Identifying and Prioritizing Greater Sage-Grouse Nesting and Brood-Rearing Habitat for Conservation in Human-Modified Landscapes

BACKGROUND: Balancing animal conservation and human use of the landscape is an ongoing scientific and practical challenge throughout the world. We investigated reproductive success in female greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) relative to seasonal patterns of resource selection, with the larger goal of developing a spatially-explicit framework for managing human activity and sage-grouse conservation at the landscape level. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We integrated field-observation, Global Positioning Systems telemetry, and statistical modeling to quantify the spatial pattern of occurrence and risk during nesting and brood-rearing. We linked occurrence and risk models to provide spatially-explicit indices of habitat-performance relationships. As part of the analysis, we offer novel biological information on resource selection during egg-laying, incubation, and night. The spatial pattern of occurrence during all reproductive phases was driven largely by selection or avoidance of terrain features and vegetation, with little variation explained by anthropogenic features. Specifically, sage-grouse consistently avoided rough terrain, selected for moderate shrub cover at the patch level (within 90 m(2)), and selected for mesic habitat in mid and late brood-rearing phases. In contrast, risk of nest and brood failure was structured by proximity to anthropogenic features including natural gas wells and human-created mesic areas, as well as vegetation features such as shrub cover. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Risk in this and perhaps other human-modified landscapes is a top-down (i.e., human-mediated) process that would most effectively be minimized by developing a better understanding of specific mechanisms (e.g., predator subsidization) driving observed patterns, and using habitat-performance indices such as those developed herein for spatially-explicit guidance of conservation intervention. Working under the hypothesis that industrial activity structures risk by enhancing predator abundance or effectiveness, we offer specific recommendations for maintaining high-performance habitat and reducing low-performance habitat, particularly relative to the nesting phase, by managing key high-risk anthropogenic features such as industrial infrastructure and water developments

The potential risk of environmental contamination by mercury contained in Polish coal mining waste

The paper contains reference literature analysis concerning mercury content in Polish bituminous coal and post-mining waste as well as the impact of mercury content on the environment. The aim of the paper was to determine the occurrence of the risk of contamination of the environment with mercury compounds found in demolition bituminous coal landfills. Mercury, due to its toxic properties has been classified among the most dangerous substances to human health. There are three groups of sources of mercury release into the environment: natural, anthropogenic and remission. Coal mining, its processing and use in the energy sector has the greatest relevance regarding the pollution of the environment with mercury compounds in Poland. A review of reference literature shows that the average content of mercury in Polish bituminous coal varies within a wide range of 41–399 ppb, which is conditional on the origin, age and type of coal. The production of coal has led to a number of facilities in the form of structurally and age-varied landfills, heaps and mining waste dumps. The content of mercury in post-mining waste is in the range from approximately 55 to 380 ppb. The problem of environmental contamination with mercury has attracted considerable interest due to the effects that its concentration have in the biosphere. On the basis of the existing data it has been found that the content of mercury in soils in areas degraded by mining and processing of coal is even 10–16 times higher, compared to the geochemical background. It is necessary to conduct research in this area due to the limited results of research on mercury content in deposited waste from the preparation and flotation of Polish bituminous coals and the potential harmful effect of mercury on the environment. The paper is dedicated to the mercury content in waste from the extraction and processing of bituminous coal