Expanding opportunities for agroforestry education in the U.S. and Canadian universities

A telephone survey of 39 U.S. and Canadian University forestry schools accredited with the Society of American Foresters, conducted in November 1988, showed that 25 had courses in tropical and international forestry, and 14 university faculties had been conducting research in agroforestry. Field-oriented training in agroforestry is also offered in North America, especially for voluntary and relief organization personnel. Many of the agroforestry courses have been established recently in response to desires of students with international interests and/or experience. Most of such courses are integrated programs, initiated by forestry faculty, and most of these are seminars or colloquia incorporating the experience of both faculty and students with focus on systems and issues rather than technical proceses. Ideas for agroforestry course content offered by North American forestry faculty include: integration of social and technical aspects of agroforestry and social forestry, involvement of multidisciplinary teams, focus on managing marginal, lands and consideration of the importance of agroforestry systems in North America and other temperate zones.     

Retrospective analysis of the influence of environmental drivers on commercial stocks and fishing opportunities in the Irish Sea

Irish Sea fisheries have undergone considerable change in recent years following the decline of commercially important finfish stocks and their slow response to management's recovery plans. In 2015, the fishing industry called for a holistic exploration into the impact of environmental change and food web effects to identify the drivers underpinning stock dynamics. In this study, we identify correlations between large‐scale climatic indicators, temperature, primary and secondary productivity, and fish recruitment in the Irish Sea and incorporate them into an Ecopath with Ecosim food web model co‐created by scientists and fishers. Negative correlations were found between the North Atlantic Oscillation winter index (NAOw) and large zooplankton abundance and between the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the recruitment of cod (Gadus morhua) and whiting (Merlangius merlangus). Using correlation analyses to direct the addition of environmental drivers to the Irish Sea ecosystem model improved the models fit against observed biomass and catch data and revealed the indirect impacts of environmental change as mitigated through trophic interactions. Model simulations suggest that historic environmental change suppressed the overall production of commercial finfish, limiting opportunities for the fishing industry, whilst also dampening the rate of stock recovery despite marked reductions in fishing effort. These results suggest that failure to account for ecosystem information may lead to misconceived expectations and flawed fisheries management; therefore, there is a need to operationalize ecosystem information through management procedures to support fisheries advice.     

Assessment of Best-Management Practice Effects on Rangeland Stream Water Quality Using Multivariate Statistical Techniques

Quantifying the effects of watershed improvement efforts is critical to agencies responsible for protecting water resources of the semiarid western United States. A complex water quality data set collected from 1994 to 2004 of upper Muddy Creek Basin was subjected to cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, and canonical correlation analysis to improve understanding of basin fluvial processes and to investigate whether livestock grazing best-management practices (BMPs) improved the water quality of the watershed. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis grouped nine sampling sites into two clusters based on similarity of biological indices, separating the clusters into aquatic communities more and less tolerant of degraded stream conditions. Discriminant analysis yielded strong spatial and temporal distinctions, providing important data reduction by rendering seven key parameters (total dissolved solids [TDS], temperature, elevation, slope, 10-dominant taxa, percent collector-gatherers, and percent Plecoptera) for the spatial variation and four parameters (TDS, dissolved oxygen, total taxa, and community tolerance quotient) for the temporal variation. Canonical correlation analysis identified strong negative relationships among Plecoptera taxa and total taxa with TDS and turbidity in addition to strong positive associations with elevation, slope, and channel substrate weighted embeddedness value. Despite the onset of severe drought midway through the study period, overall reductions of 13% for TDS and a 30% increase in macroinvertebrate total taxa occurred across years, strongly suggesting that improvements in water quality were correlated to BMPs that stabilized stream channels and improved the condition of riparian areas.     

Biodegradation of Monoethanolamine,Ethylene Glycol and Triethylene Glycol in Laboratory Bioreactors

The release of alkanolamines and glycols into the subsurface soils poses a potential hazard to the environment through impacted soil and groundwater. This study investigated aerobic and anaerobic biodegradability of monoethanolamine (MEA), ethylene glycol (MEG) and triethylene glycol (TEG). Significant levels of MEA (31 000 mg/kg), MEG (500 mg/kg) and TEG (2100 mg/kg) were successfully aerobically biodegraded in bioreactors. The aerobic slurry experiments suggested initial phosphate (P) limitation, as biodegradation rates increased by one order of magnitude after phosphate addition. Anaerobic decay of MEA, MEG and TEG was unaffected by P-addition. MEA, MEG and TEG degradation products such as acetate, ethanol and ammonium at about 75 000 mg/kg, 8100 mg/kg and 8800 mg/kg degraded completely and did not prevent aerobic biodegradation. This study confirms proposed biodegradation pathways of MEA, MEG, TEG and their breakdown products in natural soil and groundwater using indigenous microbes. Levels of contamination studied here are significantly higher than previously reported.