Investigating biodiversity trajectories using scenarios – Lessons from two contrasting agricultural landscapes

Agriculture is the major land use at a global scale. In addition to food production, multifunctionality of landscapes, including values and ecosystem services like biodiversity, recreation and culture, is now focus for management. This study explores how a scenario approach, involving different stakeholders, may help to improve landscape management for biodiversity conservation. Local farmers and executives at the County Administrative Board were invited to discuss rural development and conditions for farmland biodiversity in two Swedish landscapes. The potential biodiversity for three future land use scenarios for the two landscapes was discussed: nature conservation, outdoor recreation and energy production, and compared with current and historical landscapes in each region.Analyses of habitat areas, connectedness and landscape diversity suggested that the energy and recreation scenarios had a negative impact on farmland biodiversity, whereas the nature conservation scenario, the current and historically reconstructed landscapes had a higher potential for biodiversity. The farmers appreciated the nature conservation scenario, but also the energy production scenario and they highlighted the need of increased subsidies for management of biodiversity. The farmers in the high production area were less interested in nature quality per se. The executives had similar opinions as the farmers, but disagreed on the advantages with energy production, as this would be in conflict with the high biodiversity and recreational values. The local physical and socio-economical conditions differ between landscapes and potentially shaped the stakeholders emotional attachment to the local environment, their opinions and decisions on how to manage the land. We stress the importance of incorporating local knowledge, visions and regional prerequisites for different land uses in conservation, since site and landscape specific planning for biodiversity together with a flexible subsidy system are necessary to reach the conservation goals within EU.     

ESTIMATING REGIONAL SNOW WATER EQUIVALENT WITH A SIMPLE SIMULATION MODEL1

A simple simulation model designed to monitor snow-packs of the central Sierra Nevada is described. The model estimates average snow water equivalent for rectangular subregions in the area. Static subregion characteristics, daily precipitation and mean and minimum air temperatures measured at three index stations are the only needed input values. A water balance technique simulates daily snowpack changes in each subregion. Reasonable basinwide water equivalent values are produced. The procedure should be useful for estimating snow water distribution in large mountainous watersheds.     

Deposition and Storage of Spheroidal Carbonaceous Fly-Ash Particles in European Mountain Lake Sediments and Catchment Soils

Spheroidal carbonaceous particles(SCPs) are produced only from high temperaturecombustion of fossil-fuels. In mountain lakesystems, they provide an unambiguous indicator ofatmospheric deposition. In order to comparedepositional fluxes of SCPs between mountainareas experiencing various pollutant regimes,intensive bulk deposition sampling was undertakenat five sites across Europe. Catchment soil coresand lake sediment cores were also taken at eachsite to compare SCP storage over the post-industrial period. Atmospheric, sediment and soilSCP data showed similar patterns. Highestcontamination was found in Scotland, Slovakia andSpain with the Austrian site intermediate and themid-Norwegian site least contaminated. A highproportion of accumulated SCPs were found to bestored in catchment soils at each site.Therefore, a significant increase in soilerosion, possibly as a result of future climatechange, could lead to the input of largequantities of catchment stored SCPs and, byimplication, other atmospherically depositedcontaminants to the lake ecosystem.     

Routine analysis of hydrocarbons, PCB and PAH in marine sediments using supercritical CO2 extraction

Automated Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE), using CO2, was tested and optimised for routine analysis of hydrocarbons (THC), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in marine sediments. The aim of the exercise was to reduce the amount of solvents used and to reduce the manual handling time for each sample. The sediments contained elemental sulphur, which was removed during the extraction step using activated Cu. Similar recoveries and reproducibility where found for THC when conventional solvent extractions and SFE where compared. Modifying the CO2 with methanol was necessary to obtain extraction recoveries similar to conventional extraction methods for PCB and PAH.     

Radon concentrations in groundwaters of the Polish part of the Sudety Mountains (SW Poland)

In the course of researches into radon occurrence in the groundwaters of the Polish part of the Sudety Mountains, conducted in various research centres in Poland, almost 1000 radon concentration determinations have been collected. These results have given the basis for an attempt to characterise the groundwaters of this region with respect to radon content. Radon concentrations oscillated within the range of 0.2-1645 Bq/dm3, with the arithmetic mean at 240.0 Bq/dm3 and the geometric mean at 106.7 Bq/dm3. The largest number of radon concentrations found in the Sudetic groundwaters ranged between ca. 3-6 and 1000 Bq/dm3. The values over 1000 Bq/dm3 can be considered anomalously high. They constitute 3.9% of all the results and occur around six localities within different geological units of the Sudety Mountains. These are shallow circulation, low mineralised groundwaters, which outflow from gneisses and granites. In the face of the fact that from 12.8% to 72.7% (depending on the adopted norm of maximum radon concentration for drinking waters) of the examined waters cannot be drunk directly without removing at least part of the radon, and in the face of the possibility of recognizing as many as 63.5% of the waters as potentially medicinal, extensive research of radon geochemistry in the Sudety Mountains area should be urgently undertaken.     

Quinones in cockchafers: additional function of a sex attractant as an antimicrobial agent

Summary. Females of the forest cockchafer, Melolontha hippocastani Fabr. (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae, Melolonthinae), are known to produce toluquinone and 1,4-benzoquinone. The latter component has been shown in our earlier studies to act as a sex attractant that enhances synergistically the attraction of males towards plant volatiles induced by feeding females. Analyses of whole body extracts from adults and grubs (L3) of M. hippocastani by coupled gas chromatography--mass spectrometry revealed the presence of 1,4-benzoquinone and toluquinone also in males and larvae. Quantitative analyses showed that extracts from females contained significantly more of 1,4-benzoquinone and toluquinone than extracts from males. Remarkably, extracts from grubs contained significantly higher amounts of both compounds than extracts from females. Inhibition assays using Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and the entomopathogenic fungi Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria brongniartii revealed inhibitory effects of 1,4-benzoquinone and toluquinone against all tested microorganisms. However, the amounts necessary for inhibition of entomopathogenic fungi and S. cerevisiae in the laboratory assay were higher than those found in the extracts from M. hippocastani.     

Validation of a European standard for the determination of hexavalent chromium in solid material

A European standard for the determination of Cr(vi) in solid material has been elaborated in the framework of an international co-operation and finally validated in the course of an interlaboratory comparison. The procedure is based on the alkaline digestion prescribed by EPA method 3060A followed by ion chromatography and determines an operationally defined content of Cr(vi), including water-soluble and insoluble chromates. A preliminary robustness study was carried out in order to compare different extraction methodologies and to study the equivalency of different analytical methods for the determination of Cr(vi) in alkaline extracts of soil and waste materials. During an interlaboratory validation trial with 19 European laboratories a set of 4 samples (2 soil and 2 waste samples) was analysed to determine performance characteristics for different combinations of digestion and detection methods. With the procedures prescribed by the new European standard (EN 15192) acceptable results were obtained for both soil samples and one of the waste samples (sludge). However, for the second waste sample (fly ash) a large deviation in analytical results was observed. This indicates that particularly for waste materials a possible occurrence of strong matrix effects has to be considered and supplementary quality control data are needed in order to assess the validity of analytical results. The accuracy of the determination of Cr(vi) in solid matrices remains a challenging field in terms of maximum extraction efficiency and minimum species interconversion.