Integrating long-term stewardship goals into the remediation process: natural resource damages and the Department of Energy

The United States and other developed countries are faced with restoring and managing degraded ecosystems. Evaluations of the degradation of ecological resources can be used for determining ecological risk, making remediation or restoration decisions, aiding stakeholders with future land use decisions, and assessing natural resource damages. Department of Energy (DOE) lands provide a useful case study for examining degradation of ecological resources in light of past or present land uses and natural resource damage assessment (NRDA). We suggest that past site history should be incorporated into the cleanup and restoration phase to reduce the ultimate NRDA costs, and hasten resource recovery. The lands that DOE purchased over 50 years ago ranged from relatively undisturbed to heavily impacted farmland, and the impact that occurred from DOE occupation varies from regeneration of natural ecosystems (benefits) to increased exposure to several stressors (negative effects). During the time of the DOE releases, other changes occurred on the lands, including recovery from the disturbance effects of farming, grazing, and residential occupation, and the cessation of human disturbance. Thus, the injury to natural resources that occurred as a result of chemical and radiological releases occurred on top of recovery of already degraded systems. Both spatial (size and dispersion of patch types) and temporal (past/present/future land use and ecological condition) components are critical aspects of resource evaluation, restoration, and NRDA. For many DOE sites, integrating natural resource restoration with remediation to reduce or eliminate the need for NRDA could be a win-win situation for both responsible parties and natural resource trustees by eliminating costly NRDAs by both sides, and by restoring natural resources to a level that satisfies the trustees, while being cost-effective for the responsible parties. It requires integration of remediation, restoration, and end-state planning to a greater degree than is currently done at most DOE sites.     

Using GIS to Generate Spatially Balanced Random Survey Designs for Natural Resource Applications

Sampling of a population is frequently required to understand trends and patterns in natural resource management because financial and time constraints preclude a complete census. A rigorous probability-based survey design specifies where to sample so that inferences from the sample apply to the entire population. Probability survey designs should be used in natural resource and environmental management situations because they provide the mathematical foundation for statistical inference. Development of long-term monitoring designs demand survey designs that achieve statistical rigor and are efficient but remain flexible to inevitable logistical or practical constraints during field data collection. Here we describe an approach to probability-based survey design, called the Reversed Randomized Quadrant-Recursive Raster, based on the concept of spatially balanced sampling and implemented in a geographic information system. This provides environmental managers a practical tool to generate flexible and efficient survey designs for natural resource applications. Factors commonly used to modify sampling intensity, such as categories, gradients, or accessibility, can be readily incorporated into the spatially balanced sample design.     

An Interpretive Study of Yosemite National Park Visitors’ Perspectives Toward Alternative Transportation in Yosemite Valley

The National Park Service (NPS) is increasingly focusing on alternative transportation systems in national parks to address environmental and social problems arising from a historical reliance on personal automobiles as the primary means of visitor access. Despite the potential advantages, alternative transportation may require a reorientation in the way that Americans have experienced national parks since the advent of auto-tourism in the early twentieth century. Little research exists, however, on visitor perspectives towards alternative transportation or the rationale underlying their perspectives. It remains unclear how transportation systems affect visitors’ experiences of the park landscape or the factors influencing their travel behavior in the parks. This report presents an interpretive study of visitor perspectives toward transportation management in the Yosemite Valley area of Yosemite National Park, California. Qualitative analysis of 160 semi-structured interviews identified individual psychological factors as well as situational influences that affect visitors’ behavior and perspectives. Individual psychological factors include perceived freedom, environmental values and beliefs, prior experience with Yosemite National Park and other national parks, prior experience with alternative transportation in national parks, and sensitivity to subjective perceptions of crowding. Situational factors included convenience, access, and flexibility of travel modes, as well as type of visit, type of group, and park use level. Interpretive communication designed to encourage voluntary visitor use of alternative transportation should focus on these psychological and situational factors. Although challenges remain, the results of this study suggest approaches for shaping the way Americans visit and experience their national parks to encourage environmental sustainability.     

Signs that encourage internalized recycling: Clinical validation, weak messages and “creative elaboration”

Two experiments examined clinical validation's ability to increase examination of a persuasive message and increase long-term recycling. In Experiment 1, validating (acknowledging) recycling's inconvenience decreased criticism of the persuasive message, supporting validation's ability to reduce reactance and open the reader to new ideas. Validation did not improve attitudes towards the sign's author, removing liking for the communicator as an alternate explanation for attitude change. In Experiment 2, different recycling signs were created from a 2(no validation/validation) by 2(weak/strong arguments) factorial design, and placed in university buildings. The validation weak sign increased recycling more than the validation strong sign, especially after the signs were removed. We suggest that validation induced people to scrutinize the weak message and use their existing pro-recycling attitudes to “creatively elaborate” it. Discussion emphasizes clinical validation and the Elaboration Likelihood Model as theoretical tools, as well as the potential for thought provoking signs to have long-term effects.     

Measuring progress towards sustainable development: an ecological framework for selecting indicators

There are now numerous sustainable development evaluation methods to evaluate sustainable development progress. Which one to use will depend on the resources, the goals and the stakeholders. Ideally the method selected and its indicators would themselves indicate how to achieve sustainable development. Such a choice can be difficult without a framework to help ensure the representation of the essential elements of sustainable development.

This paper presents such a framework by drawing on ecological terminology to define aspects of sustainable development as manifested in the natural world. Examples of how these can be measured are provided along with an explanation of how the components of the framework contribute to achieving sustainable development in social systems.     

Flooding and the Role of Planning in England and Wales: A Critical Review

In this paper the authors raise some important questions about the extent to which planning is fostering an environment susceptible to flooding. They argue that severe UK flooding incidents in recent years should result in the government re-examining the planning system to ensure relevancy and effectiveness in dealing with such problems in the future. They identify where the current policy and practice weaknesses lie in planning to limit both flood source and flood impact areas and suggest ways in which the government and the profession could take remedial steps to increase local and regional sustainability.     

Aerosol composition as a function of haze and humidity levels in the Southwestern U.S.

The observed composition of visibility-reducing aerosols in the Grand Canyon region is summarized in climatological terms. Observations are from SCENES, a measurement program extending from 1984 to 1989. Results are presented as average mass balances stratified by various factors.Aerosols were found to exhibit substantial seasonal variation, but little systematic diurnal variation. Crustal material was a dynamic component, and peaked during springtime. Aerosol composition, but not total concentration, depended strongly on ambient relative humidity, with crustal material augmented at low humidities and sulfates augmented at high humidities. Total fine-particle concentrations correlated strongly with light scattering, as expected; however, little association between chemical composition and light scattering was observed.     

Sex-specific effects of parasites on telomere dynamics in a short-lived passerine—the blue tit

The pollination syndrome concept implies that flowers evolved with particular sets of characteristics, such as colors, shapes, orientations, and rewards, as a means of attracting pollinators. However, these traits may have also evolved to deter unwanted visitors. The North American genus Penstemon exhibits a great floral diversity that is mainly associated with bumblebee and hummingbird pollination. Evolutionary shifts from insect pollination to hummingbird pollination have occurred in Penstemon repeatedly, but some species maintain mixed-pollination systems and intermediate floral traits between bee- and hummingbird-pollination modes. The apparently intermediate floral traits of species with mixed-pollination systems might be potentially acting to deter bumblebee foragers. Then, bird-flower traits might be selected with increased hummingbird visitation over evolutionary time might, resulting in specialization to and the evolution of floral traits present in hummingbird-pollinated species. Here, we modified bee-pollination floral traits in Penstemon gentianoides with a mixed pollination system, to resemble hummingbird-pollination traits, and measured the effects of trait modification on bumblebee foraging behavior and plant female reproductive fitness. Our results showed that reduction in the width of the corolla tube and the absence of the corolla lip negatively affects bumblebee visitation and their efficiency as pollinators, and that the synergistic interaction of both traits enhanced the “anti-bee” effect. We conclude that acquisition of floral traits that resemble those of hummingbird-pollination enables Penstemon plant species to deter bumblebee visits.