Salvage logging effects on regulating ecosystem services and fuel loads

We thank several authors who generously provided data for this meta-analysis (WebPanel 2). ABL acknowledges the support of mobility grants from Universidad de Alcalá and Spanish Ministry of Education, postdoctoral fellowships from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and Project AS2013/MAE-2719 “REMEDINAL-3” from the Government of Madrid. The data underlying this paper are available through an institutional repository (http://hdl.handle.net/10481/62260).Salvage logging, or logging after natural disturbances such as wildfires, insect outbreaks, and windstorms, is carried out to recover some of a forest’s natural and/or economic capital. However, trade-offs between management objectives and a lack of consensus on the ecological consequences of salvage logging impair science-based decision making on the management of forests after natural disturbances. We conducted a global meta-analysis of the impacts of salvage logging on regulating ecosystem services and on fuel loads, as a frequent post-disturbance objective is preventing subsequent wildfires that could be fueled by the accumulation of dead trunks and branches. Salvage logging affected ecosystem services in a moderately negative way, regardless of disturbance type and severity, time elapsed since salvage logging, intensity of salvage logging, and the group of regulating ecosystem services being considered. However, prolonging the time between natural disturbance and salvage logging mitigated negative effects on regulating ecosystem services. Salvage logging had no overall effect on surface fuels; rather, different fuel types responded differently depending on the time elapsed since salvage logging. Delaying salvage logging by ~2–4 years may reduce negative ecological impacts without affecting surface fuel loads.Project AS2013/MAE-2719 “REMEDINAL-3” from the Government of Madri

Depenalization, diversion and decriminalization: A realist review and programme theory of alternatives to criminalization for simple drug possession

Alternatives to criminalization for the simple possession of illicit drugs are increasingly of interest to policy makers. But there is no existing theoretically based, empirically tested framework that can inform development and evaluation. This article presents a realist programme theory of such alternatives. It bases this on a realist review, which followed the Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards (RAMESES). It describes the systematic process of searching the literature in English on nine relevant countries (Australia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Jamaica, Netherland, Portugal, the UK, the USA) for information on alternative measures in three categories: depenalization; diversion; and decriminalization. It shows how these measures – in theory and in practice – combine with pre-existing social conditions and institutional contexts to trigger mechanisms across three causal pathways (normative; criminal justice; and health and social services). It shows how some posited causal processes are more empirically supported than others. Alternative measures can reduce harms imposed by criminal justice processes without increasing drug use or related health and crime harms, but this depends on specific combinations of contexts, mechanisms and outcomes

Is Chinese Competition Causing Deindustrialization in Brazil?

There has been a lively debate in Brazil in recent years, involving sectors of business, the labor movement, and academics, over deindustrialization and the future of the manufacturing sector. This is often linked to the growing relation between Brazil and China, which is now the country’s most significant trade partner. Brazil has experienced relative deindustrialization in the sense of a declining share of the manufacturing sector in gross domestic product that is mainly attributable to the changes in the country’s trade balance in manufactures. The direct and indirect impacts of China on Brazilian manufacturing have contributed to this relative deindustrialization

A human case of biting by Nabis punctipennis (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Nabidae) in Chile

Faúndez, Eduardo I., Carvajal, Máriom A., Cebc (2011): A human case of biting by Nabis punctipennis (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Nabidae) in Chile. Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 51 (2): 407-409, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.532831

Empicoris Wolff 1811

Empicoris Wolff, 1811 Type species. Gerris vagabundus Linnaeus, 1758, by monotypy.Published as part of Melo, María Cecilia, Faúndez, Eduardo Iván, Ilpla, Conicet, Unlp & Cebc, 2011, Synopsis of the genus Empicoris (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) in Chile, pp. 11-20 in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 51 (1) on page 12, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.532712

Data from: Disentangling the effects of environmental conditions on wintering and breeding grounds on age-specific survival rates in a trans-Saharan migratory raptor

Migratory species are subject to environmental variability occurring on breeding and wintering grounds. Estimating the relative contribution of environmental factors experienced sequentially during breeding and wintering, and their potential interaction, to the variation of survival is crucial to predict population viability of migratory species. Here we investigated this issue for the Montagu's harrier Circus pygargus, a trans-Saharan migrant. We analysed capture-recapture data from a 29-yr long monitoring of wing-tagged offspring and adults at two study sites in France (Rochefort-RO & Maine-et-Loire-ML). The study period covers a climatic shift occurring in the Sahel with increasing rainfall following a period of droughts (Sahel greening). We found that harriers’ adult survival in RO (between 1988 and 2005) varied over time and was sensitive to the interaction between the amount of rainfall in the Sahel and the annual mean breeding success, two proxies of prey availability. The occurrence of adverse conditions on breeding and wintering grounds in the same year decreased survival from 0.70-0.77 to 0.48 ± 0.05. Juvenile survival in RO was slightly more sensitive to conditions in Europe than in the Sahel. Unexpectedly, lower survival rates were found in years with higher mean breeding success, suggesting compensatory density feedbacks may operate. By contrast, adult survival in ML, monitored between 1999 and 2017, was higher compared to RO (0.76 ± 0.03 vs. 0.66 ± 0.02), remained constant and unaffected by any proxy of prey availability. This difference seems consistent with the fact that harriers in ML experienced better and especially less variable environmental conditions during breeding and wintering seasons compared to RO. Overall, we showed that survival of a migratory bird is sensitive to the level of variability in environmental conditions and that adverse conditions on wintering grounds can amplify the negative effects of conditions during the previous breeding season on birds’ survival.,Capture-recapture datasets with environmental covariatesFiles gathering capture-recapture data of Montagu's harrier for each site (RO, adults and juveniles, ML adults only). Are included the environmental covariates for breeding and wintering grounds used for the Capture-recapture analyses (standardised values). Appropriate format for analyses with E-Surge. One sheet per data set (adult ML, adult RO, juvenile RO, see methods of the article).CR datasets with environmental covariates .xlsx