Increased Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) load due to anthropogenic activity might lead to non-precipitating clouds because the cloud drops become smaller (for a constant liquid water content) and, therefore, less efficient in rain formation (aerosol indirect effect). Adding giant CCN (GCCN) into such a cloud can initiate precipitation (namely, drizzle) and, therefore, might counteract the aero...

Within aquatic ecosystems, periphytic biofilms can be hot spots of denitrification, and previous work has suggested that algal taxa within periphyton can influence the species composition and activity of resident denitrifying bacteria. This study tested the hypothesis that algal species composition within biofilms influences the structure and function of associated denitrifying bacterial commun...

National parks in the United States are protected areas wherein the natural habitat is to be conserved for future generations. Deposition of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) transported from areas of human activity (fuel combustion, agriculture) may affect these natural habitats if it exceeds an ecosystem-dependent critical load (CL). We quantify and interpret the deposition to Class I US national pa...

Subsidized predators may affect prey abundance, distribution, and demography. Common Ravens (Corvus corax) are anthropogenically subsidized throughout their range and, in the Mojave Desert, have increased in number dramatically over the last 3-4 decades. Human-provided food resources are thought to be important drivers of raven population growth, but human developments add other features as wel...

INTRODUCTION Fresh water is an important driving force, cycling minerals and nutrients around the terrestrial environment and has been defined as those systems comprising human communities, socioeconomic interactions, and biophysical processes co-occurring in space and time. Evaluation of the biological community of a water body provides a sensitive and cost effective means of assessing stream ...

We examine the trans-Pacific transport of mercury using a global chemical transport model. Using existing anthropogenic inventories, the model reproduces the observed Hg/CO ratio in Asian long-range transport events observed at a surface site in Okinawa, Japan and Mount Bachelor, Oregon, with an underestimate of 18-26% in the ratio. This is in contrast with previous studies that inferred a fact...

An ocean-climate model that shows high fluxes of anthropogenic carbon dioxide into the Southern Ocean, but very low storage of anthropogenic carbon there, agrees with observation-based estimates of ocean storage of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. This low simulated storage indicates a subordinate role for deep convection in the present-day Southern Ocean. The primary mechanism transporting anthro...

We use observed CO2:CO correlations in Asian outflow from the TRACE-P aircraft campaign (February-April, 2001), together with a 3-D global chemical transport model (GEOS-CHEM), to constrain specific components of the East Asian CO2 budget including, in particular, Chinese emissions. The CO2/CO emission ratio varies with the source of CO2 (different combustion types vs. the terrestrial biosphere...

The performance of rapid and practicable techniques that presumptively identify total coliforms (TC), fecal coliforms (FC), Escherichia coli, and Clostridium perfringens spores (CP) by testing them on a pollution gradient in differing aquatic habitats in a high-altitude tropical country was evaluated during a 12-month period. Site selection was based on high and low anthropogenic influence crit...