Quality Assurance Report: National Atmospheric Deposition Program, 2002

In 2005, scientists, students, educators, and others interested in the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) logged more than 310,000 sessions and viewed nearly 93,000 maps on the NADP Web site. Users downloaded 18,564 data files from this site, which now annually receives more than 1.2 million hits. These data are used to address important questions about the impact of the wet deposition of nutrients on eutrophication in coastal estuarine environments; the relationship between wet deposition, the health of unmanaged forests, and the depletion of base cations from forest soils; the impact of pollutant emissions changes on precipitation chemistry; and the rate at which precipitation delivers mercury to remote lakes and streams. ...Ope

From passive to informed:Mechanical mechanisms of seed dispersal

Plant dispersal mechanisms rely on anatomical and morphological adaptations for the use of physical or biological dispersal vectors. Recently, studies of interactions between the dispersal unit and physical environment have uncovered fluid dynamic mechanisms of seed flight, protective measures against fire, and release mechanisms of explosive dispersers. Although environmental conditions generally dictate dispersal distances, plants are not purely passive players in these processes. Evidence suggests that some plants may enact informed dispersal, where dispersal‐related traits are modified according to the environment. This can occur via developmental regulation, but also on shorter timescales via structural remodelling in relation to water availability and temperature. Linking interactions between dispersal mechanisms and environmental conditions will be essential to fully understand population dynamics and distributions