Chronology of Awareness About US National Park External Threats

The objective of this paper is to raise understanding of the history of protected area external threat awareness in the United States and at World Protected Area Congresses. The earliest concerns about external threats to US national parks began in the late nineteenth century: a potential railroad transgression of Yellowstone National Park in the 1880s. During the early and mid 1930s, George Wright and colleagues focused on outside boundary concerns like of hunting and trapping of furbearers, grazing, logging, disease and hybridization between species. In the 1960s, a worldwide recognition began about the role of outside habitat fragmentation/isolation on nature reserves and human generated stressors crossing their boundaries. The State of the Park Report 1980 added a plethora of threats: oil/gas and geothermal exploration and development, hydropower and reclamation projects, urban encroachment, roads, resorts, and recreational facilities. The early 1980s ushered in political interference with NPS threats abatement efforts as well as Congressional legislative initiatives to support the abatement challenges of the agency. By 1987, the Government Accounting Office issued its first report on National Park Service (NPS) progress in dealing with external threats. Climate change impacts on parks, especially in terms of animals adjusting their temperature and moisture requirements by latitude and altitude, surfaced in the technical literature by the mid-1980s. By 1992, the world parks community stressed the need to integrate protected areas into the surrounding landscape and human community. The importance of the matrix has gradually gained appreciation in the scientific community. This chronology represents one example of national park and protected areas’ institutional history contributing to the breath of modern conservation science.     

Evaluation of Early Life Stage Fall Chinook Salmon Exposed to Hexavalent Chromium from a Contaminated Groundwater Source

We conducted a laboratory evaluation to assess the risk to early life stage (i.e., eyed egg to swim up) fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) for exposure to hexavalent chromium from a contaminated groundwater source. Local populations of fall Chinook salmon were exposed to Hanford Site source groundwater that was diluted with Columbia River water. Specific endpoints included survival, development rate, and growth. Tissue burdens of fish were also measured to estimate uptake and elimination rates of chromium. Survival, development, and growth of early life stage fall Chinook salmon were not adversely affected by extended exposures (i.e., 98 day) to hexavalent chromium ranging from 0.79 to 260 μg/l. Survival for all treatment levels and controls exceeded 98% at termination of the test. In addition, there were no differences among the mean lengths and weights of fish among all treatment groups. Whole-body concentrations of chromium in early life stage fall Chinook salmon had a typical dose-response pattern; i.e., those subjected to highest exposure concentrations and longest exposure intervals had higher tissue concentrations. Given the spatial extent of chromium concentrations at the Hanford Site, and the dynamics of the groundwater–river water interface, the current cleanup criterion of 10 μg/l chromium appear adequate to protect early life stage fall Chinook salmon. These findings, together with previous research indicate low risk to these populations.     

Application of magnetoelastic sensors for quantifying sediment deposition rates and sizes

This paper describes the application of magnetoelastic sensors for quantifying the size and deposition rate of sediment samples in costal areas, lakes, and rivers. The magnetoelastic sensor, which is made of inexpensive amorphous ferromagnetic alloy, measures parameters of interest by tracking the changes in its resonant frequency and/or amplitude. Since an increase in mass loading on the sensor surface changes its resonant frequency and amplitude, the deposition rate of sediment particles can be determined in real time by tracking these two quantities. Based on a theoretical model, the size distribution of the sediment particles was also estimated from the deposition rate.     

Quantitative PCR analysis of molds in the dust from homes of asthmatic children in North Carolina

The vacuum bag (VB) dust from the homes of 19 asthmatic children in North Carolina (NC) was analyzed by mold specific quantitative PCR. These results were compared to the analysis of the VB dust from 176 homes in the HUD, American Healthy Home Survey of homes in the US. The Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) was calculated for each of the homes. The mean and standard deviation (SD) of the ERMI values in the homes of the NC asthmatic children was 16.4 (6.77), compared to the HUD survey VB ERMI value mean and SD of 11.2 (6.72), and was significantly greater (t-test, p = 0.003) in the NC asthmatic children's homes. The molds Chaetomium globosum, Aspergillus fumigatus, and the Eurotium Group were the primary species in the NC homes of asthmatics, making the ERMI values significantly higher (p < 0.02 for each). Vacuum bag dust analysis may be a useful method for estimating the mold burden in a home.     

Univariate Bayesian nonparametric binary regression with application in environmental management

In environmental management, we often have to deal with binary response variables whose outcome dictates the course of action. This paper introduces a nonparametric Bayesian binary regression model with a single predictor variable that is more flexible than the commonly used logistic or probit models. Due to the Bayesian feature, the model can be easily used to combine observed data with our knowledge of the subject to produce site-specific results. By using three examples, this paper shows the potential application of the model in the environmental management, and its advantages in terms of flexibility in model specification, robustness to outliers, and realistic interpretation of data.     

The Role of Riparian Vegetation in Protecting and Improving Chemical Water Quality in Streams1

Dosskey, Michael G., Philippe Vidon, Noel P. Gurwick, Craig J. Allan, Tim P. Duval, and Richard Lowrance, 2010. The Role of Riparian Vegetation in Protecting and Improving Chemical Water Quality in Streams. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(2):261-277. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00419.x Abstract: We review the research literature and summarize the major processes by which riparian vegetation influences chemical water quality in streams, as well as how these processes vary among vegetation types, and discuss how these processes respond to removal and restoration of riparian vegetation and thereby determine the timing and level of response in stream water quality. Our emphasis is on the role that riparian vegetation plays in protecting streams from nonpoint source pollutants and in improving the quality of degraded stream water. Riparian vegetation influences stream water chemistry through diverse processes including direct chemical uptake and indirect influences such as by supply of organic matter to soils and channels, modification of water movement, and stabilization of soil. Some processes are more strongly expressed under certain site conditions, such as denitrification where groundwater is shallow, and by certain kinds of vegetation, such as channel stabilization by large wood and nutrient uptake by faster-growing species. Whether stream chemistry can be managed effectively through deliberate selection and management of vegetation type, however, remains uncertain because few studies have been conducted on broad suites of processes that may include compensating or reinforcing interactions. Scant research has focused directly on the response of stream water chemistry to the loss of riparian vegetation or its restoration. Our analysis suggests that the level and time frame of a response to restoration depends strongly on the degree and time frame of vegetation loss. Legacy effects of past vegetation can continue to influence water quality for many years or decades and control the potential level and timing of water quality improvement after vegetation is restored. Through the collective action of many processes, vegetation exerts substantial influence over the well-documented effect that riparian zones have on stream water quality. However, the degree to which stream water quality can be managed through the management of riparian vegetation remains to be clarified. An understanding of the underlying processes is important for effectively using vegetation condition as an indicator of water quality protection and for accurately gauging prospects for water quality improvement through restoration of permanent vegetation.     

Removal of estrogenic activity of natural and synthetic hormones from a municipal wastewater: efficiency of horseradish peroxidase and laccase from Trametes versicolor

Some researches studied the removal of steroid estrogens by enzymatic treatment, however none verified the residual estrogenicity after the enzymatic treatment at environmental conditions. In this study, the residual estrogenic activities of the key natural and synthetic steroid estrogens were investigated following enzymatic treatment with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and laccase from Trametes versicolor. Synthetic water and municipal wastewater containing environmental concentrations of estrone, 17beta-estradiol, estriol, and 17alpha-ethinylestradiol were treated. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis demonstrated that the studied steroid estrogens were completely oxidized in the wastewater reaction mixture after a 1-h treatment with either HRP (8-10 U ml(-1)) or laccase (20 U ml(-1)). Using the recombinant yeast assay, it was also confirmed that both enzymatic treatments were very efficient in removing the estrogenic activity of the studied steroid estrogens. The laccase-catalyzed process seemed to present great advantages over the HRP-catalyzed system for up-scale applications for the treatment of municipal wastewater.     

Effects of urbanization on the population structure of freshwater turtles across the United States

Landscape‐scale alterations that accompany urbanization may negatively affect the population structure of wildlife species such as freshwater turtles. Changes to nesting sites and higher mortality rates due to vehicular collisions and increased predator populations may particularly affect immature turtles and mature female turtles. We hypothesized that the proportions of adult female and immature turtles in a population will negatively correlate with landscape urbanization. As a collaborative effort of the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN), we sampled freshwater turtle populations in 11 states across the central and eastern United States. Contrary to expectations, we found a significant positive relationship between proportions of mature female painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) and urbanization. We did not detect a relationship between urbanization and proportions of immature turtles. Urbanization may alter the thermal environment of nesting sites such that more females are produced as urbanization increases. Our approach of creating a collaborative network of scientists and students at undergraduate institutions proved valuable in terms of testing our hypothesis over a large spatial scale while also allowing students to gain hands‐on experience in conservation science.