Resource use in two contrasting habitat types raises different challenges for the conservation of the dryad butterfly Minois dryas

The suitability of any location for a given species is determined by the available resources. However, there are many species that occur in more than one habitat type and their successful conservation may be particularly difficult. The dryad Minois dryas, a locally endangered butterfly, occurs in two contrasting habitats-xerothemic and wet grasslands. We investigated the influence of various habitat characteristics, such as vegetation height, grass cover, proximity of shrubs, plant species composition, Ellenberg indices of trophic and microclimatic conditions, on the microhabitat selection by the species. The nectaring of randomly selected butterflies was observed and habitat characteristics were compared at random points within the meadow and at the butterfly’s nectaring and resting places. The butterflies generally preferred to stay close to shrubs and avoided invasive goldenrods. Thermal conditions and the availability of nectar plants were the factors limiting the dryad’s use of wet grassland. In xerothermic habitats grass cover affected the distribution of butterflies. Concerning the availability of larval host plants, wet meadows proved potentially more favourable, whereas nectar resources for adults were more abundant in xerothermic grasslands. Based on our findings, conservation strategies for this butterfly must differ in the two habitats. Rotational mowing in xerothermic grasslands and the removal of invasive goldenrods in wet grasslands are the recommended actions. At a larger spatial scale, a habitat mosaic composed of xerothermic and wet grasslands in close proximity would seem to be the most suitable areas for the conservation of the dryad

Nature’s nations: the shared conservation history of Canada and the USA

Historians often study the history of conservation within the confines of national borders, concentrating on the bureaucratic and political manifestations of policy within individual governments. Even studies of the popular expression of conservationist ideas are generally limited to the national or sub-national (province, state, etc.) scale. This paper suggests that conservationist discourse, policy and practice in Canada and the USA were the products of a significant cross-border movement of ideas and initiatives derived from common European sources. In addition, the historical development of common approaches to conservation in North America suggests, contrary to common assumptions, that Canada did not always lag behind the USA in terms of policy innovation. The basic tenets of conservation (i.e. state control over resource, class-based disdain for subsistence hunters and utilitarian approaches to resource management) have instead developed at similar time periods and along parallel ideological paths in Canada and the USA

Simultaneous Solid Electrolyte Deposition and Cathode Lithiation for Thin Film Batteries and Lithium Iontronic Devices

We show that the deposition of the solid-state electrolyte LiPON onto films of V2O5 leads to their uniform lithiation of up to 2.2 Li per V2O5, without affecting the Li concentration in the LiPON and its ionic conductivity. Our results indicate that Li incorporation occurs during LiPON deposition, in contrast to earlier mechanisms proposed to explain postdeposition Li transfer between LiPON and LiCoO2. We use our discovery to demonstrate symmetric thin film batteries with a capacity of >270 mAh/g, at a rate of 20C, and 1600 cycles with only 8.4% loss in capacity. We also show how autolithiation can simplify fabrication of Li iontronic transistors attractive for emerging neuromorphic computing applications. Our discovery that LiPON deposition results in autolithiation of the underlying insertion oxide has the potential to substantially simplify and enhance the fabrication process for thin film solid state Li ion batteries and emerging lithium iontronic neuromorphic computing devices