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Growth rate is an important component of feed conversion efficiency in cattle and varies across the different stages of the finishing period. The metabolic effect of the rumen microbiome is essential for cattle growth, and investigating the genomic and microbial factors that underlie this temporal variation can help maximize feed conversion efficiency at each growth stage.

The bacterial plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa causes disease in several globally important crops. However, some cultivars harbour reduced bacterial loads and express few symptoms. Evidence considering plant species in isolation suggests xylem structure influences cultivar susceptibility to X. fastidiosa. We test this theory more broadly by analysing high-resolution synchrotron X-ray computed tomography of healthy and infected plant vasculature from two taxonomic groups containing susceptible and resistant varieties: two citrus cultivars (sweet orange cv. Pera, tangor cv. Murcott) and two olive cultivars (Koroneiki, Leccino). Results found the susceptible plants had more vessels than resistant ones, which could promote within-host pathogen spread. However, features associated with resistance were not shared by citrus and olive. While xylem vessels in resistant citrus stems had comparable diameters to those in susceptible plants, resistant olives had narrower vessels that could limit biofilm spread. And while differences among olive cultivars were not detected, results suggest greater vascular connectivity in resistant compared to susceptible citrus plants. We hypothesize that this provides alternate flow paths for sustaining hydraulic functionality under infection. In summary, this work elucidates different physiological resistance mechanisms between two taxonomic groups, while supporting the existence of an intertaxonomical metric that could speed up the identification of candidate-resistant plants.

One of the primary concerns at the WWTP is the processing and management of biosolids and the removal of solids from process equipment. The efficacious removal of biosolids is essential to maintaining total nitrogen (TN) and phosphorus (P) effluent concentrations within permit limitations.

One of the primary concerns at the WWTP is the processing and management of biosolids and the removal of solids from process equipment. The efficacious removal of biosolids is essential to maintaining total nitrogen (TN) and phosphorus (P) effluent concentrations within permit limitations

The sea bass stock around the UK (northern stock) has declined rapidly over the past decade, likely due to a combination of both overfishing and low recruitment. Understanding mechanisms that drive the number of young reaching nursery grounds is important for explaining observed recruitment variability and therefore developing effective management strategies. An individual-based model (IBM) has been developed here to investigate factors affecting sea bass settlement on nursery grounds for the northern stock. Simulations considered seven years with varying environmental conditions and year class strength, and outputs were compared to empirical data from monitoring of nursery areas in the UK and Ireland. The IBM includes hydrodynamics to simulate the drift of eggs and larvae, temperature-dependent growth and mortality, and behavior affecting position in the water column. Comparison between the model and ICES assessment abundance of age class zero fish showed similar temporal variability, but with higher recruitment predicted for 2018, and a lower peak recruitment in 1997. The model reproduced general patterns of interannual variability for the Thames estuary, but performed less well for some other regions. Further investigation is needed to understand differences between modelled supply and observations, as these could be due to uncertainties in reproducing the physical environment (e.g., currents, temperature) or biology (e.g., spawning, behavior, mortality), as well as uncertainty in recruitment derived from stock assessments or data collected from nursery grounds. Nevertheless, the model provides a useful demonstration of connectivity between spawning and nursery grounds, showing spawning regions that are likely to have greatest influence on recruitment in different estuaries, and how these may vary interannually. For example, sources from western Channel and Celtic Sea can supply larvae to many areas, leading to connectivity across the Channel and Celtic Sea, and

Ecological theory posits that temporal stability patterns in plant populations are associated with differences in species' ecological strategies. However, empirical evidence is lacking about which traits, or trade-offs, underlie species stability, especially across different biomes. We compiled a worldwide collection of long-term permanent vegetation records (greater than 7000 plots from 78 datasets) from a large range of habitats which we combined with existing trait databases. We tested whether the observed inter-annual variability in species abundance (coefficient of variation) was related to multiple individual traits. We found that populations with greater leaf dry matter content and seed mass were more stable over time. Despite the variability explained by these traits being low, their effect was consistent across different datasets. Other traits played a significant, albeit weaker, role in species stability, and the inclusion of multi-variate axes or phylogeny did not substantially modify nor improve predictions. These results provide empirical evidence and highlight the relevance of specific ecological trade-offs, i.e. in different resource-use and dispersal strategies, for plant populations stability across multiple biomes. Further research is, however, necessary to integrate and evaluate the role of other specific traits, often not available in databases, and intraspecific trait variability in modulating species stability.

[EN] Achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) requires managing ecosystems subject to a variety of pressures such as climate change, eutrophication, and fishing. However, ecosystem models are generally much better at representing top-down impacts from fishing than bottom-up impacts due to warming or changes in nutrient loading. Bottom-up processes often have to be parameterised with little data or worse still taken as a system input rather than being represented explicitly. In this study we use an end-to-end ecosystem model (StrathE2E2) for the North Sea with 18 broad functional groups, five resource pools, and representations of feeding, metabolism, reproduction, active migrations, advection, and mixing. Environmental driving data include temperature, irradiance, hydrodynamics, and nutrient inputs from rivers, atmosphere, and ocean boundaries, so the model is designed to evaluate rigorously top-down and bottom-up impacts and is ideal for looking at possible changes in energy flows and “big picture” ecosystem function. In this study we considered the impacts of warming (2 and 4°C) and various levels of fishing, by demersal and pelagic fleets, on the structure and function of the foodweb. A key aim is to demonstrate whether monitoring of broad ecosystem groups could assist in deciding whether GES was being achieved. We found that warming raised primary productivity and increased the size (total biomass) of the ecosystem. Warming raised metabolic demands on omnivorous zooplankton and reduced their abundance, thus favouring benthivorous and piscivorous demersal fish at the expense of planktivorous pelagic fish but otherwise had modest effects on energy pathways and top predators, whereas changes in fishing patterns could materially alter foodweb function and the relative outcomes for top predators. We suggest that GES should be defined in terms of an unfished state and that abundances of broad groupings and the balance between them can help to assess whether indicator

In wildlife disease management there are few diseases for which vaccination is a viable option. The human vaccine BCG has been used for the control of bovine tuberculosis in badgers since 2010 and is expected to increase. Understanding the long-term effects of repeated vaccination campaigns on disease prevalence is vital, but modelling thus far has generally assumed that a vaccine provides perfect protection to a proportion of the population, and that animals exposed to a repeated vaccination have a second independent chance of becoming protected. We held a workshop with experts in the field to obtain consensus over the main pathways for partial protection in the badger, and then simulated these using an established model. The available data supported the possibility that some individuals receive no benefit from the BCG vaccine, others may result in a delayed disease progression and in the remaining animals, vaccine protected the individual from any onward transmission. Simulating these pathways using different levels of overall efficacy demonstrated that partial protection leads to a reduced effect of vaccination, but in all of the identified scenarios it was still possible to eradicate disease in an isolated population with no disease introduction. We also identify those potential vaccination failures that require further investigation to determine which of our proposed pathways is the more likely.

Purpose: Owing to their topographic location and nutrient rich soils, riparian forests are often converted to pastures for grazing. In recent decades, remnant riparian forests cleared for grazing pastures have been restored with native species. The impacts of such land-use changes on soil fungal communities are unclear, despite the central roles that soil fungi play in key ecosystem processes. We investigated how soil fungal taxonomic and functional composition are affected by land-use change at different depths, and if variation in soil fungal communities is related to edaphic properties and extant vegetation. Methods: The study was conducted in six waterways in south-eastern Australia, each comprising three land-use types: remnant riparian forest, cleared forest converted to pasture, and pastures restored with native plants. We surveyed three strata of vegetation and sampled top-soil and sub-soil to characterise physicochemical properties and soil fungal communities. ITS1 region sequences were used to assign soil fungal taxonomic and functional composition. Results: Fungal taxonomic and functional composition infrequently varied with land-use change or soil depth. Overall, environmental properties (soil and vegetation) explained 35–36% of variation in both fungal taxonomic and functional composition. Soil fungal taxonomic composition was related to soil fertility (N, P, K, pH and Ca) and ground cover characteristics, whereas functional composition was related to clay content, sub-canopy cover and tree basal area. Conclusion: Across the six studied waterways, fungal taxonomic and functional composition were more strongly associated with land-use mediated changes in site-scale soil physicochemical properties and vegetation structure than broad-scale classes of land-use type.

Pathology complements and provides a fundamental link to other disciplines for disease investigations supporting molecular biology, genetics, immunology, or virology as core basis of scientific research. Necropsies are an essential tool in veterinary pathology for disease investigation and should be conducted in a routine, systematic, and standard approach. An orderly necropsy procedure will allow the prosector (veterinary clinicians or veterinary pathologists) to determine macroscopically normal or altered structures and allow, through experience, to acquire dexterity, speed, and confidence in the technique. In conjunction with standardized macroscopic scoring protocols, necropsy is a powerful tool especially when using experimental animal models in research. Here, we describe a systematic necropsy protocol to be conducted on pigs infected with African swine fever virus (ASFV). The methodology described only requires rudimentary instruments, and it is not time-consuming. In addition to performing accurate tissue and organ assessment, the technique intends the prosector to carry out sampling of organs and tissues of interest in ASFV-infected pigs.

Eukaryote symbionts of animals are major drivers of ecosystems not only because of their diversity and host interactions from variable pathogenicity but also through different key roles such as commensalism and to different types of interdependence. However, molecular investigations of metazoan eukaryomes require minimising co-amplification of homologous host genes. In this study we 1) identified a previously published ‘anti-metazoan’ reverse primer to theoretically enable amplification of a wider range of microeukaryotic symbionts, including more evolutionarily divergent sequence types, 2) evaluated in silico several anti-metazoan primer combinations, and 3) optimised the application of the best performing primer pair for high throughput sequencing (HTS) by comparing one-step and two-step PCR amplification approaches, testing different annealing temperatures and evaluating the taxonomic profiles produced by HTS and data analysis. The primer combination 574*F – UNonMet_DB tested in silico showed the largest diversity of non-metazoan sequence types in the SILVA database and was also the shortest available primer combination for broadly-targeting anti-metazoan amplification across the 18S rRNA gene V4 region. We demonstrate that the one-step PCR approach used for library preparation produces significantly lower proportions of metazoan reads, and a more comprehensive coverage of host-associated microeukaryote reads than the two-step approach. Using higher PCR annealing temperatures further increased the proportion of non-metazoan reads in all sample types tested. The resulting V4 region amplicons were taxonomically informative even when only the forward read is analysed. This region also revealed a diversity of known and putatively parasitic lineages and a wider diversity of host-associated eukaryotes.

Annual trait data, location information, and climate data from 86 populations of blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus, n = 31), great tit (Parus major, n = 35) and pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca, n = 20) across Europe. R code for the analyses of temporal variation in trait values, effects of climate variables on trait values, and spatial synchrony in trait values.

[EN] Juice-pressing residues, among them blackcurrant pomace, are valuable materials for being upgraded in food products. Their excellent nutritional profiles in line with their functional properties allow a wide range of applications. The current study was performed to evaluate the overall liking of a pomace-enriched thin crispy-baked bread product in five European countries, and to obtain suggestions for improvements. Moreover, data on the frequency of snack consumption, openness to new foods and an opinion on residues in food applications were acquired. Four hundred and sixty-six consumers from United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, Italy and Germany were involved. On a 9-point hedonic scale, the pomace cracker was rated towards the direction of liking with 5.94¿±¿1.90 on average. Contingency tables showed that the overall-liking correlated highly significant (p¿<¿0.01) with the country of origin and sex of the respondents and their openness to new products. Significantly higher liking scores were provided by British and Spanish consumers and, among these respondents, savoury snacks were stated to be consumed most frequently. Therefore, the snack consumption frequency also appeared to be a driver for cross-national differences in hedonic responses. The consent for using pomace in food products was remarkably high (>90%) in all countries and stresses consumer awareness in terms of healthy longevity and sustainability.

The understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms and the clinicopathological forms caused by currently circulating African swine fever virus (ASFV) isolates is incomplete. So far, most of the studies have been focused on isolates classified within genotypes I and II, the only genotypes that have circulated outside of Africa. However, less is known about the clinical presentations and lesions induced by isolates belonging to the other twenty-two genotypes. Therefore, the early clinicopathological identification of disease outbreaks caused by isolates belonging to, as yet, not well-characterised ASFV genotypes may be compromised, which might cause a delay in the implementation of control measures to halt the virus spread. To improve the pathological characterisation of disease caused by diverse isolates, we have refined the macroscopic and histopathological evaluation protocols to standardise the scoring of lesions. Domestic pigs were inoculated intranasally with different doses (high, medium and low) of ASFV isolate Ken05/Tk1 (genotype X). To complement previous studies, the distribution and severity of macroscopic and histopathological lesions, along with the amount and distribution of viral antigen in tissues, were characterised by applying the new scoring protocols. The intranasal inoculation of domestic pigs with high doses of the Ken05/Tk1 isolate induced acute forms of ASF in most of the animals. Inoculation with medium doses mainly induced acute forms of disease. A less severe but longer clinical course, typical of subacute forms, characterised by the presence of more widespread and severe haemorrhages and oedema, was observed in one pig inoculated with the medium dose. The severity of vascular lesions (haemorrhages and oedema) induced by high and medium doses was not associated with the amount of virus antigen detected in tissues, therefore these might be attributed to indirect mechanisms not evaluated in the present study. The absence of clinical signs, lesion

In 2021, House Bill 588 (Budget Bill, Chapter 357) required that the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) draft “a report on the status of the quality of groundwater that sources residential wells and that updates the Groundwater Protection Program report previously required under Joint Resolution 5 of 1985.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unparalleled global impacts on human mobility. In the ocean, ship-based activities are thought to have been impacted due to severe restrictions on human movements and changes in consumption. Here, we quantify and map global change in marine traffic during the first half of 2020. There were decreases in 70.2% of Exclusive Economic Zones but changes varied spatially and temporally in alignment with confinement measures. Global declines peaked in April, with a reduction in traffic occupancy of 1.4% and decreases found across 54.8% of the sampling units. Passenger vessels presented more marked and longer lasting decreases. A regional assessment in the Western Mediterranean Sea gave further insights regarding the pace of recovery and long-term changes. Our approach provides guidance for large-scale monitoring of the progress and potential effects of COVID-19 on vessel traffic that may subsequently influence the blue economy and ocean health.

Bermed infiltration ponds (BIPs) have been an approved method of on-site sewage disposal since the late 1980's in counties on the Lower Eastern Shore with most concentrated in Dorchester County. The Maryland Department of the Environment (Department or MDE) has concerns about the performance of BIPs, particularly older ponds.

During the current public health crisis, we are pleased to be able to offer remote testing for select Maryland Department of the Environment Asbestos Licenses.

The 2021 Joint Chairmen’s Report requires the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to notify the General Assembly if Comprehensive Flood Management Grant Program funds are expended on projects other than those specifically identified in the budget bill.

In 1970, Congress passed the Clean Air Act (CAA) that authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for pollutants shown to threaten human health and welfare. Primary standards were set according to criteria designed to protect public health, including an adequate margin of safety to protect sensitive populations such as children and asthmatics.

As required in Section l 5-203(g) of the Environment Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, lam enclosing a copy of the Calendar Year 2018 Ninety-Seventh Annual Report of the Maryland Bureau of Mines.

On April 4, 2016, the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act – Reauthorization (GGRA of 2016) was signed into law by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. Expanding on the requirements of the original GGRA law (GGRA of 2009), the GGRA of 2016 requires the state to achieve a minimum of a 40% reduction in statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2006 levels by 2030, which is substantially more ambitious than the United States’ international commitment under the Paris accord to reduce emissions by 26-28% by 2025.

The qualitative and quantitative analysis of pollutant loads from effluents discharged into Lake Tanganyika has been studied, with a view to evaluate remediation strategies. The discharge of effluents into Lake Tanganyika calls for concern as it poses serious threats to the biological wealth of the lake. Physico-chemical and microbiological parameters were evaluated for pollution from the effluent source to Lake Tanganyika (discharged point) using standard procedures. Results revealed significant pollution of the lake from prisons, the general hospital of Uvira and household channels. The prison of Uvira was the highest emitter of organic loads with a 42% chemical oxygen demand (COD), followed by the general hospital (30%) and finally households (28%). The absence of faecal coliforms, Escherichia coli and Salmonella sp. could be explained by the high concentration of chloride (varied from 1174 to 1388 mg/L) in this wastewater. The identification of latrines near the said collector reveals that 64% of septic tanks are connected directly or indirectly to the collector and 36% of indigenous latrines. The population is called upon to carry out individual sanitation, by building septic tanks that meets established standards and local authority’s requirement to assist in establishing a waste station which can mitigate the problem.

Aim Cyanobacteria have shaped the history of life on Earth and continue to play important roles as carbon and nitrogen fixers in terrestrial ecosystems. However, their global distribution and ecological preferences remain poorly understood, particularly for two recently discovered non-photosynthetic cyanobacterial classes (Sericytochromatia and Melainabacteria). Location Two hundred and thirty-seven locations across six continents encompassing multiple climates (arid, temperate, tropical, continental and polar) and vegetation types (forests, grasslands and shrublands). Time period Sampling was carried out between 2003 and 2015. Major taxa studied Photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic cyanobacterial taxa. Methods We conducted a field survey and used co-occurrence network analysis and structural equation modelling to evaluate the distribution and environmental preferences of soil cyanobacteria across the globe. These ecological preferences were used to create a global atlas (predictive distribution maps) of soil cyanobacteria. Results Network analyses identified three major groups of cyanobacterial taxa, which resembled the three main cyanobacterial classes: the photosynthetic Oxyphotobacteria-dominated cluster, which were prevalent in arid and semi-arid areas, and the non-photosynthetic Sericytochromatia- and Melainabacteria-dominated clusters, which preferred hyper-arid oligotrophic and acidic/humid environments, respectively. Main conclusions This study provides new insights into the environmental preferences of non-photosynthetic cyanobacteria in soils globally. Our findings highlight the contrasting environmental preferences among the three clusters of cyanobacteria and suggest that alterations in environmental conditions linked to climate change might result in important changes in the ecology and biogeography of these functionally important microorganisms.

Dead wood, including dead standing trees (DST) and coarse woody debris (CWD), is a critical component of forest ecosystems that provides habitat and refugia for fauna, flora, and microbial communities and plays a key role in carbon and nutrient cycling. However, few studies have modelled the long-term dynamics of dead wood, limiting our ability to predict how the abundance and composition of dead wood may change with climate change or altered fire regimes. Here we analyse DST and CWD data in 884 plots encompassing multiple field campaigns and forest types of varying canopy cover and species composition across the State of Victoria in temperate south-eastern Australia. We use boosted regression tree modelling to examine the relative influence of disturbance history and tree functional traits on dead wood biomass while accounting for the influence of environmental and climatic factors and stand attributes across a broad productivity gradient. We modelled absolute and relative dead wood biomass by size (‘small’ 100 < 200 mm diameter, ‘medium’ 200 < 500 mm diameter, ‘large’ ≥ 500 mm diameter) and decay classes (sound to advanced decay) to evaluate the consistency of predictor effects among different components of dead wood. We found that live tree basal area and mean annual precipitation were influential predictors of both DST and CWD biomass, indicating an over-arching effect of forest productivity on dead wood biomass. Fire history was also an important predictor, with DST biomass decreasing and CWD biomass increasing with time since last wildfire. The proportion of large DST biomass increased with increased tree mortality as a result of fire interval and time in drought. DST biomass also increased and CWD biomass decreased with increasing wood density, and this was relatively more important than the other functional traits we examined (heartwood nitrogen content and bark type). Our study suggests that forest productivity, fire history, drought and wood density are im

Maryland recognizes that ocean acidification (OA) is an increasing threat, not only to the open-ocean waters, but also to coastal and inshore waters like the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal bays. At stake for Maryland are not only the ecological integrity of our coastal and inshore aquatic ecosystems, prized seafood resources and economic assets, but also a cultural heritage anchored in healthy waters.

Maryland’s lakes are valuable natural resources that provide numerous recreational and ecological benefits such as bathing beaches, fishing and boating opportunities, freshwater aquatic life habitat, and drinking water to Maryland citizens.

Section 1605.2 of Chapter 9 of the Environment Article requires that, beginning January 2006 and every year thereafter, the Bay Restoration Fund (BRF) Advisory Committee (BRFAC) provide an update to the Governor and the General Assembly on the implementation of the BRF program, and report on its findings and recommendations.

As part of overall state social distancing efforts during the COVID-19 state of emergency and catastrophic health emergency, there may be occasions when the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Oil Control Program (OCP) staff will not be physically on site for the removal of a regulated underground storage tank (UST) system.

Based on BRF law, WWTPs other than the original 67 major WWTPs can be funded only when they are cost effective. The following process will be followed to ensure that funded project meet the cost effectiveness criteria. MDE will also ensure that WWTP owners are not exposed to any financial risk during this process by having planning and design grant funded at 100% by BRF.

A special responsibility mandated by Environmental Article Section 4-405C requires management and control agencies to investigate the occurrence of damage to aquatic resources, including, but not limited to, mortality of fish and other aquatic life. The investigations should determine the nature and extent of each occurrence and endeavor to establish the cause and sources of the occurrence. If appropriate, findings shall be acted upon to require the reparation of any damage done and the restoration of the water resources affected, to a degree necessary to protect the best interest of the state.

For nearly 30 years, Maryland’s air quality has dramatically improved. Air quality policies and regulations have lowered levels of six common pollutants — particles, ozone, lead, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide — as well as numerous toxic pollutants.

Maryland’s monitored beaches met water quality requirements and were open for swimming more than 99 percent ofthe time last summer. These results show that Marylanders continue to enjoy healthy beaches in their neighborhoods, along the Chesapeake Bay and in Ocean City.

Department of the Environment's newsletter on its All StAR (All State Agencies Recycle) program.

Helminth infections are ubiquitous in grazing ruminant production systems, and are responsible for significant costs and production losses. Anthelmintic Resistance (AR) in parasites is now widespread throughout Europe, although there are still gaps in our knowledge in some regions and countries. AR is a major threat to the sustainability of modern ruminant livestock production, resulting in reduced productivity, compromised animal health and welfare, and increased greenhouse gas emissions through increased parasitism and farm inputs. A better understanding of the extent of AR in Europe is needed to develop and advocate more sustainable parasite control approaches. A database of European published and unpublished AR research on gastrointestinal nematodes (GIN) and liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) was collated by members of the European COST Action “COMBAR” (Combatting Anthelmintic Resistance in Ruminants), and combined with data from a previous systematic review of AR in GIN. A total of 197 publications on AR in GIN were available for analysis, representing 535 studies in 22 countries and spanning the period 1980–2020. Reports of AR were present throughout the European continent and some reports indicated high within-country prevalence. Heuristic sample size-weighted estimates of European AR prevalence over the whole study period, stratified by anthelmintic class, varied between 0 and 48%. Estimated regional (country) prevalence was highly heterogeneous, ranging between 0% and 100% depending on livestock sector and anthelmintic class, and generally increased with increasing research effort in a country. In the few countries with adequate longitudinal data, there was a tendency towards increasing AR over time for all anthelmintic classes in GIN: aggregated results in sheep and goats since 2010 reveal an average prevalence of resistance to benzimidazoles (BZ) of 86%, macrocyclic lactones except moxidectin (ML) 52%, levamisole (LEV) 48%, and moxidectin (MOX) 21%. All maj

A recently launched project under the auspices of the World Climate Research Program’s (WCRP) Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiments Flagship Pilot Studies program (CORDEX-FPS) is presented. This initiative aims to build first-of-its-kind ensemble climate experiments of convection permitting models to investigate present and future convective processes and related extremes over Europe and the Mediterranean. In this manuscript the rationale, scientific aims and approaches are presented along with some preliminary results from the testing phase of the project. Three test cases were selected in order to obtain a first look at the ensemble performance. The test cases covered a summertime extreme precipitation event over Austria, a fall Foehn event over the Swiss Alps and an intensively documented fall event along the Mediterranean coast. The test cases were run in both “weather-like” (WL, initialized just before the event in question) and “climate” (CM, initialized 1 month before the event) modes. Ensembles of 18–21 members, representing six different modeling systems with different physics and modelling chain options, was generated for the test cases (27 modeling teams have committed to perform the longer climate simulations). Results indicate that, when run in WL mode, the ensemble captures all three events quite well with ensemble correlation skill scores of 0.67, 0.82 and 0.91. They suggest that the more the event is driven by large-scale conditions, the closer the agreement between the ensemble members. Even in climate mode the large-scale driven events over the Swiss Alps and the Mediterranean coasts are still captured (ensemble correlation skill scores of 0.90 and 0.62, respectively), but the inter-model spread increases as expected. In the case over Mediterranean the effects of local-scale interactions between flow and orography and land–ocean contrasts are readily apparent. However, there is a much larger, though not surprising, increase in the spread for

Although an ecosystem approach to fisheries has been recognized as a means of progressing toward sustainable fishing, successful implementation of this approach has been limited. However, one way in which progress has been made is through the use of suites of indicators. Decision tree frameworks can be used to incorporate trends in ecological, fishing, and environmental indicators into ecosystem assessments. A relatively generic decision tree framework has been developed and successfully applied to multiple ecosystems. This framework incorporates trends in indicators, as well as the impacts of fishing pressure and environmental variability on ecological indicators in order to assess the state of each ecosystem. The inclusion of ecosystem expert knowledge from the outset ensures trends are correctly interpreted and allows analyses to contribute to global comparisons in a robust and meaningful manner. Although ecological and environmental indicators are well developed, those addressing the human dimensions of marine ecosystems are less so. This framework holds the potential to incorporate such indicators in order to fully assess marine ecosystems in a comparative context. Such assessments could help ensure food security from marine resources into the future as well as ensuring the well-being of coastal communities. Here critical review of the potential value of this framework has been conducted, with its usefulness emphasized in the similarities it holds, and in the contribution it could make, to current global methods of ecosystem assessments

As required in Section 4-708(b) of the Environment Article, Annotated Code of Maryland, I am enclosing a copy of the 26th and 27th reports on the Status of the Oil Contaminated Site Environmental Cleanup Fund (FYs 19 and 20 data).

This report provides an analysis of methane emissions that occur outside of Maryland from the production and transport of fracked natural gas consumed in Maryland. The analysis includes fugitive leakage emissions and well construction emissions. The report uses the total natural gas consumption in Maryland for year 2017 as a baseline and analyzes four scenarios that represent the amount of natural gas consumed due to fracking activities.

I am pleased to provide you with the Clean Water Fund (Fiscal Years 2018-2020) prepared as required Pursuant to §9-320(h) of the Environment Article, the Maryland Department of the Environment (Department or MDE) must report on the status of the Maryland Clean Water Fund to the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee and the House Environmental Matters Committee in accordance with subsection 2-1246 of the State Government Article.

Pursuant to Rule 602 of the Rules of Practice and Procedure1 of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC” or the “Commission”), Exelon Generation Company, LLC (“Exelon”) and the Maryland Department of the Environment (“MDE” and, together with Exelon, the “Settling Parties”) jointly request, through their respective undersigned counsel, that the Commission approve this Joint Offer of Settlement and incorporate the Proposed License Articles (defined below), without modification or expansion, into the new license for the Conowingo Hydroelectric Project (“Conowingo” or the “Project”) (collectively, the “Proposed Settlement”).

We have audited, in accordance with the auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America and the standards applicable to financial audits contained in Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States, the financial statements of the business-type activities of the Maryland Water Quality Financing Administration (the Administration), an enterprise fund of the State of Maryland, as of and for the year ended June 30, 2020, and the related notes to the financial statements, which collectively comprise the Administration’s basic financial statements, and have issued our report thereon dated September 25, 2020.

The Intended Use Plan (IUP) is the document that the Maryland Water Quality Financing Administration (MWQFA) submits to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) to request the Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2020 Capitalization Grant under the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA), to be matched with 20% of State bond/general funds, for use in the Maryland Water Quality Revolving Loan Fund (WQRLF or WQSRF).

The April 2020 Joint Chairman’s Report restricts appropriation within the Maryland Department of the Environment’s (MDE) Fiscal 2020 operating budget pending submission of the Fiscal 2015 through Fiscal 2019 Maryland Clean Air Fund Reports by May 1, 2020.

We have audited the accompanying financial statements of the business-type activities of the Maryland Water Quality Financing Administration (the Administration), an enterprise fund of the State of Maryland, as of and for the year ended June 30, 2020, and the related notes to the financial statements, which collectively comprise the entity’s basic financial statements as listed in the table of contents.

This is the FY20 Scrap '(ire Annual Report as required by Environment Article, Section 9-275(c), Annotated Code of Maryland. This report is prepared for the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee and House Environment and Transportation Committee of the Maryland General Assembly to advise the Standing Committees of the Maryland Department of the Environment's (MDE) progress in implementing the law, and ensuring the proper management of scrap tires in Maryland. The report includes Maryland's Scrap Tire Program activities undertaken by MDE and the Maryland Environmental Service (MES) from July 2019 through June 2020, and describes planned activities for the coming year.

The Pappy Inc. – Oak Avenue Rubble Landfill (OARL) was permitted by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) under Refuse Disposal Permit Number 2004-WRF-0104 to dispose of land clearing wastes, demolition debris, construction debris, household appliances and white goods. The facility is located in Harford County, Maryland, north of Joppatowne, and is owned and operated by Pappy, Inc. (Pappy).

Improved taxonomic methods are needed to quantify declining populations of insect pollinators. This study devises a high-throughput DNA barcoding protocol for a regional fauna (United Kingdom) of bees (Apiformes), consisting of reference library construction, a proof-of-concept monitoring scheme, and the deep barcoding of individuals to assess potential artefacts and organismal associations. A reference database of cytochrome oxidase c subunit 1 (cox1) sequences including 92.4% of 278 bee species known from the UK showed high congruence with morphological taxon concepts, but molecular species delimitations resulted in numerous split and (fewer) lumped entities within the Linnaean species. Double tagging permitted deep Illumina sequencing of 762 separate individuals of bees from a UK-wide survey. Extracting the target barcode from the amplicon mix required a new protocol employing read abundance and phylogenetic position, which revealed 180 molecular entities of Apiformes identifiable to species. An additional 72 entities were ascribed to nuclear pseudogenes based on patterns of read abundance and phylogenetic relatedness to the reference set. Clustering of reads revealed a range of secondary operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in almost all samples, resulting from traces of insect species caught in the same traps, organisms associated with the insects including a known mite parasite of bees, and the common detection of human DNA, besides evidence for low-level cross-contamination in pan traps and laboratory procedures. Custom scripts were generated to conduct critical steps of the bioinformatics protocol. The resources built here will greatly aid DNA-based monitoring to inform management and conservation policies for the protection of pollinators.

[EN] Intensification of grasslands is necessary to meet the increasing demand of livestock products. The application of nitrogen (N) on grasslands affects the N balance therefore the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). Emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O) are produced due to N fertilisation and low NUE. These emissions depend on the type and rates of N applied. In this study we have compiled data from 5 UK N fertilised grassland sites (Crichton, Drayton, North Wyke, Hillsborough and Pwllpeiran) covering a range of soil types and climates. The experiments evaluated the effect of increasing rates of inorganic N fertiliser provided as ammonium nitrate (AN) or calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN). The following fertiliser strategies were also explored for a rate of 320 kg N ha(-1): using the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD), changing to urea as an N source and splitting fertiliser applications. We measured N2O emissions for a full year in each experiment, as well as soil mineral N, climate data, pasture yield and N offtake. N2O emissions were greater at Crichton and North Wyke whereas Drayton, Hillsborough and Pwllpeiran had the smallest emissions. The resulting average emission factor (EF) of 1.12% total N applied showed a range of values for all the sites between 0.6 and 2.08%. NUE depended on the site and for an application rate of 320 kg N ha(-1), N surplus was on average higher than 80 kg N ha(-1), which is proposed as a maximum by the EU Nitrogen Expert Panel. N2O emissions tended to be lower when urea was applied instead of AN or CAN, and were particularly reduced when using urea with DCD. Finally, correlations between the factors studied showed that total N input was related to Nofftake and Nexcess; while cumulative emissions and EF were related to yield scaled emissions. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.