Pilot‐scale evaluation of in situ cometabolic bioremediation of TCE in groundwater using PHOSter® technology

A study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of PHOSter® technology for treating groundwater contaminated with trichloroethene (TCE) at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The technology consists of injecting a gaseous mixture of air, methane, and nutrients into groundwater with the objective of stimulating the growth of methanotrophs, a naturally occurring microbial group that is capable of catalyzing the aerobic degradation of chlorinated solvents into nontoxic products. Injection operations were performed at one well for a period of three months. Six monitoring wells were utilized for groundwater and wellhead vapor monitoring and for groundwater and microbial sampling. In the five monitoring wells located within 44 feet of the injection well, the following results were observed: dissolved oxygen concentrations increased to a range between 6 and 8 milligrams per liter (μg/L); the biomass of target microbial groups increased by one to five orders of magnitude; and TCE concentrations decreased by an average of 92 percent, and to below the California primary maximum contaminant level (MCL; 5 micrograms per liter [µg/L]) in the well closest to the injection well. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. *

1 This article is a U.S. Government work and, as such, is in the public domain of the United States of America.

     

Coastwatch UK—a public participation survey

Education and public participation are recognized as important elements of coastal zone management. The current paper describes the Uk’s largest public participation survey concerned with coastal issues. Coastwatch UK involves thousands of volunteers in an annual survey of the coastline. The project has several aims—primarily to provide an insight into the major problems and threats to the coastline and, through the involvement of volunteers, to raise public awareness and aid environmental education at all levels.     

Plant growth rates and seed size: a re-evaluation

Small-seeded plant species are often reported to have high relative growth rate or RGR. However, because RGR declines as plants grow larger, small-seeded species could achieve higher RGR simply by virtue of their small size. In contrast, size-standardized growth rate or SGR factors out these size effects. Differences in SGR can thus only be due to differences in morphology, allocation, or physiology. We used nonlinear regression to calculate SGR for comparison with RGR for 10 groups of species spanning a wide range of life forms. We found that RGR was negatively correlated with seed mass in nearly all groups, but the relationship between SGR and seed mass was highly variable. We conclude that small-seeded species only sometimes possess additional adaptations for rapid growth over and above their general size advantage.     

An interregional ecological approach for modelling sustainability in a globalizing world—Reviewing existing approaches and emerging directions

In recent decades international trade has become a major source of supplying the need and wants of billions of people around the world. Virtually everyone now consumes resource commodities and manufactured products imported from ‘elsewhere’. In effect, globalization and trade enable consuming populations to support themselves on the output of distant ecosystems half a world away. However, while economic integration implies greater ‘connectivity’ within the global village, the spatial separation of material production (including resource extraction) from consumption eliminates some of the signals i.e., the negative feedbacks coming from supporting eco-systems from reaching those who depend on these ecosystems for their sustainability. At present, despite increasing global connectedness, most environmental studies and models apply to a single spatial scale: local, national or global; analysing diverse pressures on human well-being and ecosystems integrity. This paper argues that both economic globalization and global ecological change should force us to add an interregional scale for quantifying and modelling sustainability. Such an approach recognizes that, in a globalizing world, the sustainability of any given region increasingly depends, directly and indirectly, on the sustainability of many other regions. The following pages describe the interregional approach and illustrate some existing and emerging methods for quantifying, analysing and modelling interregional linkages. It then identifies some of what is still missing, and discusses some of the implications in a changing world.     

Perspectives on social capacity building for natural hazards: outlining an emerging field of research and practice in Europe

Social capacity building for natural hazards is a topic increasingly gaining relevance not only for so-called developing countries but also for European welfare states which are continuously challenged by the social, economic and ecological impacts of natural hazards. Following an outline of recent governance changes with regard to natural hazards, we develop a heuristic model of social capacity building by taking into account a wide range of existing expertise from different fields of research. Particular attention is paid to social vulnerability and its assessment, as well as to risk communication and risk education as specific strategies of social capacity building. We propose to distinguish between interventionist and participatory approaches, thus enabling for a better understanding of existing practices of social capacity building as well as their particular strengths and weaknesses. By way of conclusion, we encourage more research on social capacity building for natural hazards in the European context which at present is highly diverse and, at least in parts, only poorly investigated.