scholarly journals Spores and soil from six sides: interdisciplinarity and the environmental biology of anthrax (Bacillus anthracis)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin J. Carlson ◽  
Wayne M. Getz ◽  
Kyrre L. Kausrud ◽  
Carrie A. Cizauskas ◽  
Jason K. Blackburn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bacillus Anthracis ◽  
Disease Ecology ◽  
Seasonal Pattern ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Ecosystem Structure ◽  
Environmental Biology ◽  
Environmental Persistence ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Anthrax Spores

AbstractEnvironmentally Transmitted Diseases Are Comparatively Poorly Understood And Managed, And Their Ecology Is Particularly Understudied. Here We Identify Challenges Of Studying Environmental Transmission And Persistence With A Six-Sided Interdisciplinary Review Of The Biology Of Anthrax (Bacillus Anthracis). Anthrax Is A Zoonotic Disease Capable Of Maintaining Infectious Spore Banks In Soil For Decades (Or Even Potentially Centuries), And The Mechanisms Of Its Environmental Persistence Have Been The Topic Of Significant Research And Controversy. Where Anthrax Is Endemic, It Plays An Important Ecological Role, Shaping The Dynamics Of Entire Herbivore Communities. The Complex Eco-Epidemiology Of Anthrax, And The Mysterious Biology OfBacillus AnthracisDuring Its Environmental Stage, Have Necessitated An Interdisciplinary Approach To Pathogen Research. Here, We Illustrate Different Disciplinary Perspectives Through Key Advances Made By Researchers Working In Etosha National Park, A Long-Term Ecological Research Site In Namibia That Has Exemplified The Complexities Of Anthrax’S Enzootic Process Over Decades Of Surveillance. In Etosha, The Role Of Scavengers And Alternate Routes (Waterborne Transmission And Flies) Has Proved Unimportant, Relative To The Long-Term Persistence Of Anthrax Spores In Soil And Their Infection Of Herbivore Hosts. Carcass Deposition Facilitates Green-Ups Of Vegetation To Attract Herbivores, Potentially Facilitated By Anthrax Spores’ Role In The Rhizosphere. The Underlying Seasonal Pattern Of Vegetation, And Herbivores’ Immune And Behavioral Responses To Anthrax Risk, Interact To Produce Regular “Anthrax Seasons” That Appear To Be A Stable Feature Of The Etosha Ecosystem. Through The Lens Of Microbiologists, Geneticists, Immunologists, Ecologists, Epidemiologists, And Clinicians, We Discuss How Anthrax Dynamics Are Shaped At The Smallest Scale By Population Genetics And Interactions Within The Bacterial Communities Up To The Broadest Scales Of Ecosystem Structure. We Illustrate The Benefits And Challenges Of This Interdisciplinary Approach To Disease Ecology, And Suggest Ways Anthrax Might Offer Insights Into The Biology Of Other Important Pathogens.Bacillus Anthracis,And The More Recently EmergedBacillus CereusBiovarAnthracis, Share Key Features With Other Environmentally-Transmitted Pathogens, Including Several Zoonoses And Panzootics Of Special Interest For Global Health And Conservation Efforts. Understanding The Dynamics Of Anthrax, And Developing Interdisciplinary Research Programs That Explore Environmental Persistence, Is A Critical Step Forward For Understanding These Emerging Threats.

Coda: Some Reflections on the Long-Term Ecological Research Program

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Schlesinger
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Research ◽  
Environmental Biology ◽  
College Age ◽  
Lake Washington ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Personal Reflections ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Long Term Studies

Ecology has a history of long-term studies that offer great insight to ecosystem processes. The advent of the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program institutionalized long-term studies with some core measurements at a selection of sites across North America. The most successful LTER sites are those that have an energetic leader with a clear vision, who has guided the work over many years. Several LTER sites have established successful education programs for K–12 and college-age students, as well as for science policy-makers. Implementation of more and better cross-site work would be welcome. The various essays in this volume reflect a broad range of experiences among participants in the LTER program. Nearly all are positive: only mad dogs bite the hand that feeds them. All authors appreciate the advantages of long-term funding for their research and lament that funding of the LTER program by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is so limited. There are numerous testimonials for how the LTER program has changed and broadened participation in collaborative science. The real question is whether the LTER program has allowed science to proceed faster, deeper, broader, and with more critical insight than if the program had not been created. To answer that question, I offer a few personal reflections on the LTER program. First, we must note that long-term research existed well before the LTER program. Edmondson began his long-term measurements of exogenous phosphorus in Lake Washington in the early 1950s (Edmondson 1991). Across the country, Herb Bormann and Gene Likens began long-term studies, now in their 50th year, of forest biogeochemistry at Hubbard Brook in 1963 (Likens 2013). Each of these long-term studies enjoys ample coverage in every text of introductory ecology. The advantages of long-term research are undisputed among those who are funded for it. Indeed, NSF embraces a wide variety of decade-long studies with its Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) program. The authors of several chapters recall how Howard Odum’s early work focused their attention on the connections between large units of the landscape.

scholarly journals Fluctuations of the population of Daphnia laevis Birge 1878: a six-year study in a tropical lake

2012 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
LPM. Brandão ◽  
T. Fajardo ◽  
E. Eskinazi-Sant'Anna ◽  
S. Brito ◽  
P. Maia-Barbosa
Keyword(s):  
Chlorophyll A ◽  
Total Phosphorus ◽  
Trophic State ◽  
Trophic Status ◽  
Seasonal Pattern ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
Total Phosphorous ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Physical And Chemical

The fluctuation of the population of Daphnia laevis in Lake Jacaré (Middle River Doce, Minas Gerais) was monitored monthly (at one point in the limnetic region) for six years (2002-2007) as part of the Program of Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER/UFMG). The following parameters were also monitored: water temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, total phosphorus, phosphate, total nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and densities of Chaoborus and ephippia of Daphnia laevis in the sediment. A seasonal pattern was observed in the fluctuation of D. laevis, with higher densities recorded during periods of circulation (May-August). A significant correlation was found between the density of D. laevis and temperature (r = -0.47, p = 0.0001), chlorophyll-a (r = -0.32, p = 0.016) and indicators of the lake's trophic status (total phosphorus, r = 0.32, p = 0.007 and trophic state, r = 0.36, p = 0.003), as well as Chaoborus density (r = 0.43 and p = 0.002). These results indicate that changes in the physical and chemical characteristics of the water related with stratification and circulation of the lake may have a direct (temperature, total phosphorous) or an indirect (food availability, presence of predators, ephippia eclosion) influence on the fluctuation of the D. laevis population.

Networking: From the Long-Term Ecological Research Program to the National Ecological Observatory Network

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce P. Hayden
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Cape Cod ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
Environmental Biology ◽  
The North ◽  
Virginia Coast Reserve ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Disciplinary Background

As a scientist, the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program has been on my mind for more than three decades. As an educator, I have served in the classroom for 41 years. The merger of the physical and the ecological sciences was at the core of my teaching philosophy. As a science communicator, I informed the general public on issues of climate and climate change. As a collaborator, I found that understanding strengths and weaknesses in collaborative partnerships best ensures success. As a science leader, I served at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the Director of the Division of Environmental Biology (DEB), established the Schoolyard LTER Program, and launched the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). My disciplinary background includes formal graduate education at the University of Wisconsin in meteorology, climatology, and paleoclimatology, as well as in oceanography and biology (mycology, botany, zoology, and genecology). As a postdoctoral fellow, my scientific identity was on track to culminate as a paleoclimatologist. As an assistant and associate professor, my identity morphed to include coastal geomorphology (Hayden et al. 1995). Finally, my experiences in the LTER program have vectored my career toward the interactions of climate and vegetation (Hayden 1998). My affiliation is with the Virginia Coast Reserve (VCR) site in the LTER program (1986–2014). As one of the founding principal investigators of the VCR site, I have served in subsequent renewals as its principal or co-principal investigator. Our site-based research plan focused on the Virginia Coast Reserve on Virginia’s eastern shore with a focus on the dynamics of the chain of 14 barrier islands, bounded by the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay to the south and Assateague Barrier Island to the north. This peninsula is 100 km in length by 20 km in width. Only the islands fronting the Mississippi delta are more dynamic in both the temporal and spatial domains. Prior to joining the LTER program, my research was hemispheric to regional in scope, and it focused on the environmental dynamics of the Atlantic Coast from Florida to Cape Cod at 50-m intervals (Fenster and Hayden 2007).

Twenty-five years of vegetation change along a putative successional chronosequence on the Tanana River, AlaskaThis article is one of a selection of papers from The Dynamics of Change in Alaska’s Boreal Forests: Resilience and Vulnerability in Response to Climate Warming.

2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 1273-1287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa N. Hollingsworth ◽  
Andrea H. Lloyd ◽  
Dana R. Nossov ◽  
Roger W. Ruess ◽  
Brian A. Charlton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Vegetation Change ◽  
Turning Points ◽  
Community Change ◽  
Ecosystem Structure ◽  
Mature Trees ◽  
Successional Stage ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research

Along the Tanana River floodplain, several turning points have been suggested to characterize the changes in ecosystem structure and function that accompany plant community changes through primary succession. In the past, much of this research focused on a presumed chronosequence that uses space for time substitutions. Within this chronosequence, permanent vegetation plots repeatedly measured over time provide an excellent test of the turning points model. We analyzed both canopy and understory vegetation data collected since 1987 in the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest at the Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research site to address the following questions: (i) Do long-term changes in the densities of seedling, sapling, and mature trees and shrubs of the dominant woody taxa at each successional stage support the turning points model? (ii) How does the entire plant community change with time at each hypothesized turning point? (iii) Do we see evidence of directional and synchronous shifts in species composition across successional stages? We conclude that some aspects of vegetation change during the last 25 years were consistent with the turning points model; however, many changes were not consistent, indicating the potential roles of biological, environmental, landscape, and climate controls in vegetation patterns.

Perspectives on a 30-Year Career of Salt Marsh Research

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Morris
Keyword(s):  
South Carolina ◽  
Salt Marsh ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Early Career ◽  
North Inlet ◽  
University Of South Carolina ◽  
Environmental Biology ◽  
School Students ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research

A hallmark of my career has been the development of a model of the responses of salt marsh vascular plants to changes in sea level. This discovery would not have been possible without long-term support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) and Long-Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) programs. The LTER and LTREB programs have provided platforms for student research that would have been difficult or impossible to duplicate. Most of my students have benefited from the background of data, which stimulate a never-ending source of thesis topics and from the logistical support. My communication skills have been improved by LTER-sponsored workshops with journalists. I also have had an opportunity to share my enthusiasm for fieldwork with primary school students and teachers. Many of my numerous collaborations are consequences of novel, long-term data that emerged from research supported by the LTER and LTREB programs. There are important environmental trends that develop slowly in response to climate or that reveal themselves infrequently, such as disturbance responses, thresholds, and tipping points. These require long-term, place-based observation of the kind that the LTER and LTREB programs are designed to facilitate. My history with the LTER program began in the late 1970s. As a Yale graduate student working at The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole, I participated in a workshop organized by Dan Botkin to develop a rationale for a longterm ecological monitoring program (Botkin 1978). After a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship, I moved in 1981 to the University of South Carolina (USC), which had sponsored one of the first LTER sites, North Inlet (NIN). North Inlet was the perfect place for starting a research program in salt marsh ecology, and my research there eventually was supported by the NSF LTREB program. I owe a great deal to NSF for that. My early career benefited enormously from infrastructure at USC’s field laboratory and support by the NIN LTER program, which I did not fully appreciate at the time.

scholarly journals Estimating parasite host range

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1861) ◽  
pp. 20171250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tad Dallas ◽  
Shan Huang ◽  
Charles Nunn ◽  
Andrew W. Park ◽  
John M. Drake
Keyword(s):  
Host Range ◽  
Host Species ◽  
Disease Ecology ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Simulated Data ◽  
Host Community ◽  
Estimation Accuracy ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
Host Parasite

Estimating the number of host species that a parasite can infect (i.e. host range) provides key insights into the evolution of host specialism and is a central concept in disease ecology. Host range is rarely estimated in real systems, however, because variation in species relative abundance and the detection of rare species makes it challenging to confidently estimate host range. We applied a non-parametric richness indicator to estimate host range in simulated and empirical data, allowing us to assess the influence of sampling heterogeneity and data completeness. After validating our method on simulated data, we estimated parasite host range for a sparsely sampled global parasite occurrence database (Global Mammal Parasite Database) and a repeatedly sampled set of parasites of small mammals from New Mexico (Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research Program). Estimation accuracy varied strongly with parasite taxonomy, number of parasite occurrence records, and the shape of host species-abundance distribution (i.e. the dominance and rareness of species in the host community). Our findings suggest that between 20% and 40% of parasite host ranges are currently unknown, highlighting a major gap in our understanding of parasite specificity, host–parasite network structure, and parasite burdens.

National coastal management challenges and needs

Shore & Beach ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 34-43
Author(s):  
Nicole Elko ◽  
Tiffany Roberts Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Management ◽  
Harmful Algal Blooms ◽  
Algal Blooms ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Extreme Event ◽  
Technical Information ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Beach Erosion ◽  
The U.S

In partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program (USGS CMHRP) and the U.S. Coastal Research Program (USCRP), the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association (ASBPA) has identified coastal stakeholders’ top coastal management challenges. Informed by two annual surveys, a multiple-choice online poll was conducted in 2019 to evaluate stakeholders’ most pressing problems and needs, including those they felt most ill-equipped to deal with in their day-to-day duties and which tools they most need to address these challenges. The survey also explored where users find technical information and what is missing. From these results, USGS CMHRP, USCRP, ASBPA, and other partners aim to identify research needs that will inform appropriate investments in useful science, tools, and resources to address today’s most pressing coastal challenges. The 15-question survey yielded 134 complete responses with an 80% completion rate from coastal stakeholders such as local community representatives and their industry consultants, state and federal agency representatives, and academics. Respondents from the East, Gulf, West, and Great Lakes coasts, as well as Alaska and Hawaii, were represented. Overall, the prioritized coastal management challenges identified by the survey were: Deteriorating ecosystems leading to reduced (environmental, recreational, economic, storm buffer) functionality, Increasing storminess due to climate change (i.e. more frequent and intense impacts), Coastal flooding, both Sea level rise and associated flooding (e.g. nuisance flooding, king tides), and Combined effects of rainfall and surge on urban flooding (i.e. episodic, short-term), Chronic beach erosion (i.e. high/increasing long-term erosion rates), and Coastal water quality, including harmful algal blooms (e.g. red tide, sargassum). A careful, systematic, and interdisciplinary approach should direct efforts to identify specific research needed to tackle these challenges. A notable shift in priorities from erosion to water-related challenges was recorded from respondents with organizations initially formed for beachfront management. In addition, affiliation-specific and regional responses varied, such as Floridians concern more with harmful algal blooms than any other human and ecosystem health related challenge. The most common need for additional coastal management tools and strategies related to adaptive coastal management to maintain community resilience and continuous storm barriers (dunes, structures), as the top long-term and extreme event needs, respectively. In response to questions about missing information that agencies can provide, respondents frequently mentioned up-to-date data on coastal systems and solutions to challenges as more important than additional tools.

scholarly journals Connectivity: insights from the U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network

Ecosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Iwaniec ◽  
Michael Gooseff ◽  
Katharine N. Suding ◽  
David Samuel Johnson ◽  
Daniel C. Reed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Research Network ◽  
Ecological Research ◽  
Long Term Ecological Research ◽  
The U.S
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