Livestock manures for crop production and soil improvement

Non-Peer Reviewe

North west direct seeding survey

Non-Peer Reviewe

GSUE: urban geochemical mapping in Great Britain

The British Geological Survey is responsible for the national strategic geochemical survey of Great Britain. As part of this programme, the Geochemical Surveys of Urban Environments (GSUE) project was initiated in 1992 and to date, 21 cities have been mapped. Urban sampling is based upon the collection of top (0.05 to 0.20 m) and deeper (0.35 to 0.50 m) soil samples on a 500 m grid across the built environment (1 sample per 0.25 km2). Samples are analysed for c. 46 total element concentrations by X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRFS), pH and loss on ignition (LOI) as an indicator of organic matter content. The data provide an overview of the urban geochemical signature and because they are collected as part of a national baseline programme, can be readily compared with soils in the rural hinterland to assess the extent of urban contamination. The data are of direct relevance to current UK land use planning, urban regeneration and contaminated land legislative regimes. An overview of the project and applications of the data to human health risk assessment, water quality protection and contaminant source identification are presented

Disseminated chlorellosis in a dog

An adult dog with ataxia and a lingual mass, previously diagnosed as protothecosis, was euthanized. At the postmortem examination, the lingual mass, regions of the lungs and hilar lymph nodes, liver, mesenteric and sublumbar lymph nodes, and spinal meninges had pronounced green discoloration. Histologically, pyogranulomatous inflammation and algal organisms were found in the tongue, spinal meninges, hilar and mesenteric lymph nodes, liver, and lung. The algae had cell walls positive for periodic acid-Schiff and cytoplasmic granules. Ultrastructurally, the algae had a well-defined cell wall, stacks of grana and thylakoid membrane, and dense bodies, typical of starch granules. The organisms were identified as Chlorella, a green alga, based on the results of histochemistical and electron microscopic examination. To the author's knowledge this is the first report of disseminated Chlorella infection and the first report in a companion animal.The published version of this article may be found at http://www.vetpathology.org/cgi/content/abstract/46/3/43

Chapter 17: Vulnerability of coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef to climate change

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) contains the most extensive coral reef ecosystem on earth. It consists of 2900 coral reefs and 900 coral cays that cover approximately 20,000 km2 of the total 345,000 km2 area of the GBR Marine Park. As a consequence of unusually high summer sea surface temperatures, between 42 to 60 percent of the reefs of the GBR experienced mass coral bleaching in 19988. Bleaching was also reported from 31 other nations around the world during 1997–1998. For example, about 50 percent of reefs in the Indian Ocean and south Asia lost much of their coral cover, and an estimated 16 percent of the world’s area of coral reefs was severely damaged. The event coincided with the strongest recorded El Niño-Southern Oscillation event (ENSO) and one of the warmest years on record.This is Chapter 17 of Climate change and the Great Barrier Reef: a vulnerability assessment. The entire book can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11017/13

Variable Hard-X-Ray Emission from the Candidate Accreting Black Hole in Dwarf Galaxy Henize 2-10

We present an analysis of the X-ray spectrum and long-term variability of the nearby dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2–10. Recent observations suggest that this galaxy hosts an actively accreting black hole (BH) with mass ~106 ${{M}_{\odot }}$. The presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) in a low-mass starburst galaxy marks a new environment for AGNs, with implications for the processes by which "seed" BHs may form in the early universe. In this paper, we analyze four epochs of X-ray observations of Henize 2–10, to characterize the long-term behavior of its hard nuclear emission. We analyze observations with Chandra from 2001 and XMM-Newton from 2004 and 2011, as well as an earlier, less sensitive observation with ASCA from 1997. Based on a detailed analysis of the source and background, we find that the hard (2–10 keV) flux of the putative AGN has decreased by approximately an order of magnitude between the 2001 Chandra observation and exposures with XMM-Newton in 2004 and 2011. The observed variability confirms that the emission is due to a single source. It is unlikely that the variable flux is due to a supernova or ultraluminous X-ray source, based on the observed long-term behavior of the X-ray and radio emission, while the observed X-ray variability is consistent with the behavior of well-studied AGNs

Factors affecting success of conservation translocations of terrestrial vertebrates: a global systematic review

Translocation—moving individuals for release in different locations—is among the most important conservation interventions for increasing or re-establishing populations of threatened species. However, translocations often fail. To improve their effectiveness, we need to understand the features that distinguish successful from failed translocations. We assembled and analysed a global database of translocations of terrestrial vertebrates (n = 514) to assess the effects of various design features and extrinsic factors on success. We analysed outcomes using standardised metrics: a categorical success/failure classification; and population growth rate. Probability of categorical success and population growth rate increased with the total number of individuals released but with diminishing returns above about 20–50 individuals. Positive outcomes—categorical success and high population growth—were less likely for translocations in Oceania, possibly because invasive species are a major threat in this region and are difficult to control at translocation sites. Rates of categorical success and population growth were higher in Europe and North America than elsewhere, suggesting the key role of context in positive translocation outcomes. Categorical success has increased throughout the 20th century, but that increase may have plateaued at about 75% since about 1990. Our results suggest there is potential for further increase in the success of conservation translocations. This could be best achieved by greater investment in individual projects, as indicated by total number of animals released, which has not increased over time.Shane D. Morris, Barry W. Brook, Katherine E. Moseby, Christopher N. Johnso

A Model for Ferromagnetic Nanograins with Discrete Electronic States

We propose a simple phenomenological model for an ultrasmall ferromagnetic grain, formulated in terms of the grain's discrete energy levels. We compare the model's predictions with recent measurements of the discrete tunneling spectrum through such a grain. The model can qualitatively account for the observed features if we assume (i) that the anisotropy energy varies among different eigenstates of one grain, and (ii) that nonequilibrium spin accumulation occurs.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure