Plastic ingestion is an underestimated cause of death for southern hemisphere albatrosses

Albatrosses are among the world’s most imperiled vertebrates, with 73% ofspecies threatenedwith extinction. Ingestion of plastic is awell-recognized threatamong threeNorth Pacific species, but lesser known in the southern hemisphere,where it is considered a minor threat. As plastic entering the ocean is increasingwhile albatross populations decline, the threat of ocean plastic to albatrosspopulations may be underestimated. We present case studies of 107 beach-castalbatrosses of twelve species, received by wildlife hospitals in Australia and NewZealand, and estimate plastic ingestion and mortality rates for albatrosses in thesouthern hemisphere. Ingested plastic was present in 5.6% of individuals, andthe cause of death in half of these cases. We estimate ingestion of plastic maycause 3.4–17.5% of nearshoremortalities and is worth consideration as a substantialthreat to albatross populations. We provide clinical findings and “checklist”methodologies for identifying potential cases of foreign-body gastrointestinalobstruction. We suggest practical policy responses, empowering decision makersto reduce albatross mortality from anthropogenic sources

Field demonstration of simultaneous wind and temperaturemeasurements from 5to50 km with a Na double-edge magneto-optic filter in a multi-frequency Doppler lidar

We report the first (to our knowledge) field demonstration of simultaneous wind and temperature measurements with a Na double-edge magneto-optic filter implemented in the receiver of a three-frequency Na Doppler lidar. Reliable winds and temperatures were obtained in the altitude range of 10-45 km with 1 km resolution and 60 min integration under the conditions of 0.4 W lidar power and 75 cm telescope aperture. This edge filter with a multi-frequency lidar concept can be applied to other direct-detection Doppler lidars for profiling both wind and temperature simultaneously from the lower to the upper atmosphere

From fire suppression to fire management:Advances and resistances to changes in fire policy in the savannas of Brazil and Venezuela

International audienc

Overview of the Second Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS II) and the Gulf of Mexico Atmospheric Composition and Climate Study (GoMACCS)

The Second Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS II) was conducted in eastern Texas during 2005 and 2006. This 2-year study included an intensive field campaign, TexAQS 2006/Gulf of Mexico Atmospheric Composition and Climate Study (GoMACCS), conducted in August–October 2006. The results reported in this special journal section are based on observations collected on four aircraft, one research vessel, networks of ground-based air quality and meteorological (surface and radar wind profiler) sites in eastern Texas, a balloon-borne ozonesonde-radiosonde network (part of Intercontinental Transport Experiment Ozonesonde Network Study (IONS-06)), and satellites. This overview paper provides operational and logistical information for those platforms and sites, summarizes the principal findings and conclusions that have thus far been drawn from the results, and directs readers to appropriate papers for the full analysis. Two of these findings deserve particular emphasis. First, despite decreases in actual emissions of highly reactive volatile organic compounds (HRVOC) and some improvements in inventory estimates since the TexAQS 2000 study, the current Houston area emission inventories still underestimate HRVOC emissions by approximately 1 order of magnitude. Second, the background ozone in eastern Texas, which represents the minimum ozone concentration that is likely achievable through only local controls, can approach or exceed the current National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 75 ppbv for an 8-h average. These findings have broad implications for air quality control strategies in eastern Texas

Collection Development Policies in Public Libraries in Australia: A Qualitative Content Analysis

The role that public library collection development polices play inguiding selectors and informing users has been promoted as a pillar of good professional practice. While these policies purport to open up the methods and the criteria used in selection so as to promote transparency and a sense of professional objectivity, how they actually are developed and put into practice has remained largely implicit in the research literature. This analysis revealedthat policies tended to focus on local issues and remained heavily materials focused. How collections are developed to support user’s information needs and substantive issues associated with topicality are largely unarticulated

From Providers to PHOs: an institutional analysis of nonprofit primary health care governance in New Zealand

Policy reforms to primary health care delivery in New Zealand required government-funded firms overseeing care delivery to be constituted as nonprofit entities with governance shared between consumer and producers. This paper examines the consumer and producer interests in the allocation of ownership and control of New Zealand firms delivering primary health care utilising theories of competition in the markets for ownership and control of firms. Consistent with pre-reform patterns of ownership and control provider interests appear to have exerted effective control over the formation and governance of the new entities in all but a few cases where community (consumer) control was already established. Their ability to do so is implied from the absence of a defined ownership stake via which the balance of governance control could shift as a consequence of changes to incentives facing the different stakeholding groups. It appears that the pre-existing patterns will prevail and further intervention will be required if policymakers are to achieve their underlying aims

Overview of the 2010 Carbonaceous Aerosols and Radiative Effects Study (CARES)

Substantial uncertainties still exist in the scientific understanding of the possible interactions between urban and natural (biogenic) emissions in the production and transformation of atmospheric aerosol and the resulting impact on climate change. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program's Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiative Effects Study (CARES) carried out in June 2010 in Central Valley, California, was a comprehensive effort designed to improve this understanding. The primary objective of the field study was to investigate the evolution of secondary organic and black carbon aerosols and their climate-related properties in the Sacramento urban plume as it was routinely transported into the forested Sierra Nevada foothills area. Urban aerosols and trace gases experienced significant physical and chemical transformations as they mixed with the reactive biogenic hydrocarbons emitted from the forest. Two heavily-instrumented ground sites – one within the Sacramento urban area and another about 40 km to the northeast in the foothills area – were set up to characterize the evolution of meteorological variables, trace gases, aerosol precursors, aerosol size, composition, and climate-related properties in freshly polluted and "aged" urban air. On selected days, the DOE G-1 aircraft was deployed to make similar measurements upwind and across the evolving Sacramento plume in the morning and again in the afternoon. The NASA B-200 aircraft, carrying remote sensing instruments, was also deployed to characterize the vertical and horizontal distribution of aerosols and aerosol optical properties within and around the plume. This overview provides: (a) the scientific background and motivation for the study, (b) the operational and logistical information pertinent to the execution of the study, (c) an overview of key observations and initial findings from the aircraft and ground-based sampling platforms, and (d) a roadmap of planned data analyses and focused modeling efforts that will facilitate the integration of new knowledge into improved representations of key aerosol processes and properties in climate models.United States. Dept. of Energy. Atmospheric System Research Program (Contract DE-AC06-76RLO 1830)United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationUnited States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. HQ Science Mission Directorate Radiation Sciences ProgramUnited States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. CALIPSO ProgramUnited States. Dept. of Energy. Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (Interagency Agreement No. DE-AI02-05ER63985

A Bird’s Eye View: Development of an Operational ARM Unmanned Aerial Systems Capability for Atmospheric Research in Arctic Alaska

Unmanned aerial capabilities offer exciting new perspectives on the Arctic atmosphere and the US Department of Energy is working with partners to offer such perspectives to the research community. Thorough understanding of aerosols, clouds, boundary layer structure and radiation is required to improve representation of the Arctic atmosphere in weather forecasting and climate models. To develop such understanding, new perspectives are needed to provide details on the vertical structure and spatial variability of key atmospheric properties, along with information over difficult-to-reach surfaces such as newly-forming sea ice. Over the last three years, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has supported various flight campaigns using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS, also known as UAVs and drones) and tethered balloon systems (TBS) at Oliktok Point, Alaska. These activities have featured in-situ measurements of thermodynamic state, turbulence, radiation, aerosol properties, cloud microphysics and turbulent fluxes to provide a detailed characterization of the lower atmosphere. Alongside a suite of active and passive ground-based sensors and radiosondes deployed by the DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program through the third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF-3), these flight activities demonstrate the ability of such platforms to provide critically-needed information. In addition to providing new and unique datasets, lessons learned during initial campaigns have assisted toward the development of an exciting new community resource

International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation (ICARTT): North America to Europe — Overview of the 2004 summer field study

In the summer of 2004 several separate field programs intensively studied the photochemical, heterogeneous chemical and radiative environment of the troposphere over North America, the North Atlantic Ocean, and western Europe. Previous studies have indicated that the transport of continental emissions, particularly from North America, influences the concentrations of trace species in the troposphere over the North Atlantic and Europe. An international team of scientists, representing over 100 laboratories, collaborated under the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation (ICARTT) umbrella to coordinate the separate field programs in order to maximize the resulting advances in our understanding of regional air quality, the transport, chemical transformation and removal of aerosols, ozone, and their precursors during intercontinental transport, and the radiation balance of the troposphere. Participants utilized nine aircraft, one research vessel, several ground-based sites in North America and the Azores, a network of aerosol-ozone lidars in Europe, satellites, balloon borne sondes, and routine commercial aircraft measurements. In this special section, the results from a major fraction of those platforms are presented. This overview is aimed at providing operational and logistical information for those platforms, summarizing the principal findings and conclusions that have been drawn from the results, and directing readers to specific papers for further details