Wildlife and the coal waste policy debate: proposed rules for coal waste disposal ignore lessons from 45 years of wildlife poisoning.

This analysis examines wildlife poisoning from coal combustion waste (CCW) in the context of EPA's proposed policy that would allow continued use of surface impoundments as a disposal method. Data from 21 confirmed damage sites were evaluated, ranging from locations where historic poisoning has led to corrective actions that have greatly improved environmental conditions to those where contamination has just recently been discovered and the level of ecological impacts has yet to be determined. The combined direct and indirect cost of poisoned fish and wildlife exceeds $2.3 billion, which is enough money to construct 155 landfills with state-of-the-art composite liners and leachate collection systems. This cost is projected to increase by an additional $3.85 billion over the next 50 years, an amount that would construct 257 landfills. Evidence revealed through this study indicates the following: (1) for the past 45 years, environmental damage has been a recurring theme with surface impoundment of CCW, (2) the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System has not been effective in preventing serious environmental damage from CCW, (3) EPA's Regulatory Impact Analysis of the costs and benefits of pollution control options fails to include benefits of avoided damages to natural resources, specifically, poisoned fish and wildlife, and (4) surface impoundments pose unacceptably high ecological risks regardless of location or design. Regulators should no longer ignore rigorous science and the lessons from multiple case examples. EPA and the United States need to show leadership on this issue by prohibiting surface impoundments, particularly since the rise in coal use in developing countries is leading to the same CCW pollution problems on a global scale.

Understanding long-term primate community dynamics: implications of forest change.

Understanding the causes of population declines often involves comprehending a complex set of interactions linking environmental and biotic changes, which in combination overwhelm a population's ability to persist. To understand these relationships, especially for long-lived large mammals, long-term data are required, but rarely available. Here we use 26-36 years of population and habitat data to determine the potential causes of group density changes for five species of primates in Kibale National Park, Uganda, in areas that were disturbed to varying intensities in the late 1960s. We calculated group density from line transect data and quantified changes in habitat structure (cumulative diameter at breast height [dbh] and food availability [cumulative dbh of food trees]) for each primate species, and for one species, we evaluated change in food nutritional quality. We found that mangabeys and black-and-white colobus group density increased, blue monkeys declined, and redtails and red colobus were stable in all areas. For blue monkeys and mangabeys, there were no significant changes in food availability over time, yet their group density changed. For redtails, neither group density measures nor food availability changed over time. For black-and-white colobus, a decrease in food availability over time in the unlogged forest surprisingly coincided with an increase in group density. Finally, while red colobus food availability and quality increased over time in the heavily logged area, their group density was stable in all areas. We suggest that these populations are in nonequilibrium states. If such states occur frequently, it suggests that large protected areas will be required to protect species so that declines in some areas can be compensated for by increases in adjacent areas with different histories.

Technical issues affecting the implementation of US Environmental Protection Agency's proposed fish tissue-based aquatic criterion for selenium.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is developing a national water quality criterion for selenium that is based on concentrations of the element in fish tissue. Although this approach offers advantages over the current water-based regulations, it also presents new challenges with respect to implementation. A comprehensive protocol that answers the "what, where, and when" is essential with the new tissue-based approach in order to ensure proper acquisition of data that apply to the criterion. Dischargers will need to understand selenium transport, cycling, and bioaccumulation in order to effectively monitor for the criterion and, if necessary, develop site-specific standards. This paper discusses 11 key issues that affect the implementation of a tissue-based criterion, ranging from the selection of fish species to the importance of hydrological units in the sampling design. It also outlines a strategy that incorporates both water column and tissue-based approaches. A national generic safety-net water criterion could be combined with a fish tissue-based criterion for site-specific implementation. For the majority of waters nationwide, National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permitting and other activities associated with the Clean Water Act could continue without the increased expense of sampling and interpreting biological materials. Dischargers would do biotic sampling intermittently (not a routine monitoring burden) on fish tissue relative to the fish tissue criterion. Only when the fish tissue criterion is exceeded would a full site-specific analysis including development of intermedia translation factors be necessary.

Sublethal effects in avocet and stilt hatchlings from selenium-contaminated sites.

Excess selenium (Se) in the aquatic food chain is embryotoxic and teratogenic to avocets, stilts, and other waterbirds. American avocet (Recurvirostra americana) and black-necked stilt (Himantopus mexicanus) eggs were collected from three sites in the Tulare Lake Basin of California, USA, and hatched in the laboratory. These sites included the Tulare Lake Drainage District-north (TLDD-N, water 2.5 ppb Se), TLDD-south (TLDD-S, water 8.6 ppb Se), and Westfarmers (WF, water 190 ppb Se). Highest egg Se concentrations occurred at WF (geometric mean 31.4 ppm dry wt for avocets and 20.5 ppm dry wt for stilts). Mean egg Se concentrations were 6.7 ppm for avocets and 8.4 ppm for stilts at TLDD-S, and 3.3 ppm for avocets and 2.3 ppm for stilts at TLDD-N. Hatching success and incidence of malformations did not differ among sites, but yolk sac-free hatching weights and bone lengths were less for avocets at the WF site, whereas liver weights and liver to body weight ratios were greater at that site. With increasing Se concentration, oxidative stress was most apparent in avocet hatchlings from WF: hepatic glutathione (GSH) peroxidase activity increased, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity decreased, and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) concentration as well as the ratio of GSSG to reduced GSH concentration increased. In stilts, hepatic GSH concentration was lower in WF hatchlings. In conclusion, our findings of Se-impaired embryo growth and hepatotoxicity in avocet hatchlings suggest that oxidative stress observed in hatchlings may be related to these biological effects and may serve as a potential bioindicator of subsequent impaired functions.

Do line-transect surveys systematically underestimate primate densities in logged forests?

The rate at which social groups of primates are encountered in disturbed rain forest may be biased relative to undisturbed rain forest. A recently reported case study revealed a 25% reduction in postlogging raw encounter rates even though the true density of primates remained at the prelogging level. If biased raw encounter rates are typical of disturbed forests, and if they translate into equally biased line-transect density estimates, results of many comparative surveys might prove misleading (ie, apparent declines of primates in disturbed forest may not be real). Here a set of line-transect density estimates from logged forest are tested for systematic bias by comparing them to range-mapping density estimates, and the response of a Fourier series detectability function to several hypothetical patterns of bias in raw encounter rates is illustrated. Tests of line-transect density estimates from logged forest provide no evidence of systematic bias. The Fourier series results suggest that biased raw encounter rates may often be ameliorated by line-transect density estimators. Available evidence suggests that line-transect density estimates or similarly transformed encounter rates usually provide reliable comparative results within the limits of a particular study's resolution. In contrast, conclusions drawn directly from comparative raw encounter rates (without transforming them into density estimates) are more prone to error.

Monkeys and matrices: a second look.

A recently proposed model of competition was claimed to have predicted accurately the independently estimated densities of four sympatric primates in Kibale Forest, Uganda. The validity of one of the key assumptions of the model, the assumption of comparable land tenure systems, is examined here. Results show that when deviation from the assumption of comparable land tenure systems is accounted for, the model fails to predict Kibale primate densities. Possible reasons for model failure are discussed, and it is concluded that despite model failure when applied to the specific case of Kibale primates, the model remains a valuable heuristic tool.