Landscapes of Ecological Importance in Illinois

This project used a series of landscape-scale characteristics related to biotic and landscape integrity to identify lands with the potential capacity to be restored to natural area quality with modern restoration techniques. The best ones would be those that occur in a landscape context that could be viable over the long-term once restore. In a pilot project for Northeastern Illinois, we developed Landscape Integrity and Restorability parameters and identified statewide datasets for Illinois. We used a three-level system: Ecological, Spatial and Threat parameters, and had INHS mammologists, ornithologists, herpetologists, and botanists assess the value of the parameter and suggest weights used in the final ranking. These criteria and datasets were used to perform a Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of undeveloped lands in all of the state of Illinois. This GIS analysis identified lands that, if restored, have the potential for long-term ecological integrity. These landscape integrity and restorability criteria have been aligned with the qualifying size criteria for registration of lands as Illinois Land and Water Reserves (a state designation resulting in protections almost as strong as Illinois Nature Preserve Dedication), to identify large areas of lower grade that could currently qualify or could be restored to qualify for designation as Land and Water Reserves. This analysis provides a score that is used in a ranking system, to establish a hierarchical assessment of the intrinsic capacity of landscapes to sustainably support native flora and fauna with restoration. The scattered pattern of modern development not only consumes an excessive amount of land, it fragments the landscape. Numerous studies have shown the negative ecological effects of forest fragmentation in the landscape (Wilcox and Murphy, 1985, Robertson et al, 1995). As forest areas are divided and isolated by roads and development, interior habitat decreased. This coupled with increased human disturbance and the spreading of opportunistic edge species results in the populations of many animals becoming too small to persist. Besides the negative effect on animal populations through the loss of wildlife habitat and migration corridors, normal ecosystem functions such as absorption of nutrients, recharging of water supplies and replenishment of soil are disturbed or destroyed (Saunders et al., 1991). Water quality has been degraded in many rivers and streams and many of Illinois’ remaining wetlands have been altered by filling, drainage and impoundment, livestock grazing, logging, direct discharges of industrial wastes and municipal sewage, and indirect pollution from urban and agricultural runoff. Today, with urban land continuing to sprawl into the surrounding landscape, there is an even more urgent need to accurately identify and protect the most important unprotected natural lands in the state before they are lost. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), and Conservation and Forest Preserve Districts have many programs for land acquisition, easements, and other forms of land and resource protection. Timely knowledge of where key lands and corridors are situated would facilitate these processes. A spatial analysis was proposed as a way of assessing the landscape quickly, efficiently, and frequently. Using existing statewide digital data and Geographic Information System (GIS) software allows for periodic review of the landscape and as additional statewide data becomes available, adjustments in the ranking system can be made. Indeed, the use of GIS software and landscape ecology has been a proven tool to aid the locating of remaining areas of ecological significance.Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundationunpublishednot peer reviewe

Managing Outstanding Land Rights in the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Owned, Managed, and Leased Properties (OMLP) Database, FW-16-D-1

One of the objectives of this project was using a similar process that was developed as part of the Office of Realty and Environmental Planning’s Project Land Map Program; create a digital database inventory of any outstanding land rights that occur at each IDNR site. The Project Land Map Program developed at IDNR in the 1970’s was the first attempt to identify and map on paper all parcels acquired, as well as any outstanding land rights identified at each site. Twelve sites were completed and 13 sites were partially completed as part of this program but due to the difficult and time consuming nature of completing this task, as well as other priorities within the agency, this program was abandoned. This project builds upon the processes developed as part of this program, but will create a digital database identifying the various types of any outstanding land rights and interests at each IDNR site. Priority of federal interest sites will follow in the same order as was used in prior SWG projects, which is the following: 1)Sites with lands acquired with Pitman-Robertson or Dingell-Johnson funds, 2)Sites with lands acquired with State Wildlife Grant funds, 3)Sites with lands acquired with North American Wetlands Conservation Act funds, 4)Lake development and major construction projects (boat access) with federal participation, 5)100% Fish and Wildlife Eligible sites, 6)Sites with lands purchased, and in some cases restored, with special funds (Pheasant, Habitat, Furbearer & Migratory Waterfowl Stamp) funds, 7)Sites with lands purchased with hunter heritage funds, 8)IDNR lands with active federal aid projects, 9)Boating Infrastructure Grant Program (BIG-P) federal funded sites, and 10)Clean Vessel Act Grant Program federal funded sites. 2 The second objective of this project is to spatially map outstanding land rights identified at IDNR sites from Objective 1 into the existing OMLP GIS database, incorporating addition layers as necessary. This project expands on previous work by incorporating any outstanding land rights identified at each site into the existing OMLP database. Using the ESRI Parcel Data Model for GIS and Land Records reference as a guide, additional layers will be created, in order to properly digitize and portray the rights and interest. All layers and attributes previously digitized and entered during prior contract periods for a site will be double checked and updated as necessary.Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (P.L. 75-415) and Sport Fish Restoration Programunpublishednot peer reviewe

Development of a Natural Areas Integrity and Restorability Index and Application to Lands of the Chicago Region

This project was conceived during the Rapid Implementation Phase of the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI) project. A series of workshops were held where county Conservation District (CD) and Forest Preserve District (FPD) staff from Northeastern Illinois participated. Staff at these agencies expressed the belief that, due to the rapid pace of development, few new areas will be found in the Chicago Region that can meet the standards of the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory. They expressed a need for identification of lands that have the capacity to be restored to natural area quality using modern restoration techniques, and also that occur in a landscape context that will allow them to be viable over the long-term once restored. They argued that this process should be conducted by an independent, objective, scientific team and be endorsed by the State of Illinois to ensure acceptance by their boards and their communities. The county CD and FPD staff also reiterated the necessity of identifying this “next tier” of lands worthy of public investment before most of these opportunities are lost. The goal of this project was to identify a series of landscape-scale characteristics related to biotic and landscape integrity that could be used to quickly identify potential areas for protection. “Landscape Integrity Criteria” were used to identify data to perform a Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of undeveloped lands in the Chicago Region. This GIS analysis identified lands that, if restored, have the potential for long-term ecological integrity. These landscape integrity and restorability criteria were aligned with the qualifying size criteria for registration of lands as Illinois Land and Water Reserves (a state designation resulting in protections almost as strong as Illinois Nature Preserve Dedication), to identify “large grade C‟s” that could currently qualify or be restored to qualify for designation as Land and Water Reserves. Smaller areas of undeveloped land of other community types were included if adjacent to larger qualifying parcels for the purposes of building a “connected system of conservation lands. This analysis provides a score that is used in a ranking system, developed in conjunction with INHS Scientists, to establish a hierarchical assessment of the intrinsic capacity of landscapes to sustainably support native flora and fauna with restoration. A “Restorability Index” was also developed that would allow the analysis of the relative potential for restoration of undeveloped lands on a case by case basis. Armed with the “Inventory of Landscapes of Ecological Importance” and the “Restorability Index,” land managers can identify opportunities and priorities for large-scale restoration in the context of their unique management and restoration capacities. There has been some early interest in the products of this study. The scope and methods of this project was discussed with James Anderson, Natural Resource Manager at the Lake County Forest Preserve and Jesse Elam, Senior Planner at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, 35 East Wacker Drive, Suite 2600, Chicago, IL 60606 Grant/Contract No: 1-556283unpublishednot peer reviewe

Updating the modified Thompson test by using whole-body bioluminescence imaging to replace traditional efficacy testing in experimental models of murine malaria

Abstract Background Rodent malaria models are extensively used to predict treatment outcomes in human infections. There is a constant need to improve and refine these models by innovating ways to apply new scientific findings and cutting edge technologies. In addition, and in accordance with the three R’s of animal use in research, in vivo studies should be constantly refined to avoid unnecessary pain and distress to the experimental animals by using preemptive euthanasia as soon as the main scientific study objective has been accomplished. Methods The new methodology described in this manuscript uses the whole-body bioluminescence signal emitted by transgenic, luciferase-expressing Plasmodium berghei parasites to assess the parasite load predicted parasitaemia (PLPP) in drug and control treated female ICR-CD1 mice infected with 1 × 105 luciferase-expressing P. berghei (ANKA strain) infected erythrocytes. This methodology can replace other time-consuming and expensive methods that are routinely used to measure parasitaemia in infected animals, such as Giemsa-stained thin blood smears and flow cytometry. Results There is a good correlation between whole-body bioluminescence signal and parasitaemia measured using Giemsa-stained thin blood smears and flow cytometry respectively in donor and study mice in the modified Thompson test. The algebraic formulas which represent these correlations can be successfully used to assess PLPP in donor and study mice. In addition, the new methodology can pinpoint sick animals 2–8 days before they would have been otherwise diagnosed based on behavioural or any other signs of malaria disease. Conclusions The new method for predicting parasitaemia in the modified Thompson test is simple, precise, objective, and minimizes false positive results that can lead to the premature removal of animals from study. Furthermore, from the animal welfare perspective of replace, reduce, and refine, this new method facilitates early removal of sick animals from study as soon as the study objective has been achieved, in many cases well before the clinical signs of disease are present

Multifaceted roles for STAT3 in gammaherpesvirus latency revealed through in vivo B cell knockout models

ABSTRACTCancers associated with the oncogenic gammaherpesviruses, Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus, are notable for their constitutive activation of the transcription factor signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3). To better understand the role of STAT3 during gammaherpesvirus latency and the B cell response to infection, we used the model pathogen murine gammaherpesvirus 68 (MHV68). Genetic deletion of STAT3 in B cells of CD19cre/+Stat3f/f mice reduced peak MHV68 latency approximately sevenfold. However, infected CD19cre/+Stat3f/f mice exhibited disordered germinal centers and heightened virus-specific CD8 T cell responses compared to wild-type (WT) littermates. To circumvent the systemic immune alterations observed in the B cell-STAT3 knockout mice and more directly evaluate intrinsic roles for STAT3, we generated mixed bone marrow chimeric mice consisting of WT and STAT3 knockout B cells. We discovered a dramatic reduction in latency in STAT3 knockout B cells compared to their WT B cell counterparts in the same lymphoid organ. RNA sequencing of sorted germinal center B cells revealed that MHV68 infection shifts the gene signature toward proliferation and away from type I and type II IFN responses. Loss of STAT3 largely reversed the virus-driven transcriptional shift without impacting the viral gene expression program. STAT3 promoted B cell processes of the germinal center, including IL-21-stimulated downregulation of surface CD23 on B cells infected with MHV68 or EBV. Together, our data provide mechanistic insights into the role of STAT3 as a latency determinant in B cells for oncogenic gammaherpesviruses.IMPORTANCEThere are no directed therapies to the latency program of the human gammaherpesviruses, Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus. Activated host factor signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) is a hallmark of cancers caused by these viruses. We applied the murine gammaherpesvirus pathogen system to explore STAT3 function upon primary B cell infection in the host. Since STAT3 deletion in all CD19+ B cells of infected mice led to altered B and T cell responses, we generated chimeric mice with both normal and STAT3-deleted B cells. B cells lacking STAT3 failed to support virus latency compared to normal B cells from the same infected animal. Loss of STAT3 impaired B cell proliferation and differentiation and led to a striking upregulation of interferon-stimulated genes. These findings expand our understanding of STAT3-dependent processes that are key to its function as a pro-viral latency determinant for oncogenic gammaherpesviruses in B cells and may provide novel therapeutic targets

Characterization of the KRN Cell Transfer Model of Rheumatoid Arthritis (KRN-CTM), a Chronic Yet Synchronized Version of the K/BxN Mouse

In this study, a chronic yet synchronized version of the K/BxN mouse, the KRN-cell transfer model (KRN-CTM), was developed and extensively characterized. The transfer of purified splenic KRN T cells into T cell-deficient B6.TCR.Cα−/−H-2b/g7 mice induced anti-glucose 6-phosphate isomerase antibody-dependent chronic arthritis in 100% of the mice with uniform onset of disease 7 days after T cell transfer. Cellular infiltrations were assessed by whole-ankle transcript microarray, cytokine and chemokine levels, and microscopic and immunohistochemical analyses 7 through 42 days after T cell transfer. Transcripts identified an influx of monocytes/macrophages and neutrophils into the ankles and identified temporal progression of cartilage damage and bone resorption. In both serum and ankle tissue there was a significant elevation in interleukin-6, whereas macrophage inflammatory protein-1 α and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 were only elevated in tissue. Microscopic and immunohistochemical analyses revealed a time course for edema, synovial hypertrophy and hyperplasia, infiltration of F4/80-positive monocytes/macrophages and myeloperoxidase-positive neutrophils, destruction of articular cartilage, pannus invasion, bone resorption, extra-articular fibroplasia, and joint ankylosis. The KRN cell transfer model replicates many features of chronic rheumatoid arthritis in humans in a synchronized manner and lends itself to manipulation of adoptively transferred T cells and characterizing specific genes and T cell subsets responsible for rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis and progression