Human impact on wild firewood species in the Rural Andes community of Apillapampa, Bolivia

Firewood is the basic fuel source in rural Bolivia. A study was conducted in an Andean village of subsistence farmers to investigate human impact on wild firewood species. A total of 114 different fuel species was inventoried during fieldtrips and transect sampling. Specific data on abundance and growth height of wild firewood species were collected in thirty-six transects of 50 ×2 m². Information on fuel uses of plants was obtained from 13 local Quechua key participants. To appraise the impact of fuel harvest, the extraction impact value (EIV) index was developed. This index takes into account local participants?? appreciation of (1) decreasing plant abundance; (2) regeneration capacity of plants; (3) impact of root harvesting; and (4) quality of firewood. Results suggest that several (sub-)woody plant species are negatively affected by firewood harvesting. We found that anthropogenic pressure, expressed as EIV, covaried with density of firewood species, which could entail higher human pressure on more abundant and/or more accessible species. The apparent negative impact of anthropogenic pressure on populations of wild fuel species is corroborated by our finding that, in addition to altitude, several anthropogenic variables (i.e. site accessibility, cultivation of exotics and burning practices) explain part of the variation in height of firewood species in the surroundings of Apillapampa.     

弘文重教十余年的《文教资料简报》

创刊于1972年12月的《文教资料简报》是由南京师范学院(1984年易名为南京师范大学)内部编印的资料性月刊,主要目的是为文科教研服务。本文回顾该刊从创办至拥有"统一刊号"、从非正式出版物至成为正式出版物的历史沿革,具体观照该刊的编辑理念,总结该刊的内容特色、文献价值及经验启示。     

Evolution and diversification of National Cleaner Production Centres (NCPCs)

Since 1994 UNIDO and UNEP cooperate in a Programme to establish National Cleaner Production Centres (NCPCs) as a mechanism for delivery of Cleaner Production (CP) services to businesses, governments and other organisations. In 2007, 38 NCPCs were operational in 37 developing and transition countries. While initially set up in near-identical ways in each country, over time NCPCs evolved in response to both programme-internal and country-level factors. The resulting diversity among NCPCs is described and analysed here. Differentiation and specialisation had occurred in service areas or topics both within and between NCPCs, however without a clear strategy for integration and synergy. NCPCs were becoming part of expanding networks of business services providers nationally forcing some to focus on audit and training services (tier 1), and others on specialist services in CP technology and/or policy (tier 2) and/or networking services (tier 3). All NCPCs were on a trajectory from a project management organisation to a nationally-owned entity. The different management requirements were not proactively managed and technical aspects of CP service delivery overshadowed institutional and governance aspects of establishing and operating the NCPC institution. Differences in service delivery methods between NCPCs are most evident in three service areas: CP assessments; policy advice; and transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies. It is argued here that understanding root causes and benefits of this presently-observed differentiation, could lay the foundation for capturing and advancing best practice CP concepts, methods and policies. This in turn would enable strategic planning for customised interventions and support at the national level.     

Esterification of sugarcane bagasse by citric acid for Pb2+ adsorption: effect of different chemical pretreatment methods

In this study, different pretreatment strategies of sugarcane bagasse prior to citric acid modification were investigated in terms of Pb²⁺ adsorption capacity. Pretreatment strategies included the use of NaOH, HCl, and C₂H₅OH in various concentrations. In order to fundamentally understand how these pretreatment methods affect the modification of sugarcane bagasse by citric acid as well as the Pb²⁺ adsorption capacity of sugarcane bagasse, three main components of sugarcane bagasse namely cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin were isolated and esterified by citric acid under the same conditions. ATR-FTIR, XPS, SEM, and an analysis of the number of carboxylic acid groups were used to investigate the physicochemical and chemical properties of the materials. These three components were proved to participate in adsorption and induce the esterification with citric acid. Hence, pretreatment with ethanol and 0.01 M NaOH which could retain cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin in sugarcane bagasse achieved a high Pb²⁺ adsorption capacity, i.e., 122.4 and 97 mg/g after the esterification with citric acid. In contrast, pretreatment with 0.5 M NaOH and 0.1 M HCl removed lignin and hemicellulose, leading to the lowest value of approximately 45 mg/g for citric acid esterified-pretreated sugarcane bagasse. XPS analysis and number of carboxylic group measurement confirmed the esterification between bagasse and citric acid. To understand the adsorption mechanism of adsorbent, two kinetic models including pseudo-first-order model and pseudo-second-order model were applied. The experimental data were well described by the pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted Langmuir and Freundlich.

     

Ethanol mediated As(III) adsorption onto Zn-loaded pinecone biochar: Experimental investigation, modeling, and optimization using hybrid artificial neural network-genetic algorithm approach

Organic matters (OMs) and their oxidization products often influence the fate and transport of heavy metals in the subsurface aqueous systems through interaction with the mineral surfaces. This study investigates the ethanol (EtOH)-mediated As(III) adsorption onto Zn-loaded pinecone (PC) biochar through batch experiments conducted under Box–Behnken design. The effect of EtOH on As(III) adsorption mechanism was quantitatively elucidated by fitting the experimental data using artificial neural network and quadratic modeling approaches. The quadratic model could describe the limiting nature of EtOH and pH on As(III) adsorption, whereas neural network revealed the stronger influence of EtOH (64.5%) followed by pH (20.75%) and As(III) concentration (14.75%) on the adsorption phenomena. Besides, the interaction among process variables indicated that EtOH enhances As(III) adsorption over a pH range of 2 to 7, possibly due to facilitation of ligand–metal(Zn) binding complexation mechanism. Eventually, hybrid response surface model–genetic algorithm (RSM–GA) approach predicted a better optimal solution than RSM, i.e., the adsorptive removal of As(III) (10.47 μg/g) is facilitated at 30.22 mg C/L of EtOH with initial As(III) concentration of 196.77 μg/L at pH 5.8. The implication of this investigation might help in understanding the application of biochar for removal of various As(III) species in the presence of OM.     

An in vitro/in vivo screening assay as a sensitive tool to assess endocrine disruptive activity in surface water

Adult male fathead minnow were exposed for 14 or 28-days under flow-through conditions to undiluted filtered water samples from the rivers Meuse and Rhine in the Netherlands. The experiment included two vessels per treatment each containing 10 fish and samples of five fish were taken after 14 and 28 days. Additional groups were exposed to 17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) as a reference and untreated drinking water as a negative control. Major endpoints examined included induction of vitellogenin (VTG) synthesis, VTG mRNA activity, hepato- and gonadosomatic indices (HSI and GSI) and gonadal histology. No significant difference was recorded in body weight or mean GSI values between the various treatments. Only exposure to Meuse water resulted in significantly higher HSI means after 14 days. Histological examination showed no apparent effects on gonadal tissue except for eosinophilic blood plasma in fish exposed to Meuse water or EE2. After 14 and 28 days, elevated VTG and VTG mRNA levels were measured in most livers of the fish exposed to Meuse water, but not in the fish exposed to Rhine water. This was confirmed by measuring estrogenic responses in the in vitro ER CALUX assay. Induction of VTG synthesis proved to be the most sensitive endpoint in the Non Spawning Male Fish Assay for in vivo detection of bio-available estrogenic activity supplementary to a sensitive in vitro assay. The other endpoints examined varied too much and required a higher number of fish or replicates to achieve sufficient power for statistical testing making them less animal friendly.     

Spiders in mountain habitats of the Giant Mountains

Ground-living spiders were studied using modified pitfall traps during several years in four characteristic habitats in Giant Mountains (Krkono?e Mts.), the High Sudetes, Czech Republic: alpine tundra, subalpine mire, tall-herb stand at the bottom of a glacial corrie, and decaying mountain spruce forest. Ecological and zoogeographical aspects of spider communities were analysed. The spider communities of alpine tundra, subalpine mire, and glacial corrie exhibited long-term stability, whereas the community of decaying mountain forest changed during observations. Small linyphiid spiders, dominating in mature forest, were gradually replaced by larger Iycosid and gnaphosid species. Zoogeographic characterization of mountain habitats was made based on species exhibiting disjunctive area. In contrast to plants, for spiders of boreal origin alpine tundra is the most important habitat for survival, followed by screes, mires, spruce forests, and corries.     

Deriving environmental quality standards in European surface waters: when are there too few data?

Recent technical guidance has been published by the European Commission that outlines methodologies for the derivation of Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) in European surface waters under the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The guidance allows the derivation of a long-term EQS from a small dataset. Specifically an EQS can be derived from just three acute data points, although the safety factors built into such an EQS are large (e.g. up to a factor of 1,000). Large safety factors make such EQS uncertain, and often difficult to achieve in practice. We examine dataset requirements for the derivation of EQS and specifically the minimum number of tests needed for setting EQS for long-term chemical exposures that result in reduced relative uncertainty, as assessed simply through the reduction in standard deviation of the means of the values derived. Using ecotoxicity datasets for four example chemicals, for which EQS have been derived in many jurisdictions, we show that variation in the EQS is greatest when using the minimum dataset allowable under the WFD guidance, but decreases rapidly when seven or more datapoints are available. Increasing the minimum number of ecotoxicity data in deriving an EQS results in a greater understanding of ecotoxicological effects. With this knowledge, the mitigating effects of water chemistry can be accounted for in deriving an EQS, even with relatively limited datasets. The new guidance suggests “simplistic” approaches to account for chemical availability, but does not detail how this might be undertaken. We provide examples of ways by which water chemistry effects can be included in deriving implementable EQS for metals with relatively few reliable and relevant data.