Incorporating geodiversity into conservation decisions

In a rapidly changing climate, conservation practitioners could better use geodiversity in a broad range of conservation decisions. We explored selected avenues through which this integration might improve decision making and organized them within the adaptive management cycle of assessment, planning, implementation, and monitoring. Geodiversity is seldom referenced in predominant environmental law and policy. With most natural resource agencies mandated to conserve certain categories of species, agency personnel are challenged to find ways to practically implement new directives aimed at coping with climate change while retaining their species‐centered mandate. Ecoregions and ecological classifications provide clear mechanisms to consider geodiversity in plans or decisions, the inclusion of which will help foster the resilience of conservation to climate change. Methods for biodiversity assessment, such as gap analysis, climate change vulnerability analysis, and ecological process modeling, can readily accommodate inclusion of a geophysical component. We adapted others’ approaches for characterizing landscapes along a continuum of climate change vulnerability for the biota they support from resistant, to resilient, to susceptible, and to sensitive and then summarized options for integrating geodiversity into planning in each landscape type. In landscapes that are relatively resistant to climate change, options exist to fully represent geodiversity while ensuring that dynamic ecological processes can change over time. In more susceptible landscapes, strategies aiming to maintain or restore ecosystem resilience and connectivity are paramount. Implementing actions on the ground requires understanding of geophysical constraints on species and an increasingly nimble approach to establishing management and restoration goals. Because decisions that are implemented today will be revisited and amended into the future, increasingly sophisticated forms of monitoring and adaptation will be required to ensure that conservation efforts fully consider the value of geodiversity for supporting biodiversity in the face of a changing climate.     

Method development and implementation for co-planar polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

The Emission Measurement Center (EMC) in the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards was directed to conduct an emissions test program at a sewage sludge incinerator in support of a Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standard. One pollutant category of concern at these facilities was polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. An objective of the test program was to measure co-planar PCBs in the incinerator emissions, the sewage sludge introduced to the incinerator, and the scrubber water effluent used in controlling the incinerator emissions. Co-planar PCB congeners are those having four or more chlorine atoms with only a few substitutions in the ortho positions, i.e. positions designated 2, 2', 6, and 6'. Thirteen PCB compounds are sometimes referred to as the "WHO PCBs," because the World Health Organization (WHO) has derived toxic equivalency factors for these congeners. Studies have shown that these dioxin-like compounds can react with the aryl hydrocarbon receptor. This same reaction is believed to initiate adverse health effects for dioxin and furan congeners. In order to conduct the co-planer PCB testing, the EMC had to develop analytical methods that could measure the 13 co-planar PCBs. The purpose of the test program was to develop, evaluate, and implement analytical test methods capable of measuring co-planar PCBs in three matrices: incinerator stack gases, sewage sludge, and scrubber water effluents. The paper summarizes the initial development work that was performed in preparation of analytical test protocols that could measure co-planar PCBs in air, water, and sludge matrices. Following the method development, a MACT emissions test program was conducted at a sewage sludge facility in July 1999 and these data are also summarized in the paper.     

A Process for Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on New Developments

The impacts of climate change as described by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are accepted as providing the most probable future. A case-study describes the problems that maritime local authorities will need to address in the near future. These are classified as being part of the local authority's responsibilities either as the owner and manager of building assets or as the planning and building control authority. A process called climatic impact assessment is described, which all future built developments should be required to carry out as part of the planning process to approve the development.     

Designing for Air Pollution Control

This paper was one of several presented at the Workshop on Air Pollution Control in Portland, Oregon, on May 6, 1968. The Workshop was sponsored by the Manufacturing Chemists Association and the Chemical Industry Council of the Pacific Northwest in cooperation with the Association of Oregon Industries, Association of Washington Industries, and the Environmental Committee of the Portland Chamber of Commerce. While many of the papers were of localized interest, this paper speaks to anyone designing air pollution control systems.