Evolution of the Stewardship Idea in American Country Life

Theological and secular concepts ofstewardship evolved markedly in the 20thcentury. During this period of evolution, theAmerican Country Life Association through itschurch, academic, farm organization, andgovernmental affiliations, served as a bridgingand bonding agent in developing the stewardshipidea. As in any evolutionary process, thestewardship concept was subjected to a broadarray of influences and characterized bynotable highlights such as the Lynn Smithcritique of the Judaeo-Christian ethic, theman-in-nature statement of Douglas John Hall,and the environmental concerns of ecologistsand philosophers of the post-Rachel Carson era.Some gains have been made in understanding theplace of humans in nature, but the stewardshipidea continues as work in process.     

Ambio’s legacy on monitoring,impact, and management of acid rain: This article belongs to Ambio’s 50th Anniversary Collection. Theme: Acidification

Early studies published in Ambio showed large-scale acidification of lakes in southern Sweden and Norway from acid rain. These studies were important for delimiting various scientific issues and thus for eventually contributing to legislation, which reduced emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and helped to mitigate this major environmental problem. Long-term studies and monitoring in Sweden and Norway and at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire helped guide this legislation in Europe and in the USA.     

The Water Table: The Shifting Foundation of Life on Land

Hyperarid, arid, and semi-arid lands represent over a third of the Earth’s land surface, and are home to over 38 % of the increasing world population. Freshwater is a limiting resource on these lands, and withdrawal of groundwater substantially exceeds recharge. Withdrawals of groundwater for expanding agricultural and domestic use severely limit water availability for groundwater dependent ecosystems. We examine here, with emphasis on quantitative data, case histories of groundwater withdrawals at widely differing scales, on three continents, that range from the impact of a few wells, to the outcomes of total appropriation of flow in a major river system. The case histories provide a glimpse of the immense challenge of replacing groundwater resources once they are severely depleted, and put into sharp focus the question whether the magnitude of the current and future human, economic, and environmental consequences and costs of present practices of groundwater exploitation are adequately recognized.     

Modeling linkages between sediment resuspension and water quality in a shallow,eutrophic, wind-exposed lake

The interactions between bed sediments and the water column in shallow, eutrophic lakes have tremendous implications for the fate and transport of nutrients in those water bodies. This has resulted in the development of water quality models for lakes incorporating the processes of sediment resuspension. Reliable resuspension models are thus needed to accurately represent this phenomenon. In this paper, three different sediment-resuspension models are combined with a hydrodynamic and water quality model, dynamic lake model-water quality (DLM-WQ), and the resulting models are used to simulate nutrient distributions in the highly eutrophic Salton Sea, California, USA. One of the resuspension formulas is based upon sediment characteristics as well as the bed shear stress exerted by wind-induced waves and currents, while the other two are standard, power-law-type formulas for cohesive sediments with two different exponents. The outputs for water quality variables, such as temperature, chlorophyll a, dissolved oxygen and nutrients, obtained from the three resulting models and from an earlier DLM-WQ run with a simple empirical sediment-resuspension model are compared with measured data. The level of agreement between the simulations and the measured data is assessed by using both statistical and graphical model evaluation methods, including measures of residual errors, sample autocorrelations, t-tests, and box plots. Based on these assessments, DLM-WQ with an extended version of the García and Parker [García, M.H., Parker, G., 1993. Experiments on the entrainment of sediment into suspension by a dense bottom current. J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans 98, 4793–4807] relationship gave the best results for water quality in the Salton Sea, confirming that the use of formulas with more information on the sediment characteristics yields more accurate results. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort to combine water quality models for lakes and reservoirs with a sediment-resuspension model which was originally intended for open-channel flows. The simulations confirm that sediment resuspension is the most dominant process in the Salton Sea's nutrient cycling. The effect of proposed physical changes to the Salton Sea on water quality characteristics is also addressed.     

Agricultural technology,wealth, and responsibility

Responsibility as a dual to human rights is presented as a moral alternative to extended, complex systems of animal and ecological rights. This simple idea of responsibility is then applied to four levels of agricultural technology: animal (nature) rights, conservation, organization of agriculture, and people versus planet relationships. The stewardship argument is freed from at least some of the complications of animal rights and ecology, but leaves responsibility with humans to do the right thing.The views expressed are the author's and do not necessarily represent policies or views of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.     

Ecological Modernisation in Los Angeles and Toronto

This article presents the results of a comparative study of environmental policy making in Toronto and Los Angeles. The study was intended to explain how social formations at the urban scale play an increasingly important role in constructing environmental policy and practice as articulated in docu ments, rhetoric and political actions. It is suggested that environmental policy is embedded in broader and more long-term political goals, and that ecological discourse is not only about the environment but also brings together various social projects under the environmental protection flag. The four case studies-- in Toronto, contaminated soil and the Don River were examined, and in Los Angeles air pollution and the Los Angeles River--revealed considerable vari ation but all reflected an agenda of ecological modernisation. In particular it was found that demands for maintaining or improving environmental integrity and coherence have lost legitimacy to concerns for efficiency, competitiveness, marketability, flexibility and development. Similarly, market driven regulation and an openness to civil society have played a major role in transforming policy making apparatuses. In contrast, the cases revealed that relationships between nature and society go beyond those expected in ecological modernisation theory and include both social ecology and urban ecology.     

Regulation of honey bee age polyethism by juvenile hormone

Summary Previous studies suggested that juvenile hormone (JH) is involved in the regulation of physiological processes that are associated with division of labor in honey bees but the effects of JH on behavior were not clear. The hypothesis that JH affects worker age polyethism was tested by observing individually marked bees topically treated with different doses of the JH analog methoprene. Methoprene caused dose-dependent changes in the timing and frequency of occurrence of four important age-dependent tasks: brood and queen care, food storage, nest maintenance, and foraging. Weak or no effects were observed for social interactions, self-grooming, and other non-task behaviors that were not performed in an age-dependent manner. These results support the hypothesis that JH is involved in the control of age polyethism. A model is presented that explains the role of JH in regulating division of labor. JH may regulate the colony's allocation of labor by altering the probabilities of response to tasks. According to this model, hormone titers increase with age according to a genetically determined pattern of development, but this rise may be modulated by environmental and colony factors such as food availability and population structure. Extrinsic regulation of JH may be a mechanism underlying the ability of workers to respond to changing colony needs.