Gary Blank

Characterizing environmental impact statements for road projects in North Carolina, USA

We evaluate consistency and patterns among a 20-year sample of EISs for road projects in North Carolina, USA. Applying multivariate statistical methods, we find substantial variation in reporting of project and site characteristics, the EIS process itself, and types and definitions of impacts. We find a relationship between environmental impacts and bio-physical or geographic factors. The relationship between predicted environmental impacts and economic factors suggests more environmental impacts occur, or are identified, in high-income counties. Variables describing public involvement and completeness are associated mainly with the number of residential relocations required. Farmlands potentially impacted are reported inconsistently and are not reliable for comparison, so rural environmental impacts may be seriously underestimated.

Effects of highway pollution on forest lichen community structure in western Wake County, North Carolina, U.S.A.

Abstract We studied lichen communities along forest edge-to-interior gradients on opposite sides of a major highway and along a remote lakeshore in central North Carolina, U.S.A., to investigate highway pollution effects on this sensitive ecosystem component. At each site we sampled lichens on trees at 10 m intervals along each of five parallel transects established at the forest edge and at 25, 60, 100, and 150 m into the forest in the highway sites, with a similar layout along a nonlinear lakeshore in a similar forest type, from which transect distances from the forest edge were estimated using average tree distances from the nearest shoreline. Lichen communities were inventoried on tree trunks from the base up to 1.5 m height, then compared both among and within sites. Species richness was highest in the control site, and did not differ between the two highway sites. The highway sites were more similar to one another than either was to the control site, based on Bray-Curtis similarity indices. No associations were detected among sites and sampled lichen biotic components in terms of growth form, photobiont type or reproductive mode. In the highway sites, total transect species richness increased from the forest edge to 150 m distant. In the control site, species richness decreased from the forest edge to the most distant transect. Findings suggest a negative effect of highway pollution on species richness of lichen communities, but not on species composition by habit, photobiont type or reproductive mode. Despite the elevated NOx concentrations recorded along the highway, known nitrophilous species were largely absent, suggesting that other factors, including other pollutants, were affecting community structure near the highway.

An Examination of Behavior Change Theories to Predict Behavioral Intentions of Organisms-in-Trade Hobbyists

This study examined the effects of theoretical constructs from the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and value-belief-norm theory (VBN) on intentions to perform purchase and disposal behaviors that help prevent aquatic invasive species (AIS) spread by organisms-in-trade (OIT) hobbyists. More specifically, the goals of this study were to explore (1) the predictive ability of theoretical constructs on intention to perform desired behaviors and (2) differences in the strength of the constructs on future purchase and disposal behaviors. Regression analyses from survey research conducted at OIT events in the Great Lakes region (n = 542) revealed that VBN constructs have direct, positive effects on likelihood of performing future purchase and disposal behaviors; one TPB construct (perceived behavioral control) also predicted likelihood of performing future disposal behaviors. Seemingly unrelated regression results demonstrate differing effects of theoretical constructs between purchase and disposal behaviors. Findings suggest tailoring messages to target specific behaviors. 1 Corresponding author: erin_seekamp@ncsu.edu. Human Ecology Review, Volume 21, Number 2, 2015 66

Checklists of Corticolous Lichenized and Allied Fungi Collected in Mixed Forests of Western Wake County, North Carolina, USA

Abstract. Three checklist tables are presented from collections made during a study of corticolous lichen community response to highway pollution in western Wake County, North Carolina, USA. A total of 103 species of lichens and three species of allied fungi were found, representing 64 genera in 36 families. Two allied fungi, Amphisphaeria bufonia and Rebentischia massalongoi, are recommended to be added to the North American lichen checklist.

Noteworthy Collections of Lichens and Allied Fungi from Western Wake County, North Carolina, USA

Abstract. A seemingly undescribed Peltigera and several noteworthy collections were made during a gradient study examining highway effects on forest lichen communities in western Wake County, North Carolina, USA. Rebentischia massalongii is here newly reported from North Carolina. Acrocordia megalospora, Gyalolechia flavorubescens, and Porina scabrida are new records for the Piedmont ecoregion in the state. Lobaria quercizans is noteworthy as belonging to a group of pollution-sensitive cyanolichens that until recently have not been recorded from the Triangle area of central North Carolina. Historical occurrences of Triangle Lobariaceae are also presented.

Habitat and Search Criteria of the Rare Sandhills Lily, Lilium pyrophilum M. W. Skinner and Sorrie

Abstract Thirty populations of Sandhills lily (Lilium pyrophilum) in North Carolina and Virginia were studied to understand the habitat requirements and develop search criteria to find new populations. In each population a study plot containing lily individuals was compared with a nearby plot lacking the lily. Lilium pyrophilum habitat occurred on floodplains and adjacent side slopes that supported four Coastal Plain plant community types and maintained rights-of-way and had an open canopy with an understory dominated by herbs and shrubs. Lily individuals occurred on a range of organic to mineral-organic soils but not on sandy soils and lily soils had higher sulfur levels. Relative to plots lacking lily individuals, Lilium pyrophilum plots had a higher wetness index. Since 97% of plots were in jurisdictional wetlands, a wetland indicator of FACW+ was recommended for L. pyrophilum. Search criteria for finding new populations were developed on the basis of the habitat features elucidated in this study.

Highway pollution effects on microhabitat community structure of corticolous lichens

Abstract We studied lichen communities on bole and base tree trunk segments along forest edge-to-interior gradients on opposite sides of a major highway and a control site in central North Carolina, U.S.A., to investigate if these two communities differ and if so, do they differ in response to highway pollution. At each site we measured various environmental parameters including ambient air NO2 concentrations, and sampled lichens on 5–7 trees along each of five parallel transects established at the forest edge and at 25, 60, 100 and 150 m into the forest. We compared lichen communities between the two trunk segments via species richness and composition by habit, photobiont type, and reproductive strategy. We then ran dual (bole and base) NMS ordinations with subsequent correlation/regression analyses to explore/test relationships of lichen parameters with environmental variables among the 15 sample transects combined. Species richness was similar between trunk segments at transect and site levels as well as overall. Bole and base communities were more compositionally similar to each other at the highway sites than they were at the control site, based on Bray-Curtis similarity indices (BC). Tree base communities differed in terms of functional groupings, with greater proportions of squamulose, cyanolichen and sterile species than found in tree bole communities, but varyingly so among sites. Patterns of bole-base BC values with distance from the forest edge were not apparent in any of the sites. Ordination analyses resulted in Axis 1 representing most of the variation for each trunk segment. Along this axis, correlations were similar between boles and bases, with the strongest ones involving lichen species richness (negative) and NO2 concentrations (positive); notably weak correlations involved tree species number, canopy cover and DBH. Similar patterns were found when lichen species number was correlated with environmental parameters directly, with NO2 concentration correlating strongest at each trunk segment. Among functional groups, % crustose and % fertile species on bases correlated significantly with NO2. Lichen species–NO2 relationships on boles and bases were both found to be highly significant quadratic relationships with base lichen richness being stronger.

Promoting Stewardship of New Commons : Lessons from WakeNature Partnership

Protecting natural areas of landscapes at varying geographic scales of interest has preoccupied activists in the United States for a number of decades. Protected areas typically reside in the public sector of ownership and become a resource common to all members of the populace. They most often have not fit easily the notion of commons as the term is used in European, especially British, contexts. Prior individual ownership of property most typically would preclude utilization of resources and even access by neighbours. Indeed, limitation of use and access may be the factor that has made these properties most desirable for acquisition and protection. Thus, we might call such acquired and protected lands our “new commons.”