Obligate Mutualism in an Extended Consumer-Resource Framework.

The development of a theory to underpin the obligate mutualist interactions that appear to be ubiquitous in nature has not proceeded at the same pace as the development of theory to support competition and predation. A constraint may be that obligate mutualism appears unable to be presented in the simple linear models that have so successfully served as heuristics for the other interactions. A number of simple nonlinear models have been used to propose explanations of obligate mutualism, but these solutions are often predicated on careful choices of functional forms. We present a theory of obligate mutualism in an explicit mass-conserving framework using simple models that are robust to choices of functional forms.

Signals from the south; humpback whales carry messages of Antarctic sea-ice ecosystem variability.

Southern hemisphere humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) rely on summer prey abundance of Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) to fuel one of the longest-known mammalian migrations on the planet. It is hypothesized that this species, already adapted to endure metabolic extremes, will be one of the first Antarctic consumers to show measurable physiological change in response to fluctuating prey availability in a changing climate; and as such, a powerful sentinel candidate for the Antarctic sea-ice ecosystem. Here, we targeted the sentinel parameters of humpback whale adiposity and diet, using novel, as well as established, chemical and biochemical markers, and assembled a time trend spanning 8 years. We show the synchronous, inter-annual oscillation of two measures of humpback whale adiposity with Southern Ocean environmental variables and climate indices. Furthermore, bulk stable isotope signatures provide clear indication of dietary compensation strategies, or a lower trophic level isotopic change, following years indicated as leaner years for the whales. The observed synchronicity of humpback whale adiposity and dietary markers, with climate patterns in the Southern Ocean, lends strength to the role of humpback whales as powerful Antarctic sea-ice ecosystem sentinels. The work carries significant potential to reform current ecosystem surveillance in the Antarctic region.

Persistent Organic Pollutants in the East Antarctic Atmosphere: Inter-Annual Observations from 2010 to 2015 Using High-Flow-Through Passive Sampling.

In the first multiyear sampling effort for POPs in the eastern Antarctic atmosphere, 32 PCBs and 38 organochlorine pesticides were targeted in air collected with a high-flow-through passive sampler. Agricultural chemicals were found to dominate atmospheric profiles, in particular HCB and endosulfan-I, with average concentrations of 12 600 and 550 fg/m3, respectively. HCB showed higher concentrations in the austral summer, indicative of local, temperature-dependent volatilisation, while endosulfan-I appeared to show fresh, late-austral-summer input followed by temporally decreasing levels throughout the year. The current-use herbicide, trifluralin, and the legacy pesticides mirex and toxaphene, were detected in Antarctic air for the first time. Trifluralin was observed at low but increasing levels over the five-year period. Its detection in the Antarctic atmosphere provides evidence of its persistence and long-range environmental transport capability. While a time frame of five years exceeds the duration of most Antarctic air monitoring efforts, it is projected that continuous monitoring at the decadal scale is required to detect an annual 10% change in atmospheric concentrations of key analytes. This finding emphasizes the importance of continuous, long-term monitoring efforts in polar regions, that serve a special role as sentinel environments of hemispheric chemical usage trends.

On the formulation of environmental fugacity models and their numerical solutions.

Multimedia models based on chemical fugacity, solved numerically, play an important role in investigating and quantifying the environmental fate of chemicals such as persistent organic pollutants. These models have been used extensively in studying the local and global distribution of chemicals in the environment. The present study describes potential sources of error that may arise from the formulation and numerical solution of environmental fugacity models. The authors derive a general fugacity equation for the rate of change of mass in an arbitrary volume (e.g., an environmental phase). Deriving this general equation makes clear several assumptions that are often not articulated but can be important for successfully applying multimedia fugacity models. It shows that the homogeneity of fugacity and fugacity capacity in a volume (the homogeneity assumption) is fundamental to formulating discretized fugacity models. It also shows that when using the fugacity rather than mass as the state-variable, correction terms may be necessary to accommodate environmental factors such as varying phase temperatures and volume. Neglecting these can lead to conservation errors. The authors illustrate the manifestation of these errors using heuristic multimedia fugacity models. The authors also show that there are easily avoided errors that can arise in mass state-variable models if variables are not updated appropriately in the numerical integration scheme. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:2182-2191. © 2016 SETAC.

Predicting the accumulation of organic contaminants from soil by plants.

Analytic expressions for maximum chemical concentration attained in plants, and time this takes for uptake from surrounding soil were derived from a simple two-compartment soil/water-plant model. To illustrate, for the antibiotic norflxacin undergoing first order loss in the soil/water phase with a rate constant of 0.544 days⁻¹, maximum concentration in soybean P(MAX) is predicted to occur after 2.79 days exposure and be independent of initial soil/water concentration SW0 of 52.5 mg kg⁻¹ dry weight. For soybean, the relationship between P(MAX) and SW0 is P(MAX) = 0.047SW0, resulting in predicted maximum levels of 2.20 mg kg⁻¹ dry weight. Modelled plant concentrations agreed well with experimental data (R² = 0.91).

Observation and modelling of barrel droplets on vertical fibres subjected to gravitational and drag forces.

Extensive experimental investigation of the wetting processes of fibre/liquid systems during air filtration (when drag and gravitational forces are acting) has shown many important features, including droplet extension, oscillatory motion, and detachment or flow of drops from fibres as airflow velocity increases. A detailed experimental study of the aforementioned processes was conducted using glass filter fibres and H(2)O aerosol, which coalesce on the fibre to form barrel droplets with small contact angles. The droplets were predominantly observed in the Reynolds transition (or unsteady laminar) flow region. The droplet oscillation appears to be induced by the onset of vortexes in the flow field around the droplet as the increasing droplet size increases the Reynolds number. Flow in this region is usually modelled using the classical two-dimensional Karman vortex street, and there exist no 3D equivalents. Therefore to model such oscillation it was necessary to create a new conceptual model to account for the forces both inducing and inhibiting such oscillation. The agreement between the model and experimental results is acceptable for both the radial and transverse oscillations.

Observation and modelling of clamshell droplets on vertical fibres subjected to gravitational and drag forces.

Extensive experimental investigation of the wetting processes of fibre-liquid systems during air filtration (when drag and gravitational forces are acting) has shown many important features, including droplet extension, oscillatory motion, and detachment of drops from fibres as airflow velocity increases, and also movement or flow of droplets along fibres. A detailed experimental study of the processes was conducted using stainless steel filter fibres and H2O aerosol, which coalesce on the fibre to form clamshell droplets. The droplets were predominantly observed in the Reynolds transition flow region, since this is the region where most of the above features occur. The droplet oscillation is believed to be induced by the onset of the transition from laminar to turbulent flow as the increasing droplet size increases Reynolds number for the flow around the droplet. Two-dimensional flow in this region is usually modelled using the classical Karman vortex street, however there exist no 3D equivalents. Therefore to model such oscillation it was necessary to create a new conceptual model to account for the forces both inducing and preventing such oscillation. The agreement between the model and experimental results is very good for both the radial and transverse oscillations.