Use of Remote Sensing Techniques to Determine the Effects of Grazing on Vegetation Cover and Dune Elevation at Assateague Island National Seashore: Impact of Horses

The effects of grazing by feral horses on vegetation and dune topography at Assateague Island National Seashore were investigated using color-infrared imagery, lidar surveys, and field measurements. Five pairs of fenced and unfenced plots (300 m²) established in 1993 on sand flats and small dunes with similar elevation, topography, and vegetation cover were used for this study. Color-infrared imagery from 1998 and field measurements from 2001 indicated that there was a significant difference in vegetation cover between the fenced and unfenced plot-pairs over the study period. Fenced plots contained a higher percentage of vegetation cover that was dominated by American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata). Lidar surveys from 1997, 1999, and 2000 showed that there were significant differences in elevation and topography between fenced and unfenced plot-pairs. Fenced plots were, on average, 0.63 m higher than unfenced plots, whereas unfenced plots had generally decreased in elevation after establishment in 1993. Results demonstrate that feral horse grazing has had a significant impact on dune formation and has contributed to the erosion of dunes at Assateague Island. The findings suggest that unless the size of the feral horse population is reduced, grazing will continue to foster unnaturally high rates of dune erosion into the future. In order to maintain the natural processes that historically occurred on barrier islands, much larger fenced exclosures would be required to prevent horse grazing.     

Land Evaluation for Maize Based on Fuzzy Set and Interpolation

The objective of this article is to apply fuzzy set and interpolation techniques for land suitability evaluation for maize in Northern Ghana. Land suitability indices were computed at point observations using the Semantic Import (SI) model, whereas spatial interpolation was carried out by block kriging. Interpolated land suitability shows a high correlation (R2 = 0.87) with observed maize yield at the village level. This indicates that land suitability is closely related to maize yield in the study area. Membership functions were further used to assess the degree of limitation of land characteristics to maize. Sixty percent of the data has membership functions ranging from 0.23 for ECEC to 1.00 for drainage. ECEC, organic C, and clay are the major constraints to maize yield. The use of the fuzzy technique is helpful for land suitability evaluation, especially in applications in which subtle differences in soil quality are of a major interest. Furthermore, the use of kriging that exploits spatial variability of data is useful in producing continuous land suitability maps and in estimating uncertainties associated with predicted land suitability indices.     

A Proactive Approach Can Make Site Remediation Less Expensive

Without any incentive to clean up a contaminated site, remediation is often delayed until the site owner is compelled to act by regulatory agencies. In such a context, the selected technology is typically the one that will reach the remediation goals as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, this criterion is often met by overly expensive technologies, resulting in high and sometimes unaffordable total remediation costs, leading to a remediation with a negative net benefit. This study examines the effects of time constraint and benefit value on the optimal remediation strategy for a diesel-contaminated site. This strategy is developed using the technico-economic model METEORS, which takes into account the technology’s effectiveness, the uncertainty of the level of contamination, and the possibility of reducing this uncertainty through either an additional characterization (before selecting and applying a technology) or the monitoring of the remediation technology (during its use). Results of simulations with both economic and temporal constraints support a proactive approach to site remediation.     

Use of Physical Sciences in Support of Environmental Management

Offshore drilling for oil and gas has been conducted since the early 1900s. Oil and gas under the seabed continue to be an important part of the energy resources of the United States. The need to balance the value of these resources against the potential for environmental damage is an important concern. This article explains why and how the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the US Department of the Interior uses research in physical sciences to help fulfill its environmental goals, and it provides background information on the role of physical sciences in decision-making for Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil, gas, and other minerals development. Established in the 1970s, the MMS Environmental Studies Program is a highly focused marine research program designed to provide the environmental information necessary for OCS energy and nonenergy minerals planning and development activities. The physical sciences research supported by MMS includes physical oceanography, oil-spill risk analyses, atmospheric sciences, and sand and gravel studies. Instead of giving a comprehensive review on physical sciences research in MMS, this article presents sample MMS studies and illustrates how these studies are utilized to support decision-making in environmental management.Published online Note: This version was published online in June 2005 with the cover date of August 2004.     

Editorial

Editorial Commentary

Editorial     

A Quantitative Safety Assessment Model For Transgenic Protein Products Produced In Agricultural Crops

Transgenic plants are now being used to develop pharmaceutical and industrial products in addition to their use in crop improvement. Using confinement requirements, these transgenic plants are grown and processed under conditions that prevent intermixing with commodity crops. Regulatory agencies in the United States have provided guidance of zero tolerance of these new industrial crops with commodity crops. While this is a worthy goal, it is theoretically unattainable. In spite of the best containment practices, there is a potential risk using any system of production due to unforeseen incidences including natural disasters or exposure to workers. The precautionary principle has been used for numerous regulated articles in addressing the potential risks of new products and technology based on a risk assessment in similar situations. We present here a risk assessment model that could be used as a start to develop an accepted model for the industry. The model is based on current risk models used for other regulated articles, but adapted for these types of products. This could be used to determine action levels in the event of an unintended exposure or to ensure that detection or confinement methods are adequate to avoid risks. As an example, aprotinin, a therapeutic protein now being produced in maize, was evaluated for potential risk to humans using this model.     

Catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbon into hydrogen and carbon in a spouted-bed reactor as the second-stage reactor of a plastic recycling process

A two-stage process for the chemical recycling of plastics is proposed. In this process, which consists of two reactors, plastics are converted into hydrogen and carbon. In the first reactor, plastic chips are thermally decomposed into hydrocarbons. In the second reactor, the hydrocarbons formed in the first reactor are catalytically decomposed into carbon and hydrogen. In this study, in order to obtain basic data for the second reactor, propene was catalytically decomposed in a laboratory-scale spouted-bed reactor (600mm high, 21.6mm internal diameter, made of SUS304). The effect of the type of spouting medium used on the decomposition behavior of propene was investigated using four types of spouting medium (nickel-plated -alumina, palladium-plated -alumina, nickel-impregnated -alumina, and -alumina). The nickel-impregnated -alumina gave the best propene conversion and hydrogen yield.     

Thermal cracking of oils from waste plastics

Thermal cracking of decomposed waste plastic oil produces a good yield of olefins. The solvent extraction of such waste plastic oil seems to be efficient for increasing gas yields and recycling monomers. To assess the potential of monomer recovery from municipal waste plastics, the oils were cracked using a laboratory-scale quartz-tube reactor. The waste plastic oils were provided by two commercial plants of the Sapporo Plastic Recycle Co. and the Dohoh Recycle Center Co. in Japan. A model waste plastic oil made in a laboratory was also examined. Yields of ethene, propene, and other products were measured at different temperatures. Two-step pyrolysis reduces coking compared with the direct thermal degradation of plastics. The raffinates from waste plastic oils extracted by sulfolane were also cracked. The primary products were almost the same as those from nontreated oils. The maximum total gas yield was 78wt%–85wt% at 750°C, an increase of about 20wt% compared with that of nonextracted oil. Solvent extraction removes stable aromatic hydrocarbons such as styrene, which is more coked than cracked.     

Utilization of Photographs for Determining Impact Indicators for Trail Management

Indicators are a key component of resource management, but selecting them can be difficult and controversial. This study explores different methods for selecting impact indicators for management of trail conditions by comparing photo survey methods (PSM) with written survey methods (WSM). A total of 661 subjects participated in interviews conducted within Mudeung- Mountain Provincial Park in Kwang-ju, Korea. PSM explained variation in acceptability better than WSM. Six major photo components (in order of importance: area of large rocks on trail, area of wood steps, area of bare roots, area of bare soil, area of small stones, and area of stone steps) explained 84.7% of the variation in acceptability of trail management conditions. This study suggests that PSM can be a useful tool for selecting impact indicators. Supported by the grant of Post-Doctoral Program, Chonbuk National University (2001)     

Development and Adoption of a Simple Nonpoint Source Pollution Model for Port Phillip Bay,Australia

New computing tools and approaches allow tailored development of software to meet the needs of environmental managers. The processes required for such tailoring fit well with adaptive management concepts where, as knowledge and system understanding develop among managers, the software can be developed or replaced to match. This paper reports on development and adoption of a simple nonpoint source pollution modeling tool, including technical aspects of data support for modeling and social aspects of software design. The software, named FILTER, used a unit load model to generate expected pollutant loads from subcatchments of Port Phillip Bay, Australia. Monitoring data were used for calibration to modify the delivery of generated pollutants to receiving waters. Spatial, tabular, and charting software components were used to provide alternative forms of output visualization. FILTER was developed using a process that resulted in manager-stakeholders taking responsibility for setting of model parameter values and operation of the user interface, thereby encouraging uptake. The inclusive development process, tailoring of the software to manager needs and styles of usage, and matching of model complexity to data and knowledge, resulted in a successful application that has become the current agreed system representation among disparate stakeholder organizations.