Bolder science needed now for protected areas

Recognizing that protected areas (PAs) are essential for effective biodiversity conservation action, the Convention on Biological Diversity established ambitious PA targets as part of the 2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity. Under the strategic goal to “improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species, and genetic diversity,” Target 11 aims to put 17% of terrestrial and 10% of marine regions under PA status by 2020. Additionally and crucially, these areas are required to be of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative, and well‐connected and to include “other effective area‐based conservation measures” (OECMs). Whereas the area‐based targets are explicit and measurable, the lack of guidance for what constitutes important and representative; effective; and OECMs is affecting how nations are implementing the target. There is a real risk that Target 11 may be achieved in terms of area while failing the overall strategic goal for which it is established because the areas are poorly located, inadequately managed, or based on unjustifiable inclusion of OECMs. We argue that the conservation science community can help establish ecologically sensible PA targets to help prioritize important biodiversity areas and achieve ecological representation; identify clear, comparable performance metrics of ecological effectiveness so progress toward these targets can be assessed; and identify metrics and report on the contribution OECMs make toward the target. By providing ecologically sensible targets and new performance metrics for measuring the effectiveness of both PAs and OECMs, the science community can actively ensure that the achievement of the required area in Target 11 is not simply an end in itself but generates genuine benefits for biodiversity.     

A decision framework for estimating the cost of marine plastic pollution interventions

Marine plastic pollution has emerged as one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. Although there has been a surge in global investment for implementing interventions to mitigate plastic pollution, there has been little attention given to the cost of these interventions. We developed a decision support framework to identify the economic, social, and ecological costs and benefits of plastic pollution interventions for different sectors and stakeholders. We calculated net cost as a function of six cost and benefit categories with the following equation: cost of implementing an intervention (direct, indirect, and nonmonetary costs) minus recovered costs and benefits (monetary and nonmonetary) produced by the interventions. We applied our framework to two quantitative case studies (a solid waste management plan and a trash interceptor) and four comparative case studies, evaluating the costs of beach cleanups and waste-to-energy plants in various contexts, to identify factors that influence the costs of plastic pollution interventions. The socioeconomic context of implementation, the spatial scale of implementation, and the time scale of evaluation all influence costs and the distribution of costs across stakeholders. Our framework provides an approach to estimate and compare the costs of a range of interventions across sociopolitical and economic contexts.     

USING A CHOICE MODELLING APPROACH FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARDS IN URBAN WATER1

ABSTRACT: A series of reforms in the water industry in Australia has created a demand from the industry and regulators for objective methodologies to evaluate incremental changes in the customer service standards. In this paper, the use of choice modeling for estimating implicit prices associated with urban water supply attributes is explored. Results from multinomial logit (MNL) and random parameters logit (RPL) models show that increases in annual water bills and the frequency of future interruptions were the most important attributes. Implicit price confidence intervals based on the best models suggest that people are willing to pay positive amounts to achieve a water supply that is less frequently interrupted. The provision of alternative water supplies during an interruption and notification of the interruption were found to be unimportant to respondents. Choice modeling proved to be a useful technique and provided the industry and regulators with additional information for standard setting.     

Overgrowth competition in encrusting bryozoan assemblages of the intertidal and infralittoral zones of Alaska

Almost 2000 cheilostomatid–cheilostomatid (bryozoan) interactions were recorded from 110 rocks from intertidal and infralittoral zone locations at Kodiac Island in the Alaskan Boreal–Arctic. Intraspecific interactions were unusually rare; this may have resulted from inhibition of con-specific settlement by adult colonies. In one species, rank did vary as a function of depth. The proportion of determinate-species encounter-pairings (a pairing in which one competitor/species wins all encounters) and tied outcomes (whereby neither competitor/species wins or loses but are involved in a “standoff” or mutual overgrowth) increased from the upper midlittoral to the lower infralittoral. The assemblage of bryozoans formed a clear hierarchy, with a score of 0.83 on Tanaka and Nandakumar's transitivity index. Overgrowth dominants did not monopolise the assemblage. The most abundant species were mid- or lower-ranked competitors. The identity of the competitive species had a major influence on the outcome of encounters. Zooidal height and colony growth morphology were important factors determining overall overgrowth rank. The greatest number of interaction types was recorded on medium-sized (surface area >300 and <600 cm²) rocks, and the overall diversity of intertidal species was very high compared with studies conducted elsewhere. The high interaction and species diversity recorded may both have resulted from intermediate levels of disturbance. Received: 16 July 1998 / Accepted: 14 December 1999     

Does it matter that male beaugregory damselfish have a mate preference?

Male beaugregory damselfish (Stegastes leucostictus) spent more time courting larger females in both two-choice and single presentations. Female size was significantly correlated with gonad weight. We also verified that female fecundity was extremely variable within a natural population. We found that male reproductive success was highly correlated with both clutch size and clutch number. However, clutch size was not significantly correlated with clutch number, indicating that males that received larger clutches did not receive more egg clutches. Furthermore, there was no difference between the number of offspring produced by males that mated with the largest females and by males that mated with the most females. Thus, although males preferred larger females, males produced similar numbers of offspring by mating with large females or mating with many females. Received: 7 March 1997 / Accepted after revision: 1 November 1997     

Perceptions of behaviors that cause and mitigate global warming and intentions to perform these behaviors

Individual household and travel behaviors represent a sizeable contribution to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. This paper investigates people's knowledge of these behaviors and perceptions of these behaviors' impact in causing and mitigating climate change. In the present study, a sample of college students were asked to list the behaviors they perform that cause global warming (GW) and the behaviors they could perform to mitigate GW, to rate the impact of the behaviors in terms of their effect on causing or mitigating GW, and to rate their intention to perform each of the behaviors. Results revealed that this sample was well aware of the effect of driving on GW. However, participants underestimated the relative impact of adjusting the thermostat and eating meat on GW and overestimated the impact of littering on causing GW. Although knowledge about GW-mitigating behaviors was not consistently related to behavioral intention, belief that a behavior mitigated GW (whether accurate or not) was strongly related to intention to perform that behavior. Specifically, correlations between belief in the mitigating potential of a behavior and intention were relatively high for adjusting the thermostat, reducing meat consumption, and several behaviors that do not mitigate GW, but were relatively low for reducing driving and not littering. Practical implications and comparisons with previous literature are discussed.     

A Practical Relationship Between Government and Industry

The science of air pollution control is making significant advances and a practical working arrangement between all levels of government and industry must be achieved. Lawmakers, scientists, and industry must work side by side in combatting air pollution; there is no other approach that will give the problem the attention it deserves. How this might be accomplished is the subject of this article.     

The scope for regulatory incentives to encourage increased efficiency of input use by farmers

Managing diffuse water pollution from agricultural land continues to be one of the more intractable challenges for environmental policy. The advent of the Water Framework Directive places the onus on EU member states to identify reasons why water bodies fail or are at risk of failure to meet good ecological status. In such cases, programmes of measures are to be enacted to mitigate the causes at least cost. Failing this, users may ultimately be faced with the full costs of pollution. This paper considers the scope for measures that address nitrogen and phosphorus pollution at source. Specifically the paper relates the diffuse pollution problem to the extent of over application of nitrogen and phosphorus. Data envelopment analysis applied to English cereal and dairy farmers, provides an indication of resource use and evidence of over application. This inefficiency provides a potential basis for either a least cost abatement approach using effective information and advice, or alternatively a pollution charge.