Effects of cost metric on cost-effectiveness of protected-area network design in urban landscapes.

A common goal in conservation planning is to acquire areas that are critical to realizing biodiversity goals in the most cost-effective manner. The way monetary acquisition costs are represented in such planning is an understudied but vital component to realizing cost efficiencies. We sought to design a protected-area network within a forested urban region that would protect 17 birds of conservation concern. We compared the total costs and spatial structure of the optimal protected-area networks produced using three acquisition-cost surrogates (area, agricultural land value, and tax-assessed land value). Using the tax-assessed land values there was a 73% and 78% cost savings relative to networks derived using area or agricultural land value, respectively. This cost reduction was due to the considerable heterogeneity in acquisition costs revealed in tax-assessed land values, especially for small land parcels, and the corresponding ability of the optimization algorithm to identify lower-cost parcels for inclusion that had equal value to our target species. Tax-assessed land values also reflected the strong spatial differences in acquisition costs (US$0.33/m(2)-$55/m(2)) and thus allowed the algorithm to avoid inclusion of high-cost parcels when possible. Our results add to a nascent but growing literature that suggests conservation planners must consider the cost surrogate they use when designing protected-area networks. We suggest that choosing cost surrogates that capture spatial- and size-dependent heterogeneity in acquisition costs may be relevant to establishing protected areas in urbanizing ecosystems.

Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides: degradation by microbes.

In culture, most of the actinomycetes and filamentous fungi tested degraded PCNB; several actinomycetes dechlorinated DDT to DDD, but no microorganism degraded dieldrin. Streptomyces aureofaciens degraded PCNB to pentachloroaniline.

Biological diversity. Species: would any of them be missed?

Contrary to the view taken by some, individual species matter: they are valuable for their contribution to the stability of the ecosystems they inhabit.

Effects of fantasy behavior, level of fantasy predisposition, age, and sex on direction of aggression in young children.

The effect of fantasy behavior, fantasy predisposition, age, and sex upon direction of aggression in children was assessed in 57 kindergarten boys and girls. Ss from low to high levels of assessed fantasy predisposition were randomly designated as experimental or control. All Ss were exposed to an imposed frustrating condition. The experimental group was then exposed to a condition designed to elicit spontaneous fantasy behavior; the control group was exposed to a condition designed to be incompatible with fantasy. All Ss were then assessed for direction of aggression. Children who engaged in fantasy behavior following frustration were significantly more extrapunitive than control Ss (p less than .05); the findings did not support either the premise that fantasy results in drive-reduction or that fantasy results in the turning inward upon the self of hostile drive manifested by increased intropunitiveness. Age was found to be significantly but negatively correlated with extrapunitiveness (p less than .05).

Interaction of atrazine with soil microorganisms: population changes and accumulation.

A loam soil treated with atrazine at rates of 10, 30, and 100 microgram/g soil resulted in increased populations of actinomycetes, bacteria, and fungi over those in non-treated soil. The increases were in proportion to the amount of atrazine and persisted for at least 2 months. Living actinomycete amd fungal mycelia were incubated for 48 h in distilled water, nutrient broth, or soil containing 5 microgram/ml (g) of the herbicide. Actinomycete and fungal mycelia accumulated atrazine from water to concentrations up to 87-fold and 132-fold, respectively, over that in the ambient medium. The maximum accumulation from soil by actinomycete mycelia was 26-fold and by fungal mycelia 13-fold. Fungi accumulated little or no atrazine from a nutrient medium whereas actinomycetes accumulated up to 13-fold. Dead mycelia usually did not accumulate atrazine in excess of the ambient concentration. Mycelium of Sclerotium rolfsii growing in a nutrient medium containing 20 microgram atrazine/ml accumulated 157 microgram/g wet weight after 8 days. Sclerotia subsequently produced after transfer of similar mats to soil contained 550 microgram/g wet weight.

Powdered chitin agar as a selective medium for enumeration of actinomycetes in water and soil.

Agar media made with 0.4% colloidal chitin plus mineral salts and adjusted to pH 8.0 was superior to four other commonly used media for the isolation and enumeration of actinomycetes from water samples. More actinomycetes developed on chitin agar, and the development of bacteria and fungi was suppressed. Frozen and vacuum-dried chitin from aqueous colloidal suspensions was finely divided and gave results comparable to those obtained with media prepared from colloidal suspensions.

Soil fungistasis: role of the microbial nutrient sink and of fungistatic substances in two soils.

Sensitivity of conidia of Cochliobolus victoriae to fungistasis decreased markedly following incubation on moist sand for at least 1 h. Germination was greater on Conover loam or on sand being leached with water than on an alkaline clay loam soil known to produce a volatile fungistatic substance. Evolution of 14CO2 began within 3 min after [14C]glucose was applied to the soils; the rate of 14CO2 evolution was faster with Conover loam. Germination of Thielaviopsis basicola conidia per unit of glucose remaining in agar discs initially containing 0-1% glucose, was lower for discs incubated on the clay loam soil than on Conover loam, and was greatest on a bed of sand undergoing aqueous leaching. Germination of ascospores of Neurospora tetrasperma and conidia of C. victoriae was suppressed on discs of washed, Purified Agar or polyacrylamide gel incubated on or over the clay loam soil, but no suppression resulted when discs were incubated on Conover loam. Extensive aeration of either soil did not remove its fungistatic effect. Fungistasis in Conover loam appears to be caused primarily by nutrient deprivation, whereas volatile fungistatic substances may play a major role in the clay loam soil.

Two studies of the movement responses in young children: new and highly discrepant norms.

The Holtzman Ink Blot Test was administered to 5- to 6-year-old children and analyzed for movement response. The range and frequency of movement response in both an original and replication study are significantly greater than would have been anticipated for this age group based upon available normative data. NO significant differences were found in the frequency of Human Movement and Animal Movement responses. No sex difference among subjects was found in the range and frequency of movement responses produced. These new findings call into question previously reported data as well as some of the theoretical presumptions underlying the production of movement responses by young children.

Fine points aside: data are data.

Movement responses by 5 1/2- to 6 1/2-year-old children on the Holtzman Inkblot Test were reported on by Lockwood et al. in volume 45 of this Journal. Criticism of the findings discussed in that article by J. Swartz, Reinehr, and C. Swartz was published in the December, 1981, volume of the Journal. The present article rebuts their criticism and emphasizes the significance of the original findings which reflect new and highly discrepant normative M response data from that previously available.