The Role of County Surveyors and County Drainage Boards in Addressing Water Quality.

Water quality problems stemming from the Midwestern U.S. agricultural landscape have been widely recognized and documented. The Midwestern state of Indiana contains tens of thousands of miles of regulated drains that represent biotic communities that comprise the headwaters of the state's many rivers and creeks. Traditional management, however, reduces these waterways to their most basic function as conveyances, ignoring their role in the ecosystem as hosts for biotic and abiotic processes that actively regulate the fate and transport of nutrients and farm chemicals. Novel techniques and practices such as the two-stage ditch, denitrifying bioreactor, and constructed wetlands represent promising alternatives to traditional management approaches, yet many of these tools remain underutilized. To date, conservation efforts and research have focused on increasing the voluntary adoption of practices among agricultural producers. Comparatively little attention has been paid to the roles of the drainage professionals responsible for the management of waterways and regulated drains. To address this gap, we draw on survey responses from 39 county surveyors and 85 drainage board members operating in Indiana. By examining the backgrounds, attitudes, and actions of these individuals, we consider their role in advocating and implementing novel conservation practices.

The transition of the European Proteomics Association into the future.

The following report provides an overview of the discussions and outcome of the EuPA General Council meeting that took place in Estoril 20-21 October 2010. During the annual meeting future policy and action plans in a variety of areas are decided. Several important points were decided upon during this meeting including the expansion of the EuPA Executive Committee by introducing a new EuPA committee - EuPA Developments - that will initially spearhead activities in standardisation, imaging ms and biobanking. The EuPA General Council also invited Russia as its 17th member. More details about these and additional activities are presented in the article.