AbstractIntroductionThis short article investigates how violations of civility norms by politicians affect attitudes about the importance of norms and demand for political accountability after wrongdoing.ResultsOur main findings are twofold: (1) support for norms and (2) demand for punishing norm‐breaking increases when parties hold political officials accountable for their actions—especially in the case of in‐group norm‐breaking.ConclusionsThese findings contribute to a growing literature on Americans’ support for norms by implying that elites play an important role in sustaining the standards of democratic exchange. When elites impose punishment on copartisan elites, they signal to the public that accountability is acceptable.

As the U.N. Decade on Restoration progresses, the demand for genetically and species‐diverse native plant materials for restoration is expected to increase. However, little is known about the availability of plant materials for restoration, particularly in wetlands, which have lagged behind in restoration research. Given the crucial role wetlands play in providing ecosystem services, particularly in semi‐arid regions worldwide, it is important to understand the availability of wetland plant materials for restoration. We surveyed plant material vendors in the Intermountain West of the United States, a vast region containing hundreds of millions of hectares of private working lands and protected areas. We sought to determine the breadth and diversity of species and materials available for restoration, the practices used by vendors, and the challenges they face. We found far lower availability of aquatic, emergent, and meadow wetland species compared to riparian and terrestrial species. To improve species availability, vendors need financial incentives to produce new or difficult‐to‐propagate species and clearer feedback from customers on what species meet their restoration goals. Market fluctuations are the biggest challenge that vendors face, and creating consistent demand is the most important way to overcome this challenge. Overall, vendors follow best practices for obtaining and maintaining genetic diversity in their seed and plant collections, a critical component to meeting restoration goals. However, there are still some opportunities to improve best practices. The results add to the understanding of the challenges in meeting plant material demand for restoration in wetlands regionally and globally.

ABSTRACT CarePortal allows community members to partner with the Division of Family and Child Services and make donations intended to prevent children from entering foster care or support current foster/kinship placements. This paper builds on the existing literature to estimate the average, per-child economic impact of preventing a child’s entering care ($83,270.54) and the economic impact of one dollar donated to strengthen an existing foster placement ($2.20). These estimates were used to evaluate the economic impact of all CarePortal donations in Glynn County, Georgia, in FY2021, a total of $5,704,451.92, impacting 97 children and helping strengthen 19 foster/kinship homes.

Course-based research pedagogy involves positioning students as contributors to authentic research projects as part of an engaging educational experience that promotes their learning and persistence in science. To develop a model for assessing and grading students engaged in this type of learning experience, the assessment aims and practices of a community of experienced course-based research instructors were collected and analyzed. This approach defines four aims of course-based research assessment - 1) Assessing Laboratory Work and Scientific Thinking; 2) Evaluating Mastery of Concepts, Quantitative Thinking and Skills; 3) Appraising Forms of Scientific Communication; and 4) Metacognition of Learning - along with a set of practices for each aim. These aims and practices of assessment were then integrated with previously developed models of course-based research instruction to reveal an assessment program in which instructors provide extensive feedback to support productive student engagement in research while grading those aspects of research that are necessary for the student to succeed. Assessment conducted in this way delicately balances the need to facilitate students' ongoing research with the requirement of a final grade without undercutting the important aims of a CRE education.

Unraveling the mechanistic controls of methane (CH4) cycling in northern peatland ecosystems is crucial for understanding peatland-climate feedbacks. Growing evidence indicates that the microbial reduction of organic matter as a terminal electron acceptor can be a key regulator of CH4 production in peatlands, but the role of microbial organic matter reduction in different peatlands has not been well explored. Using an electron shuttling capacity assay, we investigated the relationship between the microbial reduction of organic matter and anaerobic CH4 and carbon dioxide (CO2) production in peatland soils in three experiments. In the first experiment, we surveyed the importance of microbial organic matter reduction in six soils representing the ombrotrophic-minerotrophic peatland gradient. In the second experiment, we further explored the reduction of solid-phase organic electron acceptors in a minerotrophic fen and compared these results to previously published values from an ombrotrophic bog (the end members of the initial gradient surveyed). Results from these experiments suggest that microbial organic matter reduction suppresses CH4 production, especially in ombrotrophic peat soils, likely helping to explain low CH4 production in bog-like soils. In contrast, the pool of oxidized organic matter was quickly reduced in minerotrophic peat soils which subsequently exhibited higher rates of CH4 production. In the final experiment, we investigated the effect of temperature on microbial organic matter reduction in the same ombrotrophic bog soil, demonstrating that warmer temperatures resulted in both a faster reduction of solid-phase organic matter and an apparent increase in the size of the organic electron acceptor pool that can be reduced by microbes. Future work should explore the drivers of the observed differences in microbial organic matter reduction in different peatland soils to provide a stronger mechanistic explanation for how this process will regulate peatland greenhouse gas dynamics in the face of global change, including increases in temperature.

We used a pre-post survey approach to compare learning and conservation-focused behavioral outcomes for tourists participating in two different types of field-based wildlife education programs at the Jekyll Island Authority Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) on Jekyll Island, GA, USA: a low-interaction program ( n = 59) led by education guides that featured minimal direct contact between visitors and sea turtles, and a high-interaction program ( n = 42) led by turtle biologists that featured more intimate interactions between visitors and turtles. Both programs revealed comparable positive effects on participants’ knowledge of sea turtles and intent to engage in turtle advocacy behaviors, but neither type of program had a major influence on pro-turtle attitudes or participation in turtle-friendly beach behaviors (partly because scores for these variables were high entering the program). Results suggest managers and educators at wildlife tourism destinations could employ different program delivery methods while still achieving similar education and conservation goals.

Considerable resources are spent worldwide to manage invasive plant species and preserve the integrity and diversity of native or restored habitats and communities. Here, we review empirical evidence to identify relevant ecological principles and practices that could guide plant community restoration when the goal is to prevent re-invasion after management of an invasive species. Our focus is on the restoration of North American freshwater or tidal wetland communities after invasion by Phragmites australis, but our findings could apply to the design and restoration of invasion-resistant communities for any plant invader. The ecological principles that emerge from this review are (1) seedling establishment of P. australis provides a critical window for limiting invasion through ecological resistance; (2) abiotic conditions modulate ecological resistance; (3) resident species do best when they have a head start on the invader; (4) competition through limiting similarity can help strengthen ecological resistance; (5) species and functional diversity enhance invasion resistance through complementarity effects; and (6) propagule pressure of the invader and seeding density of the resident species interact to determine invasion success. We propose a conceptual model that synthesizes these ecological principles as well as a decision tree in support of field applications. Finally, we conclude by encouraging experiments that encompass the temporal and spatial variability of restored ecosystems to test the limits of these principles and better support the applications of, and generalization about, ecological resistance.