Abstract Wild plant species provide a variety of ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being. However, much of the legacy of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in Japan is rapidly being lost because of environmental changes; therefore, it is important to study the relationship between TEK of ecosystem management practices and plant diversity. Our study area is located in the southwest of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. We compared plant diversity among three land management types including traditional, labor-saving, and land abandonment sites, where we recorded 103 useful plant species based on interviews concerning the traditional use of local ecological resources; among them, 45 species are used for horse livestock, 32 for agriculture, 16 as edible plants, and 19 for manufacture of diverse every-day life goods. Data analyses demonstrated that useful plant diversity was significantly higher in the traditional sites than in other sites. We found highly diverse traditional uses of plant species (e.g., edible plants, horse feed, and rainwear) provided by TEK of local management. These results imply that when local farmers perform traditional management practices, they increase plant species diversity. With our work we investigated the effect of the loss of cultural values and the impact of biodiversity changes on the opportunities that people have to use ecosystem resources in Japan. This aspect particularly highlights the urgency of reconnecting nature and people. Conservation planning based on TEK has been and will be vital in addressing the goal of reducing biodiversity loss on a global scale.

Abstract The development of conservation strategies for nontimber forest products requires the characterization of the management systems and ethnoecological knowledge of the used species, as well as the analysis of the biological impacts of these processes. This study aimed to evaluate management systems and extractivist areas and related ethnoecological knowledge of Dimorphandra gardneriana (fava d’anta) in the semiarid region of Ceará, Northeast of Brazil. Fava d’anta produces fruits with high concentration of bioflavonoids, substances with various pharmacological properties, being exploited by extractivist communities in the mosaic of protected areas in Chapada do Araripe, Ceará. Ethnoecological knowledge has been concentrated on collectors who have been in activity for a longer time and/or plant the species. We identified three management systems that can impact in different ways on fava d’anta populations, depending on the area and level of human interference with the species. The extractivists respect the zoning of protected areas and do not enter in the full protection area, choosing areas with the highest tree density. The different systems produce a mosaic that creates different extraction opportunities and modifications to the local landscape and to fava d’anta populations. Factors that may have effects on the conservation of the species are the lack of supervision and overexploitation of the resource in native areas, while the factors that affect the health of extractivists are the infrastructure of the work and exposure to wild environments.

Abstract Illegal activities and use of park resources are the main challenges facing mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) conservation and the protection of their habitats in the East Africa’s Greater Virunga Transboundary Landscape (GVTL). Indigenous residents around GVTL are considered the primary illegal users of park resources. Despite this, there is limited understanding of the current and past perceptions of indigenous residents living in communities adjacent to two GVTL parks; Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda. Equally, there is also limited understanding regarding the actual incidences of illegal activities inside both parks. This paper addresses these gaps. Perception data were collected from indigenous residents living adjacent to both parks. Further, Ranger-based Monitoring (RbM) data from both parks were analyzed to determine actual numbers and types of illegal activities over the 9-year period. Interestingly, findings indicated that residents perceived the prevalence of illegal activities to be decreasing across GVTL. To the contrary, RbM findings indicated that the number of actual illegal activities was increasing significantly, particularly in Volcanoes National Park. The discrepancy found between the two perspectives provides for a discussion of the social biases potentially present in these data, and their implications for management. Results also illuminated the subsistence-related nature of most illegal behaviors and suggest that to reduce illegal activities and local dependency on park resources, park management must work with communities and support them in tapping into alternative livelihoods and finding ways to address community household subsistence needs.

Abstract Landscapes are changing, with rural areas becoming increasingly urbanized. Children and adolescents are underrepresented in the sense-of-place literature. Our study aimed to understand how adolescent residents of a rural–urban transition area perceive and value their urbanizing landscape by examining sense of place and perceptions of landscape change. A Public Participation GIS approach, accompanied by a questionnaire survey, was applied to elicit responses from a sample of 747 students aged 12–18 in Colmenar Viejo, Madrid (Spain). Respondents’ sense of “self-in-place” or home range was small, around 1 km, although valued places were identified up to around 17 km away, and occasionally further afield. Most responses were associated with urban land, with clear difference between the urban core, strongly associated with emotions, and the suburbs, with activities. Functional locations (i.e. sports facilities) and places which were valued for their social meaning (i.e. shopping malls), could be differentiated. Students were perceptive about change processes in the urban area, but not about those on the peripheral semi-natural land. Younger children were less aware than older children of spaces outside of the town and carried out fewer activities there. Females carried out fewer outdoor activities than male adolescents. In contrast to the adult population, students were more strongly focused on urban areas than on their surrounding rural landscapes. Here, awareness-raising and incentives are needed, particularly those encouraging females into the use of areas beyond the urban land. Our results suggest a lack of meaningful integration between the core city and the periphery, with lessons for urban planners.

Shorebird researchers and land managers recognize human disturbance as a serious threat facing shorebirds. Yet, a common understanding of what defines human disturbance is lacking. To address this issue, we employed the Delphi technique, an iterative consensus-building social science method, to bring scientists and managers together to develop a shared definition of human disturbance and a list of priority human activities that could affect migratory shorebirds. During four iterative rounds, participants with extensive knowledge on human disturbance to shorebirds from varying geographic locations within the Northeastern U.S. worked together to produce a shared understanding. Through analyzing participants' open-ended responses, we identified important themes for the definition. The participants then refined and ranked these themes through surveys, and the top-ranked themes were used to draft a final definition also reviewed by the participants. Participants provided 94 human activities in response to our request to list and describe all potential human disturbances that affect shorebirds during fall migration. From there, we grouped the activities into 23 categories. Through rating and ranking tasks, participants reduced this list to 12 priority disturbance categories that represent the perceived most significant human disturbances in the Northeastern United States. We also compared responses among the different participant groups (i.e., managers, scientists, and manager/scientists), finding that groups' responses generally did not significantly differ. While nearly all participants were satisfied with the process, we provide some suggestions to improve it. The outputs of the Delphi technique have informed a best practices guidance document for shorebird management.

This study examined the role of place attachment in determining visitors' willingness to engage in climate friendly behavior in parks and support for management actions to minimize climate-change impacts. The sample consisted of visitors to Missouri State Parks (n = 1775). Place attachment was measured using 12 items of place identity, place dependence, and social bonding. Exploratory factor analysis of climate friendly behavior items revealed two dimensions: Visit based (i.e., short-term, immediate actions individuals could take during their visit) and Big Picture (i.e., advocacy actions that suggest a long-term engagement with parks). A path analysis demonstrated that the dimensions of place attachment predict climate friendly behavior and support for climate friendly management action in different ways. Specifically, place identity increased climate friendly behavior (big picture) and place dependence increased both climate friendly behavior (visit based) and support for climate friendly management action. Findings from this study provided evidence for the importance of place attachment as a means for engaging visitors in climate-related actions both in and beyond the park setting.

Constructed stormwater wetlands (CSWs) are used to address contaminants in urban stormwater such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), but their performance is variable. Ephemeral CSWs tend to be less effective than perennial CSWs at removing N and P. We asked: How does wetland vegetation and sediment affect nutrient cycling/release from sediment and vegetation in ephemeral CSWs? We focused on two ephemeral urban CSWs in Pocatello, ID, USA, one densely vegetated and the other nearly bare. We rewetted intact cores of dry wetland sediments and, separately, senesced vegetation for 1 week at the end of the summer dry period to assess whether wetland sediments and vegetation acted as sources or sinks of N and P. For both CSWs, there was a pulse of nutrients immediately following rewetting, but the magnitude of that pulse and subsequent changes in nutrient concentrations suggest different processes dominate at each wetland, driven by differences in wetland vegetation and associated sediment characteristics. There was evidence of denitrification between and during events at the vegetated wetland, but larger fluxes of P at this site suggests a tradeoff between denitrification and P release. While the experimental results suggested specific biogeochemical controls, CSW nutrient concentrations during three events were more dynamic and suggested more biogeochemical complexity than that represented in our experiment, both within events and seasonally. Ephemeral CSWs may create unique biogeochemical conditions and require careful design to ensure N and P retention. Managers will also need to consider whether perennial water sources would improve CSW function.

The use of biodiversity offsets to compensate for residual impacts on biodiversity resulting from a development or land-use change, is becoming more prevalent. While much has been published on this topic, there has been little published on the theoretical foundation on which biodiversity offsets are based. This paper seeks to unpack the theoretical and practical tenets of biodiversity offsets in relation to the public trust doctrine, responsibilities of the developer and the State, and significant unmitigable impacts on biodiversity. It was reasoned that the responsibility of the developer and the life of a biodiversity offset are finite, and that the concept of 'in perpetuity' may not exist practically and in law. It was further discovered that a sound understanding of the public trust doctrine is critical for consistent offset-based decision-making, particularly in those circumstances where an impasse between the potential significant loss to biodiversity and an indispensable need for a development or land-use change arises.

Abstract This paper offers a field tested community environmental policing model to address the pressing environmental management challenges of reducing e-waste burning in informal e-waste hubs, and enforcement against informal polluting industries more broadly. This is based on our intervention to reduce e-waste burning in a substantial informal e-waste hub in the West Bank, Palestine, a 45 km2 region in which an estimated 5–10 metric tonnes of cables are burnt daily, causing serious environmental and public health consequences. In analogous e-waste hubs in the global South, environmental management solutions have focused on economically attractive alternatives to replace cable burning or policies that integrate informal recyclers with formal e-waste management systems—achieving little success. Our paper describes a two-pronged intervention in Palestine’s e-waste hub, which reduced e-waste burning by 80% through a combination of economically competitive cable grinding services and an “active” community environmental policing initiative that lowered barriers to and successfully advocated for governmental policing of e-waste burning. Our discussion of this intervention addresses the community environmental policing literature, which has documented few successes stories of real improvements to the enforcement of environmental violations. We argue that existing strategies have relied on “passive” approaches comprised of monitoring and reporting environmental violations to advocate for change. Our strategy offers a template to improve outcomes through a more “active” approach, moving from monitoring environmental violations through understanding the rationale and dynamics of violators, identifying environmental policing barriers, and implementing a feasible and persuasive strategy to overcome them.

The population in the American West has been increasing at a rapid rate and is predicted to continue growing. As a result, the availability, use, and allocation of water throughout the West have become the source of conflict and contention. This growing conflict emphasizes the need to understand the diversity of values, beliefs, and attitudes that members of the general public throughout the West hold about the allocation of water resources. Using data collected from an internet-based survey, dimensions for basic beliefs about water conservation were developed. Respondents from the state of Colorado were clustered based on their level of agreement to these basic belief dimensions. These clustered respondents were then compared on attitudinal preferences regarding priorities for water allocation and municipal strategies for water conservation. Results supported the existence of distinct segments based on value-laden basic beliefs about water conservation and the connection of these segments with preferences toward specific water management strategies. Values-based segmentation, when connected with specific preferences for management actions, can help inform water managers when making future water conservation and policy decisions.

Groundwater is one of the main resources for social-ecological systems. As part of the total water cycle and deeply connected with land use, groundwater management faces many challenges, especially in coastal areas. Landscape Scale Planning is an emerging approach for land use planning providing a framework for management based on evidence, given that landscapes have physical and information flows. Landscape Scale Planning embraces the following three dimensions: (i) the spatial dimension centres on the recognition of distinct landscape units; (ii) the temporal dimension entails past, current and future uses of a landscape; and (iii) the modification dimension involves the anthropogenic alterations that affected and will affect the landscape and its features along the spatial and temporal dimensions. Through a systematic literature review of 28 selected publications, this paper explores how groundwater management can be improved through a Landscape Scale Planning approach. The results show that Landscape Scale Planning can be applied as an integrative framework for groundwater management. Landscape units based on, but not limited to, geology, topography, cultural and socio-economic aspects can aid groundwater management to consider the differing spatial and temporal characteristics of the aquifer. Landscape Scale Planning can also favour the inclusion of land use change dynamics in groundwater management processes. To this end, the paper proposes guidelines for applying Landscape Scale Planning to inform groundwater management and consider land use changes.

Natural resource trustee agencies must determine how much, and what type of environmental restoration will compensate for injuries to natural resources that result from releases of hazardous substances or oil spills. To fulfill this need, trustees, and other natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) practitioners have relied on a variety of approaches, including habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) and resource equivalency analysis (REA). The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Habitat-Based Resource Equivalency Method (HaBREM), which integrates REA’s reproducible injury metrics and population modeling with HEA’s comprehensive habitat approach to restoration. HaBREM is intended to evaluate injury and restoration using organisms that use the habitat to represent ecological habitat functions. This paper seeks to expand and refine the use of organism-based metrics (biomass-based REA), providing an opportunity to integrate sublethal injuries to multiple species, as well as the potential to include error rates for injury and restoration parameters. Applied by NRDA practitioners in the appropriate context, this methodology can establish the relationship between benefits of compensatory restoration projects and injuries to plant or animal species within an affected habitat. HaBREM may be most effective where there are appropriate data supporting the linkage between habitat and species gains (particularly regionally specific habitat information), as well as species-specific monitoring data and predictions on the growth, density, productivity (i.e., rate of generation of biomass or individuals), and age distributions of indicator species.

Abstract There is increasing interest among scholars in producing information that is useful and usable to land and natural resource managers in a changing climate. This interest has prompted transitions from scientist- to stakeholder-driven or collaborative approaches to climate science. A common indicator of successful collaboration is whether stakeholders use the information resulting from the projects in which they are engaged. However, detailed examples of how stakeholders use climate information are relatively scarce in the literature, leading to a challenge in understanding what researchers can and should expect and plan for in terms of stakeholder use of research findings. Drawing on theoretical, typological, and evaluation insights from the field of information use, we examine stakeholder use of climate information emerging from 13 collaborative climate science projects conducted in the western United States between 2012 and 2016. Three primary types of use emerge from our findings—conceptual, instrumental, and justification—reflecting common typologization of information use. Conceptual use was the most predominant. We suggest that researcher awareness of this typology can enable more systematic understanding of what project outputs stakeholders use and impacts of those outputs, giving way to new areas of inquiry and aiding in the conceptualization and design of climate information products for land and natural resource managers.

Agroforestry plays an important role in climate mitigation through atmospheric carbon removal by photosynthetic activity of tree. However, the carbon sequestration potential of smallholder’s agroforestry’s parklands is not well documented in Burkina Faso. Therefore, agroforestry parkland of smallholders’ farmers in three climatic zones was studied. Thirty household farmlands in each climatic zone representing about 35 ha were selected on which systematic woody species inventory and dendrometry data collections were undertaken. Nondestructive method using fitted allometrics equations was used to compute carbon stock. Sustainability analysis of carbon sequestration potential was done using ]0–10], ]10–40], and ]40–110 cm] diameter class as long term, medium term, and short term, respectively. The balance between marketable carbon value and the trade-off from tree conservation of three major crops was also analyzed. The results revealed 24.71 ± 5.84 tCO2 ha−1, 28.35 ± 5.84 tCO2 ha−1, and 33.86 ± 5.84 tCO2 ha−1 in Ouahigouya, Sapouy, and Bouroum-Bouroum at p < 0.1 respectively. Long- and short-term carbon sequestration potential was attributed to Ouahigouya with 1.82 and 68.03%, respectively. With, the medium term analysis Sapouy came first with 71.71% of total amount of carbon. The marketable carbon value was less than trade-off value resulting in keeping trees and crop production. The balance analysis revealed that carbon payment system promoted by REDD+ initiative will be profitable and compensable to smallholder farmers effort to plant and keep tree when the tCO2 ha−1 price will be around US$ 4.00. By taking into account farmers’ interests and profitability on carbon market will be the most relevant incentive method to enhance carbon stock in agroforestry parkland.

Understanding the extent of human–primate conflict in areas where habitat overlap reaches at maximum level between local farmers and primates is crucial to developing conservation and management strategies. One of the threats of southern geladas (Theropithecus gelada obscurus) is conflict with the local farmers due to cereal crop raiding. This study was carried out to compare the intensity of human–gelada conflicts and the attitude of local farmers toward the conservation of geladas among local communities neighboring Borena Sayint National Park (BSNP) and an unprotected site far from the BSNP. Data from 356 randomly selected respondents were collected using questionnaire interview method. Overall, 92.13% of the respondents considered southern geladas as cereal crop pests. Those major complaints against geladas did not differ significantly between the two study sites: crop raiding (p = 0.435) and competition with livestock for pasture (p = 0.990). Overall, 61.78% of the respondents surrounding the Park had positive attitude while 60.00% from the unprotected villages had negative attitude toward geladas, and the difference was significant (p < 0.001). Most of the respondents from both sites had labor bottleneck and station themselves in the sites to guard their cereal crops from being raided by southern geladas. Respondents from the Park boundaries had more interest on the conservation of geladas than those respondents from the unprotected site (p < 0.001). Conservation education program and better human–gelada conflict mitigation measures should be taken to change the negative conservation attitude of local famers toward the southern geladas.

Natural resource managers urgently need to adapt to climate change, and extension services are increasingly using targeted communication campaigns to promote individual engagement with adaptation. This study compares two groups of Swedish forest owners: 1493 who participated in two climate communication projects by the Swedish Forest Agency, and 909 who were randomly sampled. The study finds statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of climate change awareness and concern, belief in the urgency to act and intentions to take adaptive measures. Results suggest that the primary effect of the climate chance communication seems to have been on forest owners’ subjective risk perceptions and beliefs in their knowledge and ability, which make it more likely that individuals will take adaptive action in the future. The study also finds that experience with extreme events affects people’s intentions to take adaptive measures independently from their beliefs that these extremes were caused by climate change. Furthermore, findings also highlight the need for communication research and practice to recognise the impeding role social norms and economic rationales can play for individual adaptation. Future research should make use of longitudinal and qualitative research to assess the effect of deliberation- and solution-orientated communication on people’s intentions and actions to adapt to climate change.

Although the link between agriculture and diffuse water pollution has been understood for decades, there is still a need to implement effective measures to address this issue. In countries with light-touch regulation, such as New Zealand and Australia, most efforts to promote environmental management practices have relied on voluntary initiatives such as participatory research and extension programmes; the success of which is largely dependent on farmers’ willingness and ability to adopt these practices. Increased understanding of the factors influencing farmer decision-making in this area would aid the promotion of effective advisory services. This study provides insights from 52 qualitative interviews with farmers and from observations of nine farmer meetings and field days. We qualitatively identify factors that influence farmer decision-making regarding the voluntary uptake of water quality practices and develop a typology for categorising farmers according to the factors that influence their decision-making. We find that in light-touch regulated countries certainty around policy and also around the effectiveness of practices is essential, particularly for farmers who delay action until compelled to act due to succession or regulation. The contribution of this paper is threefold: (i) it identifies factors influencing decision-making around the uptake of water quality practices in a light-touch regulated country; (ii) it develops a typology of different farmer types; and (iii) it provides recommendations on policy approaches for countries with light-touch regulation, which has potential relevance for any countries facing changes regarding their agricultural policy, such as post-Brexit policy in the UK.

Abstract The role of aquatic resources to food security is both promising and constrained since the global seafood consumption is increasing while marine fisheries approach the limit of what it can produce. In Sweden, the seafood consumption per capita is higher than the European and world average but the current dietary advice is to increase consumption. Freshwater fisheries have in general been paid less attention in food security discussions. Carp fishes (Cyprinidae) in Sweden have lost their historical value and are currently, both understudied and underutilized. Here we use a combined environmental assessment approach to examine the environmental sustainability of current and potential cyprinid fisheries. We found that current commercial fisheries for Swedish cyprinids in lakes have an average carbon footprint of 0.77 kg CO2e per kg of edible product, substantially smaller than most of the popular marine and terrestrial protein sources consumed in Sweden today. This could be even lower if cyprinid resources were better utilized than currently. The cyprinids however exhibited different vulnerability to fishing pressure and are today associated with data deficiencies. Hence, it is currently uncertain how much food for human consumption they can contribute to. Improved consumer interest and management attention is needed, but to the Swedish diet, cyprinids offer a promising opportunity for future more sustainable and nutritious food systems.

Water level variation has an important role in the biology of fish species, driving behavior, feeding, and reproduction both in natural and modified environments. In reservoirs, different dam operation schemes result in alternative patterns of water level fluctuations. Storage (STR) reservoirs accumulate water and can vary the water level unpredictably, whereas this variation is more discrete in run-of-river (ROR) reservoirs. For this reason, ROR reservoirs are commonly presumed to be less environmentally harmful than STR reservoirs. We used multivariate autoregressive models (MAR) to compare the stability and species interactions of fish assemblages from two reservoirs under alternative operation schemes, using long-term data (15 years). We hypothesized that the lower variability of water level in the ROR reservoir would coincide with a more stable fish assemblage than in the STR reservoir. Contrary to our expectation, the MAR properties related to resilience and resistance indicated that the fish assemblage from the ROR was less stable than that from the STR reservoir. This suggests that the absence of water level variation limits the potential direct (movement and reproduction of fish) and indirect (primary production and nutrient input) benefits for fish that arise from the temporal environmental heterogeneity. Most importantly, this study highlights the need to reexamine the implications of ROR reservoirs on the health of aquatic communities. At least for fish, management actions should include varying the water level in a regime as similar as possible to the natural flow regime of the river, in order to improve the state of assemblages.

Working rangelands and natural areas span diverse ecosystems and face both ecological and economic threats from weed invasion. Restoration practitioners and land managers hold a voluminous cache of place-based weed management experience and knowledge that has largely been untapped by the research community. We surveyed 260 California rangeland managers and restoration practitioners to investigate invasive and weedy species of concern, land management goals, perceived effectiveness of existing practices (i.e., prescribed fire, grazing, herbicide use, and seeding), and barriers to practice implementation. Respondents identified 196 problematic plants, with yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis L.) and medusahead (Elymus caput-medusae L.) most commonly listed. Reported adoption and effectiveness of weed management practices varied regionally, but the most highly rated practice in general was herbicide use; however, respondents identified considerable challenges including nontarget effects, cost, and public perception. Livestock forage production was the most commonly reported management goals (64% of respondents), and 25% of respondents were interested in additional information on using grazing to manage invasive and weedy species; however, 19% of respondents who had used grazing for weed management did not perceive it to be an effective tool. Across management practices, we also found common barriers to implementation, including operational barriers (e.g., permitting, water availability), potential adverse impacts, actual effectiveness, and public perception. Land manager and practitioner identified commonalities of primary weeds, management goals, perceived practice effectiveness, and implementation barriers across diverse bioregions highlight major needs that could be immediately addressed through management–science partnerships across the state’s expansive rangelands and natural areas.

A common land and water management task is to determine where and by how much source loadings need to change to meet water quality limits in receiving environments. This paper addresses the problem of quantifying changes in loading when limits are specified in many locations in a large and spatially heterogeneous catchment, accounting for cumulative downstream impacts. Current approaches to this problem tend to use either scenario analysis or optimization, which suffer from difficulties of generating scenarios that meet the limits, or high complexity of optimization approaches. In contrast, we present a novel method in which simple catchment models, load limits, upstream/downstream spatial relationships and spatial allocation rules are combined to arrive at source load changes. The process iteratively establishes the critical location (river segment or lake) where the limits are most constraining, and then adjusts sources upstream of the critical location to meet the limit at that location. The method is demonstrated with application to New Zealand (268,000 km2) for nutrients and the microbial indicator E. coli, which was conducted to support policy development regarding water quality limits. The model provided useful insights, such as a source load excess (the need for source load reduction) even after mitigation measures are introduced in order to comply with E. coli limits. On the other hand, there was headroom (ability to increase source loading) for nutrients. The method enables assessment of the necessary source load reductions to achieve water quality limits over broad areas such as large catchments or whole regions.

Ecological connectivity depends on key elements within the landscape, which can support ecological fluxes, species richness and long-term viability of a biological community. Landscape planning requires clear aims and quantitative approaches to identify which key elements can reinforce the spatial coherence of protected areas design. We aim to explore the probability of the ecological connectivity of forest remnants and amphibian species distributions for current and future climate scenarios across the Central Corridor of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Integrating amphibian conservation, climate change and ecological corridors, we design a landscape ranking based on graph and circuit theories. To identify the sensitivity of connected areas to climate-dependent changes, we use the Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate by means of simulations for 2080–2100, representing a moderated emission scenario within an optimistic context. Our findings indicate that more than 70% of forest connectivity loss by climate change may drastically reduce amphibian dispersal in this region. We show that high amphibian turnover rates tend to be greater in the north-eastern edges of the corridor across ensembles of forecasts. Our spatial analysis reveals a general pattern of low-conductance areas in landscape surface, yet with some well-connected patches suggesting potential ecological corridors. Atlantic Forest reserves are expected to be less effective in a near future. For improved conservation outcomes, we recommend some landscape paths with low resistance values across space and time. We highlight the importance of maintaining forest remnants in the southern Bahia region by drafting a blueprint for functional biodiversity corridors.

Decades of study indicate that copper oral exposures are typically not a human health concern. Ingesting high levels of soluble copper salts can cause acute gastrointestinal symptoms and, in uncommon cases, liver toxicity in susceptible individuals with repeated exposure. This focused toxicological review evaluated the current literature since the last comprehensive reviews (2007–2010). Our review identified limitations in the existing United States and international guidance for determining an oral reference dose (RfD) for essential metals like copper. Instead, an alternative method using categorical regression analysis to develop an optimal dose that considers deficiency, toxicity, and integrates information from human and animal studies was reviewed for interpreting an oral RfD for copper. We also considered subchronic or chronic toxicity from genetic susceptibility to copper dysregulation leading to rare occurrences of liver and other organ toxicity with elevated copper exposure. Based on this approach, an oral RfD of 0.04 mg Cu/kg/day would be protective of acute or chronic toxicity in adults and children. This RfD is also protective for possible genetic susceptibility to elevated copper exposure and allows for background dietary exposures. This dose is not intended to be protective of patients with rare genetic disorders for copper sensitivity within typical nutritional intake ranges, nor is it protective for those with excessive supplement intake. Less soluble mineral forms of copper in soil have reduced bioavailability as compared with more soluble copper in water and diet, which should be considered in using this RfD for risk assessments of copper.

Globally, 2.8 billion people use on-site sanitation facilities, which need regular emptying of accumulated fecal sludge. Illegal dumping from informal emptying businesses, one of the major challenges in environmental management, is widely observed. Considering Mandalay, Myanmar, this study aimed to determine why informal emptying businesses are selected and estimate the lost revenue for a formal emptying service provider (FP) due to the informal businesses. We interviewed 400 households on their recognition and experiences regarding emptying services and willingness-to-pay for improved service. Revenue loss was estimated by comparing the present and theoretical maximum revenues. Results showed that 91.0% of households recognized FP only. Among 134 emptying-experienced households, 32.8%, 59.7%, and 4.5% chose FP with legal contact, FP with illegal contact, and informal service providers, respectively. The service fees from FP with illegal contact did not become revenue for FP; this was a major informal emptying business in the city. Differently from previous studies, the major illegal dumping was done by FP in this area. A great financial loss was estimated that FP lost 76.5% of the theoretical maximum revenue due to informal business. Logistic regression analysis indicated people’s intention to shorten the waiting time through illegal contact, even by paying a higher fee. As emptying services are typically required immediately after fecal sludge is over-accumulated, shorter waiting times and faster contact methods were the reasons why the informal business was selected. Less bureaucratic and more customer friendly system could reduce revenue loss, charge more, and increase profits.

Abstract Efforts to mitigate outdoor water use in Florida’s urban landscapes increasingly include promotion of regionally appropriate landscaping based on its documented effectiveness. Targeted initiatives, however, require an understanding of mechanisms underpinning low irrigation use in single-family homes with Florida-Friendly Landscaping (FFL). This paper reports survey research conducted in southwest Florida to identify factors associated with irrigation practices among FFL clients. Results indicate that approximately half of survey participants irrigated less frequently than once per week year-round. Aesthetic considerations, horticultural knowledge, and membership in a homeowner’s association (HOA) with rules regarding yard care were key variables underlying landscape characteristics and maintenance, while property values, water conservation attitudes, lawn grass, and in-ground irrigation system use significantly predicted irrigation practices. Homes with in-ground irrigation systems were more than six times more likely to water their landscapes at least once per week during the warm season when residential outdoor water use is at its peak. A $100,000 increase in a home’s market value increased the odds of weekly watering by a multiplicative factor of two, whereas a one-point increase in a six-item Likert scale used to measure a homeowner’s water conservation attitude decreased the odds by 76%. Homes with no grass in the landscape were 71% less likely to water on a weekly basis. Providing homeowners, and HOAs, with educational resources that build on existing support for water conservation could augment adoption of low maintenance plants and sustainable practices in Florida’s urban landscapes.

Environmental contamination, a legacy of industrial activity borne by numerous sites around the world, poses health risks for surrounding communities and presents serious cleanup challenges. One such site, the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), served as an aerospace and nuclear energy research facility for over 50 years, during which time radioactive and other hazardous materials were unintentionally and intentionally released into the surrounding environment. These releases, including the partial meltdown of a sodium reactor, were hidden from the public for three decades. The site is now located in suburban Los Angeles, with 730,000 people living within a 10-mile radius. This paper evaluates the technical and social challenges underlying site cleanup at SSFL, including a complex geological setting, uncertain contaminant information, and a convoluted, evolving regulatory framework. These challenges, paired with historical secrecy on the part of responsible organizations and unclear layers of responsibility, have led to uncertainty and distrust within the surrounding community. Lessons learned from other remediated sites are assessed and recommendations for the SSFL cleanup are provided.

Abstract This study examines the engagement of Vietnamese American commercial fisheries stakeholders in the US Gulf Coast with state and federal agencies and the role that citizen science and participatory research may play in improving this engagement. Using a mixed methods study including surveys, interviews, and focus groups, findings highlight language, lack of trust, and outreach misfit as key barriers to engaging Vietnamese American stakeholders as demanded for collaborative resource management or co-management. However, findings also demonstrate the potential role for citizen science and participatory research that collaboratively engages stakeholders in research to overcome some of these barriers to engaging diverse fishing stakeholders.

Coastal sandplains provide habitat for a suite of rare and endangered plant and wildlife species in the northeastern United States. These early successional plant communities were maintained by natural and anthropogenic disturbances including salt spray, fire, and livestock grazing, but over the last 150 years, a decrease in anthropogenic disturbance frequency and intensity has resulted in a shift towards woody shrub dominance at the expense of herbaceous taxa. This study quantified the effects of more than a decade of dormant season disturbance-based vegetation management (mowing and prescribed fire) on coastal sandplain plant community composition on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, USA. We used time-series plant cover data from two similar sites to evaluate the effectiveness of disturbance management for restoring herbaceous species cover and reducing woody shrub dominance. Our results indicate that applying management outside of the peak of the growing season has not been effective in maintaining or increasing the cover of herbaceous species. While management activities resulted in significant (P < 0.01) increases in herbaceous species immediately after treatment, woody species recolonized and dominated treated sites within 3-years post treatment at the expense of graminoids and forbs. These results highlight the difficulties associated with directing ecological succession using disturbance-based management to maintain rare, herbaceous species in coastal sandplain systems that were once a prevalent landscape component under historically chronic anthropogenic disturbance. Further experimentation with growing season disturbance-based management and different combinations of management techniques could provide insights into management alternatives for maintaining herbaceous conservation targets in coastal sandplains.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underpinned by 169 targets presents national governments with huge challenges for implementation. We developed a proposal for a National Blueprint Framework (NBF) with 24 water-related indicators, centered on SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation for all), each with a specific target. We applied the NBF to 28 EU Member States (EU-28) and conclude that:

Abstract Based on a case study carried out on the Lac Saint-Pierre (LSP) World Biosphere Reserve (Québec, Canada), this paper estimates ecosystem service loss, more precisely the loss related to cultural and recreational activities of the LSP due to the fall of its water level under the pressure of climate change. We measure two dimensions of this loss. As a first step, the extrapolation of our representative survey reports $100 million annual loss in terms of recreation revenue due to the trip reduction to LSP, which is about 60% of current level. Subsequently, the travel-cost data and the contingent behavior data are combined in a revealed and stated behavior panel random-effect estimation, which reports an additional loss measured by consumer surplus that visitors can obtain from their trips up to $232 million, signifying 42% of reduction in their current value.

Abstract Road ecology research has tended to focus on wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) while omitting or failing to differentiate domestic (i.e., livestock) animal-vehicle collisions (DAVCs). This has limited our understanding of where, when, and how frequently DAVCs occur, and whether these patterns differ from those for WVCs. We used a 10-year collision data set for the U.S. state of Montana to compare temporal and spatial patterns of DAVCs versus WVCs at multiple scales. WVCs exhibited two diel peaks (dawn and dusk) versus only one prominent peak (late evening/early night) for DAVCs. Seasonal patterns of WVCs and DAVCs were broadly similar, but DAVCs exhibited a more pronounced late-fall peak. At the county scale, DAVCs were overrepresented relative to WVCs in most of eastern Montana and underrepresented in most of western Montana. WVC and DAVC hotpots did not show strong overlap at the 1-mile road segment scale. Our results suggest that DAVCs warrant greater attention, and they may represent a high priority for management and mitigation measures in some areas because (1) they can be locally common even when regionally rare, (2) they are more dangerous to motorists on a per-collision basis than WVCs, and (3) they can present a legal liability for livestock owners. Mitigation measures for DAVCs may differ from those for WVCs and require further development and testing. Future data collection efforts should include information not only on the location and timing of animal-vehicle collisions, but also on the species of animals killed.

Abstract The enactment of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) initiated scientific efforts to develop reliable methods for comparing prevailing lake conditions against reference (or nonimpaired) states, using the state of a set biological elements. Drawing a distinction between impaired and natural conditions can be a challenging exercise. Another important aspect is to ensure that water quality assessment is comparable among the different Member States. In this context, the present paper offers a constructive critique of the practices followed during the WFD implementation in Greece by pinpointing methodological weaknesses and knowledge gaps that undermine our ability to classify the ecological quality of Greek lakes. One of the pillars of WDF is a valid lake typology that sets ecological standards transcending geographic regions and national boundaries. The national typology of Greek lakes has failed to take into account essential components. WFD compliance assessments based on the descriptions of phytoplankton communities are oversimplified and as such should be revisited. Exclusion of most chroococcal species from the analysis of cyanobacteria biovolume in Greek lakes/reservoirs and most reservoirs in Spain, Portugal, and Cyprus is not consistent with the distribution of those taxa in lakes. Similarly, the total biovolume reference values and the indices used in classification schemes reflect misunderstandings of WFD core principles. This hampers the comparability of ecological status across Europe and leads to quality standards that are too relaxed to provide an efficient target for the protection of Greek/transboundary lakes such as the ancient Lake Megali Prespa.

Despite the existence of a robust body of research that investigates human-nature connections, few scholars have examined what people tend to ponder when they think of nature. The objective of the study is to find out how college and university students think about nature. The study also seeks to identify which factors are most significant in influencing students' thoughts about nature. This paper analyzes racial, gender, class, and academic differences in the way college students think about nature. The study of 287 American students found that respondents thought about a wide range of concepts and ideas when they contemplate nature. This article focuses on the demographic differences in thoughts about fear, danger, and loathing. This set of ideas has been the subject of scholarly research, and the findings presented herein contribute to this body of scholarship. The paper discusses both descriptive and multivariate techniques that are used to explore the topic. The study found that white students are less likely than racial/ethnic minorities to think about disconnection, predators, getting lost, loathsome or hateful places, fear, and danger when they think of nature. However, the results also show that it would be inaccurate to describe racial/ethnic minorities as universally fearful of and disconnected from nature. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that race is not the only explanatory variable that has significant impacts in multivariate models-the student's academic interest has significant impacts on thoughts about natural hazards, disconnection, predators, human-made hazards, and loathsome or hateful places. Gender, age, parental education, and first-generation college attendance also has significant impacts on the dependent variables.

The need to protect communities from hazardous waste is an important agenda for any nation. Although pollutant management and policy development are attempted in many developing countries, it is not always successful due to limited funds, project resources, and access to trained experts to conduct toxic site identification projects. For this reason, Pure Earth created the Toxic Site Identification Program (TSIP). The goal of the TSIP program is to provide reliable information and data that identifies location of toxic sites and the level of toxic severity. TSIP is significant because it provides developing countries a database of ranked toxic sites identified as hazardous risk to human health. For example, Azerbaijan is one of the most polluted post-Soviet nations, but has limited resources to address and manage its polluted sites. The Azerbaijani TSIP database is the first reliable data source that identifies hazardous pollutants in the country. Our study is significant because it discusses how the TSIP labels and ranks the level of toxic severity to human health. It is also the first data source in Azerbaijan that identifies which Soviet legacy toxic sites are affecting local communities. Although our study is specific to Azerbaijan, the TSIP method can be applied to nations with similar data limitations and the need for a database that identifies country specific environmental and hazardous locations. The data sampling method and results are mapped and accompanied by tables of the collected pollutant types to identify communities at greatest health-risk to legacy toxic sites.

During the last decade, China's agro-food production has increased rapidly and been accompanied by the challenge of increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental pollutants from fertilizers, pesticides, and intensive energy use. Understanding the energy use and environmental impacts of crop production will help identify environmentally damaging hotspots of agro-production, allowing environmental impacts to be assessed and crop management strategies optimized. Conventional farming has been widely employed in wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) cultivation in China, which is an important cash tree crop not only for the rural economy but also from an ecological standpoint. Energy use and global warming potential (GWP) were investigated in a wolfberry production system in the Yellow River irrigated Jingtai region of Gansu. In total, 52 household farms were randomly selected to conduct the investigation using questionnaires. Total energy input and output were 321,800.73 and 166,888.80 MJ ha-1, respectively, in the production system. The highest share of energy inputs was found to be electricity consumption for lifting irrigation water, accounting for 68.52%, followed by chemical fertilizer application (11.37%). Energy use efficiency was 0.52 when considering both fruit and pruned wood. Nonrenewable energy use (88.52%) was far larger than the renewable energy input. The share of GWP of different inputs were 64.52% electricity, 27.72% nitrogen (N) fertilizer, 5.07% phosphate, 2.32% diesel, and 0.37% potassium, respectively. The highest share was related to electricity consumption for irrigation, followed by N fertilizer use. Total GWP in the wolfberry planting system was 26,018.64 kg CO2 eq ha-1 and the share of CO2, N2O, and CH4 were 99.47%, 0.48%, and negligible respectively with CO2 being dominant. Pathways for reducing energy use and GHG emission mitigation include: conversion to low carbon farming to establish a sustainable and cleaner production system with options of raising water use efficiency by adopting a seasonal gradient water pricing system and advanced irrigation techniques; reducing synthetic fertilizer use; and policy support: smallholder farmland transfer (concentration) for scale production, credit (small- and low-interest credit) and tax breaks.

The enactment of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) initiated scientific efforts to develop reliable methods for comparing prevailing lake conditions against reference (or nonimpaired) states, using the state of a set biological elements. Drawing a distinction between impaired and natural conditions can be a challenging exercise. Another important aspect is to ensure that water quality assessment is comparable among the different Member States. In this context, the present paper offers a constructive critique of the practices followed during the WFD implementation in Greece by pinpointing methodological weaknesses and knowledge gaps that undermine our ability to classify the ecological quality of Greek lakes. One of the pillars of WDF is a valid lake typology that sets ecological standards transcending geographic regions and national boundaries. The national typology of Greek lakes has failed to take into account essential components. WFD compliance assessments based on the descriptions of phytoplankton communities are oversimplified and as such should be revisited. Exclusion of most chroococcal species from the analysis of cyanobacteria biovolume in Greek lakes/reservoirs and most reservoirs in Spain, Portugal, and Cyprus is not consistent with the distribution of those taxa in lakes. Similarly, the total biovolume reference values and the indices used in classification schemes reflect misunderstandings of WFD core principles. This hampers the comparability of ecological status across Europe and leads to quality standards that are too relaxed to provide an efficient target for the protection of Greek/transboundary lakes such as the ancient Lake Megali Prespa.

Environmental Management Systems (EMS) based on international standard ISO 14001 are recognized as a tool to improve the environment and the sustainability of organizations. Green Chemistry (GC) seeks to reduce the use and generation of hazardous substances in chemical processes. This paper studies the relationship between EMS based on ISO 14001 and GC. We have analysed their similarities, difficulties, advantages, and synergies that can be developed with a joint implementation in general and in particular on university campuses. The results show that both disciplines have in common the philosophy of Continuous Improvement in the Processes (CIP) and that their joint application is possible, since each principle of GC are related to, at least, one clause of ISO 14001. It is shown that this joint application to different university areas can generate benefits, such as the reduction of hazardous waste and the promotion of green purchases, which favour the environmental improvement of universities. However, there are problems in their joint application related to the lack of specific knowledge and the difficulty of identifying products manufactured following the criteria of GC. Furthermore, a case study in the San Jorge University showing that both disciplines can be treated together is shown. Results were the following: seven GC initiatives (proposed by a small group of GC students) were submitted to the EMS office; only one was considered nonviable and two were implemented, achieving two main goals: Reduction of the environmental impact of laboratories and promotion of green purchasing in the laboratories of San Jorge University.

Cross-regional redeployment (or relocation) of government officials has a significant effect on the local economic development and environmental protection. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces (municipalities) in China from 2001 to 2016 and the environmental pollution index obtained by Entropy method, the dynamic panel regression model was applied to verify the relationship between the officials' cross-regional redeployment and environmental pollution. The results show that environmental pollution was positively correlated with officials' relocation and their tenure after the redeployment. As the officials' tenure increases to the critical value, the positive correlation between the official's tenure and environmental pollution would change. By measuring this threshold, we find that the average critical value for China was 5.14 years, which were the same as the average tenure of Chinese officials. Moreover, the result also illustrates the difference between central eastern China and western China, with the average threshold being 4.01 years and 5.89 years, respectively. In addition, the impact of officials' cross-regional redeployment on the environment would also be affected by the initial condition of the region. According to the result, the environmental governance within the central eastern regions was better than that in the western region. In the last part of this paper, we proposed measures and suggestions, such as changing the incentive policies of officials, perfecting the local policies and the cultivate and exchange system of cadres, as well as strengthen the power of social supervision, for the sake of facilitating the healthy and green development of the regional economy.

The alteration of natural flows due to water withdrawals and the presence of hydraulic infrastructure poses significant threats to the integrity of riverine ecosystems. The establishment of environmental flows (EF) has been conceived as a water management tool to mitigate the impact of in-stream flows alteration. To date, a large body of literature has focused on methods to define EF, but less attention has been paid to documenting and assessing their actual implementation on the ground. This article provides a framework to describe and assess the process of design, application, and monitoring of EF at a river basin level. The framework is applied to Spain, where significant efforts have been made during the past decade to define and implement EF across the country. The goal of the paper is to identify strengths and opportunities for improving the implementation of EF at country level. The Spanish legislation establishes that EF should contribute to the achievement of the good ecological status of surface water bodies as required by the European Union Water Framework Directive. Several pitfalls in the design, application, and monitoring of this important river management measure constrain the ability of the existing EF to deliver that fundamental outcome.

This study demonstrates the importance of considering potential land use and management changes in climate impact research. By taking into account possible trends of economic development and environmental awareness, we assess effects of global warming on water availability and quality in the catchments of four European lagoons: Ria de Aveiro (Portugal), Mar Menor (Spain), Vistula Lagoon (Poland and Russia), and Tyligulskyi Liman (Ukraine). Different setups of the process-based soil and water integrated model (SWIM), representing one reference and four socio-economic scenarios for each study area: the "business as usual", "crisis", "managed horizons", and "set-aside" scenarios are driven by sets of 15 climate scenarios for a reference (1971-2000) and near future (2011-2040) scenario period. Modeling results suggest a large spatial variability of potential impacts across the study areas, due to differences in the projected precipitation trends and the current environmental and socio-economic conditions. While climate change may reduce water and nutrients input to the Ria de Aveiro and Tyligulsyi Liman and increase water inflow to the Vistula Lagoon the socio-economic scenarios and their implications may balance out or reverse these trends. In the intensely managed Mar Menor catchment, climate change has no notable direct impact on water resources, but changes in land use and water management may certainly aggravate the current environmental problems. The great heterogeneity among results does not allow formulating adaptation or mitigation measures at pan-European level, as initially intended by this study. It rather implies the need of a regional approach in coastal zone management.

Road ecology research has tended to focus on wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) while omitting or failing to differentiate domestic (i.e., livestock) animal-vehicle collisions (DAVCs). This has limited our understanding of where, when, and how frequently DAVCs occur, and whether these patterns differ from those for WVCs. We used a 10-year collision data set for the U.S. state of Montana to compare temporal and spatial patterns of DAVCs versus WVCs at multiple scales. WVCs exhibited two diel peaks (dawn and dusk) versus only one prominent peak (late evening/early night) for DAVCs. Seasonal patterns of WVCs and DAVCs were broadly similar, but DAVCs exhibited a more pronounced late-fall peak. At the county scale, DAVCs were overrepresented relative to WVCs in most of eastern Montana and underrepresented in most of western Montana. WVC and DAVC hotpots did not show strong overlap at the 1-mile road segment scale. Our results suggest that DAVCs warrant greater attention, and they may represent a high priority for management and mitigation measures in some areas because (1) they can be locally common even when regionally rare, (2) they are more dangerous to motorists on a per-collision basis than WVCs, and (3) they can present a legal liability for livestock owners. Mitigation measures for DAVCs may differ from those for WVCs and require further development and testing. Future data collection efforts should include information not only on the location and timing of animal-vehicle collisions, but also on the species of animals killed.

Pervasive salinity in soil and water is affecting agricultural yield and the health of millions of delta dwellers in Asia. This is also being exacerbated by climate change through increases in sea level and tropical storm surges. One consequence of this has been a widespread introduction of salt water shrimp farming. Here, we show, using field data and modeling, how changes in climate and land use are likely to result in increased salinization of shallow groundwater in SE Asian mega-deltas. We also explore possible adaptation options. We find that possible future increase of episodic inundation events, combined with salt water shrimp farming, will cause rapid salinization of groundwater in the region making it less suitable for drinking water and irrigation. However, modified land use and water management practices can mitigate the impacts on groundwater, as well as the overlying soil, from future salinization. The study therefore provides guidance for adaptation planning to reduce future salinization in Asian deltas.

Water is essential to human life around the world, but there are numerous threats to its quality both internationally and nationally. The purpose of this secondary data analysis was to examine public perceptions of water-related environmental concerns in northwest Ohio. In fall 2015, nine focus groups on environmental health conditions were conducted with Lucas County, Ohio residents. Each 90-min focus group was videotaped and professionally transcribed to maximize data capture and facilitate data analysis. Colaizzi's (1978) method of content analysis was applied to make sense of the participants' environmental concerns related to water. The majority of the 93 participants were white females between the ages of 40 and 59. A do-not-drink advisory related to a harmful algal bloom in the summer of 2014 and the possibility of a future bloom were still prominent in residents' minds that affected their perceptions and behaviors 1 year later. The emergent themes included: (1) avoiding the use of tap water due to concerns about water quality, (2) mourning the loss of a precious resource and their childhood recreational activities, (3) believing there are financial impacts associated with water problems, (4) distrusting the actions and decisions of persons in authority, (5) wanting to stop fighting about who is to blame and determine the problem's real cause, and (6) desiring actions and planning by authorities to prevent future problems. Understanding public perceptions of water-related environmental concerns can inform practitioners worldwide on successful approaches to restoring trust, educating about and communicating risk, and planning for future issues.

Despite unprecedented knowledge of conservation science, loss of biodiversity continues on a global scale. In this study, we investigate how choices are exercised where science, local and traditional knowledge come together for conservation decision-making. Our case study is the Palau Protected Areas Network, a program established to support conservation in the Pacific island nation of Palau. We apply a framework based on the concept of knowledge governance to explore the rules and norms that shape the relationships between knowledge and decision-making across both customary and Western-styled institutional lines. The major practical implications from this study are that: (1) there are internal and external audiences for Palauan conservation, (2) these audiences are associated with different expectations around what makes knowledge a legitimate basis for action, (3) the current conservation system operates in parallel, with science informing largely external audience and local and traditional knowledge speaking more directly to internal audiences and (4) this parallel system is likely to come under increasing pressure as the audiences for conservation change.

In Canada, the Fisheries Act requires all water takers to avoid, mitigate and offset fish losses. To satisfy the act's requirements, operators of power plants are required to undertake habitat restoration projects to compensate for fish impinged and entrained at cooling water intake structures. Scaling the quantity of restoration needed, and measuring whether adequate compensation has been achieved, requires a metric that expresses the losses and gains in comparable units. Development of such a metric is especially difficult in the case of power plants, because the losses often consist of a mix of species and life stages that are very different from those produced by technically feasible restoration projects. This paper documents the method that has been developed for quantifying offsets for impingement and entrainment at the Bruce Generating Stations on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, and demonstrates how the method is being used to estimate the offset to be provided by removal of a dam on the nearby Saugeen River.

We investigated the impact of Norway's current zonal carnivore management system for four large carnivore species on sheep farming. Sheep losses increased when the large carnivores were reintroduced, but has declined again after the introduction of the zoning management system. The total number of sheep increased outside, but declined slightly inside the management zones. The total sheep production increased, but sheep farming was still lost as a source of income for many farmers. The use of the grazing resources became more extensive. Losses decreased because sheep were removed from the open outfield pastures and many farmers gave up sheep farming. While wolves expel sheep farming from the outfield grazing areas, small herds can still be kept in fenced enclosures. Bears are in every respect incompatible with sheep farming. Farmers adjust to the seasonal and more predictable behavior of lynx and wolverine, although these species also may cause serious losses when present. The mitigating efforts are costly and lead to reduced animal welfare and lower income for the farmers, although farmers in peri-urban areas increasingly are keeping sheep as an avocation. There is a spillover effect of the zoning strategy in the sense that there is substantial loss of livestock to carnivores outside, but geographically near the management zones. The carnivore management policy used in Norway is a reasonably successful management strategy when the goal is to separate livestock from carnivores and decrease the losses, but the burdens are unequally distributed and farmers inside the management zones are at an economic disadvantage.

This study investigated the occurrence and removals of micropollutants in the sewage treatment tank (STT) which is a typical private wastewater treatment facility used in the rural communities in Korea, and their impact on receiving water. STTs were selected in eight provinces to examine the regional difference in the composition of micropollutant occurrence. We measured ten selected micropollutants in influents and effluents of STTs, as well as upstream and downstream of its receiving surface water. The dominant micropollutants in the influent of the STTs were caffeine (13,346 ng/L), acetaminophen (11,331 ng/L), ibuprofen (1440 ng/L), and naproxen (1313 ng/L), in agreement with the amounts produced annually in Korea. In the effluent, caffeine (1912 ng/L), acetaminophen (1586 ng/L), naproxen (475 ng/L), and ibuprofen (389 ng/L) were detected in relatively high concentrations. The composition of micropollutants in STT influents showed little regional variation by provinces, suggesting that the consumption pattern of these micropollutants did not show regional variation. The removal efficiencies of the selected micropollutants at the STTs ranged from 12% (carbamazepine) to 88% (acetaminophen), lower than typical removal by sewage treatment plants (STPs). This result is probably due to the automatic operation systems and simple treatment processes in STTs compared with STPs. The concentrations of selected micropollutants upstream of the receiving water were generally lower compared with those observed downstream, indicating that effluent from STTs was the main source. The per capita discharge loads of STTs and annual emissions rates (kg/year) from private wastewater treatment facilities were estimated for the selected micropollutants.

We developed MMI models that combine responses of fish and benthic macroinvertebrates for the evaluation of the biotic integrity of streams. The MMI was developed using a dataset covering stream sampling sites in the South of Brazil. Reference streams were identified based on the physical and chemical conditions and riparian vegetation. Thirty-four metrics were calculated and evaluated for their range, redundancy, and responsiveness to the environmental perturbation. We applied a robust approach to select the most sensitive metrics and MMI models based on the complexity and ability of the index in distinguishing impacted and reference sites. The four best MMI models selected are composed of different combinations of the eight metrics: % fish herbivorous, fish evenness, fish abundance, % macroinvertebrate shredder; % macroinvertebrate predator; % macroinvertebrate tolerant, % macroinvertebrate swimmer, and % macroinvertebrate burrower. All of the MMI models selected presented good performance in distinguishing reference streams from those impacted by different forms of land use. This study is one of the few attempts to use more than one biological assemblage in a single-multimetric index. Accordingly, we believe that the unified MMI we developed could be a useful tool to assist in the conservation and management of water resources in Neotropical regions, specially, in the implementation of ecological integrity tools more cost-effectively.

Agricultural emissions are the primary source of ammonia (NH3) deposition in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), a Class I area, that is granted special air quality protections under the Clean Air Act. Between 2014 and 2016, the pilot phase of the Colorado agricultural nitrogen early warning system (CANEWS) was developed for agricultural producers to voluntarily and temporarily minimize emissions of NH3 during periods of upslope winds. The CANEWS was created using trajectory analyses driven by outputs from an ensemble of numerical weather forecasts together with the climatological expertize of human forecasters. Here, we discuss the methods for the CANEWS and offer preliminary analyses of 33 months of the CANEWS based on atmospheric deposition data from two sites in RMNP as well as responses from agricultural producers after warnings were issued. Results showed that the CANEWS accurately predicted 6 of 9 high N deposition weeks at a lower-elevation observation site, but only 4 of 11 high N deposition weeks at a higher-elevation site. Sixty agricultural producers from 39 of Colorado's agricultural operations volunteered for the CANEWS, and a two-way line of communication between agricultural producers and scientists was formed. For each warning issued, an average of 23 producers responded to a postwarning survey. Over 75% of responding CANEWS participants altered their practices after an alert. While the current effort was insufficient to reduce atmospheric deposition, we were encouraged by the collaborative spirit between agricultural, scientific, and resource management communities. Solving a broad and complex social-ecological problem requires both a technological approach, such as the CANEWS, and collaboration and trust from all participants, including agricultural producers, land managers, university researchers, and environmental agencies.

Unfenced plains bison are rare and only occur in a small number of locations throughout Canada and the United States. We examined management guidelines for maintenance of genetic health and population persistence for a small and isolated population of plains bison that occupy the interface between a protected national park and private agricultural lands. To address genetic health concerns, we measured genetic diversity relative to other populations and assessed the potential effects of genetic augmentation. We then used individual-based population viability analyses (PVA) to determine the minimum abundance likely to prevent genetic diversity declines. We assessed this minimum relative to a proposed maximum social carrying capacity related to bison use of human agricultural lands. We also used the PVA to assess the probability of population persistence given the limiting factors of predation, hunting, and disease. Our results indicate that genetic augmentation will likely be required to achieve genetic diversity similar to that of other plains bison populations. We also found that a minimum population of 420 bison yields low probability of additional genetic loss while staying within society-based maxima. Population estimates based on aerial surveys indicated that the population has been below this minimum since 2007. Our PVA simulations indicate that current hunting practices will result in undesirable levels of population extinction risk and further declines in genetic variability. Our study demonstrates that PVA can be used to evaluate potential management scenarios as they relate to long-term genetic conservation and population persistence for rare species.

If the aim of flood risk management (FRM) is to increase society's resilience to floods, then a holistic treatment of flood risk is required that addresses flood prevention, defence, mitigation, preparation, and response and recovery. Progressing resilience-based management to flood risk requires both diversity and coordination of policy across multiple jurisdictions. Decision makers and the types of FRM policy decisions they make play a key role in implementing FRM policies and strategies that progress flood resilience. This paper explores how policy preferences held by FRM decision makers relate to the characteristics of resilient FRM policy. The research was conducted in three flood-prone provinces in western Canada using a multi-criteria analytical approach. The results show that while decision maker FRM priorities are similar across the Canadian Prairies, their preferred FRM policies differ. Further, preferred FRM policies were largely resistance-based and influenced at least as much by flood experiences and perceptions of flood risk as by more obvious administrative pressures such as cost, public acceptability, and environmental protection. Several observations emerge from these results for advancing a coordinated, diversified approach to FRM which is required for resilience, both for western Canada and for FRM more broadly.

Traditional cultural landscapes are of special value not only for reasons of nature conservation and high species diversity but also because they intersect with the identity of local communities, support recreation and tourism, and preserve cultural heritage. Structural changes in rural areas threaten these unique sceneries and environments in Europe and worldwide. As a result, the question of how to maintain and manage cultural landscapes where economic benefits are not assured has become a priority in science and in practice. Considering this context, community-based collaborative landscape management (CLM) can be considered an innovative and promising approach. This paper presents results from a stakeholder analysis examining the preconditions and opportunities for initiating a CLM in the biosphere reserve known as 'Spreewald'. The results indicate that due to the type of problem (landscape change)-which is characterised by complexity, beneficial linkages to a multitude of actor groups, and broad problem awareness-CLM appears to be feasible. However, other preconditions related to social relationships among actor groups, questions of legitimate coordination and the collaborative capacity of the community are not met, thus reducing the likelihood of success. To address these challenges, we discuss the potential of transdisciplinary processes (TD) to assist local communities in establishing such a collaborative problem-solving and management approach. We show that TD is highly valuable and supportive during this critical stage of emerging collaboration.

The protection of the aquatic environment while managing the risk of water scarcity in the Mediterranean region is challenging. Ensuring future sustainability of water resources needs improved monitoring networks and early warning system of future trends of water quality. A specific concern is given to nonpoint source pollution from agriculture, which is often the main source of water quality degradation in rivers. In this work, we focused on the Joumine river basin, a rural-catchment situated north Tunisia dominated by agricultural activities and exposed to eutrophication problems. Aiming to present an assessment framework of the spatial-temporal water quality variability and quantify "pressure-impact" relationships, we used a physically based modeling approach involving the river/basin integrated model PEGASE (Planification Et Gestion de l'ASsainissement des Eaux). PEGASE simulates watercourses physicochemical quality depending on the morphology of the drainage network, hydrometeorological conditions and natural and anthropogenic influences. Simulation results showed a better description of Joumine river water quality and helped in identifying exposed areas to nutrients export. Results have also emphasized the contribution of different pollution sources. We were able to examine the potential impact of agriculture diffuse pollution and we found that Nitrate is the element mostly threatening water quality. The nutrients patterns suggest that climate and farming practices are important factors controlling their transfer. These findings demonstrate that the adopted assessment approach in investigating the behavior of the studied hydrosystem can be a useful support to develop an appropriate surface water quality management program in a semiarid context.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast in August 2017 causing catastrophic flooding. Harris County is highly vulnerable to flooding, which is controlled in part by a system of bayous that include parks and trails. The petrochemical industry, as well as thousands of documented sources of environmental pollution make recreational areas susceptible to environmental contamination during flood events. Recreational areas and toxic exposure sources were geocoded by subwatershed boundaries and overlaid with the area of Hurricane Harvey inundation. A total of 121 of 349 (36.78%) parks were flooded; 102 of 121 (84.30%) were located in subwatersheds with at least one exposure source. A total of 337 exposure sources (6 Superfund, 32 municipal solid waste, and 299 petroleum storage tanks) in 30 subwatersheds were flooded. Though parks provide flood mitigation and other postdisaster benefits, their susceptibility to environmental contamination should be considered, especially in areas with a large number of toxic exposure sources.

Managing rivers and sharing their benefits is largely dependent on stakeholder values and knowledge, expressed through policy, governance and institutions. Adaptive management is essentially a social learning process, which can provide a tool to navigate the 'wickedness' of contemporary social-ecological challenges. This research applied an interpretive, qualitative approach to examine government intentions for adaptive management, as expressed in water policy documents, and practitioner experiences of learning through adaptive management in a case study of water management in the Lachlan catchment, Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Data were created from content analysis of government water policy documents and interviews with key water managing and policy stakeholders. Interview participants attached divergent meanings to the concept of adaptive management. Five different 'styles' of adaptive management were found to coexist in the Lachlan catchment, which were associated with different levels of learning. While some learning was ad hoc, there was also promising evidence of more active adaptive management of environmental flows, which was resulting in higher-level learning. The findings highlight a disconnect between how adaptive management is understood in the academic literature, by practitioners, and how it is portrayed in Australian water policy, which is restricting opportunities for higher-level learning. Transformative learning was found to occur in response to crisis, rather than being linked to an intentional learning process.

Package treatment plants (PTPs) are facilities designed to treat onsite wastewater for small communities, commercial, and residential developments. PTPs are being utilized in a growing number of coastal communities. This study estimated the effects of coastal tourism on onsite wastewater nitrogen (N) inputs to a barrier island surficial aquifer (Bogue Banks, NC). The N-removal effectiveness was assessed for seven PTPs that treated wastewater from vacation properties using a range of technologies: extended aeration; sequencing batch reactor; and advanced media filtration. Influent and effluent wastewater samples were collected monthly from Feb. 2014 to Jan. 2015 and analyzed for particulate and dissolved N. Increased summer visitation associated with coastal tourism resulted in an increase in water use, wastewater inputs, and PTP N loading to the surficial aquifer. However, extended aeration systems did not have significantly elevated TN loads during the summer months because their treatment efficiency increased. N inputs associated with coastal tourism made up approximately 51% of the annual wastewater-related N load to the surficial aquifer. Onsite wastewater N-loading to the surficial aquifer (6.7 kg-N/ha/yr) appeared to be the dominant source of N loading on the island. Water quality data indicated that these N inputs have resulted in increased groundwater NO3 concentrations in the surficial aquifer. Overall, wastewater inputs added approximately 4.6 cm of groundwater recharge annually to the island. Coastal tourism can result in measurable increases in wastewater N loading, groundwater nitrogen concentrations, and groundwater recharge.

Scenarios modeling can be a useful tool to plan for climate change. In this study, we help Everglades restoration planning to bolster climate change resiliency by simulating plausible ecosystem responses to three climate change scenarios: a Baseline scenario of 2010 climate, and two scenarios that both included 1.5 °C warming and 7% increase in evapotranspiration, and differed only by rainfall: either increase or decrease by 10%. In conjunction with output from a water-use management model, we used these scenarios to drive the Everglades Landscape Model to simulate changes in a suite of parameters that include both hydrologic drivers and changes to soil pattern and process. In this paper we focus on the freshwater wetlands; sea level rise is specifically addressed in prior work. The decreased rainfall scenario produced marked changes across the system in comparison to the Baseline scenario. Most notably, muck fire risk was elevated for 49% of the period of simulation in one of the three indicator regions. Surface water flow velocity slowed drastically across most of the system, which may impair soil processes related to maintaining landscape patterning. Due to lower flow volumes, this scenario produced decreases in parameters related to flow-loading, such as phosphorus accumulation in the soil, and methylmercury production risk. The increased rainfall scenario was hydrologically similar to the Baseline scenario due to existing water management rules. A key change was phosphorus accumulation in the soil, an effect of flow-loading due to higher inflow from water control structures in this scenario.

This study examines the adoption of latrines provided as part of reconstruction efforts after the 2004 tsunami in India. Primary data from 274 households encompassing 1154 individuals were collected from 14 villages. GLM and GLMM tests indicate that sex (more females adopted than males) is a statistically significant factor in latrine adoption (p = 0.046 and p = 0.005, respectively), while income, education, and male age cohorts were significant only in the GLM model. Regression analyses show that six social and demographic variables are somewhat predictive of latrine usage (R2 = 0.123). Thus, while quantitative methods provided a contextual summation, qualitative methods ultimately explained why individuals chose to adopt or abandon the latrines. Interviews (n = 76) and focus group discussions (n = 14) revealed that latrine adoption is influenced by cultural conceptualizations of purity, pollution, and space. For example, conceptualizations of purity and pollution led some households to deem latrines as profane and thus a barrier to the entry of gods, while spatial constraints forced others to convert latrine space to other beneficial uses (e.g., puja room and storage area). Finally, the cost of pumping septic tanks and shared infrastructure arose as barriers to latrine adoption. These barriers underscore the importance of economics as well as community demand, capacity, and cohesion in latrine adoption.

Both Venice and Miami are high-density coastal cities that are extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels and climate change. Aside from their sea-level location, they are both characterized by large populations, valuable infrastructure and real estate, and economic dependence on tourism, as well as the availability of advanced scientific data and technological expertize. Yet their responses have been quite different. We examine the biophysical environments of the two cities, as well as their socio-economic features, administrative arrangements vulnerabilities, and responses to sea level rise and flooding. Our study uses a qualitative approach to illustrate how adaptation policies have emerged in these two coastal cities. Based on this information, we critically compare the different adaptive responses of Venice and Miami and suggest what each city may learn from the other, as well as offer lessons for other vulnerable coastal cities. In the two cases presented here it would seem that adaptation to SLR has not yet led to a reformulation of the problem or a structural transformation of the relevant institutions. Decision-makers must address the complex issue of rising seas with a combination of scientific knowledge, socio-economic expertize, and good governance. In this regard, the "hi-tech" approach of Venice has generated problems of its own (as did the flood control projects in South Florida over half a century ago), while the increasing public mobilization in Miami appears more promising. The importance of continued long-term adaptation measures is essential in both cities.

Substantial interest exists in understanding the role of low-disturbance construction methods in mitigating industrial impacts to native grassland soils and vegetation. We assessed soil and vegetation responses to conventional high-disturbance sod-stripping and revegetation on sandy soils, and the alternative practice of low-disturbance access matting to provide a temporary work surface on sandy and loamy soils. Treatments were associated with high-voltage transmission tower construction during 2014 within the Mixedgrass Prairie. High-disturbance sites were hydroseeded in May of 2015, while low-disturbance sites recovered naturally. We assessed soil physical (bulk density, water infiltration) and chemical properties (organic matter, pH, and electrical conductivity) after construction and herbage biomass for three growing seasons. Sod-stripping led to 53% greater soil bulk density and 51% less organic matter than nondisturbed controls, while water infiltration increased by 32% in these high-sand (>80%) soils. In contrast, access matting led to minimal soil property changes regardless of the texture. While total herbage biomass was unaffected by all construction treatments, sod-stripping reduced grass biomass by 80% during the first growing season, which coincided with a 119% increase in forb mass. Root biomass (0-15 cm) also declined 77% with sod-stripping. Vegetation biomass on sites with access matting remained largely unaffected by the disturbance. Overall, low-disturbance construction methods using access matting were more effective than sod-stripping in mitigating the negative impacts of industrial development on Mixedgrass soil properties, as well as vegetation biomass, and are recommended as a best management practice during industrial disturbance.