Impact of baiting on feral swine behavior in the presence of culling activities

We studied the effects of baiting on feral swine (Sus scrofa) movements and corresponding likelihood of disease spread under real and simulated culling pressure. Our objectives were to determine the proportion of feral swine that used the bait station site, and if baiting of feral swine altered areas of utilization, distances from location centroids to treatment location (control or bait station), and movement rates by survivors during culling activities. We hypothesized that the bait station would increase the sedentary nature of feral swine, thus reducing the potential for dispersal and hence disease dispersal. Our experiment was conducted between February and May 2011 on the Rob and Bessie Welder Wildlife Foundation (WWF) in San Patricio County, Texas. We trapped 83 feral swine and placed GPS collars on 21 animals. We established and maintained a centralized bait station on one side of the WWF from 13 March to 27 April. We conducted population-wide culling activities, including trapping, controlled shooting, drive shooting, and aerial gunning, from 3 to 27 April and removed 143 feral swine (4.6feral swine/km(2)). Areas of utilization did not differ between treatments (control or bait station). However, we found location centroids of bait station site feral swine to be closer to the treatment location than those of control site animals and daily movement rates of bait station site feral swine to be 39% greater than movement rates of control site animals. Based on our observation that only 62% of feral swine trapped in proximity to the bait station used it, we cannot recommend baiting as an alternative to fences for containing animals during culling activities. However, there is value in using bait stations to describe patterns of feral swine movements, facilitate observation, and improve efficacy when conducting removals.     

Biodiversity, vegetation gradients and key biogeochemical processes in the heathland landscape

The northwest European heathland landscape with its characteristic communities of nutrient-poor and acidic soils has a high nature value, because of its locally high biodiversity and the distinct site conditions. In order to conserve and restore the heathlands, numerous rehabilitation projects have been performed, although with varying success. This is partly due to the fact that the key biogeochemical processes distinguishing the various vegetation types within the heathlands are not known in detail.Therefore, we performed a statistical survey on the main communities and their soil characteristics. In addition, we analyzed the data for key factors determining biodiversity in the heathland landscape.Data from previous studies and surveys was used to compile a dataset of 267 vegetation relevés (classified as EUNIS habitat types) with extensive soil measurements (22 parameters). A canonical discriminant analysis revealed that soil acidity explained most of the differences between the habitat types, while soil moisture content and soil fertility were less important. Acidity-related factors as Al³⁺, Al/Ca-ratio and pH were also strongly correlated to plant diversity in the majority of the habitat types, respectively, the species-rich Nardus grasslands, the Rhynchosporion communities and the species-rich Molinia meadows. In the dry heaths and over the total heathland landscape, plant diversity was negatively correlated with soil -concentrations. Only in wet heath, nutrient availability, in this case P, was the primary factor in explaining plant diversity.This study presents ranges for all major soil parameters for the studied well-developed heathland habitat types, thereby providing clear guidelines for conservation and restoration.     

Suitability of wheat straw decomposition,cotton strip degradation and bait-lamina feeding tests to determine soil invertebrate activity

The activities of earthworms, springtails and mites in the decomposition of different substrates were examined by applying three different test methods: wheat straw degradation, the cotton-strip assay and the bait-lamina test. The main aim was to determine the potential of these three methods to describe the (direct and indirect) contribution of soil invertebrates to decomposition processes in soil. Animals were introduced at different densities to mesocosms consisting of intact soil cores taken from grassland. Wheat straw mass loss, determined after 27 days, and cotton tensile strength loss, measured after 14 days, did not significantly differ for the different densities of earthworms, springtails and mites. These findings indicate that cellulose degradation and wheat straw decomposition are more dependent on microbial activity, rather than on the abundance and activity of soil invertebrates. Soil microbial activity, measured as dehydrogenase activity at the end of the 75-day incubation period, did not show any correlation with animal density. Bait-lamina consumption rate was highest for the mesocosms containing earthworms, and increased with increasing earthworm density. Bait-lamina consumption in the mesocosms inoculated with springtails or mites only was not significantly different from that in the controls without animals. In the case of the mites this might at least partly be explained by the low densities used in this experiment. It may be concluded that whilst the bait-lamina test gives the best reflection of the biological activity of soil animals, in particular earthworms, wheat straw and cotton strip decomposition rates are more indicative of microbial activity in the soil.     

Evaluation of carbohydrates in Pukekohe Longkeeper and Grano cultivars of Allium cepa

The storage, soluble, and structural carbohydrates of two onion cultivars, the hard, pungent Pukekohe Longkeeper (PLK) and the softer, milder Houston Grano, were analyzed to determine differences that might be related to their response to sulfur nutrition received during growth as well as their postharvest attributes and end-use suitability. PLK tissue contained 1.37 times more dry matter than Grano and was composed of more fructan and sucrose and less glucose and fructose than Grano [corrected] There were also differences in neutral sugar content, especially galactose, and the amount, size, and content of pectin fractions soluble in chelator and weak alkali. These two onion cultivars differed in their capacity to take up sulfur, but there was no statistical association between sulfur supply and any measured dry matter component.     

Automated classification of wood transverse cross-section micro-imagery from 77 commercial Central-African timber species

?Key message

Pattern recognition has become an important tool to aid in the identification and classification of timber species. In this context, the focus of this work is the classification of wood species using texture characteristics of transverse cross-section images obtained by microscopy. The results show that this approach is robust and promising.

?Context

Considering the lack of automated methods for wood species classification, machine vision based on pattern recognition might offer a feasible and attractive solution because it is less dependent on expert knowledge, while existing databases containing high-quality microscopy images can be exploited.

?Aims

This work focuses on the automated classification of 1221 micro-images originating from 77 commercial timber species from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

?Methods

Microscopic images of transverse cross-sections of all wood species are taken in a standardized way using a magnification of 25 ×. The images are represented as texture feature vectors extracted using local phase quantization or local binary patterns and classified by a nearest neighbor classifier according to a triplet of labels (species, genus, family).

?Results

The classification combining both local phase quantization and linear discriminant analysis results in an average success rate of approximately 88% at species level, 89% at genus level and 90% at family level. The success rate of the classification method is remarkably high. More than 50% of the species are never misclassified or only once. The success rate is increasing from the species, over the genus to the family level. Quite often, pattern recognition results can be explained anatomically. Species with a high success rate show diagnostic features in the images used, whereas species with a low success rate often have distinctive anatomical features at other microscopic magnifications or orientations than those used in our approach.

?Conclusion

This work demonstrates the potential of a semi-automated classification by resorting to pattern recognition. Semi-automated systems like this could become valuable tools complementing conventional wood identification.