A GAMING EVALUATION OF COLORADO RWER DROUGHT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTIONAL OPTIONS1

ABSTRACT: Researchers representing each of the Colorado River Basin states as well as the Secretary of the Interior were presented with an interactive computer simulation of a progressively increasing drought and were given the collective opportunity to change the ways in which basin-wide and within-state water management were conducted. The purpose of this “gaming” exercise was to identify rules for managing the Colorado River which are effective in preventing drought-caused damages to basin water users. This water management game was conducted three times, varying the collective choice roles for management of the river yet staying substantially within the current institution for management of the Colorado River known as the “Law of the River.” The Law of the River was quite effective in minimizing drought impacts upon consumptive water uses. Additional effective drought-coping measures to protect consumptive uses consisted mostly of intrastate water management improvements which states were able to implement independently. The Law of the River did not protect non-consumptive water uses, such as hydroelectric power generation, water-based recreation, endangered species, and water quality from drought, as well as it protected consumptive water uses. Players reached collective choice decisions to cope with rising salinity, equalize storage between the upper and lower basins, and protect endangered species. While these measures had some success, only reductions in withdrawals for consumptive uses, particularly in the upper basin, could have substantially lessened adverse impacts.     

Why are larger convict cichlid (Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum) fry sometimes adopted into broods of smaller fry?

Females of Elasmucha grisea defend their eggs and small nymphs against invertebrate predators. Females sometimes guard their clutches side by side on the same birch leaf. We studied benefits of this joint guarding both in the field and in the laboratory. We found that adjacent females had significantly larger clutches than solitary females. In the laboratory, we studied the effectiveness of joint versus single defence against ant (Formica uralensis) predators. We established female pairs from initially singly guarding females by cutting off pieces of leaves with egg clutches and pasting them beside another female guarding her clutch. In the control group the females with their clutches were similarly cut off but these clutches were placed on another leaf without any female. The birch twigs where females guarded their clutches were placed in cages in close proximity to laboratory ant nests. In the experimental treatment, two females guarded their clutches together and at the same nest there was another birch twig without a female. In the control treatment two twigs with one female on each were placed close to another ant nest. Two females defended their clutches significantly more successfully, losing fewer eggs than did the single females. This primitive form of female sociality in parent bugs resembles colonial nesting in birds, where communal defence is also important. However, to our knowledge this is the first experiment where the benefit of joint guarding has been tested directly by manipulating the size of the breeding group rather than by measuring the risk of predation in groups of different size.     

Understanding internal,external, and relational attributions for abusive supervision

Despite abundant research on the consequences of perceived abusive supervision, less is known about how employees develop perceptions of supervisory abuse. Across two studies, we integrate classic and recent theoretical work on attributions to understand the causal explanations underlying employee perceptions of and reactions to abusive supervision. In the first study, we develop measures of internal, external, and relational attributions for perceived supervisor abuse. In the second study, we demonstrate that internal and external attributions are indirectly related to aggressive and citizenship behaviors through employees' perceptions of interactional justice. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Water Quality Monitoring Network Design Methodology for the Selection of Critical Sampling Points: Part I

The principal instrument to temporally and spatially manage water resources is a water quality monitoring network. However, to date in most cases, there is a clear absence of a concise strategy or methodology for designing monitoring networks, especially when deciding upon the placement of sampling stations. Since water quality monitoring networks can be quite costly, it is very important to properly design the monitoring network so that maximum information extraction can be accomplished, which in turn is vital when informing decision-makers. This paper presents the development of a methodology for identifying the critical sampling locations within a watershed. Hence, it embodies the spatial component in the design of a water quality monitoring network by designating the critical stream locations that should ideally be sampled. For illustration purposes, the methodology focuses on a single contaminant, namely total phosphorus, and is applicable to small, upland, predominantly agricultural-forested watersheds. It takes a number of hydrologic, topographic, soils, vegetative, and land use factors into account. In addition, it includes an economic as well as logistical component in order to approximate the number of sampling points required for a given budget and to only consider the logistically accessible stream reaches in the analysis, respectively. The methodology utilizes a geographic information system (GIS), hydrologic simulation model, and fuzzy logic.     

Lessons from the 2006 Louisiana health and population survey

The 2005 hurricane season caused extensive damage and induced a mass migration of approximately 1.1 million people from southern Louisiana in the United States. Current and accurate estimates of population size and demographics and an assessment of the critical needs for public services were required to guide recovery efforts. Since forecasts using pre-hurricane data may produce inaccurate estimates of the post-hurricane population, a household survey in 18 hurricane-affected parishes was conducted to provide timely and credible information on the size of these populations, their demographics and their condition. This paper describes the methods used, the challenges encountered, and the key factors for successful implementation. This post-disaster survey was unique because it identified the needs of the people in the affected parishes and quantified the number of people with these needs. Consequently, this survey established new population and health indicator baselines that otherwise would have not been available to guide the relief and recovery efforts in southern Louisiana.     

Occurrence of steroid hormones and antibiotics in shallow groundwater impacted by livestock waste control facilities

Wastewater impoundments at concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) represent a potential source of veterinary pharmaceuticals and steroid hormone contamination to shallow groundwater. This study investigates the occurrence of seventeen veterinary pharmaceuticals and thirteen steroid hormones and hormone metabolites in lagoons and adjacent groundwater at operating swine and beef cattle facilities. These sites were chosen because subsurface geology and previous monitoring of nitrate, ammonia and chloride levels in shallow ground water strongly indicated direct infiltration, and as such represent worst cases for ground water contamination by waste water. Pharmaceutical compounds detected in samples obtained from cattle facilities include sulfamerazine; sulfamethazine; erythromycin; monensin; tiamulin; and sulfathiazole. Lincomycin; ractopamine; sulfamethazine; sulfathiazole; erythromycin; tiamulin and sulfadimethoxine were detected in wastewater samples obtained from swine facilities. Steroid hormones were detected less frequently than veterinary pharmaceuticals in this study. Estrone, testosterone, 4-androstenedione, and androsterone were detected in wastewater impoundments at concentrations ranging from 30 to 3600ng/L, while only estrone and testosterone were detected in groundwater samples at concentrations up to 390ng/L. The co-occurrence of veterinary pharmaceutical and steroid hormone contamination in groundwater at these locations and the correlation between pharmaceutical occurrence in lagoon wastewater and hydraulically downgradient groundwater indicates that groundwater underlying some livestock wastewater impoundments is susceptible to contamination by veterinary pharmaceuticals and steroid hormones originating in wastewater lagoons.     

Soil-mediated prion transmission: is local soil-type a key determinant of prion disease incidence?

Prion diseases, including chronic wasting disease (CWD) and scrapie, can be transmitted via indirect environmental routes. Animals habitually ingest soil, and results from laboratory experiments demonstrate prions can bind to a wide range of soils and soil minerals, retain the ability to replicate, and remain infectious, indicating soil could serve as a reservoir for natural prion transmission and a potential prion exposure route for humans. Preliminary epidemiological modeling suggests soil texture may influence the incidence of prion disease. These results are supported by experimental work demonstrating variance in prion interactions with soil, including variance in prion soil adsorption and soil-bound prion replication with respect to soil type. Thus, local soil type may be a key determinant of prion incidence. Further experimental and epidemiological work is required to fully elucidate the dynamics of soil-mediated prion transmission, an effort that should lead to effective disease management and mitigation strategies.     

Three-dimensional density-dependent flow and multicomponent reactive transport modeling of chlorinated solvent oxidation by potassium permanganate

A popular method for the treatment of aquifers contaminated with chlorinated solvents is chemical oxidation based on the injection of potassium permanganate (KMnO₄). Both the high density (1025 gL^− 1) and reactivity of the treatment solution influence the fate of permanganate (MnO₄) in the subsurface and affect the degree of contaminant treatment. The MIN3P multicomponent reactive transport code was enhanced to simulate permanganate-based remediation, to evaluate the pathways of MnO₄ utilization, and to assess the role of density contrasts for the delivery of the treatment solution. The modified code (MIN3P-D) provides a direct coupling between density-dependent fluid flow, solute transport, contaminant treatment, and geochemical reactions. The model is used to simulate a field trial of TCE oxidation in a sandy aquifer that is underlain by an aquitard. Three-dimensional simulations are conducted for a coupled reactive system comprised of ten aqueous components, two mineral phases, TCE (dissolved, adsorbed, and NAPL), reactive organic matter, and including ion exchange reactions. Model parameters are constrained by literature data and a detailed data set from the field site under investigation. The general spatial and transient evolution in observed concentrations of the oxidant, dissolved TCE, and reaction products are adequately reproduced by the simulations. The model elucidates the important role of density-induced flow and transport on the distribution of the treatment solution into NAPL containing regions located at the aquifer–aquitard interface. Model results further suggest that reactions that do not directly affect the stability of MnO₄ have a negligible effect on solution density and MnO₄ delivery.