Effects of ozone on growth, yield and leaf gas exchange rates of four Bangladeshi cultivars of rice (Oryza sativa L.)

To assess the effects of tropospheric O₃ on rice cultivated in Bangladesh, four Bangladeshi cultivars (BR11, BR14, BR28 and BR29) of rice (Oryza sativa L.) were exposed daily to charcoal-filtered air or O₃ at 60 and 100 nl l⁻¹ (10:00-17:00) from 1 July to 28 November 2008. The whole-plant dry mass and grain yield per plant of the four cultivars were significantly reduced by the exposure to O₃. The exposure to O₃ significantly reduced net photosynthetic rate of the 12th and flag leaves of the four cultivars. The sensitivity to O₃ of growth, yield and leaf gas exchange rates was not significantly different among the four cultivars. The present study suggests that the sensitivity to O₃ of yield of the four Bangladeshi rice cultivars is greater than that of American rice cultivars and is similar to that of Japanese rice cultivars and that O₃ may detrimentally affect rice production in Bangladesh.     

Ecological risk assessment of organic waste amendments using the species sensitivity distribution from a soil organisms test battery

Safe amendment rates (the predicted no-effect concentration or PNEC) of seven organic wastes were estimated from the species sensitivity distribution of a battery of soil biota tests and compared with different realistic amendment scenarios (different predicted environmental concentrations or PEC). None of the wastes was expected to exert noxious effects on soil biota if applied according either to the usual maximum amendment rates in Europe or phosphorus demands of crops (below 2 tonnes DM ha⁻¹). However, some of the wastes might be problematic if applied according to nitrogen demands of crops (above 2 tonnes DM ha⁻¹). Ammonium content and organic matter stability of the studied wastes are the most influential determinants of the maximum amendment rates derived in this study, but not pollutant burden. This finding indicates the need to stabilize wastes prior to their reuse in soils in order to avoid short-term impacts on soil communities.     

污水氮浓度对粉绿狐尾藻去氮能力的影响

粉绿狐尾藻是构建人工湿地的重要植物,对污水具有较强的净化作用,但有关其去氮能力及其与污水氮浓度的关系尚不清楚.本试验采用人工模拟盆栽试验,设2、5、10、20、100、200、400 mg·L~(-1)共7个氮水平,研究污水氮浓度对粉绿狐尾藻去氮能力的影响.结果表明,氮浓度不高于20 mg·L~(-1)时,前3周粉绿狐尾藻以20 mg·L~(-1)生长最好,处理1周水体总氮和氨氮的去除率接近100%,而硝态氮浓度低、变化不大;粉绿狐尾藻氮含量因氮浓度变化不大但部位间有"上高下低"趋势,且粉绿狐尾藻还利用了底泥氮.氮浓度100~400 mg·L~(-1)时,4~5周以氮浓度200 mg·L~(-1)粉绿狐尾藻生长最好;处理5周总氮去除率依次为76.5%、71.5%和48.1%,氨氮去除率依次为99.6%、99.3%和60.2%;各处理硝态氮去除率约为50%且处理间差异不大;粉绿狐尾藻氮含量随氮浓度而升高,但部位间差异小、呈均匀分布;粉绿狐尾藻积累氮、底泥固定氮分别占水体去除氮的27.9%~48.4%和12.2%~24.4%.因此,粉绿狐尾藻去氮能力受污水氮浓度的显著影响,去除氨氮率显著高于硝态氮;氮浓度还影响粉绿狐尾藻对氮的吸收积累和分配机制,值得深入研究.     

History of Dutch process equipment failure frequencies and the Purple Book

In the middle of 70s concerns of the public in the Netherlands about fire, explosion and toxic risks due to mishaps in the expanding process industry, causing political pressure led to the embracement of quantitative risk analysis as tool for licensing and land-use planning. Probabilistic treatment of risk had been exercised before to design flood defense. A ‘test’ on six different plants, the COVO study, favored the idea. Failure rate values were in immediate need. For storage vessels AKZO’s chlorine vessel data and British steam boiler data have been the first. Risk criteria to make decisions on were also developed and in 1985 embodied in legislation. As licensing and land-use planning are tasks of provincial authorities, under the auspices of the Inter-Provincial Consultation (IPO), further details such as failure frequency values have been worked out. In the late 90s the Purple Book consolidated the information as a guideline for Dutch quantitative risk assessment of process installations.The paper will give a condensed historical overview, guidance to published papers; it will further make comments, explain policy backgrounds, present comparison with other data and will briefly indicate in which direction developments should go to improve QRA.     

Effect of stress corrosion cracking at various strain rates on the electrochemical corrosion behavior of Mg-Zn-In-Sn alloy

This study is aimed to determine the effect of stress corrosion with low strain rates on the electrochemical properties of alloy electrode. Stress corrosion cracking tests of Mg-Zn-In-Sn alloy in 3.5 wt.% sodium chloride solutions at 25°C were performed. The effects of the electrochemical properties under the stress corrosion with low strain rates were investigated. The microstructures of cross section were observed by optical microscope. The results showed that the ultimate tensile strengths of Mg-Zn-In-Sn alloy increased and the strain decreased as the strain rates increased. Open circuit potentials (OCP) of Mg-Zn-In-Sn alloy electrode possess stability and the loop currents (LC) were improved with the increasing of stress in the elastic zone. The variation of OCP and LC did not change with the increasing of strain-rate. The microstructure of cross section observing revealed the mechanism of OCP and LC changing     

Reproductive rates,operational sex ratios and mate choice in St. Peter’s fish

Operational sex ratio (OSR) theory predicts that sexual differences in potential reproductive rates (PRRs) create biases in the OSR and thus determine the relative strength of sexual selection (competition and choice) operating on each sex. Although this theory is well accepted, empirical studies that quantify it are still lacking. This paper presents such a study. I measured the natural OSR of Galilee St. Peter’s fish (Sarotherodon galilaeus) in the field (Lake Kinneret) and examined the direction of mate choice in the laboratory. The OSR in Lake Kinneret was male biased. Both a male-biased sex ratio and higher male reproductive rates (twice as fast as females) contributed to the skew in the OSR, but the sexual differences in PRR were shown to be the main factor causing variation in the OSR. Females, the sex with the lower PRR, were more selective for mates. The faster male reproductive rate may explain why females are more selective for mates despite varying less in quality. Received: 29 May 1995/Accepted after revision: 13 April 1996     

Modeling Discharge Rates Using a Coupled Modeled Approach for the Merced River in Yosemite National Park

This study describes the application of the NASA version of the Carnegie‐Ames‐Stanford Approach (CASA) ecosystem model coupled with a surface hydrologic routing scheme previously called the Hydrological Routing Algorithm (HYDRA) to model monthly discharge rates from 2000 to 2007 on the Merced River drainage in Yosemite National Park, California. To assess CASA‐HYDRA's capability to estimate actual water flows in extreme precipitation years, the focus of this study is the 2007 water year, which was very dry, and the 2005 water year, which was a moderately wet year in the historical record. Prior to comparisons to gauge records, CASA‐HYDRA snowmelt algorithms were modified with equations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Snowmelt‐Runoff Model (SRM), which has been designed to predict daily streamflow in mountain basins where snowmelt is a major runoff factor. Results show that model predictions closely matched monthly flow rates at the Pohono Bridge gauge station (USGS#11266500), with R² = 0.67 and Nash‐Sutcliffe (E) = 0.65. By subdividing the upper Merced River basin into subbasins with high spatial resolution in the gridded modeling approach, we were able to determine which biophysical characteristics in the Sierra differed to the largest degree in extreme low‐flow and high‐flow years. Average elevation and snowpack accumulation were found to be the most important explanatory variables to understand subbasin contributions to monthly discharge rates.     

210Pb as a tool for establishing sediment chronologies: examples of potentials and limitations of conventional dating models

For aquatic sediments, the use of ²¹⁰Pb originating from the decay of atmospheric ²²²Rn is a well-established methodology to estimate sediment ages and sedimentation rates. Traditionally, the measurement of ²¹⁰Pb in soils and sediments involved laborious and time-consuming radiochemical separation procedures. Due to the recent development of advanced planar (‘n-type’) semi-conductors with high efficiencies in the low-energy range which enable the gamma-spectrometric analysis of the 46.5 keV decay line of ²¹⁰Pb, sediment dating using this radionuclide has gained renewed interest.In this contribution, potentials and limitations of the ²¹⁰Pb methodology and of the models used for estimating sediment ages and sedimentation rates are discussed and illustrated by examples of freshwater and marine sediments. Comparison with the use of ¹³⁷Cs shows that the information which may be gained by these two tracers is complementary. As a consequence, both radionuclides should be used in combination for dating of recent sediments. It is shown that for various sedimentation regimes additional information from other sources (e.g. sediment lithology) may be needed to establish a reliable chronology. A strategy for sediment dating using ²¹⁰Pb is recommended.     

Comparison of conservation metrics in a case study of lemurs

Conservation planning is important to protect species from going extinct now that natural habitats are decreasing owing to human activity and climate change. However, there is considerable controversy in choosing appropriate metrics to weigh the value of species and geographic regions. For example, the added value of phylogenetic conservation‐selection criteria remains disputed because high correlations between them and the nonphylogenetic criteria of species richness have been reported. We evaluated the commonly used conservation metrics species richness, endemism, phylogenetic diversity (PD), and phylogenetic endemism (PE) in a case study on lemurs of Madagascar. This enabled us to identify the conservation target of each metric and consider how they may be used in future conservation planning. We also devised a novel metric that uses a phylogeny scaled according to the rate of phenotypic evolution as a proxy for a species’ ability to adapt to change. High rates of evolution may indicate generalization or specialization. Both specialization and low rates of evolution may result in an inability to adapt to changing environments. We examined conservation priorities by using the inverse of the rate of body mass evolution to account for species with low rates of evolution. In line with previous work, we found high correlations among species richness and PD (r = 0.96), and endemism and PE (r = 0.82) in Malagasy lemurs. Phylogenetic endemism in combination with rates of evolution and their inverse prioritized grid cells containing highly endemic and specialized lemurs at risk of extinction, such as Avahi occidentalis and Lepilemur edwardsi, 2 endangered lemurs with high rates of phenotypic evolution and low‐quality diets, and Hapalemur aureus, a critically endangered species with a low rate of body mass evolution and a diet consisting of very high doses of cyanide.