Characteristics of animal-related motor vehicle crashes in select National Park Service units—United States, 1990–2013

Objectives: Nationally, animal–motor vehicle crashes (AVCs) account for 4.4% of all types of motor vehicle crashes (MVCs). AVCs are a safety risk for drivers and animals and many National Park Service (NPS) units (e.g., national park, national monument, or national parkway) have known AVC risk factors, including rural locations and substantial animal densities. We sought to describe conditions and circumstances involving AVCs to guide traffic and wildlife management for prevention of AVCs in select NPS units.

Methods: We conducted an analysis using NPS law enforcement MVC data. An MVC is a collision involving an in-transit motor vehicle that occurred or began on a public roadway. An AVC is characterized as a collision between a motor vehicle and an animal. A non-AVC is a crash between a motor vehicle and any object other than an animal or noncollision event (e.g., rollover crash). The final data for analysis included 54,068 records from 51 NPS units during 1990–2013. Counts and proportions were calculated for categorical variables and medians and ranges were calculated for continuous variables. We used Pearson’s chi-square to compare circumstances of AVCs and non-AVCs. Data were compiled at the park regional level; NPS parks are assigned to 1 of 7 regions based on the park’s location.

Results: AVCs accounted for 10.4% (5,643 of 54,068) of all MVCs from 51 NPS units. The Northeast (2,021 of 5,643; 35.8%) and Intermountain (1,180 of 5,643; 20.9%) regions had the largest percentage of the total AVC burden. November was the peak month for AVCs across all regions (881 of 5,643; 15.6%); however, seasonality varied by park geographic regions. The highest counts of AVCs were reported during fall for the National Capital, Northeast/Southeast, and Northeast regions; winter for the Southeast region; and summer for Intermountain and Pacific West regions.

Conclusions: AVCs represent a public health and wildlife safety concern for NPS units. AVCs in select NPS units were approximately 2-fold higher than the national percentage for AVCs. The peak season for AVCs varied by NPS region. Knowledge of region-specific seasonality patterns for AVCs can help NPS staff develop mitigation strategies for use primarily during peak AVC months. Improving AVC data collection might provide NPS with a more complete understanding of risk factors and seasonal trends for specific NPS units. By collecting information concerning the animal species hit, park managers can better understand the impacts of AVC to wildlife population health.     

Ecosystem responses to climate change at a Low Arctic and a High Arctic long-term research site

Long-term measurements of ecological effects of warming are often not statistically significant because of annual variability or signal noise. These are reduced in indicators that filter or reduce the noise around the signal and allow effects of climate warming to emerge. In this way, certain indicators act as medium pass filters integrating the signal over years-to-decades. In the Alaskan Arctic, the 25-year record of warming of air temperature revealed no significant trend, yet environmental and ecological changes prove that warming is affecting the ecosystem. The useful indicators are deep permafrost temperatures, vegetation and shrub biomass, satellite measures of canopy reflectance (NDVI), and chemical measures of soil weathering. In contrast, the 18-year record in the Greenland Arctic revealed an extremely high summer air-warming of 1.3 °C/decade; the cover of some plant species increased while the cover of others decreased. Useful indicators of change are NDVI and the active layer thickness.     

Ostrich chick humoral immune responses and growth rate are predicted by parental immune responses and paternal colouration

One of the most important measures of offspring performance is growth rate, which is often traded off against another important survival trait, immune function. A particular feature of ostrich chicks maintained in farmed environments is that cohorts of chicks vary widely in size. As parents can have a profound effect on the phenotype and fitness of their offspring, we investigated whether chick growth and immune defence were related to variation in levels of immune defence in their genetic parents. As secondary sexual traits of sires could serve as indicators of male quality, and be used in female mating decisions, we also investigated whether chick growth rate and immune defence were related to male plumage and integumentary colouration. We found that offspring growth rates and humoral responses were related to the humoral responses of their parents, suggesting that at least some components of humoral immune capacity are heritable. The white colour of male ostrich feathers was correlated to the humoral response and growth rate of their offspring, suggesting that this visual cue involved in the male courtship display could serve as an important signal to females of male quality, thereby forming the basis of mate choice in this species.     

Land or lover? Territorial defence and mutual mate guarding in the crimson-breasted shrike

Crimson-breasted shrikes produce duets which are used in interactions with neighbours and intruders. We examined two major hypotheses explaining duetting, the territorial defence and mate guarding hypotheses, using playback experiments. The responses of 12 pairs towards solo male, solo female and stereo duet playback were analysed using principal component analysis and ANOVA. The measures of response intensity revealed in most cases highly coordinated responses of the pair partners. Although these joint responses could suggest cooperative territorial defence or mutual mate defence, responses to the treatments differed between males and females in terms of three variables. Females increased their answer rates significantly in response to unpaired female intruders, compared to unpaired male intruders. During duet playback, females directed their responses equally at both intruding pair members. In contrast, males were equally responsive towards unpaired male intruders and intruding pairs, but in the latter case directed their responses at the male pair member. In the presence of unpaired female intruders, males increased their solo song rates, but in the presence of intruding pairs, they increased overlapping rates and duetted with their mates. These divergent responses suggest that females use duets for mate guarding against unpaired females, whereas males use solo songs for mate guarding and both solos and duets in territorial defence.     

Case study: Management system verification using responsible care® at Rohm & Haas: Lessons learned

In this article, Rohm & Haas' Responsible Care® implementation strategy and management system verification (MSV) experiences are detailed. Recommendations on how to strengthen the verification process are provided.     

Migration of acidic groundwater seepage from uranium-tailings impoundments, 2. Geochemical behavior of radionuclides in groundwater

In this second paper of a series on groundwater seepage from uranium tailings, the general geochemical behavior of radionuclides is described and then applied to data from the field site, Seepage Area A of the Nordic Main impoundment near Elliot Lake, Ontario. The delineation of radionuclide behavior requires (1) the calculation of total element concentration by the summation of concentrations of each element's isotopes (the isotopic concentrations are calculated from the isotopes' radioactivities), (2) the evaluation of solid-liquid interactions using total element concentrations, and (3), for particular isotopes, the evaluation of the extent to which parental geochemical behavior causes a deviation in the isotope's behavior from that of its total element. A computerized speciation program, WATRAD, is used to evaluate aqueous complexation and mineral saturation indices of radium, actinium, thorium, and uranium. Data from Seepage Area A on isotopes of these four elements plus ²¹⁰Pb show that the geochemical behavior of radionuclides can be best defined on an individual isotopic basis rather than on an elemental basis.     

Bioaccumulation of butyltins in Dreissena polymorpha at a confined placement facility in Buffalo, New York

This study involves a site characterization followed by biomonitoring with the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, at the Times Beach confined placement facility (CPF), located in Buffalo, NY. The contaminant of interest was tributyltin (TBT) and the degradation products dibutyltin (DBT) and monobutyltin (MBT). At study initiation (Day 0) TBT levels in the baseline mussels were 5.86 +/- 0.43 ng Sn/g, DBT levels were 2.25 +/- 0.37 ng Sn/g. No MBT was detected in the Day 0 baseline samples. Caged reference mussels placed back in the Black Rock Channel Lock and retrieved on Days 19 and 34 had TBT, DBT, and MBT levels which did not differ significantly from the Day 0 baseline levels. Mussels placed at the Times Beach CPF had TBT concentrations that were significantly lower at both Days 19 (3.65 +/- 0.90 ng Sn/g) and 34 (3.50 +/- 1.03 ng Sn/g) than the Day 0 baseline analysis (5.86 +/- 0.43 ng Sn/g). The results of this study indicate that butyltins were detected at the CPF site in the sediment (7.33 +/- 5.70 ng Sn/g) but not the water column (not detected at 0.01 microgram/l). In this study the zebra mussel was able to depurate TBT even in the presence of contaminated sediment. TBT may be bioaccumulated from the sediments. However, the initial levels in the mussels were so high, levels actually dropped as sediment-tissue equilibria levels were reached by the mussels.     

FACTORS INFLUENCING ACUTE TOXICfrY OF COAL ASH TO RAINBOW TROUT (SALMO GAIRDNERI) AND BLUEGILL SUNFISH (LEPOMIS MACROCHIRUS)1

ABSTRACT: The potentially toxic components in coal ash (ash particles, heavy metals) were evaluated in laboratory static, acute (96 hr) bioassays, both separately and in various combinations with extreme pH (5.0 and 8.5), using rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) and bluegifi sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus). Ash particle morphology and metal distribution anlaysis, using electron microscopy and surface-subsurface analysis by ion microscopy, showed that metals could be either clumped or evenly distributed on the surface of fly ash. Surface enrichment on fly ash particles from electrostatic precipitators, as measured by ion microscopy, was found for cadmium, copper, chromium, nickel, lead, mercury, titanium, arsenic, and selenium. Bottom (heavy) ash was not acutely toxic to either fish species at concentrations of up to 1500 mg/l total suspended solids (TSS) at pH 5.0, 7.5, or 8.5. Fly ash particles were not acutely toxic to blue-gill at levels up to 1360 mg/l TSS. Rainbow trout were highly sensitive to fly ash (25 to 60 percent mortality) at concentrations of 4.3 to 20.5 mg/I TSS when dissolved metal availability was high but were not sensitive at higher particulate concentrations (58 to 638 mg/I TSS) when dissolved metals were low. When metals were acid-leached from fly ash prior to testing, no rainbow trout mortality occurred at TSS concentrations of up to 2,350 mg/l TSS. When the percent of dissolved metal was high (e.g., 50–90 percent of the total), fish mortality was increased. Rainbow trout were nearly two orders of magnitude more sensitive than bluegill when subjected to a blend of cadmium, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, and zinc. The two species were similar in their acute sensitivity to acidic pH at levels at or below 4.0 and alkaline pH of 9.1. If the pH of coal ash effluent is contained within the range 6.0 to 9.0, acute toxicity to fish can be attributed to trace element availability from fly ash but not heavy ash. Control of holding pond and effluent pH and maximizing pond residence time are important strategies for minimizing effects of ash pond discharges on fish.