Cities are hotspots for threatened species

Aim Although urbanization impacts many species, there is little information on the patterns of occurrences of threatened species in urban relative to non‐urban areas. By assessing the extent of the distribution of threatened species across all Australian cities, we aim to investigate the currently under‐utilized opportunity that cities present for national biodiversity conservation. Location Australian mainland, Tasmania and offshore islands. Methods Distributions of Australia's 1643 legally protected terrestrial species (hereafter ‘threatened species’) were compiled. We assessed the extent to which they overlapped with 99 cities (of more than 10,000 people), with all non‐urban areas, and with simulated ‘dummy’ cities which covered the same area and bioregion as the true cities but were non‐urban. We analysed differences between animals and plants, and examined variability within these groups using species accumulation modelling. Threatened species richness of true versus dummy cities was analysed using generalized linear mixed‐effects models. Results Australian cities support substantially more nationally threatened animal and plant species than all other non‐urban areas on a unit‐area basis. Thirty per cent of threatened species were found to occur in cities. Distribution patterns differed between plants and animals: individual threatened plant species were generally found in fewer cities than threatened animal species, yet plants were more likely to have a greater proportion of their distribution in urban areas than animals. Individual cities tended to contain unique suites of threatened species, especially threatened plants. The analysis of true versus dummy cities demonstrated that, even after accounting for factors such as net primary productivity and distance to the coast, cities still consistently supported a greater number of threatened species. Main conclusions This research highlights that Australian cities are important for the conservation of threatened species, and that the species assemblages of individual cities are relatively distinct. National conservation policy should recognize that cities play an integral role when planning for and managing threatened species

Geographical variation in the standard physiology of brushtail possums (Trichosurus): Implications for conservation translocations

Identifying spatial patterns in the variation of physiological traits that occur within and between species is a fundamental goal of comparative physiology. There has been a focus on identifying and explaining this variation at broad taxonomic scales, but more recently attention has shifted to examining patterns of intra-specific physiological variation. Here we examine geographic variation in the physiology of brushtail possums (Trichosurus), widely distributed Australian marsupials, and discuss how pertinent intra-specific variation may be to conservation physiology. We found significant geographical patterns in metabolism, body temperature, evaporative water loss and relative water economy. These patterns suggest that possums from warmer, drier habitats have more frugal energy and water use and increased capacity for heat loss at high ambient temperatures. Our results are consistent with environmental correlates for broad-scale macro-physiological studies, and most intra-generic and intra-specific studies of marsupials and other mammals. Most translocations of brushtail possums occur into Australia's arid zone, where the distribution and abundance of possums and other native mammals have declined since European settlement, leading to reintroduction programmes aiming to re-establish functional mammal communities. We suggest that the sub-species T. vulpecula hypoleucus from Western Australia would be the most physiologically appropriate for translocation to these arid habitats, having physiological traits most favourable for the extreme Ta, low and variable water availability and low productivity that characterize arid environments. Our findings demonstrate that geographically widespread populations can differ physiologically, and as a consequence some populations are more suitable for translocation to particular habitats than others. Consideration of these differences will likely improve the success and welfare outcomes of translocation, reintroduction and management programmes

Contaminated Ground Water Migration at Cleanup Sites

This report describes about contaminated lands in USA and decides whether they needs any cleanup , so that they can speedup the continuous spread of contaminated ground water

Assessing Trends in Material Generation, Recycling and Disposal in the United States

This report discusses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencies collected and reported data on the generation and disposal of wast in the United States over a 30 year period

Feasibility of burning refuse derived fuel in institutional size oil-fired boilers /

"DOE/CS/20167-03.""October 1980.""Final report."Includes bibliographical references.Mode of access: Internet