Arctic Lake Physical Processes and Regimes with Implications for Winter Water Availability and Management in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska

Lakes are dominant landforms in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPRA) as well as important social and ecological resources. Of recent importance is the management of these freshwater ecosystems because lakes deeper than maximum ice thickness provide an important and often sole source of liquid water for aquatic biota, villages, and industry during winter. To better understand seasonal and annual hydrodynamics in the context of lake morphometry, we analyzed lakes in two adjacent areas where winter water use is expected to increase in the near future because of industrial expansion. Landsat Thematic Mapper and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus imagery acquired between 1985 and 2007 were analyzed and compared with climate data to understand interannual variability. Measured changes in lake area extent varied by 0.6% and were significantly correlated to total precipitation in the preceding 12 months (p < 0.05). Using this relation, the modeled lake area extent from 1985 to 2007 showed no long-term trends. In addition, high-resolution aerial photography, bathymetric surveys, water-level monitoring, and lake-ice thickness measurements and growth models were used to better understand seasonal hydrodynamics, surface area-to-volume relations, winter water availability, and more permanent changes related to geomorphic change. Together, these results describe how lakes vary seasonally and annually in two critical areas of the NPRA and provide simple models to help better predict variation in lake-water supply. Our findings suggest that both overestimation and underestimation of actual available winter water volume may occur regularly, and this understanding may help better inform management strategies as future resource use expands in the NPRA.     

Vulnerability of Rehabilitated Agricultural Production Systems to Invasion by Nontarget Plant Species

Vast areas of arable land have been retired from crop production and “rehabilitated” to improved system states through landowner incentive programs in the United States (e.g., Conservation and Wetland Reserve Programs), as well as Europe (i.e., Agri-Environment Schemes). Our review of studies conducted on invasion of rehabilitated agricultural production systems by nontarget species elucidates several factors that may increase the vulnerability of these systems to invasion. These systems often exist in highly fragmented and agriculturally dominated landscapes, where propagule sources of target species for colonization may be limited, and are established under conditions where legacies of past disturbance persist and prevent target species from persisting. Furthermore, rehabilitation approaches often do not include or successfully attain all target species or historical ecological processes (e.g., hydrology, grazing, and/or fire cycles) key to resisting invasion. Uncertainty surrounds ways in which nontarget species may compromise long term goals of improving biodiversity and ecosystem services through rehabilitation efforts on former agricultural production lands. This review demonstrates that more studies are needed on the extent and ecological impacts of nontarget species as related to the goals of rehabilitation efforts to secure current and future environmental benefits arising from this widespread conservation practice.     

Monitoring Environmental Impact in the Upper Sonoran Lifestyle: A New Tool for Rapid Ecological Assessment

Characterized by expensive housing, high socioeconomic status, and topographic relief, Upper Sonoran Lifestyle communities are found primarily along the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area. Communities like these sprawl into the wildlands in the United States Southwest, creating a distinct urban fringe. This article, through locational comparison, introduces and evaluates a new field assessment tool for monitoring anthropogenic impact on soil–vegetation interactions along the well-maintained multi-use recreational trails in Upper Sonoran Lifestyle region. Comparing data from randomly selected transects along other multi-use trails with data from a control site revealed three key indicators of anthropogenic disturbances on soil–vegetation interactions: soil disturbance, vegetation disturbance, and vegetation density. Soil and vegetation disturbance displayed an average distance decay exponent factor of −0.60, while vegetation density displayed a reverse decay average of 0.60. Other important indicators of disturbance included vegetation type, biological soil crusts, and soil bulk density. The predictive ability of this new field tool enhances its applicability, offering a powerful rapid ecological assessment method for monitoring long-term anthropogenic impact in the Upper Sonoran Lifestyle, and other sprawling cities along the WUI.     

Garnering input for recycling communication strategies at a Big Ten University

With increasing environmental challenges confronting our planet, colleges and universities are trying different approaches for minimizing their adverse environmental impacts. Among the approaches being used to revitalize campus sustainability efforts, new waste management strategies have included attempts to improve campus-recycling programs. This paper presents select findings from a comprehensive study at a large, Tier I university aimed at, among other things, informing university administration and decision makers working on the planning and implementation of a new campus-wide recycling facility and program. The researchers used a mixed-method approach to help them develop an understanding of the campus community's (1) perceived barriers to recycling, (2) recycling knowledge, (3) program preferences, and (4) environmental attitudes. The results from a web-based survey (n = 3896, RR1 = 24.9%) suggest, communication efforts for recycling programming should focus more on messages concerning what, how, and where to recycle rather than messages on why to recycle. Furthermore, the results suggest recycling-related publicity approaches should differentiate their mode and content for different segments of the community.     

Integrating Landscape Analysis and Planning: A Multi-Scale Approach for Oriented Management of Tourist Recreation

Tourism and landscape are interdependent concepts. Nature- and culture-based tourism are now quite well developed activities and can constitute an excellent way of exploiting the natural resources of certain areas, and should therefore be considered as key objectives in landscape planning and management in a growing number of countries. All of this calls for careful evaluation of the effects of tourism on the territory. This article focuses on an integrated spatial method for landscape analysis aimed at quantifying the relationship between preferences of visitors and landscape features. The spatial expression of the model relating types of leisure and recreational preferences to the potential capacity of the landscape to meet them involves a set of maps showing degrees of potential visitor satisfaction. The method constitutes a useful tool for the design of tourism planning and management strategies, with landscape conservation as a reference.     

Impact of European legislation on marketed pesticides — A view from the standpoint of health impact assessment studies

The very significant impact of European legislation (Directive 91/414/EEC) on the authorization of plant protection products is reviewed herein, which has resulted in withdrawal of 704 active substances (AS) out of 889 assessed so far. The list of currently approved 276 AS includes 194 AS “existing” in the market before 1993 and 82 “new” AS introduced during the last 15 years. Results of toxicity characterization of the approved AS are also summarized, utilizing several well-known databases. Although significant data gaps exist for a rather large part of the approved AS, it is found that 84 AS are positive for at least one health effect (after chronic and/or acute exposure) including carcinogenicity, reproductive and neuro-developmental disorders, as well as endocrine disruption. The toxicity characterization results of this study are compared to those of recent assessments by other organizations (KemI, the Swedish Chemicals Agency, and the Pesticide Safety Directorate of the UK), where interpretation and use is made of AS “cut-off” criteria foreseen in new EU legislation. These studies report a comparatively smaller AS number with positive toxicity characterization. The possibility of some additional AS withdrawal in the near future, combined with the rather small rate of new AS introduction (approx. 5 per year) suggest that the list of approved AS over the next 10–15 years may not change very drastically. Consideration of the above trends is necessary and instructive in evaluating results of existing health impact assessment (HIA) studies, as well as in planning new ones. Due to the very drastic change in the number and type of marketed AS, that took place within the past 8–9 years, it is suggested that new HIA studies (based on epidemiological data after year 2000) should focus on a rather short time frame and, therefore, on appropriate cohort groups, e.g. young children. For the same reason, results of epidemiological studies of the past (involving banned AS) should be carefully interpreted and used with caution.     

Prediction of SVOC vegetation and atmospheric concentrations using calculated deposition velocities

A simple modeling concept was previously applied to study air-foliage exchange of both polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) using field measurements. In this paper, the predictive capabilities of this framework were tested using an independent set of data collected at the same sampling location for a different time period. Firstly, atmospheric (particle-bound and gaseous phase) PBDE and PAH concentrations were used to predict their accumulation in spruce needles. Conversely, we used PBDE and PAH concentrations in vegetation to predict their atmospheric concentrations. In both cases, calculated and measured values showed good agreement, providing evidence that the developed framework and our derived deposition velocities can be used as a predictive tool for these two different classes of semi-volatile organic compounds.     

Common buzzards (Buteo buteo) bio-indicators of heavy metals pollution in Sicily (Italy)

The aim of this study was to evaluate the accumulation of toxic (As, Cd and Pb) and essential (Cu, Mn and Zn) metals in samples (feathers, liver, kidney, lung, intestine and muscle) of common buzzards (Buteo buteo) from Sicily, used as bio-indicators for monitoring environmental metals pollution. All samples of buzzards were collected at the “Recovery Center of Wild Fauna” of Palermo, through the Zooprophilactic Institute. The quantitative determinations of metals were carried out using an atomic absorbtion spectrophotometer (AAS). The results obtained showed the presence of metals in all samples analyzed. For toxic metals the highest levels of Pb and As were found in liver and those of Cd in kidney; for essential metals Zn levels were higher than Cu and Mn in all tissues analyzed. Significant differences are observed in metal levels between female and male and juvenile and adult bird samples.Highest metal levels found in liver, kidney and muscle can be considered indicative of chronic exposure to metals while the presence of metals in feathers can be consequential to storing and elimination processes. The results obtained suggest that common buzzards (Buteo buteo) may be very useful as bio-indicators for monitoring environmental pollution.     

Disposal of obsolete pesticides,the case of Ethiopia

Ethiopia has accumulated obsolete pesticide stocks since pesticides were first imported in the 1960s due to prolonged storage of pesticides, inappropriate storage conditions because of poor storage facilities, the lack of trained staff and lack of national legislation for pesticide registration and monitoring system of pesticide use in the country. The first pesticide inventory conducted in 1995 led by FAO in collaboration with the government of Ethiopia had identified about 426 tonnes of obsolete pesticides mainly on state-owned agricultural farms and held by the Ministry of Health. However, these stocks have increased to over 1500 tonnes (including 200 active ingredients) as found in a detailed inventory conducted in 1999. The stocks included organochlorines (258.3 tonnes), organophosphates (155.4 tonnes), carbamates (58.5 tonnes), coumarines (14.9 tonnes), inorganics (30.2 tonnes), others (257.2 tonnes), mixed pesticides (70.4 tonnes) and unknown pesticides (307.1 tonnes) including both liquid and solid state formulations. The obsolete organochlorine pesticides stocks were mostly pesticides such as chlordane, DDT, dieldrin and lindane that are banned or restricted in most countries. The highest amount of a single active ingredient found was the organophosphate insecticide pirimiphos methyl (172.1 tonnes). All these stocks were disposed of in the first phase of disposal in Finland (during 2000–2003) by the hazardous waste management company Ekokem at a cost of about US$ 4.44 million. Another 1000 tonnes of obsolete pesticides have been identified and are currently being eliminated in a second disposal phase at a total cost of US$ 8 135 500. Along with the disposal process, a number of activities are being implemented to prevent future pesticides accumulation. These activities include the development and enforcement of pesticide policy, the implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Integrated Vector Management (IVM), capacity building in terms of providing professional trainings, creating awareness among stakeholders on the environmental and human health hazard posed by obsolete pesticides as well as other actions to prevent their accumulation and enforcement of national legislations and policies related to pesticides use. However, pesticide use in the country is increasing. For instance, 12 years of pesticides import data (1996–2007) by the Ministry of Agriculture shows that 2973 tonnes of pesticides were imported between 1996–1998, 3670 tonnes between 1999–2001, 5079 tonnes between 2002–2004 and 8302 tonnes between 2005–2007. Moreover, 6 years of insecticide import data (1996/97–2001/02) by the Ministry of Health shows that around 919 tonnes of insecticides were imported between 1996/97–1997/98, 812 tonnes between 1998/99–1999/00 and 970 tonnes between 2000/01–2001/02 for malaria and other vector borne diseases control.     

Spatial distribution of uranium and thorium in the surface soil around proposed uranium mining site at Lambapur and its vertical profile in the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam

The understanding and evaluation of the possible interactions of various naturally occurring radionuclides in the world's third largest man-made dam, Nagarjuna Sagar located in Andhra Pradesh, India and built on river Krishna assumed significance with the finding of uranium deposits in locations near the dam. For the present work, surface soil samples from the mineralized area of Lambapur, Mallapuram, Peddagattu and sediment core samples from the Nagarjuna Sagar dam were analyzed for naturally occurring radionuclides namely uranium and thorium using gamma spectrometric technique. Also toxic elements lead and chromium were analysed by the Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (EDXRF) technique. Surface soil samples show a variation from 25 to 291 Bq/kg (2.02–23.5 mg/kg) for ²³⁸U and 32–311 Bq/kg (7.9–76.9 mg/kg) for ²³²Th. U/Th concentration ratio in surface soil samples ranged from 0.19 to 0.31 and was found comparable with the nation wise average of 0.26. The study of sediment core samples reflected higher U/Th concentration ratio of 0.30–0.33 in the bottom section of the core as compared to 0.22–0.25 in the upper section. The concentration ratio in the upper section of the core was similar to the ratio 0.23 found in the western Deccan Basalt region through which the river originates. A higher concentration of lead and chromium was observed in the upper section of the core compared to bottom section indicating the impact of river input on the geochemical character of dam sediment.