Hematology and Some Biochemical Parameters of Wild Rodents in Pistachio Gardens of Kerman Province, Southeast Iran

Wild rodents were collected using live snap traps in pistachio gardens of Kerman Province, Southeast Iran from 2007 to 2009, then some physiological parameters of them were measured. The samples were identified as follow: Nesokia indica, Meriones persicus, Meriones lybicus and Tatera indica. Blood samples were obtained from the heart, then the blood parameters (glucose, cholesterol, triglyceride, total protein, HDL, red and white blood cell number) in wild species of rodents and laboratory rat were compared. The results showed that there were no significant differences in serum glucose, triglyceride, HDL and total protein levels among different experimental groups. The concentration of cholesterol in T. indica was more than that in N. indica (P < 0.01). The total numbers of red blood cells also showed significant difference between wild garden rodent species and laboratory rat (P < 0.01), while the numbers of white blood cells showed no significant difference.     

Public Acceptance of Wildland Fire and Fuel Management: Panel Responses in Seven Locations

Wildland fire affects both public and private resources throughout the United States. A century of fire suppression has contributed to changing ecological conditions and accumulated fuel loads. Managers have used a variety of approaches to address these conditions and reduce the likelihood of wildland fires that may result in adverse ecological impacts and threaten communities. Public acceptance is a critical component of developing and implementing successful management programs. This study examines the factors that influence citizen support for agency fuel reduction treatments over time—particularly prescribed fire and mechanical vegetation removal. This paper presents findings from a longitudinal study examining resident beliefs and attitudes regarding fire management and fuels treatments in seven states: Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The study was implemented in two phases over a 6-year period using mail surveys to residents of communities adjacent to federal lands in each location. Questions replicated measures from the original project as well as some new items to allow a more in-depth analysis of key concepts. The study design enables comparisons over time as well as between locations. We also assess the factors that influence acceptance of both prescribed fire and mechanical vegetation removal. Findings demonstrate a relative stability of attitudes toward fuels management approaches over time and suggest that this acceptance is strongly influenced by confidence in resource managers and beliefs that the treatments would result in positive outcomes.     

A Preliminary Risk Assessment Protocol for Renegade Nanoparticles Deployed During Nanoremediation

The NanoRem European research project aims to support and develop the appropriate use of nanotechnology for contaminated land remediation by facilitating practical, economic, and exploitable nanotechnology for in situ remediation. This can only be achieved in parallel with a comprehensive understanding of the environmental risk‐benefit balance for the use of the nanoparticles (NPs) being investigated. While the NanoRem NPs could have a significant toxicity this is likely to be less potent than NPs currently being released into the environment, such as those from a variety of antibacterial products. The NanoRem NPs are likely to interact with the aquifer matrix, each other, and groundwater chemistry to rapidly cease to be mobile and are unlikely to penetrate into the aquifer more than a few meters from the point of injection. In terms of the source‐pathway‐receptor paradigm, the NanoRem NPs are cautiously presumed to represent a hazard (i.e., source). At least one receptor, in the form of not yet polluted groundwater, is present at all the NanoRem case study sites. While there are considerable uncertainties particularly with regards to the transport of NanoRem NPs, the ability of NPs to penetrate far into the formation is likely to be very limited. The relatively short travel distances reported in the literature for a variety of NP types and geological conditions suggest that the pathways are at best very limited in extent. Overall, this means that in many cases the level of risk renegade NPs can pose to the environment or human health is at most minimal. A qualitative protocol developed for the NanoRem field trials can demonstrate that injecting NanoRem NPs into contaminated groundwater poses a minimal level of risk due to the reduced pathway. ©2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The need for flexibility in freshwater treaty regimes

Shrinking freshwater supplies pose particular threats in international drainage basins, which serve some 40% of the global population and account for around 60% of the world's river flows. The use and management of these basins are increasingly governed by treaties between the riparian states. While the rules of international law, properly understood, are sufficiently flexible to permit adaptation to changing conditions such as development, population growth and climate change, treaties are essentially rigid instruments that are modifiable only under certain limited conditions. Countries should take this fact into account in designing the regimes to govern their shared freshwater resources, including joint management institutions.     

Collaborative Implementation for Ecological Restoration on US Public Lands: Implications for Legal Context,Accountability, and Adaptive Management

The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), established in 2009, encourages collaborative landscape scale ecosystem restoration efforts on United States Forest Service (USFS) lands. Although the USFS employees have experience engaging in collaborative planning, CFLRP requires collaboration in implementation, a domain where little prior experience can be drawn on for guidance. The purpose of this research is to identify the ways in which CFLRP’s collaborative participants and agency personnel conceptualize how stakeholders can contribute to implementation on landscape scale restoration projects, and to build theory on dynamics of collaborative implementation in environmental management. This research uses a grounded theory methodology to explore collaborative implementation from the perspectives and experiences of participants in landscapes selected as part of the CFLRP in 2010. Interviewees characterized collaborative implementation as encompassing three different types of activities: prioritization, enhancing treatments, and multiparty monitoring. The paper describes examples of activities in each of these categories and then identifies ways in which collaborative implementation in the context of CFLRP (1) is both hindered and enabled by overlapping legal mandates about agency collaboration, (2) creates opportunities for expanded accountability through informal and relational means, and, (3) creates feedback loops at multiple temporal and spatial scales through which monitoring information, prioritization, and implementation actions shape restoration work both within and across projects throughout the landscape creating more robust opportunities for adaptive management.