Guiding principles for rewilding

There has been much recent interest in the concept of rewilding as a tool for nature conservation, but also confusion over the idea, which has limited its utility. We developed a unifying definition and 10 guiding principles for rewilding through a survey of 59 rewilding experts, a summary of key organizations’ rewilding visions, and workshops involving over 100 participants from around the world. The guiding principles convey that rewilding exits on a continuum of scale, connectivity, and level of human influence and aims to restore ecosystem structure and functions to achieve a self-sustaining autonomous nature. These principles clarify the concept of rewilding and improve its effectiveness as a tool to achieve global conservation targets, including those of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Finally, we suggest differences in rewilding perspectives lie largely in the extent to which it is seen as achievable and in specific interventions. An understanding of the context of rewilding projects is the key to success, and careful site-specific interpretations will help achieve the aims of rewilding.     

Quantifying current and potential contributions of Australian indigenous peoples to threatened species management

Formal engagement of indigenous peoples in conservation is increasing globally and leads to multiple benefits to communities while contributing to national and international biodiversity goals and obligations. This and ongoing declines in biodiversity have led to calls to increase opportunities for indigenous people to engage in managing their estates. However, there is no overarching understanding of indigenous peoples’ involvement in conservation, which limits the identification of new opportunities. We amalgamated information across governments and large nongovernmental organizations in the megadiverse country of Australia to quantify the involvement of indigenous people in management of threatened species. We identified 153 Australian‐based projects undertaken by different indigenous groups around the nation in 2015 and 2016 that included explicit funds for management of threatened species or threatened ecosystems. Most were in remote parts of western and northern Australia. Almost one‐quarter of all threatened animals and 2% of threatened plants were the subject of some formal conservation action by indigenous people. Occurrence records for 1574 threatened species showed that 823 (89.2%) of 923 species recorded on indigenous peoples’ lands were not listed in management projects. This gap may represent new opportunities for conservation initiatives. Because at least 59.5% of Australia's threatened species occur on indigenous peoples’ lands, efforts to build appropriate and effective indigenous conservation alliances are vital. However, it is also important to recognize that threatened species are part of complex social, ecological, economic and cultural systems, and to achieve successful outcomes requires consideration of indigenous peoples’ priorities, rights, and obligations and relationships with their traditionally owned land and sea.     

Adaptation of a Canadian culpability scoring tool to Alberta police traffic collision report data

Objective: The objective of this study was to adapt a previously validated Canadian Culpability Scoring Tool (CCST) to Alberta police report data.

Methods: Police traffic collision reports from motor vehicle (MV) collisions in Calgary and Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) from 2010 to 2014 were used. Adaptation of the CCST was completed with input from personnel within Alberta Transportation, contributing to face and content validity. Two research assistants, given only the information necessary for scoring, evaluated 175 randomly selected MV–MV collisions. Interrater agreement was estimated using kappa (k) and reported with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Discussion of disagreements between the research assistants and consultation from Alberta Transportation informed the algorithm used in the Alberta Motor Vehicle Collision Culpability Tool (AMVCCT). The AMVCCT was automated and applied to all motorists involved in collisions. Binary logistic regression was used to examine characteristics of the culpable and nonculpable drivers and their effects were reported using odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs.

Results: Interrater agreement for the random sample was excellent (k = 0.95; 95% CI, 0.92–0.99). Of those drivers hospitalized, 1,130 (37.54%) were rated not culpable and 1,880 (62.46%) were rated culpable. The odds of being culpable were higher for males than for females (OR = 1.43; 95% CI, 1.23–1.66). The odds of being culpable were higher in those impaired by alcohol than those considered “apparently normal” (OR = 61.10; 95% CI, 22.66–164.75). The odds of being deemed culpable, when compared with drivers >54 years old, were higher for those <25 years old (OR = 1.72; 95% CI, 1.35–2.20) and lower for those in the 40- to 54-year-old age group (OR = 0.78; 95% CI, 0.63–0.96). Driving between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. resulted in higher odds of being culpable compare with all other 6-h time blocks. Direction and statistical significance remained consistent when applying the tool to all MV collisions. Sensitivity analysis including the removal of single vehicle collisions did not affect the direction or statistical significance of the main results.

Conclusions: The AMVCCT identified a culpable group that exhibited characteristics expected in drivers who are at fault in collisions. The age groups 25–39 and 40–54 demonstrated different results than the CCST. However, this is the only difference that exists in the findings of the AMVCCT compared to the CCST and could exist due to differences between the driving populations in Alberta and British Columbia. It is possible to adapt the CCST to provinces outside British Columbia and, in doing so, we can identify risk factors for collision contribution and not-at-fault drivers who represent the driving population.     

The interplay between incremental,transitional, and transformational adaptation: a case study of Canadian agriculture

Regional Environmental Change - We develop and apply a synthetic framework for understanding potential adaptations to climate change in the Canadian agriculture sector through a case study of...     

The contribution of biological particles to observed particulate organic carbon at a remote high altitude site

Although a significant fraction of atmospheric particulate mass is organic carbon, the sources of particulate organic carbon (POC) are not always apparent. One potential source of atmospheric POC is biological particles, such as bacteria, pollen, and fungal spores. Measurements of POC and biological particles, including bacteria, fungal spores, and pollen, were made as part of the Storm Peak Aerosol and Cloud Characterization Study in Steamboat Springs, CO in March–April 2008. Biological particles were identified and characterized using several methods. The results suggest that biological particles could account for an average of 40% of the organic carbon mass in particles with aerodynamic diameters less than 10 μm. These estimates of POC mass from biological particles are highly uncertain; however, the results suggest that biological particles could be a significant source of organic aerosol in the background continental atmosphere and further observations are needed to better constrain these estimates.     

Cross-sectional survey methods to assess retrospectively mortality in humanitarian emergencies

Since the rates and causes of mortality are critical indicators of the overall health of a population, it is important to evaluate mortality even where no complete vital statistics reporting exists. Such settings include humanitarian emergencies. Experience in cross-sectional survey methods to assess retrospectively crude, age-specific, and maternal mortality in stable settings has been gained over the past 40 years, and methods appropriate to humanitarian emergencies have been developed. In humanitarian emergencies, crude and age-specific mortality can be gauged using methods based on the enumeration of individuals resident in randomly selected households—frequently referred to as a household census. Under-five mortality can also be assessed through a modified prior birth history method in which a representative sample of reproductive-aged women are questioned about dates of child births and deaths. Maternal mortality can be appraised via the initial identification of maternal deaths in the study population and a subsequent investigation to determine the cause of each death.     

Temperature-dependent rate coefficients for the reactions of Cl atoms with methyl methacrylate,methyl acrylate and butyl methacrylate at atmospheric pressure

Rate coefficients for the gas-phase reactions of Cl atoms with a series of unsaturated esters CH₂C(CH₃)C(O)OCH₃ (MMA), CH₂CHC(O)OCH₃ (MAC) and CH₂C(CH₃)C(O)O(CH₂)₃CH₃ (BMA) have been measured as a function of temperature by the relative technique in an environmental chamber with in situ FTIR detection of reactants. The rate coefficients obtained at 298 K in one atmosphere of nitrogen or synthetic air using propene, isobutene and 1,3-butadiene as reference hydrocarbons were (in units of 10^?10 cm³ molecule^?1 s^?1) as follows: k_(Cl+MMA) = 2.82 ± 0.93, k_(Cl+MAC) = 2.04 ± 0.54 and k_(Cl+BMA) = 3.60 ± 0.87. The kinetic data obtained over the temperature range 287–313 K were used to derive the following Arrhenius expressions (in units of cm³ molecule^?1 s^?1): k_(Cl+MMA) = (13.9 ± 7.8) × 10^?15 exp[(2904 ± 420)/T], k_(Cl+MAC) = (0.4 ± 0.2) × 10^?15 exp[(3884 ± 879)/T], k_(Cl+BMA) = (0.98 ± 0.42) × 10^?15 exp[(3779 ± 850)/T]. All the rate coefficients display a slight negative temperature dependence which points to the importance of the reversibility of the addition mechanism for these reactions. This work constitutes the first kinetic and temperature dependence study of the reactions cited above.An analysis of the available rates of addition of Cl atoms and OH radicals to the double bond of alkenes and unsaturated and oxygenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at 298 K has shown that they can be related by the expression: log k_OH = 1.09 log k_Cl ? 0.10. In addition, a correlation between the reactivity of unsaturated VOCs toward OH radicals and Cl atoms and the HOMO of the unsaturated VOC is presented. Tropospheric implications of the results are also discussed.     

Rural southeast Texas air quality measurements during the 2006 Texas Air Quality Study

The authors conducted air quality measurements of the criteria pollutants carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and ozone together with meteorological measurements at a park site southeast of College Station, TX, during the 2006 Texas Air Quality Study II (TexAQS). Ozone, a primary focus of the measurements, was above 80 ppb during 3 days and above 75 ppb during additional 8 days in summer 2006, suggestive of possible violations of the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) in this area. In concordance with other air quality measurements during the TexAQS II, elevated ozone mixing ratios coincided with northerly flows during days after cold front passages. Ozone background during these days was as high as 80 ppb, whereas southerly air flows generally provided for an ozone background lower than 40 ppb. Back trajectory analysis shows that local ozone mixing ratios can also be strongly affected by the Houston urban pollution plume, leading to late afternoon ozone increases of as high as 50 ppb above background under favorable transport conditions. The trajectory analysis also shows that ozone background increases steadily the longer a southern air mass resides over Texas after entering from the Gulf of Mexico. In light of these and other TexAQS findings, it appears that ozone air quality is affected throughout east Texas by both long-range and regional ozone transport, and that improvements therefore will require at least a regionally oriented instead of the current locally oriented ozone precursor reduction policies.     

Sensitivity of potential natural vegetation in China to projected changes in temperature,precipitation and atmospheric CO2

A sensitivity study was performed to investigate the responses of potential natural vegetation distribution in China to the separate and combined effects of temperature, precipitation and [CO₂], using the process-based equilibrium terrestrial biosphere model BIOME4. The model shows a generally good agreement with a map of the potential natural vegetation distribution based on a numerical comparison using the ΔV statistic (ΔV = 0.25). Mean temperature of each month was increased uniformly by 0–5 K, in 0.5- or 1-K intervals. Mean precipitation of each month was increased and decreased uniformly by 0–30%, in 10% intervals. The analyses were run at fixed CO₂ concentrations of 360 and 720 ppm. Temperature increases shifted most forest boundaries northward and westward, expanded the distribution of xeric biomes, and confined the tundra to progressively higher elevations. Precipitation increases led to a greater area occupied by mesic biomes at the expense of xeric biomes. Most vegetation types in the temperate regions, and on the Tibetan Plateau, expanded westward into the dry continental interior with increasing precipitation. Precipitation decreases had opposite effects. The modelled effect of CO₂ doubling was to partially compensate for the negative effect of drought on the mesic biomes and to increase potential ecosystem carbon storage by about 40%. Warming tended to counteract this effect, by reducing soil carbon storage. Forest biomes showed substantial resilience to climate change, especially when the effects of increasing [CO₂] were taken into account. Savannas, dry woodland and tundra biomes proved sensitive to temperature increases. The transition region of grassland and forest, and the Tibetan plateau, was the most vulnerable region.