Private residential urban forest structure and carbon storage in a moderate-sized urban area in the Midwest,United States

In conjunction with urbanization and its importance as a major driver of land-use change, increased efforts have been placed on understanding urban forests and the provisioning of ecosystem services. However, very little research has been conducted on private property and little is known about the structure and function of privately owned urban forests. This research examines the structure of and carbon storage services provided by private residential urban forests in a moderate-sized Midwestern city. The primary research questions are as follows: What is the structure of private urban forests, and how does it vary across parcels? How much carbon is stored in tree and soil pools of private urban forests, and how does carbon vary across parcels? Ecological inventories were conducted on 100 residential parcels within 14 Neighborhood and Homeowners Associations of varying size and development age. Tree species richness, diversity, density, and diameter distribution were determined on a per parcel basis and for the entire tree population sampled. Further, tree and soil carbon storage were determined for each parcel. Results of this research demonstrated large variability in per-parcel tree metrics. Twelve of the parcels sampled had two or fewer trees, while eleven had greater than 50 trees. Further, tree carbon storage ranged from no carbon to 11.22 kg C m^?2. Alternatively, soil carbon storage was less variable and averaged 4.7 kg C m^?2, approximately 1.9 times higher than the average carbon stored in trees (2.5 kg C m^?2). Management efforts aimed at maintaining or enhancing carbon storage and other ecosystem services should focus on both soil protection and maximizing services in living biomass. Our results demonstrate that sustaining tree-produced ecosystem services requires maintenance of large old trees and species diversity, not only in terms of relative abundance, but also relative dominance, and in combination, species–specific size distributions.     

The effects of offering a range of forage and concentrate supplements on milk production and dry matter intake of grazing dairy cows

An experiment was undertaken to examine the effect of supplement type on herbage intake, total dry matter (DM) intake, animal performance and nitrogen utilization with grazing dairy cows. Twenty‐four spring‐calving dairy cows were allocated to one of six treatments in a partially balanced changeover design with five periods of four weeks. The six treatments were no supplement (NONE), or supplementation with either grass silage (GS), whole‐crop wheat silage (WS), maize silage (MS), rapidly degradable concentrate (RC) or slowly degradable concentrate (SC). Cows were rotationally grazed with a mean herbage allowance of 20·5 kg DM per cow per day, measured above 4 cm. Forage supplements were offered for approximately 2 h immediately after each morning milking, with cows on NONE, RC and SC treatments returning to the grazing paddock immediately after milking. Cows on treatment MS had a significantly higher supplement DM intake than the other treatments but a significantly lower grass DM intake than the other treatments, resulting in no significant difference in total DM intake when compared with cows on treatments WS, RC and SC. Concentrate type had no significant effect on herbage intake, milk yield, milk composition or yield of milk components. The yield of milk fat and milk protein was significantly higher on treatments MS, RC and SC compared with treatments NONE, GS and WS. The results indicate that despite a relatively high substitution rate, maize silage can be a useful supplement for the grazing dairy cow.     

The effect of concentrate feed level on the response of lactating dairy cows to a constant proportion of fodder beet inclusion in a grass silage-based diet

Abstract The effects of level of concentrate supplementation on the response of dairy cows to grass silage‐based diets containing a constant proportion of fodder beet were examined. Forty Holstein‐Friesian dairy cows of mixed parity were used in a 2 × 5 factorial design experiment. Two basal diet types [grass silage alone or grass silage mixed with fodder beet in a 70:30 dry matter (DM) ratio] were offered ad libitum, and the effects of five levels of concentrate supplementation (mean = 3·0, 5·3, 7·5, 9·8 and 12·0 kg DM per cow d^?1) were examined. Concentrate supplements were offered via an out‐of‐parlour feeding system. These treatments were examined in a three‐period (period length = 4 weeks) partially balanced changeover design experiment. Fodder beet inclusion had no significant effect on the estimated metabolizable energy (ME) concentration of the ration (P > 0·001). Total DM intake, estimated ME intake, milk yield, milk protein content and milk energy output all showed significant linear increases with increasing level of concentrate inclusion (P < 0·001) while, in addition, milk yield and milk energy output exhibited a significant quadratic increase (P < 0·01). The inclusion of fodder beet in the diet reduced silage DM intake (P < 0·01) but resulted in an increase in total DM intake and estimated ME intake (P < 0·001). However, inclusion of fodder beet had no significant effect on milk yield (P > 0·05), while increasing milk protein content and milk energy output (P ≤ 0·05). Milk energy output, as a proportion of estimated ME intake, was significantly (P < 0·001) reduced by fodder beet inclusion (0·44 vs. 0·38). Despite large increases in estimated ME intake with the inclusion of fodder beet at all levels of concentrate supplementation, milk energy output responses were small, resulting in an overall reduction in the efficiency of conversion of ME intake into milk energy output. An increased partitioning of dietary ME intake to tissue gain is suggested as the most likely explanation for the observations made.     

Long-term successful outcome of a Streptococcus equi subspecies equi brain abscess

We previously described successful treatment, including surgical drainage, of a Streptococcus equi subspecies equi brain abscess that caused severe neurological deficits in a 7-year-old Quarter Horse mare. This report details the long-term successful outcome of the case, findings of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study performed 14 years after surgery and necropsy findings 18 years after initial treatment. Despite persistent cerebral and midbrain lesions detected by MRI and at necropsy, the mare returned to serviceable function within a year of initial treatment and had a successful performance career for over 10 years until carpal arthritis prompted retirement. This case demonstrates that brain abscess in horses can be successfully managed by combined medical and surgical treatment.     

Accuracy of selected neurological clinical tests in diagnosing MRI-detectable forebrain lesion in dogs

This retrospective case study aims to evaluate the accuracy of menace response, response to nasal stimulation and proprioceptive placing in diagnosing forebrain lesion in dogs. A total of 145 client-owned dogs investigated by magnetic resonance imaging study of the brain between December 2017 and June 2019 were evaluated. Seventy-one dogs with no magnetic resonance imaging-detectable intracranial and significant cerebrospinal fluid abnormality or recent history of seizure (<48 h) served as controls. Binary regression analysis was performed to determine the sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratios of each selected test. Older age at presentation was a significant risk factor for the presence of a forebrain lesion. Menace (62.5%) and proprioceptive deficits (40.5%) were common findings in all dogs. They were also significantly associated with the presence of forebrain abnormality. Moreover, they were more sensitive (77.3% and 82.2%, respectively) and specific (50.0% and 62.5%, respectively) when applied to dogs aged 6 years or older. Nonetheless, all of these tests' likelihood ratios, and thus reliability are poor. These neurological tests are commonly employed for diagnosing forebrain disease in dogs, yet are not highly accurate in diagnosing forebrain abnormality. Clinicians should interpret these clinical test results along with the patient history when designing a diagnostic plan.     

Aluminum inhibition of NADH‐linked electron transfer by corn root plasma membranes

Vesicles enriched in right‐side‐out plasma membranes were isolated from corn roots by a modified two‐phase partition method. Using reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide as electron donor, isolated vesicles were capable of reducing both ferricyanide and oxygen. At pH 6.0, the presence of Al inhibited both reduction processes to a similar extent. This result indicates that these two reduction processes share at least one common step that is sensitive to Al. Inhibition was not associated with a change in the structure of the membrane domain, as revealed by fluorescence polarization of membrane incorporated probes. These results are the first indications that the electron transfer processes of plasma membranes are sensitive to the presence of Al.     

Effects of divalent cations on nadh‐linked electron transfer in corn root plasma membrane

The effects of calcium (Ca²⁺), cadmium (Cd²⁺), and copper (Cu²⁺) cations on NADH‐linked electron transfer in com root plasma membrane vesicles were investigated. The reduction of both cytochrome c and ferricyanide were slightly stimulated by Ca²⁺ but not significantly affected by Cd²⁺. However, Cd²⁺ induced a redox‐linked increase in light scattering suggesting an increase in the size/volume of the vesicles. The presence of micromolar levels of Cu²⁺ decreased the reduction rates of both cytochrome c and ferricyanide. However, in contrast to ferricyanide reduction, Cu inhibition to the cytochrome c reduction was more effective, and was less sensitive to ionic strength. Copper inhibition changed the Michaelis‐Menten dependence of the ferricyanide reduction but not that of cytochrome c. These results suggest that the reduction of cytochrome c. and ferricyanide must occur at different membrane sites.     

An evaluation of an inoculant/enzyme preparation as an additive for grass silage for dairy cattle

Herbage from the first regrowth of perennial ryegrass-based swards was directly ensiled after treatment with a bacterial inoculant/enzyme preparation (SIL-ALL, Alltech UK) at 3·0 1 t^?1, formic acid (850 g kg^?1) at 2·59 1 t^?1 or no additive (Control). The mean dry matter (DM) and water-soluble carbohydrate concentrations of the grass were 185 and 24·0 g kg^?1 (fresh basis) respectively. Lactic acid concentrations after ensiling increased at a lower rate in formic acid-treated herbage than with the other treatments. All silages were well preserved and formic acid-treated silage had a lower ultimate concentration of lactic acid and higher concentration of water-soluble carbohydrate. Effluent output was increased on a proportional basis by ?0·06 with formic treatment, whereas the inoculant reduced effluent output by 0·05 in comparison with the mean effluent production of the control silage. The in vivo digestibilities of the silages were determined using sheep. The digestibilities of DM, organic matter and energy were significantly higher with inoculant-treated silage than with formic acid treatment, whereas values for the control silage were intermediate. The three silages were offered ad libitum to forty dairy cows with individual recording of daily intakes for a 10-week period in a randomized block experiment with four treatments. Sixteen animals were offered the control silage with half of these offered 3 kg concentrates per day (C3) and the other half offered 7 kg concentrates per day (C7). Twelve animals were allocated to each of the additive-treated silages, with concentrates offered at 5 kg d^?1. Treatment effects on animal performance were measured in weeks 7–10. To compare animal performance for the treated silages with the control, an estimate of performance at 5 kg concentrates per day was obtained by regression using values obtained at 3 and 7 kg concentrates. In comparison with estimated silage intake for the control silage with 5 kg d^?1 concentrates, inoculant and formic acid treatment of the silages increased dry matter intake by 0·04 (P > 0·05) and 0·13 (P > 0·01) respectively. In comparison with estimated milk production and yield of fat plus protein for the control treatment with 5 kg d^?1 concentrates, neither inoculant treatment nor formic acid treatment produced any significant differences.     

Brucella abortus-specific immunoglobulin in isotypes in serum and vaginal mucus from cattle vaccinated with strain 19 and challenge exposed with virulent strain 2308

The immunoglobulins (IgG1, IgG2, IgM, and IgA) of the Brucella-specific antibody response of 69 crossbred beef heifers were studied after Brucella abortus strain 19 vaccination and strain 2308 challenge exposure. The immunoglobulin isotype responses in serum and vaginal mucus were measured by use of fluorescent immunoassay. Serum antibody responses were detected also by 3 standard serologic tests (complement fixation [CF], Rivanol precipitation, and the CARD test] and 2 primary bindings assays that detect IgG antibodies. One month after vaccination, mean antibody titers for all immunoglobulin isotypes were higher for vaccinated cattle (n = 46) than for nonvaccinated controls (n = 23). After vaccination, IgA antibody responses in vaccinated cattle were only 2-fold higher than those for controls, whereas IgG1, IgG2, and IgM antibody responses were 3- to 90-fold greater than those for controls. Measurement of IgA antibody responses classified 21 of 39 vaccinates as seropositive after vaccination, whereas the other isotypes classified 28 or 34 cattle as seropositive. Three months after challenge exposure, the mean antibody responses for each isotype were higher in cattle that aborted or were culture positive than in cattle that did not abort and were culture negative. Although IgG1, IgG2, and IgM antibody titers were each of benefit in identifying B abortus-infected cattle, it did not appear that the magnitude of the antibody responses provided sufficient discrimination between S19-vaccinated cattle and S2308 challenge-exposed cattle. Serum IgA antibody responses were 10-fold higher after challenge exposure than after vaccination and may be a response to mucosal infection with the virulent organism.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)