Long-Term Effects of Hurricane Andrew: Revisiting Mental Health Indicators

Two population-based surveys of South Dade County, Florida, were conducted after Hurricane Andrew to compare hurricane-related symptoms of mental distress and describe the impact of mental health outreach teams. Households were selected by three-stage cluster sampling and findings from the two surveys, 13 months apart, were compared. Response rates were 75 per cent and 84 per cent. The prevalence of symptoms of mental distress decreased over time. However, in the households contacted by the teams (25 per cent of sample), the prevalence of symptoms (50 per cent) did not differ from households not contacted (43 per cent). Households contacted by teams that reported symptoms were just as likely to have been referred for help by the teams (72 per cent) as those without symptoms (68 per cent). Households reporting symptoms were equally likely to get counselling regardless of whether the teams visited. Mental health teams had no significant impact on mental health symptoms or the use of mental health services. Alternative approaches to mental health outreach teams need to be explored.     

Economic Growth and Marine Biodiversity: Influence of Human Social Structure on Decline of Marine Trophic Levels

Abstract:  We assessed the effects of economic growth, urbanization, and human population size on marine biodiversity. We used the mean trophic level (MTL) of marine catch as an indicator of marine biodiversity and conducted cross-national time-series analyses (1960–2003) of 102 nations to investigate human social influences on fish catch and trends in MTL. We constructed path models to examine direct and indirect effects relating to marine catch and MTL. Nations' MTLs declined with increased economic growth, increased urbanization, and increased population size, in part because of associated increased catch. These findings contradict the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis, which claims that economic modernization will reduce human impact on the environment. To make informed decisions on issues of marine resource management, policy makers, nonprofit entities, and professional societies must recognize the need to include social analyses in overall conservation-research strategies. The challenge is to utilize the socioeconomic and ecological research in the service of a comprehensive marine-conservation movement.     

Potential for Advanced Technology to Improve Air Quality and Human Health in Shanghai

/ Air quality in most Asian cities is poor and getting worse. It will soon become impossible to sustain population, economic, and industrial growth without severe deterioration of the atmospheric environment. This paper addresses the city of Shanghai, the air-quality problems it faces over the next 30 years, and the potential of advanced technology to alleviate these problems. Population, energy consumption, and emission profiles are developed for the city at 0.1 degrees x 0.1 degrees resolution and extrapolated from 1990 to 2020 using sector-specific economic growth factors. Within the context of the RAINS-Asia model, eight technology scenarios are examined for their effects on ambient concentrations of sulfur dioxide and sulfate and their emission control costs. Without new control measures, it is projected that the number of people exposed to sulfur dioxide concentrations in excess of guidelines established by the World Health Organization will rise from 650,000 in 1990 to more than 14 million in 2020. It is apparent that efforts to reduce emissions are likely to have significant health benefits, measured in terms of the cost of reducing the number of people exposed to concentrations in excess of the guidelines ($10-50 annually per person protected). Focusing efforts on the control of new coal-fired power plants and industrial facilities has the greatest benefit. However, none of the scenarios examined is alone capable of arresting the increases in emissions, concentrations, and population exposure. It is concluded that combinations of stringent scenarios in several sectors will be necessary to stabilize the situation, at a potential cost of $500 million annually by the year 2020. KEY WORDS: Coal; China; Shanghai; Sulfur dioxide; Air quality; Health effects     

A Quantitative Method for Estimating Probable Public Costs of Hurricanes

/ A method is presented for estimating probable public costs resulting from damage caused by hurricanes, measured as local government expenditures approved for reimbursement under the Stafford Act Section 406 Public Assistance Program. The method employs a multivariate model developed through multiple regression analysis of an array of independent variables that measure meteorological, socioeconomic, and physical conditions related to the landfall of hurricanes within a local government jurisdiction. From the regression analysis we chose a log-log (base 10) model that explains 74% of the variance in the expenditure data using population and wind speed as predictors. We illustrate application of the method for a local jurisdiction-Lee County, Florida, USA. The results show that potential public costs range from $4.7 million for a category 1 hurricane with winds of 137 kilometers per hour (85 miles per hour) to $130 million for a category 5 hurricane with winds of 265 kilometers per hour (165 miles per hour). Based on these figures, we estimate expected annual public costs of $2.3 million. These cost estimates: (1) provide useful guidance for anticipating the magnitude of the federal, state, and local expenditures that would be required for the array of possible hurricanes that could affect that jurisdiction; (2) allow policy makers to assess the implications of alternative federal and state policies for providing public assistance to jurisdictions that experience hurricane damage; and (3) provide information needed to develop a contingency fund or other financial mechanism for assuring that the community has sufficient funds available to meet its obligations. KEY WORDS: Hurricane; Public costs; Local government; Disaster recovery; Disaster response; Florida; Stafford Act     

Development of a Natural Practice to Adapt Conservation Goals to Global Change

Conservation goals at the start of the 21st century reflect a combination of contrasting ideas. Ideal nature is something that is historically intact but also futuristically flexible. Ideal nature is independent from humans, but also, because of the pervasiveness of human impacts, only able to reach expression through human management. These tensions emerge in current management rationales because scientists and managers are struggling to accommodate old and new scientific and cultural thinking, while also maintaining legal mandates from the past and commitments to preservation of individual species in particular places under the stresses of global change. Common management goals (such as integrity, wilderness, resilience), whether they are forward looking and focused on sustainability and change, or backward looking and focused on the persistence and restoration of historic states, tend to create essentialisms about how ecosystems should be. These essentialisms limit the options of managers to accommodate the dynamic, and often novel, response of ecosystems to global change. Essentialisms emerge because there is a tight conceptual coupling of place and historical species composition as an indicator of naturalness (e.g., normal, healthy, independent from humans). Given that change is increasingly the norm and ecosystems evolve in response, the focus on idealized ecosystem states is increasingly unwise and unattainable. To provide more open‐ended goals, we propose greater attention be paid to the characteristics of management intervention. We suggest that the way we interact with other species in management and the extent to which those interactions reflect the interactions among other biotic organisms, and also reflect our conservation virtues (e.g., humility, respect), influences our ability to cultivate naturalness on the landscape. We call this goal a natural practice (NP) and propose it as a framework for prioritizing and formulating how, when, and where to intervene in this period of rapid change. Desarrollo de una Práctica Natural para Adaptar Objetivos de Conservación al Cambio Global     

Achieving Open Access to Conservation Science

Conservation science is a crisis discipline in which the results of scientific enquiry must be made available quickly to those implementing management. We assessed the extent to which scientific research published since the year 2000 in 20 conservation science journals is publicly available. Of the 19,207 papers published, 1,667 (8.68%) are freely downloadable from an official repository. Moreover, only 938 papers (4.88%) meet the standard definition of open access in which material can be freely reused providing attribution to the authors is given. This compares poorly with a comparable set of 20 evolutionary biology journals, where 31.93% of papers are freely downloadable and 7.49% are open access. Seventeen of the 20 conservation journals offer an open access option, but fewer than 5% of the papers are available through open access. The cost of accessing the full body of conservation science runs into tens of thousands of dollars per year for institutional subscribers, and many conservation practitioners cannot access pay‐per‐view science through their workplace. However, important initiatives such as Research4Life are making science available to organizations in developing countries. We urge authors of conservation science to pay for open access on a per‐article basis or to choose publication in open access journals, taking care to ensure the license allows reuse for any purpose providing attribution is given. Currently, it would cost $51 million to make all conservation science published since 2000 freely available by paying the open access fees currently levied to authors. Publishers of conservation journals might consider more cost effective models for open access and conservation‐oriented organizations running journals could consider a broader range of options for open access to nonmembers such as sponsorship of open access via membership fees. Obtención de Acceso Abierto a la Ciencia de la Conservación     

Responses of Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) to Removal of Introduced Pacific Rats from Islands

Abstract:  Invasive mammalian predators such as rats are now widespread on islands, but hypotheses about their effects have rarely been tested. Circumstantial evidence from New Zealand indicates that, when introduced to islands, Pacific rats ( Rattus exulans ) have negative effects on endemic plants, invertebrates, birds, and reptiles, including the tuatara ( Sphenodon punctatus ). We tested the effects of Pacific rats on tuatara by comparing the demographic structure and body condition of tuatara populations on three islands before and after removal of rats and on a fourth island where rats remained. In the presence of rats, juvenile tuatara constituted on average 0–5% of the sample tuatara populations. When Pacific rats were removed after at least 200 years' occupancy, the proportion of juvenile tuatara increased 3.5- to 17-fold and body condition of adult males and females also improved (sometimes dramatically). We predict that, unless Pacific rats are removed from Taranga Island, the tuatara population will collapse because of low population density and the lack of juvenile recruitment. Our results demonstrate that when invasive species exert subtle effects on recruitment and body condition, the effects on populations of long-lived endemic species may only become apparent long after the invasion.     

The Role of Botanic Gardens in the Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration

Abstract: Many of the skills and resources associated with botanic gardens and arboreta, including plant taxonomy, horticulture, and seed bank management, are fundamental to ecological restoration efforts, yet few of the world's botanic gardens are involved in the science or practice of restoration. Thus, we examined the potential role of botanic gardens in these emerging fields. We believe a reorientation of certain existing institutional strengths, such as plant‐based research and knowledge transfer, would enable many more botanic gardens worldwide to provide effective science‐based support to restoration efforts. We recommend botanic gardens widen research to include ecosystems as well as species, increase involvement in practical restoration projects and training practitioners, and serve as information hubs for data archiving and exchange.