Studies on the mechanism of PCDD/PCDF formation during the bleaching of pulp

Laboratory bleaching experiments were performed to investigate PCDD/PCDF formation mechanisms. The results indicated that there were two (or more) mechanisms; direct chlorination of DBD/DBF and formation from precursors which are not extractable. In general, PCDDs/PCDFs are formed in the C stage but some minor isomers were found to be formed in the E stage.     

Enforcement of mitigation measures resulting from environmental impact assessment

Until recently, relatively little attention has been paid to the problem of enforcing mitigation measures identified in environmental impact assessment. Present or proposed enforcement systems in the USA, New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia are described and discussed. Although the best enforcement system would depend on the local social, political, and legal systems, five universally desirable features are identified. First, a comprehensive coordinated monitoring and reassessment system is needed. Second, the agencies concerned must have adequate resources to do the work and incentives to carry it out well. Third, there must be the necessary legal powers. Fourth, provision must be made for changing the conditions based on experience. And fifth, the system should be equally effective against private companies and public authorities.     

Effects of human footprint and biophysical factors on the body-size structure of fished marine species

Marine fisheries in coastal ecosystems in many areas of the world have historically removed large-bodied individuals, potentially impairing ecosystem functioning and the long-term sustainability of fish populations. Reporting on size-based indicators that link to food-web structure can contribute to ecosystem-based management, but the application of these indicators over large (cross-ecosystem) geographical scales has been limited to either fisheries-dependent catch data or diver-based methods restricted to shallow waters (<20 m) that can misrepresent the abundance of large-bodied fished species. We obtained data on the body-size structure of 82 recreationally or commercially targeted marine demersal teleosts from 2904 deployments of baited remote underwater stereo-video (stereo-BRUV). Sampling was at up to 50 m depth and covered approximately 10,000 km of the continental shelf of Australia. Seascape relief, water depth, and human gravity (i.e., a proxy of human impacts) were the strongest predictors of the probability of occurrence of large fishes and the abundance of fishes above the minimum legal size of capture. No-take marine reserves had a positive effect on the abundance of fishes above legal size, although the effect varied across species groups. In contrast, sublegal fishes were best predicted by gradients in sea surface temperature (mean and variance). In areas of low human impact, large fishes were about three times more likely to be encountered and fishes of legal size were approximately five times more abundant. For conspicuous species groups with contrasting habitat, environmental, and biogeographic affinities, abundance of legal-size fishes typically declined as human impact increased. Our large-scale quantitative analyses highlight the combined importance of seascape complexity, regions with low human footprint, and no-take marine reserves in protecting large-bodied fishes across a broad range of species and ecosystem configurations.     

Radioactive Isotopes of Strontium,Caesium and Plutonium in Sediments of the Northern Adriatic Sea

Changes in nitrification rates of an acid grassland soil with and without air drying have been monitored over 9 days, after first flushing native nitrate from the soils with deionised water. The results confirmed that full re-establishment of nitrification after air drying takes several days, supporting the hypothesis that any immediate first flush of nitrate from air-dried soils originates from cell lysis or flushing of ‘stored’ nitrate. Ammonium spiking confirmed that nitrification was not ammonium substrate limited. It was also found that ammonium accumulates in the soil during the drying process, providing a substrate pool once the population of nitrifiers has re-established. Over the first week of incubation, nitrate immobilisation was less conspicuous in the soil that had been rewetted after air drying compared with the incubated field moist soil.     

A Critical Appraisal of Field Evidence From A Regional Survey for Acid Deposition Effects On Scottish Moorland Podzols

Samples have been collected from major horizons of 34 podzol profiles distributed throughout Scotland, all developed from granite or granitic tills and under Calluna moorland. the pH in water and calcium chloride pastes, exchangeable cations and cation exchange capacity, and extractable aluminium of the soils collected have been measured, and the results studied in relation to reported atmospheric deposition of H⁺, non-marine sulphur and nitrate. for all horizons, significant positive correlations were found between soil pH and rainfall mean pH, as might be expected when the critical load of H⁺ deposition is exceeded. Acidifying pollutant deposition also apparently increased soil extractable aluminium concentrations in the B and C horizons. However, exchangeable base cation concentrations tended to increase, rather than decrease, with increasing precipitation acidity. This effect was attributed to increases in biogeochemical cycling of base cations, increases in leaching inputs of base cations from overlying A/E horizon soils, and increases in the inputs of base cations leached from upslope. the results suggest that the simple steady state mass approach to the quantification of critical loads, as often applied, may be an oversimplification.     

Long-term trends in invertebrate–habitat relationships under protected and fished conditions

Few studies examine the long-term effects of changing predator size and abundance on the habitat associations of resident organisms despite that this knowledge is critical to understand the ecosystem effects of fishing. Marine reserves offer the opportunity to determine ecosystem-level effects of manipulated predator densities, while parallel monitoring of adjacent fished areas allows separating these effects from regional-scale change. Relationships between two measures of benthic habitat structure (reef architecture and topographic complexity) and key invertebrate species were followed over 17 years at fished and protected subtidal rocky reefs associated with two southern Australian marine reserves. Two commercially harvested species, the southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) and blacklip abalone (Haliotis rubra) were initially weakly associated with habitat structure across all fished and protected sites. The strength of association with habitat for both species increased markedly at protected sites 2 years after marine reserve declaration, and then gradually weakened over subsequent years. The increasing size of rock lobster within reserves apparently reduced their dependency on reef shelters as refuges from predation. Rising predation by fish and rock lobster in the reserves corresponded with weakening invertebrate–habitat relationships for H. rubra and sea urchins (Heliocidaris erythrogramma). These results emphasise that animal–habitat relationships are not necessarily stable through time and highlight the value of marine reserves as reference sites. Our work shows that fishery closures to enhance populations of commercially important and keystone species should be in areas with a range of habitat features to accommodate shifting ecological requirements with ontogenesis.     

A counterfactual approach to measure the impact of wet grassland conservation on U.K. breeding bird populations

Wet grassland populations of wading birds in the United Kingdom have declined severely since 1990. To help mitigate these declines, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has restored and managed lowland wet grassland nature reserves to benefit these and other species. However, the impact of these reserves on bird population trends has not been evaluated experimentally due to a lack of control populations. We compared population trends from 1994 to 2018 among 5 bird species of conservation concern that breed on these nature reserves with counterfactual trends created from matched breeding bird survey observations. We compared reserve trends with 3 different counterfactuals based on different scenarios of how reserve populations could have developed in the absence of conservation. Effects of conservation interventions were positive for all 4 targeted wading bird species: Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus), Redshank (Tringa totanus), Curlew (Numenius arquata), and Snipe (Gallinago gallinago). There was no positive effect of conservation interventions on reserves for the passerine, Yellow Wagtail (Motacilla flava). Our approach using monitoring data to produce valid counterfactual controls is a broadly applicable method allowing large-scale evaluation of conservation impact.     

Transitions to sustainability in small islands: combining foresight scenarios with multi-criteria analysis to develop viable sustainability strategies in an EOR

Islands face similar challenges for sustainability as continental areas, but their geographic situation conditions their options for development. However, thanks to their clear geographic boundaries, they are an opportunity to think about sustainability in an integrated way. The objective of the study was to explore from a local (island) and regional (archipelago) perspective strategies for sustainability. ‘Participative foresight scenario mapping’ (PFSM) methodology was used to explore the sustainable future of a small island (Flores Island, Azores, Portugal). The need to acknowledge the limit to growth is a key finding of this article. But the research also allowed us to analyse in depth specific strategies that can be applied to different sectors of activity, the most important being to: improve the quality of local products, diversify the economy and increase self-sufficiency. PFSM succeeded in identifying key themes and facilitating debate around these subjects. These findings can inform sustainable development in other islands or territories sharing similar geographic characteristics.     

Why geodiversity matters in valuing nature's stage

Geodiversity—the variability of Earth's surface materials, forms, and physical processes—is an integral part of nature and crucial for sustaining ecosystems and their services. It provides the substrates, landform mosaics, and dynamic physical processes for habitat development and maintenance. By determining the heterogeneity of the physical environment in conjunction with climate interactions, geodiversity has a crucial influence on biodiversity across a wide range of scales. From a literature review, we identified the diverse values of geodiversity; examined examples of the dependencies of biodiversity on geodiversity at a site‐specific scale (for geosites <1 km² in area); and evaluated various human‐induced threats to geosites and geodiversity. We found that geosites are important to biodiversity because they often support rare or unique biota adapted to distinctive environmental conditions or create a diversity of microenvironments that enhance species richness. Conservation of geodiversity in the face of a range of threats is critical both for effective management of nature's stage and for its own particular values. This requires approaches to nature conservation that integrate climate, biodiversity, and geodiversity at all spatial scales.