The farmer as a landscape steward: Comparing local understandings of landscape stewardship,landscape values,and land management actions

We develop a landscape stewardship classification which distinguishes between farmers’ understanding of landscape stewardship, their landscape values, and land management actions. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with small-holder (<5 acres), medium-holders (5–100 acres), and large-holders (>100 acres) in South-West Devon, UK. Thematic analysis revealed four types of stewardship understandings: (1) an environmental frame which emphasized the farmers’ role in conserving or restoring wildlife; (2) a primary production frame which emphasized the farmers’ role in taking care of primary production assets; (3) a holistic frame focusing on farmers’ role as a conservationist, primary producer, and manager of a range of landscape values, and; (4) an instrumental frame focusing on the financial benefits associated with compliance with agri-environmental schemes. We compare the landscape values and land management actions that emerged across stewardship types, and discuss the global implications of the landscape stewardship classification for the engagement of farmers in landscape management.     

A framework for understanding climate change impacts on coral reef social–ecological systems

Corals and coral-associated species are highly vulnerable to the emerging effects of global climate change. The widespread degradation of coral reefs, which will be accelerated by climate change, jeopardizes the goods and services that tropical nations derive from reef ecosystems. However, climate change impacts to reef social–ecological systems can also be bi-directional. For example, some climate impacts, such as storms and sea level rise, can directly impact societies, with repercussions for how they interact with the environment. This study identifies the multiple impact pathways within coral reef social–ecological systems arising from four key climatic drivers: increased sea surface temperature, severe tropical storms, sea level rise and ocean acidification. We develop a novel framework for investigating climate change impacts in social–ecological systems, which helps to highlight the diverse impacts that must be considered in order to develop a more complete understanding of the impacts of climate change, as well as developing appropriate management actions to mitigate climate change impacts on coral reef and people.     

Rapid measurement of emissions from military aircraft turbine engines by downstream extractive sampling of aircraft on the ground: Results for C-130 and F-15 aircraft

Aircraft emissions affect air quality on scales from local to global. More than 20% of the jet fuel used in the U.S. is consumed by military aircraft, and emissions from this source are facing increasingly stringent environmental regulations, so improved methods for quickly and accurately determining emissions from existing and new engines are needed. This paper reports results of a study to advance the methods used for detailed characterization of military aircraft emissions, and provides emission factors for two aircraft: the F-15 fighter and the C-130 cargo plane. The measurements involved outdoor ground-level sampling downstream behind operational military aircraft. This permits rapid change-out of the aircraft so that engines can be tested quickly on operational aircraft. Measurements were made at throttle settings from idle to afterburner using a simple extractive probe in the dilute exhaust. Emission factors determined using this approach agree very well with those from the traditional method of extractive sampling at the exhaust exit. Emission factors are reported for CO₂, CO, NO, NO_x, and more than 60 hazardous and/or reactive organic gases. Particle size, mass and composition also were measured and are being reported separately. Comparison of the emissions of nine hazardous air pollutants from these two engines with emissions from nine other aircraft engines is discussed.     

A comparison of mesh-adaptive LES with wind tunnel data for flow past buildings: Mean flows and velocity fluctuations

In this paper we address two important aspects of micro-scale urban airflow model evaluation: (a) the identification of key flow features as dictated by the physics of the problem and as captured by the simulations, and (b) the comparison of important model output parameters (mean flows and fluctuations) with experimental data. A series of mesh-adaptive large eddy simulations (LES) was carried out for the study of air flows within two intersecting street canyons with varying building configurations. The novelty of the approach lies in the combination of LES with mesh adaptivity, which allows a variable-filter length and the implementation of an anisotropic eddy-viscosity model. Both coarse and fine-mesh simulations were carried out, using single and parallel-processor systems respectively. The simulations showed clearly that the expected flow patterns such as the street canyon recirculation and the street-mouth vortices, as well as the exchange of air flow at the street intersections, can readily be captured by the mesh-adaptive LES.In addition, the detailed comparisons of mean flows and fluctuations of the resolved velocity field with the measured data showed that the simulation results agreed well with the patterns and trends of the wind tunnel measurements. In most cases the finer-mesh simulations improved considerably the accuracy of the mean flows, especially for the symmetrical configuration. The improvement in the predicted fluctuations was less obvious, with several detector locations underpredicting the measured values, although the overall comparison was also satisfactory. The typical errors for the mean flows for all three building configurations were less than 30%, whilst for the velocity fluctuations less that 40%. Both the simulated means flows and turbulence levels were generally more accurate in the streets parallel to the wind (streamwise direction) than in the streets normal to the wind.     

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.     

Radionuclide transfer to animal products: revised recommended transfer coefficient values

A compilation has been undertaken of data which can be used to derive animal product transfer coefficients for radionuclides, including an extensive review of Russian language information. The resultant database has been used to provide recommended transfer coefficient values for a range of radionuclides to (i) cow, sheep and goat milk, (ii) meat (muscle) of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry and (iii) eggs. The values are used in a new IAEA handbook on transfer parameters which replaces that referred to as ‘TRS 364’. The paper outlines the approaches and procedures used to identify and collate data, and assumptions used. There are notable differences between the TRS 364 ‘expected’ values and the recommended values in the revised Handbook from the new database. Of the recommended values, three milk values are at least an order of magnitude higher than the TRS 364 values (Cr, Pu (cow) Pu (sheep)) and one milk value is lower (Ni (cow)). For meat, four values (Am, Cd, Sb (beef) I (pork)) are at least an order of magnitude higher than the TRS 364 values and eight values are at least an order of magnitude lower (Ru, Pu (beef), Ru, Sr, Zn (sheep), Ru, Sr (pork), Mn (poultry)). Many data gaps remain.     

A global assessment of chromium pollution using sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) as an indicator species

Chromium (Cr) is a well-known human carcinogen and a potential reproductive toxicant, but its contribution to ocean pollution is poorly understood. The aim of this study was to provide a global baseline for Cr as a marine pollutant using the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) as an indicator species. Biopsies were collected from free-ranging whales around the globe during the voyage of the research vessel The Odyssey. Total Cr levels were measured in 361 sperm whales collected from 16 regions around the globe detectable levels ranged from 0.9 to 122.6 μg Cr g tissue⁻¹ with a global mean of 8.8 ± 0.9 μg g⁻¹. Two whales had undetectable levels. The highest levels were found in sperm whales sampled in the waters near the Islands of Kiribati in the Pacific (mean = 44.3 ± 14.4) and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean (mean = 19.5 ± 5.4 μg g⁻¹). The lowest mean levels were found in whales near the Canary Islands (mean = 3.7 ± 0.8 μg g⁻¹) and off of the coast of Sri Lanka (mean = 3.3 ± 0.4 μg g⁻¹). The global mean Cr level in whale skin was 28-times higher than mean Cr skin levels in humans without occupational exposure. The whale levels were more similar to levels only observed previously in human lung tissue from workers who died of Cr-induced lung cancer. We conclude that Cr pollution in the marine environment is significant and that further study is urgently needed.     

Review of Russian language studies on radionuclide behaviour in agricultural animals: 3. Transfer to muscle

Over 150 publications reporting studies conducted in the former USSR were reviewed to provide transfer coefficients (F_f) to the muscle of domestic animals from experiments using chronic administration, often for long timescales in large scale experiments. Only a few of these studies were made available in the English language literature or taken into account in international reviews. The values derived have been compared with expected values reported by the IAEA's Handbook of parameter values for the prediction of radionuclide transfer in temperate environments (TRS 364) where possible. The information presented here has been used in the current updating of parameters recommended for environmental assessments by the IAEA. Many of the reported values are for Sr due to the Mayak accident and Cs due to the Chernobyl accident. Nevertheless, the reported data for a wide range of radionuclides, in particular for Ru, Sb, and Zn markedly improve the extent of available data.