Quantification of Methane Emissions from Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand Extraction in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada.

Cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS) is an extraction process for heavy oil in Canada, with the potential to lead to higher CH venting than conventional oil sites, that have not been adequately characterized. In order to quantify CH emissions from CHOPS activities, a focused aerial measurement campaign was conducted in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in June 2018. Total CH emissions from each of 10 clusters of CHOPS wells (containing 22-167 well sites per cluster) were derived using a mass balance computation algorithm that uses in situ wind data measurement on board aircraft.

Identifying protected areas in biodiversity hotspots at risk from climate and human-induced compound events for conserving threatened species.

Anthropogenic pressure in areas of biodiversity importance erodes the integrity of the ecosystems they harbour, making features of biodiversity less buffered against extreme climatic events. We define the combination of these disturbances as compound events. We assessed compound event risk in protected areas (PAs) applying a spatial framework guided by criteria and quantitative thresholds associated with exposure to cyclones, drought, and intense human pressure.

Effects of back-support exoskeletons with different functional mechanisms on trunk muscle activity and kinematics.

Musculoskeletal disorders constitute the leading work-related health issue. Mechanical loading of the lower back contributes as a major risk factor and is prevalent in many tasks performed in logistics. The study aimed to compare acute effects of exoskeletons with different functional mechanisms in a logistic task.

Total organic carbon measurements reveal major gaps in petrochemical emissions reporting.

Anthropogenic organic carbon emissions reporting has been largely limited to subsets of chemically speciated volatile organic compounds. However, new aircraft-based measurements revealed total gas-phase organic carbon emissions that exceed oil sands industry-reported values by 1900% to over 6300%, the bulk of which was due to unaccounted-for intermediate-volatility and semivolatile organic compounds. Measured facility-wide emissions represented approximately 1% of extracted petroleum, resulting in total organic carbon emissions equivalent to that from all other sources across Canada combined.

Aircraft and satellite observations reveal historical gap between top-down and bottom-up CO emissions from Canadian oil sands.

Measurement-based estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from complex industrial operations are challenging to obtain, but serve as an important, independent check on inventory-reported emissions. Such top-down estimates, while important for oil and gas (O&G) emissions globally, are particularly relevant for Canadian oil sands (OS) operations, which represent the largest O&G contributor to national GHG emissions. We present a multifaceted top-down approach for estimating CO emissions that combines aircraft-measured CO/NO emission ratios (ERs) with inventory and satellite-derived NO emissions from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and TROPOspheric Ozone Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and apply it to the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) in Alberta, Canada.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Primate Research and Conservation.

There is evidence to suggest that the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may hamper our achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Here, we use non-human primates as a case study to examine the impacts of COVID-19 on the ability to achieve biodiversity conservation and management sustainability targets. We collected data through a survey of members of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group from January to March 2022.

Conservation resource allocation, small population resiliency, and the fallacy of conservation triage.

Some conservation prioritization methods are based on the assumption that conservation needs overwhelm current resources and not all species can be conserved; therefore, a conservation triage scheme (i.e., when the system is overwhelmed, species should be divided into three groups based on likelihood of survival, and efforts should be focused on those species in the group with the best survival prospects and reduced or denied to those in the group with no survival prospects and to those in the group not needing special efforts for their conservation) is necessary to guide resource allocation.

Corrigendum: A Severe Lack of Evidence Limits Effective Conservation of the World's Primates.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biaa082.].

Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity.

Many global environmental agendas, including halting biodiversity loss, reversing land degradation, and limiting climate change, depend upon retaining forests with high ecological integrity, yet the scale and degree of forest modification remain poorly quantified and mapped. By integrating data on observed and inferred human pressures and an index of lost connectivity, we generate a globally consistent, continuous index of forest condition as determined by the degree of anthropogenic modification. Globally, only 17.

Improving Insights on Air Pollutant Mixtures and Their Origins by Enhancing Local Monitoring in an Area of Intensive Resource Development.

An "event-based" approach to characterize complex air pollutant mixtures was applied in the Oil Sands region of northern Alberta, Canada. This approach was developed to better-inform source characterization and attribution of the air pollution in the Indigenous community of Fort McKay, within the context of the lived experience of residents. Principal component analysis was used to identify the characteristics of primary pollutant mixtures, which were related to hydrocarbon emissions, fossil fuel combustion, dust, and oxidized and reduced sulfur compounds.

A Severe Lack of Evidence Limits Effective Conservation of the World's Primates.

Threats to biodiversity are well documented. However, to effectively conserve species and their habitats, we need to know which conservation interventions do (or do not) work. Evidence-based conservation evaluates interventions within a scientific framework.

Turtles and Tortoises Are in Trouble.

Turtles and tortoises (chelonians) have been integral components of global ecosystems for about 220 million years and have played important roles in human culture for at least 400,000 years. The chelonian shell is a remarkable evolutionary adaptation, facilitating success in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Today, more than half of the 360 living species and 482 total taxa (species and subspecies combined) are threatened with extinction.

Measured Canadian oil sands CO emissions are higher than estimates made using internationally recommended methods.

The oil and gas (O&G) sector represents a large source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. However, estimates of O&G emissions rely upon bottom-up approaches, and are rarely evaluated through atmospheric measurements. Here, we use aircraft measurements over the Canadian oil sands (OS) to derive the first top-down, measurement-based determination of the their annual CO emissions and intensities.

High resolution mapping of nitrogen dioxide with TROPOMI: First results and validation over the Canadian oil sands.

Unlabelled: TROPOMI, on-board the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite is a nadir-viewing spectrometer measuring reflected sunlight in the ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and shortwave infrared spectral range. From these spectra several important air quality and climate-related atmospheric constituents are retrieved at an unprecedented high spatial resolution, including nitrogen dioxide (NO). We present the first retrievals of TROPOMI NO over the Canadian Oil Sands, contrasting them with observations from the OMI satellite instrument, and demonstrate its ability to resolve individual plumes and highlight its potential for deriving emissions from individual mining facilities.

On a new species of titi monkey (Primates: Plecturocebus Byrne et al., 2016), from Alta Floresta, southern Amazon, Brazil.

The taxonomy of the titi monkeys (Callicebinae) has recently received considerable attention. It is now recognised that this subfamily is composed of three genera with 33 species, seven of them described since 2002. Here, we describe a new species of titi, Plecturocebus, from the municipality of Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Primates in peril: the significance of Brazil, Madagascar, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for global primate conservation.

Primates occur in 90 countries, but four-Brazil, Madagascar, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)-harbor 65% of the world's primate species (439) and 60% of these primates are Threatened, Endangered, or Critically Endangered (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2017-3). Considering their importance for global primate conservation, we examine the anthropogenic pressures each country is facing that place their primate populations at risk. Habitat loss and fragmentation are main threats to primates in Brazil, Madagascar, and Indonesia.