Volcanic forcing from two sides : Drainage and plant ecosystem development in the Columbia River Flood Basalt Province, Washington State

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Lake sedimentological and ecological response to hyperthermals : Boltysh impact crater, Ukraine

Acknowledgements Initial drilling of the Boltysh meteorite crater was funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant NE/D005043/1. The authors are extremely grateful to the valuable scientific contributions of S. Kelley and I. Gilmour. The constructive and critical reviews by M. Schuster and an anonymous reviewer greatly helped to improve this manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

Reconstruction of drainage evolution in a Large Igneous Province : Intra-basaltic sedimentation in the Columbia River Basalt Province, Washington State, USA

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The development of fluvial environments within volcanic terrains : the Miocene Columbia River Basalt Province (Washington State, USA) as a case study

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Welche Faktoren können die Mensch-Tier-Beziehung in der ökologischen Milchkuhhaltung beeinflussen?

Diese Querschnittsstudie untersuchte 1) das Niveau und die Varianz von Variablen, die die Mensch-Tier-Beziehung auf ökologischen Milchviehbetrieben beschreiben und 2) potentielle Einflüsse auf das Kuhverhalten gegenüber dem Menschen. Auf 24 ökologischen Betrieben wurden die Ausweichdistanzen (AD) der Kühe gegenüber einer unbekannten Person und Faktoren zur Einstellung der Tierbetreuer_innen gegenüber den Kühen, zu Mensch-Tier-Kontakten, Herden- und Managementcharakteristika erhoben. Sowohl hinsichtlich des Kuhverhaltens als auch hinsichtlich der menschlichen und betrieblichen Faktoren unterschieden sich die untersuchten Betriebe teils deutlich voneinander. Auf Herdenebene ließen sich zwischen 8 und 71% der Kühe (Median = 33%) im AD-Test berühren (ADtouch); zwischen 0 und 7% der Kühe (Median = 4%) wichen vor der Testperson bei einer Distanz von mindestens 100 cm aus (AD100). Um Zusammenhänge zwischen ADtouch und AD100 und vorselektierten Einflussfaktoren zu analysieren, wurden multivariable Regressionen durchgeführt. Neben der Frequenz freiwilliger Mensch-Tier-Interaktionen waren verschiedene Herden- und Managementfaktoren, wie der Anteil enthornter Kühe oder die Selektion auf Gutmütigkeit, signifikant mit dem Ausweichverhalten der Kühe verbunden. Alle Faktoren, die in den Endmodellen verblieben, beziehen sich auf die Anzahl und Qualität der Mensch-Tier-Kontakte. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen frühere, meist auf konventionellen Betrieben durchgeführte Untersuchungen und deuten darauf hin, dass eine erhöhte Intensität von Mensch-Tier-Kontakten mit positiver Qualität auf einem breiten Spektrum unterschiedlicher Betriebstypen zu weniger furchtsamen Herden beitragen kann

Miocene vegetation in the Columbia River Basalt Province, Washington State, USA

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Tiergestützte Interventionen mit Nutztieren in der Sozialen Landwirtschaft aus Sicht der Tierethologie und -haltung

Animal-assisted interventions mean therapeutic and pedagogical measures as well as social support for people with various physical and mental disabilities or social weaknesses. Integral part is the use of animals, which meet specific criteria. In animal-assisted interventions on farms, animals such as cattle, pigs or chicken are used as “co-therapists”. Besides the competences of the providers and operational safety on the farm, also the welfare of the animals has to be ensured to offer quality and safety of the animal-assisted interventions. The aim of this survey was to give an overview of the concepts and the range of animal use on basis of literature re-search – and to work out approaches to evaluate animal welfare. The considerations have shown that the offer is quite heterogeneous and difficult to categorize. Though, general criteria can be set on the level of personnel, on level of farm animal behaviour and husbandry and on level of animal health

Mensch-Tier-Beziehung, Management, Stressbelastung und Eutergesundheit bei Milchkühen

Auf 30 Praxisbetrieben wurden Zusammenhänge von Mensch-Tier-Beziehung, Stressbelastung, Management und Haltung auf die Mastitisanfälligkeit und Selbstheilungskapazität untersucht. Das Gesamtmuster der Zusammenhänge zeigte, dass positive Einstellungen und Interaktionen mit den Tieren, die eine positive Mensch-Tier-Beziehung aufbauen und ein frühes Wahrnehmen von Problemen ermöglichen, die Eutergesundheit von Milchkühen positiv beeinflussen können

Is cows' qualitatively assessed behaviour towards humans related to their general stress level?

The stress level is considered as one important aspect of dairy cow welfare. Beside aspects of housing, management and social herd stressors, stress might also be related to the human-animal relationship (HAR). An established and non-invasive physiological method to assess medium-term stress is the measurement of fecal cortisol metabolites (FCM), reflecting the adrenocortical activity over several hours with a delay of 8-10 hours due to gut passage time. For the assessment of the HAR, behavioural tests recording the cows´ responses towards humans can be used. Beside quantitative methods, e.g. recording the cows´ avoidance distances towards humans, also the qualitative behaviour assessment (QBA) assessing the cows´ body language have been shown to be reliably applicable. Thereby, QBA might reflect the cows´ responses in a more differentiated way than quantitative measures. Using data from 316 dairy cows on 25 German organic dairy farms regarding QBA during a standardised tactile human-animal interaction and FCM recorded on the same day, but with time differences varying between 0-10 h (during winter 2015/16 and 2016/17), we asked whether the cows’ qualitatively assessed behaviour towards humans is related to their general medium-term stress level. For QBA we used a fixed list of 20 descriptors, which had specifically been developed for this purpose. A principal component analysis (PCA) resulted in two components: PC1 explained 67% of variance and appeared to reflect ‘positive’ (pos) and ‘negative’ (neg) valence (characteristic descriptors pos: e.g. trustful, relaxed; neg: e.g. fearful, distressed). PC2 explained 7% of variance and appeared to reflect the level of activation (‘high’ activation: e.g. contact-seeking, aggressive; ‘low’ activation: e.g. patient, insecure). Dividing the sample into four groups (pos_low, pos_high, neg_low, neg_high) using the medians of PC1 and PC2 as cut-points, we compared FCM levels (11,17 dioxoandrostanes, enzyme immunoassay method) by Kruskal-Wallis and post-hoc Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. Groups of cows classified by QBA differed regarding FCM (P=0.010, Kruskal-Wallis test). Cows reacting pos_high during the human-animal interaction (n=65), pos_low (n=93) and neg_low (n=99) had similar FCM levels (medians of 12.0, 10.3 and 10.4; 25-75% quartiles: 6.8-22.8, 4.9-22.0, and 4.2-18.5 ng/g FCM; P=0.225-0.699, Wilcoxon tests). In contrast, neg_high cows had significantly lower FCM levels (6.5 ng/g, 3.7-12.5, n=59) than all other groups (P=0.001-0.029). Neg_high cows presumably had higher fear levels towards humans than pos cows, and expressed this more actively than neg_low cows. Unexpectedly, however, the neg reaction was not related to a generally higher stress level. In this context, it must be taken into account that FCM medians and variation in the investigated sample were generally on a low level. Furthermore, other factors such as social rank or health status might have affected results more profoundly, deserving a more complex analysis including individual factors as a next step

Determination of atmospheric mercury during the North Sea experiment

Total gaseous mercury (TGM) and rainwater were collected on board of two research vessels (F. S. ALKOR and R.V. BELGICA) positioned 200 km apart in the center of the North Sea during the North Sea Experiment, September 1991. On the F. S. ALKOR (up-wind ship) TGM concentrations ranged from 0.7 to 2.6 ng.m(-3) with an average of 1.5 ng.m(-3) and on the R. V. BELGICA (down-wind ship) TGM ranged from 0.7 to 1.9 ng.m(-3) with an average of 1.2 ng.m(-3). An average 20% decrease is observed from the up-wind to the downwind ship. which may largely be affected by entrainment into the free troposphere. An overall removal (entrainment) velocity of 0.95 cm.s(-1) was calculated for the whole experiment. The average removal velocity was 0.5 cm.s(-1) for dry periods and varied between 1 to 5 cm.s(-1) during rain events. Rainwater concentrations varied between 5 and 25 ng.l(-1). Based on these data an annual wet deposition flux of 1.08 ng Hg cm(-2) yr(1-) was estimated for the North Sea