A 10-year ecosystem restoration community of practice tracks large-scale restoration trends

In 2004, a group of large-scale ecosystem restoration practitioners across the United States convened to start the process of sharing restoration science, management, and best practices under the auspices of a traditional conference umbrella. This forum allowed scientists and decision makers to interact in a new type of setting, with science being presented from a perspective that informed ecosystem restoration decisions, and decision makers articulating their decision needs in a manner that informed the types of science questions that needed to be addressed. From that beginning, a core ecosystem restoration practitioner group has formed a community of practice that continues to build and maintain momentum for this type of ecosystem restoration engagement. In the fall of 2013, this community of practice became permanently organized as the Large-scale Ecosystem Restoration Section within the Society for Ecological Restoration. Over the past decade, this community has evaluated and expanded upon ecosystem restoration themes ranging from defining and measuring success, adaptive management, adaptive governance, and linking science with management decision-making. Current and future themes include novel ecosystems, ecosystem goods and services, urban ecosystem restoration, and climate change and ecosystem resilience

Avian Bornaviruses in Psittacine Birds from Europe and Australia with Proventricular Dilatation Disease

Birds with this disease display bornaviral antigen in neural and extraneural tissues

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

Investigating how phosphorus controls structure and function in two Everglades wetland plant communities

Recent anthropogenic activity in south Florida has increased inputs of phosphorus being delivered to the historically oligotrophic Everglades. Consequently, understanding how phosphorus structures these wetlands is critical. I investigated this with both indirect, correlative techniques and direct, experimental manipulation in two community types: sawgrass and wet prairie. Composition, abundance and productivity in the sawgrass community is most likely controlled primarily by P-availability. In contrast, controls of structure in the wet prairie seem to vary among species and include both P-availability and hydrologic regime. These two communities also respond differently to nutrient enrichment. While the sawgrass community appears to store newly available P in the form of increased production, the wet prairie seems to rapidly recycle P through increases in aboveground turnover rates. As part of my research, a nondestructive technique which accurately estimates aboveground live standing crop in eight common Everglades species was developed

Ecological effects of low-level phosphorus additions on two plant communities in a neotropical freshwater wetland ecosystem

We conducted a low-level phosphorus (P) enrichment study in two oligotrophic freshwater wetland communities (wet prairies [WP] and sawgrass marsh [SAW]) of the neotropical Florida Everglades. The experiment included three P addition levels (0, 3.33, and 33.3 mg P m−2 month−1), added over 2 years, and used in situ mesocosms located in northeastern Everglades National Park, Fla., USA. The calcareous periphyton mat in both communities degraded quickly and was replaced by green algae. In the WP community, we observed significant increases in net aboveground primary production (NAPP) and belowground biomass. Aboveground live standing crop (ALSC) did not show a treatment effect, though, because stem turnover rates of Eleocharis spp., the dominant emergent macrophyte in this community, increased significantly. Eleocharis spp. leaf tissue P content decreased with P additions, causing higher C:P and N:P ratios in enriched versus unenriched plots. In the SAW community, NAPP, ALSC, and belowground biomass all increased significantly in response to P additions. Cladium jamaicense leaf turnover rates and tissue nutrient content did not show treatment effects. The two oligotrophic communities responded differentially to P enrichment. Periphyton which was more abundant in the WP community, appeared to act as a P buffer that delayed the response of other ecosystem components until after the periphyton mat had disappeared. Periphyton played a smaller role in controlling ecosystem dynamics and community structure in the SAW community. Our data suggested a reduced reliance on internal stores of P by emergent macrophytes in the WP that were exposed to P enrichment. Eleocharis spp. rapidly recycled P through more rapid aboveground turnover. In contrast, C. jamaicense stored added P by initially investing in belowground biomass, then shifting growth allocation to aboveground tissue without increasing leaf turnover rates. Our results suggest that calcareous wetland systems throughout the Caribbean, and oligotrophic ecosystems in general, respond rapidly to low-level additions of their limiting nutrient

ANOVA comparisons when pairing birth-assigned sex (BAS) and gender score terciles.

ANOVA comparisons when pairing birth-assigned sex (BAS) and gender score terciles.</p

Correlations between composite gender score, birth-assigned sex (BAS) and variables of interest.

Correlations between composite gender score, birth-assigned sex (BAS) and variables of interest.</p

Receiver Operating Curve of composite gender score.

This figure is a graphical representation of the Receiver Operating Curve presenting the quality of the prediction of BAS using our gender score.</p