The Value of Using Feasibility Models in Systematic Conservation Planning to Predict Landholder Management Uptake

Understanding the social dimensions of conservation opportunity is crucial for conservation planning in multiple‐use landscapes. However, factors that influence the feasibility of implementing conservation actions, such as the history of landscape management, and landholders’ willingness to engage are often difficult or time consuming to quantify and rarely incorporated into planning. We examined how conservation agencies could reduce costs of acquiring such data by developing predictive models of management feasibility parameterized with social and biophysical factors likely to influence landholders’ decisions to engage in management. To test the utility of our best‐supported model, we developed 4 alternative investment scenarios based on different input data for conservation planning: social data only; biological data only; potential conservation opportunity derived from modeled feasibility that incurs no social data collection costs; and existing conservation opportunity derived from feasibility data that incurred collection costs. Using spatially explicit information on biodiversity values, feasibility, and management costs, we prioritized locations in southwest Australia to control an invasive predator that is detrimental to both agriculture and natural ecosystems: the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). When social data collection costs were moderate to high, the most cost‐effective investment scenario resulted from a predictive model of feasibility. Combining empirical feasibility data with biological data was more cost‐effective for prioritizing management when social data collection costs were low (<4% of the total budget). Calls for more data to inform conservation planning should take into account the costs and benefits of collecting and using social data to ensure that limited funding for conservation is spent in the most cost‐efficient and effective manner.     

Geochemical distribution,bioavailability and potential toxicity of some trace metals in a complex micro-tidal estuary,Southwest India

The spatial and temporal variations of some trace metals in the surface sediments of Cochin Estuary were analyzed along with their geochemical associations to identify the possible sources, bioavailability and the health risks posed by them. The dominance of kaolinite and suggested that clay minerals distribution is influenced by sediment sorting. Total metal analysis revealed enrichment for Cd, Pb and Zn due to anthropogenic activities. The speciation analysis established that notwithstanding the large availability, carbonate as well as organic and sulfides bound fractions showed negligible associations with most of the metals. Hydrous Fe–Mn oxides appeared to play a major role in controlling the fate and transport of these metals in the sediments of Cochin Estuary. Lower contribution of the residual fractions for Cd (21%–26%), Pb (<60%) and Zn (24%–42%) indicated an obvious increase of other geochemical fractions. Risk assessment analysis revealed that regardless of total concentration, none of the analyzed metals were at safe levels in the estuary as appreciable percentages were found to be associated with mobile geochemical forms. The speciation study conspicuously established that the metals originating from non-geogenic sources are largely associated with the labile fractions and hence are more detrimental to the aquatic biota.     

Molten carbonate fuel cells fed with biogas: Combating H2S

The use of biomass and waste to produce alternative fuels, due to environmental and energy security reasons, is a high-quality solution especially when integrated with high efficiency fuel cell applications. In this article we look into the coupling of an anaerobic digestion process of organic residues to electrochemical conversion to electricity and heat through a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC). In particular the pathway of the exceedingly harmful compound hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) in these phases is analysed. Hydrogen sulphide production in the biogas is strongly interrelated with methane and/or hydrogen yield, as well as with operating conditions like temperature and pH. When present in the produced biogas, this compound has multiple negative effects on the performance and durability of an MCFC. Therefore, there are important issues of integration to be solved.Three general approaches to solve the sulphur problem in the MCFC are possible. The first is to prevent the formation of hydrogen sulphide at the source: favouring conditions that inhibit its production during fermentation. Secondly, to identify the sulphur tolerance levels of the fuel cell components currently in use and develop sulphur-tolerant components that show long-term electrochemical performance and corrosion stability. The third approach is to remove the generated sulphur species to very low levels before the gas enters the fuel cell.     

Factors affecting the implementation of green specifications in construction

Green specifications constitute one of the important elements in green construction. New sustainability requirements and changing priorities in construction management have spurred the emerging green specifications to a faster pace of development. A cross-sectional survey has been conducted in Hong Kong in 2007 to identify principal factors leading to the success of preparing green specifications. Based on extensive construction management literature, 20 variables concerning sustainable construction were summarized. Using the Mann–Whitney U-test, the subtle differences between stakeholders in specifying construction work have been detected even with the high consistency of the responses among the groups. Moreover, five independent factors for successful specification of green construction have been categorized by factor analysis. They are related to (1) green technology and techniques, (2) reliability and quality of specification, (3) leadership and responsibility, (4) stakeholder involvement, and (5) guide and benchmarking systems. Whilst the first and fourth factors are generally more important, different stakeholder groups have different emphases. The results of the survey have been validated against established principles.     

Evaluating the Quality of Citizen‐Scientist Data on Pollinator Communities

Abstract: Concerns about pollinator declines have grown in recent years, yet the ability to detect changes in abundance, taxonomic richness, and composition of pollinator communities is hampered severely by the lack of data over space and time. Citizen scientists may be able to extend the spatial and temporal extent of pollinator monitoring programs. We developed a citizen‐science monitoring protocol in which we trained 13 citizen scientists to observe and classify floral visitors at the resolution of orders or super families (e.g., bee, wasp, fly) and at finer resolution within bees (superfamily Apoidea) only. We evaluated the protocol by comparing data collected simultaneously at 17 sites by citizen scientists (observational data set) and by professionals (specimen‐based data set). The sites differed with respect to the presence and age of hedgerows planted to improve habitat quality for pollinators. We found significant, positive correlations among the two data sets for higher level taxonomic composition, honey bee (Apis mellifera) abundance, non‐Apis bee abundance, bee richness, and bee community similarity. Results for both data sets also showed similar trends (or lack thereof) in these metrics among sites differing in the presence and age of hedgerows. Nevertheless, citizen scientists did not observe approximately half of the bee groups collected by professional scientists at the same sites. Thus, the utility of citizen‐science observational data may be restricted to detection of community‐level changes in abundance, richness, or similarity over space and time, and citizen‐science observations may not reliably reflect the abundance or frequency of occurrence of specific pollinator species or groups.     

Leading and lagging: Process safety climate–incident relationships at one year

In order to evaluate the leading and lagging effects of process safety climate on incidents, we correlated safety climate survey data with organizational safety records from before and after the survey time period. We obtained data from a large, multinational organization with manufacturing operations involving a number of complex processes, chemicals, and hazardous substances. A total of 7728 employees from 62 sites responded to a safety climate survey in 2007. Individual responses were aggregated to the site-level and matched to site-level organizational records of process safety incidents 1 year before and 1 year after survey administration. Employees’ perceptions of good routine housekeeping were significantly related to environmental impact incidents as both a leading and a lagging indicator, as well as fires/explosions and property damage outcomes. Employees’ perceptions of systems to prevent backlogs and the extent to which health and safety problems are promptly corrected were also related to environmental releases and fires/explosions. Implications for process safety climate research, organizational survey strategies, and organizational climate change are discussed.     

Uncertainty characterization for emergy values

While statistical estimation of uncertainty has not typically accompanied published emergy values, as with any other quantitative model, uncertainty is embedded in these values, and lack of uncertainty characterization makes their accuracy not only opaque, it also prevents the use of emergy values in statistical tests of hypotheses. This paper first attempts to describe sources of uncertainty in unit emergy values (UEVs) and presents a framework for estimating this uncertainty with analytical and stochastic models, with model choices dependent upon on how the UEV is calculated and what kind of uncertainties are quantified. The analytical model can incorporate a broader spectrum of uncertainty types than the stochastic model, including model and scenario uncertainty, which may be significant in emergy models, but is only appropriate for the most basic of emergy calculations. Although less comprehensive in its incorporation of uncertainty, the proposed stochastic method is suitable for all types of UEVs. The distributions of unit emergy values approximate the lognormal distribution with variations depending on the types of uncertainty quantified as well as the way the UEVs are calculated. While both methods of estimating uncertainty in UEVs have their limitations in their presented stage of development, this paper provides methods for incorporating uncertainty into emergy, and demonstrates how this can be depicted and propagated so that it can be used in future emergy analyses and permit emergy to be more readily incorporated into other methods of environmental assessment, such as LCA.