Theory-based research is needed to understand how maps of environmental health risk information influence risk beliefs and protective behavior. Using theoretical concepts from multiple fields of study including visual cognition, semiotics, health behavior, and learning and memory supports a comprehensive assessment of this influence. We report results from thirteen cognitive interviews that provide theory-based insights into how visual features influenced what participants saw and the meaning of what they saw as they viewed three formats of water test results for private wells (choropleth map, dot map, and a table). The unit of perception, color, proximity to hazards, geographic distribution, and visual salience had substantial influences on what participants saw and their resulting risk beliefs. These influences are explained by theoretical factors that shape what is seen, properties of features that shape cognition (pre-attentive, symbolic, visual salience), information processing (top-down and bottom-up), and the strength of concrete compared to abstract information. Personal relevance guided top-down attention to proximal and larger hazards that shaped stronger risk beliefs. Meaning was more local for small perceptual units and global for large units. Three aspects of color were important: pre-attentive “incremental risk” meaning of sequential shading, symbolic safety meaning of stoplight colors, and visual salience that drew attention. The lack of imagery, geographic information, and color diminished interest in table information. Numeracy and prior beliefs influenced comprehension for some participants. Results guided the creation of an integrated conceptual framework for application to future studies. Ethics should guide the selection of map features that support appropriate communication goals.

Against the current moment of rural doubt, we argue that the material, symbolic and relational practices of the rural continue to be articulate aspects of our politics. We term the material practices 'rural power' and the symbolic practices 'the power of the rural'. The relational practices we term 'rural constituencies' when relations are bounded materially and 'constituencies of the rural' when they are bounded symbolically. We apply this framework to a critique of contemporary theory, especially mobilities research, which, we argue, typically speaks with a passive rural voice. We argue for recognising the active rural voice in the mobilisation and stabilisation of the rural.s oru_512 205..224 T he rural still causes trouble. In our supposedly modern and urban age, when we have grown accustomed to thinking of the rural as something old and tired, too exhausted and passive to resist and get out of the way of cities and city people, we still find repeated reminders of the alertness and vigour of rural places, ideas and lives. These reminders are not necessarily cause for romantic celebration. Afghanistan, Waziristan and Sudan nettle the world, showing us the continued stark military challenge of the rural. Everyone is talking about food again, worried about its dearth, its excess and its quality and lack thereof. Diseases from swine flu to avian flu to West Nile virus bring the rural into the streets of everyone's concerns. People move from countryside to city, from city to countryside, and from countryside to countryside and the results are not always conflict free. The rural also pleases us, soothing our worries through book and film and song, and rewarding our ambitions through walks and weeding and woodcutting. In all these ways and more, the rural remains an active feature of our lives, continually confronting us and our politics materially, symbolically and relationally.And yet many writers from many quarters have argued that the rural is declining in consequence. Others have objected to or qualified such a take on the rural. This is an old and seemingly endless debate, one that more than a few scholars are weary of,

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are plant root symbionts that provide many benefits to crop production and agro-ecosystem function; therefore, management of AMF is increasingly seen as important to ecological farming. Agronomic weeds that form a symbiotic relationship with AMF can increase diversity and abundance of agronomically beneficial AMF taxa. Also, AMF can strongly affect plant community composition, and may thus provide some degree of biological control for weeds. Therefore, relationships between weeds and AMF have a dual significance in ecological farming, but are relatively unexamined. In glasshouse experiments, seedlings of 14 agronomic weed species were grown in the presence or absence of AMF inocula sampled from each of three types of cropping systems: organic, transitional-organic or high-input/conventional. For each weed species, AMF root colonization rates and growth responses to AMF were assessed. On the basis of observed colonization levels, the species were classified as strong hosts (five species), weak hosts (three) and non-host species (six). Among species, biomass responses to AMF were highly variable. Strong hosts showed more positive responses to AMF than weak hosts, although the range of responses was great. Non-hosts did not suffer consistent negative biomass responses to AMF, although strong biomass reductions were noted for certain species–inoculum combinations. Biomass responses to inocula from different cropping systems varied significantly among weed species in one of two experiments. Results suggest that weed–AMF interactions can affect weed community dynamics. We recommend investigation of these interactions in agro-ecosystems that use management methods likely to intensify weed–AMF interactions, such as conservation tillage and cover cropping.

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