What is needed to improve tropical conservation? Appropriate education, training, and encouragement

Currently, there is a need for a better multidisciplinary education system for tropical conservation, as well as a need for more people from developing countries to receive such improved education and training. If this combination is achieved, universities in both developed and developing nations will likely produce graduates who are better prepared for jobs involving non-academic tropical conservation initiatives and, simultaneously produce graduates who may be better accepted as conservationists in tropical destinations.     

The Feasibility of Wet Scrubbing for Treating Waste-to-Energy Flue Gas

The selection of Hue gas treatment processes in the waste-to-energy industry has generally followed the trend of the coal-fired power industry. The highly favored process for both industries is the dry scrubber (spray absorber) followed by a fabric filter. As more attention is focused upon increasingly greater efficiencies, lower outlet concentrations, heavy metals emissions, and toxic organic pollutant emissions, the advantages of wet scrubbing become more pronounced. This paper provides an objective technical and economic evaluation of selected wet scrubbing and dry scrubbing systems for a generic waste-to-energy facility. The advantages and disadvantages of wet scrubbing are discussed and translated into cost benefits or penalties.     

Decision support methods for the environmental assessment of contamination at mining sites

Polluting mine accidents and widespread environmental contamination associated with historic mining in Europe and elsewhere has triggered the improvement of related environmental legislation and of the environmental assessment and management methods for the mining industry. Mining has some unique features such as natural background pollution associated with natural mineral deposits, industrial activities and contamination located in the three-dimensional sub-surface space, the problem of long-term remediation after mine closure, problem of secondary contaminated areas around mine sites and abandoned mines in historic regions like Europe. These mining-specific problems require special tools to address the complexity of the environmental problems of mining-related contamination. The objective of this paper is to review and evaluate some of the decision support methods that have been developed and applied to mining contamination. In this paper, only those methods that are both efficient decision support tools and provide a ‘holistic’ approach to the complex problem as well are considered. These tools are (1) landscape ecology, (2) industrial ecology, (3) landscape geochemistry, (4) geo-environmental models, (5) environmental impact assessment, (6) environmental risk assessment, (7) material flow analysis and (8) life cycle assessment. This unique inter-disciplinary study should enable both the researcher and the practitioner to obtain broad view on the state-of-the-art of decision support methods for the environmental assessment of contamination at mine sites. Documented examples and abundant references are also provided.     

Auditing the Assessment of the Environmental Impacts of Planning Projects

This paper presents the results from a post-auditing study-a comparison of the predictions of environmental impacts of projects made in environmental statements prior to developmentwith those that actually occurred upon or after development. The purpose of post-auditing is to provide an analysis of prediction performance in environmental impact assessment and thus to improve future practice by learning from experience. By means of a combination of site visits, interviews and document scrutiny, 865 predictions from 28 UK projects granted planning permission were examined. Of these, 488 (56%) were auditable, of which 383 (79%) were deemed 'accurate' or 'nearly accurate' and 105 (21%) 'inaccurate'. The remaining 377 (44%) predictions were not auditable, the main reasons being lack of data, vague or ambiguous predictions and time dependency.There were only six unpredicted impacts. The study reveals some encouraging findings, but also a number of discouraging ones, which indicate the need to increase both enthusiasm for, and implementationof, post-auditing activities. Several suggestions are made to help achieve these objectives.     

Use of whole-body and subcellular Cu residues of Lumbriculus variegatus to predict waterborne Cu toxicity to both L. variegatus and Chironomus riparius in fresh water

We tested the use of whole-body and subcellular Cu residues (biologically-active (BAM) and inactive compartments (BIM)), of the oligochaete Lumbriculus variegatus to predict Cu toxicity in fresh water. The critical whole-body residue associated with 50% mortality (CBR₅₀) was constant (38.2-55.6 μg g⁻¹ fresh wt.) across water hardness (38-117 mg L⁻¹ as CaCO₃) and exposure times during the chronic exposure. The critical subcellular residue (CSR₅₀) in metal-rich granules (part of BIM) associated with 50% mortality was approximately 5 μg g⁻¹ fresh wt., indicating that Cu bioavailability is correlated with toxicity:subcellular residue is a better predictor of Cu toxicity than whole-body residue. There was a strong correlation between the whole-body residue of L. variegatus (biomonitor) and survival of Chironomus riparius (relatively sensitive species) in a hard water Cu co-exposure. The CBR₅₀ in L. variegatus for predicting mortality of C. riparius was 29.1-45.7 μg g⁻¹ fresh wt., which was consistent within the experimental period; therefore use of Cu residue in an accumulator species to predict bioavailability of Cu to a sensitive species is a promising approach.     

Interaction of ocean acidification and temperature; the high cost of survival in the brittlestar Ophiura ophiura

This study has demonstrated an interaction between the effect of increased ocean acidity and temperature (40 days exposure) on a number of key physiological parameters in the ophiuroid brittlestar, Ophiura ophiura. Metabolic upregulation is seen in the low pH treatments when combined with low temperature. However, this is far outweighed by the response to elevated temperature (+4.5°C). In the high temperature/low pH treatments treatments (where calcite is undersaturated) there appears to be an energetic trade-off likely in order to maintain net calcification where dissolution of calcium carbonate may occur. This energy deficit results in a ~30% reduction in the rate of arm regeneration at pH 7.3 which is predicted to be reached by the year 2300. This understanding of how O. ophiura responds to ocean acidification, taking into account an interactive effect of temperature, suggests that fitness and survival may indirectly be reduced through slower recovery from arm damage.     

Environmental Impact Assessment in Victoria: Australian Discretion Rules EA!

Victoria enacted EIA legislation in 1978, before any other state in Australia. The current EIA system, which is administered by the state government, is based upon non-mandatory guidelines which are far more comprehensive than the provisions of the law they elaborate. As it has matured, Victoria's EIA system has developed requirements for the consideration of alternatives, screening, scoping (with project-specific outlines), EIA report-quality checks, proponent response to public comment and the preparation of a ministerial assessment report containing recommendations. The use of consultative committees to advise on scoping and EIA report preparation is one of several public participation provisions. EIA system evaluation criteria are advanced and used to help in reviewing the largely discretionary Victorian system, elements of which could serve as an example to other jurisdictions with incomplete EIA legislative requirements, such as the U.K.     

The risk assessment–policy gap: An example from the UK contaminated land regime

Risk-based regulation assumes that risk assessment can evaluate risks against policy objectives. However, policy goals are often ambiguous and require risk assessors to interpret them for use in risk assessment. This risk assessment-policy gap stems partly from normative and imprecise policy language but is rooted more fundamentally in society's uncertain expectations for the environment. Until this uncertainty is resolved, the democratic and regulatory effectiveness of risk regulation will be undermined by ad hoc policy decisions abdicated to risk assessors.     

Simulating conditions for the regulation of a moose population by Wolves

Computer simulations were used to explore how wolves could regulate moose populations in the presence or absence of hunting. In the model, vulnerability to predation varied with the age of the moose, and the numbers of animals killed per age-class were computed using the Nicholson-Bailey model. Vulnerability to hunting varied with sex and age of moose. Three possibilities were investigated: (a) when reproduction of both predator and prey were held constant; (b) when reproduction of wolves was directly related to winter survival; and (c) as for b, with the addition that wolves have access to garbage dumps in winter. The last set of hypotheses proved to be sufficient for the predator to regulate its prey.