Managers of public lands are charged with protecting some of our most important natural resources and ecosystems, while providing for their use and enjoyment by visitors. Almost one million visitors entered Yellowstone National Park by motorized means on snowmobiles (87%) or snow coaches (13%) during 1992-2003. Most vehicles toured the central portion of the park where bison (Bison bison) and elk (Cervus elaphus) concentrate in geothermal areas. We sampled >6500 interactions between groups of these species and groups of snowmobiles and snow coaches (collectively, OSV, over-snow vehicles) during five winters (1999-2000, 2002-2004). Multinomial logits models were used to identify conditions leading to behavioral responses. Elk responded three times as often (52%) as bison (19%) during interactions with groups of snowmobiles and snow coaches due to increased vigilance responses (elk, 44%; bison, 10%). However, the frequency of higher-intensity movement responses by bison and elk were similar (6-7% travel, 1-2% flight, <1% defense) and relatively low compared to other studies of ungulates and snowmobile disturbance. The likelihood of active responses by bison and elk increased significantly if animals were on or near roads, groups were smaller, or humans approached. The likelihood of an active response by bison decreased within winters having the largest visitation, suggesting some habituation to snowmobiles and snow coaches. There was no evidence that snowmobile use during the past 35 years affected the population dynamics or demography of bison or elk. Thus, we suggest that regulations restricting levels and travel routes of over-snow vehicles (OSVs) were effective at reducing disturbances to bison and elk below a level that would cause measurable fitness effects. We recommend park managers consider maintaining OSV traffic levels at or below those observed during our study. Regardless, differing interpretations of the behavioral and physiological response data will continue to exist because of the diverse values and beliefs of the many constituencies of Yellowstone. 相似文献
Bushfires, prescribed burns, and residential wood burning are significant sources of fine particles (aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm; PM2.5) affecting the health and well-being of many communities. Despite the lack of evidence, a common public health recommendation is to remain indoors, assuming that the home provides a protective barrier against ambient PM2.5. The study aimed to assess to what extent houses provide protection against peak concentrations of outdoor PM2.5 and whether remaining indoors is an effective way of reducing exposure to PM2.5. The effectiveness of this strategy was evaluated by conducting simultaneous week-long indoor and outdoor measurements of PM2.5 at 21 residences in regional areas of Victoria, Australia. During smoke plume events, remaining indoors protected residents from peak outdoor PM2.5 concentrations, but the level of protection was highly variable, ranging from 12% to 76%. Housing stock (e.g., age of the house) and ventilation (e.g., having windows/doors open or closed) played a significant role in the infiltration of outdoor PM2.5 indoors. The results also showed that leaving windows and doors closed once the smoke plume abates trapped PM2.5 indoors and increased indoor exposure to PM2.5. Furthermore, for approximately 50% of households, indoor sources such as cooking activities, smoking, and burning candles or incense contributed significantly to indoor PM2.5.
Implications: Smoke from biomass burning sources can significantly impact on communities. Remaining indoors with windows and doors closed is a common recommendation by health authorities to minimize exposures to peak concentrations of fine particles during smoke plume events. Findings from this study have shown that the protection from fine particles in biomass burning smoke is highly variable among houses, with information on housing age and ventilation status providing an approximate assessment on the protection of a house. Leaving windows closed once a smoke plume abates traps particles indoors and increases exposures. 相似文献
Wrasses are abundant reef fishes and the second most speciose marine fish family, yet little is known of their larval swimming
abilities. In August 2010 at Moorea, Society Islands, we measured swimming ability (critical speed, Ucrit) of 80 settlement-stage
larvae (11–17 mm) of 5 labrid species (Thalassoma quinquevittatum [n = 67], Novaculichthys taeniourus [n = 6], Coris aygula [n = 5], Halichoeres trimaculatus [n = 1] and H. hortulanus [n = 1]) and 33 new recruits of T. quinquevittatum. Median (mdn) larval Ucrit was 7.6–12.5 cm s−1. In T. quinquevittatum (n = 67), larvae of 12.5–14.5 mm swam faster (mdn 16.9 cm s−1) than smaller or larger larvae (mdn 3.9 and 3.2 cm s−1, respectively). Labrid larvae Ucrit is similar to that of other similar-sized tropical larvae, so labrids and species with
comparable settlement sizes should have similar abilities to influence dispersal. Ucrit of T. quinquevittatum recruits decreased to 47–56% of larval Ucrit in 2 days, implying rapid physiological changes at settlement. 相似文献
Policy development related to marine protected areas (MPAs) occurs at three levels: international, national, and local. Recent
developments with MPAs highlight their close links to broader national-level park and protected area policies, which in turn
take their lead from initiatives and recommendations initiated, and increasingly dictated, by international organizations.
Local-level inputs to MPA policies have tended to be limited to the immediate local area context despite the vital importance
of community-level support and knowledge in meeting broader regional goals of marine conservation tied to networked MPAs.
In this paper, we highlight the mechanisms to facilitate cooperation and communication among international, national, and
local levels of policy and practice needed to address this deficit. These include the creation of a social network of institutions
that both internationalizes and localizes MPA policy development, facilitating a more meaningful engagement of local people
through their legitimate participation in national and international MPA gatherings. In addition, mechanisms to formalize
partnerships, feedback information, resolve conflicts, and report accountabilities are needed. The success of the latter will
depend on the level of recognition and support given to community-level institutions as opposed to the suite of technical
training and short-term project-based interventions that have characterized local support over recent decades. 相似文献
In recent times, environmental safety has been on priority in the development of new materials leading to a recycling and
reuse approach to conserve the materials resources. This has resulted in more focus on the application of natural materials
such as lignocellulosic fibers. This paper presents the characterization of continuous and aligned jute fabrics obtained from
new and used sacks as well as the preparation and characterization of their composites incorporated into recycled polyethylene
or as isolated pieces up to 40 wt%. These environmentally friendly composites were subjected to bend test and the fracture
surface analyzed by SEM. The fabric from new sacks showed greater damage tolerance than that from the used sacks. The flexural
stress increased steadily with increasing used fabric content up to 30 wt%, which is explained using fractographic studies
on ruptured specimens. Used jute fabric composites are found to be viable alternative materials for low strength conventional
materials based on cost–performance comparison with conventional materials. 相似文献
Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) pose a significant safety and conservation concern in areas where high-traffic roads are
situated adjacent to wildlife habitat. Improving transportation safety, accurately planning highway mitigation, and identifying
key habitat linkage areas may all depend on the quality of WVC data collection. Two common approaches to describe the location
of WVCs are spatially accurate data derived from global positioning systems (GPS) or vehicle odometer measurements and less
accurate road-marker data derived from reference points (e.g., mile-markers or landmarks) along the roadside. In addition,
there are two common variable types used to predict WVC locations: (1) field-derived, site-specific measurements and (2) geographic
information system (GIS)-derived information. It is unclear whether these different approaches produce similar results when
attempting to identify and explain the location of WVCs. Our first objective was to determine and compare the spatial error
found in road-marker data (in our case the closest mile-marker) and landmark-referenced data. Our second objective was to
evaluate the performance of models explaining high- and low-probability WVC locations, using congruent, spatially accurate
(<3-m) and road-marker (<800-m) response variables in combination with field- and GIS-derived explanatory variables. Our WVC
data sets were comprised of ungulate collisions and were located along five major roads in the central Canadian Rocky Mountains.
We found that spatial error (mean ± SD) was higher for WVC data referenced to nearby landmarks (516 ± 808 m) than for data
referenced to the closest mile-marker data (401 ± 219 m). The top-performing model using the spatially accurate WVC locations
contained all explanatory variable types, whereas GIS-derived variables were only influential in the best road-marker model
and the spatially accurate reduced model. Our study showed that spatial error and sample size, using road-marker data for
ungulate species, are important to consider for model output interpretation, which will impact the appropriate scale on which
to apply modeling results. Using road-marker references <1.6 km or GPS-derived data locations may represent an optimal compromise
between data acquisition costs and analytical performance.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. 相似文献
Although theorists have suggested that aquatic environments or “blue space” might have particular restorative potential, to date there is little systematic empirical research on this issue. Indeed the presence of water has, unintentionally, been a confounding factor in research comparing people’s reactions to built and natural environments. Whereas aquatic features (rivers, lakes, coasts) are frequently present in visual stimuli representing natural environments they are rarely incorporated in stimuli portraying built environments. As many towns are, for good reason, located near water this is a potentially significant oversight. The current research collated a set of 120 photographs of natural and built scenes, half of which contained “aquatic” elements. Proportions of “aquatic”/“green”/“built” environments in each scene (e.g. 1/3rd, 2/3rds) were also standardised. Two studies investigated preferences (attractiveness, willingness to visit and willingness to pay for a hotel room with the view), affect and perceived restorativeness ratings for these photographs. As predicted, both natural and built scenes containing water were associated with higher preferences, greater positive affect and higher perceived restorativeness than those without water. Effect sizes were consistently large. Intriguingly, images of “built” environments containing water were generally rated just as positively as natural “green” space. We propose a number of avenues for further research including exploration of the mechanisms underlying these effects. 相似文献