Carcass Provisioning to Support Scavengers: Evaluating a Controversial Nature Conservation Practice

A number of scavenger species have suffered population declines across Europe. In attempts to reverse their decline, some land and wildlife managers have adopted the practice of leaving or placing out carcasses of wild or domestic herbivores to provide a source of carrion. However, this can be a controversial practice, with as yet unclear outcomes for many target species and the ecosystems they are part of. Here we bring out the key aspects of this increasingly common conservation practice illustrated using three contrasting cases studies. We show that the provision of carcasses is often motivated by a desire to benefit charismatic species or to facilitate nutrient cycling throughout an ecosystem. Evidence for the effectiveness of this practice in achieving these objectives, however, is mostly lacking, with ecologists studying “easier” species groups such as beetles and therefore not providing relevant insights. Moreover, conflicts between environmental policies that carcass provisioning is aimed at and other social and economic objectives do occur but these projects are often designed without taking into account this broader context. We conclude that expecting carcasses to simply be “good for biodiversity” may be too naïve a view. A greater knowledge of the impact of carcass provisioning and placement on ecosystems and society at large is required before it can become a more effective conservation tool at a wider scale.     

Translating Science into Coastal Development Decisions: The Articulations Science and Planning in South Australia

Climate change risks to the coast and coastal developments have been well-documented. In spite of these warnings, new coastal developments are still proposed and built. Australian research has demonstrated how State-level planning documents fail to incorporate recent sea-level rise projections, with researchers demanding more responsiveness to coastal science from planners, policy-makers and developers. This paper takes an alternative approach to the science, planning and coastal development nexus by developing a relational understanding of the barriers to the uptake of science into coastal development decisions. Drawing on qualitative interview material from two recent and non-routine South Australian cases where sea-level rise (SLR) science was contested, and inspiration from actor-network theory's concepts of obligatory passage points, translation, intermediaries and mediators, this research foregrounds the malleability of scientific knowledge and planning protocols. We find that skilful social actors negotiate and re-frame science and planning; clear scientific recommendations can be subsumed to planning process, while clear planning process creates internecine disputes between nomothetic and idiographic science. An implication of this analysis is that the broad narrative of a lack of scientific uptake into coastal development needs to be sensitized to how science and planning interact in practice to legitimate decisions.     

Short-term effects of atmospheric particulate matter on myocardial infarction: a cumulative meta-analysis

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is hypothesized to increase the risk of myocardial infarction (MI). However, the epidemiological evidence is inconsistent. We identified 33 studies with more than 4 million MI patients and applied meta-analysis and meta-regression to assess the available evidence. Twenty-five studies presented the effects of the PM level on hospitalization for MI patients, while eight studies showed the effects on mortality. An increase in PM₁₀ was associated with hospitalization and mortality in myocardial infarction patients (RR per 10 μg/m³?=?1.011, 95 % CI 1.006–1.016; RR per 10 μg/m³?=?1.008, 95 % CI 1.004–1.012, respectively); PM_2.5 also increased the risk of hospitalization and mortality in MI patients (RR per 10 μg/m³?=?1.024, 95 % CI 1.007–1.041 for hospitalization and RR per 10 μg/m³?=?1.012, 95 % CI 1.010–1.015 for mortality). The results of the cumulative meta-analysis indicated that PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 were associated with myocardial infarctionwith the addition of new studies each year. In conclusion, short-term exposure to high PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 levels revealed to increase risk of hospitalization and mortality for myocardial infarction. Policy support of pollution control and individual protection was strongly recommended.     

An Ex Post Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Control Program in Tokyo

ABSTRACT

The benefits and costs of past nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) control policies were calculated for Tokyo, Japan, using environmental, economic, political, demographic, and medical data from 1973 to 1994. The benefits of NO₂ control were estimated as medical expenses and lost work time due to hypothetical no-control air concentrations of NO₂. Direct costs were calculated as annualized capital expenditures and 1 year's operating costs for regulated industries plus governmental agency expenses. The major findings were as follows:

(1) Using Tokyo's average medical cost of pollution-related illness, the best net estimate of the avoided medical costs due to incidence of phlegm and sputum in adults was 730 billion yen ($6.08 billion; 1 U.S. dollar = 120 yen).

(2) The best net estimate of the avoided medical costs due to incidence of lower respiratory illness in children was 93 billion yen ($775 million).

(3) Using Tokyo's average duration of pollution-related illness and average wages, the best net estimate of the avoided costs of lost wages in workers was 760 billion yen ($6.33 billion).

(4) The best net estimate of the avoided costs of lost wages in mothers caring for their sick children was 100 billion yen ($833 million).

(5) Using Tokyo-specific data, the best net costs were estimated as 280 billion yen ($2.33 billion).

(6) Using human health and productivity benefits, and annualized capital cost and operating cost estimates, the best net benefits-to-costs ratio was 6:1 (upper limit 44:1; lower limit 0.3:1). Benefit calculations were sensitive to assumptions of mobile source emissions and certain health impacts that were not included. Cost calculations were highly dependent on assumptions of flue gas volume and fuel use. For comparative purposes, we identified other studies for air pollution-related illness. Assumptions that formed the basis for most of the inputs in the present study, such as duration of illness, medical treatment costs, per person illness in children, and lost wages for working mothers, were similar to those recommended in the literature. Lost wages in sick workers and per capita illness incidence in adults were higher than numbers reported elsewhere. Further advances in cost-benefit analysis (CBA) procedures to evaluate the economic effectiveness of NO₂ controls in Tokyo are recommended to estimate impacts and values for additional human health benefits, ecosystem health and productivity effects, and nonliving system effects, as well as benefits of ancillary reductions in other pollutants. The present study suggests that Tokyo's past NO₂ control policies in total were economically quite effective.     

Evolutionary algorithm for vehicle driving cycle generation

Modeling transit bus emissions and fuel economy requires a large amount of experimental data over wide ranges of operational conditions. Chassis dynamometer tests are typically performed using representative driving cycles defined based on vehicle instantaneous speed as sequences of "microtrips", which are intervals between consecutive vehicle stops. Overall significant parameters of the driving cycle, such as average speed, stops per mile, kinetic intensity, and others, are used as independent variables in the modeling process. Performing tests at all the necessary combinations of parameters is expensive and time consuming. In this paper, a methodology is proposed for building driving cycles at prescribed independent variable values using experimental data through the concatenation of "microtrips" isolated from a limited number of standard chassis dynamometer test cycles. The selection of the adequate "microtrips" is achieved through a customized evolutionary algorithm. The genetic representation uses microtrip definitions as genes. Specific mutation, crossover, and karyotype alteration operators have been defined. The Roulette-Wheel selection technique with elitist strategy drives the optimization process, which consists of minimizing the errors to desired overall cycle parameters. This utility is part of the Integrated Bus Information System developed at West Virginia University.     

Exploratory analysis of the association between pyrethroid exposure and rheumatoid arthritis among US adults: 2007–2014 data analysis from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Previous studies indicate that pesticide use may play an important role in the occurrence and development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA); however,...     

Savviness of prey to introduced predators

The prey naivety hypothesis posits that prey are vulnerable to introduced predators because many generations in slow gradual coevolution are needed for appropriate avoidance responses to develop. It predicts that prey will be more responsive to native than introduced predators and less responsive to introduced predators that differ substantially from native predators and from those newly established. To test these predictions, we conducted a global meta-analysis of studies that measured the wariness responses of small mammals to the scent of sympatric mammalian mesopredators. We identified 26 studies that met our selection criteria. These studies comprised 134 experiments reporting on the responses of 36 small mammal species to the scent of six introduced mesopredators and 12 native mesopredators. For each introduced mesopredator, we measured their phylogenetic and functional distance to local native mesopredators and the number of years sympatric with their prey. We used predator and prey body mass as a measure of predation risk. Globally, small mammals were similarly wary of the scent of native and introduced mesopredators; phylogenetic and functional distance between introduced mesopredators and closest native mesopredators had no effect on wariness; and wariness was unrelated to the number of prey generations, or years, since first contact with introduced mesopredators. Small mammal wariness was associated with predator-prey body mass ratio, regardless of the nativity. The one thing animals do not seem to recognize is whether their predators are native.     

Protected area planning to conserve biodiversity in an uncertain future

Protected areas are a key instrument for conservation. Despite this, they are vulnerable to risks associated with weak governance, land-use intensification, and climate change. We used a novel hierarchical optimization approach to identify priority areas for expanding the global protected area system that explicitly accounted for such risks while maximizing protection of all known terrestrial vertebrate species. To incorporate risk categories, we built on the minimum set problem, where the objective is to reach species distribution protection targets while accounting for 1 constraint, such as land cost or area. We expanded this approach to include multiple objectives accounting for risk in the problem formulation by treating each risk layer as a separate objective in the problem formulation. Reducing exposure to these risks required expanding the area of the global protected area system by 1.6% while still meeting conservation targets. Incorporating risks from weak governance drove the greatest changes in spatial priorities for protection, and incorporating risks from climate change required the largest increase (2.52%) in global protected area. Conserving wide-ranging species required countries with relatively strong governance to protect more land when they bordered nations with comparatively weak governance. Our results underscore the need for cross-jurisdictional coordination and demonstrate how risk can be efficiently incorporated into conservation planning. Planeación de las áreas protegidas para conservar la biodiversidad en un futuro incierto