Acoustic sequences in non-human animals: a tutorial review and prospectus.

Animal acoustic communication often takes the form of complex sequences, made up of multiple distinct acoustic units. Apart from the well-known example of birdsong, other animals such as insects, amphibians, and mammals (including bats, rodents, primates, and cetaceans) also generate complex acoustic sequences. Occasionally, such as with birdsong, the adaptive role of these sequences seems clear (e.g. mate attraction and territorial defence). More often however, researchers have only begun to characterise - let alone understand - the significance and meaning of acoustic sequences. Hypotheses abound, but there is little agreement as to how sequences should be defined and analysed. Our review aims to outline suitable methods for testing these hypotheses, and to describe the major limitations to our current and near-future knowledge on questions of acoustic sequences. This review and prospectus is the result of a collaborative effort between 43 scientists from the fields of animal behaviour, ecology and evolution, signal processing, machine learning, quantitative linguistics, and information theory, who gathered for a 2013 workshop entitled, 'Analysing vocal sequences in animals'. Our goal is to present not just a review of the state of the art, but to propose a methodological framework that summarises what we suggest are the best practices for research in this field, across taxa and across disciplines. We also provide a tutorial-style introduction to some of the most promising algorithmic approaches for analysing sequences. We divide our review into three sections: identifying the distinct units of an acoustic sequence, describing the different ways that information can be contained within a sequence, and analysing the structure of that sequence. Each of these sections is further subdivided to address the key questions and approaches in that area. We propose a uniform, systematic, and comprehensive approach to studying sequences, with the goal of clarifying research terms used in different fields, and facilitating collaboration and comparative studies. Allowing greater interdisciplinary collaboration will facilitate the investigation of many important questions in the evolution of communication and sociality.This review was developed at an investigative workshop, “Analyzing Animal Vocal Communication Sequences” that took place on October 21–23 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee, sponsored by the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS). NIMBioS is an Institute sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture through NSF Awards #EF-0832858 and #DBI-1300426, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In addition to the authors, Vincent Janik participated in the workshop. D.T.B.’s research is currently supported by NSF DEB-1119660. M.A.B.’s research is currently supported by NSF IOS-0842759 and NIH R01DC009582. M.A.R.’s research is supported by ONR N0001411IP20086 and NOPP (ONR/BOEM) N00014-11-1-0697. S.L.DeR.’s research is supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. R.F.-i-C.’s research was supported by the grant BASMATI (TIN2011-27479-C04-03) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. E.C.G.’s research is currently supported by a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship. E.E.V.’s research is supported by CONACYT, Mexico, award number I010/214/2012.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/brv.1216

The Preservation and Protection of Native Biodiversity in the Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes Complex

The Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes Complex (GNDC) is located within the California Floristic Province, a biodiversity hotspot characterized by high rates of endemism and exceptional loss of habitat. In 1980, the US Fish and Wildlife Service described the GNDC as, “the most unique and fragile ecosystem in the State of California,” and ranked it first on a list of 49 habitat areas needing state protection. It is the largest coastal dune area in California and it is one of the last remaining, relatively intact ecosystems of its type and size in the western United States. The growing recognition of species decline and the limited number of dollars allocated to conservation and restoration have led to development of new conservation planning software and conservation strategies. Marxan and Zonation were selected for this project due to their worldwide acceptance in biodiversity conservation planning as well as their specialization in identifying priority zones for conservation. This document describes the unique use of conservation planning software to select areas for resource allocation. It outlines the process of selecting conservation targets, the habitats and species important to overall health of an ecosystem, by using the expert involvement approach. Most importantly, this document outlines areas of high biodiversity that will later be used to allocate resources for the preservation and protection of biodiversity within the Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes Complex. Introduced species are the second-leading cause (after habitat degradation/loss), causing or contributing to the decline in species abundance and diversity. Ehrharta calycina Smith has become highly invasive in the coastal dune communities of Central and Southern California and currently holds a “high” CAL-IPC inventory rating, defined as a species with severe ecological impacts on physical processes, plant and animal communities and vegetation structure as well as reproductive biology and other attributes conducive to moderate to high rates of dispersal and establishment. Ehrharta calycina is a prolific seeder and stores its seeds annually in the soil, collecting a substantial seedbank. Little is known about E.calycina outside its native range, as its invasion into California coastal ecosystem is fairly recent. A field experiment in the Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes Complex assessed the contribution of seeds originating from the seedbank as compared to seeds from above ground either dropping from maternal plants or blown in from outside the plots to the establishment of new E. calycina cover. After a nine month perios, new E. calycina cover from both sources was not significantly different. Visible coverage of E. calycina began 77 days (November 24, 2015) after plot installation. After nine months of surveying, coverage reached 19% in the Seedbank Present treatment and 21% in the Seedbank Absent treatment. There was no significant effect associated with the slope and aspect of the experimental locations. This experiment will aid in management of this invasive species by educating land managers to focus on preventing current seed production of established individuals as those sources of seed were as important as those originating in the seedbank. Stimulating germination of seeds from the seedbank with a concomitant management strategy such as herbicide application or physical removal will likely be the most effective methods for dealing with seeds in the seedbank

Sandia National Laboratories/New Mexico Environmental Baseline update--Revision 1.0

This report provides a baseline update to provide the background information necessary for personnel to prepare clear and consise NEPA documentation. The environment of the Sandia National Laboratories is described in this document, including the ecology, meteorology, climatology, seismology, emissions, cultural resources and land use, visual resources, noise pollution, transportation, and socioeconomics