Coronary heart disease risk in volunteer firefighters in Victoria, Australia

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major problem for firefighters, even when considering the healthy worker effect (HWE). Although volunteer firefighters outnumber paid personnel, previous research has focused on paid US firefighters. By contrast, no CHD data for Australian firefighters exist. Risk factor data were collected from 2,943 Australian volunteer firefighters and CHD risk was compared with reference "low-risk" and Australian population data. Predicted CHD risk for male and female firefighter was 19.2% and 5.1%, respectively. Female firefighters high blood pressure and fasting glucose was significantly lower than the general population, whereas all other risk factors was similar to the general population. Firefighters' CHD risk was greater than other volunteer and paid emergency services, but the prevalence for most risk factors was similar to the general population. Therefore, Australian volunteer firefighters may not benefit from the HWE.

Adsorption and desorption characteristics of fluoride in the calcareous and siliceous sand sheet aquifers of south-west Victoria, Australia

This study assessed the sustainability of utilising groundwater systems to manage an aluminium smelters fluoridated trade wastewater stream. Replacing ocean discharge of the wastewater with land irrigation is one option. Using a groundwater model (developed using MODFLOW incorporating parameter estimation software (PEST-ASP)), we found that most of the groundwater flow takes place through surface sands. Fluoride is adsorbed in these sands during the drier summer months, but desorption is rapid when winter rain flushes the aquifer. Underlying clays and other layers prevent significant contamination of the deeper aquifer.

A review of the conservation ecology of round-leaf Pomaderris Pomaderris vacciniifolia F. Muell. ex Reissek (Rhamnaceae)

Round-leaf Pomaderris Pomaderris vacciniifolia F. Muell. ex Reissek (Rhamnaceae) is a Victorian endemic shrub listed as threatened under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and critically endangeredunder the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. A review of the available literature for P. vacciniifolia indicated most information is anecdotal or found in unpublished works. Better understanding of the ecology of P. vacciniifolia may help explain why it is vulnerable, and enhance future management. Future research should focus towards better understanding of P. vacciniifolia habitat, reproductive ecology, seed dispersal mechanisms and competitive ability and how these compare with more common sympatric congeners, to determine whether any differences could explain the relative success of these species. Targeted searches for this species on public and private land are warranted to reveal additional populations and fully appreciate the distribution of this species. (The Victorian Naturalist 131 (2) 2014, 44-51).

Patterns of intergroup contact in public spaces: micro-ecology of segregation in Australian communities

The use of public spaces can promote social cohesion and facilitate interpersonal interactions within the community. However, the ways racial and ethnic groups interact in public spaces can also reflect and influence informal segregation in the wider community. The present study aimed to examine patterns of intergroup contact within public spaces in Victoria, Australia through short-term observation in four localities. Data were collected on within-group, intergroup and absence of contact for people from minority and majority groups. A total of 974 contacts were observed. Findings indicate that in the observed public spaces, people from visible minority groups tended to have no contact with others or to interact with people from other ethnic/racial groups. In contrast, those from the majority group tended to interact predominately with other majority group members. This suggests that majority group members are more likely to ‘self-segregate’ in public spaces than those from minority groups.

Does angling technique selectively target fishes based on their behavioural type?

Recently, there has been growing recognition that fish harvesting practices can have important impacts on the phenotypic distributions and diversity of natural populations through a phenomenon known as fisheries-induced evolution. Here we experimentally show that two common recreational angling techniques (active crank baits versus passive soft plastics) differentially target wild largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and rock bass (Ambloplites rupestris) based on variation in their behavioural tendencies. Fish were first angled in the wild using both techniques and then brought back to the laboratory and tested for individual-level differences in common estimates of personality (refuge emergence, flight-initiation-distance, latency-to-recapture and with a net, and general activity) in an in-lake experimental arena. We found that different angling techniques appear to selectively target these species based on their boldness (as characterized by refuge emergence, a standard measure of boldness in fishes) but not other assays of personality. We also observed that body size was independently a significant predictor of personality in both species, though this varied between traits and species. Our results suggest a context-dependency for vulnerability to capture relative to behaviour in these fish species. Ascertaining the selective pressures angling practices exert on natural populations is an important area of fisheries research with significant implications for ecology, evolution, and resource management.

Application of species distribution models to explain and predict the distribution, abundance and assemblage structure of nearshore temperate reef fishes

 Aim: The purpose of this study was to create predictive species distribution models (SDMs) for temperate reef-associated fish species densities and fish assemblage diversity and richness to aid in marine conservation and spatial planning. Location: California, USA. Methods: Using generalized additive models, we associated fish species densities and assemblage characteristics with seafloor structure, giant kelp biomass and wave climate and used these associations to predict the distribution and assemblage structure across the study area. We tested the accuracy of these predicted extrapolations using an independent data set. The SDMs were also used to estimate larger scale abundances to compare with other estimates of species abundance (uniform density extrapolation over rocky reef and density extrapolations taking into account variations in geomorphic structure). Results: The SDMs successfully modelled the species-habitat relationships of seven rocky reef-associated fish species and showed that species' densities differed in their relationships with environmental variables. The predictive accuracy of the SDMs ranged from 0.26 to 0.60 (Pearson's r correlation between observed and predicted density values). The SDMs created for the fish assemblage-level variables had higher prediction accuracies with Pearson's r values of 0.61 for diversity and 0.71 for richness. The comparisons of the different methods for extrapolating species densities over a single marine protected area varied greatly in their abundance estimates with the uniform extrapolation (density values extrapolated evenly over the rocky reef) always estimating much greater abundances. The other two methods, which took into account variation in the geomorphic structure of the reef, provided much lower abundance estimates. Main conclusions: Species distribution models that combine geomorphic, oceanographic and biogenic habitat variables can reliably predict spatial patterns of species density and assemblage attributes of temperate reef fishes at spatial scales of 50 m. Thus, SDMs show great promise for informing spatial and ecosystem-based approaches to conservation and fisheries management. © 2015 John Wiley