Pristine Natural Environment Research Articles

Wild Child: Guiding theYoung Back to Nature

Having already tested his parents’ indulgence by adopting snakes as companions, young Ed Wilson pressed his luck even further by raising black widow spiders, which he hand-fed with live insects. By the time he took up farming ants, it must have come as something of a relief for the household. Ed, of course, went on to become E.O. Wilson, the Harvard entomologist whose passion for creepy crawlers spawned a lifelong commitment to understanding the intricate connections between all life on Earth. Now approaching 80, he remains a leading figure in the field of systems biology, which studies the complex networks formed by the interaction of biological systems. Wilson’s childhood experience provides the archetypal account of raising a field biologist—one with hands perpetually dirty from poking into wild nooks and crannies, seeking to know what lives there. And the scientific community owes much to his early and enthusiastic attention to that world, a colorful example of the spirit embodied by so many scientists whose childhood pastimes developed into careers spent advancing our understanding of the natural world. North America has a long tradition of nurturing this spirit, as expressed in the writings of individuals from John James Audubon to Rachel Carson. Yet the past three decades have witnessed major societal and technological changes that have transformed the way in which many young North Americans encounter nature. Where Wilson’s 1930s home might have held nothing more electronic than a crystal radio to lure him indoors, the twenty-first century equivalent can offer hundreds of television channels, increasingly vibrant computer games, kaleidoscopic Internet access, and endless social interaction to be found on glowing monitors. Personal travel has evolved just as dramatically, so that many children spend much of their time enclosed in vehicles, often being shuttled from one indoor activity to another, perhaps without even glancing up from a handheld game or cell phone. They may well have toured airports and shopping malls on both sides of the country by the time they are teenagers, without ever having wandered among the trees left in an undeveloped lot down the street—if their neighborhood even has such property. Nor would they be encouraged to wander in such a fashion, warned of the threat posed by hostile strangers or the even more hostile legal liabilities associated with any injury. The result of this confluence of factors can be what author Richard Louv called “nature-deficit disorder” in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods, a term that refers to the psychological and physical toll exacted as we become alienated from the natural environment. These profound lifestyle and societal changes are prompting questions from researchers about what could be an equally profound change in how many North American children perceive the natural world. Of course not all children spend all their time indoors, nor is technology inherently bad; nevertheless, some observers are voicing distinctly practical concerns. If a substantial proportion of the population has little or no direct interaction with pristine natural environments as children, how will that affect their lifelong attitude toward such places? How will they come to regard the value of environmental science or policy? Above all, what kind of environmental scientists and policy managers will they become, if such careers even occur to them?

Turismo comunitario: Una nueva alternativa de desarrollo indígena

The mountain range of Los Andes offers a significant diversity of ecological systems. One of them is the “Altiplano or Puna”. Because of its geographical and environmental aspects, it is a unique natural region in South America, that comprises the North of Chile, part of Bolivia, Middle and South Peru and Northwest of Argentina. It is a plain area, placed more than 3.000 metros above the sea level. Additionally it has a long history of occupation. Most of its population are distributed in small villages or settlements, that maintain intensive agrarian self-sustained productive systems with important restrictions due to the climate and geomorphologic characteristics. This is a contrast with the pristine and exotic natural environment, that contains lagoons, valleys, volcanoes and autochthonous animals, such as the flamingo, llamo and vicuna. The prehispanic origin of the monumental architecture and archeological zones have involved an intense tourist activity from different countries. That is a characteristic of this place and it has an impact on the autochthonous settlements.

Warm versus Cold Water Island Tourism: A Review of Policy Implications

Not sun, sea, sand but ice, isolation, indigenous people: the critical exploration of extreme tourism in cold water locations has barely started. Cold water island locations tend to have harsh, pristine and fragile natural environments, characterized by wide open spaces. They become contexts for an exceptional and expensive form of vigorous, outdoor, adventure or cultural tourism, and direct encounters with nature. The nature and practices of the tourism industry suggest a more sustainable form of island tourism, very different from what is experienced on the warm, tropical and exotic island stereotype. This paper critically reviews some of the salient contrasts between the ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ versions of island tourism. It discusses how, on many ‘cold water’ island locations, sound strategic management, limited civilian ‘buy in’, low populations and an absence of pluralism in political life, can conspire with climate and relative inaccessibility to limit tourism to a small scale, lowimpact industry with a relatively high, locally-retained value added. Some ‘warm water’ islands are trying to follow this model for tourism development, with mixed results.

Biomass Burning in the Amazon-Fertilizer for the Mountaineous Rain Forest in Ecuador (7 pp)

Biomass burning is a source of carbon, sulfur and nitrogen compounds which, along with their photochemically generated reaction products, can be transported over very long distances, even traversing oceans. Chemical analyses of rain and fogwater samples collected in the mountaineous rain forest of south Ecuador show frequent episodes of high sulfate and nitrate concentration, from which annual deposition rates are derived comparable to those found in polluted central Europe. As significant anthropogenic sources are lacking at the research site it is suspected that biomass burning upwind in the Amazon basin is the major source of the enhanced sulfate and nitrate imput. Regular rain and fogwater sampling along an altitude profile between 1800 and 3185 m has been carried out in the Podocarpus National Park close to the Rio SanFrancisco (3 degrees 58'S, 79 degrees 5'W) in southern Ecuador. pH values, electrical conductivity and chemical ion composition were measured at the TUM-WZW using standard methods. Results reported cover over one year from March 2002 until May 2003. Annual deposition rates of sulfate were calculated ranging between 4 and 13 kg S/ha year, almost as high as in polluted central Europe. Nitrogen deposition via ammonia (1.5-4.4 kg N/ha year) and nitrate (0.5-0.8 kg N/ha year) was found to be lower but still much higher than to be expected in such pristine natural forest environment. By means of back trajectory analyses it can be shown that most of the enhanced sulfur and nitrogen deposition is most likely due to forest fires far upwind of the ecuadorian sampling site, showing a seasonal variation, with sources predominantly found in the East/North East during January-March (Colombia, Venezuala, Northern Brazil) and East/SouthEast during July-September (Peru, Brazil). Our results show that biomass burning in the Amazon basin is the predominant source of sulfur and nitrogen compounds that fertilize the mountaineous rain forest in south Ecuador. The mountaineous rain forest in south Ecuador has developed on poor and acid soils, with low nutrient availability. The additional ferilization resulting from anthropogenic biomass burning constitutes a significant disturbance of this ecosystem, its functioning and biodiversity. Thus it is planned to employ isotope analyses for quantifying the pathways. of nitrate and sulfate deposition in these natural forests.

Sustainable ecotourism on Atlantic islands, with special reference to whale watching, Marine Protected Areas and sanctuaries, for cetaceans

Ecotourism in the Atlantic islands region is well-established and growing. Still, in the whale watching and marine tourism sector, many so-called ecotourism enterprises fail to achieve the minimum standards required to qualify as ecotourism. In the Atlantic islands area, approximately 1.7 million people a year go whale watching, with a total expenditure of US$133 million. In this region, the 90 existing marine protected areas (MPAs) where cetaceans are present and the 59 proposed MPAs represent nearly 27 per cent of all MPAs with cetaceans worldwide. When whale watching is conducted in a sustainable manner, especially in or near a cetacean MPA, and with other regulations in place, it has the capacity to take a leading role in the development of an island-based ecotourism industry. Yet few MPAs have management plans that include strategies for sustainable ecotourism. Sustainable ecotourism depends, firstly, on the maintenance of a pristine natural environment. Using a cost benefit analysis approach (CBA), managers can enhance the benefits or values of ecotourism and reduce the costs. CBA can be a key part of a framework for sustainable ecotourism that includes a stakeholder-agreed management plan, a legal structure, such as an MPA, together with environmental legislation and a strategy for evaluating sustainability that includes periodic review. The management plan should also set a carrying capacity for ecotourism.

The Erika Oil Spill: The Bird Rescue Response

ABSTRACT On December 12, 1999, the 30,000-ton tanker Erika broke apart 100 km off the coast of Brittany, one of Europe's most pristine natural environments. France immediately launched a prepared countermeasure, the Polmar plan, designed to minimize the impact of the disaster on the sea and shore. In spite of the relatively small amount of fuel released, the location of the spill in high seas and the bad weather conditions caused the pollution to spread widely along the coastline over a number of weeks. Wildlife centers were mobilized to handle the anticipated load of 1,000 oiled birds. In the end, more than 15,000 birds were captured alive. The sea birds impacted were mainly guillemots and, to a lesser extent, scoters and gannets. TotalFinaElf helped the triage centers by providing finances, medical material, water-heating facilities, and several automated bird-washing devices with specialized detergent. The group funds the medical studies undertaken on the oiled birds in the triage center of the National Veterinary School (ENV) of Nantes. It also works in partnership with the French National Bird Rescue Association to improve the emergency response plan by defining their needs in terms of equipment and to provide a consensual “oiled-bird caring protocol” manual. This report will both assess the existing response program by detailing the chronological implementation of the emergency plan for the oiled birds and present the first results of the medical studies undertaken. It will detail the types of birds impacted, the methods by which they were cured and cleaned, an analysis of their condition, the efforts made to improve the treatments, and, most importantly, the medical questions raised by such a situation.

Preserving the Unique Puna Ecosystems of the Andean Altiplano

Abstract Lauca National Park forms a unique area of puna and prepuna ecosystems in the high Altiplano of northeastern Chile. Its extensive puna steppe shrublands lying above 4000 m and high volcanoes reaching above 6000 m provide some of many strong justifications for its designation as a UNESCO International Biosphere Reserve in 1983. The park also contains Lago Chungara, the highest lake in the world at 4518 m elevation, and a rich variety of fauna and flora. The mammal fauna of the park includes notable populations of large herbivores such as vicuna, guanaco, and huemul, and a rich diversity of rodent species. More than 140 species of birds, one third of the total Chilean bird fauna—with many rare wetland species— and more than 400 species of vascular plants occur within the park. Despite its relatively pristine natural environment, Lauca National Park faces numerous management challenges. These include the management of critical and limited water resources, the impacts of human population and tourism,...

Analysis of mer Gene Subclasses within Bacterial Communities in Soils and Sediments Resolved by Fluorescent-PCR-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Profiling

Bacterial mer (mercury resistance) gene subclasses in mercury-polluted and pristine natural environments have been profiled by Fluorescent-PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (FluRFLP). For FluRFLP, PCR products were amplified from individual mer operons in mercury-resistant bacteria and from DNA isolated directly from bacteria in soil and sediment samples. The primers used to amplify DNA were designed from consensus sequences of the major subclasses of archetypal gram-negative mer operons within Tn501, Tn21, pDU1358, and pKLH2. Two independent PCRs were used to amplify two regions of different lengths (merRT(Delta)P [ca. 1 kb] and merR [ca. 0.4 kb]) starting at the same position in merR. The oligonucleotide primer common to both reactions (FluRX) was labelled at the 5(prm1) end with green (TET) fluorescent dye. Analysis of the mer sequences within databases indicated that the major subclasses could be differentiated on the basis of the length from FluRX to the first FokI restriction endonuclease site. The amplified PCR products were digested with FokI restriction endonuclease, with the restriction digest fragments resolved on an automated DNA sequencing machine which detected only those bands labelled with the fluorescent dye. For each of the individual mer operon sources examined, this single peak (in bases) position was observed in separate digests of either amplified region. These peak positions were as predicted on the basis of DNA sequence. mer PCR products amplified from DNA extracted directly from soil and sediment bacteria were studied in order to determine the profiles of the major mer subclasses present in each natural environment. In addition to peaks of the expected sizes, extra peaks were observed which were not predicted on the basis of DNA sequence. Those appearing in the restriction endonuclease digests of both study regions were presumed to be novel mer types. Genetic heterogeneity within and between mercury-polluted and pristine sites has been studied by this technique. Profiles generated were highly similar for samples taken within the same soil type. The profiles, however, changed markedly on crossing from one soil type to another, with gradients of the different groupings of mer genes identified.

Tourism and the Natural Environment Shark Bay, Western Australia

Shark Bay in Westren Australia is a pristine natural environment which is currently being targetted as a new tourism destination. Its primary attraction, the daily beach visit of wild dolphins which interact with fourists, is attracting increasing numbers of tourists and a lot of international attention. However, the tourism and the resultant outdoor recreational activities are having an impact on both the sensitive natural environment as well as the delicate social fabric of the local commnuity. A survey of residents and tourists of the Bay was conducted to determine their attitudes to tourism and the environment. The results indicate that while there is general support for a symbiotic relationship between the two, the residents place greater emphasis on tourism development while the tourists give more weight to environmental protection. Both groups indicate a preference for small-scale developments and believe that tourism should integrate with the region's overall conservation and management. However, ...