The value of virtual conferencing for ecology and conservation

The objectives of conservation science and dissemination of its research create a paradox: Conservation is about preserving the environment, yet scientists spread this message at conferences with heavy carbon footprints. Ecology and conservation science depend on global knowledge exchange—getting the best science to the places it is most needed. However, conference attendance from developed countries typically outweighs that from developing countries that are biodiversity and conservation hotspots. If any branch of science should be trying to maximize participation while minimizing carbon emissions, it is conservation. Virtual conferencing is common in other disciplines, such as education and humanities, but it is surprisingly underused in ecology and conservation. Adopting virtual conferencing entails a number of challenges, including logistics and unified acceptance, which we argue can be overcome through planning and technology. We examined 4 conference models: a pure‐virtual model and 3 hybrid hub‐and‐node models, where hubs stream content to local nodes. These models collectively aim to mitigate the logistical and administrative challenges of global knowledge transfer. Embracing virtual conferencing addresses 2 essential prerequisites of modern conferences: lowering carbon emissions and increasing accessibility for remote, time‐ and resource‐poor researchers, particularly those from developing countries.     

Isoprene emissions and climate

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) play an important role in atmospheric chemistry and the carbon cycle. Isoprene is quantitatively the most important of the non-methane BVOCs (NMBVOCs), with an annual emission of about 400–600 TgC; about 90% of this is emitted by terrestrial plants. Incorporating a mechanistic treatment of isoprene emissions within land-surface schemes has recently become a focus for the modelling community, the aim being to quantify the potential magnitude of associated climate feedbacks. However, these efforts are hampered by major uncertainties about why plants emit isoprene and the relative importance of different environmental controls on isoprene emission. The availability and reliability of observations of isoprene fluxes from different types of vegetation is limited, and this also imposes constraints on model development. Nevertheless, progress is being made towards the development of mechanistic models of isoprene emission which, in conjunction with atmospheric chemistry models, will ultimately allow improved quantification of the feedbacks between the terrestrial biosphere and climate under past and future climate states.     

Does safety climate moderate the influence of staffing adequacy and work conditions on nurse injuries?

PROBLEM: Hospital nurses have one of the highest work-related injury rates in the United States. Yet, approaches to improving employee safety have generally focused on attempts to modify individual behavior through enforced compliance with safety rules and mandatory participation in safety training. We examined a theoretical model that investigated the impact on nurse injuries (back injuries and needlesticks) of critical structural variables (staffing adequacy, work engagement, and work conditions) and further tested whether safety climate moderated these effects. METHOD: A longitudinal, non-experimental, organizational study, conducted in 281 medical-surgical units in 143 general acute care hospitals in the United States. RESULTS: Work engagement and work conditions were positively related to safety climate, but not directly to nurse back injuries or needlesticks. Safety climate moderated the relationship between work engagement and needlesticks, while safety climate moderated the effect of work conditions on both needlesticks and back injuries, although in unexpected ways. DISCUSSION AND IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Our findings suggest that positive work engagement and work conditions contribute to enhanced safety climate and can reduce nurse injuries.     

Assessing the potential for greenhouse gas mitigation in intensively managed annual cropping systems at the regional scale

We predicted changes in yields and direct net soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes from converting conventional to alternative management practices across one of the world's most productive agricultural regions, the Central Valley of California, using the DAYCENT model. Alternative practices included conservation tillage, winter cover cropping, manure application, a 25% reduction in N fertilizer input and combinations of these. Alternative practices were evaluated for all unique combinations of crop rotation, climate, and soil types for the period 1997-2006. The crops included were alfalfa, corn, cotton, melon, safflower, sunflower, tomato, and wheat. Our predictions indicate that, adopting alternative management practices would decrease yields up to 5%. Changes in modeled SOC and net soil GHG fluxes corresponded to values reported in the literature. Average potential reductions of net soil GHG fluxes with alternative practices ranged from −0.7 to −3.3 Mg CO₂-eq ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ in the Sacramento Valley and −0.5 to −2.5 Mg CO₂-eq ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ for the San Joaquin Valley. While adopting a single alternative practice led to modest net soil GHG flux reductions (on average −1 Mg CO₂-eq ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹), combining two or more of these practices led to greater decreases in net soil GHG fluxes of up to −3 Mg CO₂-eq ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. At the regional scale, the combination of winter cover cropping with manure application was particularly efficient in reducing GHG emissions. However, GHG mitigation potentials were mostly non-permanent because 60-80% of the decreases in net soil GHG fluxes were attributed to increases in SOC, except for the reduced fertilizer input practice, where reductions were mainly attributed to decreased N₂O emissions. In conclusion, there are long-term GHG mitigation potentials within agriculture, but spatial and temporal aggregation will be necessary to reduce uncertainties around GHG emission reductions and the delivery risk of the associated C credits.     

Solar driven nitrous acid formation on building material surfaces containing titanium dioxide: A concern for air quality in urban areas?

The photoenhanced uptake of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) to the surface of commercially available self-cleaning window glass has been studied under controlled laboratory conditions. This material is one of an array of modern building products which incorporate titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles and are finding increasing use in populated urban areas. Amongst the principal drivers for the use of these materials is that they are thought to facilitate the irreversible removal of pollutants such as NO₂ and organic molecules from the atmosphere and thus act to remediate air quality. While it appears that TiO₂ materials do indeed remove organic molecules from built environments, in this study we show that the photoenhanced uptake of NO₂ to one example material, self-cleaning window glass, is in fact accompanied by the substantial formation (50–70%) of gaseous nitrous acid (HONO). This finding has direct and serious implications for the use of these materials in urban areas. Not only is HONO a harmful respiratory irritant, it is also readily photolysed by solar radiation leading to the formation of hydroxyl radicals (OH) together with the re-release of NO_x as NO. The net effect of subsequent OH initiated chemistry can then be the further degradation of air quality through the formation of secondary pollutants such as ozone and VOC oxidation products. In summary, we suggest that a scientifically conceived technical strategy for air quality remediation based on this technology, while widely perceived as universally beneficial, could in fact have effects precisely opposite to those intended.     

Variation of the Relative Humidity of Air Released from Canisters after Ambient Sampling

ABSTRACT

Dalton's law of partial pressures and the hypothesis that water vapor equilibrium in a canister is identical to that established above liquid water are used to predict the variation of the percent relative humidity (%RH) of air released from canisters used in ambient air sampling, typically 6-L canisters pressurized with 18 L of air. When (and if) the water vapor partial pressure in a canister exceeds its saturation vapor pressure, water vapor condensation begins and the condensation rate equals the sampling rate of water vapor into the canister. Under constant temperature conditions, the air subsequently released from the canister is less humid than the original sample, following the relationship %RH = 100% (6 L/V_s) for V_s> V_r, where V_s is the residual air volume (referenced to atmospheric pressure), and V_r is shown to depend on the %RH of the ambient air sample. V_r is the residual air volume at which water is completely removed (except for adsorbed water vapor) from the canister wall. For V_s < V_r, the predicted %RH is constant and equal to its value at V_r. Experimental values agree reasonably well with predictions at both high (90%) and low (34%) RH. However, experimental values are often slightly displaced (usually towards lower values of %RH) for mid-range %RH (61%) and variations in %RH near V_r change from canister to canister.