A conceptual framework for understanding illegal killing of large carnivores

The growing complexity and global nature of wildlife poaching threaten the survival of many species worldwide and are outpacing conservation efforts. Here, we reviewed proximal and distal factors, both social and ecological, driving illegal killing or poaching of large carnivores at sites where it can potentially occur. Through this review, we developed a conceptual social–ecological system framework that ties together many of the factors influencing large carnivore poaching. Unlike most conservation action models, an important attribute of our framework is the integration of multiple factors related to both human motivations and animal vulnerability into feedbacks. We apply our framework to two case studies, tigers in Laos and wolverines in northern Sweden, to demonstrate its utility in disentangling some of the complex features of carnivore poaching that may have hindered effective responses to the current poaching crisis. Our framework offers a common platform to help guide future research on wildlife poaching feedbacks, which has hitherto been lacking, in order to effectively inform policy making and enforcement.     

Project house water: a novel interdisciplinary framework to assess the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of flood-related impacts

Protecting our water resources in terms of quality and quantity is considered one of the big challenges of the twenty-first century, which requires global and multidisciplinary solutions. A specific threat to water resources, in particular, is the increased occurrence and frequency of flood events due to climate change which has significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts. In addition to climate change, flooding (or subsequent erosion and run-off) may be exacerbated by, or result from, land use activities, obstruction of waterways, or urbanization of floodplains, as well as mining and other anthropogenic activities that alter natural flow regimes. Climate change and other anthropogenic induced flood events threaten the quantity of water as well as the quality of ecosystems and associated aquatic life. The quality of water can be significantly reduced through the unintentional distribution of pollutants, damage of infrastructure, and distribution of sediments and suspended materials during flood events. To understand and predict how flood events and associated distribution of pollutants may impact ecosystem and human health, as well as infrastructure, large-scale interdisciplinary collaborative efforts are required, which involve ecotoxicologists, hydrologists, chemists, geoscientists, water engineers, and socioeconomists. The research network “project house water” consists of a number of experts from a wide range of disciplines and was established to improve our current understanding of flood events and associated societal and environmental impacts. The concept of project house and similar seed fund and boost fund projects was established by the RWTH Aachen University within the framework of the German excellence initiative with support of the German research foundation (DFG) to promote and fund interdisciplinary research projects and provide a platform for scientists to collaborate on innovative, challenging research. Project house water consists of six proof-of-concept studies in very diverse and interdisciplinary areas of research (ecotoxicology, water, and chemical process engineering, geography, sociology, economy). The goal is to promote and foster high-quality research in the areas of water research and flood-risk assessments that combine and build off-laboratory experiments with modeling, monitoring, and surveys, as well as the use of applied methods and techniques across a variety of disciplines.     

Patterns and drivers of forest land cover changes in tropical semi-deciduous forests in Ghana

This study was conducted to determine the patterns and drivers of forest land cover changes in Bobiri and Oboyow Forest Reserves (BFR and OFR, respectively), Ghana. Landsat images were employed to determine forest land cover types and changes in 1990, 2000 and 2010 using supervised classification method. Factors that drive forest land cover changes in the forest reserves were determined using a semi-structured questionnaire and field observations. Generally, closed-canopy forest decreased by 49% in both forests over 20-year period resulting in a tremendous increase in open-canopy forest (BFR: 85%; OFR: 46%) and non-forest land cover types (BFR: 48–80% OFR: 127–350%). Factors such as logging manual illiteracy among timber operators, offences of authorised timber operators, ineffective community participation, harvesting schedule revision, chainsaw logging, illegal logging, bushfires, fuel gathering and weak penalty for offences were identified as contributing to rapid depletion of closed canopy forest cover in the forest reserves.     

A methodology for electricity monitoring and targeting (M&T) in an Irish precision engineering SME

Abstract

Energy management in small to medium enterprises (SMEs) remains undeveloped due to competing priorities and a lack of specialist knowledge. However considerable savings can be demonstrated where companies take the time to investigate their energy use. Savings of over 20% can be achieved through changes to operational and behavioural practice. Additional benefits, such as improved production tracking and improved maintenance, can been seen which add to the value in undertaking an energy monitoring and targeting (M&T) plan. The method described involves the application of a series of ‘virtuous’ cycles of engagement and energy savings that can be applied from the highest factory level right down to a specific machine. The analysis of overall energy use from utility bills and the visualisation of typical machine power profiles aid in understanding the drivers of energy consumption and in engaging management in energy efficiency. The monitoring of specific machines in production highlights the significant consumption of electricity during non-productive times. The development of energy performance indicators is described for product variations which can be useful in tendering for business and selecting optimum production pathways. The approach is illustrated with data from a case study of a precision engineering SME based in Limerick, Ireland.     

Defining disaster resilience: comparisons from key stakeholders involved in emergency management in Victoria,Australia

Three years after the introduction of the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience there remains no unanimously adopted definition of disaster resilience within Australia's emergency management sector. The aim of this study is to determine what the concept means to key stakeholders in the emergency management sector in the Australian State of Victoria, and how these conceptualisations overlap and diverge. Via an online survey, 113 people were asked how they define disaster resilience in their work in the emergency management sector. A data mining software tool, Leximancer, was employed to uncover the relationships between the definitions provided. The findings show that stakeholders see resilience as an ‘ability’ that encompasses emergency management activities and personal responsibility. However, the findings also highlight some possible points of conflict between stakeholders. In addition, the paper outlines and discusses a number of potential consequences for the implementation and the success of the resilience‐based approach in Australia.     

Monitoring of genetically modified Escherichia coli in laboratory wastewater

Containment of genetically modified (GM) microorganisms such as Escherichia coli is a legal requirement to protect the environment from an unintended release and to avoid horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of recombinant DNA to native bacteria. In this study, we sampled the laboratory wastewater (LWW) at a large Swiss university from three sources over 2 years and cultured ampicillin-resistant, presumptive GM E. coli. From a total of 285 samples, 127 contained presumptive GM E. coli (45%) at a mean concentration of 2.8 × 10² CFU/ml. Plasmid DNA of 11 unique clones was partially or entirely sequenced. All consisted of cloning vectors harboring research-specific inserts. To estimate the chance of HGT between GM E. coli and native bacteria in LWW, we identified taxa representative for the bacterial community in LWW using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and measured conjugation frequencies of E. coli with five LWW isolates. At optimal conjugation conditions, frequencies were between 3.4 × 10⁻³ and 2.4 × 10⁻⁵. Given the absence of transferable broad-host range plasmids and suboptimal conjugation conditions in the LWW system, we conclude that the chance of HGT is relatively low. Still, this study shows that the implementation of robust containment measures is key to avoid the escape of GM microorganisms.

     

Estimating the relevance of engineered carbonaceous nanoparticle facilitated transport of hydrophobic organic contaminants in porous media

Naturally occurring nanoparticles (NP) enhance the transport of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) in porous media. In addition, the debate on the environmental impact of engineered nanoparticles (ENP) has become increasingly important. HOC bind strongly to carbonaceous ENP. Thus, carbonaceous ENP may also act as carriers for contaminant transport and might be important when compared to existing transport processes. ENP bound transport is strongly linked to the sorption behavior, and other carbonaceous ENP-specific properties. In our analysis the HOC-ENP sorption mechanism, as well as ENP size and ENP residence time, was of major importance. Our results show that depending on ENP size, sorption kinetics and residence time in the system, the ENP bound transport can be estimated either as (1) negligible, (2) enhancing contaminant transport, or (3) should be assessed by reactive transport modeling. One major challenge to this field is the current lack of data for HOC-ENP desorption kinetics.     

Exposure to ultrafine and fine particles and noise during cycling and driving in 11 Dutch cities

Recent studies have suggested that exposures during traffic participation may be associated with adverse health effects. Traffic participation involves relatively short but high exposures. Potentially relevant exposures include ultrafine particles, fine particles (PM_2.5) and noise.Simultaneously, detailed real time exposure of particle number concentration (PNC), PM_2.5 and noise has been measured while driving and cycling 12 predefined routes of approximately 10–20 min duration. Sampling took place in eleven medium-sized Dutch cities on eleven weekdays in August till October 2006. To investigate variability in cyclists exposure, we systematically collected information on meteorology, GPS coordinates, type of road, traffic intensity, passing vehicles and mopeds while cycling.The overall mean PNC of car drivers was 5% higher than the mean PNC of cyclists. The overall mean concentration of PM_2.5 in the car was 11% higher than during cycling. Slightly higher 1-min peak concentrations were measured in the car (PNC 14%; PM_2.5 29% for 95-percentiles). Shorter duration peaks of PNC were higher during cycling (43% for 99-percentile of 1-s averages). Peaks in PNC typically last for less than 10 s. A large variability of exposure was found within and between routes. Factors that significantly predicted PNC variability during cycling were: passing vehicles (mopeds, cars), waiting for traffic lights, passing different types of (large) intersections and bicycle lanes and bike paths close to motorized traffic. No relation was found between PM_2.5 and those predictor variables. The correlation between PNC and noise was moderate (median 0.34). PM_2.5 had very low correlations with PNC and noise.PNC and PM_2.5 exposure of car drivers was slightly higher than that of cyclists. PNC was largely uncorrelated with PM_2.5 and reflected local traffic variables more than PM_2.5. Different factors were associated with high PNC and high noise exposures.     

Increasing stair climbing in a train station: The effects of contextual variables and visibility

Accumulation of physical activity during daily living is a current public health target that is influenced by the layout of the built environment. This study reports how the layout of the environment may influence responsiveness to an intervention. Pedestrian choices between stairs and the adjacent escalators were monitored for 7 weeks in a train station (Birmingham, UK). After a 3.5 week baseline period, a stair riser banner intervention to increase stair climbing was installed on two staircases adjacent to escalators and monitoring continued for a further 3.5 weeks. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the visibility of the intervention, defined as the area of visibility in the horizontal plane opposite to the direction of travel (termed the isovist) had a major effect on success of the intervention. Only the largest isovist produced an increase in stair climbing. Additionally, stair climbing was more common during the morning rush hour and at higher levels of pedestrian traffic volume. The layout of the intervention site can influence responsiveness to point-of-choice interventions. Changes to the design of train stations may maximize the choice of the stairs at the expense of the escalator by pedestrians leaving the station.     

Traffic mortality and the role of minor roads

Roads have large impacts on wildlife, as they form one of the principal causes of mortality, and disturbance and fragmentation of habitat. These impacts are mainly studied and mitigated on major roads. It is, however, a widespread misconception that most animals are killed on major roads. In this paper, we argue that minor roads have a larger impact on wildlife with respect to habitat destruction, noise load and traffic mortality. We use data on traffic related deaths in badgers (Meles meles) in The Netherlands to illustrate that traffic mortality is higher on minor roads. We ask for a more extensive investigation of the environmental impacts of minor roads. Moreover, we argue that the success of mitigation on roads drastically increases when both major and minor roads are integrated in the planning of traffic flows. Therefore, we propose a strategy based on the concept of a "traffic-calmed area". Traffic-calmed areas create opportunities for wildlife by decreasing limitations for animal movement. We ask for further studies to estimate what size traffic-calmed areas should be to maintain minimum viable animal populations.