The Parasitoid Complex of Forest Tent Caterpillar, \u3ci\u3eMalacosoma Disstria\u3c/i\u3e (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae), in Eastern Wyoming Shelterbelts

A parasitoid complex affecting the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria, was investigated during 1978-79 in shelterbelts in eastern Wyoming. Egg parasitoids included five species: Ablerus clisiocampae, Ooencyrtus clisiocampae, Telenomus clisiocampae, Tetrastichus sp. 1 and Telenomus sp. Thirteen hymenopterous species and five dipterous species were reared from larvae and pupae of the forest tent caterpillar. The most common 5th-instar larval parasitoids were the tachinid flies, Lespesia archippivora and Archytas lateralis. Of the pupal parasitoids reared, 640/0 were Diptera and 36% were Hymenoptera. Four previously unrecorded parasitoids of M. disstria were reared: Cotesia alalantae, Macrocentrus irridescens, Pimpla sanguinipes erythropus, and Lespesia flavifrons.

Education Funding in Maine in Light of Zelman and Locke: Too Much Play in the Joints?

The United States Supreme Court has struggled with the countervailing directives of the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause for decades. One area in which this battle has been particularly contentious is the issue of public funding of religious schools. On one hand, opponents argue that such funding is an impermissible co-mingling of church and state, thereby violating the Establishment Clause. Meanwhile, proponents of public funding of religious schools argue that, to withhold funding from religious schools would place a burden on those wishing to send their children to religious schools, thereby impermissibly preventing individuals from practicing their faith and violating the Free Exercise Clause. In two recent cases involving public funding of religious education, Locke v. Davey and Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the Court arrived at outcomes that seem at first glance to be as difficult to reconcile as the Religion Clauses themselves; Locke resulted in the lack of public funding for religious education, while in Zelman the receipt of public funds by religious schools was declared constitutional. The Zelman opinion, though, was primarily a pronouncement that states may fund religious schools if they affirmatively choose to do so, while the Locke opinion articulated that a state cannot be forced to fund religious education if it chooses not to do so. The Court, unfortunately, did not clarify where the first principle left off and where the second principle picked up. The two cases look at first glance as though their outcomes are in opposition. Locke and Zelman do, however, have important distinguishing characteristics. The Zelman and Locke decisions, juxtaposed both in time and in subject matter, indicate that the future of jurisprudence of public funding for religious schools will be murky at best. The Court has seemingly conveyed that there is a standard to be used-that of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution-except when one of fifty potential other standards might be used-those of the various state constitutions. Taking into account the fact that some states have statutes on point in addition to or instead of constitutional provisions, the matter becomes even more confusing. This area of the law has the potential to leave educators, legislators, and judges in every state wondering about the permissibility of proposed programs and those already in effect

THE THABINA IRRIGATION SCHEME IN A CONTEXT OF REHABILITATION AND MANAGEMENT TRANSFER: PROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS AND LOCAL EMPOWERMENT

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Coral skeleton P/Ca proxy for seawater phosphate: Multi-colony calibration with a contemporaneous seawater phosphate record

A geochemical proxy for surface ocean nutrient concentrations recorded in coral skeleton could provide new insight into the connections between sub-seasonal to centennial scale nutrient dynamics, ocean physics, and primary production in the past. Previous work showed that coralline P/Ca, a novel seawater phosphate proxy, varies synchronously with annual upwelling-driven cycles in surface water phosphate concentration. However, paired contemporaneous seawater phosphate time-series data, needed for rigorous calibration of the new proxy, were lacking. Here we present further development of the P/Ca proxy in Porites lutea and Montastrea sp. corals, showing that skeletal P/Ca in colonies from geographically distinct oceanic nutrient regimes is a linear function of seawater phosphate (PO4 SW) concentration. Further, high-resolution P/Ca records in multiple colonies of Pavona gigantea and Porites lobata corals grown at the same upwelling location in the Gulf of Panama were strongly correlated to a contemporaneous time-series record of surface water PO4 SW at this site (r2 = 0.7–0.9). This study supports application of the following multi-colony calibration equations to down-core records from comparable upwelling sites, resulting in ±0.2 and ±0.1 lmol/kg uncertainties in PO4 SW reconstructions from P. lobata and P. gigantea, respectively.P/Ca Porites lobata (lmol/mol) = (21.1 ? 2.4)PO4 SW (lmol/kg) + (14.3 ? 3.8)P/Ca Pavona gigantea (lmol/mol) = (29.2 ? 1.4)PO4 SW (lmol/kg) + (33.4 ? 2.7)Inter-colony agreement in P/Ca response to PO4 SW was good (±5–12% about mean calibration slope), suggesting that species-specific calibration slopes can be applied to new coral P/Ca records to reconstruct past changes in surface ocean phosphate. However, offsets in the y-intercepts of calibration regressions among co-located individuals and taxa suggest that biologically-regulated “vital effects” and/or skeletal extension rate may also affect skeletal P incorporation. Quantification of the effect of skeletal extension rate on P/Ca could lead to corrected calibration equations and improved inter-colony P/Ca agreement. Nevertheless, the efficacy of the P/Ca proxy is thus supported by both broad scale correlation to mean surface water phosphate and regional calibration against documented local seawater phosphate variations

Assessing the hunting practices of Namibia's commercial seal hunt

Following mounting public concerns regarding the treatment of animals in recent years, there has been increasing interest in the development of science-based guidelines for animal welfare in industries such as agriculture and hunting.1,2,3 In the latter case, for example, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was requested by the European Commission, in 2007, to issue a scientific opinion regarding welfare aspects of seal hunting and to assess the most appropriate killing methods, to reduce unnecessary suffering. As part of its assessment, EFSA's Scientific opinion4 compared seal hunting to the killing of livestock in abattoirs. It noted that while slaughter conditions vary considerably, the goal should be the same: to kill animals with the minimum amount of pain, distress and fear and without causing any avoidable suffering. The report concluded that there was strong evidence that effective killing is not always practiced during seal hunts and that unnecessary and avoidable pain and suffering occurs. Subsequently, Russia ended its commercial hunt for harp seals Pagophilus groenlandicus in the White Sea in February 20095 and banned the killing of all seals under the age of one year in March of 2009.6Two months later, the European Parliament voted 550-49 in favour of a resolution banning the importation of seal hunt products, which comes into effect in 2010.7 Canada and Norway have subsequently lodged challenges against the EU ban with the World Trade Organization