Pecologix Political Ecology Blotter

► New concept proposed for gauging the overall health of small-area human populations. ► BioSCIM uses Sewage Chemical-Information Mining to measure biomarkers in sewage. ► Real-time, low-cost assessment of community-wide heath is possible. ► Isoprostanes (biomarkers of oxidative stress) are identified as targets for BioSCIM. ► Panel of orthogonal biomarkers with complementary properties may broaden [...]

This set of interactive maps from The Nature Conservancy illustrates better than words some of the threats to environmental sustainability. Global Conservation Maps

Nuclear energy is a potential solution to electricity demand but also entails risks. Policy debates on nuclear accidents have focused primarily on negative impacts on humans. Although such impacts are important, we argue that policy debates must also consider the consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem services. We reviewed 521 studies conducted after the Chernobyl accident, [...]

Acoustic surveys of New Zealand deep-water seamounts often show fish aggregations up to 150 m high on the summit. Although bottom trawls on the seamount slopes catch predominantly orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus), species composition in the midwater plumes is extremely uncertain. In June 2010, moored underwater video cameras were deployed on the summit of the [...]

The value of ecosystem services typically goes unaccounted for in business and policy decisions and in market prices. For commercial purposes, if ecosystem services are recognized at all, they are perceived as free goods, like clean air and water. So it’s not surprising that much of the degradation of ecosystems is rooted in what the [...]

A World Bank sponsored project to restore water levels in the Dead Sea while also providing desalinated water and hydropower to the region received a final environmental approval and construction is slated to begin in June. Final Report (pdf)

Approaches are needed to better predict spatial variation in riverine Hg concentrations across heterogeneous landscapes that include mountains, wetlands, and open waters. We applied multivariate linear regression to determine the landscape factors and chemical variables that best account for the spatial variation of total Hg (THg) and methyl Hg (MeHg) concentrations in 27 sub-basins across [...]