Investigating the relationship between stakeholder opinion about wildfire management and landscape context using GIS

Colorado residents living in the wildland urban interface (WUI) were asked about their perception of wildfire risk and their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for three fire management procedures: fuel reduction by thinning, fire suppression and prescribed fires. Respondent home locations were then digitized to enable the calculation of wildfire danger variables from various GIS map layers. These two processes resulted in perceived and actual wildfire risk variables which were then compared and analyzed. Perceived and actual fire danger variables were then used as explanatory variables in WTP functions. Results show that each fire management technique had different variables that would increase a persons WTP. However, overall, WTP values for each of the approaches were substantial. We believe this information shows that people living in the WUI would be willing-to-pay for an annual “wildfire management fee” to offset risks they consciously take by living in the WUI. This fee could potentially decrease the wildfire management cost burden that is currently incurred by taxpayers

Win-Win for Wind and Wildlife: A Vision to Facilitate Sustainable Development

Wind energy offers the potential to reduce carbon emissions while increasing energy independence and bolstering economic development. However, wind energy has a larger land footprint per Gigawatt (GW) than most other forms of energy production, making appropriate siting and mitigation particularly important. Species that require large unfragmented habitats and those known to avoid vertical structures are particularly at risk from wind development. Developing energy on disturbed lands rather than placing new developments within large and intact habitats would reduce cumulative impacts to wildlife. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that it will take 241 GW of terrestrial based wind development on approximately 5 million hectares to reach 20% electricity production for the U.S. by 2030. We estimate there are ∼7,700 GW of potential wind energy available across the U.S., with ∼3,500 GW on disturbed lands. In addition, a disturbance-focused development strategy would avert the development of ∼2.3 million hectares of undisturbed lands while generating the same amount of energy as development based solely on maximizing wind potential. Wind subsidies targeted at favoring low-impact developments and creating avoidance and mitigation requirements that raise the costs for projects impacting sensitive lands could improve public value for both wind energy and biodiversity conservation

ECLAIRE: Effects of Climate Change on Air Pollution Impacts and Response Strategies for European Ecosystems. Project final report

The central goal of ECLAIRE is to assess how climate change will alter the extent to which air pollutants threaten terrestrial ecosystems. Particular attention has been given to nitrogen compounds, especially nitrogen oxides (NOx) and ammonia (NH3), as well as Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (BVOCs) in relation to tropospheric ozone (O3) formation, including their interactions with aerosol components. ECLAIRE has combined a broad program of field and laboratory experimentation and modelling of pollution fluxes and ecosystem impacts, advancing both mechanistic understanding and providing support to European policy makers. The central finding of ECLAIRE is that future climate change is expected to worsen the threat of air pollutants on Europe’s ecosystems. Firstly, climate warming is expected to increase the emissions of many trace gases, such as agricultural NH3, the soil component of NOx emissions and key BVOCs. Experimental data and numerical models show how these effects will tend to increase atmospheric N deposition in future. By contrast, the net effect on tropospheric O3 is less clear. This is because parallel increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations will offset the temperature-driven increase for some BVOCs, such as isoprene. By contrast, there is currently insufficient evidence to be confident that CO2 will offset anticipated climate increases in monoterpene emissions. Secondly, climate warming is found to be likely to increase the vulnerability of ecosystems towards air pollutant exposure or atmospheric deposition. Such effects may occur as a consequence of combined perturbation, as well as through specific interactions, such as between drought, O3, N and aerosol exposure. These combined effects of climate change are expected to offset part of the benefit of current emissions control policies. Unless decisive mitigation actions are taken, it is anticipated that ongoing climate warming will increase agricultural and other biogenic emissions, posing a challenge for national emissions ceilings and air quality objectives related to nitrogen and ozone pollution. The O3 effects will be further worsened if progress is not made to curb increases in methane (CH4) emissions in the northern hemisphere. Other key findings of ECLAIRE are that: 1) N deposition and O3 have adverse synergistic effects. Exposure to ambient O3 concentrations was shown to reduce the Nitrogen Use Efficiency of plants, both decreasing agricultural production and posing an increased risk of other forms of nitrogen pollution, such as nitrate leaching (NO3-) and the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O); 2) within-canopy dynamics for volatile aerosol can increase dry deposition and shorten atmospheric lifetimes; 3) ambient aerosol levels reduce the ability of plants to conserve water under drought conditions; 4) low-resolution mapping studies tend to underestimate the extent of local critical loads exceedance; 5) new dose-response functions can be used to improve the assessment of costs, including estimation of the value of damage due to air pollution effects on ecosystems, 6) scenarios can be constructed that combine technical mitigation measures with dietary change options (reducing livestock products in food down to recommended levels for health criteria), with the balance between the two strategies being a matter for future societal discussion. ECLAIRE has supported the revision process for the National Emissions Ceilings Directive and will continue to deliver scientific underpinning into the future for the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution

ECLAIRE third periodic report

The ÉCLAIRE project (Effects of Climate Change on Air Pollution Impacts and Response Strategies for European Ecosystems) is a four year (2011-2015) project funded by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7)

The Puma as an umbrella species for conserving Western Hemisphere Carnivores

A challenge for macroecological studies is collecting sufficient empirical data to study large-scale patterns of distribution or abundance. Comprehensive surveys for presence cannot be conducted at such large scales for most carnivores, including the puma. However, habitatsuitability models were recently developed to estimate the area of occupancy (i.e., presence), rather than just the extent of occurrence, within the geographic ranges of all terrestrial mammals. We used these models to measure the distribution of high-quality habitat within the geographic range of the puma, and evaluate the potential for the puma to serve as an umbrella species for carnivore conservation in the Western Hemisphere. The extent of the puma’s geographic range covered a total area of over 22 million km2, and 75% of that area was high-quality habitat. However, only 6% of this high-quality habitat occurred in protected areas. The puma has considerable potential to serve as an umbrella species. The puma’s high-quality habitat overlaps 75 ± 8% (mean ± SE) of the high-quality habitat of 11 sympatric felid species. Puma habitat supports more than double the mean species richness of mammalian carnivores (9.34) than unsuitable puma habitat (4.37). In addition to providing valuable life-history data for macroecological analyses, these models allow species co-occurrence patterns to be quickly estimated at a fine spatial resolution, which has historically been an impediment to evaluating the utility of umbrella species

VIDEO: Session 4: Modern Challenges and Modern Solutions, and Session 5: The Future of our Public Lands

VIDEO: 2:50 p.m. - 4:10 p.m. SESSION 4: Modern Challenges and Modern Solutions Moderator and Commentator: Mark Squillace, University of Colorado School of Law Panelists: Dave Theobald, Conservation Science Partners Nada Culver, The Wilderness Society Bret Birdsong, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, School of Law 4:10 p.m. - 5:10 p.m. SESSION 5: The Future of our Public Lands Panelists: John D. Leshy, University of California, Hastings College of the Law Linda Lance, Bureau of Land Management (Invited) Mike Dombeck, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Poin

A cute and highly contrast-sensitive superposition eye - the diurnal owlfly Libelloides macaronius

<p>The owlfly Libelloides macaronius (Insecta: Neuroptera) has large bipartite eyes of the superposition type. The spatial resolution and sensitivity of the photoreceptor array in the dorsofrontal eye part was studied with optical and electrophysiological methods. Using structured illumination microscopy, the interommatidial angle in the central part of the dorsofrontal eye was determined to Delta phi=1.1deg. Eye shine measurements with an epi-illumination microscope yielded an effective superposition pupil size of about 300 facets. Intracellular recordings confirmed that all photoreceptors were UV-receptors (lambda(max)=350 nm). The average photoreceptor acceptance angle was 1.8. deg, with a minimum of 1.4. deg. The receptor dynamic range was two log units, and the Hill coefficient of the intensity-response function was n=1.2. The signal-to-noise ratio of the receptor potential was remarkably high and constant across the whole dynamic range (root mean square r.m.s. noise=0.5% V-max). Quantum bumps could not be observed at any light intensity, indicating low voltage gain. Presumably, the combination of large aperture superposition optics feeding an achromatic array of relatively insensitive receptors with a steep intensity-response function creates a low-noise, high spatial acuity instrument. The sensitivity shift to the UV range reduces the clutter created by clouds within the sky image. These properties of the visual system are optimal for detecting small insect prey as contrasting spots against both clear and cloudy skies.</p>