scholarly journals Aquatic Ecosystems of the Anthropocene: Limnology and Microbial Ecology of Mine Pit Lakes

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1207
Author(s):  
Melanie L. Blanchette ◽  
Mark A. Lund
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Aquatic Ecosystems ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Microbial Community Composition ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Pit Lakes ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Australian Coal

Mine pit lakes (‘pit lakes’) are new aquatic ecosystems of the Anthropocene. Potentially hundreds of meters deep, these lakes are prominent in the landscape and in the public consciousness. However, the ecology of pit lakes is underrepresented in the literature. The broad goal of this research was to determine the environmental drivers of pelagic microbe assemblages in Australian coal pit lakes. The overall experimental design was four lakes sampled three times, top and bottom, in 2019. Instrument chains were installed in lakes and measurements of in situ water quality and water samples for metals, metalloids, nutrients and microbe assemblage were collected. Lakes were monomictic and the timing of mixing was influenced by high rainfall events. Water quality and microbial assemblages varied significantly across space and time, and most taxa were rare. Lakes were moderately saline and circumneutral; Archeans were not prevalent. Richness also varied by catchment. Microbial assemblages correlated to environmental variables, and no one variable was consistently significant, spatially or temporally. Study lakes were dominated by ‘core’ taxa exhibiting temporal turnover likely driven by geography, water quality and interspecific competition, and the presence of water chemistry associated with an artificial aquifer likely influenced microbial community composition. Pit lakes are deceptively complex aquatic ecosystems that host equally complex pelagic microbial communities. This research established links between microbial assemblages and environmental variables in pit lakes and determined core communities; the first steps towards developing a monitoring program using microbes.

scholarly journals Assessing the occurrence of cyanotoxins in two urban reservoirs through a community science monitoring program

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Emily C. Kinzinger
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Water Quality Monitoring ◽  
Quality Parameters ◽  
Cyanobacterial Blooms ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
School Students ◽  
One Year ◽  
Community Science

Cyanobacterial blooms are an ongoing threat to aquatic systems worldwide. These potentially toxic blooms have typically been observed in summer to early fall, but there are increasing reports of blooms in colder seasons. From the few studies available, weknow that blooms can produce toxins in the winter. The objective of this research was to assess the year-round presence, concentration, and environmental drivers of the cyanotoxins microcystin and cylindrospermopsin in two reservoirs located in Columbia, Missouri, USA. To fulfill this objective, I coordinated and managed the Reservoir Observer Student Scientists (ROSS) program. This community science initiative combined educating high school students about limnology and cyanobacterial blooms with training students hands-on to collect weekly water quality samples. Data for this project was collected over two years in Bethel Lake and one year in Stephens Lake. We found detectable concentrations of the cyanotoxins year-round. There was no relationship between microcystin nor cylindrospermopsin and chlorophyll-a in either reservoir. Presence and concentration of microcystin and cylindrospermopsin were related to physical water quality parameters in Bethel Lake. This study provides evidence for the necessity of year-round water quality monitoring.

scholarly journals Coliform density in oyster culture waters and its relationship with environmental factors

2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 833-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciene Mignani ◽  
Edison Barbieri ◽  
Helcio Luis de Almeida Marques ◽  
Ana Julia Fernandes Cardoso de Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
Total Coliform ◽  
Oyster Culture ◽  
Crop Fields ◽  
Thermotolerant Coliforms ◽  
Tidal Variations ◽  
Marine Culture

The objective of this work was to evaluate the total and thermotolerant coliform densities in the oyster culture water of Cananeia, SP, Brazil, correlating these densities with environmental variables and tidal variations. Superficial water samples were collected in two tide conditions (spring and neap) from three areas of Cananéia municipality (Mandira, Itapitangui and Cooperostra). The three studied areas showed good conditions for the culture regarding coliform densities. The two tidal conditions differed significantly as to total coliform concentration; however, the same procedure was not performed for thermotolerant coliforms. No correlation was observed between water temperature, pH, and concentrations of total and thermotolerant coliforms. Coliform density was positively correlated with rainfall and negatively correlated with salinity. Spring and neap tides differed significantly as to coliform number. Simple diagnosis of environmental conditions of the crop fields is insufficient to assess water quality of shellfish cultivation. A continuous monitoring program of planted areas is necessary both for the assessment of water quality potential for marine culture and for ensuring safe consumption of seafood, besides constituting an important tool to understand the relationships between contamination and the involved environmental variables.

scholarly journals Functional and taxonomic biogeography of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities in relation to environmental variation across the contiguous USA

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elder De Oliveira Sodré ◽  
Alexandre Langlais-Bourassa ◽  
Amina I Pollard ◽  
Beatrix E Beisner
Keyword(s):  
Aquatic Ecosystems ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Taxonomic Resolution ◽  
Anthropogenic Activity ◽  
Genus Level ◽  
Environmental Responses ◽  
Zooplankton Communities ◽  
Plankton Communities ◽  
Planktonic Communities

Abstract For biomonitoring of aquatic ecosystems, the use of coarse group classifications, either taxonomic or functional, has been proposed as an alternative to more highly resolved taxonomic identification. We tested this proposition for phytoplankton and zooplankton using a pan-United States dataset, which also allows us to investigate biogeographic relationships between plankton groups and environmental variables. We used data from 1010 lakes composing the 2012 US National Lakes Assessment and compared relationships derived using genus-level, more aggregated taxonomic resolution and functional types. We examined responses nationally and by ecoregion. Differences in plankton assemblages among ecoregions were detected, especially at genus-level classification. Our analyses show a gradient of altitude and temperature influencing both phytoplankton and zooplankton, and another gradient of nutrients and anthropogenic activity influencing mostly phytoplankton. The overall variation in the planktonic communities explained by environmental variables ranged from 4 to 22%, but together indicated that aggregated taxonomic classification performed better for phytoplankton; for zooplankton, the performance of different classification types depended on the ecoregion. Our analyses also revealed linkages between particular phytoplankton and zooplankton groups, mainly attributable to similar environmental responses and trophic interactions. Overall, the results support the applicability of coarse classifications to infer general responses of plankton communities to environmental drivers.

scholarly journals Machine Learning Predicts the Presence of 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene in Sediments of a Baltic Sea Munitions Dumpsite Using Microbial Community Compositions

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Janßen ◽  
Aaron J. Beck ◽  
Johannes Werner ◽  
Olaf Dellwig ◽  
Johannes Alneberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Microbial Community ◽  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Microbial Communities ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Microbial Community Composition ◽  
Amplicon Sequencing ◽  
R Package ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Rrna Gene

Bacteria are ubiquitous and live in complex microbial communities. Due to differences in physiological properties and niche preferences among community members, microbial communities respond in specific ways to environmental drivers, potentially resulting in distinct microbial fingerprints for a given environmental state. As proof of the principle, our goal was to assess the opportunities and limitations of machine learning to detect microbial fingerprints indicating the presence of the munition compound 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) in southwestern Baltic Sea sediments. Over 40 environmental variables including grain size distribution, elemental composition, and concentration of munition compounds (mostly at pmol⋅g–1 levels) from 150 sediments collected at the near-to-shore munition dumpsite Kolberger Heide by the German city of Kiel were combined with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing libraries. Prediction was achieved using Random Forests (RFs); the robustness of predictions was validated using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). To facilitate machine learning with microbiome data we developed the R package phyloseq2ML. Using the most classification-relevant 25 bacterial genera exclusively, potentially representing a TNT-indicative fingerprint, TNT was predicted correctly with up to 81.5% balanced accuracy. False positive classifications indicated that this approach also has the potential to identify samples where the original TNT contamination was no longer detectable. The fact that TNT presence was not among the main drivers of the microbial community composition demonstrates the sensitivity of the approach. Moreover, environmental variables resulted in poorer prediction rates than using microbial fingerprints. Our results suggest that microbial communities can predict even minor influencing factors in complex environments, demonstrating the potential of this approach for the discovery of contamination events over an integrated period of time. Proven for a distinct environment future studies should assess the ability of this approach for environmental monitoring in general.

The Specific Features of Public Relations Maintained by Libraries, Acting as Cultural Institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-152
Author(s):  
Radosław Molenda
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Significant Question

Showing the specificity of the work of the contemporary library, and the variety of its tasks, which go far beyond the lending of books. The specificity of the library’s public relations concerning different aspects of its activity. The internal and external functions of the library’s public relations and their specificity. The significant question of motivating the social environment to use the offer of libraries, and simulta-neously the need to change the negative perception of the library, which discourages part of its poten-tial users from taking advantage of its services. The negative stereotypes of librarians’ work perpetuated in the public consciousness and their harmful character. The need to change the public relations of libra-ries and librarians with a view to improving the realization of the tasks they face. Showing the public relations tools which may serve to change the image of librarians and libraries with particular emphasis on social media. This article is a review article, highlighting selected research on the librarian’s stereo-type and suggesting actions that change the image of librarians and libraries.

Interaction of Ukrainian Diaspora and the USA Government Regarding Celebration of Ukrainian Independence Day on January 22

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (47) ◽  
pp. 136-145
Author(s):  
Halyna Shchyhelska
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
The United States ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
The Public ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
The Usa

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Ukrainian independence. OnJanuary 22, 1918, the Ukrainian People’s Republic proclaimed its independence by adopting the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada, although this significant event was «wiped out» from the public consciousness on the territory of Ukraine during the years of the Soviet totalitarian regime. At the same time, January 22 was a crucial event for the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA. This article examines how American Ukrainians interacted with the USA Government institutions regarding the celebration and recognition of the Ukrainian Independence day on January 22. The attention is focused on the activities of ethnic Ukrainians in the United States, directed at the organization of the special celebration of the Ukrainian Independence anniversaries in the US Congress and cities. Drawing from the diaspora press and Congressional Records, this article argues that many members of Congress participated in the observed celebration and expressed kind feelings to the Ukrainian people, recognised their fight for freedom, during the House of Representatives and Senate sessions. Several Congressmen submitted the resolutions in the US Congress urging the President of United States to designate January 22 as «Ukrainian lndependence Day». January 22 was proclaimed Ukrainian Day by the governors of fifteen States and mayors of many cities. Keywords: January 22, Ukrainian independence day, Ukrainian diaspora, USA, interaction, Congress

Pre-Rehearsal Questions of Performance Tradition and Play-Selection

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Jeffs
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish Golden Age ◽  
Royal Shakespeare Company ◽  
The Public ◽  
Performance Tradition ◽  
Performance Traditions ◽  
Public Consciousness

This chapter asks the questions: ‘what is the Spanish Golden Age and why should we stage its plays now?’ The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Spanish season of 2004–5 came at a particularly ripe time for Golden Age plays to enter the public consciousness. This chapter introduces the Golden Age period and authors whose works were chosen for the season, and the performance traditions from the corrales of Spain to festivals in the United States. The chapter then treats the decision taken by the RSC to initiate a Golden Age season, delves into the play-selection process, and discusses the role of the literal translator in this first step towards a season. Then the chapter looks at ‘the ones that got away’, the plays that almost made the cut for production, and other worthy scripts from this period that deserve consideration for future productions.

scholarly journals Historical Assessments of Inorganic Pollutants in the Sinkhole Region of Winkler County, Texas, USA

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 7513
Author(s):  
Joshua Lozano ◽  
Joonghyeok Heo ◽  
Mijin Seo
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Water Contamination ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Anthropogenic Activities ◽  
Inorganic Pollutants ◽  
Safety Standards ◽  
The Public ◽  
West Texas ◽  
Contamination Levels

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the public water contamination levels of Winkler County, in West Texas. With water scarcity becoming more prevalent in arid climates like West Texas, it is important to ensure the water quality in these areas. The Dockum and Pecos Valley aquifers were analyzed for inorganic pollutants that could inhibit the water. The parameters such as copper, lead, arsenic, nitrate, chloride, and chromium level reports were provided from 1972 to 2018 to analyze and compare to other studies such as the ones conducted in the Midland/Odessa area. The results were compared to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safety standards, and conclusions were made for the safety consumption of water within the county. We found that inorganic pollutants resulted mainly from the mobilization of the contaminant from anthropogenic activities such as chemical fertilizers, oil and gas developments. This research provides important information for inorganic pollutants in the sinkhole region of Winkler County and contributes to understanding the response to the aquifers. The significance of water quality in West Texas is now more important than ever to ensure that everyone has clean drinking water.

scholarly journals How Perceptions of Trust, Risk, Tap Water Quality, and Salience Characterize Drinking Water Choices

Hydrology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Madeline A. Grupper ◽  
Madeline E. Schreiber ◽  
Michael G. Sorice
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Water Utility ◽  
The Public ◽  
Water Behavior

Provision of safe drinking water by water utilities is challenged by disturbances to water quality that have become increasingly frequent due to global changes and anthropogenic impacts. Many water utilities are turning to adaptable and flexible strategies to allow for resilient management of drinking water supplies. The success of resilience-based management depends on, and is enabled by, positive relationships with the public. To understand how relationships between managers and communities spill over to in-home drinking water behavior, we examined the role of trust, risk perceptions, salience of drinking water, and water quality evaluations in the choice of in-home drinking water sources for a population in Roanoke Virginia. Using survey data, our study characterized patterns of in-home drinking water behavior and explored related perceptions to determine if residents’ perceptions of their water and the municipal water utility could be intuited from this behavior. We characterized drinking water behavior using a hierarchical cluster analysis and highlighted the importance of studying a range of drinking water patterns. Through analyses of variance, we found that people who drink more tap water have higher trust in their water managers, evaluate water quality more favorably, have lower risk perceptions, and pay less attention to changes in their tap water. Utility managers may gauge information about aspects of their relationships with communities by examining drinking water behavior, which can be used to inform their future interactions with the public, with the goal of increasing resilience and adaptability to external water supply threats.

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