part of a multi-country analysis, we examined changes for newborn survival between 2000 and 2010 in terms of mortality, coverage and health system indicators as well as national and donor funding. Over the decade, Nepal's neonatal mortality rate reduced by 3.6% per year, which is faster than the regional average (2.0%) but slower than national annual progress for mortality of children aged 1-59 months (7.7%) and maternal mortality (7.5%). A dramatic reduction in the total fertility rate, improvements in female education and increasing change in skilled birth attendance, as well as increased coverage of community-based child health interventions, are likely to have contributed to these mortality declines. Political commitment and support for newborn survival has been generated through strategic use of global and national data and effective partnerships using primarily a selective newborn-focused approach for advocacy and planning. Nepal was the first low-income country to have a national newborn strategy, influencing similar strategies in other countries. The Community-Based Newborn Care Package is delivered through the nationally available Female Community Health Volunteers and was piloted in 10 of 75 districts, with plans to increase to 35 districts in mid-2013. Innovation and scale up, especially of community-based packages, and public health interventions and commodities appear to move relatively rapidly in Nepal compared with some other countries. Much remains to be done to achieve high rates of effective coverage of community care, and especially to improve the quality of facility-based care given the rapid shift to births in facilities.

Particulate organic matter predicts bacterial productivity in a river dominated estuary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crump, B. C.

2015-12-01

Estuaries act as coastal filters for organic and inorganic fluvial materials in which microbial, biogeochemical, and ecological processes combine to transform organic matter and nutrients prior to export to the coastal ocean. The function of this estuarine 'bioreactor' is linked to the residence times of those materials and to rates of microbial heterotrophic activity. Our ability to forecast the impact of global change on estuarine bioreactor function requires an understanding of the basic controls on microbial community activity and diversity. In the Columbia River estuary, the microbial community undergoes a dramatic seasonal shift in species composition during which a spring bacterioplankton community, dominated by Flavobacteriaceae and Oceanospirillales, is replaced by a summer community, dominated by Rhodobacteraceae and several common marine taxa. This annual shift occurs in July, following the spring freshet, when river flow and river chlorophyll concentration decrease and when estuarine water residence time increases. Analysis of a large dataset from 17 research cruises (1990-2014) showed that the composition of particulate organic matter in the estuary changes after the freshet with decreasing organic carbon and nitrogen content, and increasing contribution of marine and autochthonous estuarine organic matter (based on PO13C and pigment ratios). Bacterial production rates (measured as leucine or thymidine incorporation rates) in the estuary respond to this change, and correlate strongly with labile particulate nitrogen concentration and temperature during individual sampling campaigns, and with the concentration of chlorophyll in the Columbia River across all seasons. Regression models suggest that the concentration of labile particulate nitrogen and the rate of bacterial production can be predicted from sensor measurements of turbidity, salinity, and temperature in the estuary and chlorophyll in the river. These results suggest that the quality of particulate organic matter supplied by the river influences the composition of estuarine bacterial communities and the degree to which the Columbia River estuary functions as a bioreactor for fluvial particulate material.

Adolescence and changing family relations in the Central Canadian Arctic.

PubMed

Condon, R G

1990-04-01

This paper reports on a ten-year longitudinal study of adolescent development and socialization conducted in the Copper Inuit community of Holman. This research has documented how demographic, social, and economic changes have dramatically altered the patterning and sequencing of traditional Inuit life stages, thus giving rise to a prolonged adolescent life stage which was non-existent in the precontact period. At the same time, Inuit family relations have undergone drastic changes as a result of population increase, population concentration, access to government housing, introduction of formal schooling, and the availability of social subsides. Today, the Copper Inuit family has lost its focus as the primary agent of socialization and learning, and many young Inuit now spend most of their time within the context of a greatly expanded peer group which has gradually acquired the values and aspirations of the southern adolescent sub-culture. This paper will discuss the impact of these changing attitudes upon parent-child relations as well as the social adjustment problems experienced by young Inuit as they strive to find a place in the North's changing social landscape.

Biological response to climate change on a tropical mountain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pounds, J. Alan; Fogden, Michael P. L.; Campbell, John H.

1999-04-01

Recent warming has caused changes in species distribution and abundance, but the extent of the effects is unclear. Here we investigate whether such changes in highland forests at Monteverde, Costa Rica, are related to the increase in air temperatures that followed a step-like warming of tropical oceans in 1976 (refs4, 5). Twenty of 50 species of anurans (frogs and toads) in a 30-km2 study area, including the locally endemic golden toad (Bufo periglenes), disappeared following synchronous population crashes in 1987 (refs 6-8). Our results indicate that these crashes probably belong to a constellation of demographic changes that have altered communities of birds, reptiles and amphibians in the area and are linked to recent warming. The changes are all associated with patterns of dry-season mist frequency, which is negatively correlated with sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific and has declined dramatically since the mid-1970s. The biological and climatic patterns suggest that atmospheric warming has raised the average altitude at the base of the orographic cloud bank, as predicted by the lifting-cloud-base hypothesis,.

Adaptation of Bird Communities to Farmland Abandonment in a Mountain Landscape

PubMed Central

Guilherme, João Lopes; Miguel Pereira, Henrique

2013-01-01

Widespread farmland abandonment has led to significant landscape transformations of many European mountain areas. These semi-natural multi-habitat landscapes are important reservoirs of biodiversity and their abandonment has important conservation implications. In multi-habitat landscapes the adaptation of communities depends on the differential affinity of the species to the available habitats. We use nested species-area relationships (SAR) to model species richness patterns of bird communities across scales in a mountain landscape, in NW Portugal. We compare the performance of the classic-SAR and the countryside-SAR (i.e. multi-habitat) models at the landscape scale, and compare species similarity decay (SSD) at the regional scale. We find a considerable overlap of bird communities in the different land-uses (farmland, shrubland and oak forest) at the landscape scale. Analysis of the classic and countryside SAR show that specialist species are strongly related to their favourite habitat. Farmland and shrubland have higher regional SSD compared to oak forests. However, this is due to the opportunistic use of farmlands by generalist birds. Forest specialists display significant regional turnover in oak forest. Overall, the countryside-SAR model had a better fit to the data showing that habitat composition determines species richness across scales. Finally, we use the countryside-SAR model to forecast bird diversity under four scenarios of land-use change. Farmland abandonment scenarios show little impact on bird diversity as the model predicts that the complete loss of farmland is less dramatic, in terms of species diversity loss, than the disappearance of native Galicio-Portuguese oak forest. The affinities of species to non-preferred habitats suggest that bird communities can adapt to land-use changes derived from farmland abandonment. Based on model predictions we argue that rewilding may be a suitable management option for many European mountain areas. PMID:24023892

Knowledge Assessment of the Dental Community in Texas on the Role of Human Papilloma Virus in Oropharyngeal Cancer.

PubMed

Rowan, Stephanie D; Hu, Shirley L; Brotzman, Jacob S; Redding, Spencer W; Rankin, K Vendrell; Vigneswaran, Nadarajah

2015-08-01

The epidemiology of oral cancer is changing. From 1988 to 2004, there has been a dramatic increase in Human Papilloma virus (HPV) positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPC) in the U.S. At the same time there have been decreasing rates of OPC associated with the traditional risk factors of smoking and alcohol consumption. The epidemiology of oral cancer is changing. As the epidemiology changes, it is important that the dental community recognize these factors. The goal of this study was to assess the baseline level of knowledge about HPV and OPC within the Texas dental community. Practicing dentists and dental hygienists from Texas dental professional networks and dental students from the three Texas schools of dentistry were recruited to participate in the study. Participants were requested to access and complete a 7-item online survey. To ensure anonymity, a third party practice facilitator or department administrator disseminated the survey link to participants. Of the 457 surveys completed, 100% of respondents reported conducting oral soft tissue examinations at least annually. However, only 73% included the oropharynx in their exam. Less than 50% of dental professionals selected the correct location of the greatest increase in oral cancer incidence during the last 10 years. Less than 30% of each of the groups answered correctly in indicating the age group with the most rapidly increasing incidence of oral cancer. Approximately 40% of all groups indicated that a biopsy from the posterior oropharynx should be tested for HPV. Survey results across Texas dentists, dental hygienists, and Texas dental students demonstrated a lack of knowledge of the changing profile of oral cancer regarding HPV-associated OPC. This aim of this initial phase was to determine the baseline level of knowledge surrounding the risks associated with oropharyngeal cancer in the survey population. Our goal is to utilize these findings to develop educational interventions that will be disseminated throughout the dental community in Texas to improve diagnosis of these devastating cancers.

Decadal changes in north-American tundra plant communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Villarreal, S.; Johnson, D. R.; Webber, P.; Ebert-May, D.; Hollister, R. D.; Tweedie, C. E.

2013-12-01

Improving our understanding of how tundra vegetation responds to environmental change over decadal time scales is important. Tundra plants and ecosystems are well-recognized for their susceptibility to be impacted by climate warming; changes in land-atmosphere carbon, water, and energy balance in tundra landscapes have the potential to impact regional to global-scale climate, and relatively few studies examining change in tundra landscapes have spanned decadal time scales. The majority of our understanding of tundra vegetation responses to environmental change has been derived from studies along environmental gradients, experimental manipulations, and modeling. This study synthesizes the rescue and resampling of historic vegetation study sites established during the 1960's and 1970's at three arctic tundra locations (Baffin Island, Canada, Barrow, Alaska, and Atqasuk, Alaska), and one alpine tundra location (Niwot Ridge, Colorado). We conducted a meta-analysis to examine decadal changes in plant community composition, species richness, species evenness, and species diversity at all locations and for three broad soil moisture classes (dry, moist, wet). For all sites, except Baffin Island, change over the last decade was compared with long term change to determine if rates of change have altered over time. Change in plant community composition was most dramatic at Barrow and Baffin Island (P < 0.05), while less change was detected at Niwot Ridge (P < 0.10), and Atqasuk. Plant communities also changed for all soil moisture classes. The rate of change at Barrow and in moist soil classes appears to have quickened over the last decade. Rates of early plant successional change at Baffin Island appear to have quickened relative to rates documented in the mid 1960's. There were no changes in species richness at any of the locations, but there appears to be acceleration in the loss of species richness for dry and moist tundra. Species evenness increased at Atqasuk and in dry and wet tundra but decreased at Niwot Ridge in moist tundra. A loss in species diversity was detected in moist tundra in the decadal study, while diversity increased for dry and wet tundra. Baffin Island was the only location to show evidence of an increase in species diversity. This study appears to be among the first to document an acceleration of vegetation change in tundra landscapes using decadal time scale observational data, and highlights the importance of both sustained monitoring, and the rescue and resampling of historic sites, which have proven to be effective in advancing our knowledge of vegetation change dynamics. This project was a contribution to the International Polar Year Back to the Future project (IPY#512).

Technology Usage among Community College Faculty in First-Time-in-College Classes: A Call to Standardization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goomas, David T.

2013-01-01

Technology in higher education has played an increasingly dramatic role, particularly on community college campuses, with emphasis on how to provide better services to students via the use of technology. This report examines the challenge for faculty teaching first-time-in-college (FTIC) classes at El Centro College of the Dallas County Community…

The Effectiveness of Web-Delivered Learning with Aboriginal Students: Findings from a Study in Coastal Labrador

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Philpott, David; Sharpe, Dennis; Neville, Rose

2009-01-01

This paper outlines the findings of a study that explores perspectives of e-learning for aboriginal students in five coastal communities in Labrador, Canada. The rural nature of many communities in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, coupled with a dramatically declining enrollment, has resulted in expanding use of e-learning as a means to…

C.A.M.P.: A Community-Based Approach to Promoting Safe Sex Behavior in Adolescence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guzman, Bianca L.; Casad, Bettina J.; Schlehofer-Sutton, Michele M.; Villanueva, Christina M.; Feria, Aida

The primary goal of this study was to assess the Community Awareness Motivation Partnership (C.A.M.P.) theater intervention based on the behavioral ecological model. C.A.M.P addresses the role of contraceptive use in safe sex behavior through an informative and entertaining culturally relevant dramatization program. Adolescents (N=1613) between…

Small mammal communities and habitat selection in Northern Rocky Mountain bunchgrass: Implications for exotic plant invasions

Treesearch

Dean E. Pearson; Yvette K. Ortega; Kevin S. McKelvey; Leonard F. Ruggiero

2001-01-01

Agriculture and development have dramatically reduced the range of native bunchgrass habitats in the Northern Rocky Mountains, and the invasion of exotic plants threatens to greatly alter the remaining pristine prairie. Small mammals play many important roles in ecosystem functions, but little is known about small mammal community composition and structure in native...

San Mateo County's Server Information Program (S.I.P.): A Community-Based Alcohol Server Training Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Miranda, John

The field of alcohol server awareness and training has grown dramatically in the past several years and the idea of training servers to reduce alcohol problems has become a central fixture in the current alcohol policy debate. The San Mateo County, California Server Information Program (SIP) is a community-based prevention strategy designed to…

Latina/o Student Success at an Emerging Hispanic Serving Community College: Understanding the Heuristics at Work in the Black Box

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brandes, Derek R.

2013-01-01

Like many colleges across the United States, Pipe Lake Community College (PLCC), (a pseudonym) has experienced a dramatic increase in enrollment of Latina/o students and is considered an emerging Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Other than Santiago & Andrade's (2010) survey, little research has been conducted on emerging HSIs. Also, little…

Benthic biological and biogeochemical patterns and processes across an oxygen minimum zone (Pakistan margin, NE Arabian Sea)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowie, Gregory L.; Levin, Lisa A.

2009-03-01

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) impinging on continental margins present sharp gradients ideal for testing environmental factors thought to influence C cycling and other benthic processes, and for identifying the roles that biota play in these processes. Here we introduce the objectives and initial results of a multinational research program designed to address the influences of water depth, the OMZ (˜150-1300 m), and organic matter (OM) availability on benthic communities and processes across the Pakistan Margin of the Arabian Sea. Hydrologic, sediment, and faunal characterizations were combined with in-situ and shipboard experiments to quantify and compare biogeochemical processes and fluxes, OM burial efficiency, and the contributions of benthic communities, across the OMZ. In this introductory paper, we briefly review previous related work in the Arabian Sea, building the rationale for integrative biogeochemical and ecological process studies. This is followed by a summary of individual volume contributions and a brief synthesis of results. Five primary stations were studied, at 140, 300, 940, 1200 and 1850 m water depth, with sampling in March-May (intermonsoon) and August-October (late-to-postmonsoon) 2003. Taken together, the contributed papers demonstrate distinct cross-margin gradients, not only in oxygenation and sediment OM content, but in benthic community structure and function, including microbial processes, the extent of bioturbation, and faunal roles in C cycling. Hydrographic studies demonstrated changes in the intensity and extent of the OMZ during the SW monsoon, with a shoaling of the upper OMZ boundary that engulfed the previously oxygenated 140-m site. Oxygen profiling and microbial process rate determinations demonstrated dramatic differences in oxygen penetration and consumption across the margin, and in the relative importance of anaerobic processes, but surprisingly little seasonal change. A broad maximum in sediment OM content occurred on the upper slope, roughly coincident with the OMZ; but the otherwise poor correlation with bottom-water oxygen concentrations indicated that other factors are important in determining sediment OM distributions. Downcore profiles generally showed little clear evidence of in-situ OM alteration, and there was little sign of OM enrichment resulting from the southwest monsoon in sediments collected in the late-to-postmonsoon sampling. This is interpreted to be due to rapid cycling of labile OM. Organic geochemical studies confirmed that sediment OM is overwhelmingly of marine origin across the margin, but also that it is heavily altered, with only small changes in degradation state across the OMZ. More negative stable C isotopic compositions in surficial sediments at hypoxic sites within the OMZ core are attributed to a chemosynthetic bacterial imprint. Dramatic changes in benthic community structure occurred across the lower OMZ transition, apparently related to OM availability and quality as well as to DO concentrations. High-resolution sampling, biomarkers and isotope tracer studies revealed that oxygen availability appears to exert threshold-type controls on benthic community structure and early faunal C processing. Biomarker studies also provided evidence of faunal influence on sediment OM composition. Together, the results offer strong evidence that benthic fauna at sites across the margin play important roles in the early cycling of sediment OM through differential feeding and bioturbation activities.

Functional and Structural Succession of Soil Microbial Communities below Decomposing Human Cadavers

PubMed Central

Cobaugh, Kelly L.; Schaeffer, Sean M.; DeBruyn, Jennifer M.

2015-01-01

The ecological succession of microbes during cadaver decomposition has garnered interest in both basic and applied research contexts (e.g. community assembly and dynamics; forensic indicator of time since death). Yet current understanding of microbial ecology during decomposition is almost entirely based on plant litter. We know very little about microbes recycling carcass-derived organic matter despite the unique decomposition processes. Our objective was to quantify the taxonomic and functional succession of microbial populations in soils below decomposing cadavers, testing the hypotheses that a) periods of increased activity during decomposition are associated with particular taxa; and b) human-associated taxa are introduced to soils, but do not persist outside their host. We collected soils from beneath four cadavers throughout decomposition, and analyzed soil chemistry, microbial activity and bacterial community structure. As expected, decomposition resulted in pulses of soil C and nutrients (particularly ammonia) and stimulated microbial activity. There was no change in total bacterial abundances, however we observed distinct changes in both function and community composition. During active decay (7 - 12 days postmortem), respiration and biomass production rates were high: the community was dominated by Proteobacteria (increased from 15.0 to 26.1% relative abundance) and Firmicutes (increased from 1.0 to 29.0%), with reduced Acidobacteria abundances (decreased from 30.4 to 9.8%). Once decay rates slowed (10 - 23 d postmortem), respiration was elevated, but biomass production rates dropped dramatically; this community with low growth efficiency was dominated by Firmicutes (increased to 50.9%) and other anaerobic taxa. Human-associated bacteria, including the obligately anaerobic Bacteroides, were detected at high concentrations in soil throughout decomposition, up to 198 d postmortem. Our results revealed the pattern of functional and compositional succession in soil microbial communities during decomposition of human-derived organic matter, provided insight into decomposition processes, and identified putative predictor populations for time since death estimation. PMID:26067226

Women as Workers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrett, Nancy S.

As increasing numbers of women make the transition from the household sector into the labor market, dramatic changes in household composition have occurred that have thrust many women into the role of provider. This new role for women has led to dramatic and rapid changes in attitudes, as well as in the institutions and laws relating to women's…

Changing the balance of social care for older people: simulating scenarios under demographic ageing in New Zealand.

PubMed

Lay-Yee, Roy; Pearson, Janet; Davis, Peter; von Randow, Martin; Kerse, Ngaire; Brown, Laurie

2017-05-01

The demographic ageing of New Zealand society, as elsewhere in the developed world, has dramatically increased the proportion of older people (aged 65 years and over) in the population. This has major policy implications for the future organisation of social care. Our objective was to test the effects on social care use, first, of putative changes in the overall disability profile of older people, and second, of alterations to the balance of their care, i.e. whether it was community-based or residential. In order to undertake these experiments, we developed a microsimulation model of the later life course using individual-level data from two official national survey series on health and disability, respectively, to generate a synthetic version which replicated original data and parameter settings. A baseline projection under current settings from 2001 to 2021 showed moderate increases in disability and associated social care use. Artificially decreasing disability levels, below the baseline projection, only moderately reduced the use of community care (both informal and formal). Scenarios implemented by rebalancing towards informal care use moderately reduced formal care use. However, only moderate compensatory increases in community-based care were required to markedly decrease the transition to residential care. The disability impact of demographic ageing may not have a major negative effect on system resources in developed countries like New Zealand. As well as healthy ageing, changing the balance of social care may alleviate the impact of increasing demand due to an expanding population of older people. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Bacterial community succession in a high-altitude subarctic glacier foreland is a three-stage process.

PubMed

Kazemi, Sina; Hatam, Ido; Lanoil, Brian

2016-11-01

Alpine glaciers are retreating rapidly, exposing foreland minerals, which develop into soils. Bacterial communities in glacier forelands exhibit high rates of turnover and undergo dramatic shifts in composition within the first 50 years after deglaciation, followed by relative stabilization and convergence. This period of microbial development occurs simultaneously with plant colonization in most systems; thus, it remains unclear whether the changes in the bacterial communities occur primarily as the result of edaphic, climatic or biotic factors. We examined bacterial community structure along two replicate chronosequences within the glacial foreland of Duke River Glacier, Yukon, Canada. This foreland is estimated to include >200 years of bare soils before an appreciable grassline, likely due to the high latitude and altitude of the glacier. This enabled us to examine bacterial community development prior to plant colonization over a longer period than previous studies. We observed three successional groups in the chronosequence: (i) an 'early' group in soils of less than approximately 50 years since deglaciation; (ii) an 'intermediate' group within bare soils, after the early period but before the grassline, containing communities with a relatively high degree of variability in composition; and (iii) a 'grassline' group in soils collected after plant colonization with higher diversity but lower age-group variability in community composition. These findings suggest rapid replacement and addition of species better adapted to glacier foreland conditions followed by slower community shifts over the next 150 years and, finally, indications of a possible response to plant colonization. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Standard filtration practices may significantly distort planktonic microbial diversity estimates.

PubMed

Padilla, Cory C; Ganesh, Sangita; Gantt, Shelby; Huhman, Alex; Parris, Darren J; Sarode, Neha; Stewart, Frank J

2015-01-01

Fractionation of biomass by filtration is a standard method for sampling planktonic microbes. It is unclear how the taxonomic composition of filtered biomass changes depending on sample volume. Using seawater from a marine oxygen minimum zone, we quantified the 16S rRNA gene composition of biomass on a prefilter (1.6 μm pore-size) and a downstream 0.2 μm filter over sample volumes from 0.05 to 5 L. Significant community shifts occurred in both filter fractions, and were most dramatic in the prefilter community. Sequences matching Vibrionales decreased from ~40 to 60% of prefilter datasets at low volumes (0.05-0.5 L) to less than 5% at higher volumes, while groups such at the Chromatiales and Thiohalorhabdales followed opposite trends, increasing from minor representation to become the dominant taxa at higher volumes. Groups often associated with marine particles, including members of the Deltaproteobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Bacteroidetes, were among those showing the greatest increase with volume (4 to 27-fold). Taxon richness (97% similarity clusters) also varied significantly with volume, and in opposing directions depending on filter fraction, highlighting potential biases in community complexity estimates. These data raise concerns for studies using filter fractionation for quantitative comparisons of aquatic microbial diversity, for example between free-living and particle-associated communities.

Abandoned floodplain plant communities along a regulated dryland river

USGS Publications Warehouse

Reynolds, L. V.; Shafroth, Patrick B.; House, P. K.

2014-01-01

Rivers and their floodplains worldwide have changed dramatically over the last century because of regulation by dams, flow diversions and channel stabilization. Floodplains no longer inundated by river flows following dam-induced flood reduction comprise large areas of bottomland habitat, but the effects of abandonment on plant communities are not well understood. Using a hydraulic flow model, geomorphic mapping and field surveys, we addressed the following questions along the Bill Williams River, Arizona: (i) What per cent of the bottomland do abandoned floodplains comprise? and (ii) Are abandoned floodplains quantitatively different from adjacent xeric and riparian surfaces in terms of vegetation composition and surface sediment? We found that nearly 70% of active channel and floodplain area was abandoned following dam installation. Abandoned floodplains along the Bill Williams River tend to be similar to each other yet distinct from neighbouring habitats: they have been altered physically from their historic state, leading to distinct combinations of surface sediments, hydrology and plant communities. Abandoned floodplains may transition to xeric communities over time but are likely to retain some riparian qualities as long as there is access to relatively shallow ground water. With expected increases in water demand and drying climatic conditions in many regions, these surfaces and associated vegetation will continue to be extensive in riparian landscapes worldwide

Community Structures of Fecal Bacteria in Cattle from Different Animal Feeding Operations▿†

PubMed Central

Shanks, Orin C.; Kelty, Catherine A.; Archibeque, Shawn; Jenkins, Michael; Newton, Ryan J.; McLellan, Sandra L.; Huse, Susan M.; Sogin, Mitchell L.

2011-01-01

The fecal microbiome of cattle plays a critical role not only in animal health and productivity but also in food safety, pathogen shedding, and the performance of fecal pollution detection methods. Unfortunately, most published molecular surveys fail to provide adequate detail about variability in the community structures of fecal bacteria within and across cattle populations. Using massively parallel pyrosequencing of a hypervariable region of the rRNA coding region, we profiled the fecal microbial communities of cattle from six different feeding operations where cattle were subjected to consistent management practices for a minimum of 90 days. We obtained a total of 633,877 high-quality sequences from the fecal samples of 30 adult beef cattle (5 individuals per operation). Sequence-based clustering and taxonomic analyses indicate less variability within a population than between populations. Overall, bacterial community composition correlated significantly with fecal starch concentrations, largely reflected in changes in the Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Firmicutes populations. In addition, network analysis demonstrated that annotated sequences clustered by management practice and fecal starch concentration, suggesting that the structures of bovine fecal bacterial communities can be dramatically different in different animal feeding operations, even at the phylum and family taxonomic levels, and that the feeding operation is a more important determinant of the cattle microbiome than is the geographic location of the feedlot. PMID:21378055

Virioplankton: Viruses in Aquatic Ecosystems†

PubMed Central

Wommack, K. Eric; Colwell, Rita R.

2000-01-01

The discovery that viruses may be the most abundant organisms in natural waters, surpassing the number of bacteria by an order of magnitude, has inspired a resurgence of interest in viruses in the aquatic environment. Surprisingly little was known of the interaction of viruses and their hosts in nature. In the decade since the reports of extraordinarily large virus populations were published, enumeration of viruses in aquatic environments has demonstrated that the virioplankton are dynamic components of the plankton, changing dramatically in number with geographical location and season. The evidence to date suggests that virioplankton communities are composed principally of bacteriophages and, to a lesser extent, eukaryotic algal viruses. The influence of viral infection and lysis on bacterial and phytoplankton host communities was measurable after new methods were developed and prior knowledge of bacteriophage biology was incorporated into concepts of parasite and host community interactions. The new methods have yielded data showing that viral infection can have a significant impact on bacteria and unicellular algae populations and supporting the hypothesis that viruses play a significant role in microbial food webs. Besides predation limiting bacteria and phytoplankton populations, the specific nature of virus-host interaction raises the intriguing possibility that viral infection influences the structure and diversity of aquatic microbial communities. Novel applications of molecular genetic techniques have provided good evidence that viral infection can significantly influence the composition and diversity of aquatic microbial communities. PMID:10704475

Effects of pyrite and sphalerite on population compositions, dynamics and copper extraction efficiency in chalcopyrite bioleaching process.

PubMed

Xiao, Yunhua; Liu, Xueduan; Dong, Weiling; Liang, Yili; Niu, Jiaojiao; Gu, Yabing; Ma, Liyuan; Hao, Xiaodong; Zhang, Xian; Xu, Zhen; Yin, Huaqun

2017-07-01

This study used an artificial microbial community with four known moderately thermophilic acidophiles (three bacteria including Acidithiobacillus caldus S1, Sulfobacillus thermosulfidooxidans ST and Leptospirillum ferriphilum YSK, and one archaea, Ferroplasma thermophilum L1) to explore the variation of microbial community structure, composition, dynamics and function (e.g., copper extraction efficiency) in chalcopyrite bioleaching (C) systems with additions of pyrite (CP) or sphalerite (CS). The community compositions and dynamics in the solution and on the ore surface were investigated by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR). The results showed that the addition of pyrite or sphalerite changed the microbial community composition and dynamics dramatically during the chalcopyrite bioleaching process. For example, A. caldus (above 60%) was the dominant species at the initial stage in three groups, and at the middle stage, still dominated C group (above 70%), but it was replaced by L. ferriphilum (above 60%) in CP and CS groups; at the final stage, L. ferriphilum dominated C group, while F. thermophilum dominated CP group on the ore surface. Furthermore, the additions of pyrite or sphalerite both made the increase of redox potential (ORP) and the concentrations of Fe 3+ and H + , which would affect the microbial community compositions and copper extraction efficiency. Additionally, pyrite could enhance copper extraction efficiency (e.g., improving around 13.2% on day 6) during chalcopyrite bioleaching; on the contrary, sphalerite restrained it.

Supplementary feeding restructures urban bird communities

PubMed Central

Galbraith, Josie A.; Jones, Darryl N.; Stanley, Margaret C.

2015-01-01

Food availability is a primary driver of avian population regulation. However, few studies have considered the effects of what is essentially a massive supplementary feeding experiment: the practice of wild bird feeding. Bird feeding has been posited as an important factor influencing the structure of bird communities, especially in urban areas, although experimental evidence to support this is almost entirely lacking. We carried out an 18-mo experimental feeding study at 23 residential properties to investigate the effects of bird feeding on local urban avian assemblages. Our feeding regime was based on predominant urban feeding practices in our region. We used monthly bird surveys to compare avian community composition, species richness, and the densities of local species at feeding and nonfeeding properties. Avian community structure diverged at feeding properties and five of the commonest garden bird species were affected by the experimental feeding regime. Introduced birds particularly benefitted, with dramatic increases observed in the abundances of house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and spotted dove (Streptopelia chinensis) in particular. We also found evidence of a negative effect on the abundance of a native insectivore, the grey warbler (Gerygone igata). Almost all of the observed changes did not persist once feeding had ceased. Our study directly demonstrates that the human pastime of bird feeding substantially contributes to the structure of avian community in urban areas, potentially altering the balance between native and introduced species. PMID:25941361

Response of estuarine biofilm microbial community development to changes in dissolved oxygen and nutrient concentrations.

PubMed

Nocker, Andreas; Lepo, Joe Eugene; Martin, Linda Lin; Snyder, Richard Allan

2007-10-01

The information content and responsiveness of microbial biofilm community structure, as an integrative indicator of water quality, was assessed against short-term changes in oxygen and nutrient loading in an open-water estuarine setting. Biofilms were grown for 7-day periods on artificial substrates in the Pensacola Bay estuary, Florida, in the vicinity of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) outfall and a nearby reference site. Substrates were deployed floating at the surface and near the benthos in 5.4 m of water. Three sampling events covered a 1-month period coincident with declining seasonal WWTP flow and increasing dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in the bottom waters. Biomass accumulation in benthic biofilms appeared to be controlled by oxygen rather than nutrients. The overriding effect of DO was also seen in DNA fingerprints of community structure by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) of amplified 16S rRNA genes. Ribotype diversity in benthic biofilms at both sites dramatically increased during the transition from hypoxic to normoxic. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns showed pronounced differences between benthic and surface biofilm communities from the same site in terms of signal type, strength, and diversity, but minor differences between sites. Sequencing of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries from benthic biofilms at the WWTP site suggested that low DO levels favored sulfate-reducing prokaryotes (SRP), which decreased with rising oxygen levels and increasing overall diversity. A 91-bp ribotype in the CfoI-restricted 16S rRNA gene T-RFLP profiles, indicative of SRP, tracked the decrease in relative SRP abundance over time.

Uganda's HIV Prevention Success: The Role of Sexual Behavior Change and the National Response

PubMed Central

Green, Edward C.; Nantulya, Vinand; Hogle, Janice A.

2006-01-01

There has been considerable interest in understanding what may have led to Uganda's dramatic decline in HIV prevalence, one of the world's earliest and most compelling AIDS prevention successes. Survey and other data suggest that a decline in multi-partner sexual behavior is the behavioral change most likely associated with HIV decline. It appears that behavior change programs, particularly involving extensive promotion of “zero grazing” (faithfulness and partner reduction), largely developed by the Ugandan government and local NGOs including faith-based, women’s, people-living-with-AIDS and other community-based groups, contributed to the early declines in casual/multiple sexual partnerships and HIV incidence and, along with other factors including condom use, to the subsequent sharp decline in HIV prevalence. Yet the debate over “what happened in Uganda” continues, often involving divisive abstinence-versus-condoms rhetoric, which appears more related to the culture wars in the USA than to African social reality. PMID:16688475

An evaluation of restoration efforts in fishless lakes stocked with exotic trout

USGS Publications Warehouse

Drake, D.C.; Naiman, R.J.

2000-01-01

Detrimental effects of introduced fishes on native amphibian populations have prompted removal of introduced cutthroat (Oncorhynchus clarki), rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) from naturally fishless lakes at Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington (U.S.A.). Using paleolimnological indicators (diatoms, invertebrates, and sediment characteristics) in eight 480-year-old sediment cores from eight lakes, we (1) derived estimates of baseline environmental conditions and natural variation, (2) assessed the effects of stocking naturally fishless lakes, and (3) determined whether lakes returned to predisturbance conditions after fish removal (restoration). Diatom floras were relatively stable between 315 and 90 years before present in all lakes; we used this time period to define lake-specific "baseline" conditions. Dissimilarity analyses of diatoms revealed sustained, dramatic changes in diatom floras that occurred approximately 80 years ago (when fish were introduced) in four of five stocked lakes, whereas the diatom floras in two unstocked lakes had not changed significantly in the last 315 years. Diatoms were not preserved in an eighth lake. State changes also occurred in two lakes over 200 years before European settlement of the Pacific Northwest. Preserved invertebrate densities fluctuated dramatically over time in all cores, providing a poor reference for assessing the effects of fishes. Nevertheless, fish-invertebrate interactions have been demonstrated in other paleolimnological studies and may be useful for lower-elevation or more productive lakes. Because diatom communities have not returned to predisturbance assemblages in restored lakes, even 20-30 years after fish removal, we conclude that Mt. Rainier lakes were not successfully restored by the removal of fishes.

Global patterns of phytoplankton dynamics in coastal ecosystems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Paerl, H.; Yin, Kedong; Cloern, J.

2011-01-01

Scientific Committee on Ocean Research Working Group 137 Meeting; Hangzhou, China, 17-21 October 2010; Phytoplankton biomass and community structure have undergone dramatic changes in coastal ecosystems over the past several decades in response to climate variability and human disturbance. These changes have short- and long-term impacts on global carbon and nutrient cycling, food web structure and productivity, and coastal ecosystem services. There is a need to identify the underlying processes and measure the rates at which they alter coastal ecosystems on a global scale. Hence, the Scientific Committee on Ocean Research (SCOR) formed Working Group 137 (WG 137), "Global Patterns of Phytoplankton Dynamics in Coastal Ecosystems: A Comparative Analysis of Time Series Observations" (http://wg137.net/). This group evolved from a 2007 AGU-sponsored Chapman Conference entitled "Long Time-Series Observations in Coastal Ecosystems: Comparative Analyses of Phytoplankton Dynamics on Regional to Global Scales.".

Intelligent Data Analysis in the 21st Century

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cohen, Paul; Adams, Niall

When IDA began, data sets were small and clean, data provenance and management were not significant issues, workflows and grid computing and cloud computing didn’t exist, and the world was not populated with billions of cellphone and computer users. The original conception of intelligent data analysis — automating some of the reasoning of skilled data analysts — has not been updated to account for the dramatic changes in what skilled data analysis means, today. IDA might update its mission to address pressing problems in areas such as climate change, habitat loss, education, and medicine. It might anticipate data analysis opportunities five to ten years out, such as customizing educational trajectories to individual students, and personalizing medical protocols. Such developments will elevate the conference and our community by shifting our focus from arbitrary measures of the performance of isolated algorithms to the practical, societal value of intelligent data analysis systems.

Increasing precipitation volatility in twenty-first-century California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Swain, Daniel L.; Langenbrunner, Baird; Neelin, J. David; Hall, Alex

2018-05-01

Mediterranean climate regimes are particularly susceptible to rapid shifts between drought and flood—of which, California's rapid transition from record multi-year dryness between 2012 and 2016 to extreme wetness during the 2016-2017 winter provides a dramatic example. Projected future changes in such dry-to-wet events, however, remain inadequately quantified, which we investigate here using the Community Earth System Model Large Ensemble of climate model simulations. Anthropogenic forcing is found to yield large twenty-first-century increases in the frequency of wet extremes, including a more than threefold increase in sub-seasonal events comparable to California's `Great Flood of 1862'. Smaller but statistically robust increases in dry extremes are also apparent. As a consequence, a 25% to 100% increase in extreme dry-to-wet precipitation events is projected, despite only modest changes in mean precipitation. Such hydrological cycle intensification would seriously challenge California's existing water storage, conveyance and flood control infrastructure.

Domestic violence in the pregnant patient: obstetric and behavioral interventions.

PubMed

Mayer, L; Liebschutz, J

1998-10-01

Every day, obstetric providers treat patients experiencing domestic violence. Domestic violence can have both dramatic and subtle impacts on maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. This article enumerates patient risk factors for and obstetric consequences of domestic violence. It describes adaptations to the assessment and treatment of pregnancy complications occurring in the context of domestic violence and presents behavioral interventions that can be performed within existing obstetric care delivery systems. Behavioral interventions include assessments of a patient's readiness for change and her emotional responses to the violence. Obstetric interventions include an assessment of risk of physical harm to a pregnant woman and her fetus from domestic violence. Interviewing techniques include educating the patient about the effects of abuse and, over time, validating a patient's efforts to change. Reliance on a team approach and use of community resources are emphasized. All of these mechanisms enable obstetric providers to assist pregnant women in taking steps to end the abuse.

Creating Healthy and Just Bioregions

PubMed Central

Pezzoli, Keith; Leiter, Robert A.

2017-01-01

Dramatic changes taking place locally, regionally, globally, demand that we rethink strategies to improve public health, especially in disadvantaged communities where the cumulative impacts of toxicant exposure and other environmental and social stressors are most damaging. The emergent field of sustainability science, including a new bioregionalism for the 21st Century, is giving rise to promising place-based (territorially rooted) approaches. Embedded in this bioregional approach is an Integrated Planning Framework that enables people to map and develop plans and strategies that cut across various scales (e.g., from regional to citywide to neighborhood scale) and various topical areas (e.g., urban land use planning, water resource planning, food systems planning and “green infrastructure” planning) with the specific intent of reducing the impacts of toxicants to public health and the natural environment. This paper describes a case of bioregionally inspired Integrated Planning in San Diego, California (USA). The paper highlights food-water-energy linkages and the importance of “rooted” community-university partnerships and knowledge-action collaboratives in creating healthy and just bioregions. PMID:26812849

The evaluation of a food allergy and epinephrine autoinjector training program for personnel who care for children in schools and community settings.

PubMed

Wahl, Ann; Stephens, Hilary; Ruffo, Mark; Jones, Amanda L

2015-04-01

With the dramatic increase in the incidence of food allergies, nurses and other school personnel are likely to encounter a child with food allergies. The objectives of this study were to assess the effectiveness of in-person training on enhancing knowledge about food allergies and improving self-confidence in preventing, recognizing, and treating food allergy reactions and to collect information about prior training and participation in response to food allergy incidents. A total of 4,818 individuals at 247 schools and community sites participated in the training program, which was delivered by a licensed registered nurse. Written evaluations, online surveys, and phone interviews were used to measure the impact including content retention, confidence, and behavior changes. The results of this study show that in-person training can increase participant's knowledge about food allergies and improve self-confidence in preventing, recognizing, and treating allergic reactions and that these gains were sustained over time. © The Author(s) 2014.

Dramatic Changes in Health Care Professions in the Past 40 Years.

PubMed

Goldfield, Norbert

During the forty-year life of the Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, revolutionary transformations have occurred in the roles of existing health professions, as has the emergence of new categories of health professionals. This paper specifies the reasons for these dramatic changes, the new types of health care professions that have emerged, changes in existing professions, and suggestions of future directions. Many of these changes will be impacted by what occurs in Washington, DC in the debate over the Accountable Care Act.

Coastal oceanography sets the pace of rocky intertidal community dynamics.

PubMed

Menge, B A; Lubchenco, J; Bracken, M E S; Chan, F; Foley, M M; Freidenburg, T L; Gaines, S D; Hudson, G; Krenz, C; Leslie, H; Menge, D N L; Russell, R; Webster, M S

2003-10-14

The structure of ecological communities reflects a tension among forces that alter populations. Marine ecologists previously emphasized control by locally operating forces (predation, competition, and disturbance), but newer studies suggest that inputs from large-scale oceanographically modulated subsidies (nutrients, particulates, and propagules) can strongly influence community structure and dynamics. On New Zealand rocky shores, the magnitude of such subsidies differs profoundly between contrasting oceanographic regimes. Community structure, and particularly the pace of community dynamics, differ dramatically between intermittent upwelling regimes compared with relatively persistent down-welling regimes. We suggest that subsidy rates are a key determinant of the intensity of species interactions, and thus of structure in marine systems, and perhaps also nonmarine communities.

Introduction of a community water supply in rural western Kenya: impact on community wellbeing and child health.

PubMed

Sakisaka, Kayako; Chadeka, Evans Asena; Nagi, Sachiyo; Mwandembo, Dorcas Shambi; Jimba, Masamine

2015-05-01

This study aimed to examine water availability and community health before and after tube wells were introduced in a rural western Kenyan community. Differences in impact among income quintile groups were quantified, and users' perceptions of their water supply measured. We conducted a two-part pre- (2009) and post-intervention (2011), cross-sectional study using structured questionnaires for mothers. In total, 1391 (576 in 2009 and 815 in 2011) mothers participated. Well introduction changed the households' drinking-water source from river to ground water. The median distance to the water source was reduced by 40% (500 to 300 metres) and median collection time was reduced by 50% (30 to 15 minutes). Water consumption per household increased by approximately 20% (from 82.6 to 99.0 L) and drinking of untreated water decreased by approximately 10%. Regression analyses revealed mothers with higher monthly incomes had the highest satisfaction levels (β=0.167, p<0.001). Positive impacts were strongest among wealthier groups. The small-scale community water supply dramatically affected user hygiene behaviours and daily life. Water supply access improved from 'no access' to 'basic access'. Household connections to a water supply and hygiene education are important steps to enhance community health. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

"I Can Live With This" - Talking To Communities About Natural Hazard Risk: A Story From New Zealand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saunders, W. S. A.; Kilvington, M.; Van Dissen, R. J.

2016-12-01

Talking to people about a risk they might face in the future as a result of decisions they make in the present is notoriously hard; even when the consequences are quite apparent. Talking to entire communities about the risks of natural hazard events can seem almost impossible. However, the world we live in is changing, and talking to communities about likely hazard events such as greater and more dramatic storm and flood events, sea level rise, or coastal erosion is something that local government agencies have to do more and more. Moreover, as well as communicating what is known about the science of natural hazards, local governments have to talk about the possible impacts and the risk. One of the most important questions local agencies and communities face is "what can we live with and what must we do something about?" In this presentation we share how one local government agency in New Zealand took on the challenge of talking to their community about planning for future land use that takes account of natural hazard risk. They used an innovative process that helped people understand complex risk concepts; reflect on both the consequences and likelihood of hazard events; and then consider the implications for themselves and their community. This process engaged the public imagination and produced a robust response that could be evaluated alongside technical input on risk thresholds and integrated into final (statutory and defendable) land use policy decisions.

Assessing impacts of unconventional natural gas extraction on microbial communities in headwater stream ecosystems in Northwestern Pennsylvania

PubMed Central

Trexler, Ryan; Solomon, Caroline; Brislawn, Colin J.; Wright, Justin R.; Rosenberger, Abigail; McClure, Erin E.; Grube, Alyssa M.; Peterson, Mark P.; Keddache, Mehdi; Mason, Olivia U.; Hazen, Terry C.; Grant, Christopher J.; Lamendella, Regina

2014-01-01

Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have increased dramatically in Pennsylvania Marcellus shale formations, however the potential for major environmental impacts are still incompletely understood. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was performed to characterize the microbial community structure of water, sediment, bryophyte, and biofilm samples from 26 headwater stream sites in northwestern Pennsylvania with different histories of fracking activity within Marcellus shale formations. Further, we describe the relationship between microbial community structure and environmental parameters measured. Approximately 3.2 million 16S rRNA gene sequences were retrieved from a total of 58 samples. Microbial community analyses showed significant reductions in species richness as well as evenness in sites with Marcellus shale activity. Beta diversity analyses revealed distinct microbial community structure between sites with and without Marcellus shale activity. For example, operational taxonomic units (OTUs) within the Acetobacteracea, Methylocystaceae, Acidobacteriaceae, and Phenylobacterium were greater than three log-fold more abundant in MSA+ sites as compared to MSA− sites. Further, several of these OTUs were strongly negatively correlated with pH and positively correlated with the number of wellpads in a watershed. It should be noted that many of the OTUs enriched in MSA+ sites are putative acidophilic and/or methanotrophic populations. This study revealed apparent shifts in the autochthonous microbial communities and highlighted potential members that could be responding to changing stream conditions as a result of nascent industrial activity in these aquatic ecosystems. PMID:25408683

Strategies of TV News Dramatization: An Attempt of Discourse Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mancini, Paolo

This paper defines indicators related to the dramatization of television and formulates a methodology for analyzing the discourse of the television news based on empirical studies. This methodology is used to isolate some indicators of dramatization as it relates to the structure and form of the message. The changes that have affected the text of…

Variation in cooperative behaviour within a single city.

PubMed

Nettle, Daniel; Colléony, Agathe; Cockerill, Maria

2011-01-01

Human cooperative behaviour, as assayed by decisions in experimental economic dilemmas such as the Dictator Game, is variable across human populations. Within-population variation has been less well studied, especially within industrial societies. Moreover, little is known about the extent to which community-level variation in Dictator Game behaviour relates to community-level variation in real-world social behaviour. We chose two neighbourhoods of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne that were similar in most regards, but at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of level of socioeconomic deprivation. We administered Dictator Games to randomly-selected residents, and also gathered a large number of more naturalistic measures of cooperativeness. There were dramatic differences in Dictator Game behaviour between the two neighbourhoods, with the mean allocation to the other player close to half the stake in the affluent neighbourhood, and close to one tenth of the stake in the deprived neighbourhood. Moreover, the deprived neighbourhood was also characterised by lower self-reported social capital, higher frequencies of crime and antisocial behaviour, a higher frequency of littering, and less willingness to take part in a survey or return a lost letter. On the other hand, there were no differences between the neighbourhoods in terms of the probability of helping a person who dropped an object, needed directions to a hospital, or needed to make change for a coin, and people on the streets were less likely to be alone in the deprived neighbourhood than the affluent one. We conclude that there can be dramatic local differences in cooperative behaviour within the same city, and that these need further theoretical explanation.

Variation in Cooperative Behaviour within a Single City

PubMed Central

Nettle, Daniel; Colléony, Agathe; Cockerill, Maria

2011-01-01

Human cooperative behaviour, as assayed by decisions in experimental economic dilemmas such as the Dictator Game, is variable across human populations. Within-population variation has been less well studied, especially within industrial societies. Moreover, little is known about the extent to which community-level variation in Dictator Game behaviour relates to community-level variation in real-world social behaviour. We chose two neighbourhoods of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne that were similar in most regards, but at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of level of socioeconomic deprivation. We administered Dictator Games to randomly-selected residents, and also gathered a large number of more naturalistic measures of cooperativeness. There were dramatic differences in Dictator Game behaviour between the two neighbourhoods, with the mean allocation to the other player close to half the stake in the affluent neighbourhood, and close to one tenth of the stake in the deprived neighbourhood. Moreover, the deprived neighbourhood was also characterised by lower self-reported social capital, higher frequencies of crime and antisocial behaviour, a higher frequency of littering, and less willingness to take part in a survey or return a lost letter. On the other hand, there were no differences between the neighbourhoods in terms of the probability of helping a person who dropped an object, needed directions to a hospital, or needed to make change for a coin, and people on the streets were less likely to be alone in the deprived neighbourhood than the affluent one. We conclude that there can be dramatic local differences in cooperative behaviour within the same city, and that these need further theoretical explanation. PMID:22046411

Community Schooling and State Control: A Dilemma in the Innovation and Reform of Botswana's Basic Education System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tshireletso, Lucky

This paper examines the Botswana government's objectives and implementation strategies in the development of community secondary schools. With a population of 1.5 million and an annual growth rate of 3.5 percent, Botswana is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Recent dramatic economic growth, largely due to diamond revenues, has not…

Toyota's tips drive dramatic ED improvements.

PubMed

2002-11-01

The Toyota Motor Corp.'s key concepts of allowing workers to make changes, putting the customer first, and reducing waste can have a dramatic impact when implemented in emergency departments. Staff should be empowered to make changes to improve quality. A chain of events should be set in motion for each customer request. Identify and eliminate roadblocks that cause delays.

Dramatic Increases of Soil Microbial Functional Gene Diversity at the Treeline Ecotone of Changbai Mountain.

PubMed

Shen, Congcong; Shi, Yu; Ni, Yingying; Deng, Ye; Van Nostrand, Joy D; He, Zhili; Zhou, Jizhong; Chu, Haiyan

2016-01-01

The elevational and latitudinal diversity patterns of microbial taxa have attracted great attention in the past decade. Recently, the distribution of functional attributes has been in the spotlight. Here, we report a study profiling soil microbial communities along an elevation gradient (500-2200 m) on Changbai Mountain. Using a comprehensive functional gene microarray (GeoChip 5.0), we found that microbial functional gene richness exhibited a dramatic increase at the treeline ecotone, but the bacterial taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing did not exhibit such a similar trend. However, the β-diversity (compositional dissimilarity among sites) pattern for both bacterial taxa and functional genes was similar, showing significant elevational distance-decay patterns which presented increased dissimilarity with elevation. The bacterial taxonomic diversity/structure was strongly influenced by soil pH, while the functional gene diversity/structure was significantly correlated with soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC). This finding highlights that soil DOC may be a good predictor in determining the elevational distribution of microbial functional genes. The finding of significant shifts in functional gene diversity at the treeline ecotone could also provide valuable information for predicting the responses of microbial functions to climate change.

Horizontal Gene Transfer to Endogenous Endophytic Bacteria from Poplar Improves Phytoremediation of Toluene

PubMed Central

Taghavi, Safiyh; Barac, Tanja; Greenberg, Bill; Borremans, Brigitte; Vangronsveld, Jaco; van der Lelie, Daniel

2005-01-01

Poplar, a plant species frequently used for phytoremediation of groundwater contaminated with organic solvents, was inoculated with the endophyte Burkholderia cepacia VM1468. This strain, whose natural host is yellow lupine, contains the pTOM-Bu61 plasmid coding for constitutively expressed toluene degradation. Noninoculated plants or plants inoculated with the soil bacterium B. cepacia Bu61(pTOM-Bu61) were used as controls. Inoculation of poplar had a positive effect on plant growth in the presence of toluene and reduced the amount of toluene released via evapotranspiration. These effects were more dramatic for VM1468, the endophytic strain, than for Bu61. Remarkably, none of the strains became established at detectable levels in the endophytic community, but there was horizontal gene transfer of pTOM-Bu61 to different members of the endogenous endophytic community, both in the presence and in the absence of toluene. This work is the first report of in planta horizontal gene transfer among plant-associated endophytic bacteria and demonstrates that such transfer could be used to change natural endophytic microbial communities in order to improve the remediation of environmental insults. PMID:16332840

Bark Beetle Impacts on Ecosystem Processes are Over Quickly and Muted Spatially

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ewers, B. E.; Norton, U.; Borkhuu, B.; Reed, D. E.; Peckham, S. D.; Biederman, J. A.; King, A.; Gochis, D. J.; Brooks, P. D.; Harpold, A. A.; Frank, J. M.; Massman, W. J.; Mackay, D. S.; Pendall, E. G.

2013-12-01

The recent epidemic of bark beetles across western North America has impacted conifers from low to high elevations from New Mexico to Yukon. The mechanism of mortality is clear, with both mountain pine and spruce beetles killing trees by introducing xylem occluding blue stain fungi which dramatically stops transpiration. The visual impact of this outbreak is stunning, with mortality of canopy trees over 90% in some stands. However, emerging work shows that the impact on ecosystem processes is not as dramatic. We hypothesize that increased soil water and nitrogen sets up rapid succession of plant communities, which quickly restores ecosystem processing of water, carbon and nitrogen, while spatial patchiness of mortality and belowground responses mutes the impact as spatial scale increases from stands to watersheds. In support of our hypothesis we found 1) Soil nitrogen and moisture increase within one growing season but decrease to the same as uninfested stands five years later. 2) Soil respiration is correlated with live tree basal area suggesting a large component of autotrophic respiration. 3) Once stands have more than 50% basal area mortality, seedling density increases up to five fold and total non-tree understory cover increased two fold both within five years after infestation. 4) Ecosystem scale estimates of water vapor fluxes do not decline as rapidly as overstory leaf area. 5) Stable isotopes of snow, soil and stream water suggest that increased below canopy evapotranspiration nearly compensates for reduced canopy transpiration. 6) Nested watershed data shows that precipitation variations are much more important in regulating streamflow than changes in canopies from bark beetle induced mortality. These results were tested in the Terrestrial Regional Ecosystem Exchange Simulator (TREES) model. TREES was able to predict annual changes in the carbon fluxes but had difficulty simulating soil moisture and annual water budgets likely due to inadequate abiotic water vapor flux mechanisms and an explicit understory canopy layer. Our results show that ecosystems are resilient to the bark beetle epidemic and the resulting ecosystem process change is much less dramatic than might be expected based on the visual impact.

Spatiotemporal changes in bacterial community and microbial activity in a full-scale drinking water treatment plant.

PubMed

Hou, Luanfeng; Zhou, Qin; Wu, Qingping; Gu, Qihui; Sun, Ming; Zhang, Jumei

2018-06-01

To gain insight into the bacterial dynamics present in drinking water treatment (DWT) systems, the microbial community and activity in a full-scale DWT plant (DWTP) in Guangzhou, South China, were investigated using Illumina Hiseq sequencing analyses combined with cultivation-based techniques during the wet and dry seasons. Illumina sequencing analysis of 16S rRNA genes revealed a large shift in the proportion of Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria and Firmicutes during the treatment process, with the proportion of Actinobacteria decreased sharply, whereas that of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes increased and predominated in treated water. Both microbial activity and bacterial diversity during the treatment process showed obvious spatial variation, with higher levels observed during the dry season and lower levels during the wet season. Clustering analysis and principal component analysis indicated dramatic shifts in the bacterial community after chlorination, suggesting that chlorination was highly effective at influencing the bacterial community. The bacterial community structure of finished water primarily comprised Pseudomonas, Citrobacter, and Acinetobacter, and interestingly showed high similarity to biofilms on granular activated carbon. Additionally, the abundance of bacterial communities was relatively stable in finished water and did not change with the season. A large number of unique operational taxonomic units were shared during treatment steps, indicating the presence of a diverse core microbiome throughout the treatment process. Opportunistic pathogens, including Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Citrobacter, Mycobacterium, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Legionella, Streptococcus and Enterococcus, were detected in water including finished water, suggesting a potential threat to drinking-water safety. We also detected bacteria isolated from each treatment step using the pure-culture method. In particular, two isolates, identified as Mycobacterium sp. and Blastococcus sp., which belong to the phylum Actinobacteria, were obtained from finished water during the dry season. Together, these results provided evidence of spatial and temporal variations in DWTPs and contributed to the beneficial manipulation of the drinking water microbiome. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Bacterial lineages putatively associated with the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes in a full-scale urban wastewater treatment plant.

PubMed

Narciso-da-Rocha, Carlos; Rocha, Jaqueline; Vaz-Moreira, Ivone; Lira, Felipe; Tamames, Javier; Henriques, Isabel; Martinez, José Luis; Manaia, Célia M

2018-06-05

Urban wastewater treatment plants (UWTPs) are reservoirs of antibiotic resistance. Wastewater treatment changes the bacterial community and inevitably impacts the fate of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Some bacterial groups are major carriers of ARGs and hence, their elimination during wastewater treatment may contribute to increasing resistance removal efficiency. This study, conducted at a full-scale UWTP, evaluated variations in the bacterial community and ARGs loads and explored possible associations among them. With that aim, the bacterial community composition (16S rRNA gene Illumina sequencing) and ARGs abundance (real-time PCR) were characterized in samples of raw wastewater (RWW), secondary effluent (sTWW), after UV disinfection (tTWW), and after a period of 3 days storage to monitoring possible bacterial regrowth (tTWW-RE). Culturable enterobacteria were also enumerated. Secondary treatment was associated with the most dramatic bacterial community variations and coincided with reductions of ~2 log-units in the ARGs abundance. In contrast, no significant changes in the bacterial community composition and ARGs abundance were observed after UV disinfection of sTWW. Nevertheless, after UV treatment, viability losses were indicated ~2 log-units reductions of culturable enterobacteria. The analysed ARGs (qnrS, bla CTX-M , bla OXA-A , bla TEM , bla SHV , sul1, sul2, and intI1) were strongly correlated with taxa more abundant in RWW than in the other types of water, and which associated with humans and animals, such as members of the families Campylobacteraceae, Comamonadaceae, Aeromonadaceae, Moraxellaceae, and Bacteroidaceae. Further knowledge of the dynamics of the bacterial community during wastewater treatment and its relationship with ARGs variations may contribute with information useful for wastewater treatment optimization, aiming at a more effective resistance control. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

GEOSPATIAL DATA ACCURACY ASSESSMENT

EPA Science Inventory

The development of robust accuracy assessment methods for the validation of spatial data represent's a difficult scientific challenge for the geospatial science community. The importance and timeliness of this issue is related directly to the dramatic escalation in the developmen...

The hills are alive: Earth surface dynamics in the University of Arizona Landscape Evolution Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

DeLong, S.; Troch, P. A.; Barron-Gafford, G. A.; Huxman, T. E.; Pelletier, J. D.; Dontsova, K.; Niu, G.; Chorover, J.; Zeng, X.

2012-12-01

To meet the challenge of predicting landscape-scale changes in Earth system behavior, the University of Arizona has designed and constructed a new large-scale and community-oriented scientific facility - the Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO). The primary scientific objectives are to quantify interactions among hydrologic partitioning, geochemical weathering, ecology, microbiology, atmospheric processes, and geomorphic change associated with incipient hillslope development. LEO consists of three identical, sloping, 333 m2 convergent landscapes inside a 5,000 m2 environmentally controlled facility. These engineered landscapes contain 1 meter of basaltic tephra ground to homogenous loamy sand and contains a spatially dense sensor and sampler network capable of resolving meter-scale lateral heterogeneity and sub-meter scale vertical heterogeneity in moisture, energy and carbon states and fluxes. Each ~1000 metric ton landscape has load cells embedded into the structure to measure changes in total system mass with 0.05% full-scale repeatability (equivalent to less than 1 cm of precipitation), to facilitate better quantification of evapotraspiration. Each landscape has an engineered rain system that allows application of precipitation at rates between3 and 45 mm/hr. These landscapes are being studied in replicate as "bare soil" for an initial period of several years. After this initial phase, heat- and drought-tolerant vascular plant communities will be introduced. Introduction of vascular plants is expected to change how water, carbon, and energy cycle through the landscapes, with potentially dramatic effects on co-evolution of the physical and biological systems. LEO also provides a physical comparison to computer models that are designed to predict interactions among hydrological, geochemical, atmospheric, ecological and geomorphic processes in changing climates. These computer models will be improved by comparing their predictions to physical measurements made in LEO. The main focus of our iterative modeling and measurement discovery cycle is to use rapid data assimilation to facilitate validation of newly coupled open-source Earth systems models. LEO will be a community resource for Earth system science research, education, and outreach. The LEO project operational philosophy includes 1) open and real-time availability of sensor network data, 2) a framework for community collaboration and facility access that includes integration of new or comparative measurement capabilities into existing facility cyberinfrastructure, 3) community-guided science planning and 4) development of novel education and outreach programs.Artistic rendering of the University of Arizona Landscape Evolution Observatory

Lifestyle Medicine: A Brief Review of Its Dramatic Impact on Health and Survival

PubMed Central

Bodai, Balazs I; Nakata, Therese E; Wong, William T; Clark, Dawn R; Lawenda, Steven; Tsou, Christine; Liu, Raymond; Shiue, Linda; Cooper, Neil; Rehbein, Michael; Ha, Benjamin P; McKeirnan, Anne; Misquitta, Rajiv; Vij, Pankaj; Klonecke, Andrew; Mejia, Carmelo S; Dionysian, Emil; Hashmi, Sean; Greger, Michael; Stoll, Scott; Campbell, Thomas M

2018-01-01

By ignoring the root causes of disease and neglecting to prioritize lifestyle measures for prevention, the medical community is placing people at harm. Advanced nations, influenced by a Western lifestyle, are in the midst of a health crisis, resulting largely from poor lifestyle choices. Epidemiologic, ecologic, and interventional studies have repeatedly indicated that most chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes, are the result of lifestyles fueled by poor nutrition and physical inactivity. In this article, we describe the practice of lifestyle medicine and its powerful effect on these modern instigators of premature disability and death. We address the economic benefits of prevention-based lifestyle medicine and its effect on our health care system: A system on the verge of bankruptcy. We recommend vital changes to a disastrous course. Many deaths and many causes of pain, suffering, and disability could be circumvented if the medical community could effectively implement and share the power of healthy lifestyle choices. We believe that lifestyle medicine should become the primary approach to the management of chronic conditions and, more importantly, their prevention. For future generations, for our own health, and for the Hippocratic Oath we swore to uphold (“First do no harm”), the medical community must take action. It is our hope that the information presented will inspire our colleagues to pursue lifestyle medicine research and incorporate such practices into their daily care of patients. The time to make this change is now. PMID:29035175

Lifestyle Medicine: A Brief Review of Its Dramatic Impact on Health and Survival.

PubMed

Bodai, Balazs I; Nakata, Therese E; Wong, William T; Clark, Dawn R; Lawenda, Steven; Tsou, Christine; Liu, Raymond; Shiue, Linda; Cooper, Neil; Rehbein, Michael; Ha, Benjamin P; Mckeirnan, Anne; Misquitta, Rajiv; Vij, Pankaj; Klonecke, Andrew; Mejia, Carmelo S; Dionysian, Emil; Hashmi, Sean; Greger, Michael; Stoll, Scott; Campbell, Thomas M

2017-01-01

By ignoring the root causes of disease and neglecting to prioritize lifestyle measures for prevention, the medical community is placing people at harm. Advanced nations, influenced by a Western lifestyle, are in the midst of a health crisis, resulting largely from poor lifestyle choices. Epidemiologic, ecologic, and interventional studies have repeatedly indicated that most chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes, are the result of lifestyles fueled by poor nutrition and physical inactivity.In this article, we describe the practice of lifestyle medicine and its powerful effect on these modern instigators of premature disability and death. We address the economic benefits of prevention-based lifestyle medicine and its effect on our health care system: A system on the verge of bankruptcy. We recommend vital changes to a disastrous course. Many deaths and many causes of pain, suffering, and disability could be circumvented if the medical community could effectively implement and share the power of healthy lifestyle choices. We believe that lifestyle medicine should become the primary approach to the management of chronic conditions and, more importantly, their prevention. For future generations, for our own health, and for the Hippocratic Oath we swore to uphold ("First do no harm"), the medical community must take action. It is our hope that the information presented will inspire our colleagues to pursue lifestyle medicine research and incorporate such practices into their daily care of patients. The time to make this change is now.

Changes in freshwater mussel communities linked to legacy pollution in the Lower Delaware River

USGS Publications Warehouse

Blakeslee, Carrie J.; Silldorff, Erik L.; Galbraith, Heather S.

2018-01-01

Freshwater mussels are among the most-imperiled organisms worldwide, although they provide a variety of important functions in the streams and rivers they inhabit. Among Atlantic-slope rivers, the Delaware River is known for its freshwater mussel diversity and biomass; however, limited data are available on the freshwater mussel fauna in the lower, non-tidal portion of the river. This section of the Delaware River has experienced decades of water-quality degradation from both industrial and municipal sources, primarily as a function of one of its major tributaries, the Lehigh River. We completed semi-quantitative snorkel surveys in 53.5 of the 121 km of the river to document mussel community composition and the continued impacts from pollution (particularly inputs from the Lehigh River) on mussel fauna. We detected changes in mussel catch per unit effort (CPUE) below the confluence of the Lehigh River, with significant declines in the dominant species Elliptio complanata (Eastern Elliptio) as we moved downstream from its confluence—CPUE dropped from 179 to 21 mussels/h. Patterns in mussel distribution around the Lehigh confluence matched chemical signatures of Lehigh water input. Specifically, Eastern Elliptio CPUE declined more quickly moving downstream on the Pennsylvania bank, where Lehigh River water input was more concentrated compared to the New Jersey bank. A definitive causal link remains to be established between the Lehigh River and the dramatic shifts in mussel community composition, warranting continued investigation as it relates to mussel conservation and restoration in the basin.

Community-Level Challenges in Implementing a Mixed Delivery Prekindergarten System: A Brief Review of Research and Field Experience. School Community Partnerships Project. Policy Brief I

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephens, Samuel A.

2014-01-01

Over the past decade, states have dramatically expanded prekindergarten services (Pre-K), given the evidence that high-quality early childhood education can put children on a path to success in school and later life. To support the expansion, most of those states have adopted a mixed delivery system, developing the new educational opportunities in…

LLMapReduce: Multi-Lingual Map-Reduce for Supercomputing Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-11-20

1990s. Popularized by Google [36] and Apache Hadoop [37], map-reduce has become a staple technology of the ever- growing big data community...Lexington, MA, U.S.A Abstract— The map-reduce parallel programming model has become extremely popular in the big data community. Many big data ...to big data users running on a supercomputer. LLMapReduce dramatically simplifies map-reduce programming by providing simple parallel programming

Shanghai: Front-Runner of Community-Based Eldercare in China.

PubMed

Chen, Lin; Han, Wen-Jui

2016-01-01

Facing dramatic growth in its elderly population, Shanghai, China's economic center, has strategically exercised decentralized policy-making power to develop community-based service centers for the elderly. A growing number of elders have been using such services, particular dining services, since 2007. We discuss the evolution in community-based eldercare services in Shanghai, using dining services as an example. We also compare these service centers in Shanghai to multipurpose senior centers in the United States to offer policy recommendations for Shanghai and China's growing eldercare industry. Tailored policy recommendations are discussed.

Variation in gut microbial communities and its association with pathogen infection in wild bumble bees (Bombus)

PubMed Central

Cariveau, Daniel P; Elijah Powell, J; Koch, Hauke; Winfree, Rachael; Moran, Nancy A

2014-01-01

Bacterial gut symbiont communities are critical for the health of many insect species. However, little is known about how microbial communities vary among host species or how they respond to anthropogenic disturbances. Bacterial communities that differ in richness or composition may vary in their ability to provide nutrients or defenses. We used deep sequencing to investigate gut microbiota of three species in the genus Bombus (bumble bees). Bombus are among the most economically and ecologically important non-managed pollinators. Some species have experienced dramatic declines, probably due to pathogens and land-use change. We examined variation within and across bee species and between semi-natural and conventional agricultural habitats. We categorized as ‘core bacteria' any operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with closest hits to sequences previously found exclusively or primarily in the guts of honey bees and bumble bees (genera Apis and Bombus). Microbial community composition differed among bee species. Richness, defined as number of bacterial OTUs, was highest for B. bimaculatus and B. impatiens. For B. bimaculatus, this was due to high richness of non-core bacteria. We found little effect of habitat on microbial communities. Richness of non-core bacteria was negatively associated with bacterial abundance in individual bees, possibly due to deeper sampling of non-core bacteria in bees with low populations of core bacteria. Infection by the gut parasite Crithidia was negatively associated with abundance of the core bacterium Gilliamella and positively associated with richness of non-core bacteria. Our results indicate that Bombus species have distinctive gut communities, and community-level variation is associated with pathogen infection. PMID:24763369

Ecosystem vs. community recovery 25 years after grass invasions and fire in a subtropical woodland

USGS Publications Warehouse

D'Antonio, Carla M.; Yelenik, Stephanie G.; Mack, Michelle C.

2017-01-01

Despite a large body of research documenting invasive plant impacts, few studies have followed individual invaded sites over decades to observe how they change, and none have contrasted how compositional impacts from invasion compare to ecosystem-process impacts over a multi-decadal time-scale. Using direct measurements of plant density and composition and of ecosystems processes, we evaluate how ecosystem structure, above-ground net primary production (ANPP), and above-ground and soil nutrient pools compare over 25 years since fire and C4 grass invasions disrupted seasonally dry Hawaiian woodlands. We compare structure and function between primary woodland that has never burned and is largely native species-dominated, with sites that had been the same woodland type but burned in alien-grass-fuelled fires in the 1970s and 1980s. The sites have not experienced fires since 1987. We report here that woody plant composition and structure continue to be dramatically changed by the initial invasions and fires that occurred 25 years ago and invaders continue to dominate in burned sites. This is reflected in continued low plant carbon pools in burned compared to unburned sites. Yet ANPP and N storage, which were dramatically lower in the initial decade after invasive-grass fuelled fires, have increased and are now indistinguishable from values measured in intact woodlands. Soil carbon pools were resilient to both invasion and fire initially and over time. Above-ground net primary production has recovered because of invasion of burned sites by a non-native N-fixing tree rather than because of recovery of native species. This invasive N-fixing tree is unlikely to return C storage of the invaded sites to those of unburned woodland because of its tissue and growth characteristics and its interactions with invasive grasses. It does not facilitate native species but rather promotes a persistent invasive grass/N-fixer savanna. Synthesis. We conclude that fire, an unusual disturbance in this system, has perpetuated the dominance of these sites by invasive species and that despite the dramatic recovery of above-ground net primary production and N pools, the ecosystem continues to be in a distinctly different state than the pre-fire, pre-Melinis community. Thus, despite the absence of further disturbance (fire), there is no evidence that succession towards the original ecosystem is occurring. The fact that N pools and above-ground net primary production recover because of a new invader (Morella faya), highlights the unpredictability of ecosystem trajectories in the face of altered regional species pools.

Avian response to fire in pine–oak forests of Great Smoky Mountains National Park following decades of fire suppression

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rose, Eli T.; Simons, Theodore R.

2016-01-01

Fire suppression in southern Appalachian pine–oak forests during the past century dramatically altered the bird community. Fire return intervals decreased, resulting in local extirpation or population declines of many bird species adapted to post-fire plant communities. Within Great Smoky Mountains National Park, declines have been strongest for birds inhabiting xeric pine–oak forests that depend on frequent fire. The buildup of fuels after decades of fire suppression led to changes in the 1996 Great Smoky Mountains Fire Management Plan. Although fire return intervals remain well below historic levels, management changes have helped increase the amount of fire within the park over the past 20 years, providing an opportunity to study patterns of fire severity, time since burn, and bird occurrence. We combined avian point counts in burned and unburned areas with remote sensing indices of fire severity to infer temporal changes in bird occurrence for up to 28 years following fire. Using hierarchical linear models that account for the possibility of a species presence at a site when no individuals are detected, we developed occurrence models for 24 species: 13 occurred more frequently in burned areas, 2 occurred less frequently, and 9 showed no significant difference between burned and unburned areas. Within burned areas, the top models for each species included fire severity, time since burn, or both, suggesting that fire influenced patterns of species occurrence for all 24 species. Our findings suggest that no single fire management strategy will suit all species. To capture peak occupancy for the entire bird community within xeric pine–oak forests, at least 3 fire regimes may be necessary; one applying frequent low severity fire, another using infrequent low severity fire, and a third using infrequently applied high severity fire.

Freeing data through The Polar Information Commons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Bruin, Taco; Chen, Robert; Parsons, Mark; Carlson, David

2010-05-01

The polar regions are changing rapidly with dramatic global effect. Wise management of resources, improved decision support, and effective international cooperation on resource and geopolitical issues require deeper understanding and better prediction of these changes. Unfortunately, polar data and information remain scattered, scarce, and sporadic. Inspired by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 that established the Antarctic as a global commons to be used only for peaceful purposes and scientific research, we assert that data and information about the polar regions are themselves "public goods" that should be shared ethically and with minimal constraint. We therefore envision the Polar Information Commons (PIC) as an open, virtual repository for vital scientific data and information that would provide a shared, community-based cyber-infrastructure fostering innovation, improving scientific efficiency, and encouraging participation in polar research, education, planning, and management. The PIC will build on the legacy of the International Polar Year (IPY), providing a long-term framework for access to and preservation of both existing and future data and information about the polar regions. Rapid change demands rapid data access. The PIC system will enable scientists to quickly expose their data to the world and share them through open protocols on the Internet. A PIC digital label will alert users and data centers to new polar data and ensure that usage rights are clear. The PIC will utilize the Science Commons Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data, which promotes open data access through the public domain coupled with community norms of practice to ensure use of data in a fair and equitable manner. A set of PIC norms is currently being developed in consultation with key polar data organizations and other stakeholders. We welcome inputs from the broad science community as we further develop and refine the PIC approach and move ahead with implementation.

Freeing data through The Polar Information Commons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Bruin, T.; Chen, R. S.; Parsons, M. A.; Carlson, D. J.

2009-12-01

The polar regions are changing rapidly with dramatic global effect. Wise management of resources, improved decision support, and effective international cooperation on resource and geopolitical issues require deeper understanding and better prediction of these changes. Unfortunately, polar data and information remain scattered, scarce, and sporadic. Inspired by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 that established the Antarctic as a global commons to be used only for peaceful purposes and scientific research, we assert that data and information about the polar regions are themselves “public goods” that should be shared ethically and with minimal constraint. We therefore envision the Polar Information Commons (PIC) as an open, virtual repository for vital scientific data and information that would provide a shared, community-based cyber-infrastructure fostering innovation, improving scientific efficiency, and encouraging participation in polar research, education, planning, and management. The PIC will build on the legacy of the International Polar Year (IPY), providing a long-term framework for access to and preservation of both existing and future data and information about the polar regions. Rapid change demands rapid data access. The PIC system will enable scientists to quickly expose their data to the world and share them through open protocols on the Internet. A PIC digital label will alert users and data centers to new polar data and ensure that usage rights are clear. The PIC will utilize the Science Commons Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data, which promotes open data access through the public domain coupled with community norms of practice to ensure use of data in a fair and equitable manner. A set of PIC norms is currently being developed in consultation with key polar data organizations and other stakeholders. We welcome inputs from the broad science community as we further develop and refine the PIC approach and move ahead with implementation.

Freeing data through The Polar Information Commons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Bruin, T.; Chen, R. S.; Parsons, M. A.; Carlson, D. J.; Cass, K.; Finney, K.; Wilbanks, J.; Jochum, K.

2010-12-01

The polar regions are changing rapidly with dramatic global effect. Wise management of resources, improved decision support, and effective international cooperation on resource and geopolitical issues require deeper understanding and better prediction of these changes. Unfortunately, polar data and information remain scattered, scarce, and sporadic. Inspired by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 that established the Antarctic as a global commons to be used only for peaceful purposes and scientific research, we assert that data and information about the polar regions are themselves “public goods” that should be shared ethically and with minimal constraint. ICSU’s Committee on Data (CODATA) therefore started the Polar Information Commons (PIC) as an open, virtual repository for vital scientific data and information. The PIC provides a shared, community-based cyber-infrastructure fostering innovation, improving scientific efficiency, and encouraging participation in polar research, education, planning, and management. The PIC builds on the legacy of the International Polar Year (IPY), providing a long-term framework for access to and preservation of both existing and future data and information about the polar regions. Rapid change demands rapid data access. The PIC system enables scientists to quickly expose their data to the world and share them through open protocols on the Internet. A PIC digital label will alert users and data centers to new polar data and ensure that usage rights are clear. The PIC utilizes the Science Commons Protocol for Implementing Open Access Data, which promotes open data access through the public domain coupled with community norms of practice to ensure use of data in a fair and equitable manner. A set of PIC norms has been developed in consultation with key polar data organizations and other stakeholders. We welcome inputs from the broad science community as we further develop and refine the PIC approach and move ahead with implementation.

Soil bacterial community responses to revegetation of moving sand dune in semi-arid grassland.

PubMed

Cao, Chengyou; Zhang, Ying; Cui, Zhenbo; Feng, Shuwei; Wang, Tingting; Ren, Qing

2017-08-01

Grasslands in semi-arid Northern China are widely desertified, thus inducing the formation of a large area of moving sand lands. Revegetation of the sandy land is commonly adopted to restore degraded grasslands. The structure of the soil microbial community might dramatically change during degradation and recovery because microorganisms are one of the major drivers of ecological process through their interactions with plants and soil. Assuming that soil properties are the key determinants of the structure of soil bacterial community within the same soil type, whether the vegetation type causes the significant difference in the structure of soil bacterial community during revegetation and restoration of the degraded grasslands remains poorly understood. Our study aimed to (1) investigate the response of soil bacterial communities to the changes during vegetation degradation and recovery and (2) evaluate whether the soil bacterial communities under plantations return to their native state. We detected the shifts in diversities and compositions of the soil bacterial communities and the relative abundance of dominant bacterial taxa by using the high-throughput Illumina MiSeq sequencing technique in an area covered by 32-year-old Caragana microphylla, Artemisia halodendron, Hedysarum fruticosum, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica, Populus simonii, and Salix gordejevii sand-fixing plantations and in the native community (NC) dominated by elm, and moving sandy dune (MS). We found that the obtained operational taxonomic units by 16S rRNA gene sequencing and diversity index in MS were all significantly lower than those in NC, and the number and composition of dominant genera were significantly different between NC and MS. Interestingly, the compositions of bacterial communities and the dominant genera in different sand-fixation plantations (C. microphylla, A. halodendron, H. fruticosum, P. sylvestris var. mongolica, P. simonii, and S. gordejevii) were all similar to those of the native soil of NC, suggesting that the plantation type and soil properties exhibit a minimal effect on the compositions of soil microbial communities within a continuous landscape. These results revealed that the structure of the soil bacterial community of degraded sandy grassland (even degenerated into a mobile sand dunes) in semi-arid region can be reversibly restored by planting indigenous shrub or semi-shrub plantation on human time scales.

Migration Within the Frontier: The Second Generation Colonization in the Ecuadorian Amazon

PubMed Central

Carr, David L.; Bilsborrow, Richard E.

2009-01-01

Since the 1970s, migration to the Amazon has led to a growing human presence and resulting dramatic changes in the physical landscape of the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon frontier, including considerable deforestation. Over time, a second demographic phenomenon has emerged with the children of the original migrants leaving settler farms to set out on their own. The vast majority have remained in the Amazon region, some contributing to further changes in land use via rural-rural migration to establish new farms and others to incipient urbanization. This paper uses longitudinal, multi-scale data on settler colonists between 1990 and 1999 to analyze rural-rural and rural-urban migration among second-generation colonists within the region. Following a description of migrants and settlers in terms of their individual, household and community characteristics, a multinomial discrete-time hazard model is used to estimate the determinants of out-migration of the second generation settlers to both urban and rural areas. We find significant differences in the determinants of migration to the two types of destinations in personal characteristics, human capital endowments, stage of farm and household lifecycles, migration networks, and access to community resources and infrastructure. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy implications of migrants' choice of rural versus urban destinations. PMID:19657471

A natural experiment opportunity in two low-income urban food desert communities: research design, community engagement methods, and baseline results.

PubMed

Dubowitz, Tamara; Ncube, Collette; Leuschner, Kristin; Tharp-Gilliam, Shannah

2015-04-01

A growing body of evidence has highlighted an association between a lack of access to nutritious, affordable food (e.g., through full-service grocery stores [FSGs]), poor diet, and increased risk for obesity. In response, there has been growing interest among policy makers in encouraging the siting of supermarkets in "food deserts," that is, low-income geographic areas with low access to healthy food options. However, there is limited research to evaluate the impact of such efforts, and most studies to date have been cross-sectional. The Pittsburgh Hill/Homewood Research on Eating, Shopping, and Health (PHRESH) is a longitudinal quasi-experimental study of a dramatic change (i.e., a new FSG) in the food landscape of a low-income, predominantly Black neighborhood. The study is following a stratified random sample of households (n = 1,372), and all food venues (n = 60) in both intervention and control neighborhoods, and the most frequently reported food shopping venues outside both neighborhoods. This article describes the study design and community-based methodology, which focused simultaneously on the conduct of scientifically rigorous research and the development and maintenance of trust and buy-in from the involved neighborhoods. Early results have begun to define markers for success in creating a natural experiment, including strong community engagement. Baseline data show that the vast majority of residents already shop at a FSG and do not shop at the nearest one. Follow-up data collection will help determine whether and how a new FSG may change behaviors and may point to the need for additional interventions beyond new FSGs alone. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

Global change modeling for Northern Eurasia: a review and strategies to move forward

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monier, E.; Kicklighter, D. W.; Sokolov, A. P.; Zhuang, Q.; Sokolik, I. N.; Lawford, R. G.; Kappas, M.; Paltsev, S.; Groisman, P. Y.

2017-12-01

Northern Eurasia is made up of a complex and diverse set of physical, ecological, climatic and human systems, which provide important ecosystem services including the storage of substantial stocks of carbon in its terrestrial ecosystems. At the same time, the region has experienced dramatic climate change, natural disturbances and changes in land management practices over the past century. For these reasons, Northern Eurasia is both a critical region to understand and a complex system with substantial challenges for the modeling community. This review is designed to highlight the state of past and ongoing efforts of the research community to understand and model these environmental, socioeconomic, and climatic changes. We further aim to provide perspectives on the future direction of global change modeling to improve our understanding of the role of Northern Eurasia in the coupled human-Earth system. Modeling efforts have shown that environmental and socioeconomic changes in Northern Eurasia can have major impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems services, environmental sustainability, and the carbon cycle of the region, and beyond. These impacts have the potential to feedback onto and alter the global Earth system. We find that past and ongoing studies have largely focused on specific components of Earth system dynamics and have not systematically examined their feedbacks to the global Earth system and to society. We identify the crucial role of Earth system models in advancing our understanding of feedbacks within the region and with the global system. We further argue for the need for integrated assessment models (IAMs), a suite of models that couple human activity models to Earth system models, which are key to address many emerging issues that require a representation of the coupled human-Earth system.

A review of and perspectives on global change modeling for Northern Eurasia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monier, Erwan; Kicklighter, David W.; Sokolov, Andrei P.; Zhuang, Qianlai; Sokolik, Irina N.; Lawford, Richard; Kappas, Martin; Paltsev, Sergey V.; Groisman, Pavel Ya

2017-08-01

Northern Eurasia is made up of a complex and diverse set of physical, ecological, climatic and human systems, which provide important ecosystem services including the storage of substantial stocks of carbon in its terrestrial ecosystems. At the same time, the region has experienced dramatic climate change, natural disturbances and changes in land management practices over the past century. For these reasons, Northern Eurasia is both a critical region to understand and a complex system with substantial challenges for the modeling community. This review is designed to highlight the state of past and ongoing efforts of the research community to understand and model these environmental, socioeconomic, and climatic changes. We further aim to provide perspectives on the future direction of global change modeling to improve our understanding of the role of Northern Eurasia in the coupled human-Earth system. Modeling efforts have shown that environmental and socioeconomic changes in Northern Eurasia can have major impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems services, environmental sustainability, and the carbon cycle of the region, and beyond. These impacts have the potential to feedback onto and alter the global Earth system. We find that past and ongoing studies have largely focused on specific components of Earth system dynamics and have not systematically examined their feedbacks to the global Earth system and to society. We identify the crucial role of Earth system models in advancing our understanding of feedbacks within the region and with the global system. We further argue for the need for integrated assessment models (IAMs), a suite of models that couple human activity models to Earth system models, which are key to address many emerging issues that require a representation of the coupled human-Earth system.

Aeolian dispersal of bacteria in southwest Greenland: their sources, abundance, diversity and physiological states.

PubMed

Šantl-Temkiv, Tina; Gosewinkel, Ulrich; Starnawski, Piotr; Lever, Mark; Finster, Kai

2018-04-01

The Arctic is undergoing dramatic climatic changes that cause profound transformations in its terrestrial ecosystems and consequently in the microbial communities that inhabit them. The assembly of these communities is affected by aeolian deposition. However, the abundance, diversity, sources and activity of airborne microorganisms in the Arctic are poorly understood. We studied bacteria in the atmosphere over southwest Greenland and found that the diversity of bacterial communities correlated positively with air temperature and negatively with relative humidity. The communities consisted of 1.3×103 ± 1.0×103 cells m-3, which were aerosolized from local terrestrial environments or transported from marine, glaciated and terrestrial surfaces over long distances. On average, airborne bacterial cells displayed a high activity potential, reflected in the high 16S rRNA copy number (590 ± 300 rRNA cell-1), that correlated positively with water vapor pressure. We observed that bacterial clades differed in their activity potential. For instance, a high activity potential was seen for Rubrobacteridae and Clostridiales, while a low activity potential was observed for Proteobacteria. Of those bacterial families that harbor ice-nucleation active species, which are known to facilitate freezing and may thus be involved in cloud and rain formation, cells with a high activity potential were rare in air, but were enriched in rain.

High Arctic Coasts At Risk - The Impact of Coastal Hazards on Scientific and Community Infrastructure in Svalbard

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strzelecki, M. C.; Pawlowski, L.; Jaskolski, M.; Lim, M.; Zagorski, P.; Long, A. J.; Jensen, M.

2015-12-01

The rapid climate warming being observed in the Svalbard is leading to an increase in human activities in the coastal zone, leading to an increased need for coastal hazard assessment. Present-day Svalbard coastal landscapes are modified by increased degradation of permafrost accelerated sediment supply from deglaciated catchments, and prolonged periods of open-water conditions and wave activity. Since the second half of 20thcentury there is also an observed increase in the number and intensity of storms entering the Arctic particularly in summer months when coastlines are free of protective ice cover. Despite the potential significance of these coastal hazards on the security of scientific (research bases and devices) and community (ports, airports, roads, buildings) infrastructure on Svalbard, relatively little is known on the present-day rate of Svalbard coastal zone changes and how they might impact the nearshore infrastructure in the future. Here we report the results of a project that focused on rates of coastal zone changes in Svalbard and examined the impact of extreme coastal processes on scientific and community infrastructure. The project applied combination of remote sensing and field-based mapping techniques to characterise coastal changes observed in the surroundings of main research stations in Svalbard in Hornsund (PPS), Petuniabukta (AMUPS) and Bellsund (Calypsobyen) as well as a major towns: Longyearbyen, Piramiden, Barentsburg and Svea. Our results document dramatic changes of Svalbard coastal zone under intervals characterised by a warming climate, retreating local ice masses, a shortened winter sea-ice season and melting permafrost. The study confirmed the growing importance of extreme processes in shaping coasts of Svalbard and the impact of these changes on human infrastructure. Our study proposes a risk assessment for a development and protection of infrastructure along the coasts of Svalbard under scenarios of climate change, sea level rise, changes to the frequency of storms entering the region and variations in sea ice extent. The study was funded by the Foundation for Polish Science HOMING PLUS grant no.2013-8/12. Proejct leader is also supported by the National Science Centre Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013/08/S/ST10/00585).

Challenges to Sierra Nevada forests and their local communities: An observational and modeling perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, Cynthia L.

Global forests are experiencing dramatic changes due to changes in climate as well as anthropogenic activities. Increased warming is causing the advancement of some species upslope and northward, while it is also causing widespread mortality due to increased drought conditions. In addition, increasing human population in mountain regions is resulting in elevated risk of human life and property loss due to larger and more severe wildfires. My research focuses on assessing the current vulnerability of forests and their communities in the Sierra Nevada, and how forests are projected to change in the future based on different climate change scenarios. In the first chapter I use Landsat satellite imagery to identify and attribute cause of forest disturbance between 1985 and 2011, primarily focusing on disturbances due to insect, diseases and drought. The change-detection algorithm, Landtrendr, was successfully used to identify forest disturbance, but identifying cause of disturbance was challenging due to the spectral similarities between disturbance types. Landtrendr was most successful in identifying disturbance due to insect, disease and drought in the San Bernardino National Forest, where there is little forest management activity. In the second chapter, I assess whether state or local land use policies in high-fire prone regions exist to reduce the vulnerability of residential developments to wildfire. Three specific land-use tools associated with reducing wildfire vulnerability are identified: (1) buffers around developments; (2) clustered developments; (3) restricting construction on slopes greater than 25%. The study also determines whether demographic and physical characteristics of selected California counties were related to implementing land use policies related to reducing wildfire vulnerability. Results indicate that land use policies related to preventing wildfire-related losses focus on building materials, road access, water availability and vegetation management, not the three identified land-use tools. San Diego County, the county that has experienced the most devastating fires, had the highest percentage of residential developments with both clustering and buffering. The third chapter focuses on future forest conditions. I used a Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (DGVM) to assess future vegetation dynamics and productivity under changing climate and atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the Sierra Nevada. Model results suggest that Temperate Broadleaved Evergreen Plant Functional Types (PFTs) will move upslope and eastward, replacing Temperate Needleleaved PFTs. Boreal Needleleaved Evergreen PFTs, found primarily at higher elevations, will decline dramatically as temperatures continue to increase. Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) will increase as atmospheric CO2 concentration increases, due primarily to the increase in the more productive broadleaved PFTs. Forest ecosystems play an important role in maintaining climate stability at the regional and global scales as a vital carbon sink, so understanding the role of disturbance and climate change will be vital to both scientists and policy makers in the future.

Active and Social Data Curation: Reinventing the Business of Community-scale Lifecycle Data Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDonald, R. H.; Kumar, P.; Plale, B. A.; Myers, J.; Hedstrom, M. L.

2012-12-01

Effective long-term curation and preservation of data for community use has historically been limited to high-value and homogeneous collections produced by mission-oriented organizations. The technologies and practices that have been applied in these cases, e.g. relational data bases, development of comprehensive standardized vocabularies, and centralized support for reference data collections, are arguably applicable to the much broader range of data generated by the long tail of investigator-led research, with the logical conclusion of such an argument leading to the call for training, evangelism, and vastly increased funding as the best means of broadening community-scale data management. In this paper, we question this reasoning and explore how alternative approaches focused on the overall data lifecycle and the sociological and business realities of distributed multi-disciplinary research communities might dramatically lower costs, increase value, and consequently drive dramatic advances in our ability to use and re-use data, and ultimately enable more rapid scientific advance. Specifically, we introduce the concepts of active and social curation as a means to decrease coordination costs, align costs and values for individual data producers and data consumers, and improve the immediacy of returns for data curation investments. Further, we describe the specific architecture and services for active and social curation that are being prototyped within the Sustainable Environment - Actionable Data (SEAD) project within NSF's DataNet network and discuss how they are motivated by the long-tail dynamics in the cross-disciplinary sustainability research community.

Unveiling Microbial Carbon Cycling Processes in Key U.S. Soils using ''Omics''

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Myrold, David D.; Bottomely, Peter J.; Jumpponen, Ari

2014-09-17

Soils process and store large amounts of C; however, considerable uncertainty still exists about the details of that influence microbial partitioning of C into soil C pools, and what are the main influential forces that control the fraction of the C input that is stabilized. The soil microbial community is genotypically and phenotypically diverse. Despite our ability to predict the kinds of regional environmental changes that will accompany global climate change, it is not clear how the microbial community will respond to climate-induced modification of precipitation and inter-precipitation intervals, and if this response will affect the fate of C depositedmore » into soil by the local plant community. Part of this uncertainty lies with our ignorance of how the microbial community adapts genotypically and physiologically to changes in soil moisture brought about by shifts in precipitation. Our overarching goal is to harness the power of multiple meta-omics tools to gain greater understanding of the functioning of whole-soil microbial communities and their role in C cycling. We will do this by meeting the following three objectives: 1. Further develop and optimize a combination of meta-omics approaches to study how environmental factors affect microbially-mediated C cycling processes. 2. Determine the impacts of long-term changes in precipitation timing on microbial C cycling using an existing long-term field manipulation of a tallgrass prairie soil. 3. Conduct laboratory experiments that vary moisture and C inputs to confirm field observations of the linkages between microbial communities and C cycling processes. We took advantage of our state-of-the-art expertise in community “omics” to better understand the functioning soil C cycling within the Great Prairie ecosystem, including our ongoing Konza Prairie soil metagenome flagship project at JGI and the unique rainfall manipulation plots (RaMPs) established at this site more than a decade ago. We employed a systems biology approach, considering the complex soil microbial community as a functioning system and using state-of-the-art metatranscriptomic, metaproteomic, and metabolomic approaches. These omics tools were refined, applied to field experiments, and confirmed with controlled laboratory studies. Our experiments were designed to specifically identify microbial community members and processes that are instrumental players in processing of C in the prairie soils and how these processes are impacted by wetting and drying events. This project addresses a key ecosystem in the United States that current climate models predict will be subjected to dramatic changes in rainfall patterns as a result of global warming. Currently Mollisols, such as those of the tallgrass prairie, are thought to sequester more C than is released into the atmosphere, but it is not known what changes in rainfall patterns will have on future C fluxes. Through an analysis of the molecular response of the soil microbial community to shifts in precipitation cycles that are accompanied by phenologically driven changes in quality of plant C rhizodeposits, we gained deeper insight into how the metabolism of microbes has adapted to different precipitation regimes and the impact of this adaption on the fate of C deposited into soil. In doing so, we addressed key questions about the microbial cycling of C in soils that have been identified by the DOE.« less

Land cover change impact on urban flood modeling (case study: Upper Citarum watershed)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siregar, R. I.

2018-03-01

The upper Citarum River watershed utilizes remote sensing technology in Geographic Information System to provide information on land coverage by interpretation of objects in the image. Rivers that pass through urban areas will cause flooding problems causing disadvantages, and it disrupts community activities in the urban area. Increased development in a city is related to an increase in the number of population growth that added by increasing quality and quantity of life necessities. Improved urban lifestyle changes have an impact on land cover. The impact in over time will be difficult to control. This study aims to analyze the condition of flooding in urban areas caused by upper Citarum watershed land-use change in 2001 with the land cover change in 2010. This modeling analyzes with the help of HEC-RAS to describe flooded inundation urban areas. Land cover change in upper Citarum watershed is not very significant; it based on the results of data processing of land cover has the difference of area that changed is not enormous. Land cover changes for the floods increased dramatically to a flow coefficient for 2001 is 0.65 and in 2010 at 0.69. In 2001, the inundation area about 105,468 hectares and it were about 92,289 hectares in 2010.

Biomarker reconstruction of phytoplankton productivity and community structure changes in the mud area southwest off Cheju Island during the past 9 ka

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Z. C.; Xiao, X.; Yuan, Z. N.; Wang, F.; Xing, L.; Li, L.; Zhao, M.

2017-12-01

High-resolution biomarker records from the mud area southwest off Cheju Island in the East China Sea reveal the variabilities of the phytoplankton productivity and community structure during the past 9 ka. This area has undergone dramatic environmental changes during the last glacial cycle, as eustatic sea-level fluctuations resulting in major migration of the coastline. We use the brassicasterol, dinosterol and alkenones records in three sediment cores (B3-1: 31.62°N, 125.75°E; F10: 31.75°N, 126.11°E; F11: 31.88°N, 126.35°E) to reconstruct diatom community, dinoflagellate community and haptophyte community, respectively. The low content of alkenones and relative high contents of brassicasterol and dinosterol of the three sediment cores indicated that diatoms and dinoflagellates were the main marine productivity during the Holocene. The phytoplankton productivity was generally low during the early-Holocene (9-5 ka BP) because of the low input of nutrient. The phytoplankton productivity increased during the mid-Holocene (5-3 ka BP) in response to the upwelling which complemented the nutrient to the upper layer. High content of alkenones in F11 during this period caused by the establishment of the modern circulation pattern around 5-6 ka BP because the intrusion of the Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) brought the high-temperature and high-salinity waters to the core site which provide the suitable living conditions for the haptophytes growth in the east of the mud area. In contrast, the decreased trend of alkenones in F11 around 4 ka BP revealed a weakened YSWC. During the late-Holocene (3-1 ka BP), the phytoplankton productivity showed increasing trend in three sediment cores. The inverse relationships of SST and brassicasterol/dinosterol between B3-1 and F11 indicated the migration of the cold center in this area during this time interval. The hydrology change resulted in a spatial difference in the mud area during the late Holocene.

Responses of fungal community composition to long-term chemical and organic fertilization strategies in Chinese Mollisols.

PubMed

Ma, Mingchao; Jiang, Xin; Wang, Qingfeng; Ongena, Marc; Wei, Dan; Ding, Jianli; Guan, Dawei; Cao, Fengming; Zhao, Baisuo; Li, Jun

2018-03-23

How fungi respond to long-term fertilization in Chinese Mollisols as sensitive indicators of soil fertility has received limited attention. To broaden our knowledge, we used high-throughput pyrosequencing and quantitative PCR to explore the response of soil fungal community to long-term chemical and organic fertilization strategies. Soils were collected in a 35-year field experiment with four treatments: no fertilizer, chemical phosphorus, and potassium fertilizer (PK), chemical phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen fertilizer (NPK), and chemical phosphorus and potassium fertilizer plus manure (MPK). All fertilization differently changed soil properties and fungal community. The MPK application benefited soil acidification alleviation and organic matter accumulation, as well as soybean yield. Moreover, the community richness indices (Chao1 and ACE) were higher under the MPK regimes, indicating the resilience of microbial diversity and stability. With regards to fungal community composition, the phylum Ascomycota was dominant in all samples, followed by Zygomycota, Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota, and Glomeromycota. At each taxonomic level, the community composition dramatically differed under different fertilization strategies, leading to different soil quality. The NPK application caused a loss of Leotiomycetes but an increase in Eurotiomycetes, which might reduce the plant-fungal symbioses and increase nitrogen losses and greenhouse gas emissions. According to the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) coupled with effect size (LDA score > 3.0), the NPK application significantly increased the abundances of fungal taxa with known pathogenic traits, such as order Chaetothyriales, family Chaetothyriaceae and Pleosporaceae, and genera Corynespora, Bipolaris, and Cyphellophora. In contrast, these fungi were detected at low levels under the MPK regime. Soil organic matter and pH were the two most important contributors to fungal community composition. © 2018 The Authors. MicrobiologyOpen published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Indiscriminate Fisheries: Understanding the Foodweb of the Great Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hannah, L.; Kaufman, L.

2014-12-01

Indiscriminate fisheries target multiple species with multiple gear types. In contrast to well-studied, industrialized single-species, single-gear fisheries, little theory and little but growing literature on practice exists for indiscriminate fisheries. Indiscriminate fisheries are disproportionately important in low-income countries, providing most of the animal protein intake in countries such as Cambodia and Bangladesh. Indiscriminate fisheries may be either freshwater or marine, but here we focus on what may be the largest freshwater indiscriminate fishery in the world. Cambodia's freshwater fishery stands out because it provides the majority of animal protein to over 3 million people living in poverty. The fishery of the Tonle Sap lake is one of the largest, if not the largest contributor to this freshwater fish take, and is perhaps the largest freshwater fishery in the world. In contrast to its importance, very little is known about the foodweb ecology of this system, or how community management which now governs the entire fishery, interacts with biological and physical factors such as climate change.The foodweb of the Tonle Sap has changed dramatically due to high fishing pressure. A system that once harbored giant catfish, barbs and stingrays is now dominated by fish under 20cm in length. The simplification of the system may not have reduced its productivity. Theory of indiscriminate fisheries suggests that r-selected species may be favored and that biomass available for harvest may be maximized, while being more sensitive to environmental fluctuations such as climate change due to food web simplification. The r-selection and size predictions of theory have been confirmed by observations of the Tonle Sap. Early model results suggest sensitivity to environmental stochasticity. The interaction of these ecological changes with social systems will be tested in the Tonle Sap. Fisheries management across the lake has been transferred to community management units. The capacity of the community management units to control illegal activities or set economically beneficial management objectives is unknown. Our social survey suggests that strengthening community management units could have strong benefits for incomes and biodiversity on the lake.

Life history trade-off moderates model predictions of diversity loss from climate change

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Climate change can trigger species range shifts, local extinctions and changes in diversity. Species interactions and dispersal capacity are important mediators of community responses to climate change. The interaction between multispecies competition and variation in dispersal capacity has recently been shown to exacerbate the effects of climate change on diversity and to increase predictions of extinction risk dramatically. Dispersal capacity, however, is part of a species’ overall ecological strategy and are likely to trade off with other aspects of its life history that influence population growth and persistence. In plants, a well-known example is the trade-off between seed mass and seed number. The presence of such a trade-off might buffer the diversity loss predicted by models with random but neutral (i.e. not impacting fitness otherwise) differences in dispersal capacity. Using a trait-based metacommunity model along a warming climatic gradient the effect of three different dispersal scenarios on model predictions of diversity change were compared. Adding random variation in species dispersal capacity caused extinctions by the introduction of strong fitness differences due an inherent property of the dispersal kernel. Simulations including a fitness-equalising trade-off based on empirical relationships between seed mass (here affecting dispersal distance, establishment probability, and seedling biomass) and seed number (fecundity) maintained higher initial species diversity and predicted lower extinction risk and diversity loss during climate change than simulations with variable dispersal capacity. Large seeded species persisted during climate change, but developed lags behind their climate niche that may cause extinction debts. Small seeded species were more extinction-prone during climate change but tracked their niches through dispersal and colonisation, despite competitive resistance from residents. Life history trade-offs involved in coexistence mechanisms may increase community resilience to future climate change and are useful guides for model development. PMID:28520770

RAPID EVOLUTION CAUSED BY POLLINATOR LOSS IN MIMULUS GUTTATUS

PubMed Central

Bodbyl Roels, Sarah A.; Kelly, John K.

2018-01-01

Anthropogenic perturbations including habitat loss and emerging disease are changing pollinator communities and generating novel selection pressures on plant populations. Disruption of plant–pollinator relationships is predicted to cause plant mating system evolution, although this process has not been directly observed. This study demonstrates the immediate evolutionary effects of pollinator loss within experimental populations of a predominately outcrossing wildflower. Initially equivalent populations evolved for five generations within two pollination treatments: abundant bumblebee pollinators versus no pollinators. The populations without pollinators suffered greatly reduced fitness in early generations but rebounded as they evolved an improved ability to self-fertilize. All populations diverged in floral, developmental, and life-history traits, but only a subset of characters showed clear association with pollination treatment. Pronounced treatment effects were noted for anther–stigma separation and autogamous seed set. Dramatic allele frequency changes at two chromosomal polymorphisms occurred in the no pollinator populations, explaining a large fraction of divergence in pollen viability. The pattern of phenotypic and genetic changes in this experiment favors a sequential model for the evolution of the multitrait “selfing syndrome” observed throughout angiosperms. PMID:21884055

Rapid evolution caused by pollinator loss in Mimulus guttatus.

PubMed

Roels, Sarah A Bodbyl; Kelly, John K

2011-09-01

Anthropogenic perturbations including habitat loss and emerging disease are changing pollinator communities and generating novel selection pressures on plant populations. Disruption of plant-pollinator relationships is predicted to cause plant mating system evolution, although this process has not been directly observed. This study demonstrates the immediate evolutionary effects of pollinator loss within experimental populations of a predominately outcrossing wildflower. Initially equivalent populations evolved for five generations within two pollination treatments: abundant bumblebee pollinators versus no pollinators. The populations without pollinators suffered greatly reduced fitness in early generations but rebounded as they evolved an improved ability to self-fertilize. All populations diverged in floral, developmental, and life-history traits, but only a subset of characters showed clear association with pollination treatment. Pronounced treatment effects were noted for anther-stigma separation and autogamous seed set. Dramatic allele frequency changes at two chromosomal polymorphisms occurred in the no pollinator populations, explaining a large fraction of divergence in pollen viability. The pattern of phenotypic and genetic changes in this experiment favors a sequential model for the evolution of the multitrait "selfing syndrome" observed throughout angiosperms. © 2011 The Author(s).

Whitehead Policy Symposium. The Human Genome Project: Science, law, and social change in the 21st century

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nichols, E.K.

2000-02-17

Advances in the biomedical sciences, especially in human genomics, will dramatically influence law, medicine, public health, and many other sectors of our society in the decades ahead. The public already senses the revolutionary nature of genomic knowledge. In the US and Europe, we have seen widespread discussions about genetic discrimination in health insurance; privacy issues raised by the proliferation of DNA data banks; the challenge of interpreting new DNA diagnostic tests; changing definitions of what it means to be healthy; and the science and ethics of cloning animals and human beings. The primary goal of the Whitehead/ASLME Policy Symposium wasmore » to provide a bridge between the research community and professionals, who were just beginning to grasp the potential impact of new genetic technologies on their fields. The ''Human Genome Project: Science, Law, and Social Change in the 21st Century'' initially was designed as a forum for 300-500 physicians, lawyers, consumers, ethicists, and scientists to explore the impact of new genetic technologies and prepare for the challenges ahead.« less

Regulating Research with Biospecimens under the Revised Common Rule.

PubMed

Lynch, Holly Fernandez; Meyer, Michelle N

2017-05-01

Since 2011, the research community had waited with bated breath as regulators contemplated for the first time bringing secondary research with nonidentifiable biospecimens under the Common Rule and dramatically tightening the criteria for waiving consent to biospecimen research. After considerable pushback from both researchers and patients and amid rumors of intractable disagreement among Common Rule agencies, the Final Rule published on the last day of President Obama's administration left out these troubling changes, and there was a collective sigh of relief. Relief is appropriate, but celebration premature: researchers have little reason to avail themselves of the new broad consent option offered in the Final Rule, and the question of whether biospecimens ought to be treated as inherently identifiable has merely been postponed. © 2017 The Hastings Center.

Having the rug pulled from under your feet: one project's experience of the US policy reversal on sex work.

PubMed

Busza, Joanna

2006-07-01

After the election of President George W Bush in 2000, US government policy toward sexual and reproductive health changed dramatically. In May 2003, the Global AIDS Act was passed and prohibits allocation of US government funds to organizations that 'promote or advocate' legalization and practice of prostitution and sex trafficking. There are few documented examples of early impacts of this policy reversal on USAID-funded programmes already working with sex worker communities. This paper offers an anecdotal account of one programme in Cambodia that found itself caught in the ideological cross-fire of US politics, and describes consequent negative effects on the project's ability to offer appropriate and effective HIV prevention services to vulnerable migrant sex workers.

Warming-induced changes in predation, extinction and invasion in an ectotherm food web.

PubMed

Seifert, Linda I; Weithoff, Guntram; Gaedke, Ursula; Vos, Matthijs

2015-06-01

Climate change will alter the forces of predation and competition in temperate ectotherm food webs. This may increase local extinction rates, change the fate of invasions and impede species reintroductions into communities. Invasion success could be modulated by traits (e.g., defenses) and adaptations to climate. We studied how different temperatures affect the time until extinction of species, using bitrophic and tritrophic planktonic food webs to evaluate the relative importance of predatory overexploitation and competitive exclusion, at 15 and 25 °C. In addition, we tested how inclusion of a subtropical as opposed to a temperate strain in this model food web affects times until extinction. Further, we studied the invasion success of the temperate rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus into the planktonic food web at 15 and 25 °C on five consecutive introduction dates, during which the relative forces of predation and competition differed. A higher temperature dramatically shortened times until extinction of all herbivore species due to carnivorous overexploitation in tritrophic systems. Surprisingly, warming did not increase rates of competitive exclusion among the tested herbivore species in bitrophic communities. Including a subtropical herbivore strain reduced top-down control by the carnivore at high temperature. Invasion attempts of temperate B. calyciflorus into the food web always succeeded at 15 °C, but consistently failed at 25 °C due to voracious overexploitation by the carnivore. Pre-induction of defenses (spines) in B. calyciflorus before the invasion attempt did not change its invasion success at the high temperature. We conclude that high temperatures may promote local extinctions in temperate ectotherms and reduce their chances of successful recovery.

Protecting emergency responders, volume 3 : safety management in disaster and terrorism response.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2004-01-01

When disaster strikes, the nation depends on the emergency response community. : No events demonstrated this truth as dramatically as the catastrophic terrorist attacks : of September 11, 2001. But the same holds true every time the nation faces a ma...

Teaching Computation/Shopping Skills to Mentally Retarded Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matson, Johnny L.; Long, Sue

1986-01-01

Three moderately/mildly retarded adults were trained in adaptive community skills. Treatment involved instructions, performance feedback, social reinforcement, in-vivo modeling, self-evaluation, and social and tangible reinforcement. Rapid and dramatic improvements occurred soon after treatment began. Skills generalized to other shopping…

The Brain-Compatible Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westwater, Anne; Wolfe, Pat

2000-01-01

Demonstrates how teachers can make instruction more meaningful by linking new subject matter to students' previous experiences and by using community resources to create exciting new learning experiences. If the content is rigorous and relevant, debates, storytelling, the arts, graphic organizers, and mnemonics can dramatically enhance student…

Quantifying carbon footprint reduction opportunities for U.S. households and communities.

PubMed

Jones, Christopher M; Kammen, Daniel M

2011-05-01

Carbon management is of increasing interest to individuals, households, and communities. In order to effectively assess and manage their climate impacts, individuals need information on the financial and greenhouse gas benefits of effective mitigation opportunities. We use consumption-based life cycle accounting techniques to quantify the carbon footprints of typical U.S. households in 28 cities for 6 household sizes and 12 income brackets. The model includes emissions embodied in transportation, energy, water, waste, food, goods, and services. We further quantify greenhouse gas and financial savings from 13 potential mitigation actions across all household types. The model suggests that the size and composition of carbon footprints vary dramatically between geographic regions and within regions based on basic demographic characteristics. Despite these differences, large cash-positive carbon footprint reductions are evident across all household types and locations; however, realizing this potential may require tailoring policies and programs to different population segments with very different carbon footprint profiles. The results of this model have been incorporated into an open access online carbon footprint management tool designed to enable behavior change at the household level through personalized feedback.

Ultimate predators: lionfish have evolved to circumvent prey risk assessment abilities.

PubMed

Lönnstedt, Oona M; McCormick, Mark I

2013-01-01

Invasive species cause catastrophic alterations to communities worldwide by changing the trophic balance within ecosystems. Ever since their introduction in the mid 1980's common red lionfish, Pterois volitans, are having dramatic impacts on the Caribbean ecosystem by displacing native species and disrupting food webs. Introduced lionfish capture prey at extraordinary rates, altering the composition of benthic communities. Here we demonstrate that the extraordinary success of the introduced lionfish lies in its capacity to circumvent prey risk assessment abilities as it is virtually undetectable by prey species in its native range. While experienced prey damselfish, Chromis viridis, respond with typical antipredator behaviours when exposed to a common predatory rock cod (Cephalopholis microprion) they fail to visibly react to either the scent or visual presentation of the red lionfish, and responded only to the scent (not the visual cue) of a lionfish of a different genus, Dendrochirus zebra. Experienced prey also had much higher survival when exposed to the two non-invasive predators compared to P. volitans. The cryptic nature of the red lionfish has enabled it to be destructive as a predator and a highly successful invasive species.

Stream hydrology limits recovery of riparian ecosystems after wolf reintroduction

PubMed Central

Marshall, Kristin N.; Hobbs, N. Thompson; Cooper, David J.

2013-01-01

Efforts to restore ecosystems often focus on reintroducing apex predators to re-establish coevolved relationships among predators, herbivores and plants. The preponderance of evidence for indirect effects of predators on terrestrial plant communities comes from ecosystems where predators have been removed. Far less is known about the consequences of their restoration. The effects of removal and restoration are unlikely to be symmetrical because removing predators can create feedbacks that reinforce the effects of predator loss. Observational studies have suggested that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park initiated dramatic restoration of riparian ecosystems by releasing willows from excessive browsing by elk. Here, we present results from a decade-long experiment in Yellowstone showing that moderating browsing alone was not sufficient to restore riparian zones along small streams. Instead, restoration of willow communities depended on removing browsing and restoring hydrological conditions that prevailed before the removal of wolves. The 70-year absence of predators from the ecosystem changed the disturbance regime in a way that was not reversed by predator reintroduction. We conclude that predator restoration may not quickly repair effects of predator removal in ecosystems. PMID:23390108

Stream hydrology limits recovery of riparian ecosystems after wolf reintroduction.

PubMed

Marshall, Kristin N; Hobbs, N Thompson; Cooper, David J

2013-04-07

Efforts to restore ecosystems often focus on reintroducing apex predators to re-establish coevolved relationships among predators, herbivores and plants. The preponderance of evidence for indirect effects of predators on terrestrial plant communities comes from ecosystems where predators have been removed. Far less is known about the consequences of their restoration. The effects of removal and restoration are unlikely to be symmetrical because removing predators can create feedbacks that reinforce the effects of predator loss. Observational studies have suggested that the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park initiated dramatic restoration of riparian ecosystems by releasing willows from excessive browsing by elk. Here, we present results from a decade-long experiment in Yellowstone showing that moderating browsing alone was not sufficient to restore riparian zones along small streams. Instead, restoration of willow communities depended on removing browsing and restoring hydrological conditions that prevailed before the removal of wolves. The 70-year absence of predators from the ecosystem changed the disturbance regime in a way that was not reversed by predator reintroduction. We conclude that predator restoration may not quickly repair effects of predator removal in ecosystems.

Litter type affects the activity of aerobic decomposers in a boreal peatland more than site nutrient and water level regimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Straková, P.; Niemi, R. M.; Freeman, C.; Peltoniemi, K.; Toberman, H.; Heiskanen, I.; Fritze, H.; Laiho, R.

2011-02-01

Peatlands are carbon (C) storage ecosystems sustained by a high water level (WL). High WL creates anoxic conditions that suppress the activity of aerobic decomposers and provide conditions for peat accumulation. Peatland function can be dramatically affected by WL drawdown caused by land-use and/or climate change. Aerobic decomposers are directly affected by WL drawdown through environmental factors such as increased oxygenation and nutrient availability. Additionally, they are indirectly affected via changes in plant community composition and litter quality. We studied the relative importance of direct and indirect effects of WL drawdown on aerobic decomposer activity in plant litter. We did this by profiling 11 extracellular enzymes involved in the mineralization of organic C, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur. Our study sites represented a three-stage chronosequence from pristine (undrained) to short-term (years) and long-term (decades) WL drawdown conditions under two nutrient regimes. The litter types included reflected the prevalent vegetation, i.e., Sphagnum mosses, graminoids, shrubs and trees. WL drawdown had a direct and positive effect on microbial activity. Enzyme allocation shifted towards C acquisition, which caused an increase in the rate of decomposition. However, litter type overruled the direct effects of WL drawdown and was the main factor shaping microbial activity patterns. Our results imply that changes in plant community composition in response to persistent WL drawdown will strongly affect the C dynamics of peatlands.

Abiotic and biotic controls over biogeochemical cycles in drylands: Insights from climate change and nitrogen deposition experiments on the Colorado Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reed, S.; Ferrenberg, S.; Tucker, C.; Rutherford, W. A.; Wertin, T. M.; McHugh, T. A.; Morrissey, E.; Kuske, C.; Mueller, R.; Belnap, J.

2016-12-01

As for all ecosystems, biogeochemical cycling in drylands represents numerous intricate connections between biotic and abiotic controls. However, patterns of many fundamental ecosystem processes that generally hold across global gradients fall apart at the arid and semiarid end of the spectrum, and data point to an exceptionally strong role for abiotic controls in explaining these patterns. Further, there are multiple dryland characteristics - such as extreme aridity and high UV radiation, as well as specialized biological communities - which can point to a conclusion that "drylands are different". Indeed, drylands are often characterized by their harsh environment, by the diverse classes of biota representing a range of traits aimed at surviving such harsh conditions, and, more recently, by the suggestion of dramatic biotic responses to seemingly subtle changes in abiotic factors. In this talk, we will explore a range of biotic and abiotic controls over fundamental biogeochemical cycling in drylands using data from a suite of manipulation experiments on the Colorado Plateau, USA. We will present results from field treatments that speak to the effects of increasing temperature, altered precipitation regimes, increased nitrogen availability via deposition, and the effects of altered litterfall inputs. Biogeochemical processes we explore will include plant photosynthesis, soil photosynthesis and respiration (with a focus on biological soil crusts), litter decomposition, and nutrient cycling. In addition, we will assess how treatments alter dryland community composition, as well as the resultant feedbacks of community shifts to environmental change. Taken together we will use these diverse datasets to ask questions about what makes drylands different or, instead, if a holistic joining of biotic and abiotic perspectives suggests they are not so different after all. These data will not only lend insight into the partitioning of and balance between biotic and abiotic controls, but will also provide perspective on how a changing world may shift this balance.

Comparative bacterial diversity in recent Hawaiian volcanic deposits of different ages.

PubMed

Gomez-Alvarez, Vicente; King, Gary M; Nüsslein, Klaus

2007-04-01

Volcanic activity creates new landforms that can change dramatically over time as a consequence of biotic succession. Nonetheless, volcanic deposits present severe constraints for microbial colonization and activity. We have characterized bacterial diversity on four recent deposits at Kilauea volcano, Hawaii (KVD). Much of the diversity was either closely related to uncultured organisms or distinct from any reported 16S rRNA gene sequences. Diversity indices suggested that diversity was highest in a moderately vegetated 210-year-old ash deposit (1790-KVD), and lowest for a 79-year-old lava flow (1921-KVD). Diversity for a 41-year-old tephra deposit (1959-KVD) and a 300-year-old rainforest (1700-KVD) reached intermediate values. The 1959-KVD and 1790-KVD communities were dominated by Acidobacteria, Alpha- and Gammaproteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and many unclassified phylotypes. The 1921-KVD, an unvegetated low pH deposit, was dominated by unclassified phylotypes. In contrast, 1700-KVD was primarily populated by Alphaproteobacteria with very few unclassified phylotypes. Similar diversity indices and levels of trace gas flux were found for 1959-KVD and 1790-KVD; however, statistical analyses indicated significantly different communities. This study not only showed that microorganisms colonize recent volcanic deposits and are able to establish diverse communities, but also that their composition is governed by variations in local deposit parameters.

Impact of sea level rise on tide gate function.

PubMed

Walsh, Sean; Miskewitz, Robert

2013-01-01

Sea level rise resulting from climate change and land subsidence is expected to severely impact the duration and associated damage resulting from flooding events in tidal communities. These communities must continuously invest resources for the maintenance of existing structures and installation of new flood prevention infrastructure. Tide gates are a common flood prevention structure for low-lying communities in the tidal zone. Tide gates close during incoming tides to prevent inundation from downstream water propagating inland and open during outgoing tides to drain upland areas. Higher downstream mean sea level elevations reduce the effectiveness of tide gates by impacting the hydraulics of the system. This project developed a HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS model of an existing tide gate structure and its upland drainage area in the New Jersey Meadowlands to simulate the impact of rising mean sea level elevations on the tide gate's ability to prevent upstream flooding. Model predictions indicate that sea level rise will reduce the tide gate effectiveness resulting in longer lasting and deeper flood events. The results indicate that there is a critical point in the sea level elevation for this local area, beyond which flooding scenarios become dramatically worse and would have a significantly negative impact on the standard of living and ability to do business in one of the most densely populated areas of America.

Transfer to forest nurseries significantly affects mycorrhizal community composition of Asteropeia mcphersonii wildings.

PubMed

Henry, Charline; Raivoarisoa, Jeanne-Françoise; Razafimamonjy, Angélo; Ramanankierana, Heriniaina; Andrianaivomahefa, Paul; Ducousso, Marc; Selosse, Marc-André

2017-05-01

Mycorrhizal symbiosis is extremely important for tree growth, survival and resistance after transplantation particularly in Madagascar where deforestation is a major concern. The importance of mycorrhizal symbiosis is further increased when soil conditions at the planting site are limiting. To identify technical itineraries capable of improving ecological restoration in Madagascar, we needed to obtain native ectomycorrhizal (ECM) saplings with a wide diversity of ECM fungi. To this end, we transplanted ECM seedlings from the wild (wildlings) to a nursery. Using molecular characterisation of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA, we tested the effect of transplanting Asteropeia mcphersonii wildlings on ECM communities after 8 months of growth in the nursery. With or without the addition of soil from the site where the seedlings were sampled to the nursery substrate, we observed a dramatic change in the composition of fungal communities with a decrease in the ECM infection rate, a tremendous increase in the abundance of an operational taxonomic unit (OTU) taxonomically close to the order Trechisporales and the disappearance of all OTUs of Boletales. Transplanting to the nursery and/or to nursery conditions was shown to be incompatible with the survival and even less with the development in the nursery of most ECM fungi naturally associated with A. mcphersonii wildings.

Dramatic Increases of Soil Microbial Functional Gene Diversity at the Treeline Ecotone of Changbai Mountain

PubMed Central

Shen, Congcong; Shi, Yu; Ni, Yingying; Deng, Ye; Van Nostrand, Joy D.; He, Zhili; Zhou, Jizhong; Chu, Haiyan

2016-01-01

The elevational and latitudinal diversity patterns of microbial taxa have attracted great attention in the past decade. Recently, the distribution of functional attributes has been in the spotlight. Here, we report a study profiling soil microbial communities along an elevation gradient (500–2200 m) on Changbai Mountain. Using a comprehensive functional gene microarray (GeoChip 5.0), we found that microbial functional gene richness exhibited a dramatic increase at the treeline ecotone, but the bacterial taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing did not exhibit such a similar trend. However, the β-diversity (compositional dissimilarity among sites) pattern for both bacterial taxa and functional genes was similar, showing significant elevational distance-decay patterns which presented increased dissimilarity with elevation. The bacterial taxonomic diversity/structure was strongly influenced by soil pH, while the functional gene diversity/structure was significantly correlated with soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC). This finding highlights that soil DOC may be a good predictor in determining the elevational distribution of microbial functional genes. The finding of significant shifts in functional gene diversity at the treeline ecotone could also provide valuable information for predicting the responses of microbial functions to climate change. PMID:27524983

Changing the Paradigm: Preparing Students for the Computing Profession in the 21st Century

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robbins, Kay A.

2003-01-01

The dramatic technological developments of the past decade have led to a tremendous growth in the demand for computer science professionals well-versed in advanced technology and techniques. NASA, traditionally a haven for cutting-edge innovators, is now competing with every industrial and government sector for computer science talent. The computer science program at University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) faces challenges beyond those intrinsically presented by rapid technological change, because a significant number of UTSA students come from low-income families with no Internet or computer access at home. An examination of enrollment statistics for the computer science program at UTSA showed that very few students who entered as freshmen successfully graduated. The upper division courses appeared to be populated by graduate students removing deficiencies and by transfer students. The faculty was also concerned that the students who did graduate from the program did not have the strong technical and programming skills that the CS program had been noted for in the community during the 1980's.

Living donor kidney transplantation: "beauty and the beast"!

PubMed

Danovitch, Gabriel M

2013-01-01

The report by Terasaki and colleagues in 1995 that the outcomes of spousal and biologically unrelated transplants were essentially the same as for 1-haplotype matched living related transplants changed the course of clinical transplantation. This article, entitled metaphorically "Beauty and the Beast", describes the dramatic change in the practice of living donor transplantation that followed. In the ensuing two decades, biologically unrelated living donor transplantation became commonplace in the developed world and reached its apotheosis in cross-country living donor paired exchange programs that have made transplantation accessible to many whose donors were deemed "incompatible". Such exchanges can indeed be thought of as a "thing of beauty". Sadly, the same observation was abused to exploit vulnerable donors, and the "beast" in the form of transplant tourism became a feature of transplantation in the developing world. The responsibility of the transplant community to protect the welfare of living donors and their recipients and the key role of trust in the evaluation of living donors is discussed.

Socio-dramatic affective-relational intervention for adolescents with asperger syndrome & high functioning autism: pilot study.

PubMed

Lerner, Matthew D; Mikami, Amori Yee; Levine, Karen

2011-01-01

This study examined the effectiveness of a novel intervention called 'socio-dramatic affective-relational intervention' (SDARI), intended to improve social skills among adolescents with Asperger syndrome and high functioning autism diagnoses. SDARI adapts dramatic training activities to focus on in vivo practice of areas of social skill deficit among this population. SDARI was administered as a six-week summer program in a community human service agency. Nine SDARI participants and eight age- and diagnosis-group matched adolescents not receiving SDARI were compared on child- and parent-report of social functioning at three week intervals beginning six weeks prior to intervention and ending six weeks post-intervention. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to estimate growth trends between groups to assess treatment outcomes and post-treatment maintenance. Results indicated significant improvement and post-treatment maintenance among SDARI participants on several measures of child social functioning. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

The impacts of climate change on the annual cycles of birds

PubMed Central

Carey, Cynthia

2009-01-01

Organisms living today are descended from ancestors that experienced considerable climate change in the past. However, they are currently presented with many new, man-made challenges, including rapid climate change. Migration and reproduction of many avian species are controlled by endogenous mechanisms that have been under intense selection over time to ensure that arrival to and departure from breeding grounds is synchronized with moderate temperatures, peak food availability and availability of nesting sites. The timing of egg laying is determined, usually by both endogenous clocks and local factors, so that food availability is near optimal for raising young. Climate change is causing mismatches in food supplies, snow cover and other factors that could severely impact successful migration and reproduction of avian populations unless they are able to adjust to new conditions. Resident (non-migratory) birds also face challenges if precipitation and/or temperature patterns vary in ways that result in mismatches of food and breeding. Predictions that many existing climates will disappear and novel climates will appear in the future suggest that communities will be dramatically restructured by extinctions and changes in range distributions. Species that persist into future climates may be able to do so in part owing to the genetic heritage passed down from ancestors who survived climate changes in the past. PMID:19833644

Assessing and monitoring semi-arid shrublands using object-based image analysis and multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis.

PubMed

Hamada, Yuki; Stow, Douglas A; Roberts, Dar A; Franklin, Janet; Kyriakidis, Phaedon C

2013-04-01

Arid and semi-arid shrublands have significant biological and economical values and have been experiencing dramatic changes due to human activities. In California, California sage scrub (CSS) is one of the most endangered plant communities in the US and requires close monitoring in order to conserve this important biological resource. We investigate the utility of remote-sensing approaches--object-based image analysis applied to pansharpened QuickBird imagery (QBPS/OBIA) and multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) applied to SPOT imagery (SPOT/MESMA)--for estimating fractional cover of true shrub, subshrub, herb, and bare ground within CSS communities of southern California. We also explore the effectiveness of life-form cover maps for assessing CSS conditions. Overall and combined shrub cover (i.e., true shrub and subshrub) were estimated more accurately using QBPS/OBIA (mean absolute error or MAE, 8.9 %) than SPOT/MESMA (MAE, 11.4 %). Life-form cover from QBPS/OBIA at a 25 × 25 m grid cell size seems most desirable for assessing CSS because of its higher accuracy and spatial detail in cover estimates and amenability to extracting other vegetation information (e.g., size, shape, and density of shrub patches). Maps derived from SPOT/MESMA at a 50 × 50 m scale are effective for retrospective analysis of life-form cover change because their comparable accuracies to QBPS/OBIA and availability of SPOT archives data dating back to the mid-1980s. The framework in this study can be applied to other physiognomically comparable shrubland communities.

Forest Soil Bacteria: Diversity, Involvement in Ecosystem Processes, and Response to Global Change

PubMed Central

Lladó, Salvador; López-Mondéjar, Rubén

2017-01-01

SUMMARY The ecology of forest soils is an important field of research due to the role of forests as carbon sinks. Consequently, a significant amount of information has been accumulated concerning their ecology, especially for temperate and boreal forests. Although most studies have focused on fungi, forest soil bacteria also play important roles in this environment. In forest soils, bacteria inhabit multiple habitats with specific properties, including bulk soil, rhizosphere, litter, and deadwood habitats, where their communities are shaped by nutrient availability and biotic interactions. Bacteria contribute to a range of essential soil processes involved in the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. They take part in the decomposition of dead plant biomass and are highly important for the decomposition of dead fungal mycelia. In rhizospheres of forest trees, bacteria interact with plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi as commensalists or mycorrhiza helpers. Bacteria also mediate multiple critical steps in the nitrogen cycle, including N fixation. Bacterial communities in forest soils respond to the effects of global change, such as climate warming, increased levels of carbon dioxide, or anthropogenic nitrogen deposition. This response, however, often reflects the specificities of each studied forest ecosystem, and it is still impossible to fully incorporate bacteria into predictive models. The understanding of bacterial ecology in forest soils has advanced dramatically in recent years, but it is still incomplete. The exact extent of the contribution of bacteria to forest ecosystem processes will be recognized only in the future, when the activities of all soil community members are studied simultaneously. PMID:28404790

Forest Soil Bacteria: Diversity, Involvement in Ecosystem Processes, and Response to Global Change.

PubMed

Lladó, Salvador; López-Mondéjar, Rubén; Baldrian, Petr

2017-06-01

The ecology of forest soils is an important field of research due to the role of forests as carbon sinks. Consequently, a significant amount of information has been accumulated concerning their ecology, especially for temperate and boreal forests. Although most studies have focused on fungi, forest soil bacteria also play important roles in this environment. In forest soils, bacteria inhabit multiple habitats with specific properties, including bulk soil, rhizosphere, litter, and deadwood habitats, where their communities are shaped by nutrient availability and biotic interactions. Bacteria contribute to a range of essential soil processes involved in the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. They take part in the decomposition of dead plant biomass and are highly important for the decomposition of dead fungal mycelia. In rhizospheres of forest trees, bacteria interact with plant roots and mycorrhizal fungi as commensalists or mycorrhiza helpers. Bacteria also mediate multiple critical steps in the nitrogen cycle, including N fixation. Bacterial communities in forest soils respond to the effects of global change, such as climate warming, increased levels of carbon dioxide, or anthropogenic nitrogen deposition. This response, however, often reflects the specificities of each studied forest ecosystem, and it is still impossible to fully incorporate bacteria into predictive models. The understanding of bacterial ecology in forest soils has advanced dramatically in recent years, but it is still incomplete. The exact extent of the contribution of bacteria to forest ecosystem processes will be recognized only in the future, when the activities of all soil community members are studied simultaneously. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

Disease Risk in a Dynamic Environment: The Spread of Tick-Borne Pathogens in Minnesota, USA

PubMed Central

Robinson, Stacie J.; Neitzel, David F.; Moen, Ronald A.; Craft, Meggan E.; Hamilton, Karin E.; Johnson, Lucinda B.; Mulla, David J.; Munderloh, Ulrike G.; Redig, Patrick T.; Smith, Kirk E.; Turner, Clarence L.; Umber, Jamie K.; Pelican, Katharine M.

2015-01-01

As humans and climate change alter the landscape, novel disease risk scenarios emerge. Understanding the complexities of pathogen emergence and subsequent spread as shaped by landscape heterogeneity is crucial to understanding disease emergence, pinpointing high-risk areas, and mitigating emerging disease threats in a dynamic environment. Tick-borne diseases present an important public health concern and incidence of many of these diseases are increasing in the United States. The complex epidemiology of tick-borne diseases includes strong ties with environmental factors that influence host availability, vector abundance, and pathogen transmission. Here, we used 16 years of case data from the Minnesota Department of Health to report spatial and temporal trends in Lyme disease (LD), human anaplasmosis, and babesiosis. We then used a spatial regression framework to evaluate the impact of landscape and climate factors on the spread of LD. Finally, we use the fitted model, and landscape and climate datasets projected under varying climate change scenarios, to predict future changes in tick-borne pathogen risk. Both forested habitat and temperature were important drivers of LD spread in Minnesota. Dramatic changes in future temperature regimes and forest communities predict rising risk of tick-borne disease. PMID:25281302

Evolution caused by extreme events.

PubMed

Grant, Peter R; Grant, B Rosemary; Huey, Raymond B; Johnson, Marc T J; Knoll, Andrew H; Schmitt, Johanna

2017-06-19

Extreme events can be a major driver of evolutionary change over geological and contemporary timescales. Outstanding examples are evolutionary diversification following mass extinctions caused by extreme volcanism or asteroid impact. The evolution of organisms in contemporary time is typically viewed as a gradual and incremental process that results from genetic change, environmental perturbation or both. However, contemporary environments occasionally experience strong perturbations such as heat waves, floods, hurricanes, droughts and pest outbreaks. These extreme events set up strong selection pressures on organisms, and are small-scale analogues of the dramatic changes documented in the fossil record. Because extreme events are rare, almost by definition, they are difficult to study. So far most attention has been given to their ecological rather than to their evolutionary consequences. We review several case studies of contemporary evolution in response to two types of extreme environmental perturbations, episodic (pulse) or prolonged (press). Evolution is most likely to occur when extreme events alter community composition. We encourage investigators to be prepared for evolutionary change in response to rare events during long-term field studies.This article is part of the themed issue 'Behavioural, ecological and evolutionary responses to extreme climatic events'. © 2017 The Author(s).

Temperature-induced mismatches between consumption and metabolism reduce consumer fitness.

PubMed

Lemoine, Nathan P; Burkepile, Deron E

2012-11-01

As physiological processes of ectotherms are coupled to environmental temperature, climate change will likely alter their fundamental biological rates, including metabolism, consumption, growth, and reproduction. Here we combine the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) with metabolism and consumption measurements of a model organism, the urchin Lytechinus variegatus, to test how climate change will affect consumer fitness. Unexpectedly, we found that metabolism and consumption exhibit different scaling relationships with temperature and are mismatched at high temperatures. This led to a dramatic reduction in ingestion efficiency and potentially in consumer fitness. Using metaanalysis, we showed that such temperature-driven mismatches between consumption and metabolism are common across taxa and frequently lead to reduced consumer fitness. Our empirical and synthetic analyses identify a mechanism by which climate change reduces the fitness of ectotherm consumers that may be applied to a broad array of taxonomic groups. Moreover, we showed that the assumptions of MTE do not hold at temperatures near the upper range of species' thermal tolerances for a wide array of taxa. Models using MTE to predict the effects of climate change on consumer-resource dynamics may therefore be underestimating the consequences of rising temperatures on population and community dynamics.

Disease risk in a dynamic environment: the spread of tick-borne pathogens in Minnesota, USA.

PubMed

Robinson, Stacie J; Neitzel, David F; Moen, Ronald A; Craft, Meggan E; Hamilton, Karin E; Johnson, Lucinda B; Mulla, David J; Munderloh, Ulrike G; Redig, Patrick T; Smith, Kirk E; Turner, Clarence L; Umber, Jamie K; Pelican, Katharine M

2015-03-01

As humans and climate change alter the landscape, novel disease risk scenarios emerge. Understanding the complexities of pathogen emergence and subsequent spread as shaped by landscape heterogeneity is crucial to understanding disease emergence, pinpointing high-risk areas, and mitigating emerging disease threats in a dynamic environment. Tick-borne diseases present an important public health concern and incidence of many of these diseases are increasing in the United States. The complex epidemiology of tick-borne diseases includes strong ties with environmental factors that influence host availability, vector abundance, and pathogen transmission. Here, we used 16 years of case data from the Minnesota Department of Health to report spatial and temporal trends in Lyme disease (LD), human anaplasmosis, and babesiosis. We then used a spatial regression framework to evaluate the impact of landscape and climate factors on the spread of LD. Finally, we use the fitted model, and landscape and climate datasets projected under varying climate change scenarios, to predict future changes in tick-borne pathogen risk. Both forested habitat and temperature were important drivers of LD spread in Minnesota. Dramatic changes in future temperature regimes and forest communities predict rising risk of tick-borne disease.

Ecomorphology and disease: cryptic effects of parasitism on host habitat use, thermoregulation, and predator avoidance.

PubMed

Goodman, Brett A; Johnson, Pieter T J

2011-03-01

Parasites can cause dramatic changes in the phenotypes of their hosts, sometimes leading to a higher probability of predation and parasite transmission. Because an organism's morphology directly affects its locomotion, even subtle changes in key morphological traits may affect survival and behavior. However, despite the ubiquity of parasites in natural communities, few studies have incorporated parasites into ecomorphological research. Here, we evaluated the effects of parasite-induced changes in host phenotype on the habitat use, thermal biology, and simulated predator-escape ability of Pacific chorus frogs (Pseudacris regilla) in natural environments. Frogs with parasite-induced limb malformations were more likely to use ground microhabitats relative to vertical refugia and selected less-angled perches closer to the ground in comparison with normal frogs. Although both groups had similar levels of infection, malformed frogs used warmer microhabitats, which resulted in higher body temperatures. Likely as a result of their morphological abnormalities, malformed frogs allowed a simulated predator to approach closer before escaping and escaped shorter distances relative to normal frogs. These data indicate that parasite-induced morphological changes can significantly alter host behavior and habitat use, highlighting the importance of incorporating the ubiquitous, albeit cryptic, role of parasites into ecomorphological research.

I. Plants

Treesearch

Dean Pearson; Steve Sutherland; Jack Butler; Jane Smith; Carolyn Sieg

2011-01-01

Exotic plants dramatically impact natural communities and disrupt ecosystem services (Mack and others 2000). Although the bulk of current impacts are caused by relatively few exotic species, many additional exotics that are currently established at low levels are increasing in density and distribution and present substantial imminent threats. Additionally, new exotic...

Alkaloids May Not be Responsible for Endophyte Associated Reductions in Tall Fescue Decomposition Rates

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

1. Fungal endophyte - grass symbioses can have dramatic ecological effects, altering individual plant physiology, plant and animal community structure and function, and ecosystem processes such as litter decomposition and nutrient cycling. 2. Within the tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus) - funga...

Communication Technologies Promoting Educational Communities with Scholarship of Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Georgakopoulos, Alexia; Hawkins, Steven T.

2013-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to present Dramatic Problem Solving Facilitation Model (DPSFM) and Interactive Management (IM) as innovative alternative dispute resolution approaches that incorporate communication technologies in recording and analyzing data. DPSFM utilizes performance-based actions with facilitation methods to help participants design…

Higher Order Language Competence and Adolescent Mental Health

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Nancy J.; Farnia, Fataneh; Im-Bolter, Nancie

2013-01-01

Background: Clinic and community-based epidemiological studies have shown an association between child psychopathology and language impairment. The demands on language for social and academic adjustment shift dramatically during adolescence and the ability to understand the nonliteral meaning in language represented by higher order language…

Comparison of Eruption Effects on Humans at Four North American Cinder Cones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ort, M. H.; Elson, M. D.; Anderson, K. C.

2007-05-01

Cinder-cone eruptions are typically low in volume and explosivity, but they can affect local populations profoundly. Comparisons of three prehistoric eruptions (Xitle, Sunset Crater, and Little Springs Volcano) and one historic eruption (Parícutin) in southwestern North America show that eruption effects vary dramatically due to eruption style, tephra blanket extent, climate, types of land use, the culture and complexity of the affected group, and resulting governmental action. Lava flows have long-term effects that extend little beyond the flow edges. These flows, however, are used for defensive purposes, providing refuges from invasion for those who know them well. In arid lands, tephra blankets serve as mulches, decreasing runoff and evaporation, increasing infiltration, and regulating soil temperature. Management and retention of these cinder mulches, which can open new areas for agriculture, becomes a priority for farming communities. In humid areas, though, the tephra blanket impedes plant growth and increases erosion. Cultural responses to eruptions vary, from collapse of an already declining culture at Xitle, fragmentation of society at Parícutin, dramatic changes and development of new technologies at Sunset Crater, to little apparent change at Little Springs volcano. Eruptions may be viewed as retribution for poor behavior and attempts are made to mollify angry gods. At Sunset Crater and Little Springs volcano, offerings (corn and pot sherds, respectively) were made at hornitos, rootless vents on the lava flows. Spatter containing the corn impressions and sherds was then carried away and incorporated into the walls of structures. This indicates ritual significance to the offerings.

Reemergence of sea ice cover anomalies and the role of the sea ice-albedo feedback in CCSM simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deweaver, E. T.

2008-12-01

The dramatic sea ice decline of 2007 and lack of recovery in 2008 raise the question of a "tipping point" for Arctic sea ice, beyond which the transition to a seasonal sea ice state becomes abrupt and irreversible. The tipping point is essentially a "memory catastrophe", in which a dramatic loss of sea ice in one summer is "remembered" in reduced ice thickness over the winter season and leads to a comparably dramatic loss the following summer. The dominant contributor to this memory is presumably the sea ice - albedo feedback (SIAF), in which excess insolation absorbed due to low summer ice cover leads to a shorter ice growth season and hence thinner ice. While these dynamics are clearly important, they are difficult to quantify given the lack of long-term observations in the Arctic and the suddenness of the recent loss. Alternatively, we attempt to quantify the contribution of the SIAF to the year-to-year memory of sea ice cover anomalies in simulations of the NCAR Community Climate System Model (CCSM) under 20th century conditions. Lagged autocorrelation plots of sea ice area anomalies show that anomalies in one year tend to "reemerge" in the following year. Further experiments using a slab ocean model (SOM) are used to assess the contribution of oceanic processes to the year-to-year reemergence. This contribution is substantial, particularly in the winter season, and includes memory due to the standard mixed layer reemergence mechanism and low-frequency ocean heat transport anomalies. The contribution of the SIAF to persistence in the SOM experiment is determined through additional experiments in which the SIAF is disabled by fixing surface albedo to its climatological value regardless of sea ice concentration anomalies. SIAF causes a 50% increase in the magnitude of the anomalies but a relatively small increase in their persistence. Persistence is not dramatically increased because the enhancement of shortwave flux anomalies by SIAF is compensated by stronger turbulent heat flux losses in the cold season. The role of turbulent heat fluxes is somewhat inconsistent with the retrospective 20th century simulations from PIOMAS, in which increased insolation is balanced by longwave heat loss. By fitting the area anomaly time series for the SIAF and no-SIAF integrations to an AR1 process, the change in net feedback due to SIAF is calculated. The change in net feedback implies that SIAF increases the climate sensitivity of September sea ice to external forcing (greenhouse gas increases) by about 20%. The modest increase in sea ice sensitivity is confirmed by further climate change experiments with and without SIAF with the CCSM/SOM model. The small role for SIAF is somewhat surprising given the prevalence of "abrupt loss" events in CCSM climate change simulations. However, it is consistent with claims that the dominant factor in abrupt loss events is the sea ice thickness at the event onset.

Fates of dissolved and particulate materials from the Mississippi river immediately after discharge into the northern Gulf of Mexico, USA, during a period of low wind stress

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dagg, M. J.; Bianchi, T.; McKee, B.; Powell, R.

2008-07-01

In June 2003, we conducted a two-part field exercise to examine biogeochemical characteristics of water in the lower Mississippi river during the 4 days prior to discharge and in the Mississippi river plume over 2 days after discharge. Here we describe the fates of materials immediately after their discharge through Southwest Pass of the Mississippi delta into the northern Gulf of Mexico. Changes in surface water properties immediately after discharge were much larger and more rapid than changes prior to discharge. Total suspended matter (TSM) declined, probably due to sinking, dissolved macronutrients were rapidly diminished by mixing and biological uptake, and phytoplankton populations increased dramatically, and then declined. This decline appeared to begin at salinities of approximately 10 and was nearly complete by 15. A large increase in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) occurred over approximately the same salinity range. Weak winds (<2 m s -1) during and preceding this cruise apparently led to the formation of an extensive but thin freshwater lens from the river. This lens spread widely without much mixing, and the bloom of phytoplankton that occurred between discharge and a salinity of 10 was probably a freshwater community seeded from the lower river. Phytoplankton bloomed for a period of about 1-2 days, then declined dramatically, apparently releasing large amounts of DOC. Macronutrients from the river were utilized by the river phytoplankton community in the extensive freshwater lens. This contrasted with the more typical situation in which river nutrients stimulate a marine phytoplankton bloom at salinities in the mid-20s. We concluded that the direct effects of dissolved and particulate bio-reactive materials discharged by the Mississippi river were spatially restricted at this time to low-salinity water, at least as surface phenomena. After being transported through the lower river essentially unaltered, these materials were biogeochemically processed within days and tens of km. More generally, the mixing rate of plume water with receiving oceanic water has profound effects on the food web structure and biogeochemical cycling in the plume.

The arthropod, but not the vertebrate host or its environment, dictates bacterial community composition of fleas and ticks

PubMed Central

Hawlena, Hadas; Rynkiewicz, Evelyn; Toh, Evelyn; Alfred, Andrew; Durden, Lance A; Hastriter, Michael W; Nelson, David E; Rong, Ruichen; Munro, Daniel; Dong, Qunfeng; Fuqua, Clay; Clay, Keith

2013-01-01

Bacterial community composition in blood-sucking arthropods can shift dramatically across time and space. We used 16S rRNA gene amplification and pyrosequencing to investigate the relative impact of vertebrate host-related, arthropod-related and environmental factors on bacterial community composition in fleas and ticks collected from rodents in southern Indiana (USA). Bacterial community composition was largely affected by arthropod identity, but not by the rodent host or environmental conditions. Specifically, the arthropod group (fleas vs ticks) determined the community composition of bacteria, where bacterial communities of ticks were less diverse and more dependent on arthropod traits—especially tick species and life stage—than bacterial communities of fleas. Our data suggest that both arthropod life histories and the presence of arthropod-specific endosymbionts may mask the effects of the vertebrate host and its environment. PMID:22739493

Promoting Hispanic Student Retention in Two Texas Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samuel, Karissa R.; Scott, Joyce A.

2014-01-01

Texas' Hispanic population has increased dramatically since 2000 as have Hispanic enrollments in higher education (+118%). Despite having the largest spike in college enrollment, Hispanic students' completion rates remain the lowest among all ethnic groups. To identify institutional practices that might encourage Hispanic student retention,…

39 Flavors: The Community College Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Sharon A.

Multicultural education can be defined as an educational process that promotes an understanding and appreciation of the cultural diversity within a pluralistic society. By the year 2000, the number of minorities in the United States will increase dramatically. To respond appropriately and effectively to these emerging demographics, educational…

Changes in the Structure and Function of Microbial Communities in Drinking Water Treatment Bioreactors upon Addition of Phosphorus▿ †

PubMed Central

Li, Xu; Upadhyaya, Giridhar; Yuen, Wangki; Brown, Jess; Morgenroth, Eberhard; Raskin, Lutgarde

2010-01-01

Phosphorus was added as a nutrient to bench-scale and pilot-scale biologically active carbon (BAC) reactors operated for perchlorate and nitrate removal from contaminated groundwater. The two bioreactors responded similarly to phosphorus addition in terms of microbial community function (i.e., reactor performance), while drastically different responses in microbial community structure were detected. Improvement in reactor performance with respect to perchlorate and nitrate removal started within a few days after phosphorus addition for both reactors. Microbial community structures were evaluated using molecular techniques targeting 16S rRNA genes. Clone library results showed that the relative abundance of perchlorate-reducing bacteria (PRB) Dechloromonas and Azospira in the bench-scale reactor increased from 15.2% and 0.6% to 54.2% and 11.7% after phosphorus addition, respectively. Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) experiments revealed that these increases started within a few days after phosphorus addition. In contrast, after phosphorus addition, the relative abundance of Dechloromonas in the pilot-scale reactor decreased from 7.1 to 0.6%, while Zoogloea increased from 17.9 to 52.0%. The results of this study demonstrated that similar operating conditions for bench-scale and pilot-scale reactors resulted in similar contaminant removal performances, despite dramatically different responses from microbial communities. These findings suggest that it is important to evaluate the microbial community compositions inside bioreactors used for drinking water treatment, as they determine the microbial composition in the effluent and impact downstream treatment requirements for drinking water production. This information could be particularly relevant to drinking water safety, if pathogens or disinfectant-resistant bacteria are detected in the bioreactors. PMID:20889793

Soil Microbe Active Community Composition and Capability of Responding to Litter Addition after 12 Years of No Inputs

PubMed Central

Brewer, Elizabeth; Yarwood, Rockie; Lajtha, Kate; Myrold, David

2013-01-01

One explanation given for the high microbial diversity found in soils is that they contain a large inactive biomass that is able to persist in soils for long periods of time. This persistent microbial fraction may help to buffer the functionality of the soil community during times of low nutrients by providing a reservoir of specialized functions that can be reactivated when conditions improve. A study was designed to test the hypothesis: in soils lacking fresh root or detrital inputs, microbial community composition may persist relatively unchanged. Upon addition of new inputs, this community will be stimulated to grow and break down litter similarly to control soils. Soils from two of the Detrital Input and Removal Treatments (DIRT) at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, the no-input and control treatment plots, were used in a microcosm experiment where Douglas-fir needles were added to soils. After 3 and 151 days of incubation, soil microbial DNA and RNA was extracted and characterized using quantitative PCR (qPCR) and 454 pyrosequencing. The abundance of 16S and 28S gene copies and RNA copies did not vary with soil type or amendment; however, treatment differences were observed in the abundance of archaeal ammonia-oxidizing amoA gene abundance. Analysis of ∼110,000 bacterial sequences showed a significant change in the active (RNA-based) community between day 3 and day 151, but microbial composition was similar between soil types. These results show that even after 12 years of plant litter exclusion, the legacy of community composition was well buffered against a dramatic disturbance. PMID:23263952

[Status of the discussion regarding cost-effectiveness of community psychiatry and inpatient psychiatry].

PubMed

Brenner, H D

1995-01-01

In the current climate of escalating health care costs and shrinking resources, higher priority is also being given to the relation between costs and benefits of reform efforts and further developments of existing service delivery systems in the field of mental health. Some proponents of community psychiatry have predicted in a pointed manner that a change in the allocation of resources in favor of community-based care would dramatically decrease the need for hospital beds, cost half as much and be clinically at least as efficacious as inpatient treatment. The author gives careful consideration to these postulates based on today's available literature and on his own experiences in Mannheim and in Bern. He presents an array of newer findings which places them in perspective and to some extent contradicts them as well. Recent studies on the effects of an expansion of outpatient treatment programs on the overall mental health delivery system suggest that in areas with already reasonably developed community services its further enhancement rarely has an effect on the number of admissions to and length of hospital stays. In addition, the postulate that community care is considerably less costly only holds if in- and outpatient facilities are not considered to be integral parts of a comprehensive system of mental health care which both serve different purposes. Accordingly, the question of the effectiveness of treatment must also be discussed very distinctively. Although a network of well-functioning community-based services is (not yet) a veritable alternative, it can by all means, however, serve as a useful counterpart to the intensive treatment offered in modern mental institutions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Psychosocial aspects of women's lives: work, family, and life cycle issues.

PubMed

Shrier, Diane K

2003-09-01

Over the past century and continuing to evolve into the twenty-first century, there have been dramatic changes in work and personal/family lives within the United States. These changes, though strongly affecting men and children, have impacted most dramatically on women's lives, particularly white, middle-class women. Psychiatrists and other mental health clinicians need to be aware of the scope and nature of these changes and to recognize that their own personal experiences and values might differ from those of women of different generations as well as different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.

The McMurdo Dry Valleys: A landscape on the threshold of change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fountain, Andrew G.; Levy, Joseph S.; Gooseff, Michael N.; Van Horn, David

2014-11-01

Field observations of coastal and lowland regions in the McMurdo Dry Valleys suggest they are on the threshold of rapid topographic change, in contrast to the high elevation upland landscape that represents some of the lowest rates of surface change on Earth. A number of landscapes have undergone dramatic and unprecedented landscape changes over the past decade including, the Wright Lower Glacier (Wright Valley) - ablated several tens of meters, the Garwood River (Garwood Valley) has incised > 3 m into massive ice permafrost, smaller streams in Taylor Valley (Crescent, Lawson, and Lost Seal Streams) have experienced extensive down-cutting and/or bank undercutting, and Canada Glacier (Taylor Valley) has formed sheer, > 4 meter deep canyons. The commonality between all these landscape changes appears to be sediment on ice acting as a catalyst for melting, including ice-cement permafrost thaw. We attribute these changes to increasing solar radiation over the past decade despite no significant trend in summer air temperature. To infer possible future landscape changes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, due to anticipated climate warming, we map ‘at risk’ landscapes defined as those with buried massive ice in relative warm regions of the valleys. Results show that large regions of the valley bottoms are ‘at risk’. Changes in surface topography will trigger important responses in hydrology, geochemistry, and biological community structure and function.

Physician retention in community and migrant health centers: who stays and for how long?

PubMed

Singer, J D; Davidson, S M; Graham, S; Davidson, H S

1998-08-01

This study used discrete-time survival analysis to estimate the tenure of primary care physicians in Community Health Centers (CHCs), to identify the changing risk of leaving Community Health Center employment as time passes, and to identify factors associated with a physician's likelihood of remaining in a Community Health Center. Because of dramatic differences in physician career trajectories, much of the focus was on differences between physicians with and without National Health Service Corps obligations. Beginning with an administrative dataset at the Bureau of Primary Health Care that listed primary care physicians for each Community Health Center, the completeness and accuracy of the information provided were verified and an analytic database of all physicians working in those centers during a 21-month measurement window from January 1, 1990 through September 30, 1992 was constructed. The data included start and end dates, percent full-time equivalent status, and certain demographic characteristics. In addition, several data elements describing the Community Health Center were merged onto each physician record. These included urban or rural location, expenditure level, productivity, and federal grade. Through the use of discrete-time survival analysis, it was possible to include in the analytic sample all 2,654 physicians who worked during the period, even those who started working before January 1, 1990 and those who were still working on September 30, 1992. Survivor functions were estimated showing the proportion of physicians remaining after each quarter of their tenure (ie, after the fourth quarter of work, after the 12th quarter of work, etc). In addition, hazard functions were estimated showing the risk that a physician who had worked through the end of one quarter would leave during the following quarter. Finally, multivariate analysis demonstrated the relation of certain physician and center characteristics to the likelihood of the physician's leaving the center during each quarter. The median tenure of primary care physicians in Community Health Centers was approximately 3 years regardless of whether or not the physician had a National Health Service Corps obligation. But the career trajectories for the two groups of physicians varied dramatically. Most physicians left on or about their anniversary date, probably because it coincided with the end of their contract, but the effect was much more pronounced for National Health Service Corps physicians than for non-National Health Service Corps physicians. By the end of 5 years, approximately 36% of physicians who started without an National Health Service Corps obligation were still working compared with only approximately 17% of those with an National Health Service Corps obligation. The study demonstrates the value of discrete-time survival analysis in addressing questions related to the tenure of primary care physicians in Community Health Centers, making it possible to use data from physicians whose Community Health Center careers began before or ended after a give measurement window. Second, the study measured primary care physician tenure, providing center directors with a yard-stick against which to compare their own center's performance. Finally, the data provided some help in trying to explain differences in the propensity to stay or leave employment in Community Health Centers.

Short-term effects of povidone iodine and sodium fluoride therapy on plaque levels and microbiome diversity.

PubMed

Reilly, C; Goettl, M; Steinmetz, M; Nikrad, J; Jones, R S

2016-03-01

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of short-term changes in the oral microbial ecology of dental plaque and plaque levels after topical treatment of a combination of 10% povidone iodine (PI) and 5% sodium fluoride varnish (FV). A single group design intervention study on 12 pediatric patients, who underwent two baseline plaques samplings before the intervention, were enrolled in the study. A modified mixed dentition Silness-Löe plaque index score was used to assess plaque accumulation and microbial composition was assessed by amplicon sequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA V4 region. Dental plaque accumulation (P = 0.0424) was reduced after 1 week using PI/FV application. This reduction was not observed between the two double-baseline visits. 16S rRNA analysis showed that the single PI/FV therapy did not have dramatic shifts in the plaque microbiome community depicted by hierarchical cluster and principle component analysis. More subtle changes were found when analyzing the Shannon diversity index after the application of PI/FV vs two baselines prior to combination therapy. The bacteria within the dental biofilms showed resilience in maintaining the overall community diversity but reduced biofilm accumulation following PI/FV therapy. Repeated uses of PI/FV may augment plaque control during dental rehabilitation in children. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Making the Blue Zones: Neoliberalism and nudges in public health promotion.

PubMed

Carter, Eric D

2015-05-01

This paper evaluates the ideological and political origins of a place-based and commercial health promotion effort, the Blue Zones Project (BZP), launched in Iowa in 2011. Through critical discourse analysis, I argue that the BZP does reflect a neoliberalization of public health, but as an "actually existing neoliberalism" it emerges from a specific policy context, including dramatic health sector policy changes due to the national Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare; a media discourse of health crisis for an aging Midwestern population; and an effort to refashion Iowa cities as sites of healthy and active living, to retain and attract a creative class of young entrepreneurs. The BZP employs many well-known mechanisms of neoliberal governance: the public-private partnership; competition among communities for "public" funds; promotion of an apolitical discourse on individual responsibility and ownership of health; decentralizing governance to the "community" level; and marketing, branding, and corporate sponsorship of public projects. The BZP exemplifies the process of "neoliberal governmentality," by which individuals learn to govern themselves and their "life projects" in line with a market-based rationality. However, with its emphasis on "nudging" individuals towards healthy behaviors through small changes in the local environment, the BZP reflects the rise of "libertarian paternalism," a variant of neoliberalism, as a dominant ideology underlying contemporary health promotion efforts. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ottesen, Elizabeth A.; Marin, Roman; Preston, Christina M.

Planktonic microbial activity and community structure is dynamic, and can change dramatically on time scales of hours to days. Yet for logistical reasons, this temporal scale is typically undersampled in the marine environment. In order to facilitate higher-resolution, long-term observation of microbial diversity and activity, we developed a protocol for automated collection and fixation of marine microbes using the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) platform. The protocol applies a preservative (RNALater) to cells collected on filters, for long-term storage and preservation of total cellular RNA. Microbial samples preserved using this protocol yielded high-quality RNA after 30 days of storage at roommore » temperature, or onboard the ESP at in situ temperatures. Pyrosequencing of complementary DNA libraries generated from ESP-collected and preserved samples yielded transcript abundance profiles nearly indistinguishable from those derived from conventionally treated replicate samples. To demonstrate the utility of the method, we used a moored ESP to remotely and autonomously collect Monterey Bay seawater for metatranscriptomic analysis. Community RNA was extracted and pyrosequenced from samples collected at four time points over the course of a single day. In all four samples, the oxygenic photoautotrophs were predominantly eukaryotic, while the bacterial community was dominated by Polaribacter-like Flavobacteria and a Rhodobacterales bacterium sharing high similarity with Rhodobacterales sp. HTCC2255. However, each time point was associated with distinct species abundance and gene transcript profiles. These laboratory and field tests confirmed that autonomous collection and preservation is a feasible and useful approach for characterizing the expressed genes and environmental responses of marine microbial communities.« less

Biodiversity of Soil Microbial Communities Following Woody Plant Invasion of Grassland: An Assessment Using Molecular Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kantola, I. B.; Gentry, T. J.; Filley, T. R.; Boutton, T. W.

2012-12-01

Woody plants have encroached into grasslands, savannas, and other grass-dominated ecosystems throughout the world during the last century. This dramatic vegetation change is likely driven by livestock grazing, altered fire frequencies, elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and/or changes in atmospheric deposition patterns. Woody invasion often results in significant changes in ecosystem function, including alterations in above- and belowground primary productivity, soil C, N, and P storage and turnover, and the size and activity of the soil microbial biomass pool. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships and interactions between plant communities and soil microbial communities in the Rio Grande Plains region of southern Texas where grasslands have been largely replaced by woodlands. Research was conducted along a successional chronosequence representing the stages of woody plant encroachment from open grassland to closed-canopy woodland. To characterize soil microbial community composition, soil samples (0-7.5 cm) were collected in remnant grasslands (representing time 0) and near the centers of woody plant clusters, groves, and drainage woodlands ranging in age from 10 to 130 yrs. Ages of woody plant stands were determined by dendrochronology. Community DNA was extracted from each soil sample with a MoBio PowerMax Soil DNA isolation kit. The DNA concentrations were quantified on a NanoDrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer and diluted to a standard concentration. Pyrosequencing was performed by the Research and Testing Laboratory (Lubbock, TX) according to Roche 454 Titanium chemistry protocols. Samples were amplified with primers 27F and 519R for bacteria, and primers ITS1F and ITS4 for fungi. Sequences were aligned using BioEdit and the RDP Pipeline and analyzed in MOTHUR. Non-metric multidimensional scaling of the operational taxonomic units identified by pyrosequencing revealed that both bacterial and fungal community composition were significantly different between remnant grasslands and all woody plant community types. Phylum-level classification of the 16S bacterial sequences showed that five phyla (Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Gemmatiomonadetes) represented 85-91% of classifiable sequences in all landscape elements. The relative abundances of Acidobacteria were significantly higher (p<0.05) in grassland samples (29.5%) than in all wooded landscape elements (17.1-25.6%), while the relative abundances of Actinobacteria was lower in grasslands (8.8%) than wooded areas (16.1-19.7%). Phylum-level classification of fungal sequences showed that four phyla accounted for 61.8 to 86.3% of identified sequences. Ascomycota was the most common phylum in all samples (55.8-62.1%), with significant contributions from Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota, and Blastocladiomycota. The largest change in fungal community composition at the phylum level was observed in the Chytridiomycota, which declined from 4.0% in the grasslands to 0.8-1.4% in the wooded landscape elements. These significant changes in microbial community composition that occur following grassland to woodland conversion may have important implications for key biogeochemical processes that influence ecosystem structure and function in this region.

Higher Education Affordability: Two Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiSalvo, Steven R.

2017-01-01

There are two initiatives that can dramatically change the way college pricing and student debt are being handled under the current system. Both are commonsense solutions that would, if accepted, dramatically help students, graduates and families burdened by the cost of tuition and the loans they take to earn their degrees. First, income-based…

Drought sensitivities of dominant plant functional types in the Colorado Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoover, D. L.; Duniway, M.; Belnap, J.

2014-12-01

Drylands of the Southwestern US are predicted to experience greater water limitations with climate change due to changes in precipitation and increased warming. Certain plants may be living at or near their tolerance thresholds in these ecosystems and thus subtle changes in water availability may have dramatic effects on their performances. We imposed a four-year experiment in the Colorado Plateau to assess the vulnerability of this dryland ecosystem to chronic, but subtle drought using 40 sites varying in plant communities, parent materials and soil textures. Within a site, two plots were selected with matching cover of target species, which were randomly assigned to either control (ambient precipitation) or drought (35% reduction) treatments. Drought treatments were imposed year-round from 2011 through 2014. Over the course of the experiment, we examined plant cover changes and mortality of four dominant plant functional types (PFT's): C3 grasses, C4 grasses, C3 shrubs and C4 shrubs. We hypothesized that overall, grasses would be more sensitive to drought than shrubs, and that within these two groups, plants with C3 photosynthesis would be more sensitive than plants with C4 photosynthesis. During three of the four years, precipitation inputs were either near average (50th percentile, control) or dry (25th percentile, drought). However in 2012, both treatments experienced extremely dry growing season precipitation with the control and drought below the 5th and 1st percentiles, respectively. We observed three general responses to drought in this experiment: 1. change in cover with mortality (C3 grasses), 2. change in cover without mortality (C4 grasses and C4 shrubs) and 3. no change in cover or mortality (C3 shrubs). The dramatic responses of the C3 grasses suggest that this PFT is very sensitive to drought and it is living at or near its tolerance threshold in this region. While the C4 grasses also experienced cover changes, they did not experience widespread mortality and thus have higher tolerance to drought than the C3 grasses. Finally, contrary to our hypothesis, C3 shrubs were more drought tolerant than C4 shrubs. These results suggest that subtle changes in water availability may differentially impact key plant functional types and potentially alter the structure and function of this ecosystem.

Influence of drought on salamander occupancy of isolated wetlands on the southeastern Coastal Plain of the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Walls, Susan C.; Barichivich, William J.; Brown, Mary E.; Scott, David E.; Hossack, Blake R.

2013-01-01

In the southeastern U.S., changes in temperature and precipitation over the last three decades have been the most dramatic in winter and spring seasons. Continuation of these trends could negatively impact pond-breeding amphibians, especially those that rely on winter and spring rains to fill seasonal wetlands, trigger breeding, and ensure reproductive success. From 2009 to 2012, we monitored Spring and Fall presence of aquatic stages (larval and paedomorphic, gilled adult) of a winter-breeding amphibian (the mole salamander, Ambystoma talpoideum) and used multi-season models to estimate occupancy, local colonization and extinction. Seasonal estimates of occupancy, corrected for imperfect detection, declined from 22.3 % of ponds in Spring 2009 to 9.9 % in Fall 2012. Our best supported model suggested that changes in occupancy were driven by increased rates of extinction that corresponded with drought-related drying of ponds. Based on uncertainty in climate change projections for the Southeast, we present a conceptual model of predicted changes in wetland hydroperiods across a landscape with projected decreases and increases in future precipitation. Such precipitation changes could alter wetland hydroperiods, facilitate extinctions of species adapted to short, intermediate or long hydroperiod environments and, ultimately, modify the composition of amphibian communities within freshwater wetland ecosystems.

The health care industry: in evolution or revolution?

PubMed

Cleverley, W O

1999-01-01

The health care industry has experienced dramatic changes during the last 25 years and will likely undergo even more dramatic changes in the next 25 years. Many firms in the health care industry will thrive just as many firms have thrived during the last 25 years. The ultimate key to success will be management and their attention to the basics of good business management. Management has always been the key ingredient and will continue to be the most critical success factor.

"Please Teach America": Keisuke's Journey into a Language Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunkel, Jean

1991-01-01

Shows how being part of a group of children interacting in a literate environment for one school year empowered a fourth grade Japanese student not only to improve dramatically his command of the English language but also to feel good about himself as he worked hard to do so. (MG)

Non-random food-web assembly at habitat edges increases connectivity and functional redundancy

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Habitat fragmentation dramatically alters the spatial configuration of landscapes, with the creation of artificial edges affecting community structure and species interactions. Despite this, it is not known how the different food-webs in adjacent habitats merge at their boundaries, and what the cons...

The response of ammonia-oxidizer activity and community structure to fertilizer amendment of orchard soils

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Soil microorganisms have the potential to dramatically alter the nitrogen (N) availability in agricultural systems, and therefore affect the efficiency of fertilizer application. Data regarding the effects of cereal management systems on the soil microbiology functional to N cycling have yielded var...

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AGING AMERICANS: IMPACT ON THE ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY WORKSHOP

EPA Science Inventory

The U.S. is undergoing a dramatic demographic transformation toward older adults, spearheaded by the aging Baby Boomers, but projected to last beyond the Boomer generation. There has been little discussion in the environmental community, however, about the impact of the aging soc...

El Embarazo Precoz: Childbearing among Hispanic Teenagers in the United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fennelly, Katherine

Adolescent pregnancy in the Hispanic community warrants attention both because it has been underresearched and because its consequences may be particularly dramatic. In addition to economic disadvantage, Hispanic adolescents in the United States must contend with conflicting messages from two cultures regarding standards of sexuality, timing of…

Wildfires cause long-term plant community conversion in a western Great Plains steppe

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Long-term impacts of wildfire vary dramatically across rangeland ecosystems. Frequent fire can promote productivity and biodiversity in some locations (Fuhlendorf et al. 2006), but in other regions this same disturbance can cause catastrophic ecosystem shifts, including the loss of dominant plant sp...

A House Divided: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanks, Joanna D.; Williamson, Fred H.

This paper explores the divisive issue of providing effective workforce development services from within a traditionally run academic institution. Over the years, state funding levels for community colleges have decreased dramatically. As a result, college presidents have had to become more adept at finding alternative sources of revenue. Many…

Imperfect/I'm Perfect: Bodies/Embodiment in Post-Secondary and Elementary Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winters, Kari-Lynn; Code, Mary

2017-01-01

Using researched perspectives of bodies and embodiment, alongside dramatic structures, where bodies are foregrounded, this article looks closely at bodies and embodiment inside of school settings. Specifically, it investigates a community in Southern Ontario and the perceived, affective, relational, and critical ways that study participants story…

Ethnographies of "A Lesson in Racism": Class, Ethnicity, and the Supremacy of the Psychological Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shoshana, Avihu

2017-01-01

Through the ethnographies of two schools serving different socioeconomic communities, this article offers an examination of students' and teachers' interpretations of the anti-racism text "Brown Morning" taught in civics classes. Findings present the dramatic differences between the interpretations of students from dissimilar…

Using Performance as an Interpretive Strategy in Teaching Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schevera, Nicholas

1997-01-01

Uses role-playing, dramatic monologues, and "tableaux vivant" to interpret Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess" in an introductory literature class at Westchester Community College. Notes that performative strategies illustrate connections in the poem that often remain unnoticed on a first reading. (PA)

SUPPORTING THE DATA NEEDS OF THE COASTAL COMMUNITY II: HURRICANE FLOYD POST-EVENT

EPA Science Inventory

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is cooperating with federal, state, and local organizations in developing tools necessary to predict the effects on water quality of various events. The most dramatic of these events in recent years was the extensive damage to fragile c...

Influence of Molecular Conformations and Microstructure on the Optoelectronic Properties of Conjugated Polymers

PubMed Central

Botiz, Ioan; Stingelin, Natalie

2014-01-01

It is increasingly obvious that the molecular conformations and the long-range arrangement that conjugated polymers can adopt under various experimental conditions in bulk, solutions or thin films, significantly impact their resulting optoelectronic properties. As a consequence, the functionalities and efficiencies of resulting organic devices, such as field-effect transistors, light-emitting diodes, or photovoltaic cells, also dramatically change due to the close structure/property relationship. A range of structure/optoelectronic properties relationships have been investigated over the last few years using various experimental and theoretical methods, and, further, interesting correlations are continuously revealed by the scientific community. In this review, we discuss the latest findings related to the structure/optoelectronic properties interrelationships that exist in organic devices fabricated with conjugated polymers in terms of charge mobility, absorption, photoluminescence, as well as photovoltaic properties. PMID:28788568

The jellification of north temperate lakes

PubMed Central

Jeziorski, Adam; Tanentzap, Andrew J.; Yan, Norman D.; Paterson, Andrew M.; Palmer, Michelle E.; Korosi, Jennifer B.; Rusak, James A.; Arts, Michael T.; Keller, Wendel (Bill); Ingram, Ron; Cairns, Allegra; Smol, John P.

2015-01-01

Calcium (Ca) concentrations are decreasing in softwater lakes across eastern North America and western Europe. Using long-term contemporary and palaeo-environmental field data, we show that this is precipitating a dramatic change in Canadian lakes: the replacement of previously dominant pelagic herbivores (Ca-rich Daphnia species) by Holopedium glacialis, a jelly-clad, Ca-poor competitor. In some lakes, this transformation is being facilitated by increases in macro-invertebrate predation, both from native (Chaoborus spp.) and introduced (Bythotrephes longimanus) zooplanktivores, to which Holopedium, with its jelly coat, is relatively invulnerable. Greater representation by Holopedium within cladoceran zooplankton communities will reduce nutrient transfer through food webs, given their lower phosphorus content relative to daphniids, and greater absolute abundances may pose long-term problems to water users. The dominance of jelly-clad zooplankton will likely persist while lakewater Ca levels remain low. PMID:25411451

[Ignatius of Loyola--gifted or mentally ill?].

PubMed

Heinrich, K; Walter, C

1995-06-01

Subsequent to a severe injury and under the influence of religious reading, Loyola experienced a dramatic mental change in his spiritual values in the sense of a sublimation to an alternative knighthood. His behaviour patterns observed thereafter were determined by a totality of his attachment to God. Based on this certainty in his faith, which was free from any doubts, and on God, and with the background of fasting and praying, he had visionary and pseudo-hallucinatory experiences. As the founder of an order and head of the community of Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola proved to be diplomatically highly talented. There is no evidence of any psychotic disease. Also, there is no probability of a personality disorder in the sense of a neurosis. The numerous unusual behaviour patterns of Ignatius cannot be interpreted as psychopathological symptoms. It is justified to call him a genius.

Understanding the Lives and Challenges of Women in Poverty after TANF.

PubMed

Hildebrandt, Eugenie

2016-08-01

Welfare Reform has caused a dramatic change in the lives and health of single mothers living in poverty. This qualitative study explored the health and socioeconomic lives of 22 community-dwelling women in poverty in the years after they were terminated from the current work-based welfare program intended to move women from welfare to work and independence. The instruments were a semistructured interview guide, the HANES General Well-Being Schedule, and a demographic data form. Data were analyzed using multistage narrative analysis and descriptive statistics. These primary source data showed participants had multiple barriers that precede or follow poverty. Their voices of how they survive are a rich source of data to assist providers and policy makers in devising evidence-based solutions for reducing poverty in America. © The Author(s) 2016.

Hormones in the city: endocrine ecology of urban birds.

PubMed

Bonier, Frances

2012-05-01

Urbanization dramatically changes the landscape, presenting organisms with novel challenges and often leading to reduced species diversity. Urban ecologists have documented numerous biotic and abiotic consequences of urbanization, such as altered climate, species interactions, and community composition, but we lack an understanding of the mechanisms underlying organisms' responses to urbanization. Here, I review findings from the nascent field of study of the endocrine ecology of urban birds. Thus far, no clear or consistent patterns have been revealed, but we do have evidence that urban habitat can shape endocrine traits, and that those traits might contribute to adaptation to the urban environment. I suggest strong approaches for future work addressing exciting questions about the role of endocrine traits in mediating responses to urbanization within species across the globe. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recycling Flight Hardware Components and Systems to Reduce Next Generation Research Costs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Turner, Wlat

2011-01-01

With the recent 'new direction' put forth by President Obama identifying NASA's new focus in research rather than continuing on a path to return to the Moon and Mars, the focus of work at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) may be changing dramatically. Research opportunities within the micro-gravity community potentially stands at the threshold of resurgence when the new direction of the agency takes hold for the next generation of experimenters. This presentation defines a strategy for recycling flight experiment components or part numbers, in order to reduce research project costs, not just in component selection and fabrication, but in expediting qualification of hardware for flight. A key component of the strategy is effective communication of relevant flight hardware information and available flight hardware components to researchers, with the goal of 'short circuiting' the design process for flight experiments

Experimental evidence of stress-field-induced selection of variants in Ni-Mn-Ga ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wang, Y. D.; Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials; Brown, D. W.

2007-05-01

The in situ time-of-flight neutron-diffraction measurements captured well the martensitic transformation behavior of the Ni-Mn-Ga ferromagnetic shape-memory alloys under uniaxial stress fields. We found that a small uniaxial stress applied during phase transformation dramatically disturbed the distribution of variants in the product phase. The observed changes in the distributions of variants may be explained by considering the role of the minimum distortion energy of the Bain transformation in the effective partition among the variants belonging to the same orientation of parent phase. It was also found that transformation kinetics under various stress fields follows the scale law. The present investigationsmore » provide the fundamental approach for scaling the evolution of microstructures in martensitic transitions, which is of general interest to the condensed matter community.« less

Temporal-spatial dynamics in orthoptera in relation to nutrient availability and plant species richness.

PubMed

Hendriks, Rob J J; Carvalheiro, Luisa G; Kleukers, Roy M J C; Biesmeijer, Jacobus C

2013-01-01

Nutrient availability in ecosystems has increased dramatically over the last century. Excess reactive nitrogen deposition is known to negatively impact plant communities, e.g. by changing species composition, biomass and vegetation structure. In contrast, little is known on how such impacts propagate to higher trophic levels. To evaluate how nitrogen deposition affects plants and herbivore communities through time, we used extensive databases of spatially explicit historical records of Dutch plant species and Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets), a group of animals that are particularly susceptible to changes in the C:N ratio of their resources. We use robust methods that deal with the unstandardized nature of historical databases to test whether nitrogen deposition levels and plant richness changes influence the patterns of richness change of Orthoptera, taking into account Orthoptera species functional traits. Our findings show that effects indeed also propagate to higher trophic levels. Differences in functional traits affected the temporal-spatial dynamics of assemblages of Orthoptera. While nitrogen deposition affected plant diversity, contrary to our expectations, we could not find a strong significant effect of food related traits. However we found that species with low habitat specificity, limited dispersal capacity and egg deposition in the soil were more negativly affected by nitrogen deposition levels. Despite the lack of significant effect of plant richness or food related traits on Orthoptera, the negative effects of nitrogen detected within certain trait groups (e.g. groups with limited disperse ability) could be related to subtle changes in plant abundance and plant quality. Our results, however, suggest that the changes in soil conditions (where many Orthoptera species lay their eggs) or other habitat changes driven by nitrogen have a stronger influence than food related traits. To fully evaluate the negative effects of nitrogen deposition on higher trophic levels it is essential to take into account species life-history traits.

Impacts of a Changing Climate and Land Use on Reindeer Pastoralism: Indigenous Knowledge and Remote Sensing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maynard, N. G.; Oskal, A.; Turi, A.; Mathiesen, J. M.; Eira, S. D.; Yurchak, I. M. G.; Etylin, B.; Gebelein, J.

2009-01-01

The Arctic is home to many indigenous peoples, including those who depend on reindeer herding for their livelihood, in one of the harshest environments in the world. For the largely nomadic peoples, reindeer not only form a substantial part of the Arctic food base and economy, but they are also culturally important, shaping their way of life, mythologies, festivals and ceremonies. Reindeer pastoralism or husbandry has been practiced by numerous peoples all across Eurasia for thousands of years and involves moving herds of reindeer, which are very docile animals, from pasture to pasture depending on the season. Thus, herders must adapt on a daily basis to find optimal conditions for their herds according to the constantly changing conditions. Climate change and variability plus rapid development are increasingly creating major changes in the physical environment, ecology, and cultures of these indigenous reindeer herder communities in the North, and climate changes are occurring significantly faster in the Arctic than the rest of the globe, with correspondingly dramatic impacts (Oskal, 2008). In response to these changes, Eurasian reindeer herders have created the EALAT project, a comprehensive new initiative to study these impacts and to develop local adaptation strategies based upon their traditional knowledge of the land and its uses - in targeted partnership with the science and remote sensing community - involving extensive collaborations and coproduction of knowledge to minimize the impacts of the various changes. This chapter provides background on climate and development challenges to reindeer husbandry across the Arctic and an overview of the EALAT initiative, with an emphasis on indigenous knowledge, remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other scientific data to 'co-produce' datasets for use by herders for improved decision-making and herd management. It also provides a description of the EALAT monitoring data integration and sharing system and portal being developed for reindeer pastoralism. In addition, the chapter provides some preliminary results from the EALAT Project, including some early remote sensing research results.

The Social Acceptance of Community Solar: A Portland Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weaver, Anne

Community solar is a renewable energy practice that's been adopted by multiple U.S. states and is being considered by many more, including the state of Oregon. A recent senate bill in Oregon, called the "Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Plan", includes a provision that directs the Oregon Public Utility Commission to establish a community solar program for investor-owned utilities by late 2017. Thus, energy consumers in Portland will be offered participation in community solar projects in the near future. Community solar is a mechanism that allows ratepayers to experience both the costs and benefits of solar energy while also helping to offset the proportion of fossil-fuel generated electricity in utility grids, thus aiding climate change mitigation. For community solar to achieve market success in the residential sector of Portland, ratepayers of investor-owned utilities must socially accept this energy practice. The aim of this study was to forecast the potential social acceptance of community solar among Portland residents by measuring willingness to participate in these projects. Additionally, consumer characteristics, attitudes, awareness, and knowledge were captured to assess the influence of these factors on intent to enroll in community solar. The theory of planned behavior, as well as the social acceptance, diffusion of innovation, and dual-interest theories were frameworks used to inform the analysis of community solar adoption. These research objectives were addressed through a mixed-mode survey of Portland residents, using a stratified random sample of Portland neighborhoods to acquire a gradient of demographics. 330 questionnaires were completed, yielding a 34.2% response rate. Descriptive statistics, binomial logistic regression models, and mean willingness to pay were the analyses conducted to measure the influence of project factors and demographic characteristics on likelihood of community solar participation. Roughly 60% of respondents exhibited interest in community solar enrollment. The logistic regression model revealed the percent change in utility bill (essentially the rate of return on the community solar investment) as a dramatically influential variable predicting willingness to participate. Community solar project scenarios also had a strong influence on willingness to participate: larger, cheaper, and distant projects were preferred over small and expensive local projects. Results indicate that community solar project features that accentuate affordability are most important to energy consumers. Additionally, demographic characteristics that were strongly correlated with willingness to enroll were politically liberal ideologies, higher incomes, current enrollment in green utility programs, and membership in an environmental organization. Thus, the market acceptance of community solar in Portland will potentially be broadened by emphasizing affordability over other features, such as community and locality. Additionally, I explored attitudinal influences on interest in community solar by conducting exploratory factor analysis on attitudes towards energy, climate change, and solar barriers and subsequently conducting binomial logistic regression models. Results found that perceiving renewable energy as environmentally beneficial was positively correlated with intent to enroll in community solar, which supported the notion that environmental attitudes will lead to environmental behaviors. The logistic regression model also revealed a negative correlation between community solar interest and negative attitudes towards renewable energy. Perceptions of solar barriers were mild, indicating that lack of an enabling mechanism may be the reason solar continues to be underutilized in this region.

Resilience of coral-associated bacterial communities exposed to fish farm effluent.

PubMed

Garren, Melissa; Raymundo, Laurie; Guest, James; Harvell, C Drew; Azam, Farooq

2009-10-06

The coral holobiont includes the coral animal, algal symbionts, and associated microbial community. These microbes help maintain the holobiont homeostasis; thus, sustaining robust mutualistic microbial communities is a fundamental part of long-term coral reef survival. Coastal pollution is one major threat to reefs, and intensive fish farming is a rapidly growing source of this pollution. We investigated the susceptibility and resilience of the bacterial communities associated with a common reef-building coral, Porites cylindrica, to coastal pollution by performing a clonally replicated transplantation experiment in Bolinao, Philippines adjacent to intensive fish farming. Ten fragments from each of four colonies (total of 40 fragments) were followed for 22 days across five sites: a well-flushed reference site (the original fragment source); two sites with low exposure to milkfish (Chanos chanos) aquaculture effluent; and two sites with high exposure. Elevated levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), chlorophyll a, total heterotrophic and autotrophic bacteria abundance, virus like particle (VLP) abundances, and culturable Vibrio abundance characterized the high effluent sites. Based on 16S rRNA clone libraries and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis, we observed rapid, dramatic changes in the coral-associated bacterial communities within five days of high effluent exposure. The community composition on fragments at these high effluent sites shifted towards known human and coral pathogens (i.e. Arcobacter, Fusobacterium, and Desulfovibrio) without the host corals showing signs of disease. The communities shifted back towards their original composition by day 22 without reduction in effluent levels. This study reveals fish farms as a likely source of pathogens with the potential to proliferate on corals and an unexpected short-term resilience of coral-associated bacterial communities to eutrophication pressure. These data highlight a need for improved aquaculture practices that can achieve both sustainable industry goals and long-term coral reef survival.

Resilience of Coral-Associated Bacterial Communities Exposed to Fish Farm Effluent

PubMed Central

Garren, Melissa; Raymundo, Laurie; Guest, James; Harvell, C. Drew; Azam, Farooq

2009-01-01

Background The coral holobiont includes the coral animal, algal symbionts, and associated microbial community. These microbes help maintain the holobiont homeostasis; thus, sustaining robust mutualistic microbial communities is a fundamental part of long-term coral reef survival. Coastal pollution is one major threat to reefs, and intensive fish farming is a rapidly growing source of this pollution. Methodology & Principal Findings We investigated the susceptibility and resilience of the bacterial communities associated with a common reef-building coral, Porites cylindrica, to coastal pollution by performing a clonally replicated transplantation experiment in Bolinao, Philippines adjacent to intensive fish farming. Ten fragments from each of four colonies (total of 40 fragments) were followed for 22 days across five sites: a well-flushed reference site (the original fragment source); two sites with low exposure to milkfish (Chanos chanos) aquaculture effluent; and two sites with high exposure. Elevated levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), chlorophyll a, total heterotrophic and autotrophic bacteria abundance, virus like particle (VLP) abundances, and culturable Vibrio abundance characterized the high effluent sites. Based on 16S rRNA clone libraries and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis, we observed rapid, dramatic changes in the coral-associated bacterial communities within five days of high effluent exposure. The community composition on fragments at these high effluent sites shifted towards known human and coral pathogens (i.e. Arcobacter, Fusobacterium, and Desulfovibrio) without the host corals showing signs of disease. The communities shifted back towards their original composition by day 22 without reduction in effluent levels. Significance This study reveals fish farms as a likely source of pathogens with the potential to proliferate on corals and an unexpected short-term resilience of coral-associated bacterial communities to eutrophication pressure. These data highlight a need for improved aquaculture practices that can achieve both sustainable industry goals and long-term coral reef survival. PMID:19806190

Synchrony, compensatory dynamics, and the functional trait basis of phenological diversity in a tropical dry forest tree community: effects of rainfall seasonality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lasky, Jesse R.; Uriarte, María; Muscarella, Robert

2016-11-01

Interspecific variation in phenology is a key axis of functional diversity, potentially mediating how communities respond to climate change. The diverse drivers of phenology act across multiple temporal scales. For example, abiotic constraints favor synchronous reproduction (positive covariance among species), while biotic interactions can favor synchrony or compensatory dynamics (negative covariance). We used wavelet analyses to examine phenology of community flower and seed production for 45 tree species across multiple temporal scales in a tropical dry forest in Puerto Rico with marked rainfall seasonality. We asked three questions: (1) do species exhibit synchronous or compensatory temporal dynamics in reproduction, (2) do interspecific differences in phenology reflect variable responses to rainfall, and (3) is interspecific variation in phenology and response to a major drought associated with functional traits that mediate responses to moisture? Community-level flowering was synchronized at seasonal scales (˜5-6 mo) and at short scales (˜1 mo, following rainfall). However, seed rain exhibited significant compensatory dynamics at intraseasonal scales (˜3 mo), suggesting interspecific variation in temporal niches. Species with large leaves (associated with sensitivity to water deficit) peaked in reproduction synchronously with the peak of seasonal rainfall (˜5 mo scale). By contrast, species with high wood specific gravity (associated with drought resistance) tended to flower in drier periods. Flowering of tall species and those with large leaves was most tightly linked to intraseasonal (˜2 mo scale) rainfall fluctuations. Although the 2015 drought dramatically reduced community-wide reproduction, functional traits were not associated with the magnitude of species-specific declines. Our results suggest opposing drivers of synchronous versus compensatory dynamics at different temporal scales. Phenology associations with functional traits indicated that distinct strategies for coping with seasonality underlie phenological diversity. Observed drought responses highlight the importance of non-linear community responses to climate. Community phenology exhibits scale-specific patterns highlighting the need for multi-scale approaches to community dynamics.

Negotiating for Change: Modifying Collective Bargaining Agreements for School Turnaround

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weinberg, Rebecca

2011-01-01

Dramatically improving student achievement in a school that has been failing for many years requires dramatically different conditions. Only the most effective teachers and leaders should be in the building, and the leadership must have the flexibility to respond strategically to the needs of the students, with regular input from teachers.…

Dramatic Declines in Higher Education Appropriations: State Conditions for Budget Punctuations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Amy Y.

2017-01-01

Public colleges and universities depend heavily on state appropriations and legislatures must decide how much to fund higher education. This study applies punctuated equilibrium theory to characterize the distribution of annual changes in higher education appropriations and defines the threshold for a dramatic budget cut. Using data for the 50…

[Current Status of Community Pharmacies: Expectations as a Health Information Hub, the Enforcement of Revised Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Act, and a New Role as Stakeholders].

PubMed

Saito, Mitsuo

2016-01-01

According to the "Japan Revitalization Strategy" established in June 2013, "the government will promote better contributions of local pharmacies and pharmacists in encouraging self-medication of citizens by making pharmacies the community-based hub for providing information, giving advice on the proper use of non-prescription drugs, etc. and offering consultation and information service concerning health". In addition, the "Demanded Function and Ideal Form of Pharmacy," published in January 2014, requested a change, from pharmacies that specialized in dispensing medicines to pharmacies that serve as whole healthcare stations, providing pharmaceutical care based on patients' medical history, including the intake of dietary supplements. The medication fee was revised in April 2014 to enhance family pharmacy services and the management of pharmaceutical care. At that time, blood testing at a registered pharmacy was officially allowed under strict regulation. Revision of the "Pharmacist Law" in June 2014 included a request to pharmacists to provide pharmaceutical advice in addition to information. For the mitigation of drug-induced tragedies, the "Pharmaceutical Affairs Law" was amended to the "Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Act (PMD Act)" in November 2014, and proper use of medicines was imposed on healthcare professionals and other stakeholders. Patients were also requested to learn and understand the safety and harmful effects of medicines, and were requested to use medicines appropriately. As mentioned above, the status of pharmacies and pharmacists has dramatically changed in the past 2 years, and such changes over time are required.

An overview of American higher education.

PubMed

Baum, Sandy; Kurose, Charles; McPherson, Michael

2013-01-01

This overview of postsecondary education in the United States reviews the dramatic changes over the past fifty years in the students who go to college, the institutions that produce higher education, and the ways it is financed. The article, by Sandy Baum, Charles Kurose, and Michael McPherson, creates the context for the articles that follow on timely issues facing the higher education community and policy makers. The authors begin by observing that even the meaning of college has changed. The term that once referred primarily to a four-year period of academic study now applies to virtually any postsecondary study--academic or occupational, public or private, two-year or four-year-- that can result in a certificate or degree. They survey the factors underlying the expansion of postsecondary school enrollments; the substantial increases in female, minority, disadvantaged, and older students; the development of public community colleges; and the rise of for-profit colleges. They discuss the changing ways in which federal and state governments help students and schools defray the costs of higher education as well as more recent budget tensions that are now reducing state support to public colleges. And they review the forces that have contributed to the costs of producing higher education and thus rising tuitions. The authors also cite evidence on broad measures of college persistence and outcomes, including low completion rates at community and for-profit colleges, the increasing need for remedial education for poorly prepared high school students, and a growing gap between the earnings of those with a bachelor's degree and those with less education. They disagree with critics who say that investments in higher education, particularly for students at the margin, no longer pay off. A sustained investment in effective education at all levels is vital to the nation's future, they argue. But they caution that the American public no longer seems willing to pay more for more students to get more education. They therefore urge the higher education community to make every effort to find innovations, including creative uses of information technology, that can hold down costs while producing quality education.

Impacts of land use and climate change on carbon dynamics in south-central Senegal

USGS Publications Warehouse

Liu, Shu-Guang; Kaire, M.; Wood, Eric C.; Diallo, O.; Tieszen, Larry L.

2004-01-01

Total carbon stock in vegetation and soils was reduced 37% in south-central Senegal from 1900 to 2000. The decreasing trend will continue during the 21st century unless forest clearing is stopped, selective logging dramatically reduced, and climate change, if any, relatively small. Developing a sustainable fuelwood and charcoal production system could be the most feasible and significant carbon sequestration project in the region. If future climate changes dramatically as some models have predicted, cropland productivity will drop more than 65% around 2100, posing a serious threat to food security and the efficiency of carbon sequestration projects.

Ecophysiological responses of three dominant species to experimental drought on the Colorado Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duniway, M.; Hoover, D. L.; Belnap, J.

2014-12-01

Water limitations in dryland ecosystems are predicted to intensify with climate change due to the combination of decreased precipitation and increased warming. Plants in these ecosystems may be living at or near their tolerance limits, and thus subtle changes in water availability may have dramatic effects on their performance. To examine the impacts of subtle, but chronic reductions in water availability, we established a network of 40 rainfall removal shelters across a range of plant communities, soil types and elevations in the Colorado Plateau. Each site consisted of a control plot receiving ambient precipitation paired with a drought plot that received a 35% precipitation reduction. After three years, we observed a range of ecosystem-level responses to the treatments by key plant functional types. The experimental drought had dramatic effects on the C3 grasses (mortality and cover changes), but the treatment effects were relatively minor for the C4 grasses (cover change only) and C3 shrubs (no treatment effects on cover or mortality). We investigated the mechanisms behind the relative drought tolerances of the latter two plant functional types by measuring the ecophysiological responses of three dominant species on the Colorado Plateau: Pleuraphis jamensii (C4 grass), Coleogyne ramosissima (C3 shrub) and Ephedra viridis (C3 shrub). During the 2014 growing season, we measured mid-day leaf water potential and net photosynthesis monthly for these dominant species under the control and drought treatments (n=5). We analyzed the effects of treatment, month and their interaction on these measurements using a mixed effects model for each species separately. Overall, P. jamensii was the most sensitive to drought of the three focal species as evidenced by significant effects of drought on both leaf water potential and net photosynthesis (30% reduction). Neither of the C3 shrubs had significant treatment effects on either ecophysiolgoical variable. These results provide mechanistic evidence behind the ecosystem-level effects; the drought treatments are causing stress in C4 grasses but not C3 shrubs. These results suggest that subtle but chronic changes in water availability may alter the structure and function of the Colorado Plateau ecosystem by differentially impacting key plant functional types.

Changing prevalence and antibiotic drug resistance pattern of pathogens seen in community-acquired pediatric urinary tract infections at a tertiary care hospital of North India.

PubMed

Patwardhan, Vrushali; Kumar, Dinesh; Goel, Varun; Singh, Sarman

2017-01-01

The aim and objective of this study was to assess the temporal changes in the microbiological profiles and antimicrobial resistance patterns of uropathogens in pediatric community-acquired UTI. This is a retrospective analysis of data collected over a Scattered period of 5 years. The baseline data collected were from January to December 2009, and the second period considered for comparison was from January to December 2014. Urine specimens from children (<17 years) suspected of UTI were cultured by a semi-quantitative method on cysteine lactose electrolyte-deficient medium. Antibiotic sensitivity was put up by Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method as per the Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute guidelines. In the year 2009, 340 of 2104 (16.15%) urine specimens yielded significant colony count, whereas in 2014, it was 407 of 2212 (18.39%) ( P = 0.051). Escherichia coli was the predominant pathogen and was significantly more prevalent in girls than in boys ( P < 0.0001) during both periods. There was a significant overall increase in resistance to ampicillin (from 40.29% to 58.72%), amoxyclav (from 26.17% to 40.54%), nitrofurantoin (from 28.82% to 39.06%), and norfloxacin (from 30% to 41.42%). However, the maximum increase in the resistance was noted for co-trimoxazole from 35.58% in 2009 to 63.39% in 2014 ( P = 0.0000058). The prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) has also significantly increased from 21.7% to 33.16% ( P = 0.0045). Although E. coli remains the prime pathogen in pediatric UTI, the prevalence of resistance has dramatically increased over the 5-year study period. Our study highlights the emergence of community-acquired ESBL-producing uropathogens in children proclaiming treatment challenges.

Changes in Active Bacterial Communities before and after Dredging of Highly Polluted Baltic Sea Sediments▿

PubMed Central

Edlund, Anna; Jansson, Janet K.

2006-01-01

Bacteria residing in sediments have key functions in the marine food web. However, it has been difficult to correlate the identity and activity of bacteria in sediments due to lack of appropriate methods beyond cultivation-based techniques. Our aim was to use a combination of molecular approaches, bromodeoxyuridine incorporation and immunocapture, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism, and cloning and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes to assess the composition of growing bacteria in Baltic Sea sediments. The study site was a highly polluted area off the Swedish coast. The sediments were sampled in two consecutive years, before and after remediation, by dredging of the top sediments. Levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls were dramatically reduced as a result of the cleanup project. The compositions of growing members of the communities were significantly different at the two sampling periods. In particular, members from the class Deltaproteobacteria and genus Spirochaeta were more dominant before dredging, but members of the classes Gammaproteobacteria and the Flavobacteria represented the most dominant growing populations after dredging. We also cultivated isolates from the polluted sediments that could transform the model PAH compound, phenanthrene. Some of these isolates were confirmed as dominant growing populations by the molecular methods as well. This suite of methods enabled us to link the identity and activity of the members of the sediment communities. PMID:16950911

Changes in active bacterial communities before and after dredging of highly polluted Baltic Sea sediments.

PubMed

Edlund, Anna; Jansson, Janet K

2006-10-01

Bacteria residing in sediments have key functions in the marine food web. However, it has been difficult to correlate the identity and activity of bacteria in sediments due to lack of appropriate methods beyond cultivation-based techniques. Our aim was to use a combination of molecular approaches, bromodeoxyuridine incorporation and immunocapture, terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism, and cloning and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes to assess the composition of growing bacteria in Baltic Sea sediments. The study site was a highly polluted area off the Swedish coast. The sediments were sampled in two consecutive years, before and after remediation, by dredging of the top sediments. Levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls were dramatically reduced as a result of the cleanup project. The compositions of growing members of the communities were significantly different at the two sampling periods. In particular, members from the class Deltaproteobacteria and genus Spirochaeta were more dominant before dredging, but members of the classes Gammaproteobacteria and the Flavobacteria represented the most dominant growing populations after dredging. We also cultivated isolates from the polluted sediments that could transform the model PAH compound, phenanthrene. Some of these isolates were confirmed as dominant growing populations by the molecular methods as well. This suite of methods enabled us to link the identity and activity of the members of the sediment communities.

Divergent taxonomic and functional responses of microbial communities to field simulation of aeolian soil erosion and deposition.

PubMed

Ma, Xingyu; Zhao, Cancan; Gao, Ying; Liu, Bin; Wang, Tengxu; Yuan, Tong; Hale, Lauren; Nostrand, Joy D Van; Wan, Shiqiang; Zhou, Jizhong; Yang, Yunfeng

2017-08-01

Aeolian soil erosion and deposition have worldwide impacts on agriculture, air quality and public health. However, ecosystem responses to soil erosion and deposition remain largely unclear in regard to microorganisms, which are the crucial drivers of biogeochemical cycles. Using integrated metagenomics technologies, we analysed microbial communities subjected to simulated soil erosion and deposition in a semiarid grassland of Inner Mongolia, China. As expected, soil total organic carbon and plant coverage were decreased by soil erosion, and soil dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was increased by soil deposition, demonstrating that field simulation was reliable. Soil microbial communities were altered (p < .039) by both soil erosion and deposition, with dramatic increase in Cyanobacteria related to increased stability in soil aggregates. amyA genes encoding α-amylases were specifically increased (p = .01) by soil deposition and positively correlated (p = .02) to DOC, which likely explained changes in DOC. Surprisingly, most of microbial functional genes associated with carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium cycling were decreased or unaltered by both erosion and deposition, probably arising from acceleration of organic matter mineralization. These divergent responses support the necessity to include microbial components in evaluating ecological consequences. Furthermore, Mantel tests showed strong, significant correlations between soil nutrients and functional structure but not taxonomic structure, demonstrating close relevance of microbial function traits to nutrient cycling. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Macroalgal blooms favor heterotrophic diazotrophic bacteria in nitrogen-rich and phosphorus-limited coastal surface waters in the Yellow Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xiaoli; Song, Yanjing; Liu, Dongyan; Keesing, John K.; Gong, Jun

2015-09-01

Macroalgal blooms may lead to dramatic changes in physicochemical variables and biogeochemical cycling in affected waters. However, little is known about the effects of macroalgal blooms on marine bacteria, especially those functioning in nutrient cycles. We measured environmental factors and investigated bacterial diazotrophs in two niches, surface waters that were covered (CC) and non-covered (CF) with massive macroalgal canopies of Ulva prolifera, in the Yellow Sea in the summer of 2011 using real-time PCR and clone library analysis of nifH genes. We found that heterotrophic diazotrophs (Gammaproteobacteria) dominated the communities and were mostly represented by Vibrio-related phylotypes in both CC and CF. Desulfovibrio-related phylotypes were only detected in CC. There were significant differences in community composition in these two environments (p < 0.001) and a much higher abundance of nifH in CC (4.55 × 106 copies l-1) than in CF (2.49 × 106 copies l-1). The nifH copy number was inversely related to concentrations of ammonium and dissolved inorganic nitrogen and to the stoichiometric ratios of N:P and N:Si. This indicates that macroalgal blooms significantly affect diazotrophic abundance and community composition and that vibrios and Desulfovibrio-related heterotrophic diazotrophs adapt well to the (N-rich but P-limited) environment during blooming. Potential ecological and microbiological mechanisms behind this scenario are discussed.

Drosophila Regulate Yeast Density and Increase Yeast Community Similarity in a Natural Substrate

PubMed Central

Stamps, Judy A.; Yang, Louie H.; Morales, Vanessa M.; Boundy-Mills, Kyria L.

2012-01-01

Drosophila melanogaster adults and larvae, but especially larvae, had profound effects on the densities and community structure of yeasts that developed in banana fruits. Pieces of fruit exposed to adult female flies previously fed fly-conditioned bananas developed higher yeast densities than pieces of the same fruits that were not exposed to flies, supporting previous suggestions that adult Drosophila vector yeasts to new substrates. However, larvae alone had dramatic effects on yeast density and species composition. When yeast densities were compared in pieces of the same fruits assigned to different treatments, fruits that developed low yeast densities in the absence of flies developed significantly higher yeast densities when exposed to larvae. Across all of the fruits, larvae regulated yeast densities within narrow limits, as compared to a much wider range of yeast densities that developed in pieces of the same fruits not exposed to flies. Larvae also affected yeast species composition, dramatically reducing species diversity across fruits, reducing variation in yeast communities from one fruit to the next (beta diversity), and encouraging the consistent development of a yeast community composed of three species of yeast (Candida californica, C. zemplinina, and Pichia kluvyeri), all of which were palatable to larvae. Larvae excreted viable cells of these three yeast species in their fecal pools, and discouraged the growth of filamentous fungi, processes which may have contributed to their effects on the yeast communities in banana fruits. These and other findings suggest that D. melanogaster adults and their larval offspring together engage in ‘niche construction’, facilitating a predictable microbial environment in the fruit substrates in which the larvae live and develop. PMID:22860093

Lake Ontario: Food web dynamics in a changing ecosystem (1970-2000)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mills, E.L.; Casselman, J.M.; Dermott, R.; Fitzsimons, J.D.; Gal, G.; Holeck, K. T.; Hoyle, J.A.; Johannsson, O.E.; Lantry, B.F.; Makarewicz, J.C.; Millard, E.S.; Munawar, I.F.; Munawar, M.; O'Gorman, R.; Owens, R.W.; Rudstam, L. G.; Schaner, T.; Stewart, T.J.

2003-01-01

We examined stressors that have led to profound ecological changes in the Lake Ontario ecosystem and its fish community since 1970. The most notable changes have been reductions in phosphorus loading, invasion by Dreissena spp., fisheries management through stocking of exotic salmonids and control of sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), and fish harvest by anglers and double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus). The response to these stressors has led to (i) declines in both algal photosynthesis and epilimnetic zooplankton production, (ii) decreases in alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) abundance, (iii) declines in native Diporeia and lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), (iv) behavioral shifts in alewife spatial distribution benefitting native lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), and emerald shiner (Notropis atherinoides) populations, (v) dramatic increases in water clarity, (vi) predation impacts by cormorants on select fish species, and (vii) lake trout recruitment bottlenecks associated with alewife-induced thiamine deficiency. We expect stressor responses associated with anthropogenic forces like exotic species invasions and global climate warming to continue to impact the Lake Ontario ecosystem in the future and recommend continuous long-term ecological studies to enhance scientific understanding and management of this important resource.

Incorporating anthropogenic influences into fire probability models: Effects of development and climate change on fire activity in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mann, M.; Moritz, M.; Batllori, E.; Waller, E.; Krawchuk, M.; Berck, P.

2014-12-01

The costly interactions between humans and natural fire regimes throughout California demonstrate the need to understand the uncertainties surrounding wildfire, especially in the face of a changing climate and expanding human communities. Although a number of statistical and process-based wildfire models exist for California, there is enormous uncertainty about the location and number of future fires. Models estimate an increase in fire occurrence between nine and fifty-three percent by the end of the century. Our goal is to assess the role of uncertainty in climate and anthropogenic influences on the state's fire regime from 2000-2050. We develop an empirical model that integrates novel information about the distribution and characteristics of future plant communities without assuming a particular distribution, and improve on previous efforts by integrating dynamic estimates of population density at each forecast time step. Historically, we find that anthropogenic influences account for up to fifty percent of the total fire count, and that further housing development will incite or suppress additional fires according to their intensity. We also find that the total area burned is likely to increase but at a slower than historical rate. Previous findings of substantially increased numbers of fires may be tied to the assumption of static fuel loadings, and the use of proxy variables not relevant to plant community distributions. We also find considerable agreement between GFDL and PCM model A2 runs, with decreasing fire counts expected only in areas of coastal influence below San Francisco and above Los Angeles. Due to potential shifts in rainfall patterns, substantial uncertainty remains for the semiarid deserts of the inland south. The broad shifts of wildfire between California's climatic regions forecast in this study point to dramatic shifts in the pressures plant and human communities will face by midcentury. The information provided by this study reduces the level of uncertainty surrounding the influence that natural and anthropogenic systems have on wildfire.

Investigation of Techniques for Inventorying Forested Regions. Volume 1: Reflectance Modeling and Empirical Multispectral Analysis of Forest Canopy Components

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nalepka, R. F. (Principal Investigator); Sadowski, F. G.; Malila, W. A.

1977-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Effects of vegetation density on overall canopy reflectance differed dramatically, depending on spectral band, base material, and vegetation type. For example, reflectance changes caused by variations in vegetation density were hardly apparant for a simulated burned surface in LANDSAT band 5, while large changes occurred in band 7. When increasing densities of tree overstory were placed over understories, intermediate to dense overstories effectively masked the understories and dominated the spectral signatures. Dramatic changes in reflectance occurred for canopies placed on a number of varying topographic positions. Such changes were seen to result in the spectral overlap of some nonforested with densely forested situations.

Measuring up Education: Community-Driven Accountability in Milwaukee

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickman, Anneliese; Allen, Vanessa; Henken, Rob

2011-01-01

The recent appointment of a new superintendent, the need for priority-setting in the face of dramatic state budget cuts, and increased national attention on school reform have elevated the performance of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) to the forefront of local media and civic attention. Consequently, the need for an understandable and commonly…

Quality and Rigor of the Concept Mapping Methodology: A Pooled Study Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosas, Scott R.; Kane, Mary

2012-01-01

The use of concept mapping in research and evaluation has expanded dramatically over the past 20 years. Researchers in academic, organizational, and community-based settings have applied concept mapping successfully without the benefit of systematic analyses across studies to identify the features of a methodologically sound study. Quantitative…

Do the Math: Course Redesign's Impact on Learning and Scheduling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Squires, John; Faulkner, Jerry; Hite, Carl

2009-01-01

The math department at Cleveland State Community College embarked upon course redesign in 2008. As a result of this project, student engagement, learning, and success rates have increased dramatically. By including both developmental and college level math courses in the redesign, the department has been able to implement innovative scheduling and…

The Impact of Socially Engaged Theatre across Communities: A Tale of Two Slave Cabins

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Long, Harrison

2015-01-01

What happens when one controversial text meets another in performance? How do diverse audiences from rural and metropolitan areas respond to powerful yet provocative material? The Kennesaw State University Department of Theatre and Performance Studies sought to answer these questions with "Splittin' the Raft," a dramatic adaptation of…

Over Invested and over Priced: American Higher Education Today

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vedder, Richard

2007-01-01

The prevailing view among leaders in the university community is that America is not investing enough in higher education. A recent survey of the American economy by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) echoed that concern. After all, college graduates are dramatically more productive than those without higher education…

Postfire seeding for erosion control: Effectiveness and impacts on native plant communities

Treesearch

Jan L. Beyers

2004-01-01

Abstract: Large, high-severity wildfires remove vegetation cover and expose mineral soil, ofen causing erosion and runoff during postfire rain events to increase dramatically. Land-management agencies in the United States are required to assess site conditions after wildfire and, where necessary, implement emergency watershed rehabilitation measures to help...

Benefits, Motivations, and Barriers Related to Environmental Volunteerism for Older Adults: Developing a Research Agenda

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bushway, Lori J.; Dickinson, Janis L.; Stedman, Richard C.; Wagenet, Linda P.; Weinstein, David A.

2011-01-01

Interest in civic engagement focused on the natural environment has grown dramatically, as has the population of older adults. Our article explores the potential for increased environmental volunteerism among older adults to enrich the lives of volunteers while benefitting the community and environmental quality. Curiously, this convergence has…

Voluntary Complications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tribbensee, Nancy

2008-01-01

In a student production of "Dracula" at Texas A&M University some years ago, the final scene was exceptionally dramatic. One actor stabbed another, who was playing the vampire, in the chest with a real knife. A volunteer director from the community, who was assisting the drama club, had decided that the scene required the actual weapon, not the…

A Brief History of Service-Learning Internship Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corey, John F., Ed.

1972-01-01

Recent educational conferences indicate not only that community-based experiential learning has grown dramatically in recent years as a curricular feature of higher education, but also that this empirical learning style is to be a major trend in the immediate academic future of the nation. The State of North Carolina has, since 1969, supported…

They're Lovin' It: How Preschool Children Mediated Their Funds of Knowledge into Dramatic Play

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karabon, Anne

2017-01-01

The funds of knowledge framework promotes connecting community contexts with curriculum aimed to activate children's prior knowledge. Typically, teachers determine what knowledge sources harmonise best with their existing programming, potentially omitting particular resources that may not align. Young children, on the other hand, can act as agents…

A Different Kind of Community Theatre: Performance Projects with GLBT Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freire, Michelle Ebert

2007-01-01

The author's training and experience in educational theatre has provided her with examples of the therapeutic power that engagement in dramatic activity can have on individuals and groups. In this article, the author reflects on empowering performance projects with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) teens at the Rainbow Pride Youth…

Employee assistance programs: a preventive, cost-effective benefit.

PubMed

Cohen, G S; Gard, L H; Heffernan, W R

1998-01-01

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) provide a much-needed service to the employees of corporations. In these times of reduced benefits and diminished community resources, EAPs can dramatically compensate for those shortages. This article will explore the role of an EAP, the models of service available, and the selection process for choosing a program.

Predictors of Online Learning Success in a Rural Community College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McPhaul-Moore, Elizabeth

2013-01-01

The number of courses offered online and the level of students enrolled in online courses has dramatically increased over the last several years. The National Education Center for Education Statistics reports that during the 2006-2007 school term, 97% of public two-year institutions across the nation offered college-level distance learning…

Small Town Renewal: Overview and Case Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kenyon, Peter, Ed.; Black, Alan, Ed.

Many small, inland, and remote Australian rural communities continue to lose population and businesses, a trend that has intensified over the last 2 decades. Mean age continues to rise, while the 15-24 age group contracts dramatically. Such declining demographics are caused by the stress and uncertainty of volatile world commodity markets, as well…

The Instructor Experience of Fully Online Tertiary Mathematics: A Challenge and an Opportunity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trenholm, Sven; Alcock, Lara; Robinson, Carol

2016-01-01

As part of a dramatic recent shift in tertiary education, many undergraduate students now learn mathematics via fully online courses. At present, the mathematics education research community knows very little about this shift. The authors consider implications of an investigation into the instructor experience of fully online undergraduate…

Climate and Physical Disturbance Effects on the Spectral Signatures of Biological Soil Crusts: Implications for Future Dryland Energy Balance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rutherford, W. A.; Flagg, C.; Painter, T. H.; Okin, G. S.; Belnap, J.; Reed, S.

2014-12-01

Drylands comprise ≈40% of the terrestrial Earth surface and observations suggest they can respond markedly to climate change. A vital component of dryland ecosystems are biological soil crusts (biocrusts) - a network of surface soil lichens, mosses, and cyanobacteria - that perform critical ecosystem functions, such as stabilizing soil and fixing carbon and nitrogen. Yet, our understanding of the role biocrusts play in dryland energy balance remains poor. Changes in climate can rapidly affect biocrust communities and we have long known that biocrusts respond dramatically to physical disturbance, such as human trampling and grazing animals. Associated changes in biocrust cover often result in increased bare soil; creating higher surface reflectance. We used spectral solar reflectance measurements in two manipulative experiments to compare the effects of climate and physical disturbance on biocrusts of the Colorado Plateau We measured reflectance at two heights: at crust surface and 1 m above. The climate disturbance site has four treatments: control, warming (4°C), altered precipitation, and warming plus altered precipitation. The physical disturbance site was trampled by foot annually since 1998. At the climate experiment, the largest change in reflectance was in the altered precipitation treatment (35% increase) at the surface-level, and the smallest difference was in the warmed (17% increase) at the meter-level. Physical disturbance differences were 10% at meter-level and 25% at surface-level. Unexpectedly, these results suggest that, via effects on biocrust communities, climate change could have a larger effect on dryland energy balance relative to physical disturbance, and result in more radiation from drylands returned to the atmosphere. Biocrusts cover large portions of the Earth's surface and, to our knowledge, these are the first data showing climate-induced changes to biocrust reflectance, with negative feedback in the global energy balance.

Burning Fossil Fuels: Impact of Climate Change on Health.

PubMed

Sommer, Alfred

2016-01-01

A recent, sophisticated granular analysis of climate change in the United States related to burning fossil fuels indicates a high likelihood of dramatic increases in temperature, wet-bulb temperature, and precipitation, which will dramatically impact the health and well-being of many Americans, particularly the young, the elderly, and the poor and marginalized. Other areas of the world, where they lack the resources to remediate these weather impacts, will be even more greatly affected. Too little attention is being paid to the impending health impact of accumulating greenhouse gases. © The Author(s) 2015.

Epidemiology and microbiology of skin and soft tissue infections.

PubMed

Esposito, Silvano; Noviello, Silvana; Leone, Sebastiano

2016-04-01

Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) are a broad spectrum of diseases, including uncomplicated and complicated infections. Herein, we review the current epidemiology and microbiology of SSTIs. In the last decades, a significant growing trend of SSTIs both in the community and healthcare settings with a dramatic increase of the economic burden for these diagnoses was observed. Several observational studies found that SSTIs are a substantial cause of ambulatory and emergency department visits, and of hospitalizations. Although, microbiology of SSTIs changes according to the clinical feature and the severity of illness, Staphylococcus aureus being the leading cause of both uncomplicated infections and complicated infections. Moreover, the increasing prevalence of infections because of multidrug-resistant bacteria, mainly methicillin-resistant S. aureus (both community-acquired and healthcare-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus), are associated with significantly increased morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stay, and costs, compared with infections because of susceptible strains. Moreover, although it is unclear whether high vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentration is associated with a worse outcome, it poses a further challenge for the clinicians. The understanding of the current epidemiology and microbiology of SSTIs is indicated for an appropriate antimicrobial therapy and an overall optimal management of SSTIs.

Biogenic volatile organic compound emissions from vegetation fires

PubMed Central

CICCIOLI, PAOLO; CENTRITTO, MAURO; LORETO, FRANCESCO

2014-01-01

The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of the current state of the art on research into the emission of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) from vegetation fires. Significant amounts of VOCs are emitted from vegetation fires, including several reactive compounds, the majority belonging to the isoprenoid family, which rapidly disappear in the plume to yield pollutants such as secondary organic aerosol and ozone. This makes determination of fire-induced BVOC emission difficult, particularly in areas where the ratio between VOCs and anthropogenic NOx is favourable to the production of ozone, such as Mediterranean areas and highly anthropic temperate (and fire-prone) regions of the Earth. Fire emissions affecting relatively pristine areas, such as the Amazon and the African savannah, are representative of emissions of undisturbed plant communities. We also examined expected BVOC emissions at different stages of fire development and combustion, from drying to flaming, and from heatwaves coming into contact with unburned vegetation at the edge of fires. We conclude that forest fires may dramatically change emission factors and the profile of emitted BVOCs, thereby influencing the chemistry and physics of the atmosphere, the physiology of plants and the evolution of plant communities within the ecosystem. PMID:24689733

Optimizing Airspace System Capacity Through a Small Aircraft Transportation System: An Analysis of Economic and Operational Considerations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tarry, Scott E.; Bowen, Brent D.

2001-01-01

America's air transport system is currently faced with two equally important dilemmas. First, congestion and delays associated with the overburdened hub and spoke system will continue to worsen unless dramatic changes are made in the way air transportation services are provided. Second, many communities and various regions of the country have not benefited from the air transport system, which tends to focus its attention on major population centers. An emerging solution to both problems is a Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS), which will utilize a new generation of advanced small aircraft to provide air transport services to those citizens who are poorly served by the hub and spoke system and those citizens who are not served at all. Using new innovations in navigation, communication, and propulsion technologies, these aircraft will enable users to safely and reliably access the over 5,000 general aviation landing facilities around the United States. A small aircraft transportation system holds the potential to revolutionize the way Americans travel and to greatly enhance the use of air transport as an economic development tool in rural and isolated communities across the nation.

Ultimate Predators: Lionfish Have Evolved to Circumvent Prey Risk Assessment Abilities

PubMed Central

Lönnstedt, Oona M.; McCormick, Mark I.

2013-01-01

Invasive species cause catastrophic alterations to communities worldwide by changing the trophic balance within ecosystems. Ever since their introduction in the mid 1980's common red lionfish, Pterois volitans, are having dramatic impacts on the Caribbean ecosystem by displacing native species and disrupting food webs. Introduced lionfish capture prey at extraordinary rates, altering the composition of benthic communities. Here we demonstrate that the extraordinary success of the introduced lionfish lies in its capacity to circumvent prey risk assessment abilities as it is virtually undetectable by prey species in its native range. While experienced prey damselfish, Chromis viridis, respond with typical antipredator behaviours when exposed to a common predatory rock cod (Cephalopholis microprion) they fail to visibly react to either the scent or visual presentation of the red lionfish, and responded only to the scent (not the visual cue) of a lionfish of a different genus, Dendrochirus zebra. Experienced prey also had much higher survival when exposed to the two non-invasive predators compared to P. volitans. The cryptic nature of the red lionfish has enabled it to be destructive as a predator and a highly successful invasive species. PMID:24146775

Working Toward the Experimenter: Reconceptualizing Obedience Within the Milgram Paradigm as Identification-Based Followership.

PubMed

Reicher, Stephen D; Haslam, S Alexander; Smith, Joanne R

2012-07-01

The behavior of participants within Milgram's obedience paradigm is commonly understood to arise from the propensity to cede responsibility to those in authority and hence to obey them. This parallels a belief that brutality in general arises from passive conformity to roles. However, recent historical and social psychological research suggests that agents of tyranny actively identify with their leaders and are motivated to display creative followership in working toward goals that they believe those leaders wish to see fulfilled. Such analysis provides the basis for reinterpreting the behavior of Milgram's participants. It is supported by a range of material, including evidence that the willingness of participants to administer 450-volt shocks within the Milgram paradigm changes dramatically, but predictably, as a function of experimental variations that condition participants' identification with either the experimenter and the scientific community that he represents or the learner and the general community that he represents. This reinterpretation also encourages us to see Milgram's studies not as demonstrations of conformity or obedience, but as explorations of the power of social identity-based leadership to induce active and committed followership. © The Author(s) 2012.

Implications of sustainability for the United States light-duty transportation sector

DOE PAGES

Gearhart, Chris

2016-08-08

This article reviews existing literature to assess the consensus of the scientific and engineering communities concerning the potential for the United States’ light-duty transportation sector to meet a goal of 80% reduction in vehicle emissions and examine what it will take to meet this target. Climate change is a problem that must be solved. The primary cause of this problem is burning of fossil fuels to generate energy. A dramatic reduction in carbon emissions must happen soon, and a significant fraction of this reduction must come from the transportation sector. This paper reviews existing literature to assess the consensus ofmore » the scientific and engineering communities concerning the potential for the United States' light-duty transportation sector to meet a goal of 80% reduction in vehicle emissions and examine what it will take to meet this target. It is unlikely that reducing energy consumption in just vehicles with gasoline-based internal combustion drivetrains will be sufficient to meet GHG emission-reduction targets. This paper explores what additional benefits are possible through the adoption of alternative energy sources, looking at three possible on-vehicle energy carriers: carbon-based fuels, hydrogen, and batteries.« less

The 21st century faculty member in the educational process--what should be on the horizon?

PubMed

Nora, Lois Margaret

2010-09-01

One of Abraham Flexner's legacies was the concept of a professional faculty community responsible for teaching, scholarly work, and the creation and nurturing of the academic environment in medical schools. Dramatic shifts in society, health care, and educational practice have occurred over the century since Flexner's report, and these shifts have resulted in changes and challenges for medical school faculty. Fundamental principles that were articulated in Flexner's work remain relevant today: medicine is a profession, and as such is responsible for the education of the next generation of physicians; and the essential work of the medical school is the education of current and future generations of physicians. Medical schools must reconsider and restate the required characteristics and work of faculty members. Furthermore, we must develop a core faculty with primary responsibility for the educational program, the teaching of students, and the creation and nurturing of the academic environment. Enhancing the diversity of the faculty community, providing necessary faculty development, and further clarifying the forms of scholarly work in medicine are three ways that individual schools and national organizations can advance the educational mission through support of the faculty.

The Impact of Taxation Reduction on Smoking in Youth between 1990 and 1999: Results from a Reconstructed Cohort Analysis of the Canadian Community Health Surveys

PubMed Central

Birkett, Nicholas J.

2014-01-01

Background Increases in taxation can contribute to smoking control. In the early 1990’s, tobacco smuggling rates in Canada increased dramatically. Governments responded with a substantial reduction in taxes on tobacco products. This study examines the impact of these tax changes on smoking in youth in Canada. Methods Data on smoking from three consecutive cycles of the Canadian Community Health Surveys were combined and analyzed using a reconstructed cohort approach. Age, sex and calendar year specific rates of smoking experimentation and the onset of daily smoking were estimated for youth. Estimates apply to the entire Canadian population. Results There was a strong increase in smoking in youth in the years following the reduction in tobacco taxes. The increase was stronger in women. The rates returned to pre-1990 rates by about 2002. The number of excess daily smokers for people born between 1977 and 1985 that can be linked to the taxation reduction is about 190,000. Interpretation There is strong evidence that reduction of tobacco taxes to combat smuggling had an adverse impact on smoking rates in youth. PMID:24699515

The impact of taxation reduction on smoking in youth between 1990 and 1999: results from a reconstructed cohort analysis of the Canadian Community Health Surveys.

PubMed

Birkett, Nicholas J

2014-01-01

Increases in taxation can contribute to smoking control. In the early 1990's, tobacco smuggling rates in Canada increased dramatically. Governments responded with a substantial reduction in taxes on tobacco products. This study examines the impact of these tax changes on smoking in youth in Canada. Data on smoking from three consecutive cycles of the Canadian Community Health Surveys were combined and analyzed using a reconstructed cohort approach. Age, sex and calendar year specific rates of smoking experimentation and the onset of daily smoking were estimated for youth. Estimates apply to the entire Canadian population. There was a strong increase in smoking in youth in the years following the reduction in tobacco taxes. The increase was stronger in women. The rates returned to pre-1990 rates by about 2002. The number of excess daily smokers for people born between 1977 and 1985 that can be linked to the taxation reduction is about 190,000. There is strong evidence that reduction of tobacco taxes to combat smuggling had an adverse impact on smoking rates in youth.

Not a slippery slope or sudden subversion: German medicine and national socialism in 1933.

PubMed

Hanauske-Abel, H M

1996-12-07

The history of medicine this century is darkened by the downfall of the German medical profession, exposed during the doctors' trial at Nuremberg in 1946. Relying largely on documents published during 1933 in German medical journals, this paper examines two widely accepted notions of those events, metaphorically termed "slippery slope" and "sudden subversion." The first connotes a gradual slide over infinitesimal steps until, suddenly, all footing is lost; the second conveys forced take over of the profession's leadership and values. Both concepts imply that the medical profession itself became the victim of circumstances. The slippery slope concept is a prominent figure of argument in the current debate on bioethics. The evidence presented here, however, strongly suggests that the German medical community set its own course in 1933. In some respects this course even outpaced the new government, which had to rein in the profession's eager pursuit of enforced eugenic sterilizations. In 1933 the convergence of political, scientific, and economic forces dramatically changed the relationship between the medical community and the government. That same convergence is occurring again and must be approached with great caution if medicine is to remain focused on the preservation of physical and medical integrity.

Vertical Leaching of Allelochemicals Affecting Their Bioactivity and the Microbial Community of Soil.

PubMed

Xiao, Zhongxiang; Le, Chang; Xu, Zhenghao; Gu, Zhefeng; Lv, Junfei; Shamsi, Imran Haider

2017-09-13

Leaching of allelochemicals in soil is one of the fundamental processes that determines allelopathic activities but is often overlooked. In the present study, the vertical leaching of seven putative allelochemicals as well as one pesticide and one herbicide was investigated using polyvinyl chloride columns combined with a bioassay approach. The results indicated that the leachability of pretilachlor and imidacloprid were the best (Lf > 0.8), followed by vanillin and coumarin (Lf > 0.6). The leachability of daidzein, menthol, and m-tyrosine were medium (0.3 < Lf < 0.6). The lowest leachability has been observed on p-coumaric and p-hydroxybenzoic acids (Lf < 0.3). The chemicals were classified into three clusters according to the phospholipid fatty acid profile (i.e., vanillin in one cluster, coumarin and menthol in the second cluster, and the rest in the third cluster). Bioactivities of the chemicals changed dramatically. Germination of lettuce seeds was suppressed by imidacloprid and pretilachlor, and the suppression was concentration-dependent. The bioactivity of most of the allelochemicals were progressively decreased with the downward movement of chemicals. The results indicated that leaching mediated the microbial communities and the interactions of chemical-microorganism and modified the bioavailability of allelochemicals in soil.

Clinical and Community Strategies to Prevent Falls and Fall-Related Injuries Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults.

PubMed

Taylor-Piliae, Ruth E; Peterson, Rachel; Mohler, Martha Jane

2017-09-01

Falls in older adults are the result of several risk factors across biological and behavioral aspects of the person, along with environmental factors. Falls can trigger a downward spiral in activities of daily living, independence, and overall health outcomes. Clinicians who care for older adults should screen them annually for falls. A multifactorial comprehensive clinical fall assessment coupled with tailored interventions can result in a dramatic public health impact, while improving older adult quality of life. For community-dwelling older adults, effective fall prevention has the potential to reduce serious fall-related injuries, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, institutionalization, and functional decline. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Impacts of rapid urbanization on the water quality and macroinvertebrate communities of streams: A case study in Liangjiang New Area, China.

PubMed

Luo, Kun; Hu, Xuebin; He, Qiang; Wu, Zhengsong; Cheng, Hao; Hu, Zhenlong; Mazumder, Asit

2018-04-15

Rapid urbanization in China has dramatically deteriorated the water quality of streams and threatening aquatic ecosystem health. This study aims to 1) assess the impacts of urbanization on water quality and macroinvertebrate composition and 2) address the question of how urbanization affects macroinvertebrate distribution patterns. Environmental variables over multispatial scales and macroinvertebrate community data were collected on April (dry season) and September (wet season) of 2014 and 2015 at 19 sampling sites, of which nine had a high urbanization level (HUL), six had moderate urbanization level (MUL) and four had low urbanization level (LUL), in the Liangjiang New Area. The results of this study showed that macroinvertebrate assemblages significantly varied across the three urbanization levels. The sensitive species (e.g., EPT taxa) were mainly centralized at LUL sites, whereas tolerant species, such as Tubificidae (17.3%), Chironomidae (12.1%), and Physidae (4.61%), reached highest relative abundance at LUL sites. The values of family biotic index (FBI) and biological monitoring working party (BMWP) indicated the deterioration of water quality along urbanization gradient. Seasonal and inter - annual changes in macroinvertebrate communities were not observed. The results of variation partitioning analyses (CCAs) showed that habitat scale variables explained the major variation in macroinvertebrate community composition. Specifically, the increased nutrient concentrations favored tolerant species, whereas high water flow and substrate coarseness benefitted community taxa richness, diversity and EPT richness. Considering the interactions between scale-related processes, the results of this study suggested that urbanization resulted in less diverse and more tolerant stream macroinvertebrate assemblages mainly via increased nutrient concentrations and reduced substrate coarseness. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

GeoChip-based analysis of metabolic diversity of microbial communities at the Juan de Fuca Ridge hydrothermal vent

PubMed Central

Wang, Fengping; Zhou, Huaiyang; Meng, Jun; Peng, Xiaotong; Jiang, Lijing; Sun, Ping; Zhang, Chuanlun; Van Nostrand, Joy D.; Deng, Ye; He, Zhili; Wu, Liyou; Zhou, Jizhong; Xiao, Xiang

2009-01-01

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are one of the most unique and fascinating ecosystems on Earth. Although phylogenetic diversity of vent communities has been extensively examined, their physiological diversity is poorly understood. In this study, a GeoChip-based, high-throughput metagenomics technology revealed dramatic differences in microbial metabolic functions in a newly grown protochimney (inner section, Proto-I; outer section, Proto-O) and the outer section of a mature chimney (4143-1) at the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Very limited numbers of functional genes were detected in Proto-I (113 genes), whereas much higher numbers of genes were detected in Proto-O (504 genes) and 4143-1 (5,414 genes). Microbial functional genes/populations in Proto-O and Proto-I were substantially different (around 1% common genes), suggesting a rapid change in the microbial community composition during the growth of the chimney. Previously retrieved cbbL and cbbM genes involved in the Calvin Benson Bassham (CBB) cycle from deep-sea hydrothermal vents were predominant in Proto-O and 4143-1, whereas photosynthetic green-like cbbL genes were the major components in Proto-I. In addition, genes involved in methanogenesis, aerobic and anaerobic methane oxidation (e.g., ANME1 and ANME2), nitrification, denitrification, sulfate reduction, degradation of complex carbon substrates, and metal resistance were also detected. Clone libraries supported the GeoChip results but were less effective than the microarray in delineating microbial populations of low biomass. Overall, these results suggest that the hydrothermal microbial communities are metabolically and physiologically highly diverse, and the communities appear to be undergoing rapid dynamic succession and adaptation in response to the steep temperature and chemical gradients across the chimney. PMID:19273854