Hedgerow rejuvenation management affects invertebrate communities through changes to habitat structure

Hedgerows are an important semi-natural habitat for invertebrates and other wildlife within agricultural landscapes. Hedgerow quality can be greatly affected either by over- or under-management. Neglect of hedgerows is an increasingly important issue as traditional management techniques such as hedgelaying become economically unviable. In the UK, funding for hedge management is available under agri-environment schemes but relatively little is known about how this impacts on wider biodiversity. We used a randomised block experiment to investigate how habitat structural change, arising from a range of techniques to rejuvenate hedgerows (including more economic/mechanised alternatives to traditional hedgelaying), affected invertebrate abundance and diversity. We combined digital image analysis with estimates of foliage biomass and quality to show which aspects of hedge structure were most affected by the rejuvenation treatments. All investigated aspects of habitat structure varied considerably with management type, though the abundance of herbivores and predators was affected primarily by foliage density. Detritivore abundance was most strongly correlated with variation in hedge gap size. The results suggest that habitat structure is an important organising force in invertebrate community interactions and that management technique may affect trophic groups differently. Specifically we find that alternative methods of hedgerow rejuvenation could support abundances of invertebrates comparable or even higher than traditional hedgelaying, with positive implications for the restoration of a larger area of hedgerow habitat on a limited budget

Lower Prevalence of Antibiotic-Resistant Enterococci on U.S. Conventional Poultry Farms that Transitioned to Organic Practices

Background: In U.S. conventional poultry production, antimicrobials are used for therapeutic, prophylactic, and nontherapeutic purposes. Researchers have shown that this can select for antibiotic-resistant commensal and pathogenic bacteria on poultry farms and in poultry-derived products. However, no U.S. studies have investigated on-farm changes in resistance as conventional poultry farms transition to organic practices and cease using antibiotics

The Grizzly, September 27, 1985

Weight Room Draws a Crowd • Why Alter the Campus Now? • C.A.B Owns a New Name • Letter: Allocate Athletic Funds • CPP and Carla Rinde Can Show the Way • Prof. Profile: Chambliss Keeps a Difficult Balance •Jeff Page: A Friendly Face in the Crowd • Staiger\u27s Home Away From Home • What\u27s Your Opinion? • Search of Success • Field Hockey Shoots to Top Ten Ranking • Bears Split Two • Cross Country Teams on Fire • Barnes: Guarding is His Game • Computer Lab Launchedhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1145/thumbnail.jp

Re-structuring hedges: rejuvenation management can improve the long term quality of hedgerow habitats for wildlife in the UK

Hedgerows provide key wildlife habitat in intensive agricultural landscapes, but are declining in length and structural condition due to a lack of rejuvenation management, neglect and over-frequent trimming with mechanised flails. Here, we test cheaper, alternative methods to traditional hedge laying methods using a multi-site manipulative field experiment. In the first quantitative test of new approaches to hedge rejuvenation management, hedge regrowth, structure, berry provision for over-wintering wildlife and cost of rejuvenation were assessed in response to five methods, for three years following rejuvenation. Three ‘laying’ methods and coppicing were effective at improving hedgerow condition by stimulating basal regrowth, thus increasing the density of woody material at the base and reducing gap size. The pros and cons of coppicing are discussed in relation to its impact on different wildlife groups, and it is recommended in limited circumstances. Differences between the three ‘laying’ methods reduced over time, so a cheaper conservation hedging method is recommended as an alternative to traditional hedge laying. This new approach to hedge management offers the potential to restore twice the length of hedgerow currently rejuvenated under agri-environment schemes

Introducing scholarly communications: A cross-departmental approach for reaching students and faculty [slides]

Slides from a presentation discussing cross-departmental efforts to provide scholarly communications training to graduate students and faculty members at UNC Greensboro. This presentation was delivered on May 27, 2020 at the Azalea Coast Library Association Virtual Conference. Co-presented by Anna Craft, Amy Harris Houk, and Sam Harlow

Conversations on grief and hope: A collaborative autoethnographic account exploring the lifeworlds of international youth engaged with climate action

This paper explores the lifeworlds of international youth involved in climate and/or environmental social action, narratives that have been largely absent from a literature that has tended to focus on ‘traditional’ youth activists located in the urban Global North. Written as a novel collaborative autoethnography involving youth as co-authors, the paper a) collectively reflects on the stories of youth from different countries and cultures on their journeys towards climate action, and b) foregrounds an emotional framing to examine these experiences. The youth co-authors, whose experiences are the focus of this paper, form part of innovative international Youth Advisory Board, set up to provide peer support to youth new to climate and environmental social action, as part of our British Academy Youth Futures-funded participatory action research project. We examine the youth’s narratives exploring opportunities and barriers they have navigated, their inspirations and the intersections with a range of other socio-cultural factors

Little and late: how reduced hedgerow cutting can benefit Lepidoptera

Hedgerows are a key semi-natural habitat for biodiversity in intensive agricultural landscapes across northern Europe and support a large invertebrate fauna. Management can have large effects on the value of hedgerows as a wildlife habitat, thus sensitive management is incentivised through agri-environment schemes (AES). We tested how current and potential future AES hedge management regimes affected the diversity and abundance of Lepidoptera species that utilise the hedge as a breeding resource, using a long term, multi-site, manipulative field experiment. Hedgerow management in some current AES options (reduced trimming frequency and cutting in winter) increased Lepidoptera abundance and the diversity of components of the Lepidoptera community linked with specific lifecycle traits. However, the most frequently applied hedgerow AES option currently applied in the UK (cutting once every 2 years in autumn) did not benefit Lepidoptera compared to standard hedgerow management outside AES (annual trimming in autumn). Decreasing the intensity of hedgerow trimming improves the diversity of the whole Lepidoptera assemblage, and should be considered as part of biodiversity conservation in farmed landscapes

SDSS-IV MaNGA:the spatially resolved stellar initial mass function in ∼ 400 early-type galaxies

MaNGA provides the opportunity to make precise spatially resolved measurements of the IMF slope in galaxies owing to its unique combination of spatial resolution, wavelength coverage and sample size. We derive radial gradients in age, element abundances and IMF slope analysing optical and near-infrared absorption features from stacked spectra out to the half-light radius of 366 early-type galaxies with masses $9.9 - 10.8\;\log M/M_{\odot}$. We find flat gradients in age and [$\alpha$/Fe] ratio, as well as negative gradients in metallicity, consistent with the literature. We further derive significant negative gradients in the [Na/Fe] ratio with galaxy centres being well enhanced in Na abundance by up to 0.5 dex. Finally, we find a gradient in IMF slope with a bottom-heavy IMF in the centre (typical mass excess factor of 1.5) and a Milky Way-type IMF at the half-light radius. This pattern is mass-dependent with the lowest mass galaxies in our sample featuring only a shallow gradient around a Milky Way IMF. Our results imply the local IMF-$\sigma$ relation within galaxies to be even steeper than the global relation and hint towards the local metallicity being the dominating factor behind the IMF variations. We also employ different stellar population models in our analysis and show that a radial IMF gradient is found independently of the stellar population model used. A similar analysis of the Wing-Ford band provides inconsistent results and further evidence of the difficulty in measuring and modelling this particular feature.Comment: 28 pages, 24 figures, 9 tables. MNRAS in pres