Does energy consumption,economic growth,urbanization, and population growth influence carbon emissions in the BRICS? Evidence from panel models robust to cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This paper examined the nexus between economic growth, energy consumption, urbanization, population growth, and carbon emissions in the BRICS...     

Spatial characterization of surface water vulnerability to diffuse pollution related to pesticide contamination: case of the Gimone watershed in France

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The preservation of natural resources via the management of diffuse pollution is currently considered to be a significant challenge in France....     

Methane and carbon dioxide production from simulated anaerobic degradation of cattle carcasses

Approximately 2.2million cattle carcasses require disposal annually in the United States. Land burial is a convenient disposal method that has been widely used in animal production for disposal of both daily mortalities as well as during catastrophic mortality events. To date, greenhouse gas production after mortality burial has not been quantified, and this study represents the first attempt to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from land burial of animal carcasses. In this study, anaerobic decomposition of both homogenized and unhomogenized cattle carcass material was investigated using bench-scale reactors. Maximum yields of methane and carbon dioxide were 0.33 and 0.09m(3)/kg dry material, respectively, a higher methane yield than that previously reported for municipal solid waste. Variability in methane production rates were observed over time and between reactors. Based on our laboratory data, annual methane emissions from burial of cattle mortalities in the United States could total 1.6Tg CO(2) equivalents. Although this represents less than 1% of total emissions produced by the agricultural sector in 2009, greenhouse gas emissions from animal carcass burial may be significant if disposal of swine and poultry carcasses is also considered.     

Rainfall and soils modify plant community response to grazing in Serengeti National Park

Terrestrial plant community responses to herbivory depend on resource availability, but the separate influences of different resources are difficult to study because they often correlate across natural environmental gradients. We studied the effects of excluding ungulate herbivores on plant species richness and composition, as well as available soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), across eight grassland sites in Serengeti National Park (SNP), Tanzania. These sites varied independently in rainfall and available soil N and P. Excluding herbivores decreased plant species richness at all sites and by an average of 5.4 species across all plots. Although plant species richness was a unimodal function of rainfall in both grazed and ungrazed plots, fences caused a greater decrease in plant species richness at sites of intermediate rainfall compared to sites of high or low rainfall. In terms of the relative or proportional decreases in plant species richness, excluding herbivores caused the strongest relative decreases at lower rainfall and where exclusion of herbivores increased available soil P. Herbivore exclusion increased among-plot heterogeneity in species composition but decreased coexistence of congeneric grasses. Compositional similarity between grazed and ungrazed treatments decreased with increasing rainfall due to greater forb richness in exclosures and greater sedge richness outside exclosures and was not related to effects of excluding herbivores on soil nutrients. Our results show that plant resources, especially water and P, appear to modulate the effects of herbivores on tropical grassland plant diversity and composition. We show that herbivore effects on soil P may be an important and previously unappreciated mechanism by which herbivores influence plant diversity, at least in tropical grasslands.     

Point Sampling Digital Imagery with ‘Samplepoint’

Measuring percent occurrence of objects from digital images can save time and expense relative to conventional field measurements. However, the accuracy of image analysis had, until now, not reached the level of the best conventional field measurements. Additionally, most image-analysis software programs require advanced user training to successfully analyze images. Here we present a new software program, ‘SamplePoint,’ that provides the user a single-pixel sample point and the ability to view and identify the pixel context. We found SamplePoint to allow accuracy comparable with the most accurate field-methods for ground-cover measurements. Expert use of the program requires minimal training and its ease of use allows rapid measurements from image data. We recommend SamplePoint for calibrating the threshold-detection level of image-analysis software or for making direct measurements of percent occurrence from digital images.     

Near Real-Time Monitoring and Mapping of Specific Conductivity Levels Across Lake Texoma, USA

A submersible sonde equipped with a specific conductivity probe, linked with a global positioning satellite receiver was developed, deployed on a small boat, and used to map spatial and temporal variations in specific conductivity in a large reservoir. 7,695 sample points were recorded during 8 sampling trips. Specific conductivity ranged from 442,uS/cm to 3,378,uS/cm over the nine-month study. The data showed five statistically different zones in the reservoir: 2 different riverine zones, 2 different riverine transition zones, and a lacustrine zone (the main lake zone). These data were imported to a geographic information system where they were spatially interpolated to generate 8 maps showing specific conductivity levels across the entire surface of the lake. The highly dynamic nature of water quality, due to the widely differing nature of the rivers that flow into the reservoir and the effect of large inflows of fresh water during winter storms is easily captured and visualized using this approach.     

Municipal solid waste management in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka: problems, issues and challenges

This paper describes the problems, issues and challenges faced by Sri Lanka based on the outcome of a recent study conducted in the country's Southern Province. The study consists of a public survey, discussions with local authority staff involved in waste management, discussions with Provincial Council and Government officials, dialogue with local politicians, review of documents and field observations. The study revealed that only 24% of the households have access to waste collection and that in rural areas it was less than 2%. A substantial number of households in areas without waste collection expect local authorities to collect their waste. The study also showed that most sites in the province are under capacity to handle any increased demand. Urgent and immediate improvement of the waste disposal sites is necessary to meet the current demand for improved waste collection. The study also revealed that there is a high willingness of people for home composting.     

Green building performance assessment in China using a cloud model

Environment, Development and Sustainability - With the acceleration of urbanization process in China, the usage of sustainable green buildings is getting a great attention and significance in order...     

Country specific low carbon commitments versus equitable and practical company specific decarbonisation targets

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Concerns about the impact of climate change and the need for stabilising a global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius are driving the...     

Assessing the Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Extreme Storms: The Case of Revere,MA., USA

Climate change may affect the frequency, intensity, and geographic distribution of severe coastal storms. Concurrent sea-level rise would raise the baseline of flooding during such events. Meanwhile, social vulnerability factors such as poverty and disability hinder the ability to cope with storms and storm damage. While physical changes are likely to remain scientifically uncertain into the foreseeable future, the ability to mitigate potential impacts from coastal flooding may be fostered by better understanding the interplay of social and physical factors that produce human vulnerability. This study does so by integrating the classic causal model of hazards with social, environmental, and spatial dynamics that lead to the differential ability of people to cope with hazards. It uses Census data, factor analysis, data envelopment analysis, and floodplain maps to understand the compound social and physical vulnerability of coastal residents in the city of Revere, MA, USA. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.