ALGAL PRODUCTIVITY AND NITRATE ASSIMILATION IN AN EFFLUENT DOMINATED CONCRETE LINED STREAM1

This study examined algal productivity and nitrate assimilation in a 2.85 km reach of Cucamonga Creek, California, a concrete lined channel receiving treated municipal wastewater. Stream nitrate concentrations observed at two stations indicated nearly continuous loss throughout the diel study. Nitrate loss in the reach was approximately 11 mg/L/d or 1.0 g/m²/d as N, most of which occurred during daylight. The peak rate of nitrate loss (1.13 mg/l/hr) occurred just prior to an afternoon total CO₂ depletion. Gross primary productivity, as estimated by a model using the observed differences in dissolved oxygen between the two stations, was 228 mg/L/d, or 21 g/m²/d as O₂. The observed diel variations in productivity, nitrate loss, pH, dissolved oxygen, and CO₂ indicate that nitrate loss was primarily due to algal assimilation. The observed levels of productivity and nitrate assimilation were exceptionally high on a mass per volume basis compared to studies on other streams; these rates occurred because of the shallow stream depth. This study suggests that concrete‐lined channels can provide an important environmental service: lowering of nitrate concentrations similar to rates observed in biological treatment systems.     

Securing water for people, crops, and ecosystems: New mindset and new priorities

A fundamentally new approach to water and human development will be needed during this new century if we are to secure sufficient freshwater to meet the needs of some 9 billion people while at the same time protecting the critical ecosystem services upon which the human economy depends. Signs of unsustainable water use — including falling water tables, shrinking lakes, and the drying up of rivers and streams — are widespread and spreading. In many regions, greater modification and appropriation of freshwater systems for human purposes will yield greater costs than benefits and create the risk of irreversible losses of species and ecosystem services. A new mindset is needed to guide water use and management in this new century, one that views the human water economy as a subset of nature's water economy. Living within nature's limits will require that societies satisfy the basic needs of people and ecosystems before non-essential water demands are met. It will require on the order of a doubling of water productivity. And it will require stronger institutions to encourage equitable sharing of water to alleviate tensions within and between countries.     

Equity and productivity assessments in the Olifants River basin, South Africa

Emerging approaches to water resources development and management typically highlight equity and productivity as two main objectives. In the context of integrated water resources management within a river basin, managers and stakeholders often need a comparative assessment of different options for water augmentation and/or allocation. Pitting such options against predefined objectives, such as equity and productivity, requires an assessment of the effects that available options will have on these objectives. Available documentation indicates that not only does the interpretation of such objectives vary widely, but also the available methods for assessing equity and productivity run into significant limitations in the availability of adequate data. This limitation has largely kept decision makers from gaining a comprehensive overview of equity and productivity scenarios, whether within or across sectors, that could facilitate better‐informed decisions. To address this methodological gap, this article scrutinizes different notions associated with equity and water productivity, and limitations in prevalent assessment methods with the view to develop and demonstrate pragmatic methodologies for assessing equity and productivity in data‐scarce contexts. The discussion and findings are based on a review of relevant literature and empirical and consultative research work in the Olifants River basin in South Africa. The demonstrated methodologies for assessing equity and productivity, besides being useful in data‐scarce contexts, are insightful for initiating several policy measures and also for exploring the relationship between equity and water productivity.     

EFFECTS OF SEDIMENTATION ON THE ALGAL FLORA OF A SMALL RECREATIONAL IMPOUNDMENT1

ABSTRACT: Investigations were initiated to evaluate the effects of sedimentation on the algal composition, primary productivity rates and chemical nutrient concentrations of a 17 acre recreational impoundment in central Virginia. Comparisons during the winter seasons of 1972–1973 indicated that as a result of sedimentation, from lake front home construction, the total numbers of algal genera in the lake decreased from 24 to 16, productivity as measured by ¹⁴CO₂ and total extractable chlorophyll decreased two fold, and several important nutrients, i.e. NH4⁺-N, SiO₂ and PO₄-P increased significantly.     

Remote sensing of coastal food resources

Since tidal marshes and estuaries cover large areas of the world's coasts and exhibit a very high net primary productivity, they offer a most important food source for an ever increasing world population. The food web of numerous estuaries and coastal waters is based on the primary productivity of coastal marshes that constitute centers of solar energy fixation and an important link in the mineral cycles. The fixed carbon and minerals enterthe water primarily as detritus where a complex food web makes them accessible to commercially important fish and benthic communities. With the launch of LANDSAT, NOAA-2, and Skylab, relatively high resolution spacecraft data became available for mapping and inventorying tidal marshes and their productivity on a global scale. Upwelling regions that attract large fish populations as well as other coastal water properties relating to the presence of finfish, Crustacea, and shellfish could be identified and observed. Using multispectral analysis techniques, classification accuracies greater than 80 percent have been obtained for most marsh plant species, and greater than 90 percent for key types such asSpartina alterniflora, which is the primary producer in large tide marshes of the coastal eastern USA. The capacity of remote sensors on spacecraft such as NOAA-2, LANDSAT, and Skylab to assess coastal food resources on a global scale is discussed from the point of view of resolution, classification accuracy, and cost effectiveness.     

区域生态承载力与可持续发展

本文探讨了生态承载力的概念和估测的方法,分析了大陆典型生态系统净第一性生产力的背景值,研究了确定自然系统最优生态承载力的依据,在此基础上,提出了提高区域生态承载力,实现区域可持续发展基本对策。     

黄土高原旱塬地冬小麦水分生产潜力与土壤水分动态的模拟研究

在EPIC模型介绍和模拟精度验证的基础上,利用EPIC模型对黄土高原旱塬地冬小麦水分生产潜力和土壤水分动态进行了中期(12a)和长期(30a)评价定量模拟研究。结果表明:(1)在12a实时气象条件下的模拟时段内,旱塬地小麦水分生产潜力随降水量变化呈现波动性降低趋势,3m土层土壤有效含水量也表现为剧烈波动性和逐渐下降趋势,土壤干燥化趋势明显;(2)在30a模拟气象条件下的模拟时段内,旱塬地小麦水分生产潜力呈现波动性轻微降低趋势,3m土层土壤有效含水量季节性和年际间波动性显著,但土壤干燥化趋势并不明显;(3)综合分析认为,在降水量减少幅度不显著的情况下,旱塬地麦田土壤干燥化只是一种短期现象,不会导致长期性土壤强烈干燥化现象发生,但产量随降水量变化的波动性不可避免。     

我国地质环境与社会经济的物质流分析

论文利用物质流分析方法对2000~2005年我国地质环境与社会经济的物质流进行了核算与分析。结果表明:近年我国社会经济发展从地质环境获取的物质需求总量呈增加态势,2005年达到了439.6×10⁸t,显著超过了国外主要发达国家,致使我国地质环境压力不断增大;我国经济增长在依赖于地质资源的同时,物质生产力从240.9元/t增长到416.5元/t,但与主要发达国家相比,我国经济发展仍属于资源消耗型,可持续发展能力较低;我国人均物质消耗量为33.6t,明显低于主要发达国家,按照发达国家人均物质消耗量开发地质资源将远远超过我国的地质环境承载力,决定了我国只能走资源节约型的经济发展道路。     

A process-based model designed for filling of large data gaps in tower-based measurements of net ecosystem productivity

In this paper we present a simple hybrid gap-filling model (GFM) designed with a minimum number of parameters necessary to capture the ecological processes important for filling medium-to-large gaps in Flux data. As the model is process-based, the model has potential to be used in filling large gaps exhibiting a broad range of micro-meteorological and site conditions. The GFM performance was evaluated using “Punch hole” and extrapolation experiments based on data collected in west-central New Brunswick. These experiments indicated that the GFM is able to provide acceptable results (r² > 0.80) when >500 data points are used in model parameterization. The GFM was shown to address daytime evolution of NEP reasonably well for a wide range of weather and site conditions. An analysis of residuals indicated that for the most part no obvious trends were evident; although a slight bias was detected in NEP with soil temperature. To explore the portability of the GFM across ecosystem types, a transcontinental validation was conducted using NEP and ancillary data from seven ecosystems along a north-south transect (i.e., temperature–moisture gradient) from northern Europe (Finland) to the Middle East (Israel). The GFM was shown to explain over 75% of the variability in NEP measured at most ecosystems, which strongly suggests that the GFM maybe successfully applied to forest ecosystems outside Canada.     

西藏生物质能开发的资源、环境基础分析

开发生物质能是缓解能源供应紧张、环境污染严重这两大难题的理性选择。而由于生物质能蕴藏于生物质中,生物质又与区域自然地理特征息息相关,因此,各地发展生物质能具有明显的区域特性,不可一刀切。论文分析了西藏发展生物质能的资源条件和环境基础,认为西藏生物质能资源总量大而单位面积的生物净初级生产量不高,自然环境脆弱且生物质能利用与环境关系紧张。在前人关于西藏的太阳能、生物量、净初级生产量研究基础上,从生物质能转化过程的角度,提出了可利用生产量的概念及生物质能可持续利用的模式,继而估算出了西藏的生物质能资源总量2400×10⁴tce/a。最后,在肯定西藏生物质能开发的可行性的同时,提出了因地制宜,适度开发的战略。