Park isolation in anthropogenic landscapes: land change and livelihoods at park boundaries in the African Albertine Rift

Regional Environmental Change - Landscapes are changing rapidly in regions where rural people live adjacent to protected parks and reserves. This is the case in highland East Africa, where many...     

Performance assessments for the geological storage of carbon dioxide: Learning from the radioactive waste disposal experience

The geological storage of carbon dioxide is currently being considered as a possible technology for reducing emissions to atmosphere. Although there are several operational sites where carbon dioxide is stored in this way, methods for assessing the long-term performance and safety of geological storage are at an early stage of development. In this paper the similarities and differences between this field and the geological disposal of radioactive wastes are considered. Priorities are suggested for the development of performance assessment methods for carbon dioxide storage based on areas where experience from radioactive waste disposal can be usefully applied. These include, inter alia, dealing with the various types of uncertainty, using systematic methodologies to ensure an auditable and transparent assessment process, developing whole system models and gaining confidence to model the long-term system evolution by considering information from natural systems. An important area of data shortage remains the potential impacts on humans and ecosystems.     

UTILIZATION OF LANDSCAPE INDICATORS TO MODEL POTENTIAL PATHOGEN IMPAIRED WATERS1

ABSTRACT: Many water bodies within the United States are contaminated by non‐point source (NPS) pollution, which is defined as those materials posing a threat to water quality arising from a number of individual sources and diffused through hydrologic processes. One such NPS pollutant that is of critical concern are pathogens derived from animal wastes, including humans. The potential presence of pathogens is identified by testing the water for fecal conform, a bacteria also associated with animal wastes. Water contaminated by animal wastes are most often associated with urban and agricultural areas, thus it is postulated that by utilizing land cover indicators, those water bodies that may be at risk of fecal coliform contamination may be identified. This study utilizes land cover information derived from the Multi‐Resolution Land Characterization (MRLC) project to analyze fecal coliform contamination in South Carolina. Also utilized are 14 digit hydro‐logic unit code (HUC) watersheds of the state, a digital elevation model, and test point data stating whether fecal coliform levels exceeded State Water Quality Standards. Proportions of the various land covers are identified within the individual watersheds and then analyzed using a logistic regression. The results reveal that watersheds with large proportions of urban land cover and agriculture on steep slopes had a very high probability of being impaired. (KEY TERMS: Geographic Information Systems; land use planning; nonpoint source pollution; statistical analysis; water quality; watershed management.)     

Effects of threat management interactions on conservation priorities

Decisions need to be made about which biodiversity management actions are undertaken to mitigate threats and about where these actions are implemented. However, management actions can interact; that is, the cost, benefit, and feasibility of one action can change when another action is undertaken. There is little guidance on how to explicitly and efficiently prioritize management for multiple threats, including deciding where to act. Integrated management could focus on one management action to abate a dominant threat or on a strategy comprising multiple actions to abate multiple threats. Furthermore management could be undertaken at sites that are in close proximity to reduce costs. We used cost‐effectiveness analysis to prioritize investments in fire management, controlling invasive predators, and reducing grazing pressure in a bio‐diverse region of southeastern Queensland, Australia. We compared outcomes of 5 management approaches based on different assumptions about interactions and quantified how investment needed, benefits expected, and the locations prioritized for implementation differed when interactions were taken into account. Managing for interactions altered decisions about where to invest and in which actions to invest and had the potential to deliver increased investment efficiency. Differences in high priority locations and actions were greatest between the approaches when we made different assumptions about how management actions deliver benefits through threat abatement: either all threats must be managed to conserve species or only one management action may be required. Threatened species management that does not consider interactions between actions may result in misplaced investments or misguided expectations of the effort required to mitigate threats to species.     

Time management and nectar flow: flower handling and suction feeding in long-proboscid flies (Nemestrinidae: Prosoeca)

A well-developed suction pump in the head represents an important adaptation for nectar-feeding insects, such as Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and Diptera. This pumping organ creates a pressure gradient along the proboscis, which is responsible for nectar uptake. The extremely elongated proboscis of the genus Prosoeca (Nemestrinidae) evolved as an adaptation to feeding from long, tubular flowers. According to the functional constraint hypothesis, nectar uptake through a disproportionately elongated, straw-like proboscis increases flower handling time and consequently lowers the energy intake rate. Due to the conspicuous length variation of the proboscis of Prosoeca, individuals with longer proboscides are hypothesised to have longer handling times. To test this hypothesis, we used field video analyses of flower-visiting behaviour, detailed examinations of the suction pump morphology and correlations of proboscis length with body length and suction pump dimensions. Using a biomechanical framework described for nectar-feeding Lepidoptera in relation to proboscis length and suction pump musculature, we describe and contrast the system in long-proboscid flies. Flies with longer proboscides spent significantly more time drinking from flowers. In addition, proboscis length and body length showed a positive allometric relationship. Furthermore, adaptations of the suction pump included an allometric relationship between proboscis length and suction pump muscle volume and a combination of two pumping organs. Overall, the study gives detailed insight into the adaptations required for long-proboscid nectar feeding, and comparisons with other nectar-sucking insects allow further considerations of the evolution of the suction pump in insects with sucking mouthparts.     

A preliminary ergonomic assessment of piloting a lifeboat in ice

This paper examines human factors associated with piloting a totally enclosed motor propelled survival craft (TEMPSC or lifeboat) in ice. The first section of the paper describes the use of a usability assessment scale to evaluate the coxswain’s (TEMPSC captain) control panel. The second portion examines environmental conditions (habitability) inside the lifeboat during evacuation. All testing was completed in conditions that were consistent with those that might be experienced by ship or offshore oil and gas crewmembers in the event of abandonment due to an onboard emergency. Results indicated that the lifeboat test configuration presented considerable challenges to usability/functionality as well as habitability. These findings suggest that further research should be conducted to evaluate the safety of all existing lifeboat designs. Finally, it is recommended that the international maritime organization (IMO) and safety of life at sea (SOLAS) Convention should mandate user-centered design evaluations for future lifeboat manufacturing.     

Epidemiology of tornado destruction in rural northern Bangladesh: risk factors for death and injury

The epidemiology of tornado-related disasters in the developing world is poorly understood. An August 2005 post-tornado cohort study in rural Bangladesh identified elevated levels of death and injury among the elderly (≥ 60 years of age) (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 8.9 (95 per cent confidence interval (CI): 3.9-20.2) and AOR = 1.6 (95 per cent CI: 1.4-1.8), respectively), as compared to 15-24 year-olds, and among those outdoors versus indoors during the tornado (AOR = 10.4 (95 per cent CI: 5.5-19.9) and AOR = 6.6 (95 per cent CI: 5.8-7.5), respectively). Females were 1.24 times (95 per cent CI: 1.15-1.33) more likely to be injured than males. Elevated risk of injury was significantly associated with structural damage to the house and tin construction materials. Seeking treatment was protective against death among the injured, odds ratio = 0.08 (95 per cent CI: 0.03-0.21). Further research is needed to develop injury prevention strategies and to address disparities in risk between age groups and between men and women.     

A qualitative examination of factors shaping high and low exposures to hazardous air pollutants among Hispanic households in Miami

Hispanic residents suffer disproportionately from exposure to toxic pollution hazards, but little is known about why some Hispanic residents live in high-risk neighbourhoods while others are protected from similar risks. This study uses comparative interview-based methods to further understanding of Hispanic people’s residential decision-making and their associated exposures to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in the Miami Metropolitan Statistical Area (Florida), which is home to one of the most diverse Hispanic populations in the U.S. We use 22 in-depth interviews conducted with Hispanic householders living at high and low risk to HAPs, selected from a larger representative phone survey of 650 local residents. For Hispanic households at high risk, economic constraints, family ties, desiring a central location, a sense of community, and comfort in a shared culture contributed to their residences in high risk locations. In contrast, protective factors for Hispanic households living at low risk included the desire to live in an ethnically diverse setting, the ease of finding service work, and preferring environmental amenities and exclusivity. Findings demonstrate that there are considerable differences in factors shaping residential decision-making of low- and high-risk Hispanic residents, but that all were influenced by economic, socio-cultural, and environmental considerations to varying degrees.     

Factors affecting degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) during pre-flotation conditioning

In general, plastics are exposed to different degrading agents in every procedure involved in their recovery from waste mixture and from subsequent recycling. In this study, two methods of pre-flotation conditioning were used to determine how these methods affect the general properties of the pre-conditioned PET particles to be recovered from the PET-PVC mixture. The first method comprised the conditioning of PET samples using an alkaline solution of nonionic surfactant (Triton X-100) based on the patent by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The second method, developed in this study, was a conditioning process which used an alkali-less solution of the same nonionic surfactant (Triton X-100) used in the first method. The following analytical methods were used to characterize properties of the pre-conditioned PET samples that were correlated to relative degradation of the samples: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), for thermal behavior of the samples; FT-IR spectroscopy, for functional groups present in the samples; and, Pohl’s method, for carboxyl end-group concentration count. Results show that in addition to water the presence of NaOH in the conditioning solution contributes to the further degradation of the polymer.