Research for Ecology

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Utility of Ecological Risk Assessments
April 1, 1996
Ecological Risk Assessments (ERAs) are performed at hazardous waste cleanup sites under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) program to determine the risk that contaminants pose to the environment. A number of concerns have been expressed with respect to ERAs and other studies conducted at CERCLA sites including the following: too much effort is being spent on 'studies' instead of remedies; and remedies are largely determined on the basis of human health risk and any applicable cleanup standards in place as opposed to ecological risk. As a result of these concerns, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Installations and Environment) asked the Center for Naval Analyses to conduct a study of the utility of ecological risk assessments. This study was to review the ERA process in general and address specific issues. This report documents the results of the study.
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AGGREGATION, BIFURCATION, AND EXTINCTION IN EXPLOITED ANIMAL POPULATIONS
February 1, 1981

In this paper, the following type of harvesting problem is considered. An animal population is divided into two stocks: an 'underlying' population and a 'surface' population. It is assumed that there is a natural exchange between the two population levels. The predator or harvestor affects only the 'surface' population and does not influence the 'underlying' population directly. Such a situation occurs, for example, in the off-shore Eastern Tropical Tuna Fishery. In this case, tuna associate with porpoise schools. The fishery harvests only those tuna associated with porpoise. Consequently, the underlying population of tuna is not sampled by the fishery. One may wonder what information measurements on the surface, harvested population provides about the unobservable underlying population. Furthermore, it is interesting and important to know if the standard, linear relationship between harvest and effort is valid in an aggregating population.

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THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL EXPENDITURES ON THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
January 1, 1980
Between 1978 and 1985, municipal governments and private industry will spend about $111 billion dollars on construction of new facilities to reduce air and water pollution as mandated by the EPA. This report presents estimates of how these projected expenditures will affect the total level of construction and how employment, wages, interest rates, and other variables will respond to the change in construction output. Effects on employment in selected subclasses of the construction industry were also estimated.
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HANDBOOK FEDERAL APPELLATE DECISIONS INVOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS THROUGH MAY 9 1975
December 1, 1978
Reference to recent judicial decisions affords a useful means by which Federal agencies can arrive at or confirm their decisions on environmental impact statements. This handbook presents the reasons of reviewing courts for their decisions, arranged into a logic of outcomes, summarized in headings, and excerpted from the opinions. To serve the purpose further, indexes to the cases and the reviewing courts are provided.
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HANDBOOK OF JUDICIAL DECISIONS (THROUGH 20 OCTOBER 1972) INVOLVING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS
August 1, 1974
Reference to recent judicial decisions affords a useful means by which Federal agencies can arrive at or confirm their decisions on environmental impact statements. This handbook presents the reasons of reviewing courts for their decisions, arranged into a logic of outcomes, summarized in headings, and excerpted from the opinions. Indexes to the cases, the reviewing courts, and key topics are provided.
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ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES OF LIABILITY AND FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR OIL POLLUTION
June 1, 1974
This paper examines the economic issues involved in the imposition of liability for the damages caused by disasters in general and major oil spills in particular.
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MEASURES OF THE POTENTIAL ECONOMIC LOSS FROM OIL POLLUTION
June 1, 1974
The specific problem addressed is that of empirically estimating the potential impact of a large scale oil spill into the public waters on the economy of a nearby coastal community. Taking two areas as case studies, the sensitivity of their economies to exogenous changes in income is estimated using an economic base model. The potential is then calculated from the amount of income directly susceptible to oil pollution damages.
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'POLITICAL ASPECTS OF OCEAN ECOLOGY', A CHAPTER OF WHO PROTECTS THE OCEANS?
June 1, 1974
This paper discusses some fundamental aspects of politics, outlines the nature of the world political system and its relationship to ecological problems, and points up a number of politically derived problems in bargaining on ecological questions.
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