The Scydmaenidae and Pselaphidae Occurring near Iowa City, Iowa

The minute beetles belonging to the above families have been much neglected by collectors, although their many peculiarities of habit and structure make them well worthy of attention. For three years past my wife and I have collected them systematically in this vicinity, with the result of very largely increasing the list of species known to occur here

Insects

Cychrus lecontei, Dej., Independence. Nomaretus cavicollis, Lec., Iowa, (Leng & Beutenmuller.) Carabus limbatus, Say, Iowa City. Elaphrus clairvillei, Kirby, Iowa City. Nebria pallipes, Say, Independence. Clivina impressifrons, Lec., Iowa City. Bembidium postremum, Say, Iowa {Reinecke). Evarthrus sodalis, Lec., Iowa City. Amara remotestriata, Doj., Iowa (Hamilton). Diplochila obtusa, Lec., Iowa City. Platynus picticornis, Newm., Iowa (Reinecke). --placidus, Say, Iowa City. Perigona pallipennis, Lec., Iowa (Horn). Galerita atripes, Lec., Iowa City. Callida punctata, Lec., Iowa City. Pinacodera limbata, Dej., Iowa City. Helluomorpha bicolor, Harr., Iowa City. Chlaenius diffinis, Chaud, Iowa City. --brevilabris, Lec., Iowa City (Horn). Harpalus testaceus, Lec., Iowa City (Bailey)

Eleodes in Iowa

The genus Eleodes contains certain species of beetles belonging to the family Tenebrionidae. They are terrestrial and cursorial, rarely being found on plants of any size, though a few are known to ascend the stems of shrubs. All are of large or medium size, and devoid of functional wings, the elytra being connate, forming a perfect shield which clasps the sides of the body. The integument is very thick, and forms, in connection with this elytral structure, an efficient protection from desiccation. Repugnatorial glands are present, secreting a powerful caustic fluid which is discharged through the anus when the insect is irritated. In order to protect themselves more efficiently they elevate the posterior portions of the body when alarmed, and run off in that position. Probably it is this habit which has suggested the name circus bugs, often applied to them in the west

Fragment of a Catalogue of the Coleoptera of Iowa

The collections in this extensive order of insects are now sufficiently full to give us, we believe, a fair idea of the Coleopterous fauna of the State

Meta‐analysis on pulse disturbances reveals differences in functional and compositional recovery across ecosystems

Most ecosystems are affected by anthropogenic or natural pulse disturbances, which alter the community composition and functioning for a limited period of time. Whether and how quickly communities recover from such pulses is central to our understanding of biodiversity dynamics and ecosystem organisation, but also to nature conservation and management. Here, we present a meta‐analysis of 508 (semi‐)natural field experiments globally distributed across marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. We found recovery to be significant yet incomplete. At the end of the experiments, disturbed treatments resembled controls again when considering abundance (94%), biomass (82%), and univariate diversity measures (88%). Most disturbed treatments did not further depart from control after the pulse, indicating that few studies showed novel trajectories induced by the pulse. Only multivariate community composition on average showed little recovery: disturbed species composition remained dissimilar to the control throughout most experiments. Still, when experiments revealed a higher compositional stability, they tended to also show higher functional stability. Recovery was more complete when systems had high resistance, whereas resilience and resistance were negatively correlated. The overall results were highly consistent across studies, but significant differences between ecosystems and organism groups appeared. Future research on disturbances should aim to understand these differences, but also fill obvious gaps in the empirical assessments for regions (especially the tropics), ecosystems and organisms. In summary, we provide general evidence that (semi‐)natural communities can recover from pulse disturbances, but compositional aspects are more vulnerable to long‐lasting effects of pulse disturbance than the emergent functions associated to them

A global evaluation of forest interior area dynamics using tree cover data from 2000 to 2012

Context Published maps of global tree cover derived from Landsat data have indicated substantial changes in forest area from 2000 to 2012. The changes can be arranged in different patterns, with different conse- quences for forest fragmentation. Thus, the changes in forest area do not necessarily equate to changes in forest sustainability. Objective The objective is to assess global and regional changes in forest fragmentation in relation to the change of forest area from 2000 to 2012. Methods Using published global tree cover data, forest and forest interior areas were mapped in 2000 and 2012. The locations of forest interior change were compared to the locations of overall forest change to identify the direct (pixel level) and indirect (landscape level) components of forest interior change. The changes of forest interior area were compared to the changes of total forest area in each of 768 ecological regions. Results A 1.71 million km2 (3.2 %) net loss of global forest area translated to a net loss of 3.76 million km2 (9.9 %) of forest interior area. The difference in loss rates was consistent in most of the 768 ecological regions. The indirect component accounted for 2.44 million km2 of the net forest interior change, com- pared to 1.32 million km2 that was attributable to the direct component. Conclusion Forest area loss alone from 2000 to 2012 underestimates ecological risks from forest fragmen- tation. In addition to the direct loss of forest, there was a widespread shift of the remaining global forest to a more fragmented condition.JRC.H.3-Forest Resources and Climat

“If You've Got Friends and Neighbours”: Constituency Voting Patterns for the UK Labour Party Leader in 2010

Most attention in British electoral studies has been paid to the pattern of voting for parties, with relatively little to that for individual candidates. In intra-party elections, however, candidates may perform better in some areas than others, illustrating V. O. Key's well-known “friends and neighbours” effect. This paper explores whether that was so at the election for the leader of the UK Labour party in 2010, expecting each of the five candidates to perform better in their own constituency and its environs and also with those constituency parties whose MPs supported their candidature. The results are in line with the expectations, especially for one of the candidates who ran an explicitly geographical campaign

Anaerobic digestion of soft drink beverage waste and sewage sludge

© 2018 Soft drink beverage waste (BW) was evaluated as a potential substrate for anaerobic co-digestion with sewage sludge to increase biogas production. Results from this study show that the increase in biogas production is proportional to the increase in organic loading rate (OLR) rate due to BW addition. The OLR increase of 86 and 171% corresponding to 10 and 20% BW by volume in the feed resulted in 89 and 191% increase in biogas production, respectively. Under a stable condition, anaerobic co-digestion with BW did not lead to any significant impact on digestate quality (in terms of COD removal and biosolids odour) and biogas composition. The results suggest that existing nutrients in sewage sludge can support an increase in OLR by about 2 kg COD/m3/d from a carbon rich substrate such as soft drink BW without inhibition or excessive impact on subsequent handling of the digestate

Long-term changes in the water quality of rainfall, cloud water and stream water for moorland, forested and clear-felled catchments at Plynlimon, mid-Wales

Long term changes in the water quality of rainfall, cloud water and stream waters draining acidic and acid sensitive moorland and forested catchments at Plynlimon, mid-Wales, are examined for the period 1983 to 2001. Atmospheric inputs of chloride and sulphate are influenced by the relative inputs of clean maritime and polluted land based air masses. There is no systematic increase or decrease over time for chloride and non-sea-salt sulphate. Rather, there is a decadal scale process possibly representative of the influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation that affects the maritime and pollution climate of the Atlantic seaboard of the UK. Over 17 years of study, there may be a small decrease in non-sea-salt sulphate of about 10 &#956;eq l^-1 and a small improvement in acid neutralising capacity of about 20 to 30 &#956;eq l^-1 in rainfall. There is a clear improvement in cloud water chemistry with respect to pollutant components (ammonium, nitrate, non-sea-salt sulphate) and acidity (acid neutralising capacity improved by about 300 &#956;eq l^-1) through the study period. Many of the changes in cloud water chemistry are similar to rainfall over the same period except the magnitude of change is larger for the cloud water. Within the streams, there is some evidence for reductions in acidity as reflected by acid neutralising capacity becoming less negative. For one stream, deforestation occurred during the sampling period and this led to large increases in nitrate and smaller increases in aluminium midway through the study period. However, the climate and hydrological variability largely masked out other changes. The current analysis provides only a start to identifying trends for such a complex and variable environmental system. The need for strong statistical tools is emphasised to resolve issues of: (a) hydrological induced water quality variability, (b) changing soil and groundwater &quot;endmember&quot; chemistry contribution to the stream and (c) the non-linear patterns of change. Nonetheless, the analysis is enhanced by examining trends in chemistry for yearly averages and yearly average low catch and high catch rainfall and cloud water events as well as low and high flow stream chemistry. This approach allows trends to be examined within the context of endmember mixing.</p> <p style='line-height: 20px;'><b>Keywords: </b>Calcium, aluminium, ammonium, pH, Gran alkalinity, ANC, nitrate, chloride, sulphate, Plynlimon, cloud, mist, rainfall, stream, acidification, North Atlantic Oscillation, trend