Rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) and Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) were exposed to three or four compounds, respectively, which have been shown to cause peroxisome proliferation in rodents. Trout were injected (intraperitoneally) daily for two weeks to the following chemicals and doses; the dimethylamine salt of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (DMA of 2,4-D) at 0, 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/kg/d, trichloroethylene (TCE) at 0, 10, 50 and 100 mg/kg/d or gemfibrozil at 0, 46, 87 and 152 mg/kg/d. Japanese medaka were exposed to di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), 2,4-D (DMA) or gemfibrozil in water for two weeks in a static renewal system. Nominal doses used were 0, 90, 180 and 360 ppb, 0, 50, 100 and 200 ppm and 0, 1.25, 2.5 and 5 ppm for DEHP, 2,4-D and gemfibrozil, respectively. Medaka were also exposed to TCE for 16 hours in a closed system at doses of 0, 25 and 50 ppm. Peroxisome proliferation was assessed by measuring fatty acyl-CoA oxidase (FAO) activity and relative percent increase in peroxisomal bifunctional enzyme (PBE); enzymes which are involved in peroxisomal beta-oxidation. In addition, changes in liver weight/body weight ratios were measured. Results indicate that a mild peroxisome proliferative response was observed in rainbow trout exposed to gemfibrozil (significant increase in FAO activity at all three dose levels and a significant increase in liver weight/body weight ratios at the highest dose level only). There was no difference between control and treated groups in the trout exposed to 2,4-D or TCE. In the medaka experiments, a marginal response was observed in the gemfibrozil experiment (significant increase in PBE at the highest dose level and a non-significant increase in FAO activity in the mid- and high-dose groups). There were no significant, treatment related differences between control and treated fish in the TCE, 2,4-D and DEHP medaka experiments. It was concluded that fish may not be a sensitive model to screen chemicals for their ability to induce peroxisome proliferation.

Fertilized eggs were exposed to 0.1, 10 and 100 mg/l of benzene, naphthalene and Aroclor 1254 individually and in combination in seawater at temperatures and salinities of 20 and 25. Toxicity was measured as frequencies of: (1) meiotic and mitotic abnormalities in 3-hour embryos; (2) total development to the 48-hour straight-hinge larval stage; (3) mortality and abnormality at the 48-hour larval stage; (4) mean size of larvae at 48 hours; and (5) cytogenetic and cytological abnormalities in 48-hour larvae. Dose-dependent responses were observed. Most cytogenetic aberrations were the result of abnormalities of the spindle apparatus, such as anaphase bridges and laggard chromosomes, multipolar spindles, polyploidy, aneuploidy and chromosomally mosaic embryos with different numbers of chromosomes in different embryo sectors. Micronuclei and clumped, pycnotic and deteriorating nuclei were observed in moribund larvae. Overall, naphthalene and aroclor at 100 mg/l had few embryos that survived to the stage where they could be examined and scored for cytogenetic and cytological abnormality even by 3-hours post-fertilization. Abnormality of the few embryos available for examination was somewhat higher for aroclor but was significantly higher for naphthalene than for control embryos and those exposed to 0.1 mg/l. At the highest concentration of 100 mg/l, mortality was 100% by the larval stage for naphthalene and aroclor. Though total development and survival of embryos to the larval stage at the 10 mg/l dose were high, many of the larvae were dead or abnormal in the aroclor-exposed cultures. This mean incidence was significantly higher than for all other groups. Larvae developing in these cultures with 10 mg/l were also significantly smaller and cytological condition of the larvae was significantly worse. Higher temperature appeared to increase the frequency of deleterious effects, particularly for naphthalene and aroclor. Results with salinity were more variable. Naphthalene and aroclor were more toxic than benzene. Furthermore, benzene was antagonistic in interactions with naphthalene and with aroclor. Naphthalene was acutely toxic. However, benzene was also toxic, but demonstrated more sublethal than direct effects. The PCB, aroclor, appeared to be both acutely and sublethally toxic at the doses tested. High temperature was synergistic with naphthalene and with aroclor, probably by increasing solubility and uptake. Benzene and naphthalene together in high temperature-high salinity water were more toxic than in low temperature-low salinity water. Overall, results showed that petroleum aromatic hydrocarbons and PCBs can have toxic effects on the development and survival of early life stages of oysters, as well as sublethal effects on growth and cytological condition, depending on dose and interactions with other compounds and with environmental variables. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The thesis of this dissertation is that the reconstitution of human subjectivity, theoretically and concretely, is necessary to adequately address the global ecological crisis and ongoing social and political domination and exploitation. Initial attempts to constitute this new ecological subject exist in the radical ecology movement (recognized by Rudolf Bahro and Herbert Marcuse in the 1970s), examined here through three primary branches of the radicalized environmental movement: deep ecology, social ecology, and ecofeminism. Aspects of this radical ecological subject are revealed in a critique based on the work of the early Frankfurt School theorists--Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse. Adorno's understanding of negative dialectics, or non-identity thinking, is the primary source of categories for the analysis. Jurgen Habermas's critique of Adorno is rejected, and Habermas's "communicative action" theory is also found to be inadequate for radical ecological needs. Adorno's use of the concept/term "mimesis" provides a lever for prying open radical ecology's treasure of insights as well as its limitations. Each branch of radical ecology is examined with reference to its methodology or epistemology, its understanding of subjectivity, and their respective politics. Deep ecology's deep questioning method, proposed by Arne Naess, is found to differ little from traditional philosophy and inadequately supports its claims about possibilities for identification with nature or the creation of a political identity or agency capable of adequately addressing ecological and social problems, this despite the successes of its political descendants, including Earth First! and Dave Foreman. Social ecology, elaborated by Murray Bookchin, expands the idea of subjectivity beyond its ability to provide the critical conceptual framework necessary to resolve the ecological crisis. Bookchin's critique and interpretation of the early Critical Theorists also fails. Ecofeminism, a diverse set of perspectives, must be approached cautiously while attempting to salvage consistent theoretical categories which, combined with critical theory's insights, illuminate potentials for development of a future radical ecological subject. Useful categories include "feminist standpoint theory," the "ethic of care," psychoanalysis and other insights from the works of Luce Irigaray, Nancy Hartsock, Sara Ruddick and Drucilla Cornell.

This ethnographic case study of eight environmental teacher educators who collaborated in a four-state watershed education partnership was focused on processes of social constructions of region and regional partnership. Participant observation in meetings, interviews, and spatial representations were used as data for the eleven-month study. Spatial representations at two intervals were analyzed for documentation of conceptual change. A metaphorical model was used as the interpretive frame for analysis of interview and partnership meeting discourse features. Participants identified central features of place, diversity, and scale as they elaborated upon their sub-watershed valley regions as "home." Participants identified experiential learning as the foundation for watershed education, and reported that grounded experience was their own most essential way of knowing the watershed. The participants valued collaboration, networking, learning about one another's work, and the opportunity to make professional connections as benefits of partnership. In an examination of discourses of "self" and "the environment," analysis of partnership discourse strategies yielded evidence of prosodic phenomena such as raising questions and laughter as means of maintaining synchrony and coherence in meetings. Over the study period, the participants' spatial representations demonstrated tensions between political and bioregional boundaries and growing similarity across representations of the partnership. Issues of support for multistate regional partnerships were considered. Conclusions were that cultural and folk concepts of region are useful in determining scale to inform watershed education policy initiatives and implementation. In partnership meetings, democratic practices were considered most practical for "getting something done." Implications for education included expanding applications of metacognitive approaches, a focus on experiential learning in watershed education, and the place of "place" as an interdisciplinary educational focus. Finding a cultural taboo on conflict, the researcher recommends further development of curriculum environmental conflict resolution, and calls for intergenerational community watershed councils trained in conflict resolution and mediation as foci for regional watershed education efforts.

The purpose of this work was to create a framework for the design of a hands-on approach to explore environmental issues in Puerto Rico with emphasis on endangered species. The product of the action research is a curriculum for children, ages seven to eleven consisting of fourteen formal lessons and twenty-three informal lessons that focus on ten chosen endangered species of Puerto Rico. The framework created in this study is based on the Environmental Education Goal developed in the Belgrade Workshop that took place in Yugoslavia in 1975. A theoretical framework for the curriculum design was presented as Chapter III of the dissertation. It included a description of the historical background of the island of Puerto Rico. It also presents a general historical review that identified specific moments in the history of education in Puerto Rico and general information about the science curriculum on the Island. The hands-on curriculum in Spanish for Puerto Rican children, ages seven to eleven, was developed as part of the study and was presented as Chapter IV. The chapter addressed environmental issues pertaining to ten specific endangered species from Puerto Rico and included fourteen formal lessons and twenty-three informal. The ten endangered species included in the study are the following:(UNFORMATTED TABLE OR EQUATION FOLLOWS)$$\vbox{\halign{#\hfil&&\quad#\hfil\cr$\underline{\rm Scientific\ Name}$&$\underline{\rm Common\ Name}$\cr\cr Amphiphous:\cr {\it Eleutherodactylus jasperi}& Golden Coqu\'\i\cr\cr Birds:\cr {\it Falco peregrinus tundrius}& Arctic Peregrine Falcon\cr\cr {\it Pelecanus o. occidentalis}& Brown Pelican\cr\cr {\it Charadrius alexandrinus-}\cr {\it tenuirostris} & Piping Plover\cr\cr Plants:\cr {\it Cyathea dryopteroides} (Fern)& Helecho Arb\'oreo del Bosque\cr & Enano\cr\cr {\it Stahlia monosperma} (Tree)& C\'obana Negra\cr\cr {\it Ternstroemia luquillensis} (Tree) & Palo Colorado\cr\cr {\it Cassia mirabilis} (Shrub)& $\surd$\cr\cr Reptiles:\cr {\it Chelonia mydas} & Green Sea Turtle\cr\cr {\it Cyclura stejnegeri} & Mona Ground Iguana\cr}}$$(TABLE/EQUATION ENDS) ftn$\surd$ = Some species do not have common name.

American political thought is unusual in that the conception of “nature” is overtly important as well as silently embedded in the frame of reference of its practitioners. The conception of nature is evident in the national narrative around membership and property as well as in pastoral political resistance. It is my basic thesis that this attitude toward nature contributes not only to a specific kind of public policy decision concerning the allocation of natural resources, but also maintains a presupposition of the ideal American citizen as Anglo and male. I have ventured into the culture of the Southwestern Latinos, particularly but not exclusively the Hispanos of northern New Mexico and Chicano/Chicanas in order to find an alternative view of nature and an alternative perspective on the conception of nature in the United States. In the end I find the most problematic aspects of the conception of nature in traditional American political thought are (1) the reliance on ideological sameness in the that ignores real, material difference; (2) the commodification of nature and (3) the exclusion of human naturalness from the political debate.

The Turbulent Eddy Profiler (TEP) developed at the University of Massachusetts Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory (MIRSL) provides three dimensional fine-scale imagery of the intensity of clear-air backscatter and motion of the air with 30 meter resolution between 200 m and 2.0 km altitude. This dissertation presents the design and operation of the updated TEP system deployed in Leon, Kansas during CASES'99 experiment. Both Doppler Beam Swinging (DBS) techniques and Spaced Antenna (SA) techniques for estimating horizontal winds were applied to TEP data collected during CASES'99 experiment. This dissertation compares the results from both techniques with the simultaneous in situ Tethered Lifting System (TLS) data. Good agreement between both methods is observed at intermediate altitudes, however, DBS appears to be preferable to SA at higher altitudes where SNR is low; while SA appears to perform better at the low altitudes, where ground clutter competes with the clear-air echo.

Personal contact, including target mailing and word-of-mouth is effective for promoting energy-efficient houses. Market segmentation of individuals must coincide with when they plan to buy or build houses. The proposed use of this marketing strategy (called stiletto marketing) is backed up by a mailed survey of New England homeowners and a review of relevant literature. It is a strategy similar to that used by agricultural extension agencies, also called “change agencies.” A hypothesis tested and confirmed was that differences occur in attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors between owners of recently constructed energy-efficient houses and energy-inefficient houses. Thus, homebuyers with a propensity to become “early adopters” (become buyers) of energy-efficient houses may be identified, and contacted either in person, by telephone, or the Internet. Currently, at an early stage in the diffusion of energy-efficient houses, marketing resources should concentrate on people who are most likely to become early adopters.

Phytoremediation is a tool that uses plants that can absorb and accumulate metals in harvestable portions of the plant to cleanse contaminated soils. Most metals are more soluble in soils with an acidic pH. Nitrogen fertilizers acidify pH by different reactions in the soil. Goals of this research were: (1) develop a zinc-contaminated soil; (2) determine effects of nitrogen fertilizers on soil-zinc availability; (3) determine Zn-phytoextraction potential of Brassica juncea Czern. and Festuca arundinacea Schreb.; and (4) determine concentrations of nitrogen fertilizers needed to maximize Zn solubility in soils. After a 14-day incubation period, very little Zn in the soil was water-extractable, which suggested that Zn was reacting with the soil; therefore, an incubation time of 14 days was utilized. Morgan's solution, extracted higher concentrations of Zn than water. If soils were sequentially extracted with water, Morgan's solution, and Mechlich-3 solution, water extracted the least amount of Zn, Morgan's solution extracted higher concentrations than water or Mehlich 3, but Mehlich 3 extracted higher concentrations than water. Lowest pH values occurred with additions of urea (pH 5.18), sludge (pH 4.89), or calcium nitrate (5.26) than with compost (pH 5.33), manure (pH 5.50), or no fertilizer (pH 5.40) or if N was supplied at 400 mg/kg (pH 4.91). Brassica did not germinate well or survive in soil-Zn concentrations greater than 125 mg/kg. Soil-Zn concentrations utilized with brassica were 0 to 100 mg/kg. Highest accumulation of Zn was 0.29% of the dry mass, which occurred at 100 mg Zn/kg or in soils with urea added. Water-extractable Zn at this level averaged 1.1 mg/kg and Morgan's extractable Zn averaged 18 mg/kg. Fescue germinated well in soil-Zn concentrations ranging from 0 to 2000 mg/kg. The soil-Zn concentrations utilized with fescue were 0 to 1000 mg/kg. Highest accumulation of Zn by fescue was 0.33%, which occurred at 1000 mg Zn/kg or in soils with urea or sludge added. Water-extractable concentrations of Zn at this level averaged 11 mg/kg and Morgan's extractable Zn concentrations averaged 290 mg/kg. This research showed that fescue has phytoremediation potential that is as good or better than that of brassica.

Madagascar is one of the richest sites of biodiversity in the world. During the last two decades, it has been the recipient of large amounts of foreign aid in an effort to halt biodiversity depletion. Despite these efforts, deforestation continues unabated and the conservation activities undertaken to date have been largely ineffective. To better understand the reasons for continued environmental degradation in Madagascar, a political ecology research framework is used to identify different social actor groups vying for access to natural resources and the extent to which their actions influence biodiversity conditions on the island. The application of this framework in a region on the central highlands of Madagascar reveals that local actors (most of whom are subsistence agriculturalists) resent conservation programs that fail to consider them as part of the “biodiversity” that international environmental nongovernmental organizations (IENGOs) are laboring to conserve. Local actors are frustrated by state-sponsored conservation programs that simultaneously victimize and penalize them by taking away traditional lands and then giving them “protected area” status. At the same time, elite and extralocal interests (e.g., politicians, businessmen), in collaboration with government civil servants, exert their power and influence to mine state resources for their personal benefit. It is this inequality in power and influence that permits extralocal actors to continue the pillaging of state resources without any accountability, as IENGOs and their donors willfully turn a blind eye to these activities. This research posits that contrary to the conventional wisdom of IENGOs working in the country, it is extralocal actors, and not local ones, who are primarily responsible for biodiversity depletion in this region of Madagascar. The behaviors of all of the actors in this situation assure the continuation of the status quo, which includes current patterns of biodiversity elimination. If this situation continues, the Malagasy rainforest and associated biodiversity will surely be eliminated within this century. To be more effective, IENGOs in Madagascar and elsewhere must take a more vigorous stance in undertaking activities that genuinely address local needs as well as the fundamental causes of biodiversity depletion.