Understanding implications of consumer behavior for wildlife farming and sustainable wildlife trade

Unsustainable wildlife trade affects biodiversity and the livelihoods of communities dependent upon those resources. Wildlife farming has been proposed to promote sustainable trade, but characterizing markets and understanding consumer behavior remain neglected but essential steps in the design and evaluation of such operations. We used sea turtle trade in the Cayman Islands, where turtles have been farm raised for human consumption for almost 50 years, as a case study to explore consumer preferences toward wild‐sourced (illegal) and farmed (legal) products and potential conservation implications. Combining methods innovatively (including indirect questioning and choice experiments), we conducted a nationwide trade assessment through in‐person interviews from September to December 2014. Households were randomly selected using disproportionate stratified sampling, and responses were weighted based on district population size. We approached 597 individuals, of which 37 (6.2%) refused to participate. Although 30% of households had consumed turtle in the previous 12 months, the purchase and consumption of wild products was rare (e.g., 64–742 resident households consumed wild turtle meat [i.e., 0.3–3.5% of households] but represented a large threat to wild turtles in the area due to their reduced populations). Differences among groups of consumers were marked, as identified through choice experiments, and price and source of product played important roles in their decisions. Despite the long‐term practice of farming turtles, 13.5% of consumers showed a strong preference for wild products, which demonstrates the limitations of wildlife farming as a single tool for sustainable wildlife trade. By using a combination of indirect questioning, choice experiments, and sales data to investigate demand for wildlife products, we obtained insights about consumer behavior that can be used to develop conservation‐demand‐focused initiatives. Lack of data from long‐term social–ecological assessments hinders the evaluation of and learning from wildlife farming. This information is key to understanding under which conditions different interventions (e.g., bans, wildlife farming, social marketing) are likely to succeed.     

Immersion frying for the thermal drying of sewage sludge: an economic assessment

This paper presents an economic study of a novel thermal fry-drying technology which transforms sewage sludge and recycled cooking oil (RCO) into a solid fuel. The process is shown to have significant potential advantage in terms of capital costs (by factors of several times) and comparable operating costs. Three potential variants of the process have been simulated and costed in terms of both capital and operating requirements for a commercial scale of operation. The differences are in the energy recovery systems, which include a simple condensation of the evaporated water and two different heat pump configurations. Simple condensation provides the simplest process, but the energy efficiency gain of an open heat pump offset this, making it economically somewhat more attractive. In terms of operating costs, current sludge dryers are dominated by maintenance and energy requirements, while for fry-drying these are comparatively small. Fry-drying running costs are dominated by provision of makeup waste oil. Cost reduction could focus on cheaper waste oil, e.g. from grease trap waste.     

长三角背景点夏季大气PM2.5中水溶性无机离子污染特征及来源解析

为研究长三角背景点夏季PM_2.5污染特征,于2018年5月30日—8月15日在上海市崇明岛对PM_2.5样品进行昼夜采集,并对其中水溶性无机离子(Cl-、NO₃-、SO₄2-、Na+、NH₄+、K+、Mg2+、Ca2+)进行了分析.运用PSCF(潜在源贡献)方法判别污染物排放源区,并结合PCA(主成分分析)和PMF(正交矩阵因子)源解析探究PM_2.5来源.结果表明:①观测期间崇明岛ρ(PM_2.5)平均值为(33±21)μg/m3,低于GB 3095—2012《环境空气质量标准》一级标准限值(35 μg/m3),但在部分时段存在显著超标现象,ρ(PM_2.5)最高值在120 μg/m3以上.②水溶性无机离子质量浓度平均值为(14±9.3)μg/m3,占PM_2.5的42.4%,其中SNA(SO₄2-、NO₃-、NH₄+三者统称)为主要离子,占水溶性离子总质量浓度的85.7%.③n(NH₄+)/n(SO₄2-)(NH₄+与SO₄2-的摩尔浓度比)显示,清洁期〔ρ(PM_2.5) < 15 μg/m3〕呈贫铵状态,过渡期〔15≤ρ(PM_2.5)≤35 μg/m3〕和污染期〔ρ(PM_2.5)>35 μg/m3〕均呈富铵状态;过渡期SNA主要以NH₄HSO₄和NH₄NO₃形式存在,而污染期则主要以(NH₄)₂SO₄和NH₄NO₃形式存在.④通过对两次典型污染事件进行离子相关性分析和PSCF分析发现,E1污染事件(5月30日—6月8日)为局地生物质燃烧型污染事件,E2污染事件(7月23日—8月1日)为区域传输污染事件.源解析结果进一步表明,两次典型污染事件期间气态污染物的二次转化对PM_2.5的贡献最显著,贡献率分别为62.8%和59.8%;其次是生物质燃烧,其贡献率分别为32.5%和20.1%;E2污染事件期间海盐源对崇明岛PM_2.5贡献率较高(16.6%),远超过E1污染事件期间对PM_2.5的贡献率(2.7%).研究显示,区域输送对崇明岛PM_2.5有显著贡献,二次颗粒物累积是崇明岛PM_2.5超标的主要原因.      

奎屯市区城市废水排污系统网络化的探讨

根据奎屯市区城市废水的排放量大、排污口多、污染物浓度高以及排污下水管道污水处理设施的建成现状等特点，提出了以污水处理厂为治理中心，市区排污管道网络化的改造设想、存在问题及对策。     

Bioindicator organisms: Heavy metal pollution evaluation in the Ionian Sea (Mediterranean Sea—Italy)

Trace metal concentrations of mercury, cadmium, lead and chromium in Patella caerulea, and Mullus barbatus were investigated to provide information on pollution of Ionian Sea, since these metals have the highest toxic potential. High chromium levels (0.47–0.97 g g^–1 ww) were registered in limpet samples collected from two station near the Gulf of Taranto, while elevated concentration of mercury (0.31–1.50 g g^–1 ww) were found in mullet specimens from Sicily. The metal concentrations recorded at the clean stations may be considered as useful background levels to which to refer for comparison within the Mediterranean area. On the contrary, the high levels of chromium and mercury found respectively in the areas near the Gulf of Taranto and at Capo Passero being of concern in terms of environmental health need frequent monitoring.     

发光细菌法评价工业废水的毒性

用发光细菌测定法估算了两城市污水对河道水体污染的分担率，评价了工厂排放废水的毒性，并据此确定了污染源监督管理中应优先治理的工厂（车间）废水。     

排放系数法估算污染物排放总量

掌握污染物总量动态变化情况，采用排放系统法进行估算是有效的方法。利用１９９５年上海乡镇工业污染调查数据对排放系数进行验证，说明应如何选用排放系数。     

浅谈海水游泳馆的泳池水消毒

在游泳池循环水处理的消毒工艺中，一般采用传统的氯化消毒．但氯化消毒是否适合日益发展的海水游泳馆的池水消毒，笔者从几种泳池消毒工艺的特点，应用发展情况，设备的投资和运行费用等角度，阐明海水游泳馆宜采用臭氧消毒工艺．     

污泥综合处理技术系统的可行性分析

通过对污泥处理技术现状与污泥组成的分析，认为降低污泥的含水率是改善污泥可处理性的关键。以机械脱水加工热干燥过程可达到充分降低污泥含水率的目的。以此为主干所形成的污泥综合处理系统经能量与经济平衡分析，发现其能量输出大于输入，经济成本合理，有一定的技术经济可行性。     

用等维灰色动态预测法预测大连湾污染物排放量

用少量数据建立的长期预测模型所得预测结果一出散性较大，本文介绍的等维灰色动态预测去弥补了这一缺陷。依据这一方法编制的“灰色原理应用系统”软件包，在获得预测结果的同时，还可得到预测值的变化过程及模型的相应参数，可即时对预测结果的可靠性作出判断。