Paws without claws?
Effects of carnivore comeback in European anthropogenic landscapes.
In a review article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B a European research group highlights gaps in knowledge on the effects of carnivores in human-dominated landscapes.
This view is partly based on experiences from Yellowstone National Park.
Although we are not always physically present, these landscapes are still heavily shaped by us, for example, through forestry and hunting."
In other words, humans may remove the claws from the carnivores’ paws.
Perhaps even more important is that the authors suggest that most of the research done so far on the role that predators play in ecosystems has been carried out in landscapes with very low human impact.
"Human activity must be included in research on the ecological effects of large carnivores.
Journal Reference: D. P. J. Kuijper, E. Sahlén, B. Elmhagen, S. Chamaillé-Jammes, H. Sand, K. Lone, J. P. G. M. Cromsigt.
Ecological effects of large carnivores in anthropogenic landscapes.

Cameroon’s cholera outbreaks vary by climate region.
Cholera follows different, distinct outbreak patterns in different climate subzones of the large country, the researchers reported in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
"The study highlights the complexity of cholera transmission, and its close link with environmental and climatic factors," said J. Glenn Morris, M.D., a professor in the College of Medicine and the director of the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogen Institute.
Cholera is a severe diarrheal disease caused by certain strains of the bacteria Vibrio cholera, which can be found free-living in the environment, often in bodies of water, or can be transmitted between people.
The data, collected between 2000 and 2012 by the Ministry of Public Health of Cameroon and the World Health Organization country office, include details on the more than 43,000 cases of cholera that occurred in Cameroon during the 13-year period.
"Cholera displays different epidemiological patterns by climate subzone," Ngwa said.
"As such, a singleintervention strategy for controlling cholera within Cameroon does not appear to be feasible.
During the 13-year span, on average, 7.9 percent of the cholera cases in Cameroon were fatal annually, and with an attack rate of 17.9 cases per 100,000 Cameroon inhabitants per year.
Moreover, each region had distinct relationships between rainfall, temperature, and cholera cases — in the Sudano-Sahalian and Guinea Equitorial subzones, increasing temperature and rainfall was found to be associated with higher rates of cholera transmission, whereas the opposite association was seen in the Tropical Humid and Equatorial Monsoon subzones.
"Government officials should enable enhanced public health surveillance and rapid response to cholera outbreaks at the health district level in order to encourage a reduction in transmission," Ngwa said.

The California Drought Is Technically Over, But Likely Not Forever.
Gov.
Jerry Brown signed an executive order Friday (April 7) marking the end of California’s more than five-year drought in most parts of the state.
All except Tuolumne are primarily comprised of people of color, with the great majority Latinx.
Throughout the drought, as the executive order mentions, the state provided more than 65 million gallons of water to fill water tanks in communities throughout the state—some related to water shortages, others for water contamination.
As Colorlines has covered in the past, certain communities in the Golden State were dealing with more than dwindling water resources.
East Porterville is in Tulare County, one of the counties still under a state of emergency.
Gov.
Brown was clear that the end of this drought doesn’t mean the end of all droughts, especially as climate change exacerbates such extreme weather.
Given these future projections, Brown was sure to include in his executive order a mandate for the State Water Resources Control Board to continue developing permanent prohibitions on wasteful water use and permanent reporting requirements for water use.

Their findings were published in the journal PNAS of this week.
Agricultural yields per hectare in sub-Saharan Africa are currently low.
Although extensive farming now satisfies most of the African population’s demand for grain, in the next few decades the African population will grow by a factor of 2.6 and grain demands even 3.4 times.
Therefore in 2050 self-sufficiency on existing farm land is only feasible if the yield per hectare will rise to 80% of the potential, just as in the Netherlands or the United States.
As a result, an annual increase in yield per hectare of 130 kg must be achieved — starting now.
If that fails, then major expansions of farmland are required, which will be at the cost of natural habitats and increased greenhouse gas emissions, or enormous grain imports that must be paid with scarce foreign exchange.
In some countries, the required area is simply not available, and expansion of farmland is not sustainable, explains one of the researchers, Professor Abdullahi Bala from Nigeria.
Modernisation of agriculture in Africa Consequently, according to the international research team including Kindie Tesfaye from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Ethiopia, a rapid intensification of African farming is required.
Tesfaye also stresses the importance of improved farming with multiple crops per year and the expansion of sustainable irrigation.
The researchers from Wageningen University & Research, and their colleagues from African research institutes and the University of Nebraska, collected data from 10 African countries which accommodate 54% of the total population of sub-Saharan Africa and which contain 58% of the total cropland on this part of the continent.

Researchers from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid have studied diverse techniques to enhance the water- and nitrogen-use efficiency in cropping systems.
The results of the study carried out by two researchers from the Research Group on Agricultural Systems at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid show that management practices oriented towards reducing nitrogen losses and maintaining farm productivity should rely on optimizing nitrogen and water inputs at the same time.
These two elements have a fundamental effect on food sovereignty of many regions and on the reduction of the gap between the potential food and the actual food produced in the world.
Thus, the practices that seek to improve both efficiencies simultaneously are more successful than those that aim to optimize each element separately.
This study carried out by Miguel Quemada and José Luis Gabriel, researchers from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, has assessed seven practices to improve both elements at the same time in cropping systems.
Firstly, when there is crop water deficit the use of nitrogen has to be adjusted to the actual demand of the stressed crop since the plant will grow only as far as the most limiting factor allows it (water in this case), thus the rest of nitrogen remains on the soil ready to disappear from the system.
Thirdly, researchers suggest the use of fertigation that consists in the application of dissolved nutrients into irrigation water, this technique has a great potential to adapt the punctual demand of water and nitrogen per plant.
Soil mulching is the fourth technique suggested in this study.
Besides, soil mulching can favor the conditions to achieve a higher mineralization of soil nitrogen and it can also increase water infiltration reducing the loss of both water and nitrogen caused by soil erosion.
Finally, the seventh practice studied is the monitoring of water and nitrogen availability by using remote and proximity sensors.

Planting peas and other legumes alongside cereal crops could help make farming greener, say ecologists.
Intercropping, as it’s known, could cut greenhouse gas emissions by reducing dependence on fertiliser, as well as boosting biodiversity, food security and opening up new markets for local food and drinks businesses.
This includes producing impressive crop yields without artificial nitrogen fertiliser — and inventing new ways of brewing and distilling with beans.
This is because peas and other legumes fix their own nitrogen.
And when grown with other crops such as barley, the peas supply the cereal’s nitrogen needs.
Farming also needs to diversify by growing a wider range of crops and develop new markets for local, sustainable food and drinks.
To find new markets for a larger legume crop, Dr Iannetta is also developing new ways of turning peas and beans into alcohol.
By turning pulse starch into fermentable sugars and alcohol from 40% beans intercropped with 60% barley — we have produced a beer using 40% less artificial fertiliser," says Dr Iannetta.
The final benefit of their fermentation process is that it also produces a high-protein by-product, which could be used to make fish farming more sustainable.
"These will have been produced using no human-made fertilisers, and give co-products that provide sustainable and profitable protein production for the food chain," he concludes.

Snap beans hard to grow in cover crop residue.
"We designed a study to look at a scenario that had a better chance of success.
We used snap bean, which is relatively large-seeded, and planted later to allow sufficient time to grow and then kill a cover crop."
In both Illinois and Washington, Williams and USDA-ARS agronomist Rick Boydston grew vetch, rye, and a combination of the two cover crops before killing them with a roller-crimper — a machine that evenly flattens and crimps standing plant biomass — or with a combination of the roller-crimper and a burndown herbicide.
Instead, vetch became weedy and caused yield losses in snap bean.
"Another issue was adequate seed-to-soil contact, which can become a challenge with excessive plant residues on the soil surface.
No-till snap bean performance and weed response following rye and vetch cover crops.
"Snap beans hard to grow in cover crop residue."
University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
"Snap beans hard to grow in cover crop residue."

Wheat virus crosses over, harms native grasses.
New research shows, however, that a common wheat virus can spread and harm perennial native grasses.
In the current issue of the Journal of Ecology, researchers from Michigan State University, University of Kansas and University of Virginia show that farmers and scientists need to think about how best to protect native plants from diseases emanating from crops.
"Crop fields were once considered tiny islands in a sea of wild vegetation, so farmers and scientists focused on protecting crops from wild pathogens," said Carolyn Malmstrom, MSU plant biologist and co-lead author of the study.
"Now, around the world, the situation has reversed, and diseases from agricultural fields affect not only crops, but also substantially harm native plants, such as switchgrass."
"Crops have been bred for yield, sometimes at the cost of plant defense.
If they are susceptible, fast-growing crops can serve as highly competent hosts that amplify viruses within a region," Malmstrom said.
While the study focused on merely one virus, it shows that science needs to catch up in understanding how crops influence native plants and to build more knowledge of virus ecology in general.
"There are many mysteries surrounding how crop viruses affect natural ecosystems," Malmstrom said.
"It’s important that we build a base of research in this area.

Turtles Die in Southern California Lake Following Drought and Fire.
This study is the first to examine the interaction of fire and drought on the survival, behavior and health of a semi-aquatic turtle population.
In 2013, a large fire occurred around the lake during prolonged drought conditions.
USGS scientists began collecting water-quality data and assessing the health of the turtles in 2014.
Findings showed the fire put large amounts of ash into the lake, contributing to the deterioration of water quality already caused by the drought.
Many turtles were severely emaciated and coated with a pale mineralized layer on their shells and skin.
Deceased turtles were sent to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center for analysis, and were confirmed to have died of starvation.
Salt-encrusted remains of a southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida) as found in the dry lake bed of Elizabeth Lake, Los Angeles County, California.
Note the heavy coating of evaporites on the carcass.
Public domain.)

Prides, protection and parks: Africa’s protected areas can support four times as many lions.
Africa’s protected parks and reserves are capable of supporting three to four times as many wild lions if well funded and managed, according to a new report led by Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization.
Published in Biological Conservation, the study shows that populations of the African lion and its prey species are drastically below their natural potential inside most of Africa’s protected areas (PA).
Panthera Research Associate and Wildlife Conservation Network Conservation Initiatives Director, Dr. Peter Lindsey, shared, "Africa’s incredible protected areas hold the key to securing the future of lions and several other wildlife species, and can yield significant benefits for people.
African governments have set aside enough space to conserve lions effectively — we just need to find ways to enable those areas to be funded sufficiently and managed effectively.
Panthera and partner scientists found that adequate management budgets and management capacity are essential pre-requisites for successfully conserving lions in PAs, as they permit effective law enforcement and other critical conservation initiatives.
Today, sub-Saharan Africa’s tourism industry, supported by dozens of parks and reserves, is valued at $25 billion dollars, compared to the $20 billion a year illegal wildlife trade that is increasingly targeting Africa’s big cats and wildlife for their precious parts.
However, for Africa’s vast PA network to fulfill its potential for conserving lions and other species, there is an urgent need to greatly escalate funding and capacity to effectively manage those parks.
ScienceDaily, 21 February 2017.
Panthera.