A "cookbook" for vulnerability research

There is a growing need to facilitate the interdisciplinary study of the relationship between the environment and human health and well-being. It is increasingly recognized that vulnerability is a key construct allowing discipline-specific research questions on these topics to be meaningfully contextualized. However, there is little consensus regarding the meaning of the concept of vulnerability or how it can best be utilized in research studies. In this perspective article, we use the metaphor of a "cookbook" to review promising trends in vulnerability research and to make this body of research accessible to a multi-disciplinary audience. Specifically, we discuss a selection of "recipes" (theoretical frameworks), "ingredients" (vulnerability domains), "cooking tools" (qualitative and quantitative methods), and approaches to "meal presentation" (communication of results) drawn from vulnerability studies published in the past 15 years. Our aim is for this short "cookbook" to serve as a jumping-off point for scholars unfamiliar with the vulnerability literature and an inspiration for scholars more familiar with this topic to develop new ways to navigate the tension between locally-specific assessments of vulnerability and attempts at standardization. Our ultimate take-home message is that the specifics theories and methods used in vulnerability research are less important than attention to what we see as the 3 'T's of transparency, triangulation, and transferability, and to efforts to make vulnerability research both "place-based" and comparable

Laying the Foundations for a Human-Predator Conflict Solution: Assessing the Impact of Bonelli's Eagle on Rabbits and Partridges

BACKGROUND: Predation may potentially lead to negative effects on both prey (directly via predators) and predators (indirectly via human persecution). Predation pressure studies are, therefore, of major interest in the fields of theoretical knowledge and conservation of prey or predator species, with wide ramifications and profound implications in human-wildlife conflicts. However, detailed works on this issue in highly valuable--in conservation terms--Mediterranean ecosystems are virtually absent. This paper explores the predator-hunting conflict by examining a paradigmatic, Mediterranean-wide (endangered) predator-two prey (small game) system. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We estimated the predation impact ('kill rate' and 'predation rate', i.e., number of prey and proportion of the prey population eaten, respectively) of Bonelli's eagle Aquila fasciata on rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus and red-legged partridge Alectoris rufa populations in two seasons (the eagle's breeding and non-breeding periods, 100 days each) in SE Spain. The mean estimated kill rate by the seven eagle reproductive units in the study area was c. 304 rabbits and c. 262 partridges in the breeding season, and c. 237 rabbits and c. 121 partridges in the non-breeding period. This resulted in very low predation rates (range: 0.3-2.5%) for both prey and seasons. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The potential role of Bonelli's eagles as a limiting factor for rabbits and partridges at the population scale was very poor. The conflict between game profitability and conservation interest of either prey or predators is apparently very localised, and eagles, quarry species and game interests seem compatible in most of the study area. Currently, both the persecution and negative perception of Bonelli's eagle (the 'partridge-eating eagle' in Spanish) have a null theoretical basis in most of this area

ANAMMOX ACTIVITY OF SLUDGE COMING FROM WETLAND MONOCOTS (Typha sp.): KINETIC STUDY ACTIVIDAD ANAMMOX

The anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) activity was evaluated using sludge obtained from the rhizome of Typha sp., found in a natural wetland localized in the J´ose Antonio ´ Alzate dam, Toluca Valley,Mexico. Five NO2 -N concentrations (15, 30, 50, 70 and 100 mg/L) were evaluated and the ammonium remained constant at 100 10 mg N/L. All cultures presented a lag phase in the ammonium consumption. Nevertheless, after the phase lag the ammonium oxidation was linked to nitrite reduction, producing N2. The nitrite consumption eciencies for the concentrations evaluated from 15 to 50 mg/L of NO2 -N were above 95%, while the ammonium consumption eciency increased from 14 to 48%. In experiments with 70 and 100 mg/L of NO2 -N, nitrite consumption eciencies were 74 and 58% respectively. The higher nitrite concentrations tested inhibited the anammox process since the specific rates diminished at 0.51 and 0.44 mg NO2-N/g VSS d respectively. This study provides new and useful information about the anammox activity in sludges coming from wetlands, and these can be used as potential inoculum to treat wastewaters into anammox reactors, or in constructed wetlands

Feeding responses of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) to different wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) densities: a regional approach

We investigate the feeding responses of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) at a regional scale to different densities of European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in central–southern Spain. Rabbit abundance indices were obtained in 86 localities during summer 2002. The diet of the fox was studied by analysis of 114 scats collected in 47 of these localities. The feeding response of the fox was examined by a representation of the dry weight percent of rabbit in the diet as a function of the abundance of rabbits; this used data only from those localities where at least 3 scats were collected (70 fox scats from 18 localities). We evaluated the relationship between rabbit abundance and the diversity of the diet of the fox. The feeding patterns of red foxes approximated to Holling’s type III functional response, typical of opportunistic predators. There was a negative relationship between the diversity of the fox’s diet and the abundance of rabbits. Therefore, the fox apparently behaves as a facultative predator, feeding on rabbits when they are abundant and shifting to other prey (and hence a more diverse diet) when rabbits are scarce. These findings are the first step towards understanding the potential role of red foxes in regulating rabbit populations in central–southern Spain.MDM was supported by a I3P grant funded by the European Social Fund through the “Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas” (CSIC). JFS was supported by a FPI grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. Funding was provided by the projects CGL 2005-02340/BOS by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and PAI06-170 by the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha.Peer reviewe