Evaluating hot water immersion as a quarantine method: impact on Obama nungara egg capsule viability

Corresponding author: rochaf_bio@yahoo.com.br The elasmobranch Rajidae family, known usually as skates, is the most numerous group among cartilaginous fishes, having almost 245 species with very conservative morphology (EBERT and COMPAGNO, 2007). Elasmobranch egg capsules are widely recognised as important in species identification and provide relevant information concerning their reproductive biology (ODDONE et al. , 2004). The genus Psammobatis GUNTHER, 1870 comprises eight species, four of them recorded in Brazil (PARAGO, 2001): P. extenta (GARMAN, 1913), P. rutrum JORDAN, 1890, P. bergi MARINI, 1932, and P. lentiginosa (BIGELOW and SCHROEDER, 1953). Psammobatis extenta , the little skate, is endemic to the continental shelf of the western South Atlantic, ranging from Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (22°56’S) to Patagonia, Argentina (~ 45°S) (PARAGO, 2001). Recent studies of P. extenta have focused mainly on its reproduction, morphology and feeding habits (BRACCINI and PEREZ, 2005; BRACCINI and CHIARAMONTE, 2002a; 2002b) and detailed information concerning its egg capsules is lacking. Only the egg capsules of P. scobina (PHILIPPI, 1857), from the Southeastern Pacific, have been accurately described (CONCHA et al. , 2009); short descriptions of the egg capsules of P. rudis , P. normani and P. bergi have been presented with their reproductive biology (MABRAGANA and COUSSEAU, 2004 and SAN MARTIN et al. , 2005). The present study describes the egg capsules of Psammobatis extenta , a small common rajid species of the western South Atlantic. Sixty-one egg capsules were removed directly from the 35 female Psammobatis extenta oviduct, thus avoiding species misidentification. The females were collected by bottom trawlers on the Sao Paulo continental shelf, at 30 to 50 m depths (between 24°12’S; 46°04’ W and 24°08’S; 46°50’W), during 2002, except in autumn. The general morphology, color, texture, presence and number of eggs, presence and position of attachment fibrils, presence and shape of velum and keel and finally, presence, position and shape of ventilation fissures were all recorded. The measurements taken were: capsule length (without horns), maximum width, anterior and posterior horn lengths, capsule height, and thickness and width of lateral keel. Both the terminology and morphometrics follow TEMPLEMAN (1982), ODDONE et al. (2004) and TREOLAR et al. (2006). Only fully developed capsules were used in the calculations made and the terms ‘anterior’/‘posterior’ and ‘dorsal’/‘ventral’ refer to the position of the egg capsules in the female oviduct (TEMPLEMAN, 1982). Capsules were fixed in formalin and preserved in 70% ethanol. The total length of the females was measured from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail. Differences between anterior and posterior horn lengths and between right and left egg capsules were verified with Student´s t-test and the relationship between the females´ total length and the body length of the capsules was investigated by linear regression (SOKAL and ROHLF, 1995). The capsule measurements are presented in Table 1. Only one egg capsule was found in each female’s oviduct and just one egg was found per capsule. Almost 75% of the gravid females had capsules in both oviducts and when only one capsule was present, it was in the left oviduct (except for one female, which had developing horns on the right shell gland). The fully developed egg capsules are rectangular, with a horny process on each corner and a brownish copper in color (Fig. 1). The capsule walls are symmetrically convex, with the highest point situated centrally. Both capsule walls present a

Population studies on the land planarian Artioposthia triangulata (Dendy) at natural and horticultural sites in New Zealand

Among other factors, globalization has promoted the spread of alien organisms, posing a great risk to Earth’s biodiversity. Land planarians of the family Geoplanidae especially benefit from human-mediated transport. Many species become established in new areas, where they represent threats to the native soil fauna. Obama nungara is a species described from Brazil, but with many well-established populations in Europe. In this study, specimens from Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and Spain were morphologically and molecularly studied to establish the potential origin of the invasive events within the Iberian Peninsula. Analyses of the mitochondrial lineages (haplotype networks) of these populations revealed previously unknown relationships and biogeographical patterns that suggest an Argentine origin for the Iberian populations. Furthermore, comparative analysis of Argentine, Iberian and Brazilian populations revealed three well-defined and distinct O. nungara clades. Our findings suggest two independent introductions of different populations from Argentina that gave rise to the different Iberian populations. This population diversity suggests hidden biodiversity of alien land planarians in invaded areas and their invasive and adaptive potential.

The aims of the Swedish environmental monitoring programs are to describe environmental status, to show if the environmental quality objectives are met, to warn of environmental disturbances and to adapt to new, societally relevant challenges. Long-term, continuous monitoring is required in order to determine if environmental change is caused by human activity or natural variation. The Swedish freshwater monitoring data are unique in the world, both for their long duration (up to 50 years) and broad spatial coverage. Swedish lakes and streams have been monitored systematically since 1965. Between 1965 and 1977, data were collected under the umbrella of different research projects. The Environmental Protection Agency monitoring programs were established in 1978. Since July 1, 2011, responsibility for the Swedish freshwater monitoring has been divided between the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. From a national perspective, the freshwater monitoring programs present the evidence base needed to assess and identify changes in the environmental status of lakes, streams, and groundwater. The long-term freshwater monitoring data provide a basis for national indicators of the environmental quality objectives: Flourishing lakesand streams, Good-quality groundwater, Zero Eutrophication, Non-toxic environment, and Natural acidification only. The program monitors relatively undisturbed reference waters as well as waters subjected to acidification, eutrophication, and different organic and inorganic contaminants. Both chemical and biological monitoring are used to link the effects of anthropogenic activity to large-scale changes in aquatic ecosystems. Further development of the program is ongoing to include monitoring of biodiversity. The freshwater program produces data with high quality control checks performed at all stages from collection, analysis, and storage. Data from the national program can also be used as references for assessment of the status of lakes, streams, and groundwater in a regional and local perspective and are an important resource for authors, consultants, and researchers in Sweden and elsewhere. The environmental monitoring is essential for the Swedish environmental work in general. The process of defining and prioritizing environmental policy issues are based on assessments of these data. Environmental monitoring has a strategic role to develop and monitor the Swedish environmental quality objectives. Furthermore, environmental monitoring plays a dynamic role in the development of environmental quality standards and criteria. At the international level, the results of environmental monitoring are basis for reporting and official statistics. One of the key strengths of the freshwater environmental monitoring program is its adaptive nature. Over the past 50 years, the program has evolved to respond to challenges related to eutrophication, acidification, toxics, and climate change. Further adaptation of the monitoring program is likely to better meet European standards including EU Water Framework Directive requirements. As this AMBIO Special Issue goes to press, new monitoring programs have been initiated to better understand the effects of fire on boreal forest waters. Besides the importance of freshwater monitoring for the environmental work in general, the high quality measurements are of great value for research. It is therefore with pleasure that the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency together with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU helps with funding for this “anniversary issue” where the 50-year monitoring of lakes and streams is paid attention to. Evaluations of data from the Swedish freshwater program have resulted in nine articles in this AMBIO issue, which highlights the depth and great scientific value of the environmental monitoring data. Our ambition is to continue to generate similar high quality freshwater monitoring data in the future.

Population outbreaks of the corallivorous muricid gastropod Drupella can cause significant coral mortality but our current understanding of their early life history, recruitment mechanisms and behaviour is limited. In this study, we observed the deposition of D. rugosa (Born, 1778) egg capsules on bare skeletal surfaces of the scleractinian coral Pocillopora acuta Lamarck, 1816. Each egg capsule measured 2.43 by 2.39 mm and contained an average of 67 embryos. Intracapsular development lasted 15 days post-oviposition, after which free-swimming veliger larvae emerged from the capsule. The larval shells of these veligers with 1⅓ whorls averaged 328 by 245 μm in size. Compared to its congeners, D. rugosa veliger larvae were the largest at hatching. Detailed descriptions of D. rugosa egg capsules and early veligers are provided to supplement current knowledge on reproductive biology and early life history of the species. Such data will provide more insights into understanding and modelling the population dynamics of D. rugosa.

We investigate whether Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator recommendations regarding improvements in environmental quality differ from citizen preferences. This is done by conducting identical choice experiments on both citizens and administrators at the EPA. The administrators were asked to choose the alternatives they would recommend as a policy, while the citizens were asked to act as private persons. We find that the rankings of attributes differ between the two groups and that the willingness to pay (WTP) obtained from the choices made by the administrators is higher for five out of the seven attributes, and in some cases the difference between the WTPs is substantial. <i>(JEL D61, Q58)</i>

Coastal areas host some of the planet’s most productive ecosystems, providing life-sustaining ecological services and several benefits to humankind, while also being some of the most threatened areas (e.g., by globalization, climate change, and biological invasion). Salt marshes are coastal habitats with a key role in food and shelter provisioning, sediment deposition, nutrient cycling and carbon storage. Spartina spp. is a genus of grass halophytes which occurs in salt marshes worldwide, and includes species with different invasive potential. We evaluated the effect of climate change in the distribution and invasion potential of five Spartina species (S. anglica, S. alterniflora, S. densiflora, S. patens, and S. maritima) at a global scale. Species distribution models (SDMs) were applied on species occurrence data and atmospheric environmental predictors (WorldClim 2.1) to project potential changes in habitat suitability and associated changes in distribution and species co-occurrence until the end of the century, across four Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios (i.e., SSP1-2.6 to SSP5-8.5). Projections showed a global trend for increasing species co-occurrence, with a general range expansion potentiated by increasing pathway severity. This study suggests that Spartina species can potentially benefit from climate change, predicting poleward expansions in the Northern Hemisphere for most species, with results pointing at increased conflict and invasion potential in Northern Europe and East Asian shorelines, already under strong invasive pressure. S. anglica is projected to remain a successful invader, with more severe scenarios likely favoring greater expansions. S. alterniflora exhibits very low expansion comparatively, despite exhibiting the same northward distribution shift. SSP1-2.6 produced the smallest change to species co-occurrence, suggesting a smaller potential for invasion-related conflicts, although still registering a potential net expansion for the Genus. Despite their limitations, SDMs can help establish general trends in climate change ecology and inform policymakers and environmental agents to ensure the correct management of these habitats and, ultimately, ecosystems.

Gastropods (slugs and snails) are prominent and species-rich faunal elements in marine and terrestrial habitats of the tropics. While several clades of snails inhabit freshwater systems, slugs are extremely rare in freshwater: only the centimeter-sized Acochlidiidae, with currently three genera, contain more than one species and live in the lower reaches of island streams in an area comprising Eastern Indonesia, Fiji, and Palau. Where known, the species of this unique group are specialized predators of other amphidromous snails’ egg capsules (Neritidae) and their reproductive biology and adaptations to life in freshwater are complex. Acochlidiidae are thus of special interest for evolutionary biology and ecology. We here describe a new genus of unusually bluish-green acochlidiid to date known only from a single locality on the island of Ambon, Indonesia. Previous molecular data found this charismatic species to link slender Strubellia slugs with broad and flattened Acochlidium and Palliohedyle. We establish Wallacellia siputbiru n. gen. n. sp., the “blue slug” in Bahasa Indonesia, by using scanning electron microscopy of cuticular elements, light microscopy of serial semithin histological sections of the soft body, and 3D reconstruction of all organ systems based on these sections. Special structures of this seemingly rare endemic species include the enlarged kidney and the huge copulatory organ. Our data now clarify that, in the invasion of freshwater habitats in Acochlidiidae, sexual selection (the anterior three-part copulatory organ) preceded ecological selection (posterior flattened habitus with branched or multiplied internal organs).

This report responds to an invitation from the Nordic Council of Ministers to map out Nordic initiatives within textiles as a pre-study to the initiation of a Nordic Roadmap for Sustainable Textiles in 2015. The work has been conducted by: SIFO - National Institute for Consumer Research (Norway) SFA - Sustainable Fashion Academy (Sweden) NFA - Nordic Fashion Association/nicefashion.org (Nordic) IVL - Swedish Environmental Research Institute (Sweden) CRI - Copenhagen Resource Institute (Denmark) Nordic Committee of Senior Officials for Environmental Affairs (EK-M) has been responsible for the funding of this project. The project’s steering committee consists of representatives from members from the working groups; Nordic Chemicals Group (NKG), the Nordic Waste Group (NAG) and the Group of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) and officers from the Environmental Protection Agency in Denmark. This steering Group is jointly responsible for the direction and decisions regarding the project. NAG has been coordinating the work. Coordinator of project has been Yvonne Augustsson from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

The SLU Swedish Species Information Centre (SSIC, SLU Artdatabanken) accumulates, analyses and disseminates information concerning species and habitats occurring in Sweden. The SSIC provides an open access biodiversity reporting and analysis infrastructure including the Swedish Species Observation System, the Swedish taxonomic backbone Dyntaxa, and tools for species information including traits, terminology, quality assurance and species identification.*1 The content is available to scientists, conservationists and the public. All systems, databases, APIs and web applications, rely on recognized standards to ensure interoperability. The SSIC is a leading partner within the Swedish Biodiversity Data Infrastructure (SBDI). Here we present a data flow (Fig. 1) that exemplifies the strengthening of the cooperation and transfer of experiences between research, community, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), citizen science and governmental agencies, and also presents solutions to current data challenges (e.g., data fragmentation, taxonomic issues or platform relations). This data flow aimed to facilitate the process for evaluating and understanding the distribution and spread of species (e.g., invasive alien species). It provides Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) data and links related information between different parties such as universities, NGOs, county administrative boards (CABs) and environmental protection agencies (EPAs). The digital structure is built on the national Swedish taxonomic backbone Dyntaxa, which prevents data fragmentation due to taxonomic issues and acts as a common standard for all users. The chain of information contains systems, tools and a linked data flow for reporting observations, verification procedures, and it can work as an early warning system for surveillance regarding certain species. After an observation is reported, an alert can be activated, field checks can be carried out, and if necessary, eradication measures can be activated. The verification tool that traditionally has been focused on the quality of species identification has been improved, providing verification of geographic precision. This is equally important for eradication actions as is species accuracy. A digital catalogue of eradication methods is in use by the CABs but there are also recommendations on methods for ‘public’ use, and collaboration between Invasive Alien Species (IAS) coordinators in regional CABs is currently being developed. The CABs have a separate tool for documentation of eradication measures and, if/when measures are carried out (by CABs), this information can be fed back from the CAB-tool into the database in SSIC where it is possible to search for, and visualize, this information. Taxonomic integrity over time should be intact and related to the taxon identifier (ID) provided by Dyntaxa. However, metadata, such as geographic position, date, verification status, mitigation results, etc., will be fully used when reporting under the IAS Regulation 1143/2014 (EU). The development of the digital structure is a collaboration with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (Havs-och Vattenmyndigheten).

Nudging – A promising tool for sustainable consumption behaviour?

The present research studies the characterisation and the physico-chemical properties of an excavated fine fraction (<10 mm) from a Swedish landfill, the Högbytorp. The results showed that the fine fraction represents 38% by mass of the total excavated wastes and it contains mainly soil-type materials and minerals. Higher concentrations of zinc, copper, barium and chromium were found with concentrations higher than the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for contaminated soil. The found moisture and organic contents of the fine fraction were 23.5% and 16.6%, respectively. The analysed calorific value (1.7 MJ kg-1), the potential of CH4 (4.74 m3 t-1 dry matter) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) (5.6%) were low and offer low potential of energy. Sieving the fine fraction further showed that 80% was smaller than 2 mm. The fine represents a major fraction at any landfill (40%-70%), therefore, characterising the properties of this fraction is essential to find the potential of reusing/recycling or safely redisposing.

In 2000, the Swedish government presented a Strategy for an Environmentally Sound Product Policy. The strategy presents an overall view on how the government intends to drive the integrated product policy (IPP) process further, both nationally and internationally. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was commissioned by the government in 2001 to further develop the Swedish IPP. It is important that IPP covers all kinds of product, both goods and services. In order to achieve sustainable development, all actors along the product chain have to co-operate. Increasing green public procurement, technology procurement and the establishment of environmental management systems could lead to an increased demand for environmentally sound products. The Swedish EPA proposed that the strategy should be founded on three fundamental elements and made a number of different proposals on how to further develop IPP in Sweden. The fundamental elements are a more holistic approach, better conditions for market actors and greater co-operation among actors.

The Swedish parliament has decided that the use of mercury (Hg) in society should be phased out by the target year 2000 and substituted with alternative, less harmful elements or compounds. This is to reduce exposure to the toxic heavy metal, levels of which have increased two to seven times in the Swedish environment during the last century. Mercury in products and goods in use in Sweden has been estimated at 100 tonnes Hg, which will slowly be released into the environment if no preventative measures are taken. To avoid handing over unsolved environmental problems and connected costs to future generations, the Swedish government commissioned the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to improve the efficiency of Hg collection and to find a solution for terminal storage of the waste. The result is that the Swedish EPA considers deep storage in rock, accompanied by technical measures to further reduce the risk of future Hg emissions to be the safest method. It has funded approximately 50 projects with the goal of spreading information about the Hg problem and removing Hg from society. The projects have focused on areas where there is a great risk of Hg in products and goods entering the environment. About 6 tonnes Hg has so far been collected in these projects – end of 1999 – and the cost of the Hg collected has varied between 70 and 1300 US$ kg–1 Hg. The projects were more cost-effective than traditional inspection by an official due to local participation, use of Hg-tracker dogs, and employment of professional electricians in the search for Hg. The involvement of school children and the public has resulted in an increased awareness of environmental matters, and, together with the emptying of water seals, reduced Hg levels in municipal sewage sludge.

© The Malacological Society of London 2001 Gastropods belonging to several families are known to be specialist feeders upon cnidarians. Coralliophila meyendorffii (Calcara, 1845) is a muricid neogastropod (Coralliophilinae) commonly occurring in the northeastern Atlantic (including the Mediterranean sea). Contrary to the usual habit of most coralliophiline species, C. meyendorffii feeds upon a wide range of cnidarian prey. Two main morphological forms are encountered (Figs 1–4), which show discrete differences in size, ecology (cnidarian prey) and reproductive biology (shell length at sex change). A large sized form (adult females 8–40 mm length) is found associated with sea anemones, feeding by boring into the stalk wall. Females with egg capsules in the mantle cavity are encountered above a size of approximately 8–10 mm, at which sex change is assumed to occur. A small form (adult females 4–9 mm length) is found on scleractinians (solitary such as Balanophyllia europaea or colonial such as Cladocora coespitosa), feeding by inserting the proboscis inside the stomodeum and possibly sucking out the predigested content. Sex change is assumed to occur when shell length reaches 3–4 mm. The constancy in the differences in size, ecology and reproductive biology, and the absence of observed intermediates between the two forms was striking and suggested the analysis of their specific status by other independent markers. We had much difficulty in assaying coralliophilines by standard allozyme electrophoresis, since we obtained very weak staining of enzymes or no evidence of activity at all. Similar problems have been encountered by other workers RESEARCH NOTES