A Survey of Nitrogen Dioxide Levels Measured Inside Mobile Homes

As part of the California Mobile Home Study, over 250 mobile homes from throughout the state were monitored for nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) concentrations. Week-long average measurements were taken with Palmes tubes in the kitchen and bedroom of each mobile home during the summer of 1984 and the winter of 1985. The study was conducted entirely by mail with the participants providing all the necessary information. Mobile homes using gas for cooking had significantly higher indoor NO₂ levels than those using electricity. Mobile homes located in the Los Angeles basin had significantly higher indoor NO₂ concentrations than did mobile homes in the rest of the state. Gas cooking, the inverse of the house volume and geographic location (as a surrogate of outdoor NO₂) were the most important variables identified by multiple linear regression.     

Annual average radon concentrations in California residences.

A study was conducted to determine the annual average radon concentrations in California residences, to determine the approximate fraction of the California population regularly exposed to radon concentrations of 4 pCi/l or greater, and to the extent possible, to identify regions of differing risk for high radon concentrations within the state. Annual average indoor radon concentrations were measured with passive (alpha track) samplers sent by mail and deployed by home occupants, who also completed questionnaires on building and occupant characteristics. For the 310 residences surveyed, concentrations ranged from 0.10 to 16 pCi/l, with a geometric mean of whole-house (bedroom and living room) average concentrations of 0.85 pCi/l and a geometric standard deviation of 1.91. A total of 88,000 California residences (0.8 percent) were estimated to have radon concentrations exceeding 4 pCi/l. When the state was divided into six zones based on geology, significant differences in geometric mean radon concentrations were found between several of the zones. Zones with high geometric means were the Sierra Nevada mountains, the valleys east of the Sierra Nevada, the central valley (especially the southern portion), and Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. Zones with low geometric means included most coastal counties and the portion of the state from Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties south.     

Spatial and temporal feeding patterns of copepods from the North Pacific centra gyre

Spatial and temporal feeding patterns (determined from an index of gut fullness) are described for 10 typical species of calanoid copepods collected from the North Pacific central gyre (September 1968 to June 1977), an area where the zooplankton is food limited and there were a-priori reasons to suspect that feeding and competition for food were important in regulating zooplankton community structure. Over 100 samples from 11 cruises to the eastern part of the gyre were examined, and patterns of gut fullness were related to environmental variables and the copepod species structure. The copepods studied all tended to be omnivores and food generalists. Males had lower indices of gut fullness than females but both males and females of a species had similar spatial and temporal feeding patterns. Guts were usually fuller at night than during the day, even in nonmigrating species; however, within nighttime depth distributions, no depths were preferred for feeding. There were also differences between species in mean gut fullness, but different species tended to have similar spatial and temporal feeding patterns. There was considerable spatial variability, and locales could be identified in which most species had higher indices of gut fullness. The copepods were not necessarily more abundant in these locales, nor did these tend to be areas of above average chlorophyll concentration. These patterns were consistent with relatively nonselective feeding, and there was no evidence that these species separate their niches by feeding at differing places or times.     

The Adaptation for Conservation Targets (ACT) Framework: A Tool for Incorporating Climate Change into Natural Resource Management

As natural resource management agencies and conservation organizations seek guidance on responding to climate change, myriad potential actions and strategies have been proposed for increasing the long-term viability of some attributes of natural systems. Managers need practical tools for selecting among these actions and strategies to develop a tailored management approach for specific targets at a given location. We developed and present one such tool, the participatory Adaptation for Conservation Targets (ACT) framework, which considers the effects of climate change in the development of management actions for particular species, ecosystems and ecological functions. Our framework is based on the premise that effective adaptation of management to climate change can rely on local knowledge of an ecosystem and does not necessarily require detailed projections of climate change or its effects. We illustrate the ACT framework by applying it to an ecological function in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, USA)-water flows in the upper Yellowstone River. We suggest that the ACT framework is a practical tool for initiating adaptation planning, and for generating and communicating specific management interventions given an increasingly altered, yet uncertain, climate.     

Design to monitor trend in abundance and presence of American beaver (Castor canadensis) at the national forest scale

Wildlife conservationists design monitoring programs to assess population dynamics, project future population states, and evaluate the impacts of management actions on populations. Because agency mandates and conservation laws call for monitoring data to elicit management responses, it is imperative to design programs that match the administrative scale for which management decisions are made. We describe a program to monitor population trends in American beaver (Castor canadensis) on the US Department of Agriculture, Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) in southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, USA. Beaver have been designated as a management indicator species on the BHNF because of their association with riparian and aquatic habitats and its status as a keystone species. We designed our program to monitor the density of beaver food caches (abundance) within sampling units with beaver and the proportion of sampling units with beavers present at the scale of a national forest. We designated watersheds as sampling units in a stratified random sampling design that we developed based on habitat modeling results. Habitat modeling indicated that the most suitable beaver habitat was near perennial water, near aspen (Populus tremuloides) and willow (Salix spp.), and in low gradient streams at lower elevations. Results from the initial monitoring period in October 2007 allowed us to assess costs and logistical considerations, validate our habitat model, and conduct power analyses to assess whether our sampling design could detect the level of declines in beaver stated in the monitoring objectives. Beaver food caches were located in 20 of 52 sampled watersheds. Monitoring 20 to 25 watersheds with beaver should provide sufficient power to detect 15–40% declines in the beaver food cache index as well as a twofold decline in the odds of beaver being present in watersheds. Indices of abundance, such as the beaver food cache index, provide a practical measure of population status to conduct long-term monitoring across broad landscapes such as national forests.     

Prenatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis by methylumbelliferylguanidinobenzoate protease titration in amniotic fluid

Amniotic fluids were obtained from 19 mothers who had previously given birth to a child with cystic fibrosis. Measurement of methylumbelliferyl guanidinobenzoate (MUGB) reactive proteases suggested that all 19 would have unaffected babies. Amongst the first 10 cases to come to term there were 5 infants with cystic fibrosis. It is concluded that MUGB protease titration is not suitable for the early prenatal diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.     

Relation between surface chlorophyll,integrated chlorophyll and integrated primary production

The relationships between surface chlorophyll and integrated values of chlorophyll and primary production are examined in the California Current and the central North Pacific Ocean. In the California Current, surface chlorophyll is correlated with both integrated chlorophyll and integrated primary production, although there is considerable scatter in the relationships. In the central North Pacific, surface chlorophyll is not correlated with either integrated chlorophyll or integrated primary production. An analysis of closely spaced replicate casts shows that in both areas most of the scatter in the relations between surface values and integrated values is due to spatial or temporal changes in the relations themselves rather than measurement error. The use of surface chlorophyll or fluorescence values as indicators of the biological state of pelagic ecosystems should thus be applied with caution.     

Development of emission factors for polyamide processing

Emission factors for selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate material were developed during processing of commercial grades of polyamide 6, polyamide 66, and polyamide 66/6 resins. A small commercial-type extruder was used, and melt temperatures ranged from 475 to 550 degrees F. An emission factor was calculated for each substance measured and is reported as pounds released to the atmosphere per million pounds of polymer resin processed. Scaled to production volumes, these emission factors can be used by processors to estimate emission quantities from similar polyamide extrusion operations.