Monitoring parameters and statistics: A land treatment unit monitoring case study

Statistical evaluation procedures for monitoring data at facilities permitted under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) are frequently established before monitoring begins. Selecting the statistical method before background data have been collected often leads to the use of statistical procedures that are inappropriate for the actual monitoring data. Such was the case for unsaturated zone monitoring at a permitted land treatment unit in the Gulf Coast area of Texas. Due to the large number of “not detected” results in the background database for lysimeters, statistical evaluation procedures specified in the original RCRA permit yielded an artificially low standard deviation, resulting in background values that were strongly biased on the low side. An alternate statistical procedure based on probability plots was developed and was accepted by the state environmental regulatory agency. This technique, which has wide applicability for many types of environmental monitoring data, significantly reduced the chasing of false positives, thus saving potentially expensive investigations and remediations.     

Indigenous Studies Speaks to Environmental Management

This article describes the increasing connections between the fields of Indigenous studies and environmental management and examines some of the ways that an Indigenous studies perspective can guide thinking about environmental management. Indigenous groups have been involved in the management of environmental and natural resources on their lands since time immemorial. Indigenous groups have also become increasingly involved in Western practices of environmental management with the advent of co-management institutions, subsistence boards, traditional ecological knowledge forums, and environmental issues affecting Indigenous resources. Thus, it is an important time for scholarship that explores how Indigenous groups are both shaping and being affected by processes of environmental management. This article summarizes key findings and themes from eight papers situated at the intersection of these two fields of study and identify means by which environmental managers can better accommodate Indigenous rights and perspectives. It is the authors’ hope that increased dialog between Indigenous studies and environmental management can contribute to the building of sustainable and socially just environmental management practices.     

Modelling chronic exposure to contaminated soil: a toxicokinetic approach with the terrestrial snail Helix aspersa

To enlarge the possibilities of using organisms of the soil fauna to assess the bioaccumulative potential of chemicals, the kinetic of soil cadmium (Cd) transfer to the terrestrial gastropod Helix aspersa was investigated under laboratory conditions during a long-term experiment (6 months). During the exposure phase (3 months), juvenile snails were subjected to three different concentrations of Cd spiked in artificial ISO soil (ISO 0, 20 and 100 mg Cd kg(-1)) and to a field soil (ME4) industrially contaminated by 20 mg Cd kg (-1). For both soils, internal steady-state Cd concentrations were reached in the viscera of the snails, the main storage organ for Cd, after 2 weeks of exposure whatever the Cd concentration in soil. The equilibrium concentrations in the viscera were 0.7 (+/-0.1), 11.3 (+/-2.4), 73.3 (+/-4.8) and 6.3 (+/-1.3) mg Cd kg(-1) dry mass for ISO 0, ISO 20, ISO 100 and ME4, respectively. During the depuration phase (3 months), from 0 to 52% of the accumulated Cd in the viscera were removed by excretion or relocation in the foot. However, the snails were not able to depurate down to initial concentrations. Data were modelled by integrating a specific growth rate constant into one-compartment toxicokinetic models. This allowed the calculation of Cd uptake rates that can be used as indicators of metal bioavailability. Since this parameter was found to be lower for snails exposed to the field soil ME4, we concluded that lower Cd bioavailability in this field soil was responsible of the lower transfer to the snails compared to the ISO 20 soil, even though they were polluted to similar extents. Internal validation showed that the toxicokinetic models could be applied for predictive purposes, promising for the development of a bioaccumulation directive for terrestrial environment.     

Predicting the form and direction of work role performance from the Big 5 model of personality traits

This research examined the prediction of the form and direction of work role performance from the Big 5 model of personality traits. Nine dimensions of work role performance are created by cross‐classifying the form of work role behavior (proficient, adaptive, and proactive) with the level at which that behavior contributes to effectiveness (individual, team, and organizational). The authors collected self‐report measurements of personality from 1447 government employees and supervisor ratings of performance. Openness to experience and agreeableness had opposing effects on individual proactivity – openness was positively related, whereas agreeableness was negatively related to this dimension. Openness to experience also had opposing effects on the form of work role performance – it was positively related to individual and organizational proactivity but negatively related to team and organizational proficiency. Conscientiousness was a stronger predictor of individual task proficiency than the remaining eight dimensions, whereas the reverse was true for neuroticism. Extraversion was negatively related to individual proficiency. Using a broad taxonomy of performance that incorporates a theoretical framework for distinguishing between constructs shows promise for identifying which personality traits are important for which aspects of work role performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Population size affects vital rates but not population growth rate of a perennial plant

Negative effects of habitat fragmentation on individual performance have been widely documented, but relatively little is known about how simultaneous effects on multiple vital rates translate into effects on population viability in long-lived species. In this study, we examined relationships between population size, individual growth, survival and reproduction, and population growth rate in the perennial plant Phyteuma spicatum. Population size positively affected the growth of seedlings, the survival of juveniles, the proportion of adults flowering, and potential seed production. Analyses with integral projection models, however, showed no relationship between population size and population growth rate. This was due to the fact that herbivores and pathogens eliminated the relationship between population size and seed production, and that population growth rate was not sensitive to changes in the vital rates that varied with population size. We conclude that effects of population size on vital rates must not translate into effects on population growth rate, and that populations of long-lived organisms may partly be able to buffer negative effects of small population size on vital rates that have a relatively small influence on population growth rate. Our study illustrates that we need to be cautious when assessing the consequences of habitat fragmentation for population viability based on effects on only one or a few vital rates.     

A comparison of predicted and measured levels of runoff-related pesticide concentrations in small lowland streams on a landscape level

Short-term pollution events via runoff are typical of streams in agricultural areas. Existing runoff models that simulate pesticide loss from agricultural fields require extensive input of information. There is thus a need for a simple model that can predict runoff-related pesticide concentrations in many streams on a landscape level when only limited data are available. To validate such a model, the runoff-related pesticide load of 18 small lowland streams was predicted with an extended version of the model "simplified formula for indirect loadings caused by runoff" (available from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD). The authors suggest that the model presented here is suitable for use in routine exposure assessment of pesticides on a landscape level, as all input data (soil, slope, precipitation, pesticide application) are readily available from public authorities or could be generated by simple regional flood hydrograph curves. The predicted concentrations were compared with measured concentrations obtained by runoff-triggered sampling. Fungicides, insecticides and herbicides were detected in 17 streams, with max. concentrations measuring up to 29.7 microg/l for the fungicide azoxystrobin and 0.3 microg/l for the insecticide parathion-ethyl. Herbicides were detected in 16 streams, with max. concentrations between 13.7 and 1.2 microg/l. The linear regression between the predicted and measured concentrations (log-values) shows significant correlations for the following pesticides: azoxystrobin: r2=0.43; p=0.03; epoxiconazole: r2=0.71; por=0.5 microg/l).