Costs of forestry best management practices in the south: A review

In response to federal and state clean water laws, forestry best management practices (BMPs) have been developed and implemented to prevent nonpoint source water pollution. Ellefson and Miles (1985) found that estimated BMP costs in the Midwest could amount to more than half of the net returns on national forest timber sales. Henly et al. (1988) found that government costs to implement forest practice rules ranged from as little as $100,000 per year in Idaho and Nevada to more than $4 million annually in California. A review of studies in the South indicates that estimated BMP costs have increased over time. Lickwar et al. (1992) estimated Southeast average costs of $12.45 per acre, $2.34 per MBF, or 2.87% of gross stumpage values based on 1987 BMPs and prices. Woodman and Cubbage (1994) estimated Georgia average BMP costs of $24.33 per acre or $3.02 per MBF for forest industry lands and $41.65 per acre or $5.39 per MBF for NIPF lands. For Virginia, Shaffer et al. (1998) estimated median BMP costs of $18.90 per acre. These moderate cost increases could be attributed to a higher level of standards in the revision of each state BMP guidelines manual, as well as moderate price inflation. BMPs such as better road construction, water bars, culverts, and broad-based dips have been most expensive so far. To date streamside zones have not been very expensive because the rules allow most of the valuable residual tees to be harvested as long as heavy equipment does not operate near the streams. However, this limitation may become much more difficult and costly – as indicated by Kluender et al. (2000) – as fewer chainsaw fellers and cable skidders are available. Stricter BMPs, such as those already adopted to implement forest certification standards in the South or those used to protect salmon habitat in the West, could prompt more expensive southern BMPs for landowners and state agencies in the future.     

Assessing environmental exposure and health impacts of gold mining in Ghana

Understanding the extent to which people are being exposed to environmental contaminants helps to identify those populations which may be disproportionately exposed to the contaminants of potential public health concern. This study represents the first report of a comparison of heavy metal arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), platinum (Pt), zinc (Zn), and manganese (Mn) concentrations in the blood of residents of mining and non-mining communities in Ghana. Blood sampling, health records, and interviews were used in this study to establish the links between the levels of contaminants and health effects in humans within a mining and non-mining community in Ghana. Results of this study show that mean concentration of As in blood in Tarkwa Nsuaem Municipality/Prestea-Huni Valley District (TNMA/PHVD) (mining communities) and Cape Coast Metropolis (CCMA) (non-mining community) was 18- and 2-fold higher, respectively, than the WHO guideline value of 0.002?mg?L^?1. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Pb, Hg, and Mn were elevated up to 20-fold higher in the blood of resident adults and children in TNMA/PHVD than in CCMA. The risk of acute respiratory infections in the exposed populations of TNMA and PHVD were approximately 41- and 12-fold greater than the unexposed group. The risk of diabetes mellitus in the exposed populations of TNMA and PHVD were also approximately 20- and 4-fold higher than the unexposed group. In TNMA and PHVD, 40 blood donors were suffering from hyperkeratosis or pigmentation unlike their CCMA counterparts. Data suggest a potential association between mining activities and the levels of these heavy metals. However, the proportion of anthropogenic contribution to the levels of these metals in the blood remains uncertain. This uncertainty seems to be the umbrella under which both government and mining companies continue to hide, leading to inaction.     

Is there really a green paradox?

In the absence of a CO₂ tax, the anticipation of a cheaper renewable backstop increases current emissions of CO₂. Since the date at which renewables are phased in is brought forward and more generally future emissions of CO₂ will decrease, the effect on global warming is unclear. Green welfare falls if the backstop is relatively expensive and full exhaustion of fossil fuels is optimal, but may increase if the backstop is sufficiently cheap relative to the cost of extracting the last drop of fossil fuels plus marginal global warming damages as then it is attractive to leave more fossil fuels unexploited and thus limit CO₂ emissions. We establish these results by analyzing depletion of non-renewable fossil fuels followed by a switch to a clean renewable backstop, paying attention to timing of the switch and the amount of fossil fuels remaining unexploited. We also discuss the potential for limit pricing when the non-renewable resource is owned by a monopolist. Finally, we show that if backstops are already used and more backstops become economically viable as the price of fossil fuels rises, a lower cost of the backstop will either postpone fossil fuel exhaustion or leave more fossil fuel in situ, thus boosting green welfare. However, if a market economy does not internalize global warming externalities and renewables have not kicked in yet, full exhaustion of fossil fuel will occur in finite time and a backstop subsidy always curbs green welfare.     

Achieving a real-time online monitoring system for conservation culturomics

Environmental monitoring is increasingly shifting toward a set of systems that describe changes in real time. In ecology specifically, a series of challenges have prevented the rollout of real-time monitoring for features such as biodiversity change or ecosystem service provision. Conservation culturomics, a field concerned with interactions between people and nature, is well placed to demonstrate how monitoring might move toward a network of real-time platforms, given its existence exclusively in the digital realm. We examined a set of considerations associated with the development of real-time monitoring platforms for conservation culturomics and introduce a near real-time platform for the Species Awareness Index, a global index of changing biodiversity awareness derived from the rate of change in page views for species on Wikipedia. This platform will update automatically each month, operating in near real time ( https://joemillard.shinyapps.io/Real_time_SAI/ ). There are plans to make the underlying data queryable via an application programing interface independent of the platform. The real-time Species Awareness Index will represent the first real-time and entirely automated conservation culturomic platform and one of the first real-time platforms in the discipline of ecology. Real-time monitoring for culturomics can provide insight into human–nature interactions as they play out in the physical realm and provide a framework for the development of real-time monitoring in ecology. Real-time monitoring metrics can be processed on private virtual machines and hosted on publicly available cloud services. Conservation now needs an online, real-time observatory that can evolve with the structure of the web.     

大鼠类Alu重复序列的克隆及其在染色体DNA突变分析中的应用

从大鼠低Ｃｏｔ值ＤＮＡ文库分离到一种类Ａｌｕ的重复序列,命名为ＲＡＬＲＳ－１。对ＲＡＬＲＳ－１克隆并进行了测序,长度为２８３ｂｐ,发现其中含有单一的微卫星（ｍｉｃｒｏｓａｔｅｌｌｉｔｅ）序列ＡＧ,ＡＧＧ和ＡＧＧＧ。ＲＡＬＲＳ－１ＤＮＡ序列在大鼠单倍体基因组中的拷贝数为１５００００～３３００００。依ＲＡＬＲＳ－１中的一段序列合成了一２８寡核苷酸探针（ＡＧＧＧ）７,对大鼠正常组织和肿瘤组织ＤＮＡ指数谱     

VEGETATION Symptoms as a MEASURE of AIR POLLUTION

January 1984 forecasts by The Mcllvaine Company project variable but promising worldwide industry trends for the coming year. The influence on the market of air pollution legislation (in particular, acid rain legislation), gauged by utility planning trends, is discussed in the context of a shifting world market. Specialties within the segmented air pollution control market are categorized by the “market leader” concept, with which the author identifies a number of top companies as “world market leaders.”     

Sample Design Considerations for Indoor Air Exposure Surveys

Concern about the potential for indoor air pollution has prompted recent surveys of radon and NO₂ concentrations In homes and personal exposure studies of volatile organics, carbon monoxide and pesticides, to name a few. The statistical problems in designing sample surveys that measure the physical environment are diverse and more complicated than those encountered in traditional surveys of human attitudes and attributes. This paper addresses issues encountered when designing indoor air quality (IAQ) studies. General statistical concepts related to target population definition, frame creation, and sample selection for area household surveys and telephone surveys are presented. The implications of different measurement approaches are discussed, and response rate considerations are described.     

The Impact of Migration on Air Quality Dose-Response Functions: A Case Study of Jacksonville,Florida

The purpose of this study was to analyze quantitative relationships between air pollution and mortality, and to examine the impact of migration on pollution-related mortality functions. Dose-response functions were estimated for intra-urban variations in ambient air quality for the city of Jacksonville, Florida. Indices of air pollution used in this study were sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and total suspended particulates (TSP). Ambient air quality was measured by the dispersion of TSP and SO₂ across census tracts using the SYMAP dispersion model in conjunction with air quality monitoring stations.

Holding other things constant, TSP apeared to have no statistically significant association with mortality rates. By contrast, the significance of the estimated coefficient for the pollution variable, SO₂, supported the contention that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between air pollution and mortality rates. However, after making a limited test of the impact of migration on dose-response functions, the SO₂ pollution variable was no longer statistically significant. That is, recent migrants may have limited exposure to the existing level of SO₂ in Jacksonville, Florida, but carry with them long term exposure to more heavily polluted areas in the Northern United States. The results of this study suggest that further epidemiological studies and economic analysis of the health effects on air pollution should make some attempt to control the migration effect.