Transport of fecal bacteria by boots and vehicle tires in a rural Alaskan community

People living without piped water and sewer can be at increased risk for diseases transmitted via the fecal-oral route. One rural Alaskan community that relies on hauling water into homes and sewage from homes was studied to determine the pathways of fecal contamination of drinking water and the human environment so that barriers can be established to protect health. Samples were tested for the fecal indicator, Escherichia coli, and the less specific indicator group, total coliforms. Shoes transported fecal contamination from outside to floor material inside buildings. Contamination in puddles on the road, in conjunction with contamination found on all-terrain vehicle (ATV) tires, supports vehicle traffic as a mechanism for transporting contamination from the dumpsite or other source areas to the rest of the community. The abundance of fecal bacteria transported around the community on shoes and ATV tires suggests that centralized measures for waste disposal as well as shoe removal in buildings could improve sanitation and health in the community.     

Perceived Effects of Setting Attributes on Visitor Experiences in Wilderness: Variation with Situational Context and Visitor Characteristics

Understanding how setting attributes influence the nature of the visitor experience is crucial to effective recreation management. Highly influential attributes are useful indicators to monitor within a planning framework, such as Limits of Acceptable Change. This study sought to identify the setting attributes perceived to have the most profound effect on the ability to have “a real wilderness experience” and to assess the degree to which attribute importance varied with situational context and visitor characteristics. To this end, exiting hikers were surveyed at moderate and very high use trailheads in Alpine Lakes Wilderness, WA (USA), and Three Sisters Wilderness, OR (USA). They were asked about the degree to which encountering varying levels of different setting attributes would add to or detract from their experience. Attributes with the largest range of effect on experience, based on evaluations of different levels, were considered most important. The most influential attributes were litter and several types of campsite interaction—people walking through camp and number of other groups camping close by. The perceived importance of setting attributes did not vary much between wilderness locations with substantially different use levels, suggesting that conclusions are robust and generalizable across wilderness areas. There also was little difference in the perceptions of day and overnight visitors. In contrast, we found substantial variation in the perceived importance of setting attributes with variation in wilderness experience, knowledge, attachment, and motivation. Our results validate the emphasis of many wilderness management plans on indicators of social interaction, such as number of encounters.     

Vulnerability of Rehabilitated Agricultural Production Systems to Invasion by Nontarget Plant Species

Vast areas of arable land have been retired from crop production and “rehabilitated” to improved system states through landowner incentive programs in the United States (e.g., Conservation and Wetland Reserve Programs), as well as Europe (i.e., Agri-Environment Schemes). Our review of studies conducted on invasion of rehabilitated agricultural production systems by nontarget species elucidates several factors that may increase the vulnerability of these systems to invasion. These systems often exist in highly fragmented and agriculturally dominated landscapes, where propagule sources of target species for colonization may be limited, and are established under conditions where legacies of past disturbance persist and prevent target species from persisting. Furthermore, rehabilitation approaches often do not include or successfully attain all target species or historical ecological processes (e.g., hydrology, grazing, and/or fire cycles) key to resisting invasion. Uncertainty surrounds ways in which nontarget species may compromise long term goals of improving biodiversity and ecosystem services through rehabilitation efforts on former agricultural production lands. This review demonstrates that more studies are needed on the extent and ecological impacts of nontarget species as related to the goals of rehabilitation efforts to secure current and future environmental benefits arising from this widespread conservation practice.     

A quantitative integrated assessment of pollution prevention achieved by Integrated Pollution Prevention Control licensing

This paper presents an innovative, quantitative assessment of pollution avoidance attributable to environmental regulation enforced through integrated licensing, using Ireland's pharmaceutical-manufacturing sector as a case study. Emissions data reported by pharmaceutical installations were aggregated into a pollution trend using an Environmental Emissions Index (EEI) based on Lifecycle Assessment methodologies. Complete sectoral emissions data from 2001 to 2007 were extrapolated back to 1995, based on available data. Production volume data were used to derive a sectoral production index, and determine ‘no-improvement’ emission trends, whilst questionnaire responses from 20 industry representatives were used to quantify the contribution of integrated licensing to emission avoidance relative to these trends. Between 2001 and 2007, there was a 40% absolute reduction in direct pollution from 27 core installations, and 45% pollution avoidance relative to hypothetical ‘no-improvement’ pollution. It was estimated that environmental regulation avoided 20% of ‘no-improvement’ pollution, in addition to 25% avoidance under business-as-usual. For specific emissions, avoidance ranged from 14% and 30 kt a^− 1 for CO₂ to 88% and 598 t a^− 1 for SO_x. Between 1995 and 2007, there was a 59% absolute reduction in direct pollution, and 76% pollution avoidance. Pollution avoidance was dominated by reductions in emissions of VOCs, SO_x and NO_x to air, and emissions of heavy metals to water. Pollution avoidance of 35% was attributed to integrated licensing, ranging from between 8% and 2.9 t a^− 1 for phosphorus emissions to water to 49% and 3143 t a^− 1 for SO_x emissions to air. Environmental regulation enforced through integrated licensing has been the major driver of substantial pollution avoidance achieved by Ireland's pharmaceutical sector — through emission limit values associated with Best Available Techniques, emissions monitoring and reporting requirements, and performance targets specified in environmental management plans. This compliant sector offers a positive, but not necessarily typical, case study of IPPC effectiveness.     

Concentrations of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in matched samples of human milk,dust and indoor air

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are lipophilic, persistent pollutants found worldwide in environmental and human samples. Exposure pathways for PBDEs remain unclear but may include food, air and dust. The aim of this study was to conduct an integrated assessment of PBDE exposure and human body burden using 10 matched samples of human milk, indoor air and dust collected in 2007–2008 in Brisbane, Australia. In addition, temporal analysis was investigated comparing the results of the current study with PBDE concentrations in human milk collected in 2002–2003 from the same region.PBDEs were detected in all matrices and the median concentrations of BDEs -47 and -209 in human milk, air and dust were: 4.2 and 0.3 ng/g lipid; 25 and 7.8 pg/m³; and 56 and 291 ng/g dust, respectively. Significant correlations were observed between the concentrations of BDE-99 in air and human milk (r = 0.661, p = 0.038) and BDE-153 in dust and BDE-183 in human milk (r = 0.697, p = 0.025). These correlations do not suggest causal relationships — there is no hypothesis that can be offered to explain why BDE-153 in dust and BDE-183 in milk are correlated. The fact that so few correlations were found in the data could be a function of the small sample size, or because additional factors, such as sources of exposure not considered or measured in the study, might be important in explaining exposure to PBDEs. There was a slight decrease in PBDE concentrations from 2002–2003 to 2007–2008 but this may be due to sampling and analytical differences. Overall, average PBDE concentrations from these individual samples were similar to results from pooled human milk collected in Brisbane in 2002–2003 indicating that pooling may be an efficient, cost-effective strategy of assessing PBDE concentrations on a population basis.The results of this study were used to estimate an infant's daily PBDE intake via inhalation, dust ingestion and human milk consumption. Differences in PBDE intake of individual congeners from the different matrices were observed. Specifically, as the level of bromination increased, the contribution of PBDE intake decreased via human milk and increased via dust. As the impacts of the ban of the lower brominated (penta- and octa-BDE) products become evident, an increased use of the higher brominated deca-BDE product may result in dust making a greater contribution to infant exposure than it does currently.To better understand human body burden, further research is required into the sources and exposure pathways of PBDEs and metabolic differences influencing an individual's response to exposure. In addition, temporal trend analysis is necessary with continued monitoring of PBDEs in the human population as well as in the suggested exposure matrices of food, dust and air.     

Colonized beads as inoculum for marine biodegradability assessment: Application to Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate

An innovative biodegradation test system was developed in order to fill the current gap for cost effective and environmentally relevant tools to assess marine biodegradability. Glass beads were colonized by a biofilm in an open flow-through system of seawater with continuous pre-exposure to Linear Alkylbenzene Sulfonate (LAS) (20 μg/L). Thereafter, such colonized beads were added as inoculum in different test systems. [¹⁴C]-LAS (5–100 μg/L) was added and primary and ultimate biodegradation were assessed. The bacterial density collected on the beads (10⁹ bact./mL beads) was ca. 3 orders of magnitude higher than the typical seawater content. The LAS mineralization lag phase duration decreased from 55 to < 1 days and the mineralization extent increased from 53 to 90% as the colonized beads volume increased from 10 to 275 mL. This is the first demonstration of marine bacteria's ability to mineralize LAS. On the opposite, less than 13% LAS was mineralized in seawater only. The colonized beads possibly enhanced the probability to encounter the full degraders' consortium in a low volume of seawater (100 mL).     

Cation exchange in a glacial till drumlin at a road salt storage facility

At a former wood preservation plant severely contaminated with coal tar oil, in situ bulk attenuation and biodegradation rate constants for several monoaromatic (BTEX) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were determined using (1) classical first order decay models, (2) Michaelis–Menten degradation kinetics (MM), and (3) stable carbon isotopes, for o-xylene and naphthalene. The first order bulk attenuation rate constant for o-xylene was calculated to be 0.0025 d^− 1 and a novel stable isotope-based first order model, which also accounted for the respective redox conditions, resulted in a slightly smaller biodegradation rate constant of 0.0019 d^− 1. Based on MM-kinetics, the o-xylene concentration decreased with a maximum rate of k_max = 0.1 µg/L/d. The bulk attenuation rate constant of naphthalene retrieved from the classical first order decay model was 0.0038 d^− 1. The stable isotope-based biodegradation rate constant of 0.0027 d^− 1 was smaller in the reduced zone, while residual naphthalene in the oxic part of the plume further downgradient was degraded at a higher rate of 0.0038 d^− 1. With MM-kinetics a maximum degradation rate of k_max = 12 µg/L/d was determined. Although best fits were obtained by MM-kinetics, we consider the carbon stable isotope-based approach more appropriate as it is specific for biodegradation (not overall attenuation) and at the same time accounts for the dominant electron-accepting process. For o-xylene a field based isotope enrichment factor ε_field of − 1.4 could be determined using the Rayleigh model, which closely matched values from laboratory studies of o-xylene degradation under sulfate-reducing conditions.     

The effects of scale and spatial heterogeneities on diffusion in volcanic breccias and basalts: Amchitka Island, Alaska

Knowledge of the factors that influence the diffusion of contaminants, such as the diffusivity and the connected porosity, is crucial to modeling the long-term fate and transport of contaminants in subsurface systems with small or negligible advective flow, such as in fractured crystalline rock. Fractured rock is naturally heterogeneous, and hence, understanding the diffusivity of a molecule through this material (or the formation factor of the medium) becomes a complex problem, with critical concerns about the scale of laboratory measurements and about the spatial variability of these measurements relative to the scale needed for fate and transport modeling. This study employed both electrical and tracer-based laboratory methods to investigate the effects of scale and pore system connectivity on the diffusivity for volcanic matrix rock derived from the study site, a former underground nuclear test site at Amchitka Island, Alaska. The results of these investigations indicate a relatively well-connected pore system with scale effects generally limited to approximately 6 cm lengths and well-correlated to observed heterogeneous features. An important conclusion resulting from this study, however, is that there is a potential for the estimated diffusivity to be misrepresented by an order of magnitude if multiple samples or longer sample lengths are not used. Given the relatively large number of measurements resulting from these investigations, an analysis of the probability density function (PDF) of the diffusivity was possible. The PDF of the diffusivity was shown to generally follow a normal distribution for individual geologic layers. However, when all of the geologic layers are considered together, the distribution of the subsurface as a whole was shown to follow a lognormal distribution due to the order of magnitude differences amongst the layers. An understanding of these distributions is essential for future stochastic modeling efforts.     

Species-specific and context-dependant disruption of temporal population fluctuations resulting from hypereutrophication events

This study quantifies the disruption of zooplankton population fluctuations in relation to two magnitudes of fire retardant contamination events using artificial ponds as model systems. Population time series were analysed using redundancy analysis where time was modelled with a principal coordinate of neighborhood matrices approach that identified relevant scales of fluctuation frequencies. Analyses of temporal coherence provided insight whether population fluctuations correlated with system intrinsic or extrinsic forces. Responses to stress were species-specific and context-dependant. Contamination changed temporal structure in some species. These alterations were associated with an increased intrinsic control of dynamics. In some cases the magnitude of impact was unrelated to contamination severity. Some populations were less tolerant of pollution in the low relative to the high concentration treatment. Results suggest that population-level monitoring of degraded sites may be suboptimal because disparate population responses complicate the selection of specific sentinel organisms to monitor stress.