Foraging Ecology of Seabirds in Relation to Commercial Shrimp Trawler Activity

Population dynamics of seabirds have been linked to the availability of bycatch discarded from commercial fishery operations. This issue has been examined primarily in Europe where studies demonstrated that tens of thousands of seabirds each year may be supported by discards from a regional fishery, and that discards from commercial fisheries contributed to the increase in seabird abundance and to changes in their distribution in the North Sea and Northeast Atlantic. To date, however, little to no research has been conducted on seabird-fisheries interactions in the United States. This research examined this issue in the coastal waters of South Carolina where populations of two common seabirds, brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) and royal terns (Sterna maxima), are declining but where two other species, laughing gulls (Larus atricilla) and sandwich terns (Sterna sandvicensis) are increasing. The South Carolina coastal region also supports a substantial commercial shrimping industry that operates primarily in inshore waters and has fluctuated greatly in fleet size during the past two decades. This research investigated the relative abundance and distribution of ship-following seabirds at shrimp trawlers during the seabird breeding season, determined the composition of bycatch, particularly items that are appropriately sized for capture by seabirds, and also measured the consumption fate of fish species collected as bycatch. Shrimp trawlers appeared to be a strong, local attractor for seabirds out to 30km from the nesting colonies. All of the four locally breeding seabird species attended trawlers regularly, and the most generalist of these, laughing gulls, were the most abundant and frequently observed. Trawler activity, (i.e., phase of the trawler operations) was the factor which most affected the abundance in seabirds and spatial distributions varied from species to species. Brown pelicans consumed more discards than predicted based on their frequency while the other three seabirds each consumed fewer discards than predicted based on their frequency. Seabirds selected smaller discard items compared to larger items, and selected benthic fish (i.e., drum species) that typically would not be available to this suite of seabirds. Approximately 70% of the discarded bycatch in experiments was consumed by seabirds, suggesting that bycatch possibly makes up a large part of their diet at certain times of year (i.e., breeding months). My findings suggest that laughing gulls may be affected most strongly by the availability of additional food via discarded bycatch but that tern species as well as brown pelicans forage at trawlers frequently enough that changes in the size of the shrimp fleet would have the potential to affect their foraging ecology as well

Issues for Indigenous Claims Settlement Policies Arising in Other Jurisdictions

This article was developed in part from the report that the author wrote for the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (Indigenous Claims and the Process of Negotiation and Settlement in Countries with Jurisdictions and Populations Comparable to New Zealand's Background, Report for the Parliamentary Commissioner's Report Environmental Information and the Adequacy of Treaty Settlement Procedures (Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Wellington, 1994)). This article deals with issues raised from a consideration of other jurisdictions. The author discusses the role of commissions, tribunals and the courts, the legal and historical basis of claims, claim policies and the content of negotiations and settlements in other jurisdictions, and the content of the New Zealand Crown proposals. The author concludes that New Zealand's proposals fall well behind those developed in similar jurisdictions, despite once leading the world in its desire to address historical claims.&nbsp

Early Catholicity in Kentucky and the See of Bardstown.

Early Catholicity in Kentucky is centered so closely around Bardstown, that to think of it at all in its early stages, is to think of Bardstown. Within the limits of this quaint little old town are many places of historic interest but in connection with this subject, we are concerned only with those which relate to early Catholicity in Kentucky. Perhaps the most interesting of these is St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, once the Cathedral of the West and a monument to the pioneer Catholics of Kentucky. The history of this beautiful old building will be given later under a separate heading. Of the early Catholics in Kentucky, Spalding states, “The Catholic population of Kentucky emigrated almost entirely from Maryland; chiefly from St. Mary’s, Charles’ and Prince George’s Counties.

Decision-Support Tool for Residential Pesticides in the South Carolina Coastal Zone

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with ensuring pesticides do not pose unreasonable adverse risks to the public and to the environment. This is a daunting task with over one billion pounds of pesticides used across the nation each year. The U.S. EPA estimates approximately 75% of all pesticide usage in the U.S. are agricultural while 25% is for home, garden, industrial, commercial, and government applications. One area of application of concern to public health and the environment regarding misuse of pesticides is in residential settings. In these instances, individuals may not have any knowledge of identifying whether they have a pest problem (i.e., pests have reached intolerable levels), the proper steps to take in determining the best solution to solve the pest problem, and measures needed to protect themselves and the surrounding area from pesticide exposure if chemical application occurs. As the nation\u27s population continues to grow, it is imperative to learn which pesticides - as well as uses - should be accounted for in residential scenarios. Using a three county study area in coastal South Carolina, we developed a pesticide knowledgebase, a hazard-based relative cumulative ranking system for one hundred of the most commonly used pesticides, and geospatial models allowing for more informed choices regarding pesticide use and application. Implemented as an easy-to-use dynamic system of tools for residential pesticides - sccoastalpesticides.org acts an educational platform - allowing users to quickly make decisions regarding pesticides, and allowing us to educate more of the target by using a website, acting as a cost effective strategy to maximize efficiency in reaching multiple stakeholder groups

Lifetimes, transition probabilities, and level energies in Fe I

We use time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence to measure the lifetime of 186 Fe levels with energies between 25 900 and 60 758 cm . Measured emission branching fractions for these levels yield transition probabilities for 1174 transitions in the range 225-2666 nm. We find another 640 Fe transition probabilities by interpolating level populations in the inductively coupled plasma spectral source. We demonstrate the reliability of the interpolation method by comparing our transition probabilities with absorption oscillator strengths measured by the Oxford group [Blackwell et al., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 201, 595-602 (1982)]. We derive precise Fe level energies to support the automated method that is used to identify transitions in our spectra

CrowdTrusting: Case Studies in Crowdsourcing Projects

Crowdsourcing has gained popularity over the past few years as a way for library and archive professionals to supplement and enhance the description of their collections. This paper provides case studies of four community archiving projects, focusing on crowdsourcing techniques they used to describe or enlarge their collections. The studies were conducted to determine the kinds of techniques used in community archives, and the potential benefits and barriers they faced in developing and using the techniques. Analysis of the projects indicated that the up-front investment in developing crowdsourcing tools may be prohibitive for community archiving projects. However, the results also indicated that digitization projects were still of value.Master of Science in Information Scienc

Calcium-Dependent But Action Potential-Independent BCM-Like Metaplasticity in the Hippocampus

The Bienenstock, Cooper and Munro (BCM) computational model, which incorporates a metaplastic sliding threshold for LTP induction, accounts well for experience-dependent changes in synaptic plasticity in the visual cortex. BCM-like metaplasticity over a shorter timescale has also been observed in the hippocampus, thus providing a tractable experimental preparation for testing specific predictions of the model. Here, using extracellular and intracellular electrophysiological recordings from acute rat hippocampal slices, we tested the critical BCM predictions (1) that high levels of synaptic activation will induce a metaplastic state that spreads across dendritic compartments, and (2) that postsynaptic cell-firing is the critical trigger for inducing that state. In support of the first premise, high-frequency priming stimulation inhibited subsequent long-term potentiation and facilitated subsequent long-term depression at synapses quiescent during priming, including those located in a dendritic compartment different to that of the primed pathway. These effects were not dependent on changes in synaptic inhibition or NMDA/ metabotropic glutamate receptor function. However, in contrast to the BCM prediction, somatic action potentials during priming were neither necessary nor sufficient to induce the metaplasticity effect. Instead, in broad agreement with derivatives of the BCM model, calcium as released from intracellular stores and triggered byM1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor activation was critical for altering subsequent synapticplasticity. These results indicate that synaptic plasticity in stratum radiatum of CA1 can be homeostatically regulated by the cell-wide history of synaptic activity through a calcium-dependent but action potential-independent mechanis