Restoration Scaling Approaches to Addressing Ecological Injury: The Habitat-Based Resource Equivalency Method

Environmental Management - Natural resource trustee agencies must determine how much, and what type of environmental restoration will compensate for injuries to natural resources that result from...     

Project XL: cheaper,cleaner, and smarter ways to protect the environment

Are you interested in making the job of complying with federal environmental requirements cheaper and smarter for your business? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is committed to helping business and other sectors make more sense of environmental requirements through a number of innovative programs, one of the most far‐reaching being Project XL. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Patterns of courtship behavior and ejaculate characteristics in male red-winged blackbirds

Sperm competition in birds is likely to have important effects on the behavior and physiology of reproduction in both sexes. For males, such competition should select for large sperm reserves and behavioral adjustment of copulation when reserves are low. We investigated both these possibilities in free-living red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), a highly polygynous species with apparently strong sperm competition. We found that the recent copulatory behavior of males did not affect the propensity to copulate with a model female. Ejaculates collected from individual males at 1-h intervals showed no evidence of sperm depletion, yet repeated ejaculates collected less than 10 min apart did. Male ejaculate size was significantly larger if it was the first one of the day (i.e., after an overnight rest). The average ejaculate size was 12.5 (±12.5 SD) million sperm. Males captured during the breeding season had an average of 111.7 (±52.8) million sperm stored in their seminal glomera. Because males average a peak copulation rate of six per female per day, in one day a male might utilize all the sperm in his seminal glomera if more than two females on his territory are fertilizable. We hypothesize that polygyny and sperm competition in this species have combined to select for rapid replenishment of the seminal glomera throughout the day, in contrast to other species that have been studied. Testis size and sperm reserves of male red-winged blackbirds are intermediate between monogamous species and species with intense sperm competition. Several possible explanations for this are discussed. Received: 21 October 1997 / Accepted after revision: 15 February 1998     

Improving the Chest Protection of Elderly Occupants in Frontal Crashes Using SMART Load Limiters

Objective: To determine whether varying the seat belt load limiter (SBL) according to crash and occupant characteristics could have real-world injury reduction benefits in frontal impacts and, if so, to quantify those benefits.

Methods: Real-world UK accident data were used to identify the target population of vehicle occupants and frontal crash scenarios where improved chest protection could be most beneficial. Generic baseline driver and front passenger numerical models using a 50th percentile dummy were developed with MADYMO software. Simulations were performed where the load limiter threshold was varied in selected frontal impact scenarios. For each SBL setting, restraint performance, dummy kinematics, and injury outcome were studied in 5 different frontal impact types. Thoracic injury predictions were converted into injury probability values using Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 2+ age-dependent thoracic risk curves developed and validated based on a methodology proposed by Laituri et al. (2005). Real-world benefit was quantified using the predicted AIS 2+ risk and assuming that an appropriate adaptive system was fitted to all the cars in a real-world sample of recent frontal crashes involving European passenger cars.

Results: From the accident data sample the chest was the most frequently injured body region at an AIS 2+ level in frontal impacts (7% of front seat occupants). The proportion of older vehicle front seat occupants (>64 years) with AIS 2+ injury was also greater than the proportion of younger occupants. Additionally, older occupants were more likely to sustain seat belt–induced serious chest injury in low- and moderate-speed frontal crashes. In both front seating positions, the low SBL provided the best chest injury protection, without increasing the risk to other body regions. In severe impacts, the low SBL allowed the driver to move dangerously close to the steering wheel. Compared to the driver side, greater ride-down space on the passenger side gave a higher potential for using the low SBLs. When applying the AIS 2+ risk reduction findings to the weighted accident data sample, the risk of sustaining an AIS 2+ seat belt injury changed to 0.9, 4.9, and 8.1% for young, mid, and older occupants, respectively, from their actual injury risk of 1.3, 7.6, and 13.1%.

Conclusions: These results suggest the potential for improving the safety of older occupants with the development of smarter restraint systems. This is an important finding because the number of older users is expected to increase rapidly over the next 20 years. The greatest benefits were seen at lower crash severities. This is also important because most real-world crashes occur at lower speeds.     

Place Attachment,Climate Friendly Behavior,and Support for Climate Friendly Management Action among State Park Visitors

This study examined the role of place attachment in determining visitors’ willingness to engage in climate friendly behavior in parks and support for management actions to minimize climate-change impacts. The sample consisted of visitors to Missouri State Parks (n = 1775). Place attachment was measured using 12 items of place identity, place dependence, and social bonding. Exploratory factor analysis of climate friendly behavior items revealed two dimensions: Visit based (i.e., short-term, immediate actions individuals could take during their visit) and Big Picture (i.e., advocacy actions that suggest a long-term engagement with parks). A path analysis demonstrated that the dimensions of place attachment predict climate friendly behavior and support for climate friendly management action in different ways. Specifically, place identity increased climate friendly behavior (big picture) and place dependence increased both climate friendly behavior (visit based) and support for climate friendly management action. Findings from this study provided evidence for the importance of place attachment as a means for engaging visitors in climate-related actions both in and beyond the park setting.     

A GIS Framework for Regional Modeling of Riverine Nitrogen Transport: Case Study,San Antonio and Guadalupe Basins

This article presents a framework for integrating a regional geographic information system (GIS)‐based nitrogen dataset (Texas Anthropogenic Nitrogen Dataset, TX‐ANB) and a GIS‐based river routing model (Routing Application for Parallel computation of Discharge) to simulate steady‐state riverine total nitrogen (TN) transport in river networks containing thousands of reaches. A two‐year case study was conducted in the San Antonio and Guadalupe basins during dry and wet years (2008 and 2009, respectively). This article investigates TN export in urbanized (San Antonio) vs. rural (Guadalupe) drainage basins and considers the effect of reservoirs on TN transport. Simulated TN export values are within 10 percent of measured export values for selected stations in 2008 and 2009. Results show that in both years the San Antonio basin contributed a larger quantity than the Guadalupe basin of delivered TN to the coastal ocean. The San Antonio basin is affected by urban activities including point sources, associated with the city of San Antonio, in addition to greater agricultural activities. The Guadalupe basin lacks major metropolitan areas and is dominated by rangeland, rather than fertilized agricultural fields. Both basins delivered more TN to coastal waters in 2009 than in 2008. Furthermore, TN removal in the San Antonio and Guadalupe basins is inversely related to stream orders: the higher the order the more TN delivery (or the less TN removal).