A Social Media Strategy for an Academic Department

This essay describes the process one communication studies department used to develop a social media strategy. That process involved identifying the audiences to be reached, establishing goals and objectives, conducting an audit to identify possible message posts, and selecting posts to reach our goals and objectives. The resulting strategy involves posting messages two to three times per week targeted toward specific audiences and reflecting twelve objectives. A calendar was created to guide the posts. Future research will assess the effectiveness of the strategy

How Robust Is the Apparent Break‐Down of Northern High‐Latitude Temperature Control on Spring Carbon Uptake?

Vegetation growth in northern high‐latitudes during springtime is strongly temperature limited, and thus anomalously warm springs are expected to result in an increased drawdown of carbon dioxide (CO2). However, a recent analysis of the relationship between spring temperature anomalies and atmospheric CO2 anomalies at Point Barrow, Alaska, suggests that the link between spring carbon uptake by northern ecosystems and temperature anomalies has been weakening over recent decades due to a diminishing control of temperature on plant productivity. Upon further analysis, covering the 1982‐2015 period, we found no significant change in the relationship between spring vegetation productivity derived from remote sensing data and air temperature. We showed that a reduction in spatial coherence of temperature anomalies, alongside a significant sensitivity to atmospheric transport, is likely responsible for the apparent weakening. Our results, therefore, suggest that spring temperature remains as an important control of northern high‐latitude CO2 uptake

Summer soil drying exacerbated by earlier spring greening of northern vegetation

Earlier vegetation greening under climate change raises evapotranspiration and thus lowers spring soil moisture, yet the extent and magnitude of this water deficit persistence into the following summer remain elusive. We provide observational evidence that increased foliage cover over the Northern Hemisphere, during 1982–2011, triggers an additional soil moisture deficit that is further carried over into summer. Climate model simulations independently support this and attribute the driving process to be larger increases in evapotranspiration than in precipitation. This extra soil drying is projected to amplify the frequency and intensity of summer heatwaves. Most feedbacks operate locally, except for a notable teleconnection where extra moisture transpired over Europe is transported to central Siberia. Model results illustrate that this teleconnection offsets Siberian soil moisture losses from local spring greening. Our results highlight that climate change adaptation planning must account for the extra summer water and heatwave stress inherited from warming-induced earlier greening

Model parameterization to simulate and compare the PAR absorption potential of two competing plant species

Mountain pastures dominated by the pasture grass Setaria sphacelata in the Andes of southern Ecuador are heavily infested by southern bracken (Pteridium arachnoideum), a major problem for pasture management. Field observations suggest that bracken might outcompete the grass due to its competitive strength with regard to the absorption of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). To understand the PAR absorption potential of both species, the aims of the current paper are to (1) parameterize a radiation scheme of a two-big-leaf model by deriving structural (LAI, leaf angle parameter) and optical (leaf albedo, transmittance) plant traits for average individuals from field surveys, (2) to initialize the properly parameterized radiation scheme with realistic global irradiation conditions of the Rio San Francisco Valley in the Andes of southern Ecuador, and (3) to compare the PAR absorption capabilities of both species under typical local weather conditions. Field data show that bracken reveals a slightly higher average leaf area index (LAI) and more horizontally oriented leaves in comparison to Setaria. Spectrometer measurements reveal that bracken and Setaria are characterized by a similar average leaf absorptance. Simulations with the average diurnal course of incoming solar radiation (1998–2005) and the mean leaf–sun geometry reveal that PAR absorption is fairly equal for both species. However, the comparison of typical clear and overcast days show that two parameters, (1) the relation of incoming diffuse and direct irradiance, and (2) the leaf–sun geometry play a major role for PAR absorption in the two-big-leaf approach: Under cloudy sky conditions (mainly diffuse irradiance), PAR absorption is slightly higher for Setaria while under clear sky conditions (mainly direct irradiance), the average bracken individual is characterized by a higher PAR absorption potential. (∼74 MJ m−2 year−1). The latter situation which occurs if the maximum daily irradiance exceeds 615 W m−2 is mainly due to the nearly orthogonal incidence of the direct solar beam onto the horizontally oriented frond area which implies a high amount of direct PAR absorption during the noon maximum of direct irradiance. Such situations of solar irradiance favoring a higher PAR absorptance of bracken occur in ∼36% of the observation period (1998–2005). By considering the annual course of PAR irradiance in the San Francisco Valley, the clear advantage of bracken on clear days (36% of all days) is completely compensated by the slight but more frequent advantage of Setaria under overcast conditions (64% of all days). This means that neither bracken nor Setaria show a distinct advantage in PAR absorption capability under the current climatic conditions of the study area

Coquillettidia (Culicidae, Diptera) mosquitoes are natural vectors of avian malaria in Africa

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The mosquito vectors of <it>Plasmodium </it>spp. have largely been overlooked in studies of ecology and evolution of avian malaria and other vertebrates in wildlife.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p><it>Plasmodium </it>DNA from wild-caught <it>Coquillettidia </it>spp. collected from lowland forests in Cameroon was isolated and sequenced using nested PCR. Female <it>Coquillettidia aurites </it>were also dissected and salivary glands were isolated and microscopically examined for the presence of sporozoites.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In total, 33% (85/256) of mosquito pools tested positive for avian <it>Plasmodium </it>spp., harbouring at least eight distinct parasite lineages. Sporozoites of <it>Plasmodium </it>spp. were recorded in salivary glands of <it>C. aurites </it>supporting the PCR data that the parasites complete development in these mosquitoes. Results suggest <it>C. aurites</it>, <it>Coquillettidia pseudoconopas </it>and <it>Coquillettidia metallica </it>as new and important vectors of avian malaria in Africa. All parasite lineages recovered clustered with parasites formerly identified from several bird species and suggest the vectors capability of infecting birds from different families.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Identifying the major vectors of avian <it>Plasmodium </it>spp. will assist in understanding the epizootiology of avian malaria, including differences in this disease distribution between pristine and disturbed landscapes.</p