De-Europeanising or disengaging? EU environmental policy and Brexit

ABSTRACT

The European Union (EU) has had a profound effect upon its members’ environmental policy. Even in the United Kingdom (UK), the EU’s most recalcitrant member state (historically labeled the ‘Dirty man of Europe’), environmental policy has been Europeanised. As the UK moves to the EU’s exit door it is timely to assess the utility of Europeanisation for understanding policy dynamics in the UK. Drawing upon interviews and extensive engagement with stakeholders, this article analyses the potential impact of Brexit upon environmental policy and politics. The analytical toolkit offered by de-Europeanisation is developed to identify the factors that drive and inhibit de-Europeanisation processes, thereby providing insights that may be applicable in other settings. Disengagement and policy stagnation are presented as more likely environmental outcomes of Brexit, with capacity emerging as a central explanatory variable.     

Political ideologies and the objective measurement of climate-related risks to coastal resources

Nearly all research focused on understanding perceptions of climate-related risks to coastal resources has used data collected via mail surveys, online surveys or in-depth qualitative interviews. To compliment previous research, this study focuses on objective perceptions of climate-related risks to coastal resources as measured by respondents’ gaze behavior when viewing images describing or depicting climate-related impacts to coastal resources. We utilize data collected from a survey paired with an eye tracking session to measure perceptions of climate-related risks to coastal resources. We also compare the gaze behavior of liberals and conservatives when viewing an infographic and a digital photograph illustrating climate-related impacts to coastal resources; these included impacts to: 1) abiotic resources; 2) biotic resources; 3) built infrastructure; and 4) recreation opportunities. Survey data indicate liberal participants believed climate-related risks to all four types of impacts were more serious relative to conservative participants. However, eye tracking data revealed both liberal and conservative participants spent an equivalent amount of time viewing the four types of impacts. Consequently, differences in the extent to which liberals and conservatives perceive climate-related risks to coastal resources may be attributable to differences in how the two groups evaluate each of the specific impacts. Eye tracking data also revealed liberal participants noticed impacts to biotic resources faster than conservative participants. Conversely, conservative participants noticed impacts to built infrastructure faster than liberal participants. The practical implications of these findings are noteworthy: climate change communicators should target messages based on the predominant political ideology of their audience or include both biotic and built infrastructure impacts in their messages to capture wider audiences.     

Modeled historical land use and land cover for the conterminous United States

The landscape of the conterminous United States has changed dramatically over the last 200 years, with agricultural land use, urban expansion, forestry, and other anthropogenic activities altering land cover across vast swaths of the country. While land use and land cover (LULC) models have been developed to model potential future LULC change, few efforts have focused on recreating historical landscapes. Researchers at the US Geological Survey have used a wide range of historical data sources and a spatially explicit modeling framework to model spatially explicit historical LULC change in the conterminous United States from 1992 back to 1938. Annual LULC maps were produced at 250-m resolution, with 14 LULC classes. Assessment of model results showed good agreement with trends and spatial patterns in historical data sources such as the Census of Agriculture and historical housing density data, although comparison with historical data is complicated by definitional and methodological differences. The completion of this dataset allows researchers to assess historical LULC impacts on a range of ecological processes.     

Wildlife corridors as a connected subgraph problem

Wildlife corridors connect areas of biological significance to mitigate the negative ecological impacts of habitat fragmentation. In this article we formalize the optimal corridor design as a connected subgraph problem, which maximizes the amount of suitable habitat in a fully connected parcel network linking core habitat areas, subject to a constraint on the funds available for land acquisition. To solve this challenging computational problem, we propose a hybrid approach that combines graph algorithms with Mixed Integer Programming-based optimization. We apply this technique to the design of corridors for grizzly bears in the U.S. Northern Rockies, illustrating the underlying computational complexities by varying the granularity of the parcels available for acquisition. The approach that is introduced is general and can be applied to other species or other similar problems, such as those occurring in social networks.     

EFFECTS OF LAND COVER AND GEOLOGY ON STREAM CHEMISTRY IN WATERSHEDS OF CHESAPEAKE BAY1

ABSTRACT: We measured the base‐flow stream chemistry in all the major physiographic provinces of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin. The spatial variation of stream chemistry was closely related to differences in geology and land cover among the sampled watersheds. Some stream chemistry variables were strongly affected by geological settings in the watersheds while others were more influenced by land cover. The effects of land cover differed among chemical constituents and regions. Concentrations of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, pH, total alkalinity, and conductivity were mainly functions of carbonate bedrock, especially in the Great Valley. Nitrate‐N and total dissolved N were closely related to cropland and increased as the percentage of cropland increased. The rate of increase varied from region to region with the highest in the Piedmont. Na⁺ and Cl^? were mainly affected by the percentage of developed area in a watershed, especially in the Coastal Plain and Piedmont. We observed no significant effects of region or land cover on species of phosphorus because samples were collected under base flow conditions and only dissolved forms were measured. Dissolved silicate (DSi) was not related to any other water chemistry variables. DSi increased as developed area decreased and cropland increased in the Coastal Plain, but these patterns were reversed in the Piedmont. There was no consistent pattern in the spatial variation of land cover effects on the reduced forms of N, dissolved organic P, dissolved organic matter, and K⁺.     

Rising costs of care make spiny chromis discerning parents

When the costs of parental care do not scale with the number of offspring being cared for, inclusion of non-descendant young into broods can be advantageous, leading to systems of alloparental care. However, if the cost of care scales with the number of offspring, selection may act against misdirected parental care. The spiny chromis, Acanthochromis polyacanthus, is a marine fish with extended biparental care, and broods that increase in size over the care period strongly suggest that alloparental care occurs in this species. However, A. polyacanthus parents directly provision their offspring by producing ectodermal mucus for their fry to feed on. The costs of such provisioning may scale with brood size, potentially increasing the costs of parental care. Using wild A. polyacanthus pairs, we tested whether foreign offspring are accepted into established broods, and measured how brood defence effort and mucal feeding scale with brood size. We found that A. polyacanthus discriminate between their own and foreign young, vigorously expelling experimentally introduced foreign offspring. Although defensive effort did not scale with brood size, mucal feeding was strongly dependent on brood size, and this increasing cost of care likely acts as the primary selective force on parental discrimination and rejection of foreign fry in A. polyacanthus.     

Kraft mill residues effects on Monterey pine growth and soil microbial activity

The production of bleached Kraft pulp generates inorganic and organic residues that are usually deposited on the soil surface or land-filled. Studies conducted to address the impact of these wastes on the environment are scarce. In this work, Monterey pine (Pinus radiata D. Don), an important tree for pulping, was evaluated for germination and development under greenhouse conditions in forest soils exposed to solid residues of the cellulose industry using the Kraft process. Soils exposed to 10 to 60% ashes, 10 to 70% fly ashes, or 10 to 30% dregs allowed substantial seed germination and seedling growth. In contrast, soils exposed to low proportions of brown rejects, grits, or a mixture of all these residues were detrimental for germination, plant growth, or both. The strongest negative effect (no germination) was observed with as low as 10% grits. The changes in pH and/or water content caused by solid wastes did not correlate with detrimental effects observed in various soil-residue combinations. No significant changes in the microbial community of soils exposed to these solid residues were observed by determination of culturable counts, or by terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the microbial community DNA. The presence of organic residues did not affect the ability of the soil microbial community to remove typical pulp bleaching chloroaromatics. However, inorganic wastes strongly decreased the removal of such compounds.     

Nutrient and sediment removal by a restored wetland receiving agricultural runoff

Few studies have measured removal of pollutants by restored wetlands that receive highly variable inflows. We used automated flow-proportional sampling to monitor the removal of nutrients and suspended solids by a 1.3-ha restored wetland receiving unregulated inflows from a 14-ha agricultural watershed in Maryland, USA. Water entered the wetland mainly in brief pulses of runoff, which sometimes exceeded the 2500-m3 water holding capacity of the wetland. Half of the total water inflow occurred in only 24 days scattered throughout the two-year study. Measured annual water gains were within 5% of balancing water losses. Annual removal of nutrients differed greatly between the two years of the study. The most removal occurred in the first year, which included a three-month period of decreasing water level in the wetland. In that year, the wetland removed 59% of the total P, 38% of the total N, and 41% of the total organic C it received. However, in the second year, which lacked a drying period, there was no significant (p > 0.05) net removal of total N or P, although 30% of the total organic C input was removed. For the entire two-year period, the wetland removed 25% of the ammonium, 52% of the nitrate, and 34% of the organic C it received, but there was no significant net removal of total suspended solids (TSS) or other forms of N and P. Although the variability of inflow may have decreased the capacity of the wetland to remove materials, the wetland still reduced nonpoint-source pollution.     

Natural vs. plantation forests: A case study of land reclamation strategies for the humid tropics

Biomass and productivity were compared in two plantations and in one stand of natural regeneration on similar sites in a premontane moist forest region of Puerto Rico. While initial growth rates of plantation species were higher, after four decades productivity of the natural regeneration plots was equal to or greater than productivity of the plantations. For the first 44 years, aboveground biomass of natural regeneration increased at an average annual rate of 3.8t·ha^–1·yr^–1, but the last year of the study it was 14.7t·ha^–1. Biomass increment of a pine plantation averaged between 8 and 10.5t·ha^–1·yr^–1 except for one year when the rate was much lower, possibly because of hurricane damage. A tropical hardwood plantation averaged close to 4t·ha^–1·yr^–1 for 41 years. It is suggested that in countries where funds for land reclamation are limited, intensive plantations may not always be the best strategy. Natural regeneration or shelterbelt plantations may be suitable alternatives.