Considerations for Climate Change and Variability Adaptation on the Navajo Nation

[6], 204 p. : color illustrations, color mapshttps://scholar.law.colorado.edu/books_reports_studies/1002/thumbnail.jp

Considerations for Climate Change and Variability Adaptation on the Navajo Nation

[6], 204 p. : color illustrations, color mapshttps://scholar.law.colorado.edu/books_reports_studies/1002/thumbnail.jp

Environmental impact assessments of the Three Gorges Project in China: issues and interventions

The paper takes China's authoritative Environmental Impact Statement for the Yangzi (Yangtze) Three Gorges Project (TGP) in 1992 as a benchmark against which to evaluate emerging major environmental outcomes since the initial impoundment of the Three Gorges reservoir in 2003. The paper particularly examines five crucial environmental aspects and associated causal factors. The five domains include human resettlement and the carrying capacity of local environments (especially land), water quality, reservoir sedimentation and downstream riverbed erosion, soil erosion, and seismic activity and geological hazards. Lessons from the environmental impact assessments of the TGP are: (1) hydro project planning needs to take place at a broader scale, and a strategic environmental assessment at a broader scale is necessary in advance of individual environmental impact assessments; (2) national policy and planning adjustments need to react quickly to the impact changes of large projects; (3) long-term environmental monitoring systems and joint operations with other large projects in the upstream areas of a river basin should be established, and the cross-impacts of climate change on projects and possible impacts of projects on regional or local climate considered. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.Xibao Xu, Yan Tan, Guishan Yan

NWISWeb, new site for the Nation's water data.

The online National Water Information System (NWISWeb) provides access to more than 100 years of water data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey. The new Web site, NWISWeb: data for the Nation (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/) allows users to access several hundred million pieces of historical and real-time data. Aggregates all state data into one national database; integrates stream-flow information with many other types of water data, including historic water-quality data from rivers and aquifers, historic ground-water-level data, and real-time water quality, precipitation, and ground-water levels."November 2002."Shipping list no.: 2003-0124-P.Caption title.The online National Water Information System (NWISWeb) provides access to more than 100 years of water data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey. The new Web site, NWISWeb: data for the Nation (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/) allows users to access several hundred million pieces of historical and real-time data. Aggregates all state data into one national database; integrates stream-flow information with many other types of water data, including historic water-quality data from rivers and aquifers, historic ground-water-level data, and real-time water quality, precipitation, and ground-water levels.Mode of access: Internet

Egg forensics: An appraisal of DNA sequencing to assist in species identification of illegally smuggled eggs

Psittaciformes (parrots and cockatoos) are charismatic birds, their plumage and capacity for learning make them highly sought after pets. The illegal trade in parrots and cockatoos poses a serious threat to the viability of native populations; in addition, species transported to non-endemic areas may potentially vector disease and genetically 'pollute' local native avifauna. To reduce the logistical difficulties associated with trafficking live birds, smugglers often transport eggs. This creates a problem for authorities in elucidating accurate species identification without the laborious task of incubation and hand rearing until a morphological identification can be made. Here, we use 99 avian eggs seized from carriers coming into and within Australia, as a result of suspected illegal trade. We investigate and evaluate the use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to accurately identify eggs to family, genus or species level. However, Identification of a species based on percentage mtDNA similarities is difficult without good representations of the inter- and intra-levels of species variation. Based on the available reference database, we were able to identify 52% of the eggs to species level. Of those, 10 species from eight genera were detected, all of which belong to the parrot (Psittacidae) and cockatoo (Cacatuidae) families. Of the remaining 48%, a further 36% of eggs were identified to genus level, and 12% identified to family level using our assignment criteria. Clearly the lack of validated DNA reference sequences is hindering our ability to accurately assign a species identity, and accordingly, we advocate that more attention needs to be paid to establishing validated, multi locus mtDNA reference databases for exotic birds that can both assist in genetic identifications and withstand legal scrutiny