Modelling semi-natural habitat area on lowland farms in western Ireland

A significant policy objective is the need for protection of biodiversity not just within designated Natura 2000 sites, but also in areas that occur outside of these sites. However there is a lack of information on existing semi-natural habitat cover on EU farms, making it difficult to assess whether targets for halting the loss of agricultural biodiversity are being met. To achieve these targets, reliable yet easy-to-use methods are needed for accurately identifying priority areas for conservation actions and monitoring biodiversity on a large spatial scale.Remote sensing, farmland statistics and species data have been used in some EU countries to create maps to estimate the extent of semi-natural habitat cover but these are acknowledged as being too broad scale. In this study, we examined a method of fine-scale prediction of the spatial coverage of semi-natural habitats in lowland farms. A generalized additive model (GAM) was used to investigate the relationships between landscape and farm management variables and the lowland farmland habitat biodiversity on 32 farms outside of conservation designations, in a region of western Ireland. Semi-natural habitat cover on lowland farms could be predicted with a model using stocking density, soil diversity and river and stream length. It is proposed that this model could be used to predict the coverage of semi-natural habitats on farms in other regions of Ireland with similar land-use and landscape. A similar modelling approach could be adapted for application in other regions of Ireland and across Europe with different landscapes to predict semi-natural habitat coverage.     

The role of Mannheimia species in ovine mastitis

Mannheimia haemolytica is known to be an important cause of intramammary infection in sheep. It usually causes severe clinical mastitis, followed by toxaemia and gangrenous necrosis of the udder. However there are limited data available on the epidemiology and pathogenesis of mastitis associated with Mannheimia species. These organisms can be more significant as a cause of mastitis than Staphylococcus aureus in some flocks. Some data suggest the possibility of horizontal transmission of Mannheimia species between ewes via lamb sucking. There is no vaccine available for prevention, and the sudden onset of mastitis and its peracute nature renders most treatments unsuccessful. This review examines the significance of the species within this genus in sheep mastitis.     

Impacts of tourism on anxiety and physiological stress levels in wild male Barbary macaques

Wildlife tourism is a burgeoning global industry with the potential to make a significant contribution to the conservation of endangered species. However, a number of studies have provided evidence that tourists’ presence and behaviour may impact negatively on the animals involved, with potentially harmful consequences for their health, reproduction and population viability. Here, we investigate impacts of tourism on wild male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) in Morocco, quantifying a behavioural index of animals’ anxiety (self-scratching) and a measure of their physiological stress levels (faecal glucocorticoid concentrations – FGCs). Four measures of tourist presence, number or proximity were explored: maximum number, percentage of time present, mean number while present, and closest proximity to the macaques. In addition, rates of three types of interactions between tourists and macaques – neutral (e.g. photographing), feeding and aggressive – were quantified. Males’ rates of self-scratching were positively related to the mean number of tourists present and to rates of all three human-macaque interactions, but were unrelated to the other three measures of tourist pressure. FGCs were positively related to rates of aggressive interactions between humans and macaques, but unrelated to any of the other six measures of tourist pressure. These findings suggest that while tourist presence and interactions (even apparently innocuous ones) with the macaques elevate the study animals’ anxiety levels, only aggressive interactions are sufficient to elicit a detectable increase in our measure of physiological stress. These results can be used to inform management of tourism both at this site, and at other locations where tourists view and can interact with wild primates.     

What is soundscape ecology? An introduction and overview of an emerging new science

We summarize the foundational elements of a new area of research we call soundscape ecology. The study of sound in landscapes is based on an understanding of how sound, from various sources—biological, geophysical and anthropogenic—can be used to understand coupled natural-human dynamics across different spatial and temporal scales. Useful terms, such as soundscapes, biophony, geophony and anthrophony, are introduced and defined. The intellectual foundations of soundscape ecology are described—those of spatial ecology, bioacoustics, urban environmental acoustics and acoustic ecology. We argue that soundscape ecology differs from the humanities driven focus of acoustic ecology although soundscape ecology will likely need its rich vocabulary and conservation ethic. An integrative framework is presented that describes how climate, land transformations, biodiversity patterns, timing of life history events and human activities create the dynamic soundscape. We also summarize what is currently known about factors that control temporal soundscape dynamics and variability across spatial gradients. Several different phonic interactions (e.g., how anthrophony affects biophony) are also described. Soundscape ecology tools that will be needed are also discussed along with the several ways in which soundscapes need to be managed. This summary article helps frame the other more application-oriented papers that appear in this special issue.     

Measuring and interpreting the temporal variability in the soundscape at four places in Sequoia National Park

The soundscape was recorded in four selected places in Sequoia National Park CA, to quantify and assess the diurnal and seasonal character of the park’s soundscape. The recording sites were selected to represent a combination of elevation and vegetation diversity. Hour-long sound recordings were made by four individuals at each place during fall, spring, summer and winter at dawn, midday, dusk, and midnight with identical recording instrumentation. The recordings of the soundscape were made in an old growth forest (Crescent Meadow), in a foothill oak savanna (Sycamore Spring), in an upland savanna chaparral (Shepherd Saddle) and in a foothill riparian location adjacent to the Kiawah River (Buckeye Flat). Sound recordings were analyzed using a normalized Power Spectral Density (PSD) algorithm and partitioned into 1 kHz intervals based on 12 subsamples from each of the 64 h-long sound recordings. Biological signals (biophony) were based on the highest PSD value within the range of 2–8 kHz. A multilevel analysis (MLA) was used to examine temporal patterns of biophony at four locations in Sequoia National Park. Unsupervised Landsat Thematic Mapper Satellite Imagery identified 25 vegetation regimes in Sequoia National Park. Satellite signatures of the habitat where recordings were made were extracted from the imagery to scale to the region.     

Accurate inference of shoot biomass from high-throughput images of cereal plants

With the establishment of advanced technology facilities for high throughput plant phenotyping, the problem of estimating plant biomass of individual plants from their two dimensional images is becoming increasingly important. The approach predominantly cited in literature is to estimate the biomass of a plant as a linear function of the projected shoot area of plants in the images. However, the estimation error from this model, which is solely a function of projected shoot area, is large, prohibiting accurate estimation of the biomass of plants, particularly for the salt-stressed plants. In this paper, we propose a method based on plant specific weight for improving the accuracy of the linear model and reducing the estimation bias (the difference between actual shoot dry weight and the value of the shoot dry weight estimated with a predictive model). For the proposed method in this study, we modeled the plant shoot dry weight as a function of plant area and plant age. The data used for developing our model and comparing the results with the linear model were collected from a completely randomized block design experiment. A total of 320 plants from two bread wheat varieties were grown in a supported hydroponics system in a greenhouse. The plants were exposed to two levels of hydroponic salt treatments (NaCl at 0 and 100 mM) for 6 weeks. Five harvests were carried out. Each time 64 randomly selected plants were imaged and then harvested to measure the shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight. The results of statistical analysis showed that with our proposed method, most of the observed variance can be explained, and moreover only a small difference between actual and estimated shoot dry weight was obtained. The low estimation bias indicates that our proposed method can be used to estimate biomass of individual plants regardless of what variety the plant is and what salt treatment has been applied. We validated this model on an independent set of barley data. The technique presented in this paper may extend to other plants and types of stresses.     

支持完整性决策的数据管理

大多数管道的运营、维护和其它设备管理部门,采用一系列各自独立的数据资源和应用程序来管理管道的完整性、维修和安全.将各个独立的数据整合成一个单一的、相互关联的数据管理系统可以提供很多重要的好处.然而,在给定管道早期投资的情况下,评价用于建立一个包含功能强大的数据采集程序在内的新系统的成本是非常困难的.采用静态的和独立的维护性数据的专用风险管理软件被作为一种快捷的、低成本的替代选择,以此来满足规章制度所规定的必须遵从的行业要求.通过开发传统数据等方法,以最小的启动成本来实现阶段性的完整性数据管理.     

Susceptibility of native New Zealand Myrtaceae to the South African strain of Austropuccinia psidii: A biosecurity threat

Austropuccinia psidii, cause of myrtle rust, has spread globally where Myrtaceae occur. Multiple strains of A. psidii have been identified, including a unique strain found only in South Africa. The South African strain is a biosecurity concern for species of Myrtaceae worldwide. This is because preliminary testing of South African Myrtaceae suggests it could have a wide host range, and thus has the potential to be invasive. In this study, we assessed the ability of the South African strain to infect other species of Myrtaceae by testing the susceptibility of New Zealand provenance Myrtaceae. Seedlings of four native New Zealand Myrtaceae species (Metrosideros excelsa, Leptospermum scoparium, Kunzea robusta, and Kunzea linearis) were artificially inoculated in South Africa with a single-uredinium isolate of the South African strain. Fourteen days after inoculation, uredinia, and in many cases telia, had developed on the young leaves and stems of all four host species, which led to shoot tip dieback in the more severe cases. When comparisons were made between the species, K. robusta was the least susceptible to the South African strain of A. psidii, while L. scoparium and M. excelsa were the most susceptible. While only a limited number of seed families were tested, only a small proportion of the seedlings showed resistance to infection by the South African strain. This preliminary testing highlights the potential invasive risk the South African strain poses to global Myrtaceae communities, including New Zealand Myrtaceae.