Genetic variation among North American populations of<Emphasis Type="Italic">Phragmites australis</Emphasis>: Implications for management

Over the past century, the distribution and abundance ofPhragmites australis (common reed) has dramatically increased in both freshwater and brackish wetlands throughout North America. It has been hypothesized that the increased competitive ability ofPhragmites could be the result of an introduction of a more aggressive genotype. Sequence data from 2 noncoding regions of the chloroplast genome show that, historically, 11 native haplotypes were found across North America and population-structuring distinguishing samples from the Atlantic Coast, Midwest, West, and Gulf Coast regions of the continent was evident. Today a single genetically-distinct haplotype dominates the Atlantic Coast and is also found across the continent in lower frequencies; this type is common in Europe and Asia and has most likely been introduced to North America. Comparisons of modern populations with historic samples show that along the Atlantic Coast, this cosmopolitan type has replaced native haplotypes and it is invading new sites throughout the rest of the country. In the Midwest and West, native populations are still common but introduced populations are found along roadsides throughout the area. Gulf Coast populations are dominated by another population type that is genetically distinct from all other North American population types.     

Challenging the planetary boundaries II: Assessing the sustainable global population and phosphate supply,using a systems dynamics assessment model

A systems dynamics model was developed to assess the planetary boundary for P supply in relation to use by human society. It is concluded that present day use rates and poor recycling rates of P are unsustainable at timescales beyond 100+ a. The predictions made suggest that P will become a scarce and expensive material in the future. The study shows clearly that market mechanisms alone will not be able to secure an efficient use before a large part of the resource will have been allowed to dissipate into the natural environment. It is suggested that population size management and effective recycling measures must be planned long term to avoid unpleasant consequences of hunger and necessary corrections imposed on society by mass balance and thermodynamics.     

A semantic registry using a Feature Type Catalogue instead of ontologies to support spatial data infrastructures

The use of a semantically rich registry containing a Feature Type Catalogue (FTC) to represent the semantics of geographic feature types including operations, attributes and relationships between feature types is required to realise the benefits of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). Specifically, such information provides a more complete representation of the semantics of the concepts used in the SDI, and enables advanced navigation, discovery and utilisation of discovered resources. The presented approach creates an FTC implementation in which attributes, associations and operations for a given feature type are encapsulated within the FTC, and these conceptual representations are separated from the implementation aspects of the web services that may realise the operations in the FTC. This differs from previous approaches that combine the implementation and conceptual aspects of behaviour in a web service ontology, but separate the behavioural aspects from the static aspects of the semantics of the concept or feature type. These principles are demonstrated by the implementation of such a registry using open standards. The ebXML Registry Information Model (ebRIM) was used to incorporate the FTC described in ISO 19110 by extending the Open Geospatial Consortium ebRIM Profile for the Web Catalogue Service (CSW) and adding a number of stored queries to allow the FTC component of the standards‐compliant registry to be interrogated. The registry was populated with feature types from the marine domain, incorporating objects that conform to both the object and field views of the world. The implemented registry demonstrates the benefits of inheritance of feature type operations, attributes and associations, the ability to navigate around the FTC and the advantages of separating the conceptual from the implementation aspects of the FTC. Further work is required to formalise the model and include axioms to allow enhanced semantic expressiveness and the development of reasoning capabilities.     

Domestic Environmental Benefits of China's Energy-Related CDM Potential

We estimate the domestic environmental and health benefits of exploiting China's energy-related CDM potential. Exploiting the CDM potential may save between 3,000 and 40,000 lives annually. Additional gains are estimated to reach upwards from 1 billion RMB annually. The key to these gains is the fact that actions and measures to reduce CO₂ emissions also reduce emissions of TSP and SO₂. In our estimate, exploiting the CDM-potential will cut SO₂-emissions by between one-half and three million tons annually. To arrive at these conclusions we synthesize a significant body of recent research on co-benefits of climate abatement in China.     

The 6dF Galaxy Survey: final redshift release (DR3) and southern large-scale structures

We report the final redshift release of the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS), a combined redshift and peculiar velocity survey over the southern sky  (| b | > 10°)  . Its 136 304 spectra have yielded 110 256 new extragalactic redshifts and a new catalogue of 125 071 galaxies making near-complete samples with  ( K , H , J , r _F, b _J) ≤ (12.65, 12.95, 13.75, 15.60, 16.75)  . The median redshift of the survey is 0.053. Survey data, including images, spectra, photometry and redshifts, are available through an online data base. We describe changes to the information in the data base since earlier interim data releases. Future releases will include velocity dispersions, distances and peculiar velocities for the brightest early-type galaxies, comprising about 10 per cent of the sample. Here we provide redshift maps of the southern local Universe with   z ≤ 0.1  , showing nearby large-scale structures in hitherto unseen detail. A number of regions known previously to have a paucity of galaxies are confirmed as significantly underdense regions. The URL of the 6dFGS data base is http://www-wfau.roe.ac.uk/6dFGS .     

Sinking ships: conservation options for endemic taxa threatened by sea level rise

Low-elevation islands face threats from sea level rise (SLR) and increased storm intensity. Evidence of endangered species?? population declines and shifts in vegetation communities are already underway in the Florida Keys. SLR predictions indicate large areas of these habitats may be eliminated in the next century. Using the Florida Keys as a model system, we present a process for evaluating conservation options for rare and endemic taxa. Considering species characteristics and habitat, we assess central issues that influence conservation options. We contrast traditional and controversial options for two animal and two plant species giving special emphasis to perceptions of ecological risk and safety from SLR and suggest courses of action. Multiple strategies will be required to spread extinction risk and will be effective for different time periods. Global climate change presents an uncertain, perhaps no-analog future that will challenge land managers and practitioners to re-evaluate equilibrium-state-conceived laws and policies not only for these taxa, but for many facing similar threats. To embrace conservation in a changing world will require a new dialogue that includes controversial ideas, a review of existing laws and policies, and preparation for the oncoming change.     

The dilemma of decontamination: A Gramscian analysis of the Mexican transgenic maize dispute

An intense environmental dispute surrounds the maize-fields of Mexico. Mexican maize traditional varieties (or ‘landraces’) constitute a global genetic resource that may well be critical to future agricultural development and corn breeding. Many environmentalists, farmers, and consumers in Mexico are therefore concerned that their maize landraces may have been ‘contaminated’ by imported transgenic maize, grown in the USA. The criticisms of this transgenic technology are complex and call into question the nature of the boundary between political and ecological (i.e. scientific) disputes. Our paper surveys these criticisms, and this political-scientific boundary, in a three-part analysis. First, we turn to Gramsci’s notes on science from his eleventh prison notebook to rethink the political ecology of transgenic maize, i.e., the way the ecological analysis of transgenic introgression is treated as politics. Second, we present the multiple criticisms of transgenic maize as scalar phenomena. Third, we review the recent scientific literature on transgene introgression to evaluate recent calls for the ‘decontamination’ of Mexican maize. Our reading illustrates two dilemmas facing the group that occupies the hegemonic subject-position in this dispute, ecological scientists. First, the popular desire to ‘decontaminate’ Mexican maize exceeds their capacities (due to complications involved with sampling). Second, although the political debate surrounding ‘contaminated’ Mexican maize exceeds science, the boundary between the dispute’s scientific and parascientific elements cannot be adjudicated scientifically. In other words, the boundary between science and politics is porous. Thus in two respects the dispute is ecological, yet beyond the capacity of this science to resolve. Yet, following Gramsci, these findings should not lead us to see science as mere ideology, or apolitical, or encourage a retreat into metaphysics. Rather it points to the need for a social transformation that sees science as “humanity forging its methods of research … in other words, culture, the conception of the world.” By exploring the dilemmas of decontamination, the dispute over transgene introgression in Mexican maize-fields provides an opportunity to elaborate upon Gramsci’s neglected insights into the politics of science.     

Large-Scale Avalanche Braking Mound and Catching Dam Experiments with Snow: A Study of the Airborne Jet

We report a series of ongoing large-scale experiments to studythe interaction of a snow avalanche with a dam and a row of mounds which are of a comparable height to the flow depth.The experimental results indicate that the behaviour of thesupercritical flow around the obstacles is governed by the large-scale properties of the flowing avalanche rather than micro-scaleproperties of the granular current.The experiments show that, similarly to smaller-scale experimentswith glass particles, the avalanche detaches from the top of the dam or mound and forms a coherentairborne jet, which can be modelled as a two dimensional ballistic projectile with negligible air resistance.We study the two parameters that define the trajectory of thejet, namely the speed at which the jet is launched from the top of the obstacle and the deflection of the jet by the obstacle, and compare the resultswith a theory for the deflection of a jet of an ideal fluid.