Ecological Health Task Group
Scholarly Products 1995 - 2000
| 2000.
Radiocesium in racoons: Population differences and
potential human risks Author: Gaines, K.F., Other Author(s): C.G. Lord, I.L. Brisbin Jr., C.S. Boring, M. Gochfeld and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: J. Wildlife Management 64:199-208. Abstract: |
| A bayesian
approach to monitoring and assessment. Poster Author: Snodgrass, J., Other Author(s): and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| A comparison
of on-site hunters, sportsmen and the general public
about recreational rates and future land use preferences
for the Savannah River Site Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 43(2) 221-233. Abstract: ABSTRACT Management of ecosystems has been improved both by our consider to be suitablefuture land uses. This is particularly true with contaminated lands where decisions must be made about clean-up andfuture land use. In this paper I synthesize several surveys of public recreational rates and preferencesforfuture land use of the Savannah River Site (SRS), a Department of Energy (DoE) facility located in South Carolina. Four groups of people were interviewed: on-site hunters; sportsmen; local residents attending an event near Aiken, South Carolina; and the general public attending a festival in Columbia, South Carolina. The general public that engaged in recreational activities averaged 20 daysl year or morefor hunting andfishing, while sportsmen averaged over 50 dayslyear. All four groups rated maintaining SRS as a National Environmental Research Park (NERP) and using it for recreation as the highest preferred land uses. The general public rated hiking and camping higher than hunting and fishing, while sportsmen rated hunting higher than hiking and camping. All groups rated using SRS for homes as the lowest, or second lowest, preferred land use. There was disagreement on the ratings for industrial development, with people living closer to the site rating it higher than the general South Carolina population. These data can be used by local planners and managers in decision making regarding clean-up levels andfuture land use. The relative unanimity of views for cleaning up DoE sites, continued use of the site as a NERP and increased recreational use suggests that different groups of people share similar preferences for future use of SRS, and provides a useful paradigm for considering future land use decisions at other DoE sites nationwide. The relatively low ranking for housing and factories suggests that clean-up levels could be geared to future land use, such as recreation, which are less stringent than residential levels. |
| A New
Approach to Assessing Ecological Health at Hanford Author: Kimberling, D.N., Other Author(s): and M.A. Hawke. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: First Health of the Hanford Site Conference: Current Challenges. Richland, WA, December 3. Abstract: |
| A new
approach to assessing ecological health: Using the Index
of Biological Integrity at Hanford Author: Kimberling, D.N., Other Author(s): M.A. Hawke, and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP Proceedings Publication Date: 1998 Citation: In Proceedings of The First Annual Health of the Hanford Site Conference: Current Challenges, 59-68. Richland, WA: University of Washington. Abstract: In 1989, the US Department of Energy (DOE) created the Office of Environmental Management (EM) whose challenge is to define cost-effective ways to deal with the environmental legacy of the Cold War while protecting worker, public, and ecological health. Risks arising from chemical, radidological, physical, and biological sources must be weighed before, during, and after cleanup. Evaluating local ecological condition can save time and taxpayers' money by guiding DOE away from less-productive or unproductive cleanup and away from activities that cause ecological damage or trade one costly problem for another. To effectively restore degraded areasd or to protect existing high-quality areas, the attributes of a healthy biota must be defined and used as a baseline for comparing sites or evaluating restoration success. Until we measure the biological changes that result from human actions, we cannot accurately predict their consequences, or their associated risks, for human society. For informed decision making, biologists must improve their understanding and measurement of biological condition and communicate that understanding to citizens and decision makers. An effective approach used in aquatic systems applied multimetric biological indexes, much like the indexes used to gauge economic health. |
| A risk
assessment for consumers of mourning doves Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): R.A. Kennamer, I.L. Brisbin Jr., and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Risk Analysis 18(5): 563-573. Abstract: Recreational and subsistence hunters and anglers consume a wide range of species, including birds, mammals, fish and shellfish, some of which represent significant exposure pathways for environmental toxic agents. This study focuses on the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Savannah River Site (SRS), a former nuclear weapons production facility in South Carolina. The potential risk of contaminant intake from consuming mourning doves (Zenaida macroura), the most popular United States game bird, was examined under various risk scenarios. For all of these scenarios we used the mean tissue concentration of six metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, selenium, chromium, anganese) and radiocesium, in doves collected on and near SRS. We also estimated risk to a child consuming doves that had the maximum contaminant level. We used the cancer slope factor for radiocesium, the Environmental Protection Agencies Uptake/Biokinetic model for lead, and published reference doses for the other metals. As a result of our risk assessments we recommend management of water levels in contaminated reservoirs so that lake bed sediments are not exposed to use by gamebirds and other terrestrial wildlife. Particularly, measures should be taken to insure that the hunting public does not have access to such a site. Our data also indicate that doves on popular hunting areas are exposed to excess lead, suggesting that banning lead shot for doves, as has been done for waterfowl, is desirable. |
| A risk
assessment for doves. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): R.A. Kennamer, I.L. Brisbin, Jr. and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| A risk
assessment for lead in birds Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1995 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health 45: 369-396. Abstract: Recreational and subsistence hunters and anglers consume a wide range of species, including birds, mammals, fish and shellfish, some of which represent significant exposure pathways for environmental toxic agents. This study focuses on the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Savannah River Site (SRS), a former nuclear weapons production facility in South Carolina. The potential risk of contaminant intake from consuming mouming doves (Zenaida macroura), the most popular United States game bird, was examined under various risk scenarios. For all of these scenarios we used the mean tissue concentration of six metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, selenium, chromium, man- ganese) and radiocesium, in doves collected on and near SRS. We also estimated risk to a child consuming doves that had the maximum contaminant level. We used the cancer slope factor for radiocesium, the Environmental Protection Agencies Uptake/Biokinetic model for lead, and published reference doses for the other metals. As a result of our risk assessments we recommend management of water levels in contaminated reservoirs so that take bed sediments are not exposed to use by gwnebirds and other terrestrial wildlife. Particularly, measures should be taken to insure that the hunting public does not have access to such a site. Our data also indicate that doves on popular hunting areas are exposed to excess lead, suggesting that banning lead shot for doves, as has been done for waterfowl, is desirable. |
| A survey of
Idahoan' preferences for future land uses at the INEEL Author: Roush D., Other Author(s): and J. Burger Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Idaho Academy of Sciences. J. Idaho Academy of Sciences, April 1, 34:29 (abstract). Abstract: |
| Academia and
our diminishing water resources Author: Karr, J.R., Other Author(s): and E.W. Chu. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: American Society of Limnologists and Oceanographers and Ecological Society of America Joint Meeting, St. Louis, MO. June 7. Abstract: Funded in large measure by public dollars, academia holds a public trust: to educate thoughtful citizens, train knowledgeable professionals, and create and sustain a community of scholars able to benefit the public good. Yet paralleling a fragmentation of scientific knowledge that occurred two centuries ago, narrow academic training and thinking took hold and ultimately worsened the physical fragmentation and biological degradation of our lands and waters. University and agency superstructures that offer few incentives to cross the boundaries among disciplines bear much of the blame for the Earth's declining natural wealth, including its living aquatic systems. In the face of institutional reluctance to put broad scholarship above attracting research dollars, individual academics need to broaden their thinking and their ties to the public they serve. Only by so doing can the begin to reform their organizations from the inside and defend the "many things on which our future health and prosperity depend." Of these many things, none is more important than water. Every drop of water that falls to Earth eventually returns to the atmosphere in an endless, and unique, planetary water cycle. Within our solar system only Earth orbits the sun at a distance that allows large quantities of liquid water to exist at the planet's surface. Life in awesome diversity and abundance is created and sustained, not only by this presence of water, but also by the endless cycle that moves the water continuously through the land, oceans, biota, and atmosphere. Living systems rely on this water cycle and, at the same time, alter and sustain it. Life has everywhere evolved in tune with local and regional water availability. |
| Academia and
our diminishing water resources. Author: Karr, J.R., Other Author(s): and E.W. Chu. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: BioScience. Abstract: |
| Age
differences in metals in the blood of Herring (Largus
argentatus) and Franklin’s (Largus pipixcan) Gulls Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 33: 436-440. Abstract: Concentrations of heavy metals and selenium were measured in the blood of adult and young herring (Larus argentatus) and Franklin's (Larus pipixcan) gulls collected during the same breeding season in colonies in the New York Bight and in northwestern Minnesota, respectively. Concentrations were expected to be higher in young herring gulls collected in an urban, industrialized area, compared to young Franklin's gulls collected in a relatively pristine prairie marsh. Exposure is similar for the fledgling and adult gulls because by the time the blood of young gulls is drawn both adults and young have been eating foods from the surrounding region for two months; leading to the prediction that metal levels should be similar in adults and young. However, young Franklin's gulls had significantly higher levels of arsenic, cadmium, and manganese than adults; adults had significantly higher levels of mercury and selenium. Young herring gulls had significantly higher concentrations of arsenic and selenium, but lower levels of lead than adult herring gulls. lnterspecific comparisons indicated that young Franklin's gulls had significantly higher levels of cadmium than young herring gulls, and adult Franklin's gulls had higher levels of selenium and chromium than adult herring gulls, but for all other comparisons herring gulls had higher levels of metals in their blood. Young herring gulls chicks had higher arsenic, manganese, and selenium levels and lower cadmium and lead levels in 1993 than in 1994. Overall, the levels in the two species were usually within an order of magnitude. |
| American
Indians, hunting and fishing rates, risk and the Idaho
national engineering and environmental laboratory. Poster
Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: Hunting,fishing, and recreational rates of American Indians attending a festival at Fort Hall, idaho near the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), were examined. Nearly half of the sample lived on the Fort Hall Reservation, and half were American Indians from elsewhere in western U.S. An additional 44 White people attending the festival were also interviewed.The hypothesis that there are differences in hunting, fishing and recreational rates as a function of tribal affiliation, educational level, gender, and age was examined. Information on hunting and fishing rates are central for understanding potential exposure scenarios for American Indians if the Department of Energy's INEEL lands are ever opened to public access. Variations in hunting, fishing and photography rates were explained by tribal affiliations, gender, age, and schooling. Hunting rates were significantly higher for Indians (both those living on Fort Hall and Others) than Whites. Men generally engaged in significantly higher rates of outdoor activities than women. Potential and current hunting and fishing on and adjacent to INEEL was more similar among the local Whites and Fort Hall Indians than between these two groups and Other American Indians. |
| American
Indians, hunting, fishing rates, risk and the Idaho
National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Environmental Research Section A 80: 317-329. Abstract: Hunting, fishing, and recreational rates of 276 American Indians attending a festival at Fort Hall, near the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), were examined. Nearly half of the sample lived on the Fort Hall Reservation, and half were American Indians from elsewhere in the western United States. An additional 44 White people attending the festival were also interviewed. The hypothesis that there are differences in hunting, fishing, and recreational rates as a function of tribal affiliation, educational level, gender, and age was examined. Information on hunting and fishing rates are central for understanding potential exposure scenarios for American Indians if the Department of Energy's INEEL lands are ever opened to pubic access, and the data are important because of the existence of tribal treaties that govern the legal and cultural rights of the Shoshone-Bannock regarding INEEL lands. Variations in hunting, fishing, and photography rates were explained by tribal affiliation (except fishing), gender, age, and schooling. Hunting rates were significantly higher for Indians (both those living on Fort Hall and others) than Whites. Men engaged in significantly higher rates of outdoor activities than women (except for photography). Potential and current hunting and fishing on and adjacent to INEEL was more similar among the local Whites and Fort Hall Indians than between these two groups and other American Indians. |
| Animals as
sentinel of human health hazards of environmental
chemicals Author: van der schalie W.H., Other Author(s): H.S. Gardner, J.A. Bantle, C.T. De Rosa, R.A. Finch, J.S. Reif, R.H. Reuter, L.C. Backer, J. Burger, L.C.Folmar, and W.S.Stokes. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Environmental Health Perpectives 107(4) 309-315. Abstract: A workshop titled 'Using Sentinel Species Data to address the Potential Human Health Effects of Chemicals in the Environment," sponsored by the U.S. Army Center for Environmental Health Research, the National Center for Environmental Assessment of the EPA,and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, was held to consider the use of sentinel and surrogate animal species data for evaluating the potential human health effects of chemicals in the environment. The workshop took a broad view of the sentinel species concept, and included mammalian and non- mammalian species, companion animals, food animals, fish, amphibians, and other wildlife. Sentinel species data included observations of wild animals in field situations as well as experimer@ tal animal data. Workshop participants identified potential applications for sentinel species data derived from monitoring programs or serendipitous observations and explored the potential use of such information in human health hazard and risk assessments and for evaluating causes or mecha- nisins of eff-ect. Although it is unlikely that sentinel species data will be used as the sole determina- tive factor in evaluating human health concerns, such data can be useful as for additional weight of evidence in a risk assessment, for providing early warning of situations requiring further study, or for monitoring the course of remedial activities. Attention was given to the factors impeding the application of sentinel species approaches and their acceptance in the scientific and regulatory coni-- munities. Workshop participants identified a number of critical research needs and opportunities for interagency collaboration that could help advance the use of sentinel species approaches. |
| Applying an
Ecological Index to Explain People's Attitudes about
Idaho's Department of Energy Site Author: Roush, D., Other Author(s): and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Western States Communication.Association, Vancouver, February. Abstract: |
| Are Soil
Crusts Useful Indicators of the Health of Arid Lands? A
Collaborative Approach Author: Hawke, M.A. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Society for Ecological Restoration 11th Annual International Conference, San Francisco, CA. September 23-25. Abstract: Surface soils in the semi-arid West are often bound into stable aggregates by microorganisms, lichens, and mosses. These microbiotic soil crusts may act as biological indicators and play roles crucial to successful restoration of disturbed arid lands. Their importance has been previously overlooked. At Washington's Hanford Nuclear Reservation, crusts were measured during a broader study examining the response of terrestrial plant and insect communities to human disturbances. At sites varying in disturbance history, the type and amount of crust was measured and tested as a potential metric for inclusion in a terrestrial index of biological integrity (IBI). Thirty lichens and 8 moss species have been identified. Lichen cover at 17 Hanford sites was lowest (<5%) at the most physically disturbed sites, compared to 25% at some undisturbed sites. Four regional institutions are capitalizing on new features of the World Wide Web to foster collaboration on crust research and develop a website that acts as an information resource and repository of findings. This demonstrates the potential to advance work on topics that are important to ecological restoration, but exist at the boundary of several disciplines and often do not receive adequate funding or attention. |
| Assessing
Ecological Health at Hanford: Terrestrial Invertebrates
and the Index of biological Integrity (poster) Author: Kimberling D.N., Other Author(s): and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Richland, WA. Abstract: Until we meaasure the biological changes that result from human actions, we cannot accurately predict their consequences, or their associated risks, for human society. These changes can be measured by developing and using multimetric biological indexes. Multimetric biological indexes are similar to economic indexes used to track the health of the economy. One effective biological index is the index of biological integrity (IBI), a measure of biological condition. As IBI increases, a system is better able to sustain itself and provide goods and services that human societies can rely upon. Our study is examining the responses of insects and spiders at Hanford to anthropogenic disturbance (including physical and chemical) at 13 and 19 sites in the spring of 1997 and 1998, respectively. Included in the study are several minimally disturbed sites. "Reference" sites are used to define the attributes of a healthy biota so that comparisons across sites can be made and success of restoration efforts can be assessed. We used pitfall traps and sweep-net samples to sample invertebrates. Only pitfall trap results will be presented. Changes in insect assemblages among the sites provide leads for identifying reliable attributes (metrics) for use in a terrestrial IBI. Potential attributes being examined in this study include species richness (number of species collected at a site), percentage of spiders at a site, percentage of parasitic bees, and percentage of pollinators. Other taxa are also being evaluated as indicators for disturbance. Species richness and percentage of parasitic bees generally declined from sites with least disturbance to those with most disturbance, Percentage of spiders generally increased with increasing disturbance. The relative abundance of pollinating bees differed with type of disturbance. They were relatively less abundant at sites with fire; but high at sites with physical disturbance and high abundance of exotic flowering annual plants. Insects and spiders show strong potential in providing the essential information needed to make sound management decision about the ecological impact of cleanup activities at Hanford. |
| Assessing
risk requires much broader view Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1995 Citation: Daily Journal of Commerce, Seattle, WA, Thursday, August 24. Abstract: Companies, whether large corporations or small enterprises, assess risks all the time. Risk assessment is an intergral part of every business decisions, from staying competitive to minimizing hazards for employees, customers, and the public. In fact, risk assessment is a survival mechanism throughout the natural world. Birds constantly assess the dangers in their environment and react to reduce risk. A bird looking for food must "decide" which prey is worth pursuing and which is not because pursuit will attract predators. When it is hungry, a bird may take risks it would otherwise avoid; it may be more cautious if it has offsprings to protect. A bird survives if it "assesses" risks and behave appropriately; flawed risk assessment can mean death. Individual humans assess risks too, of course. Smoking, drinking, and riding a motorcycle mean different risks, as does investing retirement funds in savings accounts, stocks, or commodity futures. Farmers take risk each year deciding which crops to plant and which pesticides or fertilizers to apply. What should they spend on pesticides to reap a profitable crop without threatening their own health or that of their consumers? Societies also assess risks. In theory, society attempts to minimize "environmental" risk, conventionally defined only in terms of risks to human health; for this reason, end-of-pipe control of toxic effluents forms the core of most modern environment risk management. Yet societies need to minimize ecological risks as well. Humans behave as if they did not depend on natural systems and thus need not environment risk management. As the scale of human activities grows, degradation of ecological systems worsens. Ecological degradation threatens supplies of food and fiber and many ecological services that living systems provide to humans and other organisms (processing waste, purifying water, cleaning the air, and generating soil.) What will happen if we fail to recognize and avert to the ecological systems that furnish -free- these goods and services? |
| Attitudes
about fish safety, estuarine safety, and the Jersey
shore: Managing estuarine health Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Environmental Management. Abstract: |
| Attitudes
about recreation, environmental problems, and estuarine
health along the Jersey shore Author: Burger J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Environmental Management. 22: 869-876. Abstract: Management of ecosystems has advanced by an improvement in our understanding not only of how ecosystems function, but of how people perceive their functioning and what they consider to be environmental problems within those systems. Central to such management is understanding how people view estuaries. In this article I explore the perceptions and attitudes of people about coastal recreation, environmental problems, and future land use along the New Jersey shore (USA) by interviewing people who attended a duck decoy and craft show on Barnegat Bay. The people who were interviewed engaged in more days of fishing than any other recreational activity and engaged in camping the least. There were significant differences in recreational rates as a function of gender and location of residence, with men hunting and fishing more than women and photographing less than women. Jet skis were perceived as the most severe environmental problem, with chemical pollution, junk, oil runoff and overfishing as second level problems. Birds were perceived as not an environmental problem at all. Fishing, hiking, preservation, and camping ranked as the highest preferred future land uses for the two sites examined (Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, Naval Weapons Station Earle). The preferred future land uses for these two sites, which are not under consideration for land-use changes, were very similar to those of people living near the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in South Carolina, despite the media attention and considerations of nuclear storage. |
| Attitudes and
perceptions about ecological resources and hazards of
people living around the Savannah River Site Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, J.W. Gibbons, T. Benson, J. Ondrof, R. Ramos, M.J. McMahon, K. Gaines, L. Lord, M. Fulmer, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 57: 195-211. Abstract: Although considerable attention is devoted to environmental monitoring and assessment with respect to both pollutants and the status of particular plant or animal populations, less attention is devoted to assessing people's attitudes about the relative importance of ecological resources. In this paper we examine the attitudes and perceptions about ecological resources of people living around the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS), in South Carolina. Our overall hypothesis is that people who are directly affected by the possible outcomes and consequences of a particular hazard (i.e., those people employed at SRS) will undervalue the risks and overvalue the potential benetits from future land uses that favor continued site activity, compared to people who live near but are not employed at SRS. We interviewed 286 people attending the Aiken Trials horse show on 14 March 1997. There were few gender differences, although men hunted and fished more than women, women ranked three environmental concerns as more severe than did men, and women were more concerned about the effect of SRS on property values. Maintenance of SRS as a National Environmental Research Park ranked first as a future land use; nuclear production ranked second, followed by hunting and hiking. Only residential development ranked very low as a future land use. There were many differences as a function of employment history at SRS: 1) people who work at SRS think that the federal government should spend funds to clean up all nuclear facilities, and they think less money should be spent on other environmental problems than did non-employees, 2) people who work at SRS ranked continued current uses of SRS higher than did people who never worked at SRS, and 3) people who work at SRS are less concerned about the storage of nuclear material or accidents at the site than are people who never worked at the site. |
| Attitudes and
perceptions about ecological resources of local residents
around srs. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanches, J.W. Gibbons, J. Ondrof, R. Ramos, M.J. McMahon, K.F. Gaines, C.G. Lord, M. Fulmer and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: As part of a larger study to uunderstand the attitudes and perceptions of stakeholders regarding the immportance of ecological resources of recreation and future land use at the Savannah River Site, we interveiwed people attending a horse show in Aiken, South Carolina. Our overall objective was to compare the attitudes of a general local population to those in three other groups: hunters and fishers generally, hunters and fishers that use the SRS, and the general population in the state. We test the hypothesis that there are no differences among these populations with repect to ranking of future land uses that include recreational activitied and research. In general, the relative rankings of future land uses of the Aiken population differed somewhat from the other populations with respect to the ranking of continued nuclear production and the storage of nuclear wastes. However, all populations ranked NERP, hiking, and camping a highly valued future land uses. There were also significant differences among the future land use rankings as a funtion of previous employment history at SRS. |
| Attitudes and
perceptions about ecological resources, hazards, and
future land use of people living near the Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): D. E. Roush Jr., J. Sanchez, J. Ondrof, R. Ramos, M. McMahon, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 60: 145-161. Abstract: Although considerable attention is devoted to environmental monitoring and assessment with respect to both pollutants and the status of particular plant or animal populations, less attention is devoted to assessing people's attitudes about the relative importance of ecological resources. In this paper we examine the attitudes and perceptions about ecological resources of people living around the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS), in South Carolina. Our overall hypothesis is that people who are directly affected by the possible outcomes and consequences of a particular hazard (i.e. , those people employed at SRS) will undervalue the risks and overvalue the potential benefits from future land uses that favor continued site activity, compared to people who live near but are not employed at SRS. We interviewed 286 people attending the Aiken Trials horse show on 14 March 1997. There were few gender differences, although men hunted and fished more than women, women ranked three environmental concerns as more severe than did men, and women were more concerned about the effect of SRS on property values. Maintenance of SRS as a National Environmental Research Park ranked first as a future land use; nuclear production ranked second, followed by hunting and hiking. Only residential development ranked very low as a future land use. There were many differences as a function of employment history at SRS: 1) people who work at SRS think that the federal government should spend funds to clean up all nuclear facilities, and they think less money should be spent on other environmental problems than did non-employees, 2) people who work at SRS ranked continued current uses of SRS higher than did people who never worked at SRS, and 3) people who work at SRS are less concerned about the storage of nuclear material or accidents at the site than are people who never worked at the site. |
| Attitudes and
perceptions about ecological resources, hazards, and
future land use of people living near the Idaho national
engineering and environmental laboratory. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): D.E. Roush, Jr., J. Sanchez, J. Ondrof, R. Ramos, M.J. McMahon and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Attitudes and
perceptions of fishermen and elected officials about
Barnegat Bay Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, and M. McMahon. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Barnegat Bay Workshop. November 14. Abstract: |
| Attitudes and
perceptions of fishermen using the Savannah River Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Questionaires and Instruments Utilized Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Abstract: |
| Attitudes and
perceptions of hunters and fishermen toward recreational
use, environmental problems, and future land use of SRS Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, W. Gibbons, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Questionaires and Instruments Utilized Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Abstract: |
| Attitudes and
perceptions of hunters and other recreationists Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Savannah River Ecology Lab, Atlanta, GA, November 7. Abstract: |
| Attitudes
toward environmental hazards: Where do toxic wastes fit Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): M. Martin, K. Cooper, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health 51: 109-121. Abstract: The public is continually faced with making decisions about the risks associated with environmental hazards, and along with managers and government officials, must make informed decisions concerning possible regulation, mitigation, and restoration of degraded sites or other environmental threats. We explored the attitudes regarding several environmental hazards of six groups of people: undergraduate science majors, undergraduate non-science majors, graduate students of environmental health, risk assessment. and nonscience disciplines, as well as non-students over 35 years of age. We had predicted that there would be significant differences in attitudes between science and non-science majors and as a function of age, with younger science students showing the greatest concern. Relative concerns could be divided into three discrete classes (in descending order of concern): 1) general ecological problems (cutting tropical forests, polluting groundwater, trash along the coasts, lead in drinking water, and acid rain), 2) radon and nuclear wastes, and finally, 3) specific nuclear waste facilities, chromium. fertilizers and pesticides, and electromagnetic waves. Attitudes were consistent, whether asked about the severity of the environmental problem or whether they felt funds should be expended to solve the problems. Attitudes about spending money to develop methods to evaluate risk fell in the middle level of concern. There were no major differences among classes of college-age students, or between them and. older non-students. |
| Avian
extinction and persistence mechanisms in lowland Panama Author: Sieving, K.E., Other Author(s): and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1997 Citation: In W.F. Laurance and R.O. Bierregaard, Jr. (Eds.) Tropical Forest Remnants: Ecology, Mangement, and Conservation of Fragmented communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Abstract: |
| Avian
population dynamics, toxics, and risk Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. February 8. Abstract: |
| Bioindicators
for ecosystems and human health Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Center for Disease Control, Citizens Advisory Committee on Public Health Service Activities and Research at Department of Energy Sites, and Savannah River Health Effects Subcommittee. Atlanta, GA, October 25. Abstract: |
| Biological
integrity: A long-neglected aspect of environmental
program evaluation Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1999 Citation: In Environmental Program Evaluation: A Primer, edited by G. J. Knapp and T.J. Kim, 148-175. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Abstract: |
| Biological
monitoring and assessment: Using multimetric indexes
effectively. EPA-235-R97-001 Author: Karr, J.R., Other Author(s): and E.W. Chu. Document Type: CRESP Researcher Reports Publication Date: 1997 Citation: University of Washington, Seattle, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. December. Abstract: |
| Biological
Monitoring: An Essential Foundation for Ecological Risk
Assessment Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: US EPA Laboratory. Newport, OR, August 3. Abstract: |
| Biological
monitoring: An essential foundation for ecological risk
assessment Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Conference on Modeling and Measuring the Vulnerability of Ecosystems at Regional Scales for Use in Ecological Risk Assessment and Risk Management. Bell Harbor International Conference Center, Seattle WA, August 18. Abstract: |
| Biological
monitoring: Essential foundation for ecological risk
assessment Author: Karr, J.R., Other Author(s): and E.W. Chu. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 3(6): 993-1004. Abstract: "Risk-based decision making" has become an often-heard buzzword in Congress and government agency circles. The idea implies that policies based on scientific risk assessment---of human health or ecological risks-will be realistic, fair, and cost effective. But for policies developed through risk-based decision making to fulfill this promise, the foundations and endpoints for risk assessment must be properly conceived and relevant for sustaining critical societal needs. Environments in which living systems cannot sustain themselves cannot support human affairs. We therefore argue that the first, most important step for ecological risk assessment is to set biological endpoints; further, each step in ecological risk assessment should be informed by data from biological monitoring. The measurement endpoints (what is measured) and the assesment endpoints (the ecological goods and services society seeks to protect) must be explicitly biological. Ecological risk assessment will miss its mark if it relies on inappropriate surrogates-such as chemical measures assumed to reflect the health of a biota---or if it is only a veneer, a simple substitution of ecological terminology in another pollution-control or human health risk assessment process. |
| Biomonitoring
and bioindicators for human and ecological health. Poster
Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Responsive Science: Forging Regulatory Resolution at DOE sites, Washington, DC, April 12. Abstract: |
| Bridging the
gap between human and ecological health Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Ecosystem Health 3: 197-199. Abstract: Early threats to human helth and well-being came from the environmental --vector-carried diseases, predators, famine, combat. As human populations grew and developed agriculture, permanent setttlements were established and new threats arose. Contagious diseases moved from domesticated pets and livestock to humans. Sixty-five human diseases are thought to have originated from cattle (e.g. small pox, measles, TB) ; 65 came from dogs; 42, including influenza, from pigs; and one, the common cold, from horses (Ponting 1991). Diseases spread more quickly in the crowed conoditions of villages, towns, and cities; inadequate sanitiation was also a problem. These movements continue today as demonstrated by Lyme disease, Ebola fever, and just this year, a new strain of influenza struck humans, transferred from pigs in the Far East. The industrial revolution brought relief from some of these threats wastewater treatment, for example, reduced the threat of waterborne diseases. But new technologies generate new threats ranging from toxic inudstrial chemicals to global transportation systems that speed the spread of greater variety of diseases. Still today, the health challenges we face are changing constantly. Technological advances have in many respects improved health care but that technology also is a douhle-edged sword. Widespread use and abuse antibiotics, for example, stimulates antibiotic resistance, demonstrating that the threats themselves evolves. And the array of threats changes as well. Societt needs health care strategies to deal with evolution on so many fronts. The papers in this issue came from a special plenary session of the 1996 meeting of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (Edmonton, Albert, Cananda). The session's theme--"Ecosystem Health: Bruidging the Gap"-- acknowledged that human health is not longer challenged solely by familiar contagious diseases to the spread of toxic chemicals. |
| Can science
and risk analysis overcome legacies Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Society for Risk Analysis 1998 Annual Meeting. Phoenix, AZ, December 6-9. Abstract: Protecting ecological health requires a comprehensive and accurate way to assess ecological condition plus a deeper understanding of ecological risk. The Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) is committed to advancing these areas. But advances in science and risk analysis will not be enough. Success depends on our ability to overcome legacies that trap us in the past. Our disciplinary boxes, our institutions, and our political processes trap us. When these legacies control decision making, scientific advances and risk analysis become secondary. To develop the critical information needed to protect ecological health, CRESP has expanded its thinking. Through the integration of a multidiciplinary team or researchers, broader and more comprehensive approaches to problem solving can be developed. Albert Einstein recognized this problem when he said, "Serious problems cannot be dealt with at the level of thinking that created them." How can we best present our analyses to counteract the power of the past? |
| Can soil
crusts act as indicators of the biological condition of
the shrub-steppe? Using the world wide web to foster
scientific collaboration, Poster Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): C. Hendricksen, and S.O. Link. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Northwest Chapter Annual Meeting, Society for Ecological Restoration, System Restoration: Turning the Tide, Soils and Restoration Session, Tacoma, WA. October 29. Abstract: |
| Changes in
microbiotic soil crust associated with human induced
disturbance at the Hanford reservation, Washington Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP In Progress Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Abstract: |
| Comparative
consumption of wild game. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: This project was undertaken to understand the potential risk from consuming several different species of wild game, including fish, deer, raccoons and other animals. We interviewed people attending the Palmetto Sportsmen's Classic in Columbia, South Carolina in March 1998. Our overall objective was examine whether the people living in the general region of the Savannah river Site obtained a significant proportion of their meat and fish from se caught resources. The data have not been analyzed. |
| Comparing
future land use of different stakeholders around the
Idaho national engineering and environmental laboratory.
Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and D.E. Roush, Jr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Comparison of
multi-metric and multi-variate methods in the assessment
of stream ecosystem integrity using fish assmblages Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): J.M. Aho, G.K. Meffe, J. Karr, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP In Progress Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Abstract: |
| Conflict
resolution in coastal waters: The case of personal
watercraft Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and J. Leonard. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Marine Policy 24: 61-67. Abstract: The number of personal watercraft (PWC) used in coastal and inland waterways has increased recently, potentially disturbing people, fisheries activities, and wildlife and recreational resources. In 1997 we examined the behavior of nesting Common Terns as a function of exposure to PWC and other boats. PWCs traveled faster than motorboats near nesting islands, and came closer to birds. The number of terns that flew up in response to PWCs was greater than to motorboats. On one long-studied tern island, the terns suffered nearly total reproductive failure in 1996 and 1997. Because of these adverse effects, an educational and enforcement campaign was initiated in 1998. Public meetings included presentations by scientists, marine police, state conservation officials, PWC associations, marina owners, and the general public. In addition, an educational campaign was aimed at local PWC rental businesses and docks, and additional signs were posted around tern nesting islands. These measures proved effective: PWC traffic around the nesting islands was reduced, most PWCs that passed the tern nesting island did not venture outside the channel, and most PWCS reduced their speed. Although these measures did not eliminate the problem, they reduced the disturbance to the birds in 1998 and 1999, allowing increased reproductive success, representing a successful co-management program. |
| Consumption
Advisories and Compliance: The fishing public and the
deamplification of risk Author: Burger. J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 43(4): 471-488 Abstract: ABSTRACT Managers and regulators have recognized that the fishing public often ignores fish consumption advisories, and the reasons for non-compliance are explored in this paper. Risk assessors acknowledge that there is a social amplification (intensification) of risk where the public perceive a risk as much more severe than do the, experts' or scientists, and this social ampliflcation is a function of the interaction of hazards with social, psychological and cultural processes. I propose that non-compliance of consumption advisories occurs because of the deamplification of risk in hazards that are familiar and enjoyed, such as fishing and fish consumption. Although the public are generally aware of consumption advisories, they continue to believe the fish are safe to eat, and a high percentage eat the fish they catch. Unlike the amplification of risk, the deamplification of risk from fishing in the face of consumption advisories is partly legitimized by the actions of some governmental agencies, as well as by society at large. It is suggested that a variety of economic benefits and social institutions lead to a discounting of consumption advisories, and the delayed nature of adverse health effects allows for additional disregard. Further, it is suggested that co-management of the risk from contaminated fish would increase public involvement, and therefore compliance. |
| Contaminants
and population levels of birds in Barnegat Bay Author: Burger J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Barnegat Bay Workshop, November. Abstract: |
| Coordinated
workshop, Training course: Biological monitoring and
assessment; Using multimetric indexes effectively Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Symposia, Workshops, and Stakeholder Events Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Conference on Modeling and Measuring the Vulnerability of Ecosystems at Regional Scales for Use in Ecological Risk Assessment and Risk Management. Bell Harbor International Conference Center, Seattle WA, August 17-20. Abstract: |
| CRESP UPDATE:
Hanford Author: Kern, M. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Public Education Information and Newsletters Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Spring, Seattle, WA: University of Washington. Abstract: |
| Defining and
measuring river health Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Freshwater Biology 41: 221-234. Abstract: Society benefits immeasurably from rivers. Yet over the past century, humans have changed rivers dramatically. Do those changes mean that people have degraded river health? The answer depends on whom you ask. To irrigators, rivers are healthy if there is enough water for their fields. For a power utility, rivers are healthy if there is enough water to turn the turbines. For a drinking-water utility, rivers are healthy if there is enough pure, or purifiable, water throughout the year. To sport or commercial fishers, rivers are healthy if there are fin-fish and shellfish to harvest. For recreationists, rivers are healthy if swimming, water skiing, or boating do not make people ill. But every one of these perceptions is only part of the picture. Each trivializes the other uses of the river - not to mention non-human aspects of the river itself - while assigning value only to its own desires. To protect all river uses and values, should we not seek broader definitions of river health? |
| Demography of
forest birds in Panama: How do transients affect
estimates of survival rates Author: Brawn, J.D., Other Author(s): J.R. Karr, J.N. Nichols, and W.D. Robinson. Document Type: CRESP Proceedings Publication Date: 1999 Citation: In proceedings of the 22nd International Ornithological Congress edited by N.J. Adams and R.H. Slotow, Durban, South Africa. Abstract: Estimates of annual survival rates of neotropical birds have proven controversial. Traditionally, tropical birds were thought to have high survival rates for their size, but analyses of a multispecies assemblage from Panama by Karr et al. (I 990) provided a counterexample to that view. One criticism of that study has been that the estimates were biased by transient birds captured only once as they passed through the area being sampled. New models that formally adjust for transient individuals have been developed since 1990. Preliminary analyses indicate that these models are indeed useful in modelling the data from Panama. Nonetheless, there is considerable interspecific variation and overall estimates of annual survival rates for understorey birds in Panama remain lower than those from other studies in the Neotropics and well below the rates long assumed for tropical birds (i.e. > 0.80). Therefore, tropical birds may not have systematically higher survival rates than temperate-zone species. Variation in survival rates among tropical species suggests that theory based on a simple trade-off between clutch size and longevity is inadequate. The demographic traits of birds in the tropics (and elsewhere) vary within and among species according to some combination of historical and ongoing ecological factors. Understanding these processes is the challenge for future work. |
| Demography of
forest birds in Panama: How do transients affect
estimates of survival rates? Author: Brawn, J.D., Other Author(s): J. R. Karr, J. N. Nichols, and W. D. Robinson. Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1999 Citation: In N. J. Adams and R. H. Slotow, editors. Proceedings of the 22nd International Ornithological Congress, Durban, South Africa. Abstract: |
| Developing a
tool for monitoring biological integrity in terrestrial
systems Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): D.N. Kimberling, and J.R Karr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Workshop on Hanford Site Biological Resources Inventory and Monitoring. Richland, WA, May 12. Abstract: |
| Development
and validation of a model for assessing biological
integrity of isolated wetlands at the Savannanh River
site. Poster Author: Snodgrass, J., Other Author(s): A.L. Bryan, Jr. and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Development
of an integrated food web model coupled with
macroenvironmental and microenvironmental transport and
fate modeling Author: Cooper, K., Other Author(s): J. Burger, A. Skiadas, A. Roy, and P.G. Georgopoulos. Document Type: CRESP In Progress Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Abstract: |
| Development
of expectations of larval amphibian assemblage structure
in southeastern depression wetlands Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): A. L. Bryan, Jr., and J. Burger Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Ecological Applications,10(4): 1219-1229. Abstract: Abstract. We surveyed larval amphibians and fish in 25 relatively pristine depression wetlands on the upper Atlantic coastal plain of South Carolina to examine relationships among hydiroperiod length, fish presence/absence and larval amphibian assemblage structure. Our goals were to test the application of general models of lentic community structure to Southeastern depression wetlands and to develop expectations of larval amphibian assemblage structure at reference sites. Amphibian species richness showed a unimodal pattern along a hydroperiod gradient, with wetlands that contained water for 8-10 mo/yr having the highest species richness. Wetlands that contained water for longer periods (i.e., dried only during severe drought) often contained fish and had relatively low amphibian species richness. Most species occurred along a restricted portion of the hydroperiod gradient, and some species were found almost exclusively in wetlands with fish. Associations among the occurrence of species led to relatively discrete breaks in assemblage structure along the hydropeiriod gradient. Canonical correspondence analysis of catch-per-unit-effort data identified four groups of wetlands with similar assemblage structure: (1) short (drying in spring), (2) medium (drying in summer), and (3) long (drying in fall or semi-annually) hydroperiod wetlands without fish; and (4) long hydroperiod wetlands with fish. Our results suggest that general models of community structure in lentic systems are applicable to southeastern isolated wetlands and-should form the basis for developing expectations of larval amphibian assemblage structure in these systems. |
| Disturbance and terrestrial
vegetation at INEEL, Idaho Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): J.R. Karr, and L.S. Fore. Document Type: CRESP In Progress Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Abstract: |
| Disturbance gradients and the
responses of plants and insects Author: Kimberling, D.N., Other Author(s): M.A. Hawke, J.R. Karr, and L.S. Fore. Document Type: CRESP In Progress Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Abstract: |
| DOEs ecological risk assessment
matter Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: EPA Laboratory, Athens, GA, March 3. Abstract: |
| Eating fish from the Savannah River Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Public Education Information and Newsletters Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Fact sheet sponsored by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the U.S.E.P.A. Abstract: |
| Ecological and human health risk
assessment: A comparison Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1996 Citation: In Interconnections Between Human and Ecosystem Health, edited by. R.T. DiGuillo and E. Monosson, Chapter 4: 89-110. London: Chapman & Hall. Abstract: |
| Ecological considerations Author: Karr, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Symposium on Risk. CRESP, Seattle, WA, May 15. Abstract: |
| Ecological effects and
biomonitoring for mercury in tropical ecosystems Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, Dordrecht 97(3-4): 265-272. Abstract: Considerable attention has been devoted to monitoring heavy metals in temperate zones of the world, largely due to the concentration of industries and populations in these regions. With increases in global transport of mercury, it has become important to examine the effects of mercury on components of tropical ecosystems, and to design biomonitoring schemes to assess environmental changes involving mercury. Tropical ecosystems differ from temperate ones in fundamental ways, including increased species diversity, and decreased niche width, spatial heterogeneity, food web lengths and complexity, productivity and soil laterization. Because of these differences, the fate and transport of mercury may differ in temperate and tropical systems, and it is suggested in this paper that bird feathers be used as a biomonitoring tool to assess broad-scale trends in mercury exposure, as well as being indicative of adverse effects on the birds themselves. In many ecosystems, some species of birds occupy top trophic levels. It is apparent that the mercury level in feathers of some tropical birds are as high as those from temperature regions, exceeding levels associated with adverse effects in laboratory studies. |
| Ecological health and societal
well-being. Author: Karr, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Washington Public Health. Abstract: |
| Ecological Health Task Group
activities at Hanford Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Monthly Meeting of the Washington Department of Ecology. Kennewick, WA, December 15. Abstract: |
| Ecological Health, CRESP, and SRS Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Presentation to J. Nelson and DOE at SRS, August. Abstract: |
| Ecological integrity and ecological
health are not the same Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1996 Citation: In Engineering Within Ecological Constraints, edited by P.C. Schulze 97-109. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, National Academy of Engineering. Abstract: |
| Ecological integrity in theory and
practice Author: Karr, J.R., Other Author(s): and E.W. Chu. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: AMSIE '97 and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, Session on Ecological Integrity: Moving from Principle to Practice. Seattle, WA, February 13-18. Abstract: |
| Ecological integrity: Moving from
principle to practice Author: Karr, J.R., Other Author(s): E.W. Chu, and L. Westra. Document Type: CRESP Symposia, Workshops, and Stakeholder Events Publication Date: 1997 Citation: AMSIE '97 and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting. Seattle, WA, February 13-18. Abstract: |
| Ecological landscapes Author: Hawke, M.A. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: The Risk Roundtable; Evaluating Risk from a Tribal Perspective, CRESP and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reversation (CTUIR) et al. Pendleton, OR, January 28. Abstract: |
| Ecological responses and
compensatory mechanisms and their role in natural
remediation Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: 18th Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. San Francisco, CA, November 17. Abstract: |
| Ecological risk assessment at the
Department of Energy: An evolving process Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: International Journal of Toxicology 18: 149-155. Abstract: The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has facilities in 34 states, and many of these have chemical or radiological contamination that provides a potential risk to human or ecological health. Over the next few decades many of these sites will be cleaned up, and ecological risk assessment will be one tool used to make decisions about remediation and future land use. The DOE has developed an overall strategy for making remediation decisions that involves using risk assessment, with stakeholder input, although the final decisions are the Department's. The key elements of its ecological risk assessments involve valuing the severity and likelihood of occurrence of adverse ecological effects. It Is currently using a process that incorporates descriptions of the environinenw risk, and valuations of the severity and likelihood of an adverse outcome before, during, and after any remedial activity. The primary difficulty with the current DOE approach to risk has been a failure to use existing information to identify either species of concern or unique habitats at risk, and a lack of uniformity across the DOE complex. Nonetheless, the inclusion of ecological risk assessment in the decision-making process will help achieve one of the new missions of DOE: the protection and maintenance of blodiversity and healthy ecosystems at sites under Its control. |
| Ecological risk assessment:
Pharmaceutical industry Author: Cooper, K. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Journal of Internal Toxicology (COT journal). Abstract: |
| Ecological risk paradigms Author: Cooper, K. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: American College of Toxicology. Philadelphia, PA. Abstract: |
| Ecological risk strategies Author: Cooper, K., Other Author(s): and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Upcoming Educational Courses Publication Date: 200X Citation: American College of Toxicology Abstract: |
| Ecological risk strategies (short
course) Author: Cooper, K., Other Author(s): and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Educational Courses Given Publication Date: 1998 Citation: American College of Toxicology. Abstract: |
| Ecological Task Group research at
SRA Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Westinghouse Savannah River Site Land Use Committee. Atlanta, GA, November 8. Abstract: |
| Ecosystem health: The concept, the
ISEH, and the important tasks ahead Author: Rapport, D.J., Other Author(s): G. Bohm, D. Buckingham, J. Cairns, Jr., R. Costanza, J.R. Karr, H.A.M. de Kruijf, R. Levins, A.J. McMichael, N.O. Nielson, and W.G. Whitford. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Ecosystem Health 5: 82-90. Abstract: The International Society for Ecosystem Health (ISEH) came into existence at a time when it was rapidly becoming apparent that the earth's ecosystems were failing, both locally and globally (Tolba et al. 1992). Despite worldwide attention drawn to the consequences of ecosystem degration, and subsequent international agreements and treaties respecting the importance of maintaining the health and integrity of the earth's ecosystems, environmental degradation has continued and even ccelerated (Vitousek et al. 1997; Ullsten 1998; Salim el at. 1999). ISEH was conceived to engage scholars from a variety of fields to bridge or even transcend the natural, social, and health sciences. A primary goal was to provide the conceptual and methodological foundations for assessing the condition of the earth's ecosystems. The idea for forming an international society around the concept of "ecosystem health" arose out of an interdisciplinary workshop on diagnostic indicators of ecosystem condition (Ecosystem Medicine: Developing a Diagnostic Capability. Allerton Park, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana 1991). Participants and founding members of ISEH were Val Beasley (University of Illinois), Robert Costanza (University of Maryland), David Cox (University of Illinois), Tony Hayes (University of Guelph), David Rapport (Statistics Canada), David Schaeffer (Eco Health Research, Inc.), Christian Thorpe (Kaiser Permanente Medical Center), and David Waltner-Toews (University of Guelph). Founders were an eclectic group of transcdisciplinary thinkers from the fields of medicine, veterinary medicine, ecology, and economics who had come together to explore potential trandsfers from the fields of human and veterinary medicine into ecology. They agreed that there was a need to carry on these discussions in a wider forum, and that the International Society for Ecosystem Health should be formed for this purpose. At that time, several workshop/symposia had already been held on the topic, and others were being planned. These included an Aspen Innstitute-sponsored workshop on ecosystem health at Wye, Maryland (October 1990), a symposium on "Defining Ecosystem Health: Science, Economics, or Ethics?" sponsored by The American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C. (February 1991), a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) workshop at the N.E. Science Center Narragan- sett Laboratory, Narragansett, RI (1992) on "The Health of Large Marine Ecosystems," a NATO- sponsored Advanced Research Workshop on "Evaluating and Monitoring the Health of Large-Scale Ecosystems," Chateau Montebello, Quebec (October 1993), and a Hastings Center workshop on the philosophical and ethical dimensions of ecosystem health (1993). The inaugural event for ISEH, however, was the 1st International Symposium on Ecosystem Health and Medicine (Ottawa,June 19-23, 1994), co-organized by ISEH and the University of Guelph. With more than 800 participants from 33 countries, this event brought the concept of eco- system health to the attention of the international scientific community (Shrader-Frechette 1994). The opening keynote address was delivered by the late Henry Kendall on the topic of environmental and population challenges: global prospects. Other keynote addresses explored the interfaces between disciplines from ecology and public health, to environmental management, ethics, and ecological economics. These included, among others, presentations by Robert Costanza (Mageau et al. 1995), David Ehrenfeld (Ehrenfeld 1995), Richard Levins (Levins 1995), Tony McMichael (McMichael & Martens 1995), Eugene Odum (Odum 1995), David Rapport (Rapport 1995), Margaret Somerville (Somerville 1995), and M. Gordon Wolman (Wolman 1995). Collectively, participants represented a wide range of disciplines including anthropology, economics, ecology, environmental management, epidemiology, ethics, law, philosophy, public health, sociology, and veterinary medicine. Although the participants came from varied backgrounds, a shared belief emerged that collaborative efforts that crossed disciplinary boundaries were essential to arrive at a deeper understanding of regional environmental challenges and solutions. Understanding the forces of transformation of the earth's ecosystems calls for a holistic approach in which humans are "part of" and not "apart from" the ecosystem (Cairns 1994; Bormann 1996). |
| Effect of fixed-count subsampling
on macroinvertebrate biomonitoring in small streams Author: Doberstein, C.P., Other Author(s): J.R. Karr, and L.L. Conquest. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Freshwater Biology. Abstract: |
| Effects of a small reservoir on
stream fish assemblages: Relative role of local habitat
alternations and acute and chronic stress Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): J. Aho, J.W. Ackerman, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Can. Journal Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Abstract: |
| Effects of incubation temperature
on hatchling pine snakes: Implications for survival Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Behav Ecol Sociobiol 43: 11-18. Abstract: Incubation temperature in ectothermic vertebrates affects incubation periods, and in some reptiles it affects sex ratios and behavior. I present evidence that incubation temperature affects emergence and post-hatching behavior of pine snakes (Pituophis melanoleucus) that could influence survival in the weeks before hibernation. Hatchlings incubated at low temperatures remained in the nest longer, had fewer alternate nest openings, and fewer underground tunnels to hide in than did hatchlings from warmer temperatures. These conditions could render hatchlings from low temperature nests more vulnerable to predation because, if a nest is opened, they are not inside tunnels where they would be protected. Hatchlings from nests incubated at low temperatures took longer to find shade during a thermoregulation test, and were less likely to move about in search of other cover than were those from higher incubation temperature artificial nests. Similarly, hatchlings from nests with low incubation temperatures were less responsive to a predatory stimulus and had a longer latency to strike than other hatchlings. Taken together, hatchlings from nests with low incubation temperatures might be less able to avoid predators and find shade than those from nests incubated at higher temperatures, and thus could be expected to have lower survival in nature. |
| Effects of lead and exercise on
endurance and learning in herring gulls. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: In this paper, young herring gulls, Larus argentatus, were used to examine the effects of lead and exercise on endurance and learning on a treadmill. Eighty 1-day old herring gull chicks were randomly assigned to either a control group or to a lead treatment group that received a single dose of lead acetate solution (100mg/kg) at a day 2. Controls were injected with n equal volume of isotonic saline at the same age. Half of the lead group and half of the control group were randomly assigned to an exercise regime. We test the null hypothesis that niether include latency to orient forward, moving number of calls per 15 sec, and time to tire out. For all measures of behavior and endurance on a treadmill, lead had the greatest effect in accounting for variablilty, followed by exercise; performance was more improved by daily exercise for the lead birds than the control birds. Exercise improved the endurance of the partially mitiagting the effects of lead, thereby increasing survival of lead-iimpaired chicks. |
| Effects of lead on behavior, growth
and survival of hatchling Slider Turtles (Trachemys
scripta) Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): C. Carruth-Hinchey, J. Ondroff, M. McMahon, W. Gibbons and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health 55: 495-502. Abstract: In this study the effects of lead on behavioral development of hatchling slider turtles (Trachemys scripta) from the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, SC, were examined. It was of interest to determine whether dose or size affects survival, growth, or behavior. Hatchlings from 1995 showed no significant differences in growth, survival, or behavior between control and lead-injected animals at a dose of 0.05 and 0.1 mg/g (n = 10 per group). In 1996, 48 hatchlings were divided into four groups injected with 0 (control), 0.25, 1, or 2.5 mg/g lead. Few significant differences occurred in growth of size as a function of lead treatment at 4 mo of age, but survival declined markedly as a function of lead dose. Righting response was significantly impaired by lead, time to right was directly related to lead dose. Size also affected behavior, larger hatchlings turned over more quickly and reached cover sooner than did smaller hatchlings. |
| Effects of lead on behavior, growth
and survival of hatchling slider turtles (trachemys
scripta). Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): C. Carruth-Hinchey, J. Ondrof, M.J. McMahon, J.W. Gibbons and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Effects of lead on birds (LARIDAE):
A review of laboratory and field studies Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, 3:59 -78, 2000 Abstract: |
| Effects of lead on larids: A review
of laboratory and field studies Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Journal Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B 3: 59-78. Abstract: |
| Effects of lead on sibling
recognition in young Herring Gulls Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Toxicological Sciences. 43: 155-160. Abstract: Lead exposure early in life affects physiology, behavior, and cognitive development in humans and other animals. In gulls, lead also disrupts parental recognition, leading to potential decreases in survival in wild populations. In this paper, young herring gulls, Larus argentatus, were used to examine the effect of lead on sibling recognition. Each of 80 one-day-old herring gull chicks was randomly assigned to either a control group or a lead treatment group that received a single dose of lead acetate solution (100 mg/kg) at day 2. Matched controls were injected with isotonic saline at the same age. At 10 days of age, there was no demonstrable sibling recognition in control chicks, but recognition was clearly developed by 15 days of age. Lead disrupted sibling recognition, and there still was no evidence of sibling recognition in lead-injected chicks by 26 days of age. Time to respond initially increased and then decreased with age in both control and lead-injected chicks. Control chicks that correctly reached their siblings did so in significantly less time than did lead-injected chicks, and they remained closer to their siblings at the end of the test. These experiments clearly demonstrate that lead disrupts sibling recognition in herring gull chicks, delays the time to respond and to reach their siblings, and increases the final distance chicks are from their calling siblings. In nature, lead-impaired chicks would be unable to use siblings as a cue enabling them to find their nests and might suffer higher mortality from territorial adults and chicks, as well as from cannibalistic adults. |
| Effects of l-lake on stream fish
assemblages: Role of local habitat alterations. Poster Author: Snodgrass, J., Other Author(s): J. Aho, J. Ackerman, and J. Burger Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Effects of oiling on feeding
behavior of sanderlings and semipalmated plovers in New
Jersey Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: The Condor 99: 290-298. Abstract: I examined the foraging behavior of Sanderlings (Calidris alba) and Semi-palmated Plovers (Charadrius semipalmatus) during their spring stopover period along the Atlantic coast of southern New Jersey following an oil spill. I used focal animal sampling to test the null hypothesis that there are no differences in foraging behavior as a function of the degree of oiling of birds. Nearly 50% of the foraging time of shorebirds was interrupted during the main period of beach oiling, primarily by clean-up personnel and vehicles that moved up and down the oiled beach, compared to less than 5% of the foraging time disruption at a control beach where birds were interrupted only by walkers and joggers. For both species, the time devoted to feeding decreased significantly, whereas the time devoted to standing about and preening increased significantly as percent of oiled plumage increased. For shorebirds that are already time-stressed in their refueling efforts before their long journey to arctic breeding grounds, these interruptions may prove fatal or might lower reproductive success once they reach the breeding grounds. |
| Effects of trophic status and
wetland morphology, hydroperiod, and water chemistry on
mercury concentrations in fish Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): C.H. Jagoe, A. L. Bryan Jr., H. A. Brant, and J. Burger Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Can. J. Fish Aquat. Sci. 57: 171-180. Abstract: Abstract: We sampled fish and selected water chemistry variables (dissolved organic carbon, sulfate, and pH) in nine southeastern depression wetlands to determine relationships among wetland morphology (surface area and maximum depth). hydrology, water chemistry, and bioaccumulation of mercury (Hg) in fishes. We concentrated on three fish species representing the range of trophic levels occupied by fish in southeastern depression wetlands. Whole-body Hg concentrations were lowest in lake chubsucker (Erimyzon sucetta), a benthic detritivore, and highest in redfin pickerel (Esox americanus americanus), a top carnivore. However, variation in Hg concentrations among wetlands was greater than variation among species. Regression analyses indicated that maximum depth and hydroperiod accounted for significant portions of variation among wetlands in standardized lake chubsucker and redfin pickerel Hg concentrations. Maximum depth and dissolved organic carbon had a negative effect on standardized Hg concentrations in mud sunfish (Acantharchus pomotis). Path analysis confirmed the results of regression analyses, with maximum depth and hydroperiod having, relatively large direct negative effects on Hg concentrations. Our results suggest that leaching of Hg from sediments during the drying and reflooding cycle and binding of Hg species by dissolved organic carbon in the water column are primary factors controlling the bioavailability of Hg in southeastern depression wetlands. |
| Effects of tropic status and
wetland morphology, hydrology, and water chemistry on
mercury concentrations in fish Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): C. Jagoe, A.L. Bryan Jr., H. Brandt and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Can. J. of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 57: 171-180. Abstract: |
| Endpoints for ecological risk
assessment Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Risk and Environmental Management SRS Conference. September 10-11. Abstract: |
| Environmental attitudes and
perceptions of future land use at the Savannah River
Site: Are there racial differences Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 53: 255-262. Abstract: People make subjective judgments about the severity of environmental problems and on future land use relying on certain information, and on their experiences with the problem. This article examines perceptions of the severity of environmental problems, willingness to expend future funds to solve these problems, and future land use for the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina as a function of race. The null hypothesis that there are no racial differences in perceptions was tested. Of those interviewed, 23% of the 399 people were black, 75% were white, and 2% identified themselves as other. Blacks were significantly more willing than whites to spend federal funds to solve environmental problems such as cleaning up the SRS and Superfund sites, fixing ozone depletion, and reducing the threats from radon and high-tension power lines. There were statistically significant racial differences in preferences for future land use at the SRS, with blacks having a higher preference for using it as a preserve, and whites having a higher preference for a research park, camping, hiking, and hunting. These results indicate that the environmental concerns of the blacks interviewed were equal to or stronger than those of the whites. This is in contrast to much of previously published work that shows that blacks exhibit lower concerns and actions than whites for environmental problems. |
| Environmental attitudes and
perceptions of future land use at the Savannah River
Site: Are there racial differences. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Environmental impact: Concept and
measurement Author: Chu, E.W., Other Author(s): and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP In Press Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, Academic Press. Abstract: All living things influence their environment. For the first time in the Earth's history, however, the environmental impact of one species, Homo sapiens, is the principal agent of global change. Humans' most harmful impact is worldwide degradation of living systems--an impact that threatens humans' own life-support network. The twenty-first century's greatest challenge for scientists, decision makers, and citizens worldwide will be to understand and control human environmental impact and protect the health and integrity of the biosphere. |
| Environmental impacts: Concept and
measurement Author: Chu, E.W., Other Author(s): and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP In Press Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 2000 Citation: In Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. Abstract: |
| Environmental monitoring on
department of energy lands: The need for a holistic plan Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Strategic Environmental Management 1(4): 351-367. Abstract: The Department of Energy (DOE) is faced with a monumental environmental remediation and restoration task that may take decades and cost over 300 billion dollars. In this article I suggest that there is a need for a holistic environmental monitoring plan that can be used both to aid in remediation decisions as well as to evaluate remediation and restoration. The current operable unit approach of the DOE manages and remediates small hazardous waste sites without taking into account the vastness of the large DOE sites. This piecemeal approach never allows for an evaluation of the broader environmental problems or of the value of existing ecosystems established on the buffer lands around the restricted industrial sites. I suggest that an overall biological monitoring plan should be established that includes all levels of ecological organization, from single species indicators to ecosystem measures, and that includes bioindicators that can be used for both human and nonhuman receptors. A sound biomonitoring plan should provide information on all levels of ecological organization, including individual species, populations and communities, ecosystems, and landscapes. For biomonitoring to be effective, it must be relevant biologically, methodologically, and societally. Key elements in the plan must include indicators of all ecological levels that meet the criteria of these three relevancies. Although I provide some examples of key metrics, and particular species or species groups that are suitable for the Savannah River Site, I suggest that any plan will require modification. However, such a plan must address the three types of relevancies, and five levels of ecological organization. |
| Estimation of childhood soil
ingestion rates using a probabilistic toxicokinetic model
and lead biomonitoring data. Presentation and Poster Author: Bartell, S.M., Other Author(s): J.S. Shirai, C.H. Pierce, and J.C. Kissel. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: US EPA Workshop on Lead Model Development: Probabilistic Risk Assessment and Biokinetic Modeling, Research Triangle Park, NC, June. Abstract: |
| Ethnicity and risk: fishing and
consumption in people fishing along the Savannah River Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): W. Stephens, S. Boring, M. Kuklinsky, J. Whitfield Gibbons, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Risk Analysis 19: 427-438. Abstract: We examine consumption petterns of 258 people fishing along the Savannah River. South Carolina has issued fish consumption advisories Savannah River baed on mercury and radionuclide levels. We test the null hypothesis that there are no differences in fishing rates and fish consumption as a function of age, education, ethnicity, employment history, and income. We also test the assumption of fish is less than the recreational value of 19kg/year. Ethnicity and education contributed significantly to explaining variations in number of fish meals per month, seving size, and total quantity of fish consumed per year. Blacks traveled less far, fished more often, ate more fish meals and slightly larger serving sizes, and consumed more fish per year than did Whites. Although education and income were correlated, it was education which contributed significantly to behavior; people who did not graduate from high school ate fish more often, ate more fish per year, and ate more whole fish. Computing the annual consumption of fish for each person individually, rather than using the mean rates of fishing times serving size indicates that 1) people who eat fish more often eat larger protions, 2) a substantial number of people consume more than the amout of fish used to compute risk to recreational fishermen (19 kg/year), 3) some people consume more than the subsistence level (50 kg/year), and 4) Blacks consume more fish per year than Whites, putting them at a greater risk from potential contaminants in fish. |
| Ethnicity and risk: Fishing and
consumption in people fishing along the Savannah River.
Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): W. Stephens, C.S. Boring, M. Kuklinski, J.W. Gibbons and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Evaluation of fit for one-, two-,
and three-compartment models to uptake and elimination
data for two persistent chlorinated xenobiotics:
2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxion (tcdd) and
3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl(pcb 126). Poster Author: Kim, Y.C., Other Author(s): K. Cooper, A. Skiadas, J. Burger, A. Roy, and P.G. Georgopoulos. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Evidence for social facilitation of
preening in the Common Tern Author: Palestis, B.G., Other Author(s): and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Animal Behavior. Abstract: |
| Experimental oiling of Sanderlings
(Calidris alba): Behavior and weight changes Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and N. Tsipoura. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 17: 1154-1158. Abstract: We applied fresh and weathered oil from the Anitra oil spill to the belly feathers of experimental sanderlings (Calidris alba) to simulate 20% plumage oiling, whereas controls were stroked with clean swabs only. We tested the null hypotheses that 1) there were no differences in behavior following oiling, and 2) there were no differences in weight gain or loss in control and experimental birds. Control sanderlings showed no differences in behavior before and after oiling, but oiled birds spent significantly less time resting and more time bathing and preening than did control birds. There were significant differences in weight between the control and oiled birds. Following oiling, the sanderlings preened vigorously, spreading the oil so that they appeared to have oiling rates of 30%. Thereafter, the percentage of their plumage that was oiled decreased steadily over the next two weeks, but the birds never appeared completely free of oil. |
| Factors in exposure assessment:
Ethnic and socioeconomic differences in fishing and
consumption of fish caught along the Savannah River Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): W.L. Stephens, Jr., C.S. Boring, M. Kuklinski, J.W. Gibbons, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Risk Analysis 19(3): 427-438. Abstract: South Carolina has issued fish consumption advisories for the Savannah River based on mercury and radionuclide levels. We examine differences in fishing rates and fish consumption of 258 people interviewed while fishing along the Savannah River, as a function of age, education, ethnicity, employment history, and income, and test the assumption that the average consumption of fish is less than the recreational value of 19 kg/year assumed by risk assessors. Ethnicity and education contributed significantly to explaining variations in number of fish meals per month, serving size, and total quantity of fish consumed per year. Blacks fished more often, ate more fish meals of slightly larger serving sizes, and consumed more fish per year than did Whites. Although education and income were correlated, educa- tion contributed most significantly to behavior; people who did not graduate from high school ate fish more often, ate knore fish per year, and ate more whole fish than people who graduated from high school. Computing consumption of fish for each person individually indicates that (1) people who eat fish more often also eat larger portions, (2) a substantial number of people consume more than the amount of fish used to compute risk to recreational fishermen, (3) some people consume more than the subsistence level default assumption (50 kg/year) and (4) Blacks consume more fish per year than Whites, putting them at greater risk from contaminants in fish. Overall, ethnicity, age, and education contributed to variations in fishing behavior and consumption. |
| Fish and Fishing: Potential hazards
to fishermen Author: Burger J., Other Author(s): M. Gochfeld, K. F. Gaines, C. S. Boring, and W. L. Stephens. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. November. Abstract: |
| Fish assemblage structure in a
headwater stream 16 years after thermal effluent removal Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): J. M. Aho, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. August. Abstract: |
| Fish consumption, fish advisories,
risk from fishing along the Savannah River: Conflicting
information base Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Society for Risk Analysis meeting, Phoenix, November. Abstract: |
| Fishing and risk along the Savannah
River: Possible intervention Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A 55: 405-419. Abstract: Fishing is often perceived as an enjoyable activity, and eating fish is viewed as safe and healthful. However, with recent increases in consumption advisories because of contamination, the public is faced with whether to eat fish or not. In this article I examine the knowledge base of people fishing along the Savannah River, where South Carolina has issued consumption advisories because of mercury and radionuclides. Over 250 people fishing from the Augusta lock and dam to south of the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) were interviewed from early April until late November 1997. Overall 82 % of the fishermen thought the fish were safe to eat, even though 62% had heard some warnings about eating the fish. There were significant differences in whether people thought the fish were safe to eat as a function of income, age, education, and whether they were employed at the Savannah River Site. Significantly more fishermen thought the fish were safe who made more than $20,0001year, v&-te over 34 yr of age, worked at SRS, and had no college or technical training, compared to others. Significantly fewer blacks had heard of consumption advisories than whites, fewer low-income people had heard, and fewer people who had not worked at SRS had heard, compared to others. Most peo- ple heard about the advisories from television, newspapers, and other people, although more blacks than whites heard about advisories from the radio. There Were also significant ethnic differences in distance traveled, and in whether specific fish were frozen consumption. These data can be used to design an information program to target the peo- ple who may be most at risk from eating fish obtained from the Savannah River. |
| Fishing and risk along the Savannah
River: Possible intervention. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: Fishing is often perceived as an enjoyable activity, and eating fish is viewed as a safe and healthy. However, with recent increases in consumption advisories because of contamination, the public is faced with whether to eat fish or not. In this research I examine the knowledge base of people fishing advisories because of mercury and radionuclides. This research directly responds to concerns of the CAB and the CDC health committee, as well as EPA and the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Over 250 people fishing from Augusta Lock and Dam to south of the Savannah River Site were interviewed from early April until late November 1997. |
| Fishing behavior and consumption
patterns of people fishing along the Savannah River Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Joint meeting of SRS, EPA, GA and SC state agencies. Athens, GA, September 20. Abstract: |
| Fishing in urban New Jersey:
Ethnicity affects information sources, perception, and
compliance Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): K.K. Pflugh, L. Lurig, L.A. VonHagan, and S. VonHagan. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Risk Analysis 19: 217-229. Abstract: Recreational and subsistence angling are important aspects of urban culture for much of North America where people are concentrated near the coasts or major rivers. Yet there are fish and shellfish advisories for many estuaries, rivers, and lakes, and these are not always heeded. This paper examines fishing behavior, sources of information, perceptions, and compliance with fishing advisories as a function of ethnicity for people fishing in the Newark Bay Complex of the New York-New Jersey Harbor. We test the null hypothesis that there were no ethnic differences in sources of information, perceptions of the safety of fish consumption, and compliance with advisories. There were ethnic differences in consumption rates, sources of information about fishing, knowledge about the safety of the fish, awareness of fishing advisories or of the correct advisories, and knowledge about risks for increased cancer and to unborn and young children. In general, the knowledge base was much lower for Hispanics, was intermediate for blacks, and was greatest for whites. When presented with a statement about the potential risks from eating fish, there were no differences in their willingness to stop eating fish or to encourage pregnant women to stop. These results indicate a willingness to comply with advisories regardless of ethnicity, but a vast difference in the base knowledge necessary to make informed risk decisions about the safety of fish and shellfish. Although the overall median income level of the population was in the $25,000- 34,999 income category, for Hispanics it was on the border between $15,000-24,999 and $25,000-34,999. |
| Fishing, consumption, and risk
perception in fisherfolk along an east coast estuary Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Environmental Research 77: 25-32. Abstract: Increasingly public and governmental agencies are concerned about the safety of fish and shellfish that recreational fishermen consume. Fishing behavior, consumption patterns, and risk perceptions were examined for people fishing and crabbing in Barnegat Bay, NJ. Women fished in significantly larger groups than men, and their groups included more children. Subjects fished an average of seven times per month and crabbed three times per month; they caught fish on most outings, and 80% ate their catch. Subjects consumed fish an average of five times a month, eating just under 10 oz (ca. 280 g) per meal. Only 25% of the fish consumed by women, and 49% of the fish consumed by men, are self-caught. Nearly 90% of the people believe the fish and crabs from Barnegat Bay are safe to eat, although about 40% have heard some warnings about their safety. Most people heard about advisories from newspapers or television. Most subjects believe that saltwater fish are safer than freshwater fish and that fish they catch themselves or buy in a bay store are safer than those from a supermarket. People generally do not have a clear understanding of the relationship between contaminants and fish size or trophic level, suggesting an avenue for risk reduction. |
| Fishing, fishing consumption and
risk. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Environmental Restoration Technology End User Conference. Augusta, Georgia, June 6-8. Abstract: |
| Fishing, information sources and
consumption patterns of fishermen along the Savannah
River Author: Burger J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CAB subcommittee, February. Abstract: |
| Fishing, information sources and
consumption patterns of fishermen along the Savannah
River Author: Burger J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CDC Health Effects Committee, February. Abstract: |
| Future land use and concerns about
the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory: Perceptions and concerns of urban dwellers Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): D. E. Roush Jr., D. Wartenberg, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Environmental Management 24(4):541-551. Abstract: We examined environmental concerns and future land-use preferences of 487 people attending the Boise River Festival in Boise, Idaho, USA, about the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL), owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE). We were particularly interested in the perceptions of urban dwellers living at some distance from the facility, since attitudes and perceptions are usually examined for people living near such facilities. More than 50% of the people were most worried about contamination and about waste storage and transport, another 23% were concerned about human health and accidents and spills, and the rest listed other concerns such as jobs and the economy or education. When given a list of possible concerns, accidents and spills, stor- age of current nuclear materials, and storage of additional nuclear materials were rated the highest. Thus both open- ended and structured questions identified nuclear storage and accidents and spills as the most important concerns, even for people living far from a DOE site. The highest rated future land uses were: National Environmental Research Park, recreation (including hiking, camping, fishing and hunting), and returning the land to the Shoshone-Bannock tribes; the lowest rated future land uses were homes and increased nuclear waste storage. These relative rankings are similar to those obtained for other Idahoans living closer to the site and for people living near the Savannah River Site, another DOE facility in South Carolina. The concern expressed about accidents and spills and waste storage trans- lated into a desire not to see additional waste brought to INEEL and a low rating for using INEEL for building homes. |
| Gender differences in attitudes
about fish safety in a coastal population Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 53: 181-192. Abstract: Behavioral approaches to reducing the adverse health effects of consuming fish with high contaminant levels benefit from understanding attitudes and perceptions about the relative safety of fish. Gender differences in attitudes about fish safety were investigated by interviewing 197 men and 94 women who attended a Duck Decoy show at Tuckerton, NJ. There were significant gender differences in perceptions of the safety of fish, ducks, and deer, with women generally believing that it was less safe to eat these foods than did men. Although people correctly perceived that ocean, fish were safer than bay-caught fish from a chemical contaminant perspective, perceptions were less clear with respect to consuming predatory or herbivorous, or large versus small fish. Although men significantly perceived small fish as safer than large fish, women did not. However, people correctly believed that bluefish (a predaceous fish) were less safe than flounder (an herbivore). People uniformly believed it was safer to eat fish they caught themselves or bought in a fish store than those from a supermarket. These results suggest that any program to inform the public about the potential dangers from contaminated fish should take into account gender differences in perceptions. |
| Gender differences in meal
patterns: role of self-caught fish and wild game in meat
and fish diets. Author: Burger. J, Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Academic Press Environmental Research Section A 83, 140-149 Abstract: The hypothesis that there are gender differences in consumption patterns of self-caught fish and wild game in the meat and fish diet was examined for 415 people attending the Palmetto Sportsmen's Classic in Columbia, South Carolina. Women were less likely to eat most types of wild fish and game than were men, although there were no gender differences in the percentage eating beef, chicken, pork, and restaurant and store-bought fish. Similarly, women consumed significantly fewer meals of wild-caught fish and game than did men, although the number of meals of most store-bought foods did not differ. Both men and women who ate more meals of fish ate a higher percentage of wild-caught fish than either store-bought or restaurant fish. People with low number of fish and meat meals ate mainly fish; people eating over 30 meals of meat and fish a month ate mainly meat. Only about 9% of those interviewed said that they changed their fish consumption patterns when they, or their spouse, were pregnant. These gender-specific data on protein consumption can be used for exposure assessment and risk management decisions regarding consumption advisories for wild-caught fish and game. |
| Gender differences in recreational
use, environmental attitudes and perceptions of future
land use at the Savannah River Site Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, J.W. Gibbons, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Environment and Behavior 30: 472-486. Abstract: Perceptions are critical to making decisions about our environment, particularly contaminated sites. Gender differences in recreational use, attitudes toward environmental problems, and perceptions of land use for the Savannah River Site (Department of Energy) were examined in people living near the Site. Bird watching, photography and fishing were the most common activities. Men engaged in more hunting, fishing, hiking and camping, and women photographed more than men. There were significant gender differences in attitudes toward future land use, with women showing lower scores than men for hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, nuclear production, factories, building houses, and storage of nuclear waste. Maintaining Savannah River Site as a National Environmental Research Park was the highest priority for both genders, while storing nuclear wastes and building homes ranked lowest for both. Planners should consider recreational use as an important future land use of this Department of Energy site, taking into account gender differences. |
| Health, integrity, and biological
assessment: The importance of measuring whole things Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 2000 Citation: In Ecological Integrity: Integrating environment, conservation, and health, edited by D.L. Pimental and R.F. Noss, xx-xx. Washington, DC: Island Press Abstract: Introduction: For millennia, nature-specificauy living systems-provided food and fiber to nourish and clothe us and materials to build us homes and transport. Living systems condidoned the air we breathe, regulated the global water cycle, and created the soil that sustained our developing agriculture. They decomposed and absorbed our wastes. Beyond practicality, nature fed the human spirit. But pressure on nature from the impact of 6 billion humans is taking its to. Living systems worldwide are collapsing (Woodwell 1990, Karr 1993, Karr and Chu 1995, Vitousek et at. 1997, Lubchenco 1998). Changes in the earth's biota caused by human actions range from indirect depletion caused by altering Earth's physical and chemical environment to direct depletion of human and nonhuman life (Karr and Chu 1995). We have not always had such devastating effects. When modern humans emerged some 200,000 years ago, changes we caused happened slowly, and over relatively small geographic scales. But now change is fast, fueled by unconstrained population growth and advancing technologies. Human doniimted ecosystems" are not simply farm fields but the entire planet (Vitousek et a]. 1997). The ecological footprint (Rees, chapter 8, this volume) of modern human society is huge. The result is global ecological disruption and biotic impoverishment. Yet modern society continues to behave as if there were no long-term consequences of transforming the biosphere, as if we were not connected to nature's life-support systems. Current environmental challenges come straight from our failure to understand the risks associated with sickening and ultimately killing life on Earth. The lens through which we have seen the challenges to human health has been too narrow. Despite dramatic medical improvements, our approach to human health and health care has not kept pace with changing threats to individuals or the well-being of society. |
| Health, integrity, and biological
assessment: The importance of whole things Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 200X Citation: In Ecological Integrity: Integrating Environment, Conservation, and Health, edited by D. Pimentel, L. Westra, and R. F. Noss. Washington, DC: Island Press. Abstract: Introduction: For millennia, nature--specifically living systems-provided food and fiber to nourish and clothe us and materials to build us homes and transport. They conditioned the air we breathe, regulated the global water cycle, and created the soil that sustained our developing agriculture. Living systems decomposed and absorbed our wastes. Beyond practicality, nature fed the human spirit. But pressure on living systems from the impact of 6 billion humans is taking its toll. Living systems worldwide are collapsing (Woodwell 1990, Karr 1993, Karr and Chu 1995, Vitousek et al. 1997, Lubchenco 1998). Changes in Earth's living systems caused by human actions range from indirect depletion caused by altering Earth's physical and chemical environment to direct depletion of human and nonhuman life (Karr and Chu 1995). We have not always had such devastating effects. When modem humans emerged some 200,000 years ago, changes we caused happened slowly, and over relatively small geographic scales. But now change is fast, fueled by unconstrained population growth and advancing technologies. "Human-dominated ecosystems" are not simply farm fields but the entire planet (Vitousek et al. 1997). The ecological footprint (Rees, this volume) of modem human society is huge. The result is global ecological disruption and biotic impoverishment. Yet modern society continues to behave as if there were no long-term consequences of transforming the biosphere, as if we were not connected to nature's life-support systems. Current environmental challenges come straight from our failure to understand the risks associated with sickening and ultimately killing life on Earth. Despite dramatic - medical improvements over that time, our approach to human health and health care has not kept pace with changing threats to individuals or the well-being of society. The lens through which we see challenges to human health has too narrow a depth of field. |
| Heavy metals and cesium in frogs
along a gradient of chemically stressed habitats at the
Savannah River Site. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): and J. Snodgrass Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: We mill examine the levels of heavy metals and cesium in tadpoles of several species of frogs in different wetland on the SRS site. These sites span a continuum from pristine to contaminated, and to permanent to ephemeral. They are virtually no data no contamination in amphibian communities, yet tadpoles spend their entire lives in aquatic environments where they may be excellent bioindications on SRS because of morphological and behavioral deficits noted in tadpoles from the flyash sites. It is part of a project to integrate toxic information into the development of an IBI, in addtion to the usual human stresses of physical ecosystem disruption. |
| Heavy metals in bullfrog (rana
catesbeiana) tadpoles: Effects of clearing before
analysis. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and J. Snodgrass. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Heavy metals in bullfrogs (Rana
catesbeiana) tadpoles: Effects of depuration before
analysis Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and J. Snodgrass. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Environmental Toxicology Chemistry 17(11): 2203-2209. Abstract: Although tadpoles may well be excellent organisms to use as bioindicators of heavy metal contamination, the relationship of deposition in the body compared to the tail, and the effect of sediments or other debris in the digestive tract on heavy metal concentrations is unknown. We examined the effect of experimental deputation of bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) tadpoles on heavy metal and selenium concentrations in intact tadpoles, as well as their bodies and tails. We defined deputation in this experiment as allowing defecation as an elimination process for intestinal contents (=clearing). We maintained wild-caught tadpoles in clean water for 0, 24, 48, and 72 h to determine the effects of clearing on heavy metal concentrations. We also examined the concentrations of heavy metals in the whole body and digestive tract separately. We test the null hypotheses that no differences occur in metals as a function of time in uncontaminated water, and that no differences occur in metal concentrations in the body compared to the tail and to the digestive tract. We rejected these hypotheses based on regression models. Variance in concentrations of chromium (77%) and lead (70%) were explained by part (body, tail, whole body) and clearing time; for manganese (80%), mercury (64%), selenium (28%), and cadmium (25%) the variation was explained only by body part; for arsenic (53%), the variation was explained by part, clearing time, and weight of the various parts. For those metals in which clearing time explained part of the variation, metal concentrations in both the body and tail decreased after 24 and 48 h, but increased slightly thereafter. Clearing, however, did not greatly decrease metal concentrations in either the body or tail. These data suggest that for some metals (mercury, manganese, cadmium, selenium), clearing has no effect, and for others the effect is slight. For fresh tadpoles, however, the digestive tract contained significantly higher concentrations of all metals than either the body or head, probably reflecting metals absorbed to sediment particles in the gut. |
| Herring Gulls as a neurobehavioral
model for lead toxicity Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Wildlife Society. Snowmass, CO, September. Abstract: |
| Hunting & exposure: Assessing
risk & future use at nuclear production sites. Poster Author: Sanchez, J., Other Author(s): J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Hunting and exposure: Estimating
risk and future use at nuclear production sites Author: Sanchez, J., Other Author(s): and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Risk: Health, Safety and Environment Spring(9): 109-118. Abstract: Decisions concerning the reuse and remediation of contaminated nuclear production sites should be based upon realistic and supportable assumptions of use and risk. We argue that specific rather than generic criteria are needed to make informed decisions, and it illustrates, using one site as an example, that basic land use information can provide crucial data about the risk assessment and reuse decision process. In recent years, a major planning issue for the government(1)and for some regional and local planners,(2) has been the identification of future uses for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites and facilities. Since 1994, twenty DOE sites have been involved in the Future Use Project, a project designed to reconfigure DOE activities and land holdings.(3) Through a formal planning process involving the public, fifteen of those twenty sites have developed recommendations for future land use. Although many factors generally influence the remediation and future use of DOE sites, land suitability and public opinion will likely play increasingly significant roles in determining future use scenarios. Risk assessment concerning site contamination is an important element of the DOE's decision process regarding the future use and remediation of production sites. This is especially important for uses such as recreation which may involve large segments of the population. Consequently, consideration of local preferences and practices will be necessary in developing realistic exposure scenarios for accurate risk assessments.(4) This research concentrates on the recreational use at one DOE site. Specifically, it focuses on the hunting and fishing that took place at the Crackerneck portion of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina during the 1995-96 hunting season. |
| Hunting, jobs and nuclear cleanup:
Opinions of hunters at the Department of Energy’s
Savannah River Site
Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and J.R..Sanchez. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Abstract: |
| Hunting, jobs, and nuclear
clean-up: Opinions of hunters at the Savannah River Site.
Poster Author: Sanchez, J., Other Author(s): J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| IBI and ecological risk assessment Author: Snodgrass, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Rutgers University, March 13. Abstract: |
| IBI and other Ecosystem Measures Author: Snodgrass, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: SRS-CRESP conference on Risk and Environmental Management at SREL, 10-11 September. Abstract: |
| IBI and other ecosystem measures Author: Snodgrass, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Risk and Environmental Management, SRS-CRESP. SREL, September 10-11. Abstract: |
| Improvements in computational
efficiency of uncertainty analysis: Coupling of the
stochastic response surface method with sensitivity
analysis methods. Poster Author: Isukapalli S.S., Other Author(s): and P.G. Georgopoulos Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Influence of hydroperiod, isolation
and heterospecifics on the distribution of aquatic
salamanders (Siren and Amphiuma) among depression
wetlands Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): J. W. Ackerman, A. L. Bryan, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Copeia (1), 107-113. Abstract: We used occurrence data gathered over a four-year period to assess relationships among hydroperiod length (amount of time a wetland holds water during a year), wetland isolation from other aquatic habitats, and the occurrence of sirens (Siren inwmedia and S. lacer6na) and amphiumas (Amphiuma means) among depression wetlands of the upper Atlantic Coastal Plain. The combined occurrence of sirens and amphiumam was positively correlated with hydroperiod length and negatively correlated with distance to the nearest intermittent aquatic habitat. Occurrences of individual species were negatively correlated with either distance to the nearest intermittent aquatic habitat or elevation difference between wetlands and the nearest permanent aquatic habitat. Siren lacertina showed higher than expected llopatric distribution in relation to other species, suggesting biological interactions may further limit the distribution of sirens and amphiumas among depression wetlands. |
| Influence of hydroperiod, isolation
and heterospecifics on the distribution of aquatic
salamanders (siren and amphiuma) among depression
wetlands. Poster Author: Snodgrass, J., Other Author(s): J. Burger, G.K. Meffe and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Integrating environmental
restoration and ecological restoration: Long-term
stewardship at the Department of Energy Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Environmental Management Abstract: With the ending of the Cold War, several federal agencies are reclaiming land through remediation and restoration and are considering potential future land uses that are compatible with current uses and local needs. Some sites are sufficiently contaminated that it is likely that the responsible federal agency will retain control over the land for the foreseeable future, providing them with a stewardship mission. This is particularly true of some of the larger Department of Energy (DOE) facilities contaminated during the production of nuclear weapons. The use of the term "restoration" is explored in this paper because the word means different things to the public, ecologists, and environmental managers responsible for contaminated sites, such as Superfund sites and the DOE facilities. While environmental restoration usually refers to remediation and removal of hazardous wastes, ecological restoration refers to the broader process of repairing damaged ecosystems and enhancing their productivity and/or biodiversity. The goals of the two types of restoration can be melded by considering environmental restoration as a special case of ecological restoration, one that involves risk reduction from hazardous wastes, and by broadening environmental restoration to include a more extensive problem-formulation phase (both temporal and spatial), which includes the goal of reestablishing a functioning ecosystem after remediation. Further, evaluating options for the desired post remediation result will inform managers and policy-makers concerning the feasibility and efficacy of environmental restoration itself. |
| Integrating long-term avian studies
with planning and adaptive management Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Studies in Avian Biology. Abstract: |
| Integrating long-term avian studies
with planning and adaptive management at the Department
of Energy and other sites. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: Omithologists have initated long-term studies to examine trends in populations, reproductive success, and chemical contamination aimed at understanding the status of avian populations, and in predicting the stability of fuure populations. Yet, the design of such biomonitoring studies may not include a risk assessment and management component. The data from such studies may be ignored by planners and managers, either because they are unaware of the studiees or because they do not meet their needs. I suggest that avian researchers would profit from understanding the data needs of risk assessors and risk managers, and the cooperation in the early phase of study design would increase the usefullness of long-term avian studies. The integration of basic biological data into risk management decisions requires both the researcher and the manager. Certain types of data gathered routinely for long-term studies will be extremely usefull for all phases of remediation and restoration of degraded lands, while others will be less usefull. Data from endangered birds that involve long-term data sets that include population or community aspects will be most usefull to menagers in determining whether to preserve, and what size to preserve. Contaminations data will be most usefull for decisions concerning whether to remediate, restore, or allow the land to remain a preserve. |
| Lack of demonstratable effects of
pollutants on Cyt b sequences in Wood Ducks from a
contaminated nuclear reactor cooling pond Author: Johnson, K.P., Other Author(s): J. Stout. I. L. Brisbin, Jr., R. M. Zink, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Environmental Control & Toxicology Section A 81: 146-150. Abstract: The effects of low levels of radiation on DNA mutation rates are largely unknown for free-living vertebrates. In this study we investigated the effects of contamination from cooling ponds at a nuclear production facility in South Carolina on the mutation rates in mitochondrial DNA in wood ducks. Specifically, we sequenced a 433-bp portion of the cytochrome b gene from 18 female-offspring pairs of wood ducks from contaminated ponds and 2 female-offspring pairs from control ponds. Very low haplotype diversity was observed overall, and no case of mutation between fernale and offspring could be satisfactorily documented. This suggests that the levels of radioactive contamination in these cooling ponds have little effect on the mutation rate of mitochondrial DNA in these waterfowl and that mitochondrial DNA may not be as sensitive an indicator as previously anticipated. |
| Landscape heterogeneity that may
influence the index of biological integrity (IBI) Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): J. Burger, G.K. Meffe, and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Human Disturbance and Landscape Heterogeneity. Abstract: |
| Landscape heterogeneity that may
influence the index of biological integrity (lbi). Poster Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): James R. Karr, Gary K. Meffee, and Joanna Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Landscapes, tourism and
conservation Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Science for Total Environment 249: 39-49. Abstract: |
| Landscapes, tourism, and
conservation Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: The Science of the Total Environment 249 39-49 Abstract: |
| Lead and neurobehavioral
development in gulls: A model for understanding effects
in the laboratory and the field Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Neurotoxicology 18(2): 495-506. Abstract: Lead and Neurobehavioral Development in Gulls: A Model for Understanding Effects in the Laboratory and the Field. Neurotoxicology 18(2):495-506, 1997. Animals, including humans, are increasingly exposed to a variety of environmental chemicals that can cause adverse developmental neurobehavioral effects. Most studies either examine effects in the laboratory, or report levels in wild animals, but the relationship between dose, tissue levels and effects are seldom examined in one system. Establishing this relationship is particularly important for endocrine disruptors because of the current controversies regarding impacts on both humans and wildlife. In this paper we synthesize results from a 10-year research program that uses the herring gull chick as a model to examine the relationship between dose, tissue levels, and response to lead in both the laboratory and the wild; and compare levels that cause deficits to those that occur in wild populations of a number of birds. The laboratory studies show that lead affects several aspects of neurobehavioral development in herring gull chicks. There are critical periods for the effects of lead on eurobehavioral development; and there are dissociations: different behaviors have different critical periods. Response latency may be affected most when exposure occurs at one age, while accuracy of response may be affected more at a different age of exposure. Further, there is not necessarily a correlation between impairment and the recovery trajectory. The field experiments show that there are similar lead-induced neurobehavioral deficits in the wild as occur in the laboratory. However, there were important differences: recovery occurred sooner in the field compared to the laboratory; parents partially compensated for the behavioral deficits and succeeded in getting surviving chicks to a similar fledging weight as control chicks, and although survival was decreased in lead-injected chicks in the wild, it was not as low as predicted because of the protective behavior of their parents. These impairments resulted in decreases in survival, which reduced overall fledging rates for a population with lead exposure. Data on exposure levels, as indicated by lead levels in feathers of birds worldwide, suggest that some birds are at risk of neurobehavioral impairment from exposure to lead. Although the neurobehavioral deficits are subtle, and difficult to prove using only wild populations, the data from the field experiments with herring gulls clearly indicate that the deficits occur. This provides a model for studying the neurobehavioral effects of any chemicals on wild populations. |
| Lead in young Herring Gulls:
Effects of exercise on tissue concentrations Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Fundamentals of Applied Toxicology Abstract: |
| Lead levels and risk for hunters
from consuming doves Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): I. L. Brisbin Jr., R. Kennamer, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. November. Abstract: |
| Lichens and mosses on shrub-steppe
soils in Souheastern Washington Author: Link, S.O., Other Author(s): B.D. Ryan, J.L. Downs, L.L. Cadwell, J.A. Soll, M.A. Hawke and J. Ponzetti. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Northwest Science 74(1): 50-56. Abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify the lichens and mosses found on soils of the shrub-steppe at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington. Thirteen sites primarily at low elevation were intensively sampled. Twenty nine lichens and six moss species were identified. Three lichens were considered undescribed species. Based on comparison with other studies and herbarium records, we conclude the soil lichen flora of the Hanford Site is substantially different than that of the Great Basin or of the shrub-steppe in Idaho. |
| Los Alamos, March 1999, Ecological
Health DOE, Report 6 Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Researcher Reports Publication Date: 1999 Citation: March 6-8. Abstract: |
| Management of wetland fish
populations: Population control and maintenance. Poster Author: Snodgrass, J., Other Author(s): D. Batzer, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Marine Policy, birds and personal
watercraft Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and J. Leonard. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Colonial Waterbird Group, Miami, Florida, October. Abstract: |
| Measuring Biological Integrity Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1997 Citation: In Principles of Conservation and Biology, 2nd ed., edited by G.K. Meffe and C.R. Carroll, 483-485. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates. Abstract: |
| Measuring ecological health,
assessing ecological risks Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): D.N. Kimberling, and M.A. Hawke. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: First Annual Health of the Hanford Site Conference: Current Challenges. Richland, WA, December 3. Abstract: |
| Measuring the effects of human
activities on terrestrial vegetation at the Hanford
reservation, Washington Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): J.R. Karr, and L.S. Fore. Document Type: CRESP In Progress Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Abstract: |
| Mercury contamination in eggs of
Wood Ducks from the Savannah River Site Author: Stout, J., Other Author(s): J.Burger, R. Kennamer, and I.L. Brisbin, Jr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: American Ornithological Union, Boise, ID, August. Abstract: |
| Mercury exposure in urban
fishermen: Ethnicity affects information on sources,
perceptions and compliance Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): K. K. Pflugh, J. Sanchez, L. Lurig, L. VonHagen and S. VonHagen. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: International Conference on Human Health Effects of Mercury Exposure. Torshavn, Faroe Islands, June. Abstract: |
| Mercury in Wood Duck Eggs Author: Stout, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Dissertations or Theses Completed Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Rutgers University. Abstract: |
| Mercury patterns in wood duck eggs
and feathers from contaminated reservoirs of the Savannah
River Site. Poster
Author: Stout, J.R., Other Author(s): R.A. Kennamer, I.L. Brisbin, Jr., S.V. Colwell, M. Gochfeld and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Metal and cesium levels in Mourning
Doves from South Carolina: A risk assessment for hunters Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): M. Gochfeld, R. Kennamer and I. L. Brisbin, Jr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Society for Risk Analysis. Washington, DC, December 7-10. Abstract: |
| Metal and cesium levels in Mourning
Doves from South Carolina: Potential hazards to doves and
hunters Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): M. Gochfeld, R. Kennamer and I. L. Brisbin, Jr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Wildlife Society. Snowmass, CO, September. Abstract: |
| Metal levels in Mourning Doves from
South Carolina Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): M. Gochfeld, R. Kennamer and I. L. Brisbin, Jr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Cooper Society. Hawaii, May. Abstract: Most game birds are found in lower trophic levels, but since such birds are harvested and consumed by humans, there is a particular need to assess their contaminant levels. In this paper, we report concentrations of mercury, lead, cadmium, selenium, manganese, and chromium in the breast feathers, liver, and muscle of mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) collected at a partially drawn-down, contaminated reactor-cooling reservoir (Par Pond) on the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in South Carolina and at nearby agricultural fields managed as dove hunting areas. We test the hypothesis that the levels in doves are not harmful to either dove populations or humans. We also tested the simultaneous effects of collection location, year (1992, 1993), and dove age-class (hatch-year vs after hatch-year) on heavy metal and selenium levels. For all three tissues, mercury levels were nondetectable at all locations. Lead was highest in tissues from agricultural fields with prior histories of dove hunting activities. Doves at those fields were likely ingesting lead shot to a greater degree than at the recently drawn-down reservoir which was closed to public access and hunting. For other metals, Par Pond doves had equally high or higher tissue levels. For all metals, levels in doves from South Carolina were generally within the lower range of those reported in the literature, suggesting that these metals were likely to pose no health problems to these doves. Except for lead and selenium, metal levels in dove muscle that we observed were well below reference metal doses established for human intake. Lead and selenium, at the levels described here, would only be a problem if a child (not an adult) ate 120g of dove meat every day of the year. Thus, we conclude that meat from these doves, if consumed by hunters, would not pose a risk. |
| Metal levels in mourning doves from
South Carolina: Potential hazards to doves and hunters Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): R.A. Kennamer, I.L. Brisbin, Jr., and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Environmental Research 75: 173-186. Abstract: Contaminant levels in many species of birds are not examined because it is assumed that since they feed mainly on seeds their contaminant levels are relatively low. Most game birds are found in lower trophic levels, but since such birds are harvested and consumed by humans, the need arises to assess their contaminant levels. In this paper, we report concentrations of mercury, lead, cadmium, selenium, manganese, and chromium in the breast feathers, liver, and muscle of mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) collected at a partially drawn-down, contaminated reactor-cooling reservoir (Par Pond) on the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, and at nearby agricultural fields managed as dove hunting areas. We test the hypothesis that the levels in doves are not harmful to either dove populations or humans. We also tested the simultaneous effects of collection location, year (1992, 1993),and dove age-class (hatch-year vs. after hatch-year) on heavy metal and selenium levels. For all three tissues, mercury levels were non- detectable. Lead was highest in tissues from agricultural fields with prior histories of dove hunting activities. Doves at those fields were likely ingesting lead shot to a greater degree than at the recently drawn down reservoir which was closed to public access and hunting. For other metals, Par Pond Doves had equally high or higher tissue levels. For all metals, levels in doves from South Carolina were generally within the lower range of those reported in the literature, suggesting that these metals were likely to pose no health problems to these doves. Except for lead and selenium, metal levels in dove muscle that we observed were wet below reference metal doses established for humans intake. Lead and selenium, at the levels described here, would be a problem only if a child (not an adult) ate 120 g of dove meat every day of the year. Thus, we conclude that the meat from these doves, if consumed by hunters, would not pose a risk to humans. |
| Metals and metallothionein in the
liver of raccoons: utility for environmental assessment
and monitoring. Author: Buger. J., Other Author(s): CG. Lord, E.J. Yurkow, L. McGrath, K. F. Gaines, I. L. Brisbin, and M. Gochfeld Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Enviromental health, part A, 60:243-261 Abstract: The relationship between rnetallothionein levels and concentrations of several metals and radionuclides was examined in liver tissues of raccoons (Procyon lotor, n = 47) from the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in South Carolina to determine the applicability of rnetallothioneins as an initial screening device for exposure assessment in free-living mammals and environmental monitoring. Using a fluorescent marker and a cell sorter to measure mnetallothionein, a significant positive correlation was found across animals between levels of metallothioneins and concentrations of selenium (Pearson's r = .30), mercury (Pearson's r = .3 1), and copper (Pearson's r = .30) in liver tissue. Arsenic, cobalt, silver, thalliurn, and tin were below detection limits in most or all liver samples. Other metals, including cadmium, chromium, radiocesium (137CS), copper, lead, manganese, strontium, and vanadium, showed only weak and nonsignificant correlations with metallothionein. Concentrations of mercury were correlated with concentrations of seleni um (Pearson's r = .73), manganese (Pearson's r = .56), and strontium (Pearson's r = .57). In an a posteriori test, there was a still unexplained positive correlation between mercury (Pearson r = .56), selenium (Pearson r = .54), and radiocesium (Pearson's r = .38) concentrations and background cellular autofluorescence, and a negative correlation of strontium with the latter (Kendall tau = -.38). Background cellular autofluorescence may represent a generalized cellular stress response, or a yet unidentified biomarker. To better understand which metals contribute to the induction of metallothionein, principle component analysis (PCA) was performed. The first three principle components explained 78% of the variance, with highest loadings being from mercury and radiocesium. Metal- lothionein levels did not correlate well with the principal components from the metals and radiocesiurn, while autofluorescent background levels tended to correlate better. |
| Metals in Albatross feathers from
Midway Atoll: Influence of species, age, and nest
location Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Environmental Research Section A 82: 207-221. Abstract: Female birds sequester some heavy metals in their eggs, which are then transferred to the developing embryo. Semiprecocial birds such as albatrosses are fully covered with down at hatching, but are dependent on their parents for food for many weeks. At hatching, levels of metals in the chick's down represent exposure from the female via egg, while levels in fully formed feathers at fledgling, several months later, represent mainly exposure from food provided by their parents. In this paper we examine the concentrations of "metals" (heavy metals, mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, manganese, tin; and metalloids, arsenic and selenium), in the down and contour (body) feathers of half-grown young albatrosses, and contour feathers of one of their parents. We collected feathers from Laysan Diomedea immutabilis and black-footed Diomedea nigripes albatrosses from Midway Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. We test the null hypotheses that there is no difference in metal levels as a function of species, age, feather type, and location on the island. Using linear regression we found significant models accounting for the variation in the concentrations of mercury, lead, cadmium, selenium, chromium, and manganese (but not arsenic or tin) as a function of feather type (all metals), collection location (all metals but lead), species (selenium only), and interactions between these factors. Most metals (except mercury, arsenic, and tin) were significantly higher in down than in the contour feathers of either chicks or adults. Comparing the two species, black-footed albatross chicks had higher levels of most elements (except arsenic) in their feathers and/or down. Black-footed adults had significantly higher levels of mercury and selenium. We also collected down and feathers from Laysan albatross chicks whose nests were close to buildings, including buildings with flaking lead paint and those that had been lead-abated. Lead levels in the down and feathers of chicks close to nonabated buildings were 10 times higher than for chicks from other locations. Conversely, levels of cadmium and tin were lower near the buildings. Near lead-abated buildings, lead levels decreased as a function of distance, indicating residual contamination on the soil. Our results indicate that black-footed albatross adults and chicks generally have higher levels of heavy metals in their feathers than Laysans. Chicks of both species have higher levels in their down than in their contour feathers, indicating potentially higher exposure during the early chick phase. |
| Metals in Herring and Great
Black-backed Gulls from the New York Bight: The role of
salt gland in excretion Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): C.D. Trivedi, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Environmental Monit Asess. 64: 569-581. Abstract: |
| Methods for and approaches to
evaluating susceptibility of ecological systems to
hazardous chemicals
Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Environmental Health Perspectives 105(Supplement 4): 843-848. Abstract: Differences in genetic susceptibility to hazardous chemicals affect individuals of both human and nonhuman populations. In both cases, differences in response to chemicals or general ill health result as a function of these differences in genetic susceptibility. However, ecological systems are a compilation of hundreds or even thousands of different species, resulting in structural and functional characteristics that are themselves affected by differences in susceptibility. Although individual and population differences in susceptibility to hazardous chemicals underlie effects at the community and the ecosystem level, they do not account for all differences. I propose a two-tiered approach to evaluating susceptibility to ecological systems: a general susceptibility as a function of ecosystem type (based on structure and function of that system) and a differential in susceptibility within broad ecosystem types as a function of biotic and abiotic factors. In terrestrial ecosystems, the two factors that most affect overall susceptibility are species diversity and hydrology; evaluation of the effects of hazardous chemicals involves measuring species diversity and water movement. This same methodological approach can be applied to aquatic ecosystems and to highly altered ecosystems such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and urbanization. |
| Moderator, Round-One panel
discussions: Ecological health Author: Kimberling, D.K. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Second Health of the Hanford Site Annual Conference. Abstract: |
| Modification of an integrated food
web model coupled to macro-and microenvironmental
transport and fate models: Application to pond b,
Savannah River Site. Poster Author: Cooper, K., Other Author(s): A. Skiadas, J. Burger, A. Roy, and P.G. Georgopoulos. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Movements of raccoons on the
Savannah River Site. Poster Author: Boring, C.S., Other Author(s): K.F. Gaines, I.L. Brisbin, Jr. and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: Raccoons are in an important bioindicator species for much of the United States because they are very common and widespread, particularly in sites trhat have some aquatic habitats. They are also important because they are hunted widely, both for sport and food. In many parts of the south, there are 'Coon festivals where people run Raccoons using their dogs. The overall objective of the current reserch is to examine the movement patterns of male Raccoons in the interior and edge of the Savannah River Site. This project will begin officially on 1 Juky 1998. |
| Natural remediation: Ecological
responses and compensatory mechanisms Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP In Press Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 200X Citation: In C.M. Swindoll and R. Stahl (Eds.) Natural Remediation of Environmental Contaminants: It's Role in Ecological Risk Assessment and Risk Management. SETAC Press. Abstract: |
| On developing bioindicators for
human and ecological health Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. Abstract: Risk assessors and risk managers generally either exarnine ecological health (using bioin- dicators) or human health (using biomarkers of exposure or effect). In this paper we suggest that it is possible and advantageous to develop bioindicators that can be used to assess exposure and effect for both human and non-human receptors. We describe the characteristics of suitable bioindicators for both human and ecological health, using mourning doves (Zenaida macroura), raccoons (,Procyon lotor), and bluefish (Pomatomus salatrix) as examples, and list the general characteristics of other species that would make them useful indicators for assessing both human and ecological health. Bioindicators can be used cross-sectionally to assess the status of ecosystems and risk as well as longitudinally for monitoring changes or evaluating remediation. For both human and ecological risk assessment, there are three sets of characteristics to consider when selecting bioindicators: biological relevance, methodological relevance, and societal relevance. An indicator which fails to fulfill these is not likely to be considered cost-effective and is likely to be abandoned. The indicator should be readily measured and must measure an important range of impacts. For long-term support of a bioindicator, the indicator should be easily understood, and be cost effective. We suggest that bioindicators that can also be used for both ecological and human health risk assessment are optimal. |
| Overview of ecological risk-CRESP
east. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: The mission of the Ecological RiskTask Group of CRESP is to develop methodologies for understanding biodiversity at all levels, including individual, population, community, ecosystem and landscape. Such understanding requires indicator and index measures, as well as evaluating how ecological resources are used and how to restore ecosystems. In addition to their ecological importance, such information is critical for compliance, cleanup, remediation and restoration. The Ecological Risk Task Group at CRESP-East is engaged in projects at both levels: Ecological Risk to Organisms and Ecosystems, and Ecological Services. Our work with their values and perceptions of ecological systems affect their performances for future land use. Our work with evaluating ecological risk invovles developing indicators at all biological levels and understanding the mechanisms and methodologies for ecosystem restoration. |
| Overview: Bioindicators and
biomarkers of risk. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: Increasingly, it is essential to develop biomarkers and bioindicators of risk. To be maximally useful, such indicators should be useful for both humans and ecological resources. While human and ecological risk have generaly developed separately, this overall focus of the Ecological Task Group is to develop risk evaluation methods useful both to human and other organisms, as well as specific indicators and indices for disruptions to populations and communities. |
| Panel moderator, Ecological field
studies at the Hanford Site: What we’re doing and
what we’re learning Author: Hawke, M.A. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Second Health of the Hanford Site Annual Conference. Richland, WA, November 4. Abstract: |
| Paradigms for ecological risk
assessment: Preventive strategies for living in a
chemical world Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 837:372-386. Abstract: Ecological risk assessment developed from ecotoxicology, ecology and risk assessment, using human health risk assessment as the model paradigm. Because ecological systems are much more complex than the single-species approach used by human health risk assessment, several modifications were necessary, and this process continues as ecological risk assessment evolves for particular uses. The development of ecological risk assessment is particularly timely, given competing needs for clean-up of a variety of superfund and department of energy sites decommissioned after the end of the cold war. Sufficient resources are not available to clean-up all sites equally and at the same time. Ecological risk assessment can be used not only to evaluate the risks at sites, but to help determine degree of clean-up required to restore degraded environments to functioning ecosystems that provide ecological services, and to rank sites for possible clean-up. |
| Perceptions about environmental
problems, resources, and ecosystem health in an east
coast estuary Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and J. Sanchez. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Coastal Management. Abstract: |
| Perceptions of American Indians
about ecological resources, recreation, and future land
use at Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: The Health of the Hanford Site: Current Challenges. Richland, WA. December 3-4. Abstract: |
| Perceptions of Crackerneck hunters Author: Sanchez, J., Other Author(s): and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Questionaires and Instruments Utilized Publication Date: 1995 Citation: Fall. Abstract: |
| Perceptions of on-site hunters:
Environmental concerns, future land use, and cleanup
options at the Savannah River site Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): and J. Sanchez. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 56:267-281. Abstract: The Department of Energy owns land in 34 states, and most of these lands have been off limits to the public for over 50 years. Although some parts of each site are contaminated, most of many sites are not. With the ending of the Cold War, the department is considering alternative land uses. In this article, the perceptions of hunters and fishermen allowed on site for a limited time were examined, about environmental concerns, future land use, and cleanup options. Although loss of jobs was the foremost concern, preserving parts of the site had more support as a future land use than continuing the nuclear mission, and nearly three-quarters of the sample supported cleanup, regardless of cost. On-site employment was a significant indicator of lower concern about safety and environmental issues, less support for designating the site for research, and more concern for maintaining jobs. |
| Protecting ecological workers at
hazardous waste sites Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1999 Citation: In Protecting personnel at hazardous waste sites, edited by W.E. Martin and M. Gochfeld, Boston: Butterworth-Heineman. Abstract: |
| Protecting life: Weaving together
environment, people, and law Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 2000 Citation: In Ecological Risk Management: Approaches to Ecological Risk-based Decision Making, edited by R. G. Stahl, Jr., A. Barton, J. R. Clark, P. deFur, S. Ells, C. A. Pittinger, M. W. Slimak, and R. S. Wentsel, editors. SETAC Press. Abstract: Environment is on everyone's mind. Concern about the effects of environmental degradation on the planet, on nature, or on people is widespread. At the same time, many consider environmental concerns unwarranted, even silly. But like it or not, environmental issues are arguably the most important public policy controversy. Environmental concerns are now at the forefront of human affairs. Failure to confront and deal with those issues is a primary global threat to human affairs. The rapid pace of human development, driven by expanding population and advancing technology, is changing the face of Earth. The consequences of human actions are now widely understood by the vast majority of people from scholars to citizens, from religious leaders to industrialists, from all walks of life and all economic sectors. As Rachel Carson (1949) noted 50 years ago, environmental problems cannot "be put off until later." They will not solve themselves "if we adopt a comfortable policy of laissez-faire." If a proliferation of laws is any measure of reality, then environmental concerns are not being ignored. Laws are the primary mechanism available to society to defuse smoldering controversies, to establish a framework of rules within which the members of society should operate. Laws are society's response to the failure of various actor, individuals, businesses, and government entities--to perform voluntarily in ways that serve the common good. In theory, law is a thoughtful integration of social, political, and scientific knowledge designed to protect the interest of both individuals and communities. Law evolves in response to expanding knowledge and changing societal values (Freyfogle 1998). Environmental law will continue to evolve and will likely become more effective as it grows stronger. |
| Public health, ecological health,
and societal well-being Author: Karr, J.R., Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Washington Public Health. Abstract: The history of medicine is punctuated by changing health risks driven by radical shifts in human ecology. Threats to health changed, for example, as humans developed agriculture and established permanent settlements. Contagious diseases jumped from domesticated pets and livestock to humans. Cities were both birthplaces of modem civilization and incubators of pestilence and disease. Inadequate sanitation, combined with crowded conditions in towns and cities, spread diseases more rapidly; expanding trade spread diseases over longer distances. Industrialization, especially rapid in the 20th century, added new threats even as it reduced others. Most technologies were in fact two-edged swords. Wonder drugs controlled common pathogens at the same time that natural selection strengthened those pathogens' ability to resist the drugs. Reservoirs in the tropics made water supplies more reliable for humans, but also created ideal environments for human parasites. Industrialization exposed human society to a remarkable array of chemicals-natural (e.g., heavy metals) and synthetic (chlorinated hydrocarbons)--with diverse health consequences (acute or chronic toxicity; carcinogens, teratogens, and mutagens; immune suppresents and endocrine disruptors). As each new challenge arises, medical practice must adapt, typically in a five step process: (1) Awareness that the problem exists; (2) Understanding its cause; (3) Capability to control the cause; (4) Sense of values that the problem matters; and (5) Political will to conquer the threat. John Snow's meticulous study of the spread of cholera from wells in London in the 1840s is a classic example that eventually included all five steps. It provided the theoretical and empirical foundation for modern epidemiology and was instrumental in the eventual control of "filth diseases." But past medical and public health advances should not make us overconfident. The activities of modern human society continually present new dilemmas. New variants of old diseases continue to plague us (tuberculosis) as does the presence of newly emerged pathogens, such as HIV, Ebola fever, and mad-cow disease. From antibiotic resistance to rising exposure to endemic diseases at home (Lyme disease) and abroad (Lassa fever), classic diseases persist and even expand. |
| Quality Indices for Urbanization
Effects in Puget Sound Lowland Streams Author: May, C.W., Other Author(s): E. B. Welch, R. R. Horner, J. R. Karr, and B. W. Mar. Document Type: CRESP Researcher Reports Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Water Resources Series Technical Report No. 154, Urban Water Resources Center, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Abstract: |
| Radiocesium in mourning doves:
Effects of a contaminated reservoir drawdown and risk to
human consumers Author: Kennamer, R.A., Other Author(s): I.L. Brisbin Jr., C.D. McCreedy, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Journal of Wildlife Management 62: 497-508. Abstract: From September 1991 through January 1995, partial drawdown of a 1,130-ha U.S. Department of Energy reactor cooling reservoir (Par Pond) in South Carolina exposed sediments contaminated by low-level radiocesium (137CS). These exposed sediments were designated as a U.S. Environmental Protection gency (EPA) superfund site. Whole-body and muscle concentrations of 137CS in mourning doves Zenaida umcroura) collected from Par Pond in 1992 and 1993 were 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than in doves from nearby public dove-hunting fields located 12 and 32 km away. Only 1 of 102 Par Pond oves exceeded the European Economic Community limit of 0.60 Becquerels (Bq) 137CS/g for fresh meat. A human risk analysis based on consumption of doves at the observed maximum of muscle 137CS oncentration (0.82 Bq/g wet mass) indicated no more than 41 doves could be consumed by an individual per year at that level before the EPA threshold for action on a superfund site would he exceeded (i.e., urther site characterization, possible remedial action). Levels of whole-body 137CS in doves from Par ond declined by >75% from 1992 through 1994. Pokeweed (Phytolacca awricana) seeds, the dominant ood of doves foraging on the exposed lake bed, likewise declined (>90%) in 117CS content over the eriod. We noted subtle annual changes in the diets of doves that likely contributed to reduced rates of 37CS ingestion as the drawdown progressed. Doves differed by age class in their food intake and election, and immature doves showed higher levels of ingesta 137cs. However, age classes did not differ in whole-body 137CS (p = 0.156) or muscle 137CS (p = 0.181). Dove whole-body 137CS was a ood predictor (r2 = 0.94) of muscle 137CS, and thus provides the opportunity to estimate levels of 137CS in edible muscle without destructive sampling by simply subjecting live-captured birds to whole-body etermination of 137CS content. The radiological consequences of a long-term drawdown or complete raining of such a reservoir are not clear. |
| Radiocesium in raccoons: Population
differences and potential human risks. Poster Author: Lord, C.G., Other Author(s): K.F. Gaines, C.S. Boring, I.L. Brisbin, Jr. and J. Burger Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Recognition of nest predator
species and individuals by Common Terns Author: Palestis, B., Other Author(s): and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Boston, MA, January 3-7. Abstract: Differential responses of common terns (Sterna hirundo) to predatory and nonprodatory birds were studied in a salt marsh island colony during the summers of 1996 and 1997. Terns responded to known nest predators with upflights and aggressive antipredator behavior, and largely ignored other species. A pair of great black-backed gulls (Larus marinus) nested on the island in both years, and terns responded to this species more frequently than to other gull species. Evidence for individual recognition of this pair of great black-backed gulls was also found. Terns responded more requently to this pair than to other great black-backed gulls, and a greater proportion of these responses were aggressive. Common terns can therefore learn which species and individuals are a threat to their young and eggs. If nest predators are not a threat to adults, then fear responses habituate and adult terns are more aggressive in their nest defense. |
| Recognition of nest predator
species and individuals by Common Terns Author: Palestis, B., Other Author(s): and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: American Zoologist 37: 31A. Abstract: |
| Recreation and risk around los
alamos: are hispanics more at risk. Author: Burger. J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental health, part A, 61:101-116, 2000 Abstract: The Department of Energy (DOE) and other federal facilities are involved in massive remediation and restoration efforts on lands that may eventually be turned over for recreation or other uses by the public. In addition, other sites are expected to continue their ongoing missions, but recreation may be sanctioned, or not discouraged, on their remediated lands. Understanding the amount and types of recreation of regional residents who might use such lands, as well as their willingness to use these lands, is critical to determining both cleanup and restoration standards, and potential future risk. in this article the recreational rates, current recreational use, and willingness to recreate on Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are examined for 356 people interviewed at a well-attended gun show in Albuquerque, NM. There were few significant ethnic differences in recreational rates, although Hispanics had higher fishing rates and lower bird watching rates than whites. Women hunted less, and photographed more, than men. Younger people fished and hunted more, and bird-watched less, than older people. There were no differences in recreational rates as a function of income or education. These data can be used for understanding potential exposure of people in the vicinity of Los Alamos. |
| Recreation and risk: Potential
exposure Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health 52: 269-284. Abstract: The Department of Energy and other federal facilities are reclaiming land through the process of remediation and restoration, and this land will eventually be turned over for future land uses that may involve recreation. Understanding the amount of recreation that is likely (and thus individual xposure) is an essential element in decisions about cleanup standards. In this article the number of days people engage in different recreational activities as a measure of potential exposure is examined. People attending a Mayfest celebration (n = 399) and the Palmetto Sportsmen's Classic (n = 285) in Columbia, SC, were interviewed regarding their recreational activities. In most cases reported in the literature, recreational activities are examined as the mean number of days people engage in each activity per year, but to determine risk it is essential to know the distribution of these activities. In descending order of frequency, people attending the mayfest reported their activities as birdwatching, photographing, fishing, hiking, camping, and hunting. There were significant gender differences in the frequency of activities, with men spending more days in every activity except birdwatching and photography. There were ethnic differences in recreation, with whites engaging in higher levels of most recreational activities than blacks, but the percentage of black men who reported fishing more than 100 d per year, was greater than for white men. Most people reported their participation in most activities less than 30 d per year; however, a higher percentage of people reported participating in photography, birdwatching, and fishing more than 30 d per year compared to the other activities. Further, individuals at the Sportsman's Classic reported far higher rates of hunting and fishing per year than the general public. These data can be used to examine potential exposure of recreationists on remediated and restorecl land. The data clearly indicate that over 25% of the people engage in at least one recreational activity over 20 d per year, and thus exceed the Department of Energy's 14-d recreation assumption in its future land use document. |
| Recreation and risk: Potential
exposure. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Recreation, consumption of wild
game, risk, and the Department of Energy sites:
Perceptions of people attending the Lewiston (Idaho)
"Roundup"
Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: J. Toxicol. Environ. Health, Part A, 56: 221-234. Abstract: Several federal agencies are reclaiming land through remediation and restoration, and are considering potential future land uses that are compatible with current land uses and local needs. Understanding potential recreational and wild game consumption patterns and risk perceptions are critical for determining cleanup levels and assessing potential risk associated with certain uses. In this article, recreational rates of people attending the Lewiston "Roundup" rodeo in northwestern Idaho were examined, as well as their perceptions of the safety of consuming fish and game from two Department of Energy (DOE) facilities: the Hanford Site and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). These are two of DOE's largest sites. Lewiston is closer to Hanford, but is in the same state as INEEL. Men engaged in significantly higher hunting and fishing rates than women, but there were no gender differences in camping and hiking rates. Rates of hunting and camping decreased significantly with age, while rates of hiking were lowest for 31 to 45-yr-olds. Level of education generally was not related to rates of recreation. Over 70% of the subjects ate deer, elk, and self-caught fish; 30-50% ate grouse, moose, and waterfowl, and fewer people ate other game species. Overall, subjects were less concerned about eating the fish and game from INEEL than from Hanford, and more people thought Hanford should be cleaned up completely compared to INEEL. Mean rates of fishing, hiking, and camping all exceeded the DOE's maximum recreational exposure assumption of 14 d/yr used in their future use documents. Although at present people are generally not allowed access to DOE lands for recreation, recreation is one future land use being considered for these federal facilities. Given that some people would engage in multiple activities, the potential exists for people living in the general region of Hanford and INEEL to exceed the 14-d exposure assumption. The relative gender differences in recreational rates mean that men are potentially more at risk, particularly since hunting (on both sites) and fishing (on Hanford) are attractive. |
| Recreational use, environmental
attitudes and perceptions of future land use at Savannah
River site: Gender differences. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, J.W. Gibbons and M. Gochfeld Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Recreational use, environmental
attitudes and perceptions of future land use at Savannah
River site: Importance of preserves and ecological
research Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, J.W. Gibbons and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Journal of Environmental Management Abstract: |
| Relationship among wetland
hydroperiod, presence of fish and amphibian reproductive
characteristics in depression wetlands of the southeast Author: Snodgrass J., Other Author(s): and J. Burger Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Invitied conference on Effects of Fisheries Management on the Amphibian and other Biota of Wilderness Lakes, October 16-18. Abstract: |
| Relationships among Isolated
Wetland size, Hydroperiod and Ampahibian Species
Richness: Implications for Wetland Regulations. Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): M.J. Komoroski, A.L. Bryan Jr., and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Conservation Biology 14(2): 414-419.. Abstract: Abstract: Wetland development within the United States is regulated primarily by size. Decisions concerning wetland destruction or conservation are therefore based in part on three inherent assumptions. (1) small wetlands contain water for short portions of the year, (2) small wetlands support few species, and (3) species found in small wetlands are also found in larger wetlands. We tested these assumptions using data on wet land size, relative hydroperiod (drying scores), and relative species richness of amphibians in depression wetlands of the southeastern United States. We found a significant (p = 0.03) but weak (r2 = 0.05) relationship between hydroperiod and wetland size and no relationship (p = 0.48) between amphibian species richness and wetland size. Furthemore, synthetic models of lentic communities predict that short-hydroperiod wetlands support a unique group of species. Empirical investigations support this prediction. Our results indicate that,hydaroperiod length should be included as a primary criterion in wetland regulations. We advocate a landscape approach to wetlands regulation, focused in part on conserving a diversity of wetlands that represent the entire hydroperiod gradient. |
| Relationships among isolated
wetland size, hydroperiod and amphibian richness;
Implications for wetland regulation Author: Snodgrass, J.W., Other Author(s): M.J. Komoroski, A.L. Bryan Jr., and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Conservation Biology. Abstract: |
| Resources and estuarine health:
Perceptions about elected officials and recreational
fishers Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, M. McMahon, J. Leonard, R. Ramos and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Abstract: It is important to understand the perceptions of user groups regarding both the health of our estuaries and environmental problems requiring management. Recreational fishers were interviewed to determine the perceptions of one of the traditional user groups of Barnegat Bay (New Jersey), and elected officials were interviewed to determine if the people charged with making decisions about environmental issues in the bay held Simi lar perceptions. Although relative ratings were similar, there were significant differences in perceptions of the severity of environmental problems, and for the most part, public officials thought the problems were more severe than did the fishers. Personal water craft (often called let Skis) were rated as the most severe problem, followed by cherni- cal pollution, junk, overfishing, street runoff, and boat oil. Small boats, sailboats, wind surfers, and foraging birds were not considered environmental problems by either elected officials or fishermen. The disconnect between the perceptions of the recreational fishers and those of the locally elected public officials suggests that officials may be hearing from some of the more vocal people about problems, rather than from the typical fishers. Both groups felt there were decreases in some of the resources in the bay; over 50% felt the number of fish and crabs had declined, the size of fish and crabs had declined, and the number of turtles had declined. Among recreational fishers, there were almost no differences in perceptions of the severity of environmental problems or in changes in the bay. The problems that were rated the most severe were personal watercraft and over- fishing by commercial fishers. Recreational fishers ranked sailboats, wind surfers, and fishing by birds as posing no problem for the bay. Most fishers felt there had been recent major changes in Barnegat Bay, with there now being fewer and smaller fish, fewer and smaller crabs, and fewer turtles. The results suggest that the, views of a wide range of coastal users should be considered when making environmental health decisions. |
| Responses of invertebrates to
human-induced disturbance: Developing a terrestrial index
of biological integrity Author: Kimberling D.N., Other Author(s): J.R. Karr, and L.S. Fore Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting. Spokane, WA, August 7-12. Abstract: Protection of ecological health depends on understanding biological responses to diverse human activities. The Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington, an ideal site for documentation of those reponses, has been subjected to diverse human activities. A substantial area of health native shrub-steppe vegetation is also present. Thirteen study sites were sampled in 1997 and 12 new sites were added in 1998. We used invertebrates collected in pitfall traps as our study group, investigating 56 characteristics of terrestrial invertebrate assemblages from taxa richness and composition to diverse functional roles. Our goal was a prototype terrestrial index of biological integrity composed of metrics, biological attributes that change quantitatively along a gradient of human influence. Of the 56 attributes tested, 28 distinguished between undisturbed and disturbed sites in 1997; no more than seven would be expected by chance. Ten attributes gave consistent responses to disturbance in 1998. Several taxa richness measures changed consistently along disturbance gradients: total number of invertebrate families, Diptera, Acarina, Tenebrionidae (Coleoptera), parasitoids, decomposers, and predators. Reletive abundance of Eleodes spp. (Tenebrionidae) decreased and dominance increased along the gradient. Integrating these measures into a multimetric index provides an effective measure of biological condition that can be used to guide cleanup and restoration efforts. |
| Responses of terrestrial
invertebrates to human disturbance in shrub-steppe in
eastern Washington
Author: Kimberling, D.N., Other Author(s): J.R. Karr, and L.S. Fore. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Ecological Applications. Abstract: |
| Restoration Ecology: Using local
plant genotypes to assess the potential for remediation
of degraded land. Poster Author: Handel, S., Other Author(s): J. Burger Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Restoration on contaminated sites Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and S.Handel. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Society for Ecological Restoration. Rutgers University, June. Abstract: |
| Restoration on contaminated sites Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and S. Handel. Document Type: CRESP Symposia, Workshops, and Stakeholder Events Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Society of Ecological Restoration. Rutgers University, June 16-17. Abstract: |
| Restoration potential and options
for contaminated sites: Their role in ecological risk
assessment Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Society for Ecological Restoration. Rutgers University, June. Abstract: |
| Restoring life in running waters:
Better biological monitoring Author: Karr, J.R., Other Author(s): and E.W. Chu. Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Washington, DC: Island Press. Abstract: |
| Revisiting the commons: Local
lessons, global challenges Author: Ostrom E., Other Author(s): J. Burger, C.B.Field, R.B. Norgaard, and D. Policansky. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Science 9(284) 278-282. Abstract: In a seminal paper, Garrett Hardin argued in 1968 that users of a commons are caught in an inevitable process that leads to the destruction of the resources on which they depend. This article discusses new insights about such problems and the conditions most likely to favor sustainable uses of common-pool resources. Some of the most difficult challenges concern the management of large-scale resources that depend on international cooperation, such as fresh water in international basins or large marine ecosystems. Institutional diversity may be as important as biological diversity for our long-term survival. |
| Risk and recreation: Differences
due to gender, age and education Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: 10 Risk: Health, Safety and Environment 109- 119. Abstract: Introduction In the coming decades, the Department of Energy (DOE) will be making decisions regarding their mission for future land uses of many of its former weapons production sites in 34 states. The DOE is considering seven land use options: agriculture, residential, recreational, open space/recreation, open space, industrial/commercial, and storage/disposal. Several groups will provide information to influence future land use decisions, including local state and federal governments, tribal governments, site-specific advisory boards, affected communities, interest groups, and community organizations.It is becoming increasingly clear that the decisions concerning future land use of the DOE sites must be made with input from the groups mentioned above. Moreover, the role of local government officers and public planners is critical to the process. |
| Risk assessment, life history
strategies, and turtles: Could declines be prevented or
predicted Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and S.D. Garber. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1995 Citation: Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health 46: 483-500. Abstract: The process of ecological risk assessment should involve the ability to predict adverse outcomes of particular environmental contaminants or human intrusions. Ecological risk assessment generally focuses on populations, communities, and ecosystems, rather than on individual health. We explore the importance of life history strategies of aquatic turtles to their risk from environmental contaminants and other human activities using three examples: the wood turtle Clemmys insculpta, a freshwater species; the diamondback terrapin malaclemys terrapin, a littoral species; and marine turtles as a group. These turtles are partly herbivorous and are at low or intermediate levels on the food chain, yet are particularly vulnerable due to their life history strategies of being long-lived with relatively low survival of young. They suffer a variety of natural mortality factors that include predation, starvation, and disease, as well as inundation and destruction of nesting beaches and their eggs by storrns. Yet they also face a number of anthropogenic hazards, including toxic chemicals and floatables (plastics); capture for food, other products, and pets; incidental mortality, in fishing gear: disturbance while nesting or moving on land; injuries or death by collision with boats; and increased predator exposure because of humans. The three turtle species (or groups of species) examined have experienced these natural and anthropogenic, pressures differentially, with resultant differences in the rates of population declines. Because they are lower on the food chain than other obligate carnivores, they are less vulnerable to toxics, and to date, toxics seem a relatively inconsequential environmental risk to turtles. |
| Risk assessment, the DOE and CRESP Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, J.W. Gibbons, , and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: American College of Toxicology. Philadelphia, PA, November 10. Abstract: |
| Risk assessment: We need more than
an ecological veneer Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1995 Citation: Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 1(4): 436-442. Abstract: Direct risks to human health are not the only environmental risks that society faces. Because of the large and still increasing human population and the continuing proliferation of technology, the effects of human activities are now the most important driver of change on Earth. Ecological risk assessemnt is an important response to the effects of global change. Ecological risk assessment however, is like a new high-speed train built before plans were made or tracks laid to define its direction and the cities it will connect. Current risk assessment is most often used to project the risk of toxicological effects, usually on human Health, such as the risk of human illness from exposure to pesticides or the risk of death from breathing air pollutants. For ecological risk assessment to fulfill its potential, more careful thought must go into defining the specific societal goals for ecological risk assessment, especially the risks to be averted. |
| Risk concerns, land use, and the
idaho national engineering and environmental laboratory:
Attitudes of the shoshone-bannock and other American
Indians. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanches, D.E. Roush, Jr. and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Risk Concerns, Land Use,
Stewardship, and the Idaho national engineering and
environmental laboratory: attitudes of the
shoshone-bannock and other american indians. Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): D.E. Roush, R. Ramos, and M. Gochfeld Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Environmental Research Section A 83, 298-310 (2000) Abstract: This paper examines the attitudes and perceptions of 277 American Indians about hunting and fishing, risk, and future land use of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) in southeastern Idaho. Nearly half of our sample were Shoshone-Bannock tribal members living on the nearby Fort Hall Reservation, and half were American Indians from elsewhere in the western United States. We also interviewed an additional 44 White people. We examine the hypothesis that there are differences in environmental concerns and attitudes toward future land use at INEEL as a function of tribal affiliation (ethnicity), educational level, gender, and age. Such perceptions are important because of the existence of tribal treaties that govern the legal and cultural rights of the Shoshone-Bannock. Returning INEEL to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, and a National Environmental Research Park ranked as the highest preferred future land uses, whereas continuing nuclear materials reprocessing and increasing the storage of nuclear wastes ranked as the lowest. There were tribal differences in land use preferences, with those of the Fort Hall Indians being more similar to those of the local Whites than to other American Indians. All groups ranked storage of nuclear material, storage of additional nuclear material, and spills and accidents as the most serious of a list of concerns provided about the site. Fort Hall Indians answered an open-ended question with concerns for population levels and migration routes of game animals and other wildlife, more than hunting and human health. The Shoshone-Bannock from Fort Hall showed an environmental sensitivity for the well-being of wildlife and the health of the ecosystem and were interested in long-term stewardship, in addition to concern for human health. |
| Risk from consumption of fish from
the Savannah River. Poster Author: Burger J., Other Author(s): K.F. Gaines, I.L. Brisbin, W. Stephensand M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Risk perception and future land use
preferences: A comparison of Attitudes about the Hanford
site and the Idaho national engineering and environmental
laboratory. Poster
Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, D.E. Roush,Jr. and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Risk perception, federal spending,
and the Savannah River Site: Attitudes of hunters and
fishermen Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) and International Society for Exposure Assessment (ISEA) Joint Meeting. New Orleans, LA, December 8-11. Abstract: A questionnaire with items pertaining to hunting, fishing, and a range of environmental issues was administered to 285 people attending the Palmetto Sportsman's Classic in Columbia, South Carolina. In addition to questions about their hunting and fishing practices, the survey asked how the land at the Savannah River Site should be used, their ranking of the severity of a range of environmental problem, and their willingness of expend federal funds to address these problems. We test the null hypothesis that there is no difference in hunting and fishing rates, attitudes toward the safety of fish and deer obtained from SRS, attitudes toward future land use at SRS, and perceptions of the severity of environmental problems as it function of the distance respondents lived from the site. Potential exposure of recreational hunters or fishermen in South Carolina was higher than the assumptions used in Department of Energy exposure assessments; this recreational group engaged in hunting or fishing an average of over 40 days a year. Only about half of the respondents felt that the fish and deer from Savannah River were safe to eat, although only 6 % of the respondents had ever hunted or fished on the site. Clearing of rainforests, pollution of drinking water, Superfund sites and nuclear sites ranked as the most severe environmental problems, while radon was ranked the lowest. In general, willingness to expend federal funds was correlated with perceptions of the severity of the problem. Preferences for future land use at SRS fell into three categories: high (environmental research park, hunting, fishing, camping), medium (nuclear production, factories, preserve only), mid low (nuclear waste storage, residential). There were no differences in hunting and fishing rates, ranking of the severity of environmental problems and willingness to expend federal funds as a function of distance of residence from SRS, but attitudes toward future land use differed significantly as a function of location of residence. Those living close to SRS (<16 km) were more willing to have the site used for factories, a National Environmental Research Park, nuclear power production and to store nuclear wastes than those living farther from the site (> 80 km). These are the current (or past) uses for SRS, suggesting that familiarity partly accounted for their perceptions of the hazards. *(Research supported by the Department of Energy through holds to the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation). |
| Risk perception, federal spending,
and the Savannah River Site: Attitudes of hunters and
fishermen Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, J.W. Gibbons, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Risk Analysis 17(3): 313-320. Abstract: This paper examines the attitudes of 285 hunters and fishermen from South Carolina about hunting and fishing, risk, environmental issues, and future land use of the Savannah River Site. We test the null hypothesis that there is no difference in hunting and fishing rates, attitudes toward the safety of fish and deer obtained from SRS, attitudes toward future land use at SRS, and perceptions of the severity of environmental problems as a function of how far respondents lived from the site. Respondents hunted or fished an average of over 40 days a year, and only half felt that the fish and deer from SRS were safe to eat. Willingness to expend federal funds was correlated with perceptions of the severity of the problem. Preferences for future land use at SRS fell into three categories: high (environmental research park, hunting, fishing, camping), medium (nuclear production, factories, preserve only), and low (nuclear waste storage, residential). There were no differences in hunting and fishing rates, ranking of the severity of environmental problems, and willingness to expend federal funds as a function of distance of residence from SRS, btit attitudes toward future land use differed significantly as a function of location of residence. Those living close to SRS were more willing to have the site used for factories, residential, nuclear material production and to store nuclear wastes than those living farther from the site. Our data on recreational rates, attitudes toward future land use, and willingness to expend federal funds to solve environmental problems reiterate the importance of assessing stakeholder attitudes toward decisions regarding future land use at DOE sites |
| Risk perception, land use, and the
Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory:
Attitudes of the Shoshone-Bannock and other American
Indians Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): J. Sanchez, D. Roush, and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Environmental Research. Abstract: |
| Risk to coastal birds from mercury Author: Burger J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Colonial Waterbird Society, Charleston, SC, October. Abstract: |
| Risk to coastal birds from mercury Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Colonial Waterbird Society. Charleston, SC, October. Abstract: |
| Risk, mercury levels, and birds:
Relating adverse laboratory effects to field
biomonitoring Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Environmental Research 75: 160-172. Abstract: There is an abundance of field data on levels of mercury in a variety of organisms and there are a number of studies that demonstrate the adverse effects of mercury on laboratory animals, but few studies examine the relationship between the two. Thus it is often difficult to determine the ecological relevance of mercury concentrations found in nature, or to predict the ecosystem consequences of current levels. In this paper we review the levels in tissues that are associated with adverse, effects in birds from laboratory studies and compare these with levels found in wild bird populations in the New York Bight to provide a basis for interpreting values in avian populations. We use feathers from fledgling birds which would have been fed on locally obtained food to eliminate the problem of where toxic burdens were acquired by more mobile adult birds. Laboratory studies indicate that in some species mercury levels of 1.5 ppm in eggs and/ or 5 to 40 ppm in the feathers of birds are associated with adverse effects, including impaired reproduction. We report egg levels in birds that range as high as 3.8 ppm and feather levels that range as high as 10.3 ppm, although means are much lower. The lev- els in eggs of some wild birds in the New York Bight are within the range known to lower hatchability, embryo and chick survival, and chick weight, all variables that reduce reproductive success. Species with high egg levels include Forster's tern (Sterna forsteri) and black skimmer (Rynchops niger). Levels in feathers of some young wild birds from the New York Bight are within the range associated with reduced hatchability of eggs, behavioral abnormalities of adults, and infertility. Species with dangerously elevated mercury levels in feathers include great egret (Ardea [=Egretta] alba), snowy egret (Egretta thula), and black skimmers. |
| Risk, recreation and future land
use at the savannah river site: A comparison of on-site
hunters, sportsmen, and the general public. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| River conservation in the United
States and Canada: Science, policy and practice Author: Karr, J.R., Other Author(s): J.D. Allan, and A.C. Benke. Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 2000 Citation: In River Conservation: Science, policy, and practice, edited by P.J. Boon, B.R. Davies and G.E. Petts, 3-38. New York:J. Wiley and Sons. Abstract: Rivers in Canada and the United States, like rivers world-wide, are shaped by their landscapes as much as landscapes are shaped by rivers. Both are defined by regional geology, topography, rainfall, temperature and living organisms. As a result of the complex interactions of climate, running water and land, rivers have been changing for millennia, but the rapid growth over the past 200 years of human populations and their technologies has been a new force for change, altering US and Canadian rivers radically from what they were 300 years ago. |
| Rivers as sentinels: Using the
biology of rivers to guide landscape management Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1998 Citation: A Discussion Document: Global Integrity and ‘Sustainable Development”: Cornerstones of Public Health edited by C. L. Soskolne and R. Bertollini, 46-48. Based on an International Workshop at the World Health Organization, Rome Italy 3–4 December 1998. Abstract: Humans after the surface of Earth in ways, on scales, and at frequencies unprecedented in recent history. Resource and environmental managers must identify and minimize the effects of changes that have negative consequence for human society. · Because rivers integrate all that happens in their landscapes, their condition, especially their biological condition, reveals much about the consequences of human actions. · The condition of rivers in the Pacific Northwest indicates that much of the region's rich natural capital has been spent. · Existing laws do not adequately protect rivers because they are at odds with the physical connectedness of water, and, worse, they commonly ignore the biological components of aquatic ecosystems. · Human actions jeopardize the biological integrity of water resources by altering physical habitat, modifying seasonal flow of water, changing the food base of the system, changing interactions within the stream biota, and polluting water with chemical contaminants. · Conventional monitoring and evaluation studies, such as tracking chemical pollution or population sizes of target species, are inadequate to protect overall river condition in part because they are conceptually narrow, in part because they are not well suited for distinguishing variation caused by natural events from variation caused by human actions. · Biological monitoring in the twentieth century began with a restricted focus (organic pollution, toxic chemicals) but is shifting to a more integrative approach that evaluates the condition of aquatic biota from diverse perspectives. Integrative, multimetric biological indexes used to develop biological standards (criteria) are more comprehensive and robust than chemical standards, and they are effective at diagnosing degradation, defining its cause(s), and suggesting treatments to halt or reverse damage. · Multimetric biological monitoring is a central feature of water resource assessments throughout the United States (48 states have or are developing multimetric approaches), and it has been used on all continents but Antarctica. · The index of biological integrity (IBI) is one multimetric approach used to examine the influence of humans on fish, invertebrate, and algal assemblages. · IBI has substantial statistical power to detect the effects (point and nonpoint pollution, physical habitat alteration, flow alteration, and complex cumulative impacts) of diverse human actions (agriculture, livestock grazing, logging, recreation, and urbanization) on water resources. · IBI can be used to define spatial and temporal patterns in water resource conditions and to evaluate the effects of management efforts. · A enthic invertebrate index of biological integrity (B-IBI) proposed for use in the Pacific Northwest includes ten metrics: total number of taxa; number of mayfly, stonefly, caddisfly, long-lived, intolerant, and clinger taxa; proportion of individuals belonging to tolerant taxa and to predatory taxa; and percent dominance of the three most abundant taxa. · Rivers are sentinels: they give early warning of the risks human activities engender. Society can no longer afford to ignore these risks or behave as if they did not exist. |
| Role of long-term studies in future
land use at DOE sites Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1996 Citation: Workshop on Long-term Avian Studies at SRS. US Forestry Service, November 7-8. Abstract: |
| Running head: Metals and
metallothionein in racoon Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): C.G. Lord, L. McGrath, K.F. Gaines, I.L. Brisbin, Jr., M. Gochfeld, and E.J. Yurkow. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: J. Toxicol. Environmental Health 60: 243-261. Abstract: |
| Sampling and analysis plan for
application of the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) to
terrestrial plants and insects at the DOE Hanford site Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): D. Kimberling and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP Researcher Reports Publication Date: 1997 Citation: March. Abstract: |
| Science for Ecological risk, food
chains and regulation Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Environmental Restoration Technology End User Conference. Augusta, Georgia, June 6-8. Abstract: |
| Science, policy,stakeholders, and
fish consumption advisories: Developing a fish fact sheet
for the Savannah River Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): M. Gochfeld, C.W. Powers, L. Waishwell, C. Warren, B.D.Goldstein Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: J. of Environmental Management Abstract: ABSTRACT/ In recent years there has been a startling rise in the issuance of fish consumption advisories. Unfortunately compliance by the public is often low. Low compliance can be due to a number of factors, including confusion over the meaning of advisories, conflicting advisories issued by different agencies, controversies involving health benefits versus the risk from consuming fish, and an unwillingness to act on the advisories because of personal beliefs. In some places, such as along the Savannah river, one state (south Carolina had issued a consumption advisory while the other (Georgia) had not, although at present, both states now issue consumption advisories for the Savannah River. Here in we report on the development of a fish fact sheet to address the confusing and confilcting information available to the public about consuming fish from the Savannah River. The process involved interviewing fishers to ascertain fishing and consumption patterns, evaluating contaminant levels and exposure pathways, discussing common grounds for the provision of information, and consensus-building among different regulatory agencies (US Environmental Protecton Agency, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Georgia department of Natural Resources) and the Department of Energy. Consensus, a key Ingrediant in solving many different types of "commons" problems, was aided by an outside organization, the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP). The Initial role for CRESP was to offer scientific data as a basis for groups with different assumptions about risks to reach agreement on a regulatory response action. The process was an example of how credible science can be used to implement management and poilcies and provide a basis for consensus-building on difficult risk commnication issues. The paper provides several lessons for improving the risk process from stakeholder conflicts, through risk assessment, to risk management. It also suggests that consensus-buliding and risk communication are continuing processes that involve assimilation of new information on contaminants and food chain processes, state and federal law, public policy, and public response. |
| Seeking Suitable Endpoints:
Biological Monitoring and Biological Criteria for Wetland
Assessment Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Researcher Reports Publication Date: 1998 Citation: US Environmental Protection Agency. May 13. Abstract: |
| Soils and restoration Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): and R. Harrison, co-chairs. Document Type: CRESP Symposia, Workshops, and Stakeholder Events Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Society for Ecological Restoration, NW Chapter, Tacoma, WA. October 29. Abstract: |
| Surveying public perceptions about
the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental
Laboratory's Environment Author: Roush, D., Other Author(s): D. Beaver, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Idaho Academy of Science. Pocatello, ID, April. Abstract: |
| Sustaining living rivers Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): and E.W. Chu Document Type: CRESP In Press Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Hydrobiologia. Abstract: Rivers cannot continue to meet society's needs, or the needs of livingthings, if humans continue to regard river management as a purely political or engineering challenge. The flow of rivers is part of a greater flow, the planet's water cycle, which sustains not only the flow of water but the entire web of life. Ultimately, the condition, or health, of the aquatic biota is the best means of understanding and controlling humans' impact on the Earth's watercourses and on the whole water cycle. Biological monitoring, especially multimetric approaches such as the index of biological integrity, acknowledges the importance of rivers' biotic integrity and offers one of the strongest available tools for diagnosing, minimizing, and preventing, river degradation. The broad perspective offered by biological evaluations stands a better chance than narrow chemical criteria or conventional measures of urban development of sustaing in living rivers. |
| Terrestrial insects and ecological
health: Links to cleanup decisions at Hanford Author: Kimberling, D.N., Other Author(s): J.R. Karr, and L.S. Fore. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Third Annual University of Washington Conference on the Ecological, Community, and Occupational Health Issues at Hanford, November 2-3. Abstract: Protection of ecological health depends on understanding biological responses to diverse human activities. Besides being extraordinarily diverse and having intimate interactions with resident plants, terrestrial insects are abundant, relatively easy to sammple, and responsible to a wide range of human activities. Our study is examining responses of insects and spiders at Hanford Nuclear Reservation to various types of human influences. Using terrestrial invertebrates collected in 1997, 1998, and 1999 with pitfall traps, we investigated 56 characteristics of insect assemblages from taxa richness and composition to diverse functional roles. Our goal is to develop a terrestrial index of biological integrity composed of measures of biological condition that change quantitatively along a gradient of human influence. Of the 56 attributes tested, 28 distinguished between undisturbed and disturbed sites in 1997; no more than 7 would be expected by chance. Eight attributes gave consistent responses to disturbance in 1998. Several taxa richness measures changed consistently along disturbance gradients: total number of invertebrate families, flies, mites, web-spinning spiders, parasitoids, decomposers, predators, and pollinators. In 1999, we added sites with ongoing activities to include time since disturbance and identify biological endpoints along a gradient of human influence. We also collected data at another DOE facility, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, to see if the patterns of responses from Hanford are consistent in another shrub-steppe ecosystem. Integrating the results of this study in a multimetric index will provide an effective measure of biological condition that can be used to guide or evaluate cleanup and restoration efforts. |
| The centrality of ecosystem health
in achieving sustainability in the 21st century: Concepts
and new approaches to environmental management Author: Rapport, D.J., Other Author(s): N. Christensen, J.R. Karr, and G.P. Patil. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Transactions/Memoires of The Royal Society of Canada Annual Meeting, Ottawa, November 21. Abstract: The quality of human life in the 21" century depends on the health of the earth's ecosystems. For it is the life support systems, the so-called ecological services provided by healthy (well functioning) ecosystems that are the essential prerequisite for a healthy human society. Earth's ecosystems are now dominated by human activity (Vitousek el aL 1997), and they show the siggs of widespread degradation (Hilden & Rapport 1993; Rapport et aL 1998a). We suggest that the pathway to a viable future lies in recognising the necessity of restoring and maintaining ecosystem health. To accomplish this requires the development of a more integrative approach to the science and management of the environment. In this paper we define the concept of ecosystem health, illustrate approaches to its assessment, and introduce new approaches to environmental management. |
| The centrality of ecosystem health
in achieving sustainability in the 21st century: Concepts
and new approaches to environmental management. Author: Rapport, D.J. Other Author(s): J. R. Karr, and G. P. Patil. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Series VI, Volume IX, 3-40. Abstract: |
| The effect of fixed-count
subsampling on macroinvertebrate biomonitoring in small
streams. Author: Doberstein, C.P., Other Author(s): J. R. Karr, and L. L. Conquest. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 2000 Citation: Freshwater Biology 44, 1-17. Abstract: I. When rigorous standards of collecting and analysing data are maintained, biological monitoring adds valuable information to water resource assessments. Decisions, from study design and field methods to laboratory procedures and data analysis, affect assessment quality. Subsampling-a laboratory procedure in which researchers count and identify a random subset of field samples--is widespread yet controversial. What are the consequences of subsampling? 2. To explore this question, random subsamples were computer generated for subsample sizes ranging from 100 to 1000 individuals qs c,,,oVvxa with the results of counting whole samples. The study was done on benthic invertebrate samples collected from five Puget Sound lowland streams near Seattle, WA, USA. For each replicate subsample, values for 10 biological attributes (e.g. total number of taxa) and for the 10-metric benthic index of biological integrity (B-IBI) were computed. 3. Variance of each metric and E@-IBI for each subsample size was compared with variance associated with fully counted samples generated using the bootstrap algorithm. From the measures of variance, we computed the maximum number of distinguishable classes of stream,condition as a function of sample size for each metric and for B-IBI. 4. Subsampling significantly decreased the maximum number of distinguishable stream classes for B-IBI, from 8.2 for fully counted samples to 2.8 classes for 100-organisrn subsamples. For subsamples containing 100-300 individuals, discriminatory power was low enough to mislead water resource decision makers. |
| The EMAP Symposium on Western
Ecological Systems: Status, Issues and New Approaches Author: Kimberling D.N., Other Author(s): M.A. Hawke, J.R. Karr, and L.S. Fore. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: San Francisco, CA Abstract: Protection of ecological health is founded on understanding of biological responses to human activities. Established in 1943 to produce nuclear material, Hanford Nuclear Reservation is an ideal place to test our understanding of biological responses. Hanford contains severely contaminated sites with physical disturbances and areas of health native shrub-steppe vegetation. Invertebrates, terrestrial vegetation, and microbiotic soil crusts were sampled in 1997 at 13 sites and 19 sites in 1998 to identify biological attributes (metrics) that responded along gradients of disturbance. We investigated 56 attributes of terrestrial invertebrate assemblages using 1997 data; 28 distinguished between minimally and severely disturbed sites. Only 7 would be expected by chance. Ten attributes gave consistent responses to disturbance in 1998. Several taxa richness attributes changed consistently along disturbance gradients: total number of invertebrate families and number of Diptera, Acarina, Tenebrionidae (Coleoptera), parasitoid, decomposer, and predator taxa. Dominance increased with disturbance. For terrestrial vegetation, total taxa and shrub taxa richness, shrub and lichen cover, and relative abundance of native forms decreased with increasing disturbance. Proportion of alien taxa and density of forms (especially alien annuals) increased. Based on knowledge of these patterns, we applied analytical procedures and concepts developed for aquatic systems to develop terrestrial indexes of biological integrity to guide cleanup and restoration programs at Hanford. |
| The future is now: Biological
monitoring to ensure healthy waters Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 1997 Citation: In Streamkeepers: Aquatic Insects as Biomonitors, 31-36. Portland, OR: Xerces Society. Abstract: |
| The future is now: Biological
monitoring to ensure healthy waters Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Northwest Science 71: 244-247. Abstract: |
| The historical basis for ecological
risk assessment Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 837: 360-371. Abstract: Preservation and protection of the environment moved to the fore in the mid 196Os with the realization that populations of birds and fish were declining precipitously in response to heavy loads of pesticides and other contaminants. The environmental movement spurred a flurry of legislation in the late 196Os that culminated in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the development of the environmental impact assessment process. Environmental impact assessments have several disadvantages, which result in a lack of environmental protection, including: 1)an emphasis on endangered or threatened species, 2) no requirement for experts, 3) no consistency among approaches or methods used, no consistency in endpoints, no requirement for consideration of uncertainties, monitoring, or risk. The next 20 years saw more legislation and developments in the assessment process, but the next major leap was ecological risk assessment, beginning in the late 1980s. Ecological risk assessment developed from the fields of ecology, ecotoxicology, wildlife and land management, and risk assessment. The paradigm of human health risk assessment was modified for ecological risk assessment to reflect the increase in number of species and complexity of ecosystems. |
| The natural flow regime: A paradigm
for river conservation and restoration Author: Poff, N.L., Other Author(s): J.D. Allan, M.G. Bain, J.R. Karr, K.L. Prestegaard, B.D. Richter, R.E. Sparks, and J.C. Stromberg. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Bioscience 47(11):769-784. Abstract: Humans have long been fascinated by the dynamism of free-flowing waters. Yet we have expended great effort to tame rivers for transportation, water supply, flood control, agriculture, and power generation. It is now recognized that harnessing of streams and rivers no longer support socially valued native species or sustain healthy ecosystems that provide important goodds and services (Naiman et al. 1995, NRC 1992). |
| The natural flow regime: A paradigm
for river conservation and restoration Author: Poff, N.L., Other Author(s): J. D. Allan, M. B. Bain, J. R. Karr, K. L. Prestegaard, B. D. Richter, R. E. Sparks, and J. C. Stromberg. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1997 Citation: Bioscience 47: 769–784. Abstract: |
| The social deamplification of risk:
The case of the fishing public. Poster Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| The tragedy of the commons thirty
years later Author: Burger J., Other Author(s): and M. Gochfeld. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Environment 40: 5-13, 26-27. Abstract: Thirty years ago ecologist Garrett Hardin invoked the analogy of a "Commons" in support of his thesis that as human populations increased, there would be increasing pressure on finite resources at both the local and particularly the global levels, with the resultant inevitability of overexploitation and ruin to all. This he termed the "Tragedy of the Commons."(1) In today's language, increasing populations and increased pressure on limited resources can lead to loss of sustainability. Hardin argued that "commons" resources could be exploited by anyone who could assert their rights to do so(1). He painted a bleak picture and stated a need for rigorous and even coercive regulation of human populations. His paper was widely cited first by natural scientists who provided many examples showing that indeed, increasing populations led to overexploitation, habitat degradation, and species extinctions(2). Even ecologists who found Hardin's reliance on coercion distasteful, emphasized the consequences of the imbalance between population and resources(3,4). Hardin's paper also stimulated many social scientists to bring their perspectives to bear on "commons" issues, with the result that many examples of both successful and unsuccessful maintenance of "commons" resources have now been published. This article illustrates the concept of "Commons" as a model for environmental management and sustainability. We provide a brief historical perspective on the "Tragedy of the Commons", describe some of the major issues surrounding the use of common- pool resources, and discuss the possible solutions to the dilemma Hardin proposed. |
| Tissue concentration differences of
radiocesium among raccoon populations within and near the
Department of Energy's Savannah River Site Author: Lord, C. G, Other Author(s): K. F. Gaines, C. Shane Boring, J. Burger and I. L., Jr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Society of Mammologists, June. Abstract: |
| Tourism and ecosystems Author: Burger, J. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 200X Citation: In London:John Wiley and Sons. Abstract: |
| Trace elements in egg contents and
egg shells of slider turtles (Trachemys scripta) from the
Savannah River Site: Another excretion method for females Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and J.W. Gibbons. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 34: 382-386. Abstract: In this paper we examine the levels of trace elements in the egg contents and egg shells of slider turtles (Trachemys Script from the Savannah River Site, near Aiken, South Carolina. Trace elements have seldom been examined in the tissues or eggs of reptiles, although some turtles and large snakes occupy a high trophic level. Lead, mercury, cadmium, selenium, chromium, and manganese levels were examined in one egg and its egg shell collected from each of 16 females that laid in late May and June 1996. We were interested in determining background levels, whether certain metals were sequestered in the egg shells, and whether levels were higher in contents or shells. concentrations were higher in egg contents than in shells for lead, mercury, and selenium, while chromium was higher in the shell. There were no differences for cadmium and manganese. Compared to eggs from other reptiles, levels in slider turtles were generally similar for cadmium and selenium, lower for chromium and lead, and higher for manganese. |
| Trace elements in eggs and
eggshells of slider turtles (trachemys scripta) from the
Savannah River site. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and J.W. Gibbons. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: The sites in our nation's nuclear weapons complex contain over 4,000 square miles of largely undeveloped, science, wildlife-rich, and ecologically unique lands. In light of recent directives and programs within the Department Of Energy (DOE) aimed toward multiple uses of sites and leasing or sale of excess lands, it is time to assess low-impact, low-risk, and cost-effective ways to utilize more of the environmental, ecological, and aesthetic values of these sites. This articleexamines wildlife-related outdoor recreation as an economic development option on and around DOE sites. We use an economic impact simulation model for the two-state region around the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina to illustrate the economic benefits. The objective was to demonstrate the outcome of plausible alternatives. The article demonstrates that even a moderate investment in expanded recreation could add up to several hundred new jobs almost immediately and even more jobs 15 years into the future. To the extent that |
| Urban angler's perceptions of risk
from contaminated fish Author: Pflugh K.K., Other Author(s): L. Lurig, L. A. vonHagen, S. vonHagen and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Published Manuscripts Publication Date: 1999 Citation: Science of the Total Environment 228: 203-218. Abstract: The Newark Bay Complex includes the Newark Bay, tidal portions of the Hackensack River, Passaic River, Arthur Kill, and Kill van Kull. It is a highly industrialized urban area including five counties and more than 20 local governments with a large racially-mixed population of more than 3 million people. In 1982, research conducted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) showed elevated levels of chemical contaminants in five species of fish and one type of crab in the Newark Bay Complex. Subsequently, the State of New Jersey adopted advisories to guide citizens on safe consumption practices for fish and crabs. Since then, fish consumption advisories have been issued primarily through the Fish and Game Digest, a publication distributed by the state to licensed anglers. However, anglers in the Complex are not required to have a fishing license because the waters are marine. Therefore, most anglers in this area do not receive advisory information. To gain greater insight into the information sources and risk perceptions of urban anglers, a survey was conducted of 300 anglers at 26 fishing and crabbing locations in the Newark Bay Complex during the summer and early fall of 1995. The objectives of the study were to learn anglers': (1) knowledge of fish consumption advisories; (2) belief in the advisories; (3) perception of how safe fish are to eat; (4) sources for information about fish and fishing; and (5) sources for information on fish consumption advisories. The study concluded that while 60% had heard about advisories, they either did not believe or were unconcerned about health effects from eating contaminated species. In addition, the most used source for information about fish and fishing was other fishermen, while newspapers were selected as a source for information about community news, health, and food safety. |
| Use of plant ecotypes as potential
bioassays for restoration of degraded land at Savannah
River Site Author: Handel, S.N., Other Author(s): R. Sharitz, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP In Progress Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Abstract: |
| Use of risk information in making
clean-up decisions at Hanford Author: Hawke, M.A. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Second Health of the Hanford Site Annual Conference; Round-Three Panel Discussions: Ecological Health . Richland, WA, November 4. Abstract: |
| Using landscape ecology metrics for
assessing ecological risks at the usdoe oak ridge
reservation. Poster
Author: Bartell, S.M., Other Author(s): K.R. Campbell, C.J. Lewis, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Using a new approach to assessing
ecological health: Using the Index of Biological
Integrity for plants at Hanford Author: Hawke, M.A., Other Author(s): and J.R. Karr. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: Poster. Second Health of the Hanford Site Second Conference, Richland, WA. November 3-4. Abstract: |
| Using raccooons as bioindicators of
mercury contamination. Poster Author: Lord, C., Other Author(s): M. Kuklinski, I.L. Brisbin, Jr., K. Gaines, M. Gochfeld, and J. Burger. Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| Using restoration ecology as a tool
for risk assessment
Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and S. Handel. Document Type: CRESP Submitted Manuscripts Publication Date: 200X Citation: Restoration Ecology. Abstract: |
| Using restoration ecology as a tool
for risk assessment. Poster Author: Burger, J., Other Author(s): and S. Handel Document Type: CRESP Presentations, Posters, and Abstracts Publication Date: 1998 Citation: CRESP 1998 Annual Meeting, Dingmans Ferry, Pa, June. Abstract: |
| What from ecology is relevant to
design and planning
Author: Karr, J.R. Other Author(s): Document Type: CRESP In Press Books, Chapters, and Sections Publication Date: 200X Citation: In Ecological Thinking for Design and Planning Education, edited by B. Johnson and K. Hill. Island Press, Washington, DC. Abstract: The organizers of this conference began with an interesting pren-dse: because landscape architects need an understanding of ecology as they practice their craft, 'ecology' should be an important perhaps even expanding, component in landscape architecture curricula. That simple prern& generates the question: Who will define the critical components of ecology? In their efforts to explore Hie premise and answer the question they invited me, an ecologist, to discuss "the critical and emerging ecological concepts that [landscape architecture] practitioners must incorporate into their work" and "to critique whether designers and planners are interpreting and applying them accurately." I may not be a logical choice for the task. First I am iu-equipped to provide the critique because my experience in landscape architecture and with landscape architects is limited. In faM I have spent more time in the last two decades interacting with other disciplines (agriculture, engineering, environmental health fl@ public policy) than with landscape architecture. Second, I have spent much less time in the past 15 years interacting with mainstream ecology than I have with these other disciplines. Despite these acknowledged deficiencies, let me sketch briefly my perspective on the lessons from ecology that I believe landscape architects should keep in mind. |