Local impacts of US nuclear weapons facilities: a survey of planners

This research examines the perceptions of planners in communities around the largest US Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons sites. Surveys and interviews revealed that planners are often unclear about DOE intentions, concerned about jobs and environmental contamination, and desire more involvement with future site use decisions. Planners' ratings of residents' trust of the DOE were also low, and low trust was most strongly associated with places where local officials have not been invited to future use meetings. Recommendations include improving coordination of on-site planning with local land use plans and increasing trust with a Federal-local government partnership that recognizes local concerns about the clean-up, closure and disposition of the sites.     

Effect of pumpkin root exudates on ex situ polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) phytoextraction by pumpkin and weed species

Introduction  

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to determine if Cucurbita pepo ssp. pepo (pumpkin) root exudates could increase the uptake of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into plants. Contaminated soil was pre-treated with pumpkin root exudates by first growing pumpkins in the soil. Plants (pumpkins and weeds) were grown in the pre-treated (root exudate group) and non-treated (control group) contaminated soils. Seeds from five weed species collected from two contaminated sites were germinated in sufficient quantities (n ≥ 6) for three seedlings to be planted in two groups.     

Interdependence with the environment: Commitment,interconnectedness, and environmental behavior

Do individuals’ perceptions of their interdependence with the natural environment affect their environmental behaviors? From the perspective of interdependence theory, we introduce a scale to measure commitment to the natural environment. In Study 1, higher levels of commitment to the environment and greater inclusion of nature in the self separately predicted higher levels of pro-environmental behavior, even when controlling for social desirability and ecological worldview. In Study 2, participants primed to experience high commitment to the environment reported greater levels of pro-environmental behavioral intentions as well as pro-environmental behavior relative to participants primed to experience low commitment to the environment. Commitment to the natural environment is a new theoretical construct that predicts environmental behavior.     

How much do people who live near major nuclear facilities worry about those facilities? Analysis of national and site-specific data

Large nuclear waste management, laboratory and electric power generating complexes are a daunting challenge for state, regional and local planners. A survey of 2101 residents who lived near 11 nuclear power plants and US Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear waste management sites and laboratories was conducted to determine how much nearby residents worried about accidents and chronic emissions at the nuclear sites, how much they trusted the sites’ responsible parties, and actions that they wanted responsible parties to take to reduce public concern. Six hundred other people who lived elsewhere in the US were a comparison group. Nuclear site-related issues were a greater concern among the 2101 who lived near the sites than the comparison group. Yet many were more concerned about global warming, traffic congestion, and loss of open space than nuclear technologies. Monitoring the environment and people were the actions deemed most likely to reduce public concern. The results pose a challenge to owner-operators of nuclear facilities, government entities and especially to locally based environmental planners and managers to establish partnerships with each other and diverse communities that will allow them to manage some of these risks for decades and in some cases into perpetuity.     

Using LiDAR Data Analysis to Estimate Changes in Insolation Under Large‐Scale Riparian Deforestation1

Greenberg, Jonathan Asher, Erin L. Hestir, David Riano, George J. Scheer, and Susan L. Ustin, 2012. Using LiDAR Data Analysis to Estimate Changes in Insolation Under Large‐Scale Riparian Deforestation. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(5): 939‐948. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2012.00664.x Abstract: Riparian vegetation provides shade from insolation to stream channels. A consequence of removing vegetation may be an increase in insolation that can increase water temperatures and negatively impact ecosystem health. Although the mechanisms of riparian shading are well understood, spatially explicit, mechanistic models of shading have been limited by the data requirements of precisely describing the three‐dimensional structure of a riparian corridor. Remotely acquired, high spatial resolution LiDAR data provide detailed three‐dimensional vegetation structure and terrain topography over large regions. By parameterizing solar radiation models that incorporate terrain shadowing with LiDAR data, we can produce spatially explicit estimates of insolation. As a case study, we modeled the relative change in insolation on channels in the Sacramento‐San Joaquin River Delta under current conditions and under a hypothesized deforested Delta using classified LiDAR, rasterized at a 1‐m resolution. Our results suggest that the removal of levee vegetation could result in a 9% increase in solar radiation incident on Delta waters, and may lead to water temperature increases. General, coarse‐scale channel characteristics (reach width, azimuth, levee vegetation cover, and height) only accounted for 72% of the variation in the insolation. This indicates that the detailed information derived from LiDAR data has greater explanatory power than coarser reach‐scale metrics often used for insolation estimates.     

Aerosol properties,in-canopy gradients,turbulent fluxes and VOC concentrations at a pristine forest site in Amazonia

Aerosol physical and chemical properties were measured in a forest site in central Amazonia (Cuieiras reservation, 2.61S; 60.21W) during the dry season of 2004 (Aug–Oct). Aerosol light scattering and absorption, mass concentration, elemental composition and size distributions were measured at three tower levels (Ground: 2 m; Canopy: 28 m, and Top: 40 m). For the first time, simultaneous eddy covariance fluxes of fine mode particles and volatile organic compounds (VOC) were measured above the Amazonian forest canopy. Aerosol fluxes were measured by eddy covariance using a Condensation Particle Counter (CPC) and a sonic anemometer. VOC fluxes were measured by disjunct eddy covariance using a Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS). At nighttime, a strong vertical gradient of phosphorus and potassium in the aerosol coarse mode was observed, with higher concentrations at Ground level. This suggests a source of primary biogenic particles below the canopy. Equivalent black carbon measurements indicate the presence of light-absorbing aerosols from biogenic origin. Aerosol number size distributions typically consisted of superimposed Aitken (76 nm) and accumulation modes (144 nm), without clear events of new particle formation. Isoprene and monoterpene fluxes reached respectively 7.4 and 0.82 mg m^?2 s^?1 around noon. An average fine particle flux of 0.05 ± 0.10 10⁶ m^?2 s^?1 was calculated, denoting an equilibrium between emission and deposition fluxes of fine mode particles at daytime. No significant correlations were found between VOC and fine mode aerosol concentrations or fluxes.     

Consequences of ignoring dispersal variation in network models for landscape connectivity

Habitat loss and fragmentation can negatively influence population persistence and biodiversity, but the effects can be mitigated if species successfully disperse between isolated habitat patches. Network models are the primary tool for quantifying landscape connectivity, yet in practice, an overly simplistic view of species dispersal is applied. These models often ignore individual variation in dispersal ability under the assumption that all individuals move the same fixed distance with equal probability. We developed a modeling approach to address this problem. We incorporated dispersal kernels into network models to determine how individual variation in dispersal alters understanding of landscape-level connectivity and implemented our approach on a fragmented grassland landscape in Minnesota. Ignoring dispersal variation consistently overestimated a population's robustness to local extinctions and underestimated its robustness to local habitat loss. Furthermore, a simplified view of dispersal underestimated the amount of habitat substructure for small populations but overestimated habitat substructure for large populations. Our results demonstrate that considering biologically realistic dispersal alters understanding of landscape connectivity in ecological theory and conservation practice.     

Mainstreaming the social sciences in conservation

Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls for better engagement with the human element of conservation, the conservation social sciences remain misunderstood and underutilized in practice. The conservation social sciences can provide unique and important contributions to society's understanding of the relationships between humans and nature and to improving conservation practice and outcomes. There are 4 barriers—ideological, institutional, knowledge, and capacity—to meaningful integration of the social sciences into conservation. We provide practical guidance on overcoming these barriers to mainstream the social sciences in conservation science, practice, and policy. Broadly, we recommend fostering knowledge on the scope and contributions of the social sciences to conservation, including social scientists from the inception of interdisciplinary research projects, incorporating social science research and insights during all stages of conservation planning and implementation, building social science capacity at all scales in conservation organizations and agencies, and promoting engagement with the social sciences in and through global conservation policy‐influencing organizations. Conservation social scientists, too, need to be willing to engage with natural science knowledge and to communicate insights and recommendations clearly. We urge the conservation community to move beyond superficial engagement with the conservation social sciences. A more inclusive and integrative conservation science—one that includes the natural and social sciences—will enable more ecologically effective and socially just conservation. Better collaboration among social scientists, natural scientists, practitioners, and policy makers will facilitate a renewed and more robust conservation. Mainstreaming the conservation social sciences will facilitate the uptake of the full range of insights and contributions from these fields into conservation policy and practice.