Climate and human impact on lowland lake sedimentation in Central Coastal California: the record from c. 650 ad to the present

The limnological record of human impact on catchment land cover and on lake sedimentation during the historical period has been established for Pinto Lake in Central Coastal California. In addition, the sedimentary record of the ‘pre-impact’ condition preserves evidence of a climatic control on the nature of lake sedimentation. Chronological marker horizons have been determined using pollen data in combination with the documented land-use history and introductions of exotic species. Further chronological data have been determined using ¹⁴C and ¹³⁷Cs. The impact of Mexican and Euro-American immigrants and their ‘imported’ land-use practices is clearly reflected in an order of magnitude increase in the rate of lake sedimentation to c. 9 kg m⁻² year⁻¹ (c. 2 cm year⁻¹) between 1770 and 1850. Here, the occurrence of exotic plant species indicates disturbance as early as c. 1769–1797, whilst redwood deforestation between 1844 and 1860 represents the most significant human impact. Changes in the nature of sedimentation prior to this reveal a high degree of sensitivity to changes in precipitation where subtle decreases in lake level and the supply of runoff-derived mineral matter have resulted in two periods of organic lake sedimentation c. 650–900 and 1275–1750. Set against this background condition of high sensitivity, the dramatic impacts of Euro-American settlement are unsurprising. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Using critical systems thinking to foster an integrated approach to sustainability: a proposal for development practitioners

Throughout the development sector, there is increasing recognition of links between the environment and aspects of development such as poverty alleviation, health, income generation, and agriculture. While furnished with a diverse range of perspectives and approaches, development practice is in need of ways to better conceptualize the interactions between the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability so that opportunities for simultaneous improvement in human and ecological well-being can be identified more readily. Critical systems thinking is proposed as a way for development practitioners to conceptualize and act toward the integration of these economic, social, and environmental dimensions and, in so doing, support communities to nurture both human and ecosystem well-being. Four desirable attributes of a critical systems thinking approach to development are identified based on development literature, critical systems literature, and the author’s research into sustainability in semi-rural communities in Vietnam. The four attributes are ‘a systems thinking approach;’ ‘an ethical base to action and choices;’ ‘critical reflection permeates processes;’ and ‘appreciation of diverse views and application of diverse approaches.’ These attributes are described and then offered as the basis for further discussion of the ways in which simultaneous improvement of human well-being and ecosystem health can become an integral part of development practice.     

A roadmap to a green chemical industry in Australia

A ‘roadmap’ has been devised for a progressive greening of the Australian chemical industry over the next two decades. The roadmap is based on a set of interactive principles broadly termed ‘economic’, ‘social’, ‘technological’, ‘environmental’ and ‘political’, which collectively form the ‘drivers of change’ in chemical industry strategy/business/policy planning—leading to greater efficiency and economic sustainability of this industry. The proposed roadmap pre-supposes that real economic, societal and environmental benefits can be obtained through greater use of existing and emerging green chemical technology. It can play an important role in developing a sustainable chemical industry in Australia. Primarily, the proposed roadmap involves a paradigm shift of the business operating plan and a significant mindset change of management.     

Conceptualising climate change in rural Australia: community perceptions, attitudes and (in)actions

Public engagement and support is essential for ensuring adaptation to climate change. The first step in achieving engagement is documenting how the general public currently perceive and understand climate change issues, specifically the importance they place on this global problem and identifying any unique challenges for individual communities. For rural communities, which rely heavily on local agriculture industries, climate change brings both potential impacts and opportunities. Yet, to date, our knowledge about how rural residents conceptualise climate change is limited. Thus, this research explores how the broader rural community—not only farmers—conceptualises climate change and responsive activities, focussing on documenting the understandings and risk perceptions of local residents from two small Australian rural communities. Twenty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted in communities in the Eden/Gippsland region on the border of New South Wales and Victoria and the north-east of Tasmania. There are conflicting views on how climate change is conceptualised, the degree of concern and need for action, the role of local industry, who will ‘win’ and ‘lose’, and the willingness of rural communities to adapt. In particular, residents who believed in anthropogenic or human-induced factors described the changing climate as evidence of ‘climate change’, whereas those who were more sceptical termed it ‘weather variability’, suggesting that there is a divide in rural Australia that, unless urgently addressed, will hinder local and national policy responses to this global issue. Engaging these communities in the twenty-first-century climate change debate will require a significant change in terminology and communication strategies.     

Impacts of climate change on lakes and reservoirs dynamics and restoration policies

Meteorological-driven processes exert large and diverse impacts on lakes and their water quality; these impacts can be hydrologic, thermal, hydraulic, chemical, biochemical, or ecological. The impact of climate change on Lake Tahoe (California–Nevada) was investigated here as a case study of climate change effects on the physical processes occurring within lakes. The already published trends of meteorological variables were used to assess the effects of global warming on Lake Tahoe dynamics. Records from the period 1969–2002 show that Lake Tahoe has became warmer and more stable. A series of simulation years into the future (i.e., 2000–2040) was established using flows, loads, and meteorology data sets for the period 1994–2004. Results of 40-year simulations show that the lake continues to become warmer and more stable, and mixing is reduced. Possible changes in water quality because of global warming are discussed through inference, although these are not specifically simulated. Many existing problems may be exacerbated due to climate change, yet extreme uncertainty depends on the rate and magnitude of climate change. Therefore, shifts in water quality and quantity due to climate change should be integrated into contemporary planning and management in an adaptive manner, and the research and development of impact assessment methodology should focus on approaches that can handle extreme uncertainty. The general alternatives for lake management due to climate change are discussed. Depending on the specific case, further intensive research is suggested to restore lake water quality.     

Historical deforestation as a cause of alluviation in small valleys, subcarpathian loess plateau, Poland

The undulating loess Kanczuga Plateau, 250–270 m a.s.l., is located in the temperate climatic zone of Central Europe, within the northern foreland of the Carpathians. It is dissected by a network of valleys 30–60 m deep, infilled with several metres of complex minerogenic and organic deposits which started to accumulate during the early Holocene. The southern side of one of these valleys is dissected by several dry valleys. The mouth sections of these valleys have buried surface comprising peat and/or organic silts, overlain by sandy–silty alluvium. ¹⁴C dates indicate that the alluviation of these valley floors, which proceeded from the headwaters to the mouth sections, began in the 1100 ad. The gradual intensification of soil erosion in the upper part of the catchment and associated sedimentation probably encompassed only a few centuries, with greatest alluviation during the Little Ice Age. This plateau, which is under the influence of more continental climatic conditions than the low-mountain and upland regions of Western Europe, features more climatic contrasts. Here environmental changes triggered by land use were superimposed on climatic change. The most intensive processes of soil erosion and sediment transfer as well as alluviation, coincided with the first phase of cooling during the Little Ice Age. It was the final stage of the intensification of these processes, probably more intensive than its initial phase in the eleventh century, caused primarily by deforestation resulting from the development of agriculture.     

太湖西北部湖区入湖河流氮磷水质标准修正方案研究

氮磷污染一直是太湖流域的首要污染问题,有效遏制氮磷入湖量的增加是治理太湖的重要任务。然而由于我国现行的地表水环境质量标准(GB3838-2002)中河流和湖泊氮、磷水质标准存在差异,即河流无总氮控制指标、河湖总磷标准不一致的问题,往往造成通过控制入湖河流污染来改善太湖湖泊水质时,湖泊污染物浓度往往达不到治理目标。以太湖西北部湖区及其入湖河流为例,利用BATHTUB模型模拟入湖河流与湖泊TN、TP的关系,推算太湖在满足现行湖泊水质标准中TN和TP各类别目标值的情形下的环境容量并以此环境容量决定入湖河流的水质,进而提出相应的方案进行比选,从而提出太湖入湖河流氮磷水质标准修正方案。结果表明:(1)当太湖入湖河流执行现行河流水质TP标准时,对应湖泊的水质TP超标,并不能达到保护湖泊的目标;(2)当太湖西北部湖区入湖河流TN、TP执行现行湖泊水质标准,对应湖区水质均能达标并且优于目标限值,然而该方案对于污染较为严重的太湖区域的实际参考意义不足;(3)以现行湖泊水质标准TN、TP各类别为目标值反推计算入湖河流水质指标,既能保证湖泊水质达标,又不会使河流水质标准过于严格,因此其结果可作为入湖河流水质标准修正的参考,从而提出太湖入湖河流TN、TP水质标准建议方案。     

Using fuzzy set theory to address the uncertainty of susceptibility to drought

This paper presents the technical aspects of a new methodology for assessing the susceptibility of society to drought. The methodology consists of a combination of inference modelling and fuzzy logic applications. Four steps are followed: (1) model input variables are selected—these variables reflect the main factors influencing susceptibility in a social group, population or region, (2) fuzzification—the uncertainties of the input variables are made explicit by representing them as ‘fuzzy membership functions’, (3) inference modelling—the input variables are used to construct a model made up of linguistic rules, and (4) defuzzification—results from the model in linguistic form are translated into numerical form, also through the use of fuzzy membership functions. The disadvantages and advantages of this methodology became apparent when it was applied to the assessment of susceptibility from three disciplinary perspectives: Disadvantages include the difficulty in validating results and the subjectivity involved with specifying fuzzy membership functions and the rules of the inference model. Advantages of the methodology are its transparency, because all model assumptions have to be made explicit in the form of inference rules; its flexibility, in that informal and expert knowledge can be incorporated through ‘fuzzy membership functions’ and through the rules in the inference model; and its versatility, since numerical data can be converted to linguistic statements and vice versa through the procedures of ‘fuzzification’ and ‘defuzzification’.     

云南高原典型湖泊水样氮磷含量随低温储存时间的变化

总氮(TN)、总磷(TP)是评价湖泊水体富营养化的主要指标,而实验分析中的总氮、总磷含量的测定结果受诸多因素(如水样储存方式、储存时间和氮磷赋存状态等)的影响,易造成分析数据的不稳定性。对于云南典型喀斯特地区湖泊水体氮磷含量分析而言,特别是在采样点距实验室距离远、样品数量多的情况下,不能按实验分析标准要求时间完成分析。该研究针对云南九大高原典型湖泊的特殊性和在大批量样品采集、远距离搬运、实验分析需要一定时间的实际情况,选择3个氮磷含量差异较大的抚仙湖、阳宗海和滇池为研究对象,对采样后样品在低温储存条件下随测定时间而发生变化进行分析,探讨样品TN、TP和溶解态氮(DN)、溶解态磷(DP)含量的变化特征,以确定最佳的实验分析时间。研究结果表明:(1)采样后即进行氮磷含量分析结果显示:3个湖泊水样氮磷含量差别明显,同时存在状态不相一致,滇池样品中氮磷含量最高,其TN含量为2.44 mg/L,DN含量为1.47 mg/L,占总氮的60%,TP含量为0.13 mg/L,DP含量为0.02 mg/L,占总磷的15%;阳宗海次之,其中TN含量为0.73 mg/L,DN含量为0.60 mg/L,占总氮的82%,TP含量为0.04 mg/L,DP含量为0.03 mg/L,占总磷的75%;抚仙湖最低,其中TN含量为0.32 mg/L,DN含量为0.28 mg/L,占总氮的90%,TP含量为0.02 mg/L,DP含量为0.01 mg/L,占总磷的50%;(2)样品在低温室(3℃～4℃)随着静置时间的增长,TN、TP含量均呈现降低趋势,说明静置时间对其有影响;其中滇池和阳宗海水样总氮总磷含量降低幅度较大,而抚仙湖较小;(3)样品经过滤后,滇池阳和宗海的水样氮磷含量呈现降低趋势,而抚仙湖则无明显变化。样品储存时间、过滤处理对氮磷含量低的湖泊水样影响较小,对氮磷含量大的湖泊影响较大,尤其是颗粒态氮磷含量较高的样品。由于水样中氮磷存在多种形态,湖泊营养程度不同,在对水样进行氮磷含量测定时,应当考虑水样储存时间和氮磷赋存状态等因素。     

龙感湖表层沉积硅藻探究

以长江中下游典型草型湖泊龙感湖为研究对象,借助生物指标(沉积物表层硅藻),通过硅藻分析、DCA分析、聚类分析以及硅藻属种指示的湖泊营养特征分析,探究龙感湖沉积物表层硅藻属种分类、影响硅藻的潜在环境梯度、表层沉积硅藻属种的空间分布特征以及分析表层沉积硅藻属种指示的湖泊营养特征。研究表明:龙感湖表层沉积硅藻属种分布存在空间差异;表层硅藻属种的分布主要由第一轴的环境因子所解释,反映的样点的排列受第一轴的控制,第二轴反映的环境意义不显著;龙感湖硅藻组合是以富营养的浮游种为优势,已经接近富营养态,以半浮游种Aulancoseira granulata为最大优势种,而Aulancoseira granulata在中营养湖泊中占绝对优势。主要出现在富营养湖泊中能较好指示富营养化的浮游、半浮游种Cyclotella atoms和C.meneghiniana、Aulacoseira alpigea、Cyclostephanos dubius、Stephanodiscus parvus、S.hantzschii出现在龙感湖内;以浮游种为优势种的东部湖区比以附生底栖种为优势种的西部湖区富营养化更严重,研究以期为湖泊治理提供一定的理论依据。     

Composition of soil diatoms in zones of impact from oil production complexes

The impact of territorial oil production complexes on the species composition of soil diatom (Bacillariophyta) communities and the degree of their development has been studied. On the basis of comparisons between dominant diatom assemblages from different natural zones, suggestions are made concerning the strategy of their adaptation to extreme environmental conditions. A scheme of transformation of diatom communities under the impact of oil pollution is proposed.     

A stakeholder dialogue on European vulnerability

A stakeholder dialogue was embedded in the ATEAM project to facilitate the development and dissemination of its European-wide vulnerability assessment of global change impacts. Participating stakeholders were primarily ecosystem managers and policy advisers interested in potential impacts on ‘Agriculture’, ‘Forestry’, ‘Water’, ‘Carbon storage’, ‘Biodiversity’ and ‘Mountain environments’ sectors. First, stakeholder dialogue approaches to integrated assessment are introduced. Methodological considerations on stakeholder selection and dialogue implementation and evaluation follow. The dialogue content and process are evaluated from the perspectives of stakeholders and scientists. Its usefulness in the research process and the relevance of outcomes for stakeholders are particularly considered. The challenging compromises required to perform innovative research, which seeks to achieve both peer scientific credibility and societal relevance, are emphasized. Effective stakeholder dialogues play a substantial role in raising the visibility and meaningfulness of vulnerability assessments as critical means to improve awareness on global change and its potential worrying impacts on society. They further provide scientists with critical information on ecosystem management and sectoral adaptive capacity. These processes of mutual learning and knowledge exchange moreover foster a better understanding of the potential and limits of global change modelling and vulnerability assessment for policy and ecosystem management.

Contemporary changes in open water surface area of Lake Inle, Myanmar

From 1935 to 2000, the net open water area of Inle Lake in Central Shan State, Myanmar decreased from 69.10 to 46.69 km², a loss of 32.4% during this 65-year period. Local beliefs are that losses in lake area have been even greater within the last 100–200 years. Various activities, including timber removal, shifting agriculture in the uplands by various ethnic groups, and unsustainable cultivation practices on the low- and mid-level hillslopes around the lake, have been blamed for both historical and ongoing sedimentation. We take issue with attributing loss of lake area to these activities, and propose instead that ongoing “in-lake” and “near-lake” agricultural practices are the main sources of contemporary sediment and loss of open water area. About 93% (i.e., 20.84 km²) of the recent loss in open water area of the lake is due to the development of floating garden agriculture, largely along the west side of the lake. Direct environmental impacts associated with this practice and with other agriculture activities within the wetlands and margins of the lake include sedimentation, eutrophication, and pollution. Whilst the sustainability of hillslope agriculture and past forestry practices can indeed be questioned, a more urgent need is to address these "in-lake" and "near-lake" practices.     

鄱阳湖区氮磷污染物分布、转移和削减特征

根据入湖污染负荷监测、调查资料和不同水文条件下流场-水质同步监测资料,应用数理统计方法,研究了鄱阳湖氮磷营养物质分布、转移和削减特征。研究结果显示:(1)总磷、总氮是影响鄱阳湖水环境质量的主要污染物,入湖污染负荷与入湖径流水量紧密正相关。(2)鄱阳湖换水周期短,水流更换频繁,氮磷污染物在湖区不会充分混合;氮磷超标水域随着水体流动,逐步向下游转移、扩散;湖水位处于消落状态,通江水道部分水域氮磷浓度超标。(3)湖相状态水环境比河相好,湖相状态一般不会出现大面积的总氮和总磷同时超标。(4)鄱阳湖水环境勉强维持Ⅲ类标准,如果出现损害环境的人类活动,脆弱的水环境将会恶化。针对这些特征提出了保护鄱阳湖"一湖清水"的对策建议。     

Accounting for carbon stocks in models of land-use change: an application to Southern Yucatan

To assess the impact of land-use change on carbon stocks, we apply a new methodology, linking ecological and economic modeling, to southern Yucatan, Mexico. A spatial econometric multinomial logit model of ten land-cover classes is estimated (four primary forest categories, three secondary growth categories, an invasive species, and two agricultural land-cover categories), using satellite data on land cover, linked with census socioeconomic data and other biophysical spatial data from 2000. The analysis is novel in that it is the first attempt to link detailed satellite data on land use, with on-the-ground estimates of carbon stocks in a spatial econometric model of land use. The estimated multinomial logit model is then used with two scenarios of future economic growth (“low growth” and “high growth” changes in population, agricultural land use, market access, and education levels) in the region to predict land-cover changes resulting from the economic growth. The per hectare carbon (C) stocks in each land-cover class are derived from previously published estimates of biomass from field sampling across the study region. We consider aboveground-only, aboveground plus soil, transient and non-transient pools of carbon. These estimates are scaled up to the total area in each class according to the predictions of the model baseline and the two development scenarios. Subsequently, the changes in carbon stocks resulting from the predicted land-cover changes are calculated. Under the low growth scenario, carbon stocks declined by 5%; under the high growth scenario, losses were 12%. Including soil C, the proportional losses were lower, but the absolute amount lost was more than double (to 6 Tg C under the low and almost 15 Tg C under the high-growth scenario). This methodology could be further developed for applications in global change policy, such as payments for environmental services (PES) or reduction in emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD).     

Perceptions toward stewardship among residents living near U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Facilities

Although stewardship has been widely defined and used in environmental management and planning, there is a dearth of studies that describe how the lay public perceives this concept. A national sample of residents in 14 states who live near DOE nuclear facilities were interviewed to delineate public understanding and awareness of the stewardship program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This study discusses the findings of the survey and discusses how institutional trust influences public participation and resident’s choices of potential stewards. Almost 40% of the respondents could not define stewardship; those who did, believed that ‘responsibility,’ ‘management,’ and ‘accountability’ are key elements of stewardship. In addition, about a third of the respondents identified Federal groups and the DOE as potential stewards. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

‘Eco-city’ to ‘disaster-resilient eco-community’: a concerted approach in the coastal city of Puri, India

The need for environmental and urban planning reached a critical point in the year 2007, when one-half of the world's population could be defined as living in cities. Urbanisation in India is also increasing at a fast rate. Urban chaos in India, emanating from the continuous ignorance of fragile ecosystems, calls for the reshaping of existing cities as ‘eco-cities’. The ‘eco-city’—a well-known concept in the western world—is new to the Indian context. While western connotations of eco-cities should not be discarded outright in the context of India, core concerns vary significantly for obvious reasons. Recognising two facts—firstly, eco-city development is altogether a fresh approach to human settlement development in India, and, secondly, the manifold increase in the vulnerability of cities—this paper discusses documented good practice, reinforcing evolution towards the eco-city vision. Lessons drawn from the examples cited are further deconstructed in the light of their contribution to urban risk reduction, which provides direction to appreciating the ‘disaster-resilient eco-community’ concept in Puri, a coastal city in India. Further, this paper attempts to unravel existing community-based practices in Puri, which are boon to the local environment and invariably reduce disaster risk. These seemingly modest neighbourhood initiatives symbolise immense societal wealth, which can be calibrated appropriately for reducing urban environmental risk as well. This paper also illustrates how a ‘disaster resilient eco-community’ approach is inevitable in the present and future contexts not only to preserve sustainable development gains but also to secure human well-being.     

Abundance and diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in lakes exposed to Chernobyl-derived ionising radiation

Littoral (lake shore) macroinvertebrate communities were studied in eight natural lakes affected by fallout from the Chernobyl accident. The lakes spanned a range in ¹³⁷Cs contamination from 100 to 15500 kBq m⁻² and estimated external dose rates ranged from 0.13 to 30.7 μGy h⁻¹. General linear models were used to assess whether abundance of individuals, taxon richness, Berger-Parker dominance and Shannon-Wiener diversity varied across the lakes. Step-wise multiple regressions were used to relate variation in total abundance, taxon richness, Berger-Parker dominance, Shannon-Wiener diversity, taxon richness within major groups of macroinvertebrates and abundance of the more common individual taxa to the measured environmental characteristics (conductivity, pH, total hardness and phosphate; lake area, lake maximum depth and total external dose) of the lakes. No evidence was found in this study that the ecological status of lake communities has been influenced by radioactive contamination from the Chernobyl accident. Indeed, the most contaminated lake, Glubokoye, contained the highest richness of aquatic invertebrates. Taxon richness in the eight study lakes varied from 22 (Svyatskoe #7) to 42 (Glubokoye) which spans a range typical for uncontaminated lakes in the region. Since ⁹⁰Sr is readily-absorbed by Mollusca, estimated dose rates to this group exceeded those for other invertebrate groups in two lakes (Perstok and Glubokoye). However this study found no association between mollusc diversity or abundance of individual snail species and variation between lakes in the external radiation dose. Indeed Glubokoye, the lake most contaminated by ⁹⁰Sr, had the highest richness of freshwater snails per sample (an average of 8.9 taxa per sample).     

江西省中小型湖泊富营养化控制指标的建议值

利用在2010年3月~2011年2月江西省25个中小型湖泊水质监测指标的分析数据,采用综合营养状态指数（TLI）法对调查湖泊进行各季节和全年的营养状态评价,并分别计算在各季节和全年内调查湖泊中发生富营养化的概率。在全年营养状态评价的基础上,运用Bootstrap方法,寻找在不同营养状态下的置信区间,并推断富营养化控制指标的建议值。结果表明,在被调查的湖泊中,春、夏季发生富营养化的概率是接近的,秋季是最高的,冬季是最低的。在春、夏和冬季时,调查湖泊的营养状态以中营养为主;在秋季时,中营养状态湖泊所占比例下降,富营养状态湖泊所占比例上升。在全年中,富营养和中营养状态湖泊所占比例分别为32%和68%。江西省中小型湖泊富营养化控制指标透明度（SD）、总磷（TP）、叶绿素a（Chl a）和高锰酸盐指数（CODMn）等的建议值,分别为044 m、005 mg/L、1000 mg/m3和2 70 mg/L。为湖泊富营养化的分区控制与治理提供基础资料和理论依据     

Sustainability issues for biodiversity business

Biodiversity is acknowledged as one of the most important resources that helps to sustain life’s processes. Additionally, it is also one of the most important sources of livelihood for different kinds of stakeholders at various levels of resource markets—local, domestic, or international. With globalization and increasing sophistication in the methods of commercial trade in biological resources, various issues arise related to the sustenance of resources, of ecological balances, and equity in transactions. All of these are concerns to be addressed to achieve a state of ‘sustainability.’ This paper prescribes to the definition of ‘sustainability’ as the capacity to maintain a certain process or state for “improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems” (IUCN/UNEP/WWF, in Caring for the Earth: a strategy for sustainable living. Gland, Switzerland, 1991). This goes beyond ensuring inter- and intragenerational equity in access to resources and includes several other parameters, including equity among stakeholders to returns from biological resources, related knowledge, trade-offs, and ethical business practices related to these resources. Through the prism of an examination of a simplistic supply route(s) and value addition chain of biodiversity resources for commercial use, this paper reviews and highlights issues related to ‘sustainability’ at each stage. Evidence points to shortcomings in the sustainable use of biological resources at each stage of value addition, calling for focused and specific measures to address them.