Environmental Water-Quality Zones for Streams: A Regional Classification Scheme

Various approaches have been used to classify large geographical areas into smaller regions of similar water quality or extrapolate water-quality data from a few streams to other unmonitored streams. A combination of some of the strengths of existing techniques is used to develop a new approach for these purposes. In this new approach, referred to here as SPARTA (SPAtial Regression-Tree Analysis), environmental characteristics for each monitored stream are first quantified using a Geographic Information System (GIS) and then regression-tree analysis is used to determine which characteristics are most statistically important in describing the distribution of a specific water-quality constituent. GIS coverages of only the most statistically significant environmental characteristics are then used to subdivide the area of interest into relatively homogeneous environmental water-quality zones. Results from the regression-tree analysis not only define the most important environmental characteristics, but also describe how to subdivide the coverage of the specific characteristic (for example, areas with <26% or ≥26% soil clay content). The resulting regionalization scheme is customized for each water-quality constituent based on the environmental characteristics most statistically related to that constituent. SPARTA was used to delineate areas of similar phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment concentrations (by including land-use characteristics) and areas of similar potential water quality (by excluding land-use characteristics). The SPARTA approach reduced the variability in water-quality concentrations (phosphorus, total nitrogen, Kjeldahl nitrogen, and suspended sediment) within similarly classified zones from that obtained using the US Environmental Protection Agency's nutrient ecoregions.     

A GIS/Simulation Framework for Assessing Change in Water Yield over Large Spatial Scales

Recent legislation to initiate vegetation management in the Central Sierra hydrologic region of California includes a focus on corresponding changes in water yield. This served as the impetus for developing a combined geographic information system (GIS) and simulation assessment framework. Using the existing vegetation density condition, together with proposed rules for thinning to reduce fire risk, a set of simulation model inputs were generated for examining the impact of the thinning scenario on water yield. The approach allows results to be expressed as the mean and standard deviation of change in water yield for each 1-km² map cell that is thinned. Values for groups of cells are aggregated for typical watershed units using area-weighted averaging. Wet, dry, and average precipitation years were simulated over a large region. Where snow plays an important role in hydrologic processes, the simulated change in water yield was less than 0.5% of expected annual runoff for a typical watershed. Such small changes would be undetectable in the field using conventional stream flow analysis. These results suggest that use of water yield increases to help justify forest-thinning activities or offset their cost will be difficult.     

Achieving Integrative, Collaborative Ecosystem Management

Abstract:  Although numerous principles have been identified as being important for successfully integrating social and ecological factors in collaborative management, few authors have illustrated how these principles are used and why they are effective. On the basis of a review of the ecosystem management and collaboration literature, we identified eight factors important for integrative, collaborative ecosystem management—integrated and balanced goals, inclusive public involvement, stakeholder influence, consensus group approach, collaborative stewardship, monitoring and adaptive management, multidisciplinary data, and economic incentives.We examined four cases of successful ecosystem management to illustrate how the factors were incorporated and discuss the role they played in each case's success. The cases illustrate that balancing social and ecosystem sustainability goals is possible. Collaborative efforts resulted in part from factors aimed at making plans economically feasible and from meaningful stakeholder participation in ongoing management. It also required participation in monitoring programs to ensure stakeholder interests were protected and management efforts were focused on agreed-upon goals. Data collection efforts were not all-inclusive and systematic; rather, they addressed the ecological, economic, and social aspects of key issues as they emerged over time. Economic considerations appear to be broader than simply providing economic incentives; stakeholders seem willing to trade some economic value for recreational or environmental benefits. The cases demonstrate that it is not idealistic to believe integrative, collaborative ecosystem management is possible in field applications.     

Wildlife Conservation Outside Protected Areas—Lessons from an Experiment in Zambia

En Africa, el manejo de un área natural comoparque nacional implica, usualmente, lidiar con las presiones humanas existentes alrededor del área protegida. Ese es el tema de este documento, el cual vá más allá de la mera aplicación de las leyes, para considerar el ámbito del liderazgo tradicional en la aldea, la socioeconomía rural y, los servicios gubernamentales de manejo de fauna en areas querodean un parque nacional.
Este documento describe los resultados de un proyecto experimental realizado en Zambia, cuyo objetivo era detener la perdida drática de rinocerontes y elefantes causada por la cacería ilegal en áreas protegidas y en sus alrededores, especificamente, en el Valle Luangwa El diseño de este proy ecto consistió en involucrar a la población local, residente fuera del parque, en actividades de protección y manejo de fauna silvestre. Ademá se adoptó el uso sostenido de la fauna silvestre, como fuente de ingresos para coadyuvar en el desarrollo comunitario, convirtiéndolo, además, en un programa financieramente autosuficiente.
A fin de realizar las diuersas tareas de protección y desarrollo de los recursos de fauna silvestre se capacityó y empleó a residentes locales como personal encargado del manejo de la fauna silvestre. Los Concejos de Fauna Silvestre de la aldea proporcionaron asesoría y colaboración. Las concesiones para el desarrollo de safaris generaron suficientes fondos para cubrir los gastos recurrentes de munejo de fauna Silvestre y también generaron ganacias significatlvas en beneficio de la comuniciad. Como resultado de estas actividades, se redujo la cacercía illegal, majoró la economia local, y la actitud del pueblo hacia la conservación y el manejo de fauna se tornó más positive.     

Cost‐Effectiveness of Alternative Conservation Strategies with Application to the Pacific Leatherback Turtle

Although holistic conservation addressing all sources of mortality for endangered species or stocks is the preferred conservation strategy, limited budgets require a criterion to prioritize conservation investments. We compared the cost‐effectiveness of nesting site and at‐sea conservation strategies for Pacific leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea). We sought to determine which conservation strategy or mix of strategies would produce the largest increase in population growth rate per dollar. Alternative strategies included protection of nesters and their eggs at nesting beaches in Indonesia, gear changes, effort restrictions, and caps on turtle takes in the Hawaiian (U.S.A.) longline swordfish fishery, and temporal and area closures in the California (U.S.A.) drift gill net fishery. We used a population model with a biological metric to measure the effects of conservation alternatives. We normalized all effects by cost to prioritize those strategies with the greatest biological effect relative to its economic cost. We used Monte Carlo simulation to address uncertainty in the main variables and to calculate probability distributions for cost‐effectiveness measures. Nesting beach protection was the most cost‐effective means of achieving increases in leatherback populations. This result creates the possibility of noncompensatory bycatch mitigation, where high‐bycatch fisheries invest in protecting nesting beaches. An example of this practice is U.S. processors of longline tuna and California drift gill net fishers that tax themselves to finance low‐cost nesting site protection. Under certain conditions, fisheries interventions, such as technologies that reduce leatherback bycatch without substantially decreasing target species catch, can be cost‐effective. Reducing bycatch in coastal areas where bycatch is high, particularly adjacent to nesting beaches, may be cost‐effective, particularly, if fisheries in the area are small and of little commercial value. Rentabilidad de Estrategias de Conservación Alternativas Aplicadas a Tortugas Laúd del Pacífico     

Effects of Climate Change on Population Persistence of Desert-Dwelling Mountain Sheep in California

Abstract:  Metapopulations may be very sensitive to global climate change, particularly if temperature and precipitation change rapidly. We present an analysis of the role of climate and other factors in determining metapopulation structure based on presence and absence data. We compared existing and historical population distributions of desert bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis ) to determine whether regional climate patterns were correlated with local extinction. To examine all mountain ranges known to hold or to have held desert bighorn populations in California and score for variables describing climate, metapopulation dynamics, human impacts, and other environmental factors, we used a geographic information system (GIS) and paper maps. We used logistic regression and hierarchical partitioning to assess the relationship among these variables and the current status of each population (extinct or extant). Parameters related to climate—elevation, precipitation, and presence of dependable springs—were strongly correlated with population persistence in the twentieth century. Populations inhabiting lower, drier mountain ranges were more likely to go extinct. The presence of domestic sheep grazing allotments was negatively correlated with population persistence. We used conditional extinction probabilities generated by the logistic-regression model to rank native, naturally recolonized, and reintroduced populations by vulnerability to extinction under several climate-change scenarios. Thus risk of extinction in metapopulations can be evaluated for global-climate-change scenarios even when few demographic data are available.     

Practical Implications of Understanding the Influence of Motivations on Commitment to Voluntary Urban Conservation Stewardship

Although the word commitment is prevalent in conservation biology literature and despite the importance of people's commitment to the success of conservation initiatives, commitment as a psychological phenomenon and its operation in specific conservation behaviors remains unexplored. Despite increasing calls for conservation psychology to play a greater role in meeting conservation goals, applications of the psychological sciences to specific conservation behaviors, illustrating their utility to conservation practice, are rare. We examined conservation volunteers’ motivations and commitment to urban conservation volunteering. We interviewed key informant volunteers and used interview findings to develop psychometric scales that we used to assess motivations and commitment to volunteer. We surveyed 322 urban conservation volunteers and used factor analysis to reveal how volunteers structure their motivations and commitment to volunteer for urban conservation activities. Six categories of motivations and 2 categories of commitment emerged from factor analysis. Volunteers were motivated by desires to help the environment, defend and enhance the ego, career and learning opportunities, escape and exercise, social interactions, and community building. Two forms of commitment, affective and normative commitment, psychologically bind people to urban conservation volunteerism. We used linear‐regression models to examine how these categories of motivations influence volunteers’ commitment to conservation volunteerism. Volunteers’ tendency to continue to volunteer for urban conservation, even in the face of fluctuating counter urges, was motivated by personal, social, and community functions more than environmental motivations. The environment, otherwise marginally important, was a significant motivator of volunteers’ commitment only when volunteering met volunteers’ personal, social, and community‐building goals. Attention to these personal, social, and community‐building motivations may help enhance volunteers’ commitment to conservation stewardship and address the pressing challenge of retaining urban conservation volunteers. Implicaciones Prácticas del Entendimiento de la Influencia de Motivaciones sobre el Compromiso de Voluntarios de Conservación Urbana Asah & Blahna     

growing pains: a conceptual framework for considering integrated assessments

Policy concerns related to the environment have grown in the past decadesfrom relatively local and well-defined problems to increasingly complex andglobal issues. With this has grown the need to develop the capacity tointegrate, reconcile, organize, and communicate knowledge across scientificdisciplines, as well as to make this knowledge available and useful for policy-makers. One response to this has been the growing field ofIntegrated Assessment (IA). Our goal in this paper is to reflect on the purpose and valueof IA in principle. We propose a conceptual framework within whichindividual IA studies, and the practice of IA as a whole, can be placed andevaluated. The framework addresses both the integrative nature of IAs andtheir policy usefulness, including a self-awareness of their role and capabilities. We illustrate several stages in the evolution of integrated assessments: fromlinear to more complex chains of analysis, from non-adaptive to perfectly-adaptive to realistically-adaptive agents, from simplistic to sophisticated to pluralistic consideration of alternative underlying development paths, from strictly quantitative to quantitative and qualitative analyses, from science-driven to policy-driven, and from analyses that dictate to users to those that involvethose users in the actual assessment process. By so doing, we argue for botha richer form and process of IA. Ultimately, we feel that it may also benecessary to reconsider the framing of the questions that IAs have been askedto address, perhaps leading to the consideration of the use of other forms of mandated science.