Conservation of pollinators in traditional agricultural landscapes – New challenges in Transylvania (Romania) posed by EU accession and recommendations for future research

Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007), we studied the major pollinator groups-wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i) semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii) both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii) thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES)

Parent age, lifespan and offspring survival: structured variation in life history in a wild population

1. Understanding the degree to which reproductive success varies with an individual’s age and lifespan, and the degree to which population-level variation mirrors individual-level variation, is central to understanding life-history evolution and the dynamics of age-structured populations. We quantified variation in the survival probability of offspring, one key component of reproductive success and fitness, in relation to parent age and lifespan in a wild population of red-billed choughs (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax). 2. On average across the study population, the first-year survival probability of offspring decreased with increasing parent age and lifespan; offspring of old parents were less likely to survive than offspring of young parents, and offspring of long-lived parents were less likely to survive than offspring of short-lived parents. 3. However, survival did not vary with parent age across offspring produced by groups of parents that ultimately had similar lifespans. 4. Rather, across offspring produced by young parents, offspring survival decreased with increasing parent lifespan; parents that ultimately had long lifespans produced offspring that survived poorly, even when these parents were breeding at young ages. 5. The average decrease in offspring survival with increasing parent age observed across the population therefore reflected the gradual disappearance of short-lived parents that produced offspring that survived well, not age-specific variation in offspring survival within individual parents. 6. The negative correlation between offspring survival and maternal lifespan was strongest when environmental conditions meant that offspring survival was low across the population. 7. These data suggest an environment-dependent trade-off between parent and offspring survival, show consistent individual variation in the resolution of this trade-off that is set early in a parent’s life, and demonstrate that such structured life-history variation can generate spurious evidence of senescence in key fitness components when measured across a populatio

Release of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matter from biomass combustion in a wood-fired boiler under varying boiler conditions

Particulate matter, CO and NO as well as 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in both gaseous and particulate phases were measured in the stack of a woodchip-fired 50 kW boiler used for domestic heating. The concentrations of ΣPAHs in both gas and particle phases varied from 1.3 to 1631.7 μg m-3. Mean CO and NO concentrations varied from 96 to 6002 ppm and from 28 to 359 ppm, respectively. The effects of fuel parameters (moisture content (MC) and tree species) and boiler operating conditions on pollutant concentrations were investigated. A relationship was established between ΣPAHs in gaseous and particulate phases and CO concentrations. The species of tree used for woodchip was less important than MC and boiler operating conditions in affecting pollutant concentrations. It is recommended that in order to minimise PAH release woodchip fuel should have a low MC, and the boiler should be operated with a load demand (high/moderate heat requirement). Slumber modes when the boiler has no load demand and is effectively a smouldering flame should be avoided. This can be achieved by increasing automatic operation capability of wood-fired boilers, for example, by automatically varying fire rates and having auto-start capabilities. The PAH data obtained from this study is particularly useful in contributing to emissions inventories, modelling, and predictions of ambient air quality. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved