Identifying pathways of exposure to highway pollutants in great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) road mitigation tunnels: Exposure pathways of highway pollutants to Triturus cristatus

Road mitigation tunnels are increasingly deployed for amphibians but very little is known about chemical pollution in such schemes. We assessed pollution pressures associated with road runoff at a major great crested newt mitigation scheme in England. Sediments and waters in the mitigation system were analysed for major physico-chemical parameters, trace metals and total petroleum hydrocarbons and compared to a nearby reference site. Seven out of eight tested metals including copper, zinc, lead and iron were in significantly greater concentrations in the tunnels than at a reference site and at environmentally significant concentrations. Water samples also exhibited elevated concentrations of aluminium and chromium and occasionally extreme alkaline pH associated with leaching of portlandite in tunnel cements. High conductivity values in waters and sediments corresponding with seasonal de-icing salt application were also apparent. The study highlights the potential pollutant pressures for amphibians associated with large-scale urban development and road mitigation schemes

Biofortification of UK food crops with selenium

Se is an essential element for animals. In man low dietary Se intakes are associated with health disorders including oxidative stress-related conditions, reduced fertility and immune functions and an increased risk of cancers. Although the reference nutrient intakes for adult females and males in the UK are 60 and 75 μg Se/d respectively, dietary Se intakes in the UK have declined from >60 μg Se/d in the 1970s to 35 μg Se/d in the 1990s, with a concomitant decline in human Se status. This decline in Se intake and status has been attributed primarily to the replacement of milling wheat having high levels of grain Se and grown on high-Se soils in North America with UK-sourced wheat having low levels of grain Se and grown on low-Se soils. An immediate solution to low dietary Se intake and status is to enrich UK-grown food crops using Se fertilisers (agronomic biofortification). Such a strategy has been adopted with success in Finland. It may also be possible to enrich food crops in the longer term by selecting or breeding crop varieties with enhanced Se-accumulation characteristics (genetic biofortification). The present paper will review the potential for biofortification of UK food crops with Se

Machine learning assists the classification of reports by citizens on disease-carrying mosquitoes

Mosquito Alert (www.mosquitoalert.com/en) is an expert-validated citizen science platform for tracking and controlling disease-carrying mosquitoes. Citizens download a free app and use their phones to send reports of presumed sightings of two world-wide disease vector mosquito species (the Asian Tiger and the Yellow Fever mosquito). These reports are then supervised by a team of entomologists and, once validated, added to a database. As the platform prepares to scale to much larger geographical areas and user bases, the expert validation by entomologists becomes the main bottleneck. In this paper we describe the use of machine learning on the citizen reports to automatically validate a fraction of them, therefore allowing the entomologists either to deal with larger report streams or to concentrate on those that are more strategic, such as reports from new areas (so that early warning protocols are activated) or from areas with high epidemiological risks (so that control actions to reduce mosquito populations are activated). The current prototype flags a third of the reports as “almost certainly positive” with high confidence. It is currently being integrated into the main workflow of the Mosquito Alert platform.Postprint (published version

Studies on the major seed proteins of some grain crops

The general properties, classification and distribution of plant proteins are discussed within an agricultural context and the protein content and composition of several grain crops are tabulated. The major proteins of legume seeds are salt soluble proteins (i.e. globulins) and the methodology for their extraction, separation and characterisation is reviewed. The structure, location and distribution of legume globulins are described and the properties of various purified legume globulins are compared. The major seed proteins of Pisum sativum are legumin and vicilin and seed globulins with properties similar to those of legumin and vicilin have been extracted from other legumes. The isolation and partial characterisation of vicilin-like proteins from seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris and Vigna vinguiaulata and of legumin-like proteins from these two species and Phaseolus aureus is described. The potential usefulness of the examination of seed proteins by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to taxonomic problems in Phaseolus and Vigna is investigated and the data obtained are discussed in relation to recent re-classifications of the species. Procedures for the extraction and partial characterisation of proteins from an archaeological sample of maize grains are described and the proteins from this sample are compared with the proteins from a modern variety of maize. It is suggested that protein data from archaeological samples could be useful in studies of crop plant origins and in cultural studies, and that the procedures employed may be applicable to archaeological samples of other grains. Nutritional aspects of plant proteins are discussed briefly. A possible strategy for the improvement of the sulphur amino acid content of legumes with a relatively low legumin content is suggested and it is demonstrated that polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis may provide a basis for a screening procedure for protein quality in legume breeding programmes

Modelling trace metal background to evaluate anthropogenic contamination in arable soils of south-western France

The trace metal (TM) content in arable soils has been monitored across a region of France characterised by a large proportion of calcareous soils. Within this particular geological context, the objectives were to first determine the natural levels of trace metals in the soils and secondly, to assess which sites were significantly contaminated. Because no universal contamination assessment method is currently available, four different methods were applied and compared in order to facilitate the best diagnosis of contamination. First, the TM geochemical background was determined by using basic descriptive statistics and linear regression models calculated with semi-conservative major elements as predictors. The natural concentrations of trace metals varied greatly due to the high soil heterogeneity encountered on the regional scale and were more-or-less accurately modelled according to the considered TM. Second, the basic descriptive statistics and the linear regression methods were then compared with the enrichment factor (EF) method and multivariate analysis (PCA), in order to evaluate whether the concentrations measured in soils were abnormally high or not. The advantages and disadvantages of each method were discussed and their results used to identify the most probable contamination cases, the influence of the soils characteristics, as well as the agricultural land cover. The basic descriptive method was good as a first and easy approach to describe the TM ambient concentrations, but may misinterpret the natural anomalies as contaminations. Based on geochemical associations, the linear regression method provided more realistic results even if the relationships between major and trace metals were not significant for the most mobile TM. The EF method was useful to identify high point source contaminations, but it was not suitable when considering a large dataset of low TM concentrations. Finally, the PCA method was a good preliminary tool for the description of the global TM concentrations in a studied area, but it could only give indication on the highest contaminated points. By comparing the results of the different methods in the studied region, we estimated that 24% of the arable soils were contaminated by at least one trace metal, mainly Cu in vineyards/orchards and Cd, Pb and/or Zn in grazing lands. In addition, the calcareous soils exhibited globally higher natural and anthropogenic TM concentrations than non-calcareous soils, probably because of the lower TM mobility at alkaline pH

Leaf-applied sodium chloride promotes cadmium accumulation in durum wheat grain

Cadmium (Cd) accumulation in durum wheat grain is a growing concern. Among the factors affecting Cd accumulation in plants, soil chloride (Cl) concentration plays a critical role. The effect of leaf NaCl application on grain Cd was studied in greenhouse-grown durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. durum, cv. Balcali-2000) by immersing (10 s) intact flag leaves into Cd and/or NaCl-containing solutions for 14 times during heading and dough stages. Immersing flag leaves in solutions containing increasing amount of Cd resulted in substantial increases in grain Cd concentration. Adding NaCl alone or in combination with the Cd-containing immersion solution promoted accumulation of Cd in the grains, by up to 41%. In contrast, Zn concentrations of grains were not affected or even decreased by the NaCl treatments. This is likely due to the effect of Cl complexing Cd and reducing positive charge on the metal ion, an effect that is much smaller for Zn. Charge reduction or removal (CdCl2 0 species) would increase the diffusivity/lipophilicity of Cd and enhance its capability to penetrate the leaf epidermis and across membranes. Of even more significance to human health was the ability of Cl alone to penetrate leaf tissue and mobilize and enhance shoot Cd transfer to grains, yet reducing or not affecting Zn transfer

Breeding Season Movements and Dispersal of Northern Bobwhites in Fragmented Habitats of Virginia

To better understand dispersal patterns of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) in fragmented habitats, we measured breeding season movements of 198 radiomarked bobwhites in central and eastern Virginia during 1994–1996. Mean distance between arithmetic centers of winter (1 Feb–15 Apr) and early breeding season (16 Apr–30 Jun) activity areas was 1,194 +- 137 m. Distance between centers of winter and late breeding season (1 Jul–15 Sep) activity areas averaged 1,644 +- 209 m and was greater for juveniles than adults (P = 0.04). Maximum distances moved between winter and breeding season locations (early, late, and combined) was also greater for juveniles than adults (P \u3c= 0.05). Forty-nine of 198 (25%) bobwhites dispersed more than 2 km. A greater proportion of juveniles (28%) than adults (10%) dispersed \u3e 2 km. Juvenile males were more likely to disperse than any other sex/age group (P = 0.02). Adult males were least likely to disperse (P \u3c 0.01). We suggest that breeding season movements of bobwhites may be greater in fragmented landscapes than in areas with large blocks of suitable habitat. We recommend that researchers utilize dispersal information to help define the spatial distribution of habitat patches necessary to perpetuate bobwhite populations at a regional level

Developments in plant breeding for improved nutritional quality of soya beans II. Anti-nutritional factors

Nutritional value of most plant materials is limited by the presence of numerous naturally occurring compounds which interfere with nutrient digestion and absorption. Although processing is employed widely in removal of these factors, selection of cultivars of soya beans with inherently low levels would have a considerable impact on efficiency of non-ruminant livestock production. The review considers the role of plant breeding in achieving this objective. The most abundant trypsin inhibitors are the Kunitz and the Bowman Birk inhibitors, containing 181 and 71 amino acids respectively. The Kunitz inhibitor is present at a concentration of 1.4g/kg of total seed contents and the Bowman Birk inhibitor 1.6g/kg. A large number of isoforms of the Bowman Birk inhibitor have been described in soya bean cultivars and it has been shown that the general properties of the inhibitor are, in fact, attributable to different isoforms. Nulls for both Bowman-Birk and Kunitz trypsin inhibitors have been identified, allowing new low trypsin inhibitor cultivars to be produced. However, research into breeding for low trypsin inhibitor cultivars currently has limited application as trypsin inhibitors contribute a major proportion of the methionine content of soya beans. Trypsin inhibitors are thought to be involved in the regulation of and protection against unwanted proteolysis in plant tissues and also act as a defense mechanism against attack from diseases, insects and animals. Hence, in breeding programes for low trypsin inhibitor cultivars, alternative protection for growing plants must be considered. Use of soya beans in non-ruminant animal feeds is limited by the flatulence associated with their consumption

Effects of Sex, Age, and Habitat on Northern Bobwhite Spring Dispersal Patterns

Information on northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) dispersal patterns is crucial for implementing effective management strategies. Researchers have examined bobwhite dispersal, but information on how habitat affects dispersal patterns is lacking. We examined the effects of habitat, sex, and age on bobwhite spring dispersal patterns in a southern Georgia agricultural landscape during 2002-2003. Of 101 birds used in our analyses, 29.7% (4.6 SE) dispersed an average of 1,835m (194 SE). We fit 9 logistic regression models to predict bobwhite dispersal probability. The selected best model (Akaike weight [ω] = 0.58) included age, proportions of closed-canopy pine within winter home ranges (CCPN), and an age*CCPN interaction term. Adults with higher proportions of closed-canopy pine within their winter home range were more likely to disperse (ß = 0.18, 0.06 SE). Because of greater experience, adults may perceive habitat differently than juveniles, which could influence adult tendency to disperse. However, a significant portion of birds from both age classes will likely disperse every spring, regardless of habitat quality. Although dispersal may allow bobwhite populations to persist in fragmented landscapes, efforts to increase bobwhite populations at the local scale are hindered if emigration exceeds immigration. Therefore, it is important to consider landscape quality and management unit size when determining which areas are most likely to respond to management and the proper management strategy needed to achieve bobwhite population objectives