Integrating climate change into forest management in South-Central British Columbia: An assessment of landscape vulnerability and development of a climate-smart framework

The achievement of sustainable forest management requires the incorporation of risk and uncertainty into long-term planning. Climatic change will have significant impacts on natural disturbances, species and ecosystems, particularly on landscapes influenced by forest management. Understanding where vulnerabilities lie is important in managing the risks associated directly or indirectly with climatic change. The vulnerability of landscapes to natural disturbances, the resilience of ecosystems and distribution of species are all important components that need to be considered when undertaking forest planning, but climatic change is rarely factored into such planning. In this study, the vulnerability of fire potential, fire regimes, ecosystems and species to climatic change was modelled for a 145,000 ha landscape in the south-central interior of British Columbia, Canada. The results from these analyses were used to guide forest zoning, using the triad zoning framework, and for the development of a “climate-smart” management framework. The use of climate-smart management is advocated as a decision-making framework for managing forested landscapes based on an understanding of landscape vulnerability to future climatic change. From this understanding, the maintenance of ecosystem health and vitality could be achieved.     

Protected areas and frugivorous fish in tropical rivers: Small-scale fisheries,conservation and ecosystem services

1. Frugivorous fish provide often conflicting ecosystem services of seed dispersal and food provisioning in tropical rivers. Fishing may reduce the size and abundance of frugivorous fish, thus affecting their potential as seed dispersers, which could affect the conservation of these fish and of floodplain forests.
2. The goal of this study was to assess the influence of co-managed protected areas in the form of extractive reserves (RESEX) and small-scale fisheries on frugivorous fish in the Tapajós and Negro rivers, in the Brazilian Amazon. The study examined whether: (i) frugivorous fish are important for fisheries and selectively caught; and (ii) frugivorous fish abundance, size and fisheries catch per unit of effort are higher inside the RESEX than outside.
3. The analyses included fisheries-dependent data (3,753 fish landings) and independent data (12,730 sampled fish) collected in 16 fishing communities (eight for each river). In both rivers, frugivorous fish are among the 10 species caught the most and frugivorous biomass was proportionately higher in landings than in samplings, indicating fisheries selectivity towards these fishes.
4. In both rivers, catches of frugivorous fish were higher outside the RESEX than inside. Catch per unit effort and the proportion of frugivores in the catch were higher outside the RESEX in the Tapajós River but did not vary between sites inside and outside the RESEX in the Negro River. Frugivorous fish were larger inside the RESEX in the Negro, but smaller inside the RESEX in the Tapajós.
5. The results indicated that the ecosystem services of seed dispersal and food source provided by frugivorous fish are not in conflict in the tropical rivers studied. Therefore, these clearwater and blackwater rivers in the Brazilian Amazon show a balance between fisheries and conservation of frugivorous fish, which play an essential role in the functioning of tropical floodplain forest ecosystems.

     

The challenge of reproducing remote sensing data from satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the context of management zones and precision agriculture

Precision Agriculture - Mapping the within-field variability of crop status is of great importance in precision agriculture, which seeks to balance agronomic inputs with spatial crop demands....     

Use of near‐ and mid‐infrared spectroscopy to distinguish carbon and nitrogen originating from char and forest‐floor material in soils

The presence of relatively inert organic materials such as char has to be considered in calibrations of soil C models or when calculating C‐turnover times in soils. Rapid and cheap spectroscopic techniques such as near‐infrared (NIRS) or mid‐infrared spectroscopy (MIRS) may be useful for the determination of the contents of char‐derived C in soils. To test the suitability of both spectroscopic techniques for this purpose, artificial mixtures of C‐free soil, char (lignite, anthracite, charcoal, or a mixture of the three coals) and forest‐floor Oa material were produced. The total C content of these mixtures (432 samples) ranged from 0.5% to 6% with a proportion of char‐derived C amounting to 0%, 20%, 40%, 50%, 60%, or 80%. All samples were scanned in the visible and near‐IR region (400–2500 nm). Cross‐validation equations for total C and N, C and N derived from char (C_char, N_char) and Oa material were developed using the whole spectrum (first and second derivative) and a modified partial least‐square regression method. Thirty‐six samples were additionally scanned in the middle‐IR and parts of the near‐IR region (7000–400 cm^–1 which is 1430–25,000 nm) in the diffuse‐reflectance mode. All properties investigated were successfully predicted by NIRS as reflected by RSC values (ratio of standard deviation of the laboratory results to standard error of cross‐validation) > 4.3 and modeling efficiencies (EF) ≥ 0.98. Near‐infrared spectroscopy was also able to differentiate between the different coals. This was probably due to structural differences as suggested by wavelength assignment. Mid‐IR spectroscopy in the diffuse‐reflectance mode was also capable to successfully predict the parameters investigated. The EF values were > 0.9 for all constituents. Our results indicated that both spectroscopic techniques applied, NIRS and MIRS, are able to predict C and N derived from different sources in soil, if closed populations are considered.     

Immunisation strategies against prion diseases: prime-boost immunisation with a PrP DNA vaccine containing foreign helper T-cell epitopes does not prevent mouse scrapie

Vaccination against prion diseases constitutes a promising approach for the treatment and prevention of the disease. Passive immunisation with antibodies binding to the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) can protect against prion disease. However, immunotherapeutic strategies with active immunisation are limited due to the immune tolerance against the self-antigen. In order to develop an anti-prion vaccine, we designed a novel DNA fusion vaccine composed of mouse PrP and immune stimulatory helper T-cell epitopes of the tetanus toxin that have previously been reported to break tolerance to other self-antigens. This approach provoked a strong PrP(C)-specific humoral and cellular immune response in PrP null mice, but only low antibody titres were found in vaccinated wild-type mice. Furthermore, prime-boost immunisation with the DNA vaccine and recombinant PrP protein increased antibody titres in PrP null mice, but failed to protect wild-type mice from mouse scrapie.