Development and Evaluation of a Regulatory Model for Pesticides in Flooded Applications

The pesticides in flooded applications model (PFAM) is a regulatory model for government agencies and others interested in estimating water concentrations of pesticides used in flooded agriculture applications such as rice paddies and cranberries bogs. PFAM was designed around the specific parameters that are typically available for a pesticide risk assessment, thereby simplifying the model and allowing the user to concentrate on only the most relevant model inputs. The model considers the fate properties of pesticides and allows for the specifications of typical flooded agriculture management practices such as scheduled water releases and refills. It also allows for natural water-level fluctuations resulting from precipitation and evapotranspiration. Model quality assurance requirements for regulatory models aimed at protecting the public are that the models err on the high side of measured data and at the same time should not cause undue burden to stakeholders by being overly conservative. For the studies herein, PFAM did tend to err on the high side of the data yet provided more realistic estimates than the currently used methods, which thereby reduced stakeholder burden. As is also important for a regulatory model, PFAM is nonproprietary and freely available.     

Plant uptake of trace elements on a Swiss military shooting range: uptake pathways and land management implications

Over 400tons of Pb enters Swiss soils annually at some 2000 military shooting ranges (MSRs). We measured elements in the leaves of 10 plant species and associated rhizospheric soil on the stop butt of a disused MSR. The geometric mean concentrations of Pb, Sb, Cu, Ni in rhizospheric soils were 10,171mg/kg, 5067mg/kg, 4125mg/kg and 917mg/kg. Some species contained Pb, Cu and Ni, above concentrations (30mg/kg, 25mg/kg and 50mg/kg) shown to be toxic to livestock. Most contaminants in leaves resulted from surface deposition. However, at soil Pb concentrations >60,000mg/kg, Equisetum arvense and Tussilago farfara took up >1000mg/kg Pb into the leaves. These plants are not hyperaccumulators, having <100mg/kg Pb in leaves at lower soil concentrations. Removal of soil with more than 30,000 Pb, from which one could smelt this metal to offset remediation costs, followed by revegetation, would minimise dust and hence leaf-borne contaminants.     

TRLFS characterization of Eu(III)-doped synthetic organo-hectorite

Europium(III) was coprecipitated with the clay mineral hectorite, a magnesian smectite, following a multi-step synthesis procedure. Different Eu(III) species associated with the proceeding synthetic hectorite were characterized by selectively exciting the 5D0-->7F0 transition at low temperature (T < 20 K). Fluorescence decay times indicated that Eu(III) ions may be incorporated in the octahedral layer of the brucite precursor as well as in the octahedral sheet of the clay mineral. The excitation spectra indicated that the substitution of the divalent Mg by the trivalent Eu induced local structural deformation. This investigation implements the molecular-level understanding of the f element structural incorporation into the octahedral layer of sheet silicates by coprecipitation with clay minerals from salt solutions at 100 degrees C.     

Heavy metals in seaducks and mussels from misty fjords national monument in Southeast Alaska

Quartz Hill, in Misty Fjords National Monument near Ketchikan, Alaska, is the site of a proposed molybdenum-producing mine. To provide baseline data for use in post-development comparisons, we analyzed tissues of Barrow's goldeneyes (Bucephala islandica), common mergansers (Mergus merganser), and blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) for seven heavy metals that could potentially be released into the environment as a result of mining operations. Specimens were collected in 1980, 1981, and 1982 from two fjords likely to be used for discharge of tailings from the proposed mine and from two control fjords. Concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, molybdenum, lead, and zinc were measured in soft tissues of mussels and in kidney, liver, and muscle of birds. The highest mean concentrations of metals found in bird tissues were 55.7 ppm dry weight cadmium in kidneys and 154 ppm dry weight zinc in livers of Barrow's goldeneyes. Concentrations of several metals in blue mussels differed among seasons and locations, but the most significant finding in mussels was a maximum mean cadmium concentration of 9.6 ppm dry weight, a level higher than normally found in undisturbed areas. With the exception of 104 ppm dry weight cadmium in the kidney of one common merganser and 12.7 ppm dry weight lead in the kidney of another, concentrations of other metals in seaduck and mussel tissues were low, consistent with what would be expected for a pre-development environment. Molybdenum was found in low concentrations (<10 ppm dry weight) in all avian kidney samples and most liver samples, but was not detected in blue mussels.THE U.S. GOVERNMENT RIGHT TO RETAIN A NON-EXCLUSIVE, ROYALTY FREE LICENCE IN AND TO ANY COPYRIGHT IS ACKNOWLEDGED.     

Ein Indikator für den Einsatz gefährlicher Stoffe in Produkten und Prozessen: Monoethylenglykol-Äquivalente

In order to quantify hazardous substance use in production processes, a special methodology has been designed within the context of the EcoGrade integrated environmental assessment method developed by the Öko-Institut, Institute for Applied Ecology. This methodology uses monoethylene glycol (MEG) equivalents as an indicator value for hazardous substance use. MEG equivalents permit direct, noxious-substance-focussed comparison of processes and products (Bunke 2001). The assessment is based upon the standardized risk phrases assigned to the component substances. The MEG equivalent methodology is a refinement and application of the potency factor model (Wirkfaktorenmodell) of the German Technical Rule for Hazardous Substances (Technische Regel für Gefahrstoffe, TRGS) 440 (AGS 2001). The data required for the assessment procedure are available within companies (safety data sheets) or are readily accessible publicly (hazardous substance databanks). A further benefit is that inventory analysis of hazardous substances using the method presented here makes it possible to take hazardous substance use into account in a systematic manner within life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies. The methodology has been tested for the example of residential buildings. Note: The terms ‘hazardous substance’, ‘noxious substance’ and ‘hazardous constituent’ are used in this paper in the sense of substances that have one of the hazard attributes set out in Article 3 of the German Chemicals Act (Chemikaliengesetz).     

来自印度Adayar河的重金属:渗透进入相邻的地下水含水层

引言 Adayar河是一条很短的河流(40km长),向西南方向流去,流经Chennai(北纬13°05',东经80°15'),从这里蜿蜒曲折大约13km后汇入孟加拉湾(图1).在河口地带它变得很宽,河口宽达2km.汇水面积约有800km2,其中大多数地方地势平坦,有岩层的露头.     

Legacies,socio-economic and biophysical processes and drivers: the case of future forest cover expansion in the Polish Carpathians and Swiss Alps

Mountain forest areas are key for providing a wide range of ecosystem services and are hot spots for land use change processes, in particular, increase in forest cover at the expense of mountain pastures and meadows. Mountain forest systems in eastern and western Europe have likely similar future socio-economic situations but significantly different socio-economic history. Using a scenario-based land use modelling approach (Dyna-CLUE framework) we model three scenarios (trend, liberalisation and self-sufficiency) of future land use in the Polish Carpathians and the Swiss Alps, focussing on forest cover change. We find that forest cover increase can be expected to continue in European mountainous regions under all likely scenarios, limited only by relatively strict policy interventions. Biophysical factors, rather than socio-economic ones, are key for defining the suitability for, and therefore likely locations of future forest cover, but land use legacy plays a very important role in the spatial patterns of future forest cover, particularly in eastern Europe.

     

DNA barcoding of Pacific Canada’s fishes

DNA barcoding—sequencing a standard region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 gene (COI)—promises a rapid, accurate means of identifying animals to a species level. This study establishes that sequence variability in the barcode region permits discrimination of 98% of 201 fish species from the Canadian Pacific. The average sequence variation within species was 0.25%, while the average distance separating species within genera was 3.75%. The latter value was considerably lower than values reported in other studies, reflecting the dominance of the Canadian fauna by members of the young and highly diverse genus Sebastes. Although most sebastids possessed distinctive COI sequences, four species did not. As a partial offset to these cases, the barcode records indicated the presence of a new, broadly distributed species of Paraliparis and the possibility that Paraliparis pectoralis is actually a species pair. The present study shows that most fish species in Pacific Canadian waters correspond to a single, tightly cohesive array of barcode sequences that are distinct from those of any other species, but also highlights some taxonomic issues that need further investigation.     

What catch data can tell us about the status of global fisheries

The only available data set on the catches of global fisheries are the official landings reported annually by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Attempts to detect and interpret trends in these data have been criticized as being both technically and conceptually flawed. Here, we explore and refute these claims. We show explicitly that trends in catch data are not an artifact of the applied method and are consistent with trends in biomass data of fully assessed stocks. We also show that, while comprehensive stock assessments are the preferred method for evaluating single stocks, they are a biased subsample of the stocks in a given area, strongly underestimating the percentage of collapsed stocks. We concur with a recent assessment-based analysis by FAO that the increasing trends in the percentage of overexploited, depleted, and recovering stocks and the decreasing trends in underexploited and moderately exploited stocks give cause for concern. We show that these trends are much more pronounced if all available data are considered.