An article which was published by The Condor, titled Effects of the 1982-83 El nino event on blue-footed and masked booby populations on Isla Daphne Major, Galapagos was written by Lisle Gibbs, Steven Latta and James Gibbs. They focus on the negative effects on the populations of these migratory birds created by the El Nino. These negative impacts include effects on the amount of available food, and reproduction.  The study included the measurement of three variables, “size of breeding populations, clutch size and degree of breeding synchrony, and the availability of nesting habitat for Blue footed Booby” (p440).  Oceanic disturbances like the El Nino have a large effect on the food supplies and breeding success of life such as the masked and blue footed boobies who rely on the ocean as their main source of food. Their method for determining the population of the blue and masked boobies was the count method.  Which is simply that they went to the various colonies of birds and counted the numbers of individual birds.  A bit of interesting information is that they determined the clutch size, brood size and the estimated age by simply looking at the plumage characteristic of the birds. They cite an auto named Nelson who provided the plumage characteristics.  The study found that there was a correlation between lower clutch sizes in years after the El Nino.

http://www.avibirds.com/pdf/M/Maskergent6.pdf

This article is essentially describing a proposed water quality planning program and report to the state legislature for the area of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This area was developing rapidly and was affected strongly by planned as well as existing (at the time) water project developments along with agricultural drainage waters. A new program was put into place by the State of California, which was to be finished by 1969; this program’s plan was to control water pollution with basics such as a system for collection, reclamation, treatment and disposal of waste water as well as water discharges. At the time this project was enormous, one of the biggest ever undertaken and was uncommon in a number of aspects; area size, complex hydrological system, diversity of people benefiting from project, and its approaches. The general topic of this research is the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water project to control water quality and control water pollution. There isn’t a specific research question because they article is looking at the proposed plan and report of the project but the general question is will the project be successful?

The study area for the project included the 12 counties surrounding San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (about 130 miles). In order to gather data on this study area the project used computerized mathematical models in order to simulate the “hydrodynamic characteristics” of the water. These included the tidal hydrodynamic model, the dynamic water quality model, and the tidal dispersion model. These models also analyzed the data once they simulated the conditions.

Overall this article was very easy and clear to read. It wasn’t as much of a research article as a summary of what the project would hope to accomplish with water management. The article is also very old, from the 1960s, this means that the project could have failed or been successful already but the article doesn’t say, so more research would be required to see how the project turned out.

Walsh, Raymond. San Francisco Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Program. Journal (Water Pollution Control Federation). [Online] 1968, 40, 241-251. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25036012 (accessed Feb 13,2014).

Research done by:
Carl M. Hand and Kent D. Van Liere
When researched:
Research done in 1976
Originally published in 1983; however, the copy I reviewed was recently revised
Research methods used:
A mail survey of 806 Washington state residents–using three models to examine the link between religious affiliation and one’s concern for the well-being of the environment:
-White’s model- how individuals interact with their environment depends on their beliefs on our “nature and destiny” (religion)
-Denominational diversity model- one’s denominational identification and attendance to religious events are positively correlated with environmental concerns for some denominations and negatively correlated for other denominations
-no-difference model- one’s view on the environment and one’s view on the anthropogenic changes to the environment excluding religious influence
What they found:
After surveying Washington State residents, Hand and Liere made several conclusions. First, Washington residents that associate themselves with a Judeo-Christian worldview tend to be more committed to a “mastery-over-nature” orientation (have more of a negative attitude towards environmental conservation) when compared to Washington residents with no religious affiliation . However, one’s level of commitment to nature conservation within the Judeo-Christian worldview depends on two things:
One’s denomination (i.e. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic….) and
One’s commitment to the religion (i.e. orthodox, reform…)
The denominations that tend to be more committed to a “mastery-over-nature” orientation are Baptists and Mormons. Instead, Episcopalians and Methodists are less likely to be committed to a “mastery-over-nature” orientation.

Orfield, Gary, Daniel Losen, and Johanna Wald. President and Fellows of Harvard College, “Losing Our Future: How Minority Youth Are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis.” Last modified 2004. Accessed February 13, 2014. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED489177.pdf.

This article considers why high school graduation rates are low for all students, but particularly low for minority groups, and what can be done to ameliorate this problem. Official dropout statistics are often inaccurate. This article tries to focus on the disparities between graduation rates of minority vs. majority groups. The article asks three questions: “First, how deep and widespread are the racial disparities that exist at the state and district levels? Second, how has the misleading and incomplete reporting of this issue obscured both the magnitude of the crisis and its racial dimensions? Finally, focusing primarily on the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, we ask whether state and federal accountability systems, as implemented, are appropriately structured to improve high school graduation rates, especially among children of color.”

The first type of data needed to answer these questions is graduation rate. In this study, the four lowest state graduation rates are used, organized by racial group. Additionally, graduation rates are given by district type. Data for State Graduation Rate Accountability is also used. To obtain graduation rates, the authors used the actual enrollment data that districts contribute to the nation’s Common Core of Data because they believe this data is the most accurate. The Graduation Rate Accountability data comes from a survey done by state officials in 2003 and 2004. The authors compare graduation rates among states and particularly between minority racial groups vs. whites to look for patterns. They also compare graduation rates between males and females. They compare these rates with Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) expectations. The State Graduation Rate Accountability programs are analyzed to see if they create true accountability.

At the end of the article, the authors make recommendations. These recommendations are based on their research and most are specific enough to be implemented. However, the exact steps to take to implement some of their recommendations are not offered and could be daunting. All of these recommendations, however, would be extremely helpful if they were given consideration by the federal government. This research strives to be independent and eliminate factors that may result in misleading data, and it does seem to consider concrete evidence in order to succeed at this. Overall, this research project was well executed.

Effects of Aquarium Collectors on Coral Reef Fishes in Kona, Hawaii

Brian N. Tissot and Leon E. Hallacher

Conservation Biology , Vol. 17, No. 6 (Dec., 2003) , pp. 1759-1768

Common sources for rare aquarium fish are Coral Reefs.   Coral reefs are ecosystems consisting of many different marine organisms.  These many different organisms feed off of the coral or off of other fish, creating a self-sustaining cycle of life.  By removing some of a species, part of a food web is removed from the ecosystem.
The maintenance of a sustainable food web is important. If one predator’s population is over populated, then the species will eat more of their prey to fuel energy. If a predator’s population is low there will be less predators to eat the prey, and the lower food-web level over populates, then repeats the process of having another over-populated food-web level.
There was a study conducted in Hawaii to analyze the absence of specific fish.  During the data-retrieval process, observers focused on the count of nine popular aquarium-collection fish species.  The fish count is recorded as aggregate data.
The researchers used multiple sites to compare to each other.  The sites consisted of legal fish-collecting locations and illegal fish-collecting fish locations.  The results were low at both locations, and 7 of the 9 fish species’ populations were lower at the legal fish collection location.
This study has proved the sustainability of protected areas from fish collection.  By making certain locations unacceptable to collect, 7 of the 9 species observed had higher populations than if they were acceptable to collect.  This study can be used to propose more regulations upon protection areas.  More protection areas will provide more safe habitats for marine organisms, and maintains sustainable fish populations.  Sustainable fish populations are important to maintain the marine food web.

Who researched:
Graham J. Edgar, Rick D. Stuart-Smith, Trevor J. Willis, Stuart Kininmonth, Susan C. Baker, Stuart Banks, Neville S. Barrett, Mikel A. Becerro, Anthony T. F. Bernard, Just Berkhout, Colin D. Buxton, Stuart J. Campbell, Antonia T. Cooper, Marlene Davey, Sophie C. Edgar, Günter Försterra, David E. Galván, Alejo J. Irigoyen, David J. Kushner, Rodrigo Moura, P. Ed Parnell, Nick T. Shears, German Soler, Elisabeth M. A. Strain & Russell J. Thomson
Where researched:
87 Marine Protected Areas worldwide
When researched:
Received September 9, 2013
Accepted for publication January 13, 2014
Published online February 5, 2014
The five key features:
No take (no fishing), well enforced, old (over 10 years of being an MPA), large (over 100 kilometers squared) and isolated by deep water or sand
Research methods used:
Using underwater survey data from “effective” MPAs (with four or five of the key features) and predictions based on survey data from fished coasts, the researchers compared effective MPAs to fished areas–total fish biomass, total shark biomass and amount of large fish (larger than 250 mm in total length).
What they found:
59% of the Marine Protected Areas studied had only one or two of the key features needed to make an MPA effective. These ineffective MPAs were ecologically indistinguishable (the fish and shark biomass were equivalent and the number of large fish were equivalent) from the fished coasts studied. However, effective MPAs had twice as many large fish, a five times larger fish biomass and a fourteen times larger shark biomass than the fished areas surveyed.
What this means/Why it’s important:
Considering most (59%) MPAs share similar data on fish/shark biomass with regularly fished areas, more effort and enforcement needs to go into our Marine Protected Areas. It is thought that our oceans have only one third of the total fish biomass than historical levels and if we want to ensure a decent level of marine biodiversity in the future, we need to make sure that our Marine Protected Areas have the five key features presented by these researchers.

The journal article “Current State of Environmental Education in Mexico: A Study on Practices, Audiences, Settings, and Topics” by Jose Marcos-Igaa & William Shaw was featured in the Journal of Applied Environmental Education & Communication in 2011. The article focuses on studies done in Mexico regarding environmental education.

To my surprise, environmental education is not a new topic in Mexico. Although it has been widely suggested, environmental education is not implemented in school curriculum, due to teachers feeling spread thin by the current teaching load, thus being reluctant to add new curriculum. The question stands then: Who is teaching environmental education in Mexico?

An internet survey called “The Conservation Educators’ and Practitioners’ Perceptions of Conservation Education” survey was constructed by the Environmental Education Council of the Californias and sent to various environmental education organizations and conservation practitioners. Questions asked on the survey centered on how organizations were involved with environmental education, the specific focuses of the organization and the amount of resources dedicated to such programming.

There was a 22% response to this survey, meaning that only 118 out of the 538 surveys sent were returned. 58% (68 total) of the surveys returned were from NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), 31% (37 total) were from higher education centers or universities, and 17% (20 total) were in conjunction with the local, state, or federal Mexican government. The last 2% were from recreational centers, museums, aquariums, or zoos.

When asked about the direct aim of their organization, 25% selected conservation of nature, 23% selected research and 22% selected education. Although these numbers are close in comparison, nature conservation came out on top as the main focus.

Surprisingly, 38% of respondents reported that they dedicate one tenth or less of their funding to environmental education.

Due to low survey response, this sample size is arguably not large enough to represent a random response. Despite these unfortunate circumstances, a wobbly conclusion may be made that most of the environmental education taught in Mexico is done by NGOs, is centered on conservation and is lacking funding. Further research is definitely warranted for this topic.

This article can be found at (http://0-www.tandfonline.com.books.redlands.edu/doi/full/10.1080/1533015X.2011.669687#.Uvf9lWI7uM4)

Conducted by Ceulemans R., Jach M. E., Van De Velde R., Lin J. X., and Stevens M. in 2002, a study attempts to attain further knowledge on the effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 on trees. In the article published in Global Change Biology, 8, 153–162, titled “Elevated atmospheric CO₂ alters wood production, wood quality and wood strength of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L) after three years of enrichment,” the research aims to answer the question: will elevated CO2 alter the wood anatomy and wood quality of Scots pine trees?

In a world rising CO2, understanding the physiological change of forest woods due to enhanced CO2 would provide knowledge to their expected properties in the future. In the study, Scots pine trees placed in open top chambers were observed under current atmospheric CO2 levels and elevated atmospheric CO2 levels. The research concluded that the exposure to elevated atmospheric CO2, in a span of 3 years, led to an increase in the volume and stem biomass of the trees while wood strength decreased and density remained the same. ANOVA was used to test for significant effects of the groups.

The type of data that was obtained to answer the question were physiological measurements, specifically growth ring width, wood density, stem diameter, and strength. The data was attained through the means of directly observing the species and recording the measurements. The data was analyzed by comparing the trees exposed to elevated CO2 to the trees exposed to current CO2 and statistically testing for significant differences.

The research demonstrated great validity. Because the physiology of trees can be influenced by stress, animals interacting with the tree for example, the isolation of the trees virtually eliminated the potential error of measuring stress responses. The research was also knowledgeable of its limitation, empathizing that the study only involved juvenile wood and that the results cannot be generalized to mature wood because the two have different anatomical structures. In this study, neither nutrients nor water was applied. As a suggestion, future research involving the same circumstances with the addition of grouping the trees – where one group is treated with nutrients and water, the other not – would provide insight to the influence of nutrients and water to wood production under elevated CO2.