A view from the periphery

The author describes his background and relationship to the behavioral geography revolution at Clark. Key events included the independent invention of ‘turf maps’, the Place Perception Project of Blaut, Stea and McCleary, and the synergy of an exceptional cluster of faculty and students. The influence of the revolution on the author's own research has resulted in a radical redirection of effort toward applied research on children's environmental behavior, geographic learning, and participatory design methods in particular.     

Muskox status,recent variation,and uncertain future

Ambio - Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) are an integral component of Arctic biodiversity. Given low genetic diversity, their ability to respond to future and rapid Arctic change is unknown, although...     

Effects of Nighttime Chemistry upon the Transport of Ozone and Ozone Precursors

It has been recognized for several years that ozone in rural areas can exceed the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for photochemical oxidant whirh was 0.08 ppm for one hour, not to be exceeded more than once per year. During the summer of 1973, the NAAQS was exceeded from 15 to 37% of the time at four rural monitoring sites in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia.¹ This is a greater violation rate than is found in many urban areas. Dimitriades and Altshuller² have enumerated four possible sources for this rural ozone: (a) transport from urban areas, (b) local photochemical generation from urban ozone precursors, (c) local photochemical generation from precursors of rural origin which may be man-made or natural, and (d) injection of stratospheric ozone into the rural area. This paper considers the chemistry pertinent to the first two of these possible sources of rural ozone, namely the long distance (overnight) transport of ozone and ozone precursors.     

Organochlorine contaminants in complete clutches of Morelet's crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii) eggs from Belize

Seven complete clutches of Morelet's crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii) eggs were collected in northern Belize and examined for organochlorine (OC) pesticide residues. The primary OC detected, p,p-DDE, was found in every egg analyzed (n=175). Other OCs detected included p,p-DDT, p,p-DDD, methoxychlor, aldrin, and endosulfan I. Concentrations of individual OCs ranged from 4 ppb (ng chemical/g egg wet weight) to greater than 500 ppb. A statistical evaluation of p,p-DDE levels in three complete clutches was used to derive the minimum number of eggs needed from a clutch to precisely determine the mean p,p-DDE concentration representative of that clutch. Sample sizes of 8 (80% confidence level) and 11 (90% confidence level) were determined to yield an accurate estimate of contaminant levels in a full clutch of eggs. The statistically recommended sample size of 11 eggs (at 90% confidence level) was successfully tested on the four additional clutches.     

Trace element concentration in tree-rings biomonitoring centuries of environmental change

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to examine trace element concentration in tree-rings over three and half centuries to assess macro-trends of environmental change. Tree-rings of a 350+ year old mammoth ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) were analyzed for element concentration and evaluated versus local and global historical events. The ponderosa pine was located 100 miles south of the Canada/USA border and 180 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, and grew near apple orchards, a public road, and Swakane Creek in western Washington, USA. The elements tested did not all display the same time versus concentration patterns. Copper and chromium displayed cyclic concentration patterns over the last 350+ years, which appear to be associated with local events. Strontium, barium, zinc and cadmium were found to be relatively constant between the mid 1600s and the early 1800s. Strontium, barium, zinc, and cadmium then increased beginning in the early 1800s for approximately 50 years then decreased to present day 2000. Significantly, similar changes seen in Ca, Mg, and Zn in other studies have been attributed to acid rain, whereas, in our study area there is no history of anthropogenic acid rain. Most importantly, our data goes back to the mid-1600s several hundred years further back than most other studies of this nature. This additional time data provides for a better context of trend data not previously available.     

Assessing four methods for establishing native plants on urban vacant land

Urban greening increases vegetation and can restore ecological functions to urban systems. It has ties to restoration ecology, which aims to return degraded land to diverse, functional ecosystems. Both practices can be applied to maximizing ecosystem services and habitat in vacant lots, which are abundant in post-industrial cities, including Chicago, Illinois (USA), where our study took place. We tested four methods for increasing native plant diversity in vacant lots, ranging from low input to resource-intensive: seed bombing, broadcast seeding, planting plugs, and gardening. After three growing seasons, we assessed the growth of eight target native species and all non-target species. We expected that intensive treatments would have more target species stems and flowers and fewer non-target species, but we found that less-intensive options often produce equal or better results. From this, we recommend broadcast seeding as a viable, low-cost method for improving habitat and biodiversity in vacant lots.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01383-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A review of public acceptance of nature-based solutions: The ‘why’, ‘when’, and ‘how’ of success for disaster risk reduction measures

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly recognized as sustainable approaches to address societal challenges. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) has benefited by moving away from purely ‘grey’ infrastructure measures towards NbS. However, this shift also furthers an increasing trend of reliance on public acceptance to plan, implement and manage DRR measures. In this review, we examine how unique NbS characteristics relate to public acceptance through a comparison with grey measures, and we identify influential acceptance factors related to individuals, society, and DRR measures. Based on the review, we introduce the PA-NbS model that highlights the role of risk perception, trust, competing societal interests, and ecosystem services. Efforts to increase acceptance should focus on providing and promoting awareness of benefits combined with effective communication and collaboration. Further research is required to understand interconnections among identified factors and how they can be leveraged for the success and further uptake of NbS.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01502-4.     

Chloroplastic responses of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) seedlings to ozone exposure

Integrity of chloroplast membranes is essential to photosynthesis. Loss of thylakoid membrane integrity has been proposed as a consequence of ozone (O(3)) exposure and therefore may be a mechanistic basis for decreased photosynthetic rates commonly associated with ozone exposure. To investigate this hypothesis, Pinus ponderosa seedlings were exposed to ambient air or ozone concentrations maintained at 0.15 or 0.30 microliter l(-1) for 10 h day(-1) for 51 days during their second growing season. Over the course of the study, foliage samples were periodically collected for thylakoid membrane, chlorophyll and protein analyses. Additionally, gas-exchange measurements were made in conjunction with foliage sampling to verify that observed chloroplastic responses were associated with ozone-induced changes in photosynthesis.Needles exposed to elevated ozone exhibited decreases in chlorophyll a and b content. The decreases were dependent on the duration and intensity of ozone exposure. When based on equal amounts of chlorophyll, ozone-exposed sample tissue exhibited an increase in total protein. When based on equal amounts of protein, ozone-exposed samples exhibited an increase in 37 kDa proteins, possibly consisting of breakdown products, and a possible decrease in 68 kDa proteins, Rubisco small subunit. There was also a change in the ratio of Photosystem I protein complexes CPI and CPII that may have contributed to decreased photosynthesis. Net photosynthetic rates were decreased in the high ozone treatment suggesting that observed structural and biochemical changes in the chloroplast were associated with alterations of the photosynthetic process.     

Influence of an artificial reef on the surrounding infaunal community

Artificial reefs have been constructed throughout the world, but their effects on adjacent soft-bottom communities are largely unknown. In December 1986, we investigated the influence of Pendleton Artificial Reef (PAR) in Southern California on the abundance of infauna in the surrounding sand bottom. PAR was constructed in 1980 of quarry rock placed in eight piles, or modules. The artificial reef altered the grain-size distribution of sediments around the reef; sediments close to the modules were coarser than those 10 or 20 m away from the modules. Densities of one of the two most common species, the polychaetePrionospio pygmaeus, were lower near the reef, perhaps due to foraging by reef-associated predators or because the habitat near the reef was less suitable. We found no evidence that foraging by reef-associated fishes caused a widespread reduction in infaunal densities near the reef, and in fact the other most common taxon,Spiophanes spp., had higher densities near the reef. The most conspicuous effect of the artificial reef concerned the tube-dwelling wormDiopatra ornata, which only occurred in close association with the modules. In addition, total infaunal density and the densities of decapods, echinoderms and sipunculids were higher withinD. ornata beds than outside the beds. These results indicate that the densities of some species were enhanced, and others depressed, around the reef, but that the overall effect of the artificial reef on the surrounding infauna was limited to a small area near the modules.     

Incorporating stakeholder decision support needs into an integrated regional Earth system model

A new modeling effort exploring the opportunities, constraints, and interactions between mitigation and adaptation at regional scale is utilizing stakeholder engagement in an innovative approach to guide model development and demonstration, including uncertainty characterization, to effectively inform regional decision making. This project, the integrated Regional Earth System Model (iRESM), employs structured stakeholder interactions and literature reviews to identify the most relevant adaptation and mitigation alternatives and decision criteria for each regional application of the framework. The information is used to identify important model capabilities and to provide a focus for numerical experiments. This paper presents the stakeholder research results from the first iRESM pilot region. The pilot region includes the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwest portion of the United States as well as other contiguous states. This geographic area (14 states in total) permits cohesive modeling of hydrologic systems while also providing strong gradients in climate, demography, land cover/land use, and energy supply and demand. The results from the stakeholder research indicate that, for this region, iRESM should prioritize addressing adaptation alternatives in the water resources, urban infrastructure, and agriculture sectors, including water conservation, expanded water quality monitoring, altered reservoir releases, lowered water intakes, urban infrastructure upgrades, increased electric power reserves in urban areas, and land use management/crop selection changes. For mitigation in this region, the stakeholder research implies that iRESM should focus on policies affecting the penetration of renewable energy technologies, and the costs and effectiveness of energy efficiency, bioenergy production, wind energy, and carbon capture and sequestration.