The scope and severity of white-nose syndrome on hibernating bats in North America

Assessing the scope and severity of threats is necessary for evaluating impacts on populations to inform conservation planning. Quantitative threat assessment often requires monitoring programs that provide reliable data over relevant spatial and temporal scales, yet such programs can be difficult to justify until there is an apparent stressor. Leveraging efforts of wildlife management agencies to record winter counts of hibernating bats, we collated data for 5 species from over 200 sites across 27 U.S. states and 2 Canadian provinces from 1995 to 2018 to determine the impact of white-nose syndrome (WNS), a deadly disease of hibernating bats. We estimated declines of winter counts of bat colonies at sites where the invasive fungus that causes WNS (Pseudogymnoascus destructans) had been detected to assess the threat impact of WNS. Three species undergoing species status assessment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Myotis septentrionalis, Myotis lucifugus, and Perimyotis subflavus) declined by more than 90%, which warrants classifying the severity of the WNS threat as extreme based on criteria used by NatureServe. The scope of the WNS threat as defined by NatureServe criteria was large (36% of Myotis lucifugus range) to pervasive (79% of Myotis septentrionalis range) for these species. Declines for 2 other species (Myotis sodalis and Eptesicus fuscus) were less severe but still qualified as moderate to serious based on NatureServe criteria. Data-sharing across jurisdictions provided a comprehensive evaluation of scope and severity of the threat of WNS and indicated regional differences that can inform response efforts at international, national, and state or provincial jurisdictions. We assessed the threat impact of an emerging infectious disease by uniting monitoring efforts across jurisdictional boundaries and demonstrated the importance of coordinated monitoring programs, such as the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat), for data-driven conservation assessments and planning.     

Petroleum mass removal from low permeability sediment using air sparging/soil vapor extraction: impact of continuous or pulsed operation

Air sparging and soil vapor extraction (AS/SVE) are innovative remediation techniques that utilize volatilization and microbial degradation to remediate petroleum spills from soils and groundwater. This in situ study investigated the use of AS/SVE to remediate a gasoline spill from a leaking underground storage tank (UST) in the low permeability, clayey soil of the Appalachian Piedmont. The objectives of this study were to evaluate AS/SVE in low permeability soils by quantifying petroleum mass removal rates, monitoring vadose zone contaminant levels, and comparing the mass extraction rates of continuous AS/SVE to 8 and 24 h pulsed operation. The objectives were met by collecting AS/SVE exhaust gas samples and vadose zone air from multi-depth soil vapor probes. Samples were analyzed for O₂, CO₂, BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene), and total combustible hydrocarbon (TCH) concentrations using portable hand meters and gas chromatography. Continuous AS/SVE was effective in removing 608 kg of petroleum hydrocarbons from low permeability soil in 44 days (14.3 kg day⁻¹). Mass removal rates ranged from 2.6 times higher to 5.1 times lower than other AS/SVE studies performed in sandy sediments. BTEX levels in the vadose zone were reduced from about 5 ppm to 1 ppm. Ten pulsed AS/SVE tests removed 78 kg in 23 days and the mean mass removal rate (17.6 kg day⁻¹) was significantly higher than the last 15 days of continuous extraction. Pulsed operation may be preferable to continuous operation because of increased mass removal and decreased energy consumption.     

The spillover of tourism development on CO2 emissions: a spatial econometric analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Climate change and tourism’s interaction and vulnerability have been among the most hotly debated topics recently. In this context, the study...     

Life cycle environmental benefit and waste-to-energy potential of municipal solid waste management scenarios in Indonesia

Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management - Appropriate municipal solid waste management transition should be promoted for developing Asian countries. Thus, we established a life-cycle...     

Solar cooking innovations,their appropriateness,and viability

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The successful use of solar energy for cooking requires the systems adopted not only to have technical attributes that conveniently address specific...     

Larvicidal and repellent activity of N-methyl-1-adamantylamine and oleic acid a major derivative of bael tree ethanol leaf extracts against dengue mosquito vector and their biosafety on natural predator

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Aegle marmelos (L.) Correa belongs to the family Rutaceae is generally known as “bael fruit tree” occuring across the south Asian...     

Motivating children's cooperation to conserve forests

Forests are essential common-pool resources. Understanding children's and adolescents’ motivations for conservation is critical to improving conservation education. In 2 experiments, we investigated 1086 school-aged children and adolescents (6–16 years old) from the United States, China, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Testing participants in groups, we assessed their motivation for conservation based on collective-risk common-pool goods games in which they were threatened with losing their endowment unless the group donation exceeded a threshold needed to maintain the forest. Extrinsic motivations, rather than intrinsic, tended to lead to successful cooperation to maintain a forest. Certainty of losing individual payoffs significantly boosted successful cooperative conservation efforts across cultures (success rates were 90.63% and 74.19% in the 2 risk-extrinsic conditions, and 43.75% in the control condition). In U.S. participants, 2 extrinsic incentives, priming discussions of the value of forests and delay of payoffs as punishment, also increased success of cooperative conservation (success rates were 97.22% and 76.92% in the 2 extrinsic-incentive conditions, and 29.19% and 30.77% in the 2 control conditions). Conservation simulations, like those we used, may allow educators to encourage forest protection by leading groups to experience successful cooperation and the extrinsic incentives needed to motivate forest conservation.     

Nutraceuticals and mitochondrial oxidative stress: bridging the gap in the management of bronchial asthma

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease primarily characterized by inflammation and reversible bronchoconstriction. It is currently one of the...