Using webinars to extend the reach of soil learning in New South Wales: A first look

Increasingly knowledge is shared using new web‐based channels. The use of these channels is relatively new in the realm of soil science. However, they may prove to be very useful for connecting time‐poor, geographically dispersed audiences in an efficient and cost‐effective way. There has been limited study of this form of knowledge sharing for natural science (let alone soil science). In New South Wales (NSW), Australia, the NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) has coordinated the Soil Network of Knowledge (SNoK) monthly webinar over 3 years, with over 40 webinars targeting an audience of next users of soil information. Aggregated data collected from these webinars indicated that the majority of information is used for professional development by participants. Whether this will eventually lead to on‐ground practice change because of the improved professional and technical knowledge of participants is still a moot point and will require further investigation over time. The information collected on attendance and participation showed that webinars are a good way to connect with some target audiences such as other government bodies that have a historical relationship with NSW DPI. However, other target audiences that NSW DPI has always found difficulty in engaging, such as private advisers, require more active overtures to drive participation. The growing subscriber base is encouraging.     

A fresh look at inland fisheries and their role in food security and livelihoods

The role of inland fisheries in livelihoods, food security and sustainable development is often overshadowed by the higher profile interest in ocean issues. Whilst inland fisheries' catch and contribution to global nutrition, food security and the economy, are less than that of marine fisheries, global‐level comparisons of fish production obscure considerable livelihood impacts in certain countries and sub‐national areas. To highlight these contributions, this paper synthesizes recent data and innovative approaches for assessing such livelihood contributions and their importance in countries with limited access to ocean resources and aquaculture. Inland fisheries are crucial for many socially, economically and nutritionally vulnerable groups of people around the world, but the challenges in monitoring inland fisheries preclude a complete understanding of the magnitude of their contributions. This situation is rapidly improving with increasing recognition of inland fisheries in development discourses, which has also encouraged research to enhance knowledge on the importance of inland fisheries. We review this work, including collated information published in a recent Food and Agriculture Organization report, to provide an up to date characterization of the state of knowledge on the role of inland fisheries.     

Estimating the Sensitivity and Specificity of Real‐Time Quantitative PCR of Fecal Samples for Diagnosis of Rhodococcus equi Pneumonia in Foals

Background

Real‐time, quantitative PCR (qPCR) methods for detecting Rhodococcus equi in feces have been developed as a noninvasive, rapid diagnostic test for R. equi pneumonia, but have not been evaluated in a large population of foals.

Objective

The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical utility of fecal PCR as a diagnostic test for R. equi pneumonia in foals using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) methods.

Animals

186 foals born in 2011 at an R. equi‐endemic ranch in Texas.

Methods

Fecal samples were collected at the time of onset of clinical signs for pneumonic foals (n = 31). Foals with pneumonia were matched by age and birth date to healthy (n = 31) and subclinical (n = 124) control foals; fecal samples were collected from these controls. DNA was extracted from feces using commercial kits and concentration of virulent R. equi in feces was determined by qPCR.

Results

Concentration of R. equi in feces differed significantly (P < .05) among groups. The area under the ROC curve for fecal qPCR for diagnosis of R. equi pneumonia was 89% (95% CI, 83–99), with a sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 72%.

Conclusions and Clinical Importance

qPCR of feces can be useful as an alternative to tracheobronchial aspiration for the diagnosis of R. equi in foals with clinical signs of pneumonia. Caution should be used in extrapolating results of this study to other populations because fecal concentration of R. equi might vary by geographic location or management practices.     

EMS and UV irradiation induce unstable resistance against CAA fungicides in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bremia lactucae</Emphasis>

Wild type (WT) field isolates of Bremia lactucae failed to germinate in vitro or infect lettuce leaves in the presence of CAA (carboxylic acid amide) fungicides. Minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for mandipropamid, dimethomorph, benthiavalicarb and iprovalicarb were 0.005, 0.5, 0.5 and 5 μg ml⁻¹, respectively. Mutagenesis experiments showed that spores exposed to EMS (ethyl methane sulphonate) or UV irradiation (254 nm) could infect lettuce leaves in the presence of up to 100 μg ml⁻¹ CAA. The proportion of infected leaves relative to the number of spores inoculated (infection frequency) was inversely related to the concentration of CAA used, ranging between 0 and 160 per 1 × 10⁶ spores. Resistant mutants (RM) lost their resistance within 1–14 reproduction cycles on CAA-treated plants. Crosses were made between RMxWT isolates and RMxRM isolates with an attempt to obtain stable homozygous resistant off-springs. Such crosses yielded few resistant but unstable progeny isolates. Mutagenic treatments given to hybrid isolates also failed to produce stable resistance. Previous gene sequencing data showed that stable resistance to CAAs is based on a single SNP in the cellulose synthase 3 (CesA3) gene of Plasmopara viticola. Therefore, we sequenced a 582 bp DNA fragment of Ces3A of WT, RM and hybrid isolates of B.lactucae. No mutation in this gene fragment was found. We conclude that mutagenic agents like EMS or UV may induce resistance to CAA in Bremia lactucae but this resistance is not stable and not linked to mutations in CesA3 gene.     

Historical changes in bivalve growth rates indicate ecological consequences of human occupation in estuaries

1. Only 800 years ago, New Zealand became the last major land mass to be settled by humans, leading to environmental degradation and precipitating a decline in indigenous fauna. Such ecological downgrading can alter ecosystem processes and drive down the capacity for remnant ecosystems to withstand the anthropogenic pressures of today.
2. In New Zealand, these impacts are chronicled in a concise and remarkably complete archaeological record and are distinguishable from natural changes due to changing climate.
3. Estuaries are subject to strong environmental gradients that drive productivity and contain critical habitats for key life‐history phases for marine and terrestrial species. Linking land to sea, they host abundant, accessible human resources and are sensitive to anthropogenic environmental modification.
4. Austrovenus stutchburyi is a common filter feeding bivalve in New Zealand estuaries. An important food source for Māori, their shells are abundant in middens. Growth rates of A. stutchburyi are affected by multiple environmental factors, including temperature, salinity, nutrients, and sediment, and are recorded through time as easily measurable annual shell bands. Measuring spatial and temporal variation in growth rate of A. stutchburyi can be used to identify the timing of changes in estuarine conditions.
5. Growth bands were measured in archaeological and modern (AD 1300–present) A. stutchburyi shells from six sites around New Zealand with varying occupational histories. There were no increases in growth rate, and rates declined measurably over time at three sites (up to a 50% reduction in growth per year). This decline was greater at estuaries that had experienced greater catchment modification, indicating that sediment loading due to land clearance was a likely driver of this change.
6. New Zealand's coastline and marine resources are often perceived as wild and pristine. We propose that fundamental changes have occurred in the functioning of coastal marine ecosystems, which constrain its future.

     

Fishing for conservation of freshwater tropical fishes in the Anthropocene

1. The ecosystem services provided by freshwater biodiversity are threatened by development and environmental and climate change in the Anthropocene.
2. Here, case studies are described to show that a focus on the shared dependence on freshwater ecosystem functioning can mutually benefit fisheries and conservation agendas in the Anthropocene.
3. Meeting the threat to fish biodiversity and fisher livelihood is pertinent in developing regions where there is often a convergence between high biodiversity, high dependency on aquatic biota and rapid economic development (see Kafue River, Logone floodplain, Tonle Sap, and Rio Negro case studies).
4. These case studies serve as evidence that biodiversity conservation goals can be achieved by emphasizing a sustainable fisheries agenda with partnerships, shared knowledge and innovation in fisheries management (see Kafue River and Kenai River case studies).
5. In all case studies, aquatic biodiversity conservation and fisheries agendas are better served if efforts focused on creating synergies between fishing activities with ecosystem functioning yield long‐term livelihood and food security narratives.
6. A unified voice from conservation and fisheries communities has more socio‐economic and political capital to advocate for biodiversity and social interests in freshwater governance decisions.

     

Sensitivity analysis of optimal operation of irrigation supply systems with water quality considerations

A model for optimal operation of water supply/irrigation systems of various water quality sources, with treatment plants, multiple water quality conservative factors, and dilution junctions is presented. The objective function includes water cost at the sources, water conveyance costs which account for the hydraulics of the network indirectly, water treatment cost, and yield reduction costs of irrigated crops due to irrigation with poor quality water. The model can be used for systems with supply by canals as well as pipes, which serve both drinking water demands of urban/rural consumers and field irrigation requirements. The general nonlinear optimization problem has been simplified by decomposing it to a problem with linear constraints and nonlinear objective function. This problem is solved using the projected gradient method. The method is demonstrated for a regional water supply system in southern Israel that contains 39 pipes, 37 nodes, 11 sources, 10 agricultural consumers, and 4 domestic consumers. The optimal operation solution is described by discharge and salinity values for all pipes of the network. Sensitivity of the optimal solution to changes in the parameters is examined. The solution was found to be sensitive to the upper limit on drinking water quality, with total cost being reduced by 5% as the upper limit increases from 260 to 600 mg Cl l^–1. The effect of income from unit crop yield is more pronounced. An increase of income by a factor of 20 results in an increase of the total cost by a factor of 3, thus encouraging more use of fresh water as long as the marginal cost of water supply is smaller than the marginal decrease in yield loss. The effect of conveyance cost becomes more pronounced as its cost increases. An increase by a factor of 100 results in an increase of the total cost by about 14%. The network studied has a long pipe that connects two distinct parts of the network and permits the supply of fresh water from one part to the other. Increasing the maximum permitted discharge in this pipe from 0 to 200 m³ h^–1 reduces the total cost by 11%. Increasing the maximum discharge at one of the sources from 90 to 300 m³ h^–1 reduces the total cost by about 8%.     

Determining transpiration from meteorological data and crop characteristics for irrigation management

Summary Traditional meteorological estimates of evapotranspiration include empirical crop factors which are inadequate for scheduling high frequency irrigation. The performance of a transpiration model was tested and adapted to suit the operational requirements of automated irrigation systems. Hourly measurements of global solar radiation, air temperature, humidity and wind speed, obtained from an automatic weather station are inputs to the model. Additional inputs include daily updated data of plant height and leaf area index. This information is processed to determine the active coupling surface between the crop and the atmosphere. The model takes into account the resistance of the leaf to diffusion of water vapor.Calculated transpiration, based on the model, matched very closely measurements of latent heat flux in an irrigated cotton field. It was also in good agreement with water uptake measured in stems of the cotton plants using a heat pulse technique. The test also showed that implementation of the model in the field under study would have improved the efficiency of water application.Contribution from the Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel, No. 1855-E, 1986 series