Framing for resilience through social learning: impacts of environmental stewardship on youth in post-disturbance communities

Civic ecology practices, such as community gardening and citizen-led urban reforestation and wetland restoration, provide opportunities for social learning. Because social learning is an important component of community resilience, we suggest that civic ecology practices can be a strategy for responding to and mitigating environmental disturbances in an era threatened by climate change. Despite the links between civic ecology, social learning and community resilience, empirical research that systematically considers these connections is limited. This study addresses this gap by introducing ‘frames’ as an approach to considering social learning outcomes and process. More specifically, we provide a model for investigating the role civic ecology education programs play in shaping youths’ capacity to understand and respond to environmental disturbance. We used participant observation and cognitive mapping to assess social learning among three youth restoration programs working in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in New York, NY, and after the 2013 floods in Boulder, CO. In all three programs, youth demonstrated social learning and cognitive change by shifting their emphasis from the impacts of disturbance towards a solutions-based framing that focused on community, action, and mitigation. However, the depth of these changes was not uniform across all programs, suggesting that variations in program length, community context, social identity, and opportunities for self-defined action may shape overall impacts of programs and youth capacity for future action.     

High-frequency measurements reveal spatial and temporal patterns of dissolved organic matter in an urban water conveyance

Stormwater runoff in urban areas can contribute high concentrations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) to receiving waters, potentially causing impairment to the aquatic ecosystem of urban streams and downstream water bodies. Compositional changes in DOM due to storm events in forested, agricultural, and urban landscapes have been well studied, but in situ sensors have not been widely applied to monitor stormwater contributions in urbanized areas, leaving the spatial and temporal characteristics of DOM within these systems poorly understood. We deployed fluorescent DOM (FDOM) sensors at upstream and downstream locations within a study reach to characterize the spatial and temporal changes in DOM quantity and sources within an urban water conveyance that receives stormwater runoff. Baseflow FDOM decreased over the summer season as seasonal flows upstream transported less DOM. FDOM fluctuated diurnally, the amplitude of which also declined as the summer season progressed. During storms, FDOM concentrations were rapidly elevated to values orders of magnitude greater than baseflow measurements, with greater concentrations at the downstream monitoring site, revealing high contributions from stormwater outfalls between the two locations. Observations from custom, in situ fluorometers resembled results obtained using laboratory methods for identifying DOM source material and indicated that DOM transitioned to a more microbially derived composition as the summer season progressed, while stormwater contributions contributed DOM from terrestrial sources. Deployment of a mobile sensing platform during varying flow conditions captured spatial changes in DOM concentration and composition and revealed contributions of DOM from outfalls during stormflows that would have otherwise been unobserved.     

Development of a bird integrity index: using bird assemblages as indicators of riparian condition

We describe the development of a bird integrity index (BII) that uses bird assemblage information to assess human impacts on 13 stream reaches in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA. We used bird survey data to test 62 candidate metrics representing aspects of bird taxonomic richness, tolerance or intolerance to human disturbance, dietary preferences, foraging techniques, and nesting strategies that were affected positively or negatively by human activities. We evaluated the metric responsiveness by plotting each one against a measure of site disturbance that included aspects of land use/land cover, road density, riparian cover, and stream channel and substrate conditions. In addition, we eliminated imprecise and highly correlated (redundant) metrics, leaving 13 metrics for the final index. Individual metric scores ranged continuously from 0 to 10, and index scores were weighted to range from 0 to 100. Scores were calibrated using historical species information to set expectations for the number of species expected under minimally disturbed conditions. Site scores varied from 82 for the least disturbed stream reach to 8.5 for an urban site. We compared the bird integrity index site scores with the performance of other measures of biotic response developed during this study: a fish index of biointegrity (IBI) and two benthic macroinvertebrate metrics. The three assemblages agreed on the general level of disturbance; however, individual sites scored differently depending on specific indicator response to in-stream or riparian conditions. The bird integrity index appears to be a useful management and monitoring tool for assessing riparian integrity and communicating the results to the public. Used together with aquatic indicator response and watershed data, bird assemblage information contributes to a more complete picture of stream condition.     

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.     

Efficient and Practical Approaches to Ground‐Water Right Transfers Under the Prior Appropriation Doctrine and the Snake River Example1

Abstract: Water right transfers are one of the basic means of implementing changes in water use in the highly appropriated water resource systems of the western United States. Many of these systems are governed by the Prior Appropriation Doctrine, which was not originally intended for application to ground‐water pumping and the conjunctive management of ground water and surface water, and thus creates an administrative challenge. That challenge results from the fact that ground‐water pumping can affect all interconnected surface‐water bodies and the effects may be immeasurably small relative to surface water discharge and greatly attenuated in time. Although we may have the ability to calculate the effects of ground‐water pumping and transfers of pumping location on surface‐water bodies, mitigating for all the impacts of each individual transfer is sufficiently inefficient that it impedes the transfer process, frustrates water users, and consequently inhibits economic development. A more holistic approach to ground‐water right transfers, such as a ground‐water accounting or banking scheme, may adequately control transfer third‐party effects while reducing mitigation requirements on individual transfers. Acceptance of an accounting scheme can accelerate the transfer process, and possibly reduce the administrative burden.     

Toxic fluoride and arsenic contaminated groundwater in the Lahore and Kasur districts, Punjab, Pakistan and possible contaminant sources

The present study is the first attempt to put forward possible sources of As, F- and SO4(2-) contaminated groundwater in the Kalalanwala area, Punjab, Pakistan. Five rainwater and 24 groundwater samples from three different depths were analyzed. Shallow groundwater from 24 to 27 m depth contained high F- (2.47-21.1mg/L), while the groundwater samples from the deeper depth were free from fluoride contamination. All groundwater samples contained high As (32-1900 microg/L), in excess of WHO drinking water standards. The SO4(2-) ranges from 110 to 1550 mg/L. Delta34S data indicate three sources for SO4(2-) air pollutants (5.5-5.7 per thousand), fertilizers (4.8 per thousand), and household waste (7.0 per thousand). Our important finding is the presence of SO4(2-), As and F- in rainwater, indicating the contribution of these elements from air pollution. We propose that pollutants originate, in part, from coal combusted at brick factories and were mobilized promotionally by the alkaline nature of the local groundwater.     

Ozone Injection into an Activated Carbon Bed to Remove Hydrogen Sulfide in the Presence of Concurrent Substances

ABSTRACT

Adsorption using activated carbon is one of the most reliable techniques for preventing odor by substances such as H₂S. Concurrent substances in effluent gas often reduce the removal capacity of activated carbon for H₂S. As a means of restoring capacity under such conditions, ozone injection into an activated carbon column was examined. When activated carbon was saturated with substances such as toluene, ethanol, n-butanol, or iso-butanol, its capacity to remove H₂S decreased in proportion to the amount of the saturating substance. Under such conditions, ozone injection greatly increased capacity. Toluene, which is not easily decomposed by ozone, was displaced by ozone and by oxidized products of H₂S. Ethanol, which is adsorbed in small amounts by activated carbon and easily decomposed by ozone, was removed by ozone injection. Butanols, which are also decomposed by ozone and adsorbed in large quantities by activated carbon, showed intermediate behavior between that of toluene and ethanol.     

System Dynamics to Sustainable Water Resources Management in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer Under Water Supply Uncertainty1

Abstract: Water supply uncertainty continues to threaten the reliability of regional water resources in the western United States. Climate variability and water dispute potentials induce water managers to develop proactive adaptive management strategies to mitigate future hydroclimate impacts. The Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer in the state of Idaho is also facing these challenges in the sense that population growth and economic development strongly depend on reliable water resources from underground storage. Drought and subsequent water conflict often drive scientific research and political agendas because water resources availability and aquifer management for a sustainable rural economy are of great interest. In this study, a system dynamics approach is applied to address dynamically complex problems with management of the aquifer and associated surface‐water and groundwater interactions. Recharge and discharge dynamics within the aquifer system are coded in an environmental modeling framework to identify long‐term behavior of aquifer responses to uncertain future hydrological variability. The research shows that the system dynamics approach is a promising modeling tool to develop sustainable water resources planning and management in a collaborative decision‐making framework and also to provide useful insights and alternative opportunities for operational management, policy support, and participatory strategic planning to mitigate future hydroclimate impacts in human dimensions.     

Current knowledge of prenatal diagnosis of mosaic autosomal trisomy in amniocytes: karyotype/phenotype correlations

Genetic counseling for prenatal diagnosis of autosomal trisomy is complex because of the uncertainty of outcome, which is important for management decisions. Compilation of cases of prenatally diagnosed autosomal trisomies in amniocytes has been done previously in an attempt to elucidate the clinical phenotype of these pregnancies. It has been greater than a decade since these studies were completed. To update this work, we reviewed cases reported in the literature since that time. These cases are correlated with the prior reports to increase knowledge about outcomes and to hopefully improve the data available for genetic counseling. The risk of abnormal outcome can be summarized as: very high risk (>60%) for 47,+2/46; 47,+9/46; 47,+16/46; 47,+20/46; and 47,+22/46; high risk (40–59%) for 47,+5/46; 47,+14/46; and 47,+15/46; moderately high risk (20–39%) for 47,+7/46 47,+12/46; and 47,+17/46; moderate risk (up to 19%) for 47,+6/46 and 47,+8/46, and none were low risk. 47,+6/46 was originally indeterminate, 47,+7/46 was originally moderate risk, 47,+9/46 was originally high risk, and 47,+17/46 was originally low risk. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.