Toward understanding the human dimensions of the rapidly changing arctic system: insights and approaches from five HARC projects

Human dimensions research focuses on the interrelationships between humans and the environment. To date, human dimensions research in arctic regions has concentrated primarily on local events and contexts. As such, it complements analysis elsewhere of adaptation and sustainable development within broad institutional, social, and environmental contexts. This paper reviews five projects from the Human Dimensions of the Arctic System (HARC) initiative, established by the US National Science Foundation in 1997. Common themes and findings are highlighted: climatic variations or change affect societies through interactions with human activities; population dynamics provide key quantitative indicators of social impacts and well being; and specific impacts and responses are the result of complex, context-sensitive interactions. Congruent approaches to the challenges of interdisciplinary research are also identified: multivariate time plots aid the integration of data, retrospective and prospective studies are part of a continuum and reinforce one another, comparative studies are essential for understanding general principles of human dimensions, and arctic residents can play a vital role in research and action.     

Effects of fishing rope strength on the severity of large whale entanglements

Entanglement in fixed fishing gear affects whales worldwide. In the United States, deaths of North Atlantic right (Eubalaena glacialis) and humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) have exceeded management limits for decades. We examined live and dead whales entangled in fishing gear along the U.S. East Coast and the Canadian Maritimes from 1994 to 2010. We recorded whale species, age, and injury severity and determined rope polymer type, breaking strength, and diameter of the fishing gear. For the 132 retrieved ropes from 70 cases, tested breaking strength range was 0.80–39.63 kN (kiloNewtons) and the mean was 11.64 kN (SD 8.29), which is 26% lower than strength at manufacture (range 2.89–53.38 kN, mean = 15.70 kN [9.89]). Median rope diameter was 9.5 mm. Right and humpback whales were found in ropes with significantly stronger breaking strengths at time of manufacture than minke whales (Balaenoptera acuturostrata) (19.30, 17.13, and 10.47 mean kN, respectively). Adult right whales were found in stronger ropes (mean 34.09 kN) than juvenile right whales (mean 15.33 kN) and than all humpback whale age classes (mean 17.37 kN). For right whales, severity of injuries increased since the mid 1980s, possibly due to changes in rope manufacturing in the mid 1990s that resulted in production of stronger ropes at the same diameter. Our results suggest that broad adoption of ropes with breaking strengths of ≤7.56 kN (≤1700 lbsf) could reduce the number of life‐threatening entanglements for large whales by at least 72%, and yet could provide sufficient strength to withstand the routine forces involved in many fishing operations. A reduction of this magnitude would achieve nearly all the mitigation legally required for U.S. stocks of North Atlantic right and humpback whales. Ropes with reduced breaking strength should be developed and tested to determine the feasibility of their use in a variety of fisheries.     

Attraction of two larval parasitoids with varying degree of host specificity to single components and a binary mixture of host-related plant volatiles

As an indirect defense to herbivore attack, plants release many types of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which guide parasitoids to their herbivore hosts. In the present study, VOCs were categorized as those released passively from undamaged plants and herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs). HIPVs were further categorized into: (1) volatiles released by fresh damage plants, and (2) volatiles released by old damage plants. We used as models, two parasitoids with different degree of host specificity, Microplitis croceipes (specialist) and Cotesia marginiventris (generalist), to address the evolutionary and mechanistic question of whether specialist and generalist parasitoids differ in their use of VOCs for host location. Both species are solitary larval endoparasitoids in the same family (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and are important parasitoids of caterpillar pests of cotton. Based on the results of previous studies, α-pinene, (Z)-3-hexenol, and (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate were selected as representatives of the different types of VOCs in cotton. The attraction of both parasitoid species to synthetic components and a binary mixture of the above VOCs was tested in four-choice olfactometer bioassays. Female M. croceipes showed the greatest attraction to the HIPVs while female C. marginiventris could not discriminate among the three VOCs. Conspecific males showed similar responses with a few exceptions. When presented with the choices; α-pinene, (Z)-3-hexenol and a binary mixture (50:50v/v) of the two compounds, the specialist showed the greatest attraction to the mixture. However, the mixture did not elicit such an additive effect on the attraction of the generalist. Overall response latency (time taken to choose VOCs) indicated species and sexual (in the specialist) differences. Using a simple model, this study provides a fundamental insight into odor preferences and discriminatory ability of the test parasitoids. The ecological significance and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Smart Growth in a Small Urban Setting: The challenges of building an acceptable solution

Smart growth policies direct development towards existing communities already served by roads, sewer systems and other infrastructure. The increased development in these communities in turn should enable them to benefit from a stronger tax-base, more efficient use of their schools and other public facilities, and the renewed economic vitality of their urban centres. These goals and objectives appear to complement and support the efforts of urban mayors to attract new property tax rateables and better-paying jobs, but they may conflict with the desires of residents to reduce densities and improve the quality of life. We use a visual GIS-based model to assist five small contiguous older suburbs individually and collectively to evaluate their current redevelopment plans and to understand the implications of their land-use decisions on the quality of life in their communities. By bringing them together as a group, and our raising broader redevelopment and impact issues, they have begun to rethink how these properties could be best used to meet the community's needs and to see them in the context of similar redevelopment plans within their mini-region. One of the changes emerging is a greater role for certain types of residential development and a concurrent reduction in the amount of commercial space being considered. The authors would like to thank the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for funding this project, the Somerset County Planning Board and mayors of the five towns for actively supporting and participating in the study and the Regional Planning Partnership for its co-operation and assistance in refining its GOZ model to promote regional planning from the bottom up. The authors accept full responsibility for the ideas and recommendations in this report.     

Reduction of Tobacco Smoking Health Risk Through an Appropriate Media Based Communication Strategy in Uganda

Abstract

The health impacts of tobacco consumption are well documented and have gained acceptance worldwide. Today, a substantial, preventable burden of tobacco attributable diseases exists in most countries, though in most of the cases, unknown. Smoking accounts for almost half of the deaths in middle age in some regions. In Uganda, translating findings into policy action is slow and involves several stakeholders. It will continue to require support from tobacco control campaign groups. This paper analyses secondary literature on tobacco smoking and later provides an appropriate medium based communication strategy that can be adopted to counteract the persuasive smoking evil adverts of tobacco companies as well as creating awareness among the population of the health impacts caused by smoking.     

A Vegetation-Based Method for Ecological Diagnosis of Riverine Wetlands

/ The management of riverine wetlands, recognized as a major component of biodiversity in fluvial hydrosystems, is problematic. Preservation or restoration of such ecosystems requires a method to assess the major ecological processes operating in the wetlands, the sustainability of the aquatic stage, and the restoration potential of each riverine wetland. We propose a method of diagnosis based on aquatic macrophytes and helophytes. Plant communities are used because they are easy to survey and provide information about (1) the origin of a water supply (i.e., groundwater, seepage, or surface river water) and its nutrient content, (2) effects of flood disturbances, and (3) terrestrialization processes. The novelty of the method is that, in contrast to available typologies, it is based on the interference of gradients resulting from several processes, which makes it possible to predict wetland sustainability and restoration potential. These predictions result from knowledge of the processes involved in terrestrialization, i.e., the influence of flood disturbances, occurrence of groundwater supplies, trophic degree, and water permanency of the habitat during a yearly cycle. The method is demonstrated on five different river systems.     

Perfluoroalkyl chemicals in vacuum cleaner dust from 39 Wisconsin homes

Perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFCs) have been used as surfactants and stain repellants in a variety of consumer products for more than 50 years and there is growing concern regarding their persistence and toxicity. Human exposure to these chemicals is essentially universal in North America and researchers have linked them to a variety of health problems ranging from higher rates of cancer, to developmental and reproductive problems, and higher cholesterol levels. Major exposure pathways are food and water ingestion, dust ingestion via hand to mouth transfer. In an effort to assess residential exposure, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services tested vacuum cleaner contents from thirty-nine homes for 16 perflouroalkyl chemicals. PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, PFHpA and PFNA were found in all of the vacuum dust samples and dust from eight homes contained all 16 PFCs included in our analysis. The most commonly detected compounds were perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) which together made up 70% of the total PFC residues in dust from these homes. Summed PFC concentrations in these dust samples ranged from 70 to 2513 ng/g (median 280 ng/g). Our investigation suggests that these chemicals may be ubiquitous contaminants in US homes.     

Effects of chemical stress and food limitation on the energy reserves and growth of turbot,Scophthalmus maximus

The objective of the present study is to examine the growth and energetic performance of juvenile turbot after exposure to contaminated sediment and during the subsequent recovery period with or without food limitation. We designed a two-step experiment by first exposing juvenile turbot to harbour sediment for 26 days and then transferring them to clean sea water with different frequencies of feeding for 35 days. Without food limitation, fish previously exposed to contaminated sediment compensated for weight, length and lipid reserve losses; we did not record any differences in size, Fulton’s K condition index and triacylglycerol/sterol (TAG/ST) ratio after the 35-day depuration period compared to the reference fish. This result could be related to the compensatory growth mechanism observed in a wide range of fish species following a period of growth depression. With food limitation during the 35-day depuration period, recovery growth was not sufficient to restore length and weight values similar to the reference fish. Moreover, turbot previously exposed to contaminated sediment and subsequently fed twice or once a week exhibited extremely low TAG/ST ratios, but the reference fish submitted to the same restrictive feeding conditions did not. This study indicates that juvenile fish affected by chemical pollution can improve their biological performance if pollution events are followed by a period of abundant food. However, if pollution events occur during periods of food scarcity, e.g. in winter, storage of energy reserves will be compromised.