Recommendations on the Use of Satellite Remote-Sensing Data for Urban Air Quality

Abstract

In the last 5 yr, the capabilities of earth-observing satellites and the technological tools to share and use satellite data have advanced sufficiently to consider using satellite imagery in conjunction with ground-based data for urban-scale air quality monitoring. Satellite data can add synoptic and geospatial information to ground-based air quality data and modeling. An assessment of the integrated use of ground-based and satellite data for air quality monitoring, including several short case studies, was conducted. Findings identified current U.S. satellites with potential for air quality applications, with others available internationally and several more to be launched within the next 5 yr; several of these sensors are described in this paper as illustrations. However, use of these data for air quality applications has been hindered by historical lack of collaboration between air quality and satellite scientists, difficulty accessing and understanding new data, limited resources and agency priorities to develop new techniques, ill-defined needs, and poor understanding of the potential and limitations of the data. Specialization in organizations and funding sources has limited the resources for cross-disciplinary projects. To successfully use these new data sets requires increased collaboration between organizations, streamlined access to data, and resources for project implementation.     

Accuracy and reliability of dogs in surveying for desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii).

The desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) is federally listed as "threatened" and is afforded protection in several U.S. states including California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Numerous factors ranging from habitat destruction to disease are thought to contribute to the species' decline throughout its range. Data collection on desert tortoises in the wild is challenging because tortoises are secretive, and many age and size classes are virtually undetectable in the wild. Detection dogs have been used for decades to assist humans, and the use of dogs for wildlife surveys is of increasing interest to scientists and wildlife managers. To address the basic question of whether dogs could be used to survey for the desert tortoise, we quantified the reliability and efficacy of dogs trained for this purpose. Efficacy is the number of tortoises that dogs find out of a known population. Reliability is a measure of how many times a dog performs its trained alert when it has found a tortoise. A series of experimental trials were designed to statistically quantify these metrics in the field setting where dogs trained to locate live desert tortoises were tested on their ability to find them on the surface, in burrows, and in mark-recapture surveys. Results indicated that dogs are effective at and can safely locate desert tortoises with reliability on the surface and are capable of detecting tortoises in burrows under a range of environmental conditions. Dogs found tortoises at the same statistical rate at temperatures between 12 degrees and 27 degrees C, relative humidity from 16% to 87%, and wind speeds up to 8 m/s. In both surface and burrow trials, dogs found >90% of the experimental animals. In comparative studies with humans, dogs found tortoises as small as 30 mm, whereas the smallest tortoise located by human survey teams was 110 mm. Although not all dogs or dog teams meet the requirements to conduct wildlife surveys, results from this study show the promise in using dogs to increase our knowledge of rare, threatened, and endangered species through improved data collection methods.     

The relative influence of nutrients and habitat on stream metabolism in agricultural streams

Stream metabolism was measured in 33 streams across a gradient of nutrient concentrations in four agricultural areas of the USA to determine the relative influence of nutrient concentrations and habitat on primary production (GPP) and respiration (CR-24). In conjunction with the stream metabolism estimates, water quality and algal biomass samples were collected, as was an assessment of habitat in the sampling reach. When data for all study areas were combined, there were no statistically significant relations between gross primary production or community respiration and any of the independent variables. However, significant regression models were developed for three study areas for GPP (r ² = 0.79–0.91) and CR-24 (r ² = 0.76–0.77). Various forms of nutrients (total phosphorus and area-weighted total nitrogen loading) were significant for predicting GPP in two study areas, with habitat variables important in seven significant models. Important physical variables included light availability, precipitation, basin area, and in-stream habitat cover. Both benthic and seston chlorophyll were not found to be important explanatory variables in any of the models; however, benthic ash-free dry weight was important in two models for GPP.     

The Use of Subbottom Profiling in Refining Dredge Cuts for a Large‐Scale Sediment Remediation Project

A number of different techniques were employed to locate the target dredge grade on a large‐scale Canadian sediment remediation project. These techniques included various coring events, Seabed Terminal Impact Newton Gradiometer (STING) testing, and geotechnical borings. Despite these techniques, the data set for interpolation of the dredge grade was widely spaced, and some of the investigations were not specifically intended to be used for defining the dredge grade. In order to reduce the risk of extra expenses from contractor claims resulting from differing sediment conditions, more precise planning was required. Due to the size of the area and the desired accuracy, subbottom profiling was identified as a potential tool to provide high‐density coverage across the site. As with any geophysical tool, ground truth data were required to verify and aid in interpretation. This article describes how subbottom profiling was used to refine the dredge grade for the target layer, the associated challenges related to signal loss in some areas, and how they were overcome. ©2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An international environmental study programme: the International Baccalaureate Environmental Systems course

This paper describes the relatively new, university entry level examination offered by the International Baccalaureate Organisation in the subject of Environmental Systems. The programme has an integrated, holistic approach, and a strong international focus. The authors are Chief Examiner and Deputy Chief Examiner for this examination.     

Multidimensional trade-offs in species responses to disturbance: implications for diversity in a subtropical forest

Species employ diverse strategies to cope with natural disturbance, but the importance of these strategies for maintaining tree species diversity in forests has been debated. Mechanisms that have the potential to promote tree species coexistence in the context of repeated disturbance include life history trade-offs in colonization and competitive ability or in species' ability to survive at low resource conditions and exploit the temporary resource-rich conditions often generated in the wake of disturbance (successional niche). Quantifying these trade-offs requires long-term forest monitoring and modeling. We developed a hierarchical Bayes model to investigate the strategies tree species employ to withstand and recover from hurricane disturbance and the life history trade-offs that may facilitate species coexistence in forests subject to repeated hurricane disturbance. Unlike previous approaches, our model accommodates temporal variation in process error and observations from multiple sources. We parameterized the model using growth and mortality data from four censuses of a 16-ha plot taken every five years (1990-2005), together with damage data collected after two hurricanes and annual seed production data (1992-2005). Species' susceptibilities to hurricane damage as reflected by changes in diameter growth and fecundity immediately following a storm were weak, highly variable, and unpredictable using traditional life history groupings. The lower crowding conditions (e.g., high light) generated in the wake of storms, however, led to greater gains in growth and fecundity for pioneer and secondary-forest species than for shade-tolerant species, in accordance with expectation of life history. We found moderate trade-offs between survival in high crowding conditions, a metric of competitive ability, and long-distance colonization. We also uncovered a strong trade-off between mean species fecundity in low crowding conditions, a metric of recovery potential, and competitive ability. Trade-offs in competitive and colonization ability, in addition to successional niche processes, are likely to contribute to species persistence in these hurricane-impacted forests. The strategies species employ to cope with hurricane damage depend on the degree to which species rely on sprouting, repair of adult damage, changes in demographic rates in response to enhanced resource availability after storms, or long-distance dispersal as recovery mechanisms.     

可持续建筑业的社会责任:国际劳工组织的观点

本文调查了可持续建筑业的社会形势,特别是发展中国家的可持续建筑业,一个有社会责任感的建筑产业,就是一个在保护劳工免受负面影响的同时努力加强正面影响作用的产业,这要求遵守劳动标准,正如“国际劳工组织(ILO)协定“和国家立法所表达的那样,志愿行动已经做出了积极的贡献,但是严格的计划将要求每一个人依照相同的游戏规则,要做到如此,全体利益相关者确定的统一行动是十分必要的,一个新的“社会责任感建设投资“行动,由国际劳工组织发起,它将把政府代表,雇主,工人和其他主要建筑利益相关者聚在一起,其目的是要制定战略和行动计划,以加强建筑作业中关键劳动标准的贯彻,以及推动建筑部门的生产性就业.     

Integrating lidar and satellite optical depth with ambient monitoring for 3-dimensional particulate characterization

A combination of in-situ PM_2.5, sunphotometers, upward pointing lidar and satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) instruments have been employed to better understand variability in the correlation between AOD and PM_2.5 at the surface. Previous studies have shown good correlation between these measures, especially in the US east, and encouraged the use of satellite data for spatially interpolating between ground sensors. This work shows that cases of weak correlation can be better understood with knowledge of whether the aerosol is confined to the surface planetary boundary layer (PBL) or aloft. Lidar apportionment of the fraction of aerosol optical depth that is within the PBL can be scaled to give better agreement with surface PM_2.5 than does the total column amount. The study has shown that lidar combined with surface and remotely sensed data might be strategically used to improve our understanding of long-range or regionally transported pollutants in multiple dimensions.     

Interactions among females in polygynous yellow-headed blackbirds

Summary Two alternative hypotheses which attempt to predict how females within harems in polygynous species should behave toward one another were examined in a population of yellow-headed blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus). The hypothesis that females within a harem are co-operative was not supported. Females in large harems did not enjoy higher reproductive success than those in smaller harems and females within a territory did not initiate their nests close in time or space. The alternative hypothesis that females within a harem are competitive was also not supported. Nest density did not have a negative effect on female reproductive success, females within a territory did not initiate their nests far apart in time or space, and resident females were not very aggressive toward intruding female mounts during the settling period. The data support the idea that females settled independently of one another and had no effect on one another's reproductive success.     

Adaptive introgression as a resource for management and genetic conservation in a changing climate

Current rates of climate change require organisms to respond through migration, phenotypic plasticity, or genetic changes via adaptation. We focused on questions regarding species’ and populations’ ability to respond to climate change through adaptation. Specifically, the role adaptive introgression, movement of genetic material from the genome of 1 species into the genome of another through repeated interbreeding, may play in increasing species’ ability to respond to a changing climate. Such interspecific gene flow may mediate extinction risk or consequences of limited adaptive potential that result from standing genetic variation and mutation alone, enabling a quicker demographic recovery in response to changing environments. Despite the near dismissal of the potential benefits of hybridization by conservation practitioners, we examined a number of case studies across different taxa that suggest gene flow between sympatric or parapatric sister species or within species that exhibit strong ecotypic differentiation may represent an underutilized management option to conserve evolutionary potential in a changing environment. This will be particularly true where advanced‐generation hybrids exhibit adaptive traits outside the parental phenotypic range, a phenomenon known as transgressive segregation. The ideas presented in this essay are meant to provoke discussion regarding how we maintain evolutionary potential, the conservation value of natural hybrid zones, and consideration of their important role in adaptation to climate.