Inferring chemical effects on carbon flows in aquatic food webs: Methodology and case study

The majority of ecotoxicological enclosure experiments monitor species abundances at different chemical concentrations. Here, we present a new modelling approach that estimates changes in food web flows from such data and show that population- and food web level effects are revealed that are not apparent from abundance data alone. For the case of cypermethrin in freshwater enclosures, photosynthesis and excretion (d⁻¹) of phytoplankton at 3.643 μg L⁻¹ cypermethrin were 30% lower and 100% higher than in the control, respectively. The ingestion rate of mesozooplankton (d⁻¹) was 6 times higher in the treated enclosures than in the control as food concentration increased with insecticide exposure. With increasing cypermethrin concentrations, nanoflagellates progressively relied on phytoplankton as their main food source, which rendered the food web less stable. We conclude that this tool has excellent potential to analyse the wealth of enclosure data as it only needs species abundance and general constraints.     

旅游相关企业松散型纵向一体化战略联盟研究

我国旅游产业发展水平不高,其深层次的原因是旅游产业链中存在着严重的纵向外部性问题。在借助演化博弈思想对旅游产业链中经济主体的决策行为进行深入分析后,认为纵向一体化战略联盟能有效提升旅游产业链和相关主体利益,在传统的纵向一体化联盟基础上提出了一种界于市场和企业,但又不同于完全一体化的"混合"组织形式——松散型纵向一体化战略联盟,并初步描绘了这一联盟模式的构建过程。     

Quantitative Assessment of a Tanzanian Integrated Conservation and Development Project Involving Butterfly Farming

Abstract: Scientific understanding of the role of development in conservation has been hindered by the quality of evaluations of integrated conservation and development projects. We used a quasi‐experimental design to quantitatively assess a conservation and development project involving commercial butterfly farming in the East Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. Using a survey of conservation attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and behavior, we compared 150 butterfly farmers with a control group of 170 fellow community members. Due to the nonrandom assignment of individuals to the two groups, we used propensity‐score matching and weighting in our analyses to control for observed bias. Eighty percent of the farmers believed butterfly farming would be impossible if local forests were cleared, and butterfly farmers reported significantly more participation in forest conservation behaviors and were more likely to believe that conservation behaviors were effective. The two groups did not differ in terms of their general conservation attitudes, attitudes toward conservation officials, or knowledge of conservation‐friendly building techniques. The relationship between butterfly farming and conservation behavior was mediated by dependency on butterfly farming income. Assuming unobserved bias played a limited role, our findings suggest that participation in butterfly farming increased participation in conservation behaviors among project participants because farmers perceive a link between earnings from butterfly farming and forest conservation.     

The contribution of ship emissions to air pollution in the North Sea regions

As a consequence of the global distribution of manufacturing sites and the increasing international division of labour, ship traffic is steadily increasing and is becoming more and more important as an origin of air pollution.This study investigates the impact of ship emissions in coastal areas of the North Sea under conditions of the year 2000 by means of a regional chemistry transport model which runs on a sufficiently high resolution to study air pollution in coastal regions. It was found that northern Germany and Denmark in summer suffer from more than 50% higher sulphate, nitrate and ammonium aerosol concentrations due to contributions from ships. The implementation of a sulphur emission control area (SECA) in the North Sea, as it was implemented at the end of 2007, directly results in reduced sulphur dioxide and sulphate aerosol concentrations while nitrate aerosol concentrations are slightly increased.     

一体化臭氧-曝气生物滤池处理酸性玫瑰红印染模拟废水

针对含酸性玫瑰红印染废水高色度、难生物降解的特点,分别采用了一体化和分离式臭氧-曝气生物滤池(O3-BAF)工艺处理。与分离式工艺相比,一体化工艺的特点是在一个反应器内部同时实现臭氧氧化和生化的协同作用,降低了处理设施的基建和运行费用。实验结果表明,一体化工艺处理效果明显优于分离式工艺,脱色率达92%,COD去除率达60%,处理效果良好。     

厌氧池-复合型人工湿地系统污水处理效果的季节变化

利用厌氧池-复合型人工湿地(AT-ICW)系统处理农村生活污水,探讨工艺系统不同季节对污水的处理效果。结果表明,该工艺系统春、夏、秋季对氨氮(NH4+-N)、总磷(TP)表现出稳定且较好的去除效果,去除率分别为92.8%～97.0%和56.4%～65.9%,冬季去除率相对较差,平均去除率分别为67.1%和42.5%。NO3--N的去除效果差,四季均出现积累,累积率达到71.5%～342.9%。系统春、夏季对总氮(TN)去除效果较好,去除率为57.3%～68.9%,秋、冬季去除效果相对较差,为24.5%～35.8%。系统夏季COD去除效果好,平均去除率达到78.3%,冬、春季去除效果较差,为37.8%～43.5%。各项污水排放指标均达到城镇污水处理厂污染物排放一级A类标准。AT-ICW系统不仅处理效果好,而且运行费用低,适用于农村分散型生活污水处理。     

多瑙河流域国际合作实践与启示

多瑙河是世界上流经国家最多的国际河流，其国际合作的成功实践对世界其他国际河流的合作具有积极的示范和借鉴作用。通过分析和总结多瑙河国际合作历程和合作特点（包括多种合作机制并存互补；引入风险管理、公众参与和流域综合管理等先进理念促进全面合作；利用GIS及数据管理等现代技术手段实现信息资源共享；利用协商和司法手段和平解决国际争端等），结合我国国际河流的特点和国际水法及国际河流合作的发展趋势，提出了对我国的启示：应加强国际河流相关方面的研究与合作（特别是航运与水电开发等）；应充分重视国际河流生态环境保护，生态环境保护和防洪越来越强调全流域的合作与协调；应坚持国际河流的开发利用与保护并举，走平衡发展之路；应根据各国际河流特点及地区条件，选择合适的管理合作模式.     

SWOT Analysis and Challenges of Nile Basin Initiative：An Integrated Water Resource Management Perspective

River Nile is one of the longest transboundery rivers and it is shared and used by Burundi,Democratic Republic of Congo,Egypt,Ethiopia,Eritrea,Kenya,Rwanda,Sudan,Tanzania and Uganda.As of today,the Nile is a crucial resource for the economic development of the Nile Basin countries and a vital source of livelihood for 160 million inhabitants as well as 300 million people living in the 10 riparian countries.The Nile Basin Initiative(NBI) is one of the international cooperative river basin management program and regional partnership where all the Nile Basin countries except Eritrea unite to pursue long-term sustainable development,improved land use practices and management.This review therefore focused on the challenges not faced on NBI in terms of integrated use of the river and conducted analysis of strengths,weaknesses,opportunities and threats(SWOT) based on secondary data.The result of the review revealed that for decades,the Nile Basin people have been facing many complex environmental,social,economic and political challenges that have made it difficult for the proper management and sustainability of Nile water.The initiative provides training to develop skills in government ministries,non-governmental organizations and local communities in each country.It is also working to raise awareness of critical environmental issues by strengthening networks of environmental education practitioners;developing curriculum in the education sector.The challenges of NBI include the involvement and funding of World Bank,lack of sufficient staff,procedural and policies conflicts,lack of coordination and linkage with other regional institutions and lack of recognition as river basin organization.Considering the complex nature of the project,it is recommended that the NBI should come up with a strong multi-disciplinary monitoring and evaluation team to follow up all implemented projects.The NBI should carry out participatory land use planning in communities along the river basin.Moreover,livelihood analysis should be carried out especially in communities along the Nile to come up with poverty eradication projects which are socially acceptable,applicable,economically viable and affordable.     

Consistent assessments of pathways toward sustainable development and climate stabilization

Many of the numerous difficult issues facing the world today involve relationships entailing trade‐offs and synergies. This study quantitatively assesses some alternative scenarios using integrated assessment models, and provides several indicators relating to sustainable development and climate change, such as indicators of income (per capita GDP), poverty, water stress, food access, sustainable energy use, energy security, and ocean acidification, with high consistencies among the indicators within a scenario. According to the analyses, economic growth helps improve many of the indicators for sustainable development. On the other hand, climate change will induce some severe impacts such as ocean acidification under a non‐climate intervention scenario (baseline scenario). Deep emission reductions, such as to 2°C above the pre‐industrial level, could cause some sustainable development indicators to worsen. There are complex trade‐offs between climate change mitigation levels and several sustainable development indicators. A delicately balanced approach to economic growth will be necessary for sustainable development and responses to climate change.     

Value of information in product recovery decisions: a Bayesian approach

There is a widespread recognition of the need for better information sharing and provision to improve the viability of end-of-life (EOL) product recovery operations. The emergence of automated data capture and sharing technologies such as RFID, sensors and networked databases has enhanced the ability to make product information; available to recoverers, which will help them make better decisions regarding the choice of recovery option for EOL products. However, these technologies come with a cost attached to it, and hence the question ‘what is its value?’ is critical. This paper presents a probabilistic approach to model product recovery decisions and extends the concept of Bayes' factor for quantifying the impact of product information on the effectiveness of these decisions. Further, we provide a quantitative examination of the factors that influence the value of product information, this value depends on three factors: (i) penalties for Type I and Type II errors of judgement regarding product quality; (ii) prevalent uncertainty regarding product quality and (iii) the strength of the information to support/contradict the belief. Furthermore, we show that information is not valuable under all circumstances and derive conditions for achieving a positive value of information.