Master\u27s Project - Wildlife Habitat Linkages Surrounding the Lake George and Southern Lake Champlain Region

Conservation priorities – when developed systematically and objectively – can maximize land protection efforts in heterogeneous landscapes susceptible to parcelization and development. One such region surrounds Lake George and Southern Lake Champlain, nested between the Green and Adirondack Mountains. This mosaic of conserved and private parcels sits upon an array of forest, agriculture, wetland, and development valuable to both humans and resident wildlife species. This landscape’s inherent connectedness provides many benefits to wildlife, including species richness, enhanced persistence, and increased genetic interchange. However, it is difficult to make definitive statements about potential wildlife movement through such complex matrices. Therefore, wildlife modeling approaches have evolved to paint a clearer picture of landscape connectivity. Sam Talbot, ecological planning graduate student at the University of Vermont, worked with the Lake Champlain Land Trust and Lake George Land Conservancy to incorporate landscape connectivity and wildlife corridors into their strategic conservation planning efforts. This project, including a least-cost corridor analysis of the region to highlight large swaths of contiguous habitat, provides the information critical to such conservation efforts. Using the ArcGIS program CorridorDesigner to conduct the analysis, with custom model parameters, identifies three discrete latitudinal corridors between large established wildland blocks. These outputs were then evaluated and compared based on several landscape factors. Ultimately, this study will inform conservation and management decisions, as well as enhance dialogue among local conservation organizations

Regional Invasive Species & Climate Change Management Challenge: Nuisance Neonatives. Guidelines for Assessing Range-Shifting Species

Native species will need to shift their ranges northward and upslope to keep pace with climate change in the Northeast U.S. However, this may cause some range-shifting species to have undesirable consequences in their expanded range. We provide a framework to identify the likelihood that a range-shifting species will become problematic and offer suggestions to minimize impacts from these species in the recipient habitat

Regional Invasive Species & Climate Change Management Challenge: Taking Action. Managing invasive species in the context of climate change

Climate change is likely to alter the timing and effect of invasive species management, as well as the suite of species we are managing. Despite concern about the effects of climate change, lack of information about how and when to take action is a barrier to climate-smart invasive species management. Here, we outline strategies for incorporating climate change into management along with examples of tools that can inform proactive decision-making

A description of the origins, design and performance of the TRAITS-SGP Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L. cDNA microarray

The origins, design, fabrication and performance of an Atlantic salmon microarray are described. The microarray comprises 16 950 Atlantic salmon-derived cDNA features, printed in duplicate and mostly sourced from pre-existing expressed sequence tag (EST) collections [SALGENE and salmon genome project (SGP)] but also supplemented with cDNAs from suppression subtractive hybridization libraries and candidate genes involved in immune response, protein catabolism, lipid metabolism and the parr–smolt transformation. A preliminary analysis of a dietary lipid experiment identified a number of genes known to be involved in lipid metabolism. Significant fold change differences (as low as 1.2x) were apparent from the microarray analysis and were confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis. The study also highlighted the potential for obtaining artefactual expression patterns as a result of cross-hybridization of similar transcripts. Examination of the robustness and sensitivity of the experimental design employed demonstrated the greater importance of biological replication over technical (dye flip) replication for identification of a limited number of key genes in the studied system. The TRAITS (TRanscriptome Analysis of Important Traits of Salmon)–salmon genome project microarray has been proven, in a number of studies, to be a powerful tool for the study of key traits of Atlantic salmon biology. It is now available for use by researchers in the wider scientific community

Regional Invasive Species & Climate Change Management Challenge: Gardening with climate-smart native plants in the Northeast

An estimated 80% of ornamental plants for sale are non-native. This means that the average yard does a poor job of supporting native flora and fauna. By shifting our plantings towards natives, we can dramatically increase the diversity of bees, butterflies, birds and other animals. In contrast, non-native plants do not support local food webs and can become invasive. Native plants increase biodiversity and reduce risks associated with invasive species, which supports resilient ecosystems in the face of climate change

Report on the Business Plan of Scottish Power Energy Networks for the RIIO-ED 2 Price Control

The Gas and Electricity Regulator, Ofgem, regulates the companies that own, maintain and operate the wires and other equipment that distribute electricity to our homes and businesses and Ofgem decides how much these Distribution Network Operators (DNO) can charge through regular ‘Price Controls’. These ‘Distribution Network’ charges are incorporated into the regular bills we receive from our electricity supplier. Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) is the DNO for Southern Scotland, North Wales and a large part of North West England around Merseyside and Cheshire and it has now produced its Business Plan for the next ED2 (Electricity Distribution 2) Price Control running from 2023 to 2028. The purpose of the Customer Engagement Group (CEG) is “to provide independent challenge to SPEN and views to Ofgem on whether SPEN’s Business Plan addresses the needs and preferences of it’s customers and other stakeholders”. Overall, the CEG believes that SPEN has produced a Final Business Plan that reflects the needs and preferences of consumers and other stakeholders as drawn from its re-search and addresses the expected challenges of net zero and vulnerable consumers. Moreover, SPEN’s plan has evolved to take account of both the feedback from engagement and challenges from the CEG and in our opinion meets and in many areas exceeds Ofgem’s baseline expectations

Comment on : “A novel approach to peatlands as archives of total cumulative spatial pollution loads from atmospheric deposition of airborne elements complementary to EMEP data: Priority pollutants (Pb, Cd, Hg)” by Ewa Miszczak, Sebastian Stefaniak, Adam Michczyński, Eiliv Steinnes and Irena Twardowska

Acknowledgements We are thankful to P.G. Appleby, R. Bindler, J. Sonke, B. Smieja-Krol and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.Peer reviewedPostprin

The Politics of Environmental Dispute Resolution

Also PCMA Working Paper #17.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/51148/1/380.pd