Differences of Gut Microbiota in the Freshwater Blackworm (Lumbriculus variegatus: Oligochaeta) in Two Different Habitat Conditions

The distribution of organisms is governed by their habitat condition. We analyzed bacterial communities in the gut of the blackworm Lumbriculus variegatus by pyrosequencing of the extracted intestinal metagenomic DNA. Blackworms were collected from two sampling sites with differences in irradiance and riparian vegetation, where site GP7 was covered by riparian vegetation and site GP8 was exposed to sunlight. We obtained the filtered 6414 reads from three samples of each site. At GP7, 271 OTUs were identified, including 32 OTUs unique to the site, whereas at GP8, 238 OTUs were identified, including 22 unique OTUs. Among them, 18 OTUs were shared between both sites. The phylum Proteobacteria was a major component contributing 67.84% and 64.05% of sequences at sites GP7 and GP8, respectively, while each remaining phylum contributed less than 10% at both sites. The two sites differed in microbial community composition and KEGG-indicated biochemical pathways. Community indices such as species richness and Shannon diversity were higher at site GP7 than at GP8. Meanwhile, the abundance of Cyanobacteria was significantly higher at site GP8, while site GP7 showed a greater proportion of genes for membrane transport and carbohydrate metabolism, reflecting differences in food resources.

Remote Assessment of Swamp and Bottomland Hardwood Habitat Condition in the Maurepas Diversion Project Area

This study used high spatial resolution satellite imagery to identify and map Bottomland Hardwood (BLH) BLH and swamp within the Maurepas Diversion Project area and use Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) elevation data, vegetation indices, and established stand-level thresholds to evaluate the condition of forested habitat. The Forest Condition methods and data developed as part of this study provide a remote sensing-based supplement to the field-based methods used in previous studies. Furthermore, several advantages are realized over traditional methods including higher resolution products, repeatability, improved coverage, and reduced effort and cost. This study advances previous methods and provides products useful for informing ecosystem decision making related to environmental assessments.

Assessing the progress of river restoration in the UK: has ecological condition improved over two decades of intervention?

Context: Habitat condition indicates the immediate success of efforts to revegetate degraded river basins as well as longer-term progress towards improving water quality. In the context of the Water Framework Directive, habitat condition in the UK also reflects how well international environmental policy translates into improved river management domestically. Objectives: 1. To assess whether habitat condition in the UK has improved or declined over the past two decades, 2. To assess whether regions identified by the first WFD assessment have improved or declined. Methods: Statistical and spatial analysis of more than 25,000 habitat condition records collated in the River Habitat Survey over the 1990s and 2000s. Computation of an Index of Change demonstrating the improvement or decline of habitat quality in Local Authorities. Comparison of Indices of Change with a sub-sample of 1,727 WFD assessments conducted in 258 Local Authorities. Results: Measures indicate that habitat quality has declined. Riparian quality has improved. 27 regions were identified with the worst declining quality. Condition has declined most substantially in regions that were previously in ‘good’ condition. Conclusion: Priorities for future investment should include improving degraded sites, protecting high quality sites, and increasing monitoring of ‘data poor’ regions. We offer a framework for decision making, including distinguishing the underlying cause of quality decline. Habitat quality decline in the UK mirrors the experience of European nations and points to systemic challenges associated with implementing international water policy in a national context.

The Hidden Half: Linking microbial communities to habitat condition and vegetation management in UK blanket bogs

<p>Peatlands are globally valued for the ecosystem services they deliver, including water quality regulation and carbon sequestration. In the UK, blanket bogs are the main peatland habitat and previous work has linked blanket bog management, especially rotational burning of heather vegetation on grousemoors, to impacts on these ecosystem services. However, we still lack a mechanistic, process-level understanding of how peatland management and habitat status is linked to ecosystem service provision, which is mostly driven by soil microbial processes.</p><p>Here we examine bacterial and fungal communities across a spectrum of “intact” to degraded UK blanket bogs and under different vegetation management strategies. Sites included grousemoors under burnt and alternative mown or uncut management along with further locations including 'near intact', degraded and restored sites across a UK climatic gradient ranging from Exmoor (South UK), the Peak District (Mid) to the Flow Country (North). Moreover, an experiment was setup at the University of York with peat mesocosms taken from all sites and management/habitat conditions to allow a comparison between field and controlled conditions and assessing root-mediated processes. Using a structural equation model, we linked grousemoor management to specific fungal/bacterial functional groups, and have started to relate this to changes in water quality provision and carbon cycle aspects. This represents a significant step in the effort to use microbial communities as indicators of peatland habitat condition in UK upland blanket bogs. </p><p> </p>

Towards unravelling the 'Black Box' of peatland carbon: Linking peatland habitat condition and management to water chemistry and quality

<p>In the UK, peatlands are a significant provider of many ecosystem services including drinking water provision and carbon sequestration. However, a history of intense management and other environmental factors such as air pollution has led to large scale peatland degradation. In fact, a large proportion of UK peatland habitat, particularly upland blanket bog, is no longer being classified as ‘active’. Such degraded peatlands are characterised by lower water tables, causing increased peat decomposition and thus loss of carbon. Carbon is mainly lost via respiration (CO2 and CH4) and as dissolved organic carbon (DOC), the latter leading to a potential associated decline in water quality (affecting colour and taste); however, separating climatic from vegetation impacts and attributing negative impacts to management remains a challenge.</p><p>A particular issue in the UK is water quality from uplands containing blanket bog, as they provide most of the UK’s drinking water. Over recent decades drinking water quality has deteriorated as seen in increasing DOC concentrations. Whilst previous work has explored links between rising DOC and management practices, particularly grousemoor management involving rotational burning of vegetation to encourage red grouse populations on shooting estates, there continues to be a lack of understanding linkages in relation to alternative management/restoration, vegetation composition and, in particular, underpinning peat chemical processes. Understanding such linkages is becoming ever more important as many degraded peatlands are currently being restored by revegetation and rewetting as well as exploring alternative management such as mowing of vegetation.</p><p>Unravelling the underpinning peat chemistry and plant-soil processes regulating carbon cycling, and producing and/or altering DOC and its various constituent components, is key to understand impacts upon water treatment requirements. Of particular concern is that chemical (coagulant) water treatment has potential health implications via disinfectant by-product formation following chlorination of DOC rich water supply. Thus, ill-informed land management and/or restoration alongside climatic change may incur additional water treatment pressures and costs, putting increased pressure on an already strained system. Therefore, it is important to understand the role of catchment-scale peat plant-soil chemical processes and adapt best-practice land management options for supporting drinking water quality at the peatland source.</p><p>Here, insights into peat physical and chemical properties are presented, towards enabling management decisions based on ‘treatment at source’ rather than the conventional ‘end of pipe’ drinking water treatment. Field samples and monitoring of peat mesocosm cores taken from across a spectrum of ‘intact’ to degraded and restored UK blanket bogs (including conventionally burnt and alternatively mown grousemoors) are routinely monitored for gaseous carbon fluxes, DOC and water quality parameters relating DOC properties (e.g. UV-spectra) to vegetation, habitat condition and management. Mesocosms also included sampling from individual vegetated cores, each with two attached plant-free cores, either with or without roots. We compare findings from controlled mesocosms to samples from field sites, assess potential methodological aspects affecting DOC collection and characterisation, unravel potential links to specific vegetation types and management/habitat condition, and explore the characterisation of DOC compounds linked to colour, high coagulant demand and the formation of disinfectant by-products.</p>

PROPOSAL OF THE MONITORING METHODOLOGY OF THE GREEN HAWKER Aeshna viridis Eversmann, 1836 (Odonata: Aeshnidae)

Aeshna viridis, a species of dragonfly of the family Aeshnidae, is listed in Appendix II of the Bern Convention as well as Annex IV of the Habitats Directive. The decline in the range and abundance of A. viridis is associated with a strong dependence of this species on the presence of Stratiotes aloides in the water body and results from a decrease in the number of suitable habitats. So far, attempts to develop a monitoring methodology for this species have been made in several European countries, including Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. This article presents a proposal for a monitoring methodology based on the evaluation of indicators of population condition in the form of exuviae density and number of adults, and indicators of habitat condition: the area of the water body covered by S. aloides, the presence of dense and undivided patches of S. aloides, succession in the water body and anthropopressure. The concept of population condition assessment methodology is based on observation of adult specimens and collecting exuviae, avoiding larvae sampling, which is invasive and associated with technical difficulties. The concept of the habitat condition assessment methodology, in turn, is based on strong association between A. viridis and S. aloides. It is proposed to monitoring A. viridis population on a minimum of several research areas within the country, on a two-year cycle. The presented proposal of the monitoring methodology requires pilot studies to be carried out within the A. viridis localities in order to determine the validity of assumptions made in the monitoring methodology.

Aquatic physical and chemical characteristics of reservation and prohibited areas of mahseer (Tor douronensis Valenciennes, 1842) in Muara Bungo and Kerinci Regencies, Jambi Province of Indonesia

Masheer (Tor douronensis) is one of the important commodities, has long been known as one of the fish with a high enough value, and is loved by many people in Jambi Province and several other provinces in Indonesia. However, the ecological information of this fish is not widely known. This study examines the characteristics of aquatic physical and chemical of the reserved and prohibited area for fish in Muara Bungo and Kerinci Regencies in Jambi Province. The study was carried out from December 2018 to October 2019 at four locations, i.e., Lubuk Alai, Senamat River, and Tarutung Village, and the river outside the protected area. Aquatic physical and chemical parameters data were collected in-situ and ex-situ. The Aquatic parameters observed were temperature 25.7-30.1oC, pH 6-7, DO 5.3-7.8, transparency 15-125 cm, depth 25-207 cm, turbidity 1.4-158.3 ppm, TSS 3.0-62.9 ppm, ammonia 0.08-0.76 ppm, nitrite 0.03-0.31 ppm, nitrate 0.00-0.68 ppm, and total phosphate 0.00-1.31 ppm, which were suitable for aquatic life. Based on habitat condition grouping, Lubuk Alai and Tarutung Village tend to have a higher similarity, which ammonia, transparency, depth, and total phosphate were the main components.

Western Bristlebird Dasyornis longirostris: Response to fire and persistence of home range in the Fitzgerald River National Park, Western Australia

We investigated the response of the Western Bristlebird Dasyornis longirostris to fire in the Fitzgerald River National Park (FRNP), Western Australia, over a 34-year period. This species is a threatened Western Australian endemic restricted to a highly fire-prone habitat. Commencing in 1985, we surveyed for occurrence of Western Bristlebirds within the FRNP. Monitoring that was specifically focused on fire impacts began at Fitzgerald Track in November 1994 following a fire the previous month. That site had been surveyed in June and August 1994 before the fire. Fires in other recently surveyed locations in 1997–1998, 2000, 2008 and 2019 allowed for comparisons to be made following further monitoring of these sites. Many Bristlebirds survived a fire then relocated along or near the fire edge, usually in clusters of home ranges where suitable habitat was available. Bristlebirds gradually re-occupied burnt areas when these became suitable, often to home ranges occupied before the fire. There was a tendency for a home range to be occupied for >1 year. A change independent of fire could occur. Areas of vegetation of different fire ages were used by Bristlebirds for differing time periods. Sites in the lower-rainfall areas required longer periods of time for habitat to be recolonised by Bristlebirds and the maximum age of vegetation occupied by Bristlebirds varied between sites. For these reasons, generalised prescriptions are not appropriate, but fire management of individual patches of Bristlebird habitat in the FRNP can be guided by these findings, ensuring that unburnt refuge areas are both protected and retained, with the timing of management actions informed by knowledge of population response and habitat condition.