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Ecosystem Services: Pollinators and Pollination
Published in Yeqiao Wang, Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biodiversity, 2020
The cycling of nutrients is another primary supportive service. Some pollinator guilds (functional groups), such as ground nesting bees and wasps, assist in nutrient cycling and soil aeration by their digging actions. About 60% of bee species nest in the ground.[11,12] For example, large ground-nesting bees in the genus Habropoda (pictured emerging from a nest in Figure 19.2) tunnel into hillsides and slopes, loosening soil. Pollinators also have a role in maintaining reproduction in plants that fix and cycle nitrogen as many legumes are bee-pollinated.[13]
Assessment of risks to listed species from the use of atrazine in the USA: a perspective
Published in Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, 2021
Philip N Smith, Kevin L Armbrust, Richard A. Brain, Wenlin Chen, Nika Galic, Lula Ghebremichael, Jeffrey M Giddings, Mark L Hanson, Jonathan Maul, Glen Van Der Kraak, Keith R Solomon
As a tier-0 screening step, it is possible to exclude some species of animals from exposure and possible direct effects based on feeding guild (USEPA 2020e). Because atrazine does not biomagnify and is rapidly excreted in animals, carnivores would not be exposed directly via the food chain. However, herbivores could potentially be exposed directly if they feed on recently sprayed plants or crops, and invertivores and fungivores via consumption of directly oversprayed food items (i.e., insects and fungi, respectively). As an example, listed species from states where corn, sorghum and sugarcane are grown are listed along with their feeding guilds and potential for exposure via diet (Table 8). The American burying beetle, Hine’s emerald dragonfly, and cave dwellers will not be exposed via the food chain and can be excluded from further consideration of direct effects. Other factors, such as nocturnal or crepuscular feeding activity which would not coincide with spraying may also form the basis for exclusion of listed species from further consideration.
Restoration of Coastal Beach Forming Ecosystem Processes through Shoreline Armoring Removal of a Former Mine Site Increases Our Understanding of Coastal Resiliency and Large Scale Landslides Along the Northeast Pacific Coastline
Published in International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment, 2021
Anne Shaffer, Dave Parks, Jamie Michel, Kirsten Simonsen, Katrina Campbell, Bob Oxborrow, Jonathan Hall, Jennifer Weslowski
The ecological response to drift cell scale restoration of physical sediment hydrodynamics was defined by quantifying the change in standard coastal ecological metrics: beach profiles, erosion rates of mole feature, and ecological metrics of Large Woody Debris (LWD) amount and size, beach wrack sediment grain size, community composition and diversity indices, and surf smelt egg distribution. Large woody debris is important for beach formation. Beach wrack (also known as drift algae) is a critical food source and the basis for higher trophic systems including migrating birds and fish. Similarly, surf smelt are one of a guild of fish known as ‘forage fish’ which are a critical component to the Salish sea ecosystem and are prey species for Chinook and coho salmon depended on by southern resident killer whales that are the focus of significant conservation management and restoration efforts. Surf smelt have a very specific grain size requirement for spawning, making them an extremely useful indicator of habitat suitability and change [10]. We quantitatively documented the response of these metrics along both sides of the restored site before and after site restoration and relative to pre-project and a comparative site. We then apply these results to an inventory of large-scale landslides characteristic of the region to provide important insight into how large-scale landslides influence intertidal nearshore morphology.
Advancing ecohydraulics and ecohydrology by clarifying the role of their component interdisciplines
Published in Journal of Ecohydraulics, 2019
Marie-Pierre Gosselin, Valérie Ouellet, Atle Harby, John Nestler
The science of environmental flows (including ecological flows) (Petts 2009) was one of the first topics of ecohydraulics and has been a consistent emphasis at ISE symposia. Initially, e-flows approaches (we use “e-flow” for both environmental and ecological flows) were purely “instream flow” approaches aimed at characterizing the flow regime that is suitable to integrate the life history requirements of a target species or guild of organisms (Tennant 1976). Gradually, purely “instream flows” determinations expanded to broader e-flows approaches that incorporate not only the life cycles and requirements of instream biota but biota in adjacent biotopes and ecosystems, such as riparian zones and floodplains, to finally include the water use requirements of a variety of stakeholders and end users (Arthington et al. 2018b; World Bank 2018). The spatial expansion of the science domain outside of the main channel was accompanied by an equivalent expansion in the participation of disciplines to include demographics, social sciences, environmental economics, tourism and recreational aspects through the valuation of ecosystem services (Lokgariwar et al. 2014; Arthington et al. 2018a). E-flow science exemplifies the linkages between ecohydraulics and ecohydrology and demonstrates that these two disciplines can be complementary in holistic, long time and large-spatial scale applications.