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The Hanna Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) study area consists of the SW1/4 of Section 29 and the E1/2SE1/4 of Section 30 in Township 22 North, Range 81 West, Wyoming. Regionally, this is located in the coal-bearing Hanna Syncline of the Hanna Basin in southeast Wyoming. The structure of the site is characterized by beds dipping gently to the northeast. An east-west fault graben complex interrupts this basic trend in the center of the area. The target coal bed of the UCG experiments was the Hanna No. 1 coal in the Hanna Formation. Sedimentary rocks comprising the Hanna Formation consist of a sequence of nonmarine shales, sandstones, coals and conglomerates. The overburden of the Hanna No. 1 coal bed at the Hanna UCG site was divided into four broad local stratigraphic units. Analytical studies were made on overburden and coal samples taken from cores to determine their mineralogical composition. Textural and mineralogical characteristics of sandstones from local stratigraphic units A, B, and C were analyzed and compared. Petrographic analyses were done on the coal including oxides, forms of sulfur, pyrite types, maceral composition, and coal rank. Semi-quantitative spectrographic and analytic geochemical analyses were done on the overburden and coal and relativemore » element concentrations were compared. Trends within each stratigraphic unit were also presented and related to depositional environments. The spectrographic analysis was also done by lithotype. 34 references, 60 figures, 18 tables.« less

Abstract: Three pathways for resource acquisition exist in the emergent aquatic plant, Lythrum salicaria (L.); a subterranean root system, a free‐floating adventitious root system, and arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungal hyphae colonizing subterranean roots. This study examined the relationship(s) among these pathways and their contribution to plant performance. If the free‐floating adventitious root system and/or AM fungi contribute to plant growth in wetland habitats, we predicted that their absence would result in a significant reduction in plant performance. Furthermore, if a reduction in resource uptake, effected by an absence of free‐floating adventitious roots and/or AM fungi, is compensated for by increased allocation to remaining pathway(s) for resource uptake, we predicted altered patterns of resource allocation among shoots and the remaining pathway(s) for resource uptake. Contrary to our predications, plants experiencing adventitious root removal and/or grown in the absence of AM fungi generally had greater biomass and total shoot height than controls. Similarly, while levels of AM colonization and subterranean root biomass displayed a treatment effect, the observed responses did not correspond with our predictions. This was also true for shoot: subterranean root dry weight ratios. Our results indicate that there is interaction among the 3 pathways for resource acquisition in L. salicaria and an effect on plant performance. The adaptive significance of these characteristics is unclear, highlighting the potential difficulties in extrapolating from terrestrial to aquatic plant species and among aquatic plant species with potentially different life history strategies.

AbstractPlanetary health provides a perspective of ecological interdependence that connects the health and vitality of individuals, communities, and Earth's natural systems. It includes the social, political, and economic ecosystems that influence both individuals and whole societies. In an era of interconnected grand challenges threatening health of all systems at all scales, planetary health provides a framework for cross‐sectoral collaboration and unified systems approaches to solutions. The field of allergy is at the forefront of these efforts. Allergic conditions are a sentinel measure of environmental impact on human health in early life—illuminating how ecological changes affect immune development and predispose to a wider range of inflammatory noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This shows how adverse macroscale ecology in the Anthropocene penetrates to the molecular level of personal and microscale ecology, including the microbial systems at the foundations of all ecosystems. It provides the basis for more integrated efforts to address widespread environmental degradation and adverse effects of maladaptive urbanization, food systems, lifestyle behaviors, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Nature‐based solutions and efforts to improve nature‐relatedness are crucial for restoring symbiosis, balance, and mutualism in every sense, recognizing that both personal lifestyle choices and collective structural actions are needed in tandem. Ultimately, meaningful ecological approaches will depend on placing greater emphasis on psychological and cultural dimensions such as mindfulness, values, and moral wisdom to ensure a sustainable and resilient future.

AbstractSince the mid‐20th century, the so‐called Great Acceleration (sensu Steffen et al., 2007, https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:TAAHNO]2.0.CO;2) has amplified processes of ecosystem degradation, extinction of biological species, displacement of local peoples, losses of languages, and cultural diversity. These losses are still underperceived by the academic community, and by a global society that is disconnected from biocultural diversity. To reconnect society with biocultural diversity, we integrate temporal and spatial dimensions of seasonal cycles, by combining two conceptual frameworks: ecological calendars and the “3Hs” model of the biocultural ethic (sensu Rozzi, 2012, https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics20123414). The latter values the vital links between human and other‐than‐human co‐inhabitants, their life habits (e.g., cultural practices of humans or life cycles of other‐than‐human species), and the structure and processes of their shared habitats. This integration enhances an understanding of links between cultural practices and the life cycles of biocultural keystone species. As a synthesis, we use the term biocultural calendars to emphasize their co‐constitutive nature that result from interactions between dynamic biophysical and cultural processes embedded in specific ecosystems and cultures. These calendars link astronomical, biological, and cultural seasonal cycles that sustain life and enhance the integration of Indigenous and scientific knowledge to confront challenges of climate change faced from local to global scales. To illustrate this integration, we examine cultural practices and socio‐environmental changes across four contrasting ethnolinguistic communities in southwestern South America, from southern to northern Chile along a marked climatic gradient to show the broad application of the concept of biocultural calendars.

Western spruce budworm (Choristoneura freemani Razowski, 2008) is the most widely distributed insect herbivore in western North American coniferous forests. By partially or completely defoliating tree crowns, budworms influence fluxes of water, nutrients, and organic carbon from forest canopies to soils and, in turn, soil chemistry. To quantify these effects, throughfall water, inorganic nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, as well as fluxes and soil N and P concentrations, were measured in coniferous forest sites with high and background levels of budworm herbivory. Throughfall N and P concentrations and fluxes increased at sites with high budworm levels during and (or) immediately after larval-stage budworm feeding, indicating reduced uptake and (or) greater leaching from canopies as a result of budworm activity. Annual throughfall N fluxes (<67–71 g N·ha−1·year−1) and soil N concentrations were low regardless of herbivory level. In contrast, throughfall P was considerably greater at sites with high herbivory levels (2174 g P·ha−1·year−1) compared with those with background levels (1357 g P·ha−1·year−1), and this was reflected in nearly threefold higher soil P concentrations at sites with high budworm levels. Our findings suggest that by altering throughfall chemistry and soil N:P, budworms could influence elemental export from watersheds.

We describe continental-scale increases in lake and stream total phosphorus (TP) concentrations, identified through periodic probability surveys of thousands of water bodies in the conterminous U.S. The increases, observed over the period 2000-2014 were most notable in sites in relatively undisturbed catchments and where TP was initially low (e.g., less than 10 μg L(-1)). Nationally, the percentage of stream length in the U.S. with TP ≤ 10 μg L(-1) decreased from 24.5 to 10.4 to 1.6% from 2004 to 2009 to 2014; the percentage of lakes with TP ≤ 10 μg L(-1) decreased from 24.9 to 6.7% between 2007 and 2012. Increasing TP concentrations appear to be ubiquitous, but their presence in undeveloped catchments suggests that they cannot be entirely attributed to either point or common non-point sources of TP.

AbstractTwenty-five years since foundational publications on valuing ecosystem services for human well-being1,2, addressing the global biodiversity crisis3 still implies confronting barriers to incorporating nature’s diverse values into decision-making. These barriers include powerful interests supported by current norms and legal rules such as property rights, which determine whose values and which values of nature are acted on. A better understanding of how and why nature is (under)valued is more urgent than ever4. Notwithstanding agreements to incorporate nature’s values into actions, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)5 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals6, predominant environmental and development policies still prioritize a subset of values, particularly those linked to markets, and ignore other ways people relate to and benefit from nature7. Arguably, a ‘values crisis’ underpins the intertwined crises of biodiversity loss and climate change8, pandemic emergence9 and socio-environmental injustices10. On the basis of more than 50,000 scientific publications, policy documents and Indigenous and local knowledge sources, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessed knowledge on nature’s diverse values and valuation methods to gain insights into their role in policymaking and fuller integration into decisions7,11. Applying this evidence, combinations of values-centred approaches are proposed to improve valuation and address barriers to uptake, ultimately leveraging transformative changes towards more just (that is, fair treatment of people and nature, including inter- and intragenerational equity) and sustainable futures.