Using geographic information systems to make transparent and weighted decisions on pit development: incorporation of interactive economic, environmental, and social factors

A geographic information systems platform with an analytical hierarchy process was employed to rank the importance of different economic, environmental, and social factors involved in choosing the location of an open-pit operation within a small county in the province of Ontario, Canada. Weighted environmental (hydraulic conductivity, soil types, slope, and elevation) and social (distance from population zones) overlays were combined and then compared against a map of potential sources of sand and gravel deposits (economic factor) to locate the most ideal location for a pit. This resulted in the delineation of four ideal locations for the operation in the north of the county. Here, permeability values are low and there are no major population centres. The decision-making tool developed here has the ability to adapt to changing social and (or) environmental criteria and could greatly improve transparency in natural resource management decisions. The largest limitation to this decision-making tool is that it treats all water sources as equal. As research continues to identify different ecosystem services (i.e., acid neutralization, low contamination source waters, and high biological diversity) for different types of waterways, a ranking scheme could be added along the lines of high versus low conservation priorities for nonrenewable freshwater lake and river resources.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

INTEGRATING WATERSHED AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICE MODELS TO ASSESS BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICE EFFICIENCY: GUIDELINES FOR LAKE ERIE MANAGERS AND WATERSHED MODELLERS

Lake Erie is the shallowest and most biologically productive system of the Great Lakes, surrounded by large urban, industrial and agricultural areas. This combination prompted extensive efforts to promote Best Management Practices (BMPs) to mitigate non-point source pollution in Lake Erie’s watershed. Recent technical and conceptual advancements caution that significant variability exists in the BMP efficiency to reduce the severity of runoff and nutrient concentrations due to differences in implementation, the dependence of operational performance on local soil and climatic conditions, storm events and seasonality, and declining performance over time owing to imperfect maintenance. Given the uncertainty surrounding the design and efficiency of BMPs in abating non-point source pollution, our primary objective is to review the critical strengths and potential weaknesses of nine agricultural BMPs promoted for use in the Lake Erie watershed. We examine the capacity of the current generation of watershed process-based models to recreate possible BMP-mediated changes in the water and nutrient cycles. After reviewing modelling strategies (dynamic, external forcing, and empirical) to recreate non-linear watershed responses and feedback loops to BMP efficiency, our study recommends adopting dynamic representations of the interplay among key mechanisms, like soil moisture, water table, nutrient availability, plant uptake and subsequent growth. Notwithstanding the increased sophistication of complex mathematical models, their learning capacity is usually compromised by the coarse resolution of environmental data and limited empirical knowledge to accurately parameterize environmental properties and partially understood biogeochemical processes. In this context, we highlight the expression of the value of ecosystem services in monetary terms as a critical information piece when considering trade-offs among costly and diverse policy decisions. Consistent with the Integrated Watershed Management framework, we advocate the adoption of a rigorous mass-balance approach to assess the impact of BMPs on nutrient cycles, as well as the integration of the projected environmental improvements with terrestrial ecosystem services, beneficial use impairments, and aquatic ecosystem services. The proposed strategy has the potential to improve the decision-making process by identifying cost-effective management actions and balancing different goods and services provided by the agroecosystems at different time scales.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Content analysis of Reddit posts about coadministration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and psilocybin mushrooms

RationaleTreatments with the serotonergic psychedelic psilocybin are being investigated for multiple neuropsychiatric disorders. Because many patients with these disorders use selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), understanding interactions between psilocybin and SSRIs is critical for evaluating the safety, efficacy, and scalability of psilocybin-based treatments. Current knowledge about these interactions is limited, as most clinical psilocybin research has prohibited concomittant SSRI use.ObjectivesWe aimed to explore potential interactions between psilocybin and SSRIs by characterizing peoples' real-world experiences using psilocybin mushrooms and SSRIs together.MethodsWe conducted a systematic search of Reddit for posts describing psilocybin mushroom and SSRI coadministration. We identified 443 eligible posts and applied qualitative content analysis to each.Results8% of posts reported negative physical or psychological effects resulting from coadministration. These included 13 reports that may reflect serotonin toxicity, and 1 concerning for a psychotic/manic episode. 54% of posts described reduced intensity of the acute psilocybin experience, but 39% reported unchanged intensity with SSRI coadministration.ConclusionsPsilocybin's interactions with SSRIs are likely complex and may depend on multiple factors. Prospective studies are needed to evaluate whether psilocybin treatments are reliably safe and effective in the setting of SSRI use

A REVIEW OF THE CURRENT STATE OF PROCESS-BASED AND DATA-DRIVEN MODELLING: GUIDELINES FOR LAKE ERIE MANAGERS AND WATERSHED MODELLERS

We present a comprehensive evaluation of eleven process-based models to characterize the water cycle, nutrient fate and transport within a watershed context, and to find a robust and replicable way to optimize the modelling strategy for the Lake Erie watershed. Our primary objective is to review the conceptual/technical strengths and weaknesses of the individual models to reproduce surface runoff, groundwater, sediment transport, nutrient cycling, channel routing and collectively guide the management in Lake Erie Basin. Our analysis suggests that the available models either opted for simpler approximations of the multifaceted, non-linear dynamics of nutrient fate and transport and instead placed more emphasis on the advanced representation of the water cycle, or introduced a greater degree of biogeochemical complexity but simplified their strategies to recreate the role of critical hydrological processes. Notwithstanding its overparameterization problem, MIKE-SHE provides the most comprehensive 3D representation of the interplay between surface and subsurface hydrological processes with a fully dynamic description, whereby we can recreate the solute transport that infiltrates from the surface to the unsaturated soil layer and subsequently percolates into the saturated layer. Likewise, the physically based submodels designed to represent the sediment detachment and erosion/removal processes (DWSM, HBV-INCA, HSPF, HYPE and MIKE-SHE), offer a distinct alternative to USLE-type empirical strategies. The ability to explicitly simulate the daily plant growth (SWAT and APEX) coupled with a dynamic representation of soil P processes can be critical when evaluating the long-term watershed responses to various agricultural management strategies. While our propositions seem to favor the consideration of complex models that may lack the commensurate knowledge to properly characterize the underlying processes, we contend this issue can be counterbalanced by the joint consideration of simpler empirical models, under an ensemble framework, that can both constrain the plausible values of individual processes and validate macroscale patterns. Finally, our study discusses critical facets of the watershed modelling work in Lake Erie, such as the role of legacy P, the challenges in reproducing spring-freshet or event-flow conditions, and the dynamic characterization of water/nutrient cycles under the non-stationarity of a changing climate.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author