Systematic Conservation Planning in the Face of Climate Change: Bet-Hedging on the Columbia Plateau

Systematic conservation planning efforts typically focus on protecting current patterns of biodiversity. Climate change is poised to shift species distributions, reshuffle communities, and alter ecosystem functioning. In such a dynamic environment, lands selected to protect today's biodiversity may fail to do so in the future. One proposed approach to designing reserve networks that are robust to climate change involves protecting the diversity of abiotic conditions that in part determine species distributions and ecological processes. A set of abiotically diverse areas will likely support a diversity of ecological systems both today and into the future, although those two sets of systems might be dramatically different. Here, we demonstrate a conservation planning approach based on representing unique combinations of abiotic factors. We prioritize sites that represent the diversity of soils, topographies, and current climates of the Columbia Plateau. We then compare these sites to sites prioritized to protect current biodiversity. This comparison highlights places that are important for protecting both today's biodiversity and the diversity of abiotic factors that will likely determine biodiversity patterns in the future. It also highlights places where a reserve network designed solely to protect today's biodiversity would fail to capture the diversity of abiotic conditions and where such a network could be augmented to be more robust to climate-change impacts

A Tale of Four “Carp”: Invasion Potential and Ecological Niche Modeling

. We assessed the geographic potential of four Eurasian cyprinid fishes (common carp, tench, grass carp, black carp) as invaders in North America via ecological niche modeling (ENM). These “carp” represent four stages of invasion of the continent (a long-established invader with a wide distribution, a long-established invader with a limited distribution, a spreading invader whose distribution is expanding, and a newly introduced potential invader that is not yet established), and as such illustrate the progressive reduction of distributional disequilibrium over the history of species' invasions.We used ENM to estimate the potential distributional area for each species in North America using models based on native range distribution data. Environmental data layers for native and introduced ranges were imported from state, national, and international climate and environmental databases. Models were evaluated using independent validation data on native and invaded areas. We calculated omission error for the independent validation data for each species: all native range tests were highly successful (all omission values <7%); invaded-range predictions were predictive for common and grass carp (omission values 8.8 and 19.8%, respectively). Model omission was high for introduced tench populations (54.7%), but the model correctly identified some areas where the species has been successful; distributional predictions for black carp show that large portions of eastern North America are at risk.ENMs predicted potential ranges of carp species accurately even in regions where the species have not been present until recently. ENM can forecast species' potential geographic ranges with reasonable precision and within the short screening time required by proposed U.S. invasive species legislation

Bibliography of reports on studies of the geology, hydrogeology and hydrology at the Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada, from 1951--1996

The Nevada Test Site (NTS) was established in 1951 as a proving ground for nuclear weapons. The site had formerly been part of an Air Force bombing and gunnery range during World War II. Sponsor-directed studies of the geology, hydrogeology, and hydrology of the NTS began about 1956 and were broad based in nature, but were related mainly to the effects of the detonation of nuclear weapons. These effects included recommending acceptable media and areas for underground tests, the possibility of off-site contamination of groundwater, air blast and surface contamination in the event of venting, ground-shock damage that could result from underground blasts, and studies in support of drilling and emplacement. The studies were both of a pure scientific nature and of a practical applied nature. The NTS was the site of 828 underground nuclear tests and 100 above-ground tests conducted between 1951 and 1992 (U.S. Department of Energy, 1994a). After July 1962, all nuclear tests conducted in the United States were underground, most of them at the NTS. The first contained underground nuclear explosion was detonated on September 19, 1957, following extensive study of the underground effect of chemical explosives. The tests were performed by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessors, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Research and Development Administration. As part of a nationwide complex for nuclear weapons design, testing and manufacturing, the NTS was the location for continental testing of new and stockpiled nuclear devices. Other tests, including Project {open_quotes}Plowshare{close_quotes} experiments to test the peaceful application of nuclear explosives, were conducted on several parts of the site. In addition, the Defense Nuclear Agency tested the effect of nuclear detonations on military hardware

Coagulation changes in elective surgery and trauma.

Although antithrombin-3 (AT-3), a naturally-occurring inhibitor of thrombin, has been associated with a variety of thrombotic disorders, it has been studied in surgery and trauma. Three groups of patients were studied: Group I (20 patients) who underwent elective surgery; Group II (ten patients) who sustained moderate trauma: Group III (ten patients) who sustained severe trauma. Hypercoagulability panels were run preoperatively, intraoperatively, and postoperatively. Nine units of banked blood were also tested. The coagulation pattern changed during the stress, becoming hypercoagulable in proportion to the stress endured by the patient. In the severe trauma group, AT-3 fell significantly (p less than or equal to 0.002) in all patients, indicating extreme hypercoagulability. Three of these patients sustained thrombosis and loss of the involved extremity. The banked blood was found to be hypercoagulable. It appears that patients who sustain severe trauma, have multiple transfusions, and major operative procedures are at increased risk of developing postoperative thrombotic complications, including loss of limb

Identification of a Threshold for Skeletal Muscle Injury

This study was designed to detect the first evidence of injury to muscle induced by passive stretching. Rabbit extensor digitorum longus and tibialis anterior skeletal muscles were subjected to passive stretching at set force levels of 20% or 30% of load to failure. Both tibialis anterior and extensor digitorum longus muscles that were stretched to 30% exhibited no difference in the three tensile parameters when compared with their con tralateral control specimens. Maximum contractile force was decreased after stretching. Tibialis anterior and ex tensor digitorum muscles that were stretched to 20% of control failure force showed no decrement in the tensile parameters or maximum contractile force. Histology of the extensor digitorum longus muscles stretched to 30% of failure force showed small focal areas of muscle fiber rupture and hemorrhage near the distal myoten dinous junction. Tibialis anterior and extensor digitorum longus muscle-tendon units stretched to 30% of failure force suffered functional injury as their contractile ability decreased after stretching. In contrast, muscle-tendon units stretched to 20% of failure force suffered no dec rement in contractile ability; therefore, a threshold for passive muscle stretch injury has been found. Further more, changes in contractile properties and histologic assessment appear to be more sensitive predictors of injury than measurement of structural failure properties

A Threshold and Continuum of Injury During Active Stretch of Rabbit Skeletal Muscle

Previous studies of acute muscle injury with active stretch used cyclic stretching or stretching the muscle to complete muscle-tendon dissociation. This study tried to determine minimal force required for skeletal muscle injury with one active stretch to establish an in jury "threshold." Tibialis anterior and extensor digitorum longus rabbit muscles were actively stretched at 10 cm/ sec to 60%, 70%, 80%, or 90% of the force required to passively fail tibialis anterior and extensor digitorum lon gus muscles of the control (contralateral) limb. Maximal isometric contractile force, tensile properties, histology, and electromyography were measures of injury. Both muscles of the 60% group showed no abnormalities in maximal isometric contractile force, tensile properties, histology, or electromyographic activity; 70%, 80%, and 90% groups showed diminished maximal isometric con tractile force, muscle fiber disruption, edema, hemor rhage, and decreased electromyographic maximal volt age amplitude. The 90% group also showed alterations in tensile properties at failure along with connective tis sue damage. Injury site included fiber disruption both at the distal myotendinous junction and muscle belly, with injury noted initially at the distal myotendinous junction in the 70% group. Electromyographic studies showed maximal isometric contractile force and maximal volt age correlated well as indices of damage. This study shows that a threshold and continuum for active stretch- induced injury exist, with muscle fiber disruption occur ring initially and connective tissue disruption occurring only with larger muscle displacements

Thermal effects on skeletal muscle tensile behavior

The effect of temperature on the mechanical failure properties of rabbit skeletal muscle (tibialis anterior and extensor digitorum longus) was examined. For all tests, one leg was maintained at 25°C and the contralateral leg at 40°C. Muscles were pulled to failure according to assignment into one of three groups: 1) passive failure at 10 cm/sec, 2) passive failure at 1 cm/sec, or 3) active (muscle is stimulated to contract as it is pulled) failure at 10 cm/sec. Load to failure was higher in the cold muscle for all groups tested. Total deformation was the same except in Group 1, when the warm muscle had a greater deformation. Energy absorbed before failure was greater in the cold muscle in Groups 2 and 3. Stiffness was higher in cold muscles for all muscles except the extensor digitorum longus in Group 1. In this study, temperature had a significant effect on the tensile properties; these thermal effects were de pendent on both loading rate and contractile state. Comparing loading rates, warm muscle tested at 10 cm/sec had higher failure loads than that tested at 1 cm/sec. Comparing stimulated versus unstimulated muscle (Group 1 versus Group 3), the stimulated tibialis anterior muscle absorbed more energy than unstimu lated ones. Stimulated extensor digitorum longus mus cles had higher failure loads, absorbed more energy, and were stiffer than nonstimulated muscles. This study offers experimental data to support the theory that warming muscles can aid in injury prevention and im provement in athletic performance