Forest plantations, water availability, and regional climate change: controversies surrounding Acacia mearnsii plantations in the upper Palnis Hills, southern India

Plantation forests not only impact carbon and water cycles, but also affect biodiversity, livelihoods, and shape regional economies. Each of these impacts differs across varying scales of analysis. This paper illustrates how forest, climate change and hydrology debates play out in the context of the forest plantations of Australian black wattle (Acacia mearnsii) in the upper Palni hills of southern India. We outline the contradictory perspectives of different local groups regarding the impact of plantations on catchment hydrology and water availability, and examine these in relation to changes in the regional economy and rainfall patterns. Our analysis indicates that changes in these two factors have played a more significant role than existing wattle plantations in affecting local and regional water availability. We suggest that ongoing debates regarding forest plantation–hydrology–climate change relationships need to broaden their scope to include changes in regional rainfall patterns and shifts in regional economic activity. This approach is likely to provide a more realistic assessment of plantation forests in a dynamic regional context, and offer more resilient strategies for regional landscape and catchment management under conditions of high variability in rainfall patterns.     

Uptake of 14C-atropine and/or its transformation products from soil by wheat (Triticum aestivum var Kronjet) and their translocation to shoots

Plant uptake of toxins and their translocation to edible plant parts are important processes in the transfer of contaminants into the food chain. Atropine, a highly toxic muscarine receptor antagonist produced by Solanacea species, is found in all plant tissues and can enter the soil and hence be available for uptake by crops. The absorption of atropine and/or its transformation products from soil by wheat (Triticum aestivum var Kronjet) and its distribution to shoots was investigated by growing wheat in soil spiked with unlabeled or ¹⁴C-labeled atropine. Radioactivity attributable to ¹⁴C-atropine and its transformation products was measurable in plants sampled at 15 d after sowing (DAS) and thereafter until the end of experiment. The highest accumulation of ¹⁴C-atropine and/or its transformation products by plants was detected in leaves (between 73 and 90% of the total accumulated) with lower amounts in stems, roots, and seeds (approximately 14%, 9%, and 3%, respectively). ¹⁴C-Atropine and/or its transformation products were detected in soil leachate at 30, 60, and 90 DAS and were strongly adsorbed to soil, with 60% of the applied dose adsorbed at 30 DAS, plateauing at 70% from 60 DAS. Unlabeled atropine was detected in shoots 30 DAS at a concentration of 3.9 ± 0.1 μg kg^?1 (mean ± SD). The observed bioconcentration factor was 2.3 ± 0.04. The results suggest a potential risk of atropine toxicity to consumers.     

Vacuum pyrolysis process for remediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soils

A vacuum pyrolysis process was used for the remediation of hydrocarbon–contaminated soils from “Les Vidangeurs de Montréal” site in Mascouche in the province of Québec, near Montréal. Ten samples were tested on a laboratory scale batch reactor, and one sample was tested on a prototype process development unit. The process is simple, efficient, reliable, and economically competitive with other existing technologies. The vacuum pyrolysis process efficiently treated soils contaminated with a variety of pollution levels and types, irrespective of the soil matrix, providing treated soils meeting the A criterion (noncontaminated, residential level) of the Ministry of Environment Québec (MENVIQ). The pyrolytic oil and the noncondensable pyrolytic gases can be used as makeup fuel in the process, because they have a high calorific value and their combustion should not pose any emission problems. The waterphase effluent must be treated before discharge.     

Dynamics of Bacterial Abundance,Biomass, Activity,and Community Composition in the Oligotrophic Traunsee and the Traun River (Austria)

The holomictic Traunsee is the deepest and second largest lakein Austria. The special characteristic of this ecosystem isthe fact that local salt and soda industries presumably alterthe lake by the discharge of waste materials. Since thebeginning of the 20th century salt and soda works areannually releasing up to 50,000 tons of solid wastes and up to150,000 tons of chloride into Traunsee. To assess potentialeffects of these anthropogenic impacts on the bacterioplanktonthree sampling sites, influenced as well as not influenced bythe industrial discharge, were chosen for comparison andsampled monthly from November 1997 to October 1998. Bacterialabundance ranged between 0.4 to 3.0 × 10⁶ cells ml^-1 with decreasing numbers along the depth profile. Theproportion of actively respiring bacteria, i.e. INT [2-(4-iodophenyl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl)-5-phenyltetrazolium chloride]reducing cells, never exceeded 10% of DAPI (4',6'-diamidino-2-phenylindole) stained cells. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to examine the seasonal and spatial distribution of dominant phylogenetic groups of thebacterioplankton. Up to 84% of bacteria detected with DAPIcould be detected via FISH applying the universal bacterialprobe EUB338. Percentages of alpha- and beta-Proteobacteriaand members of the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium cluster did notexceed 60% of DAPI-stained cells.Beta-Proteobacteriaappeared to be the most abundant group, not only in Traunsee butalso in two reference lakes, Attersee and Hallstättersee. No significant differences in any of the bacterial parameters couldbe detected between the three sampling sites and all measurementswere found in the range reported for oligotrophic lakes. The highdischarge of the Traun River, resulting in a lake water renewaltime of only one year, may diminish possible effects of industrial waste discharge in the pelagic zone.     

Protozooplankton in the Deep Oligotrophic Traunsee (Austria) Influenced by Discharges of Soda and Salt Industries

Traunsee is a deep oligotrophic lake in Austria characterised by an artificial enrichment of chloride in the hypolimnion (up to 170 mg L^-1) caused by waste disposal of soda and salt industries. Protists were collected monthly over one year, observed alive and after Quantitative Protargol Staining (ciliates) or via epifluorescence microscopy (heterotrophic flagellates). Three sites within the lake (0–40 m depths) were compared to deeper water layers from 60–160 m depths where chloride concentrations and conductivity were increased. In addition, we observed the protozooplankton of two neighbouring lakes, i.e. reference systems, during one sampling occasion. In Traunsee the abundance of ciliates was low (200–36 600 cells L^-1) in contrast to high species diversity (at least 60 different species; H_S = 2.6) throughout the year. The main pelagic species in terms of abundance were small oligotrichs and prostomatids like Rimostrombidium brachykinetum/hyalinum, Balanion planctonicum and Urotricha spp. throughout the investigation period. Among free-living heterotrophic flagellates, which occurred at densities of 40–2800 cells mL^-1, small morphotypes dominated in the pelagial. No differences at the community level between the three lakes could be observed and pelagic ciliates and flagellates seemed not to be affected by increased chloride concentrations or by enhanced conductivity.     

Glocalization of COVID-19 responses and management of the pandemic in Africa

ABSTRACT

The study explores how glocalization of COVID-19 responses affects the management of the pandemic in Africa. Using data from 20 selected African countries, the study found that the reliance on local medicines alongside other salient global initiatives for containment of COVID-19 is effective in managing the pandemic in Africa. It concluded that despite the high vulnerabilities of African countries to COVID-19, the glocal approach has yielded positive outcomes by increasing the number of patients that recover from COVID-19 and scaling down the fatalities compared with the other regions.     

Effects of smelter sulfur dioxide emissions: a spatiotemporal perspective using carbon isotopes in tree rings

We wanted to test the hypothesis that forest exposure to phytotoxic gases indirectly affects their carbon uptake. We estimated that the reduction of photosynthesis may have reached 20 to 30% at a site located 9 km (test site) from the Horne copper smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, which is a point source of SO2. Twenty-one spruce trees older than 100 yr were selected from seven sites at various distances from the smelter to evaluate conditions prior to and during the periods of smelter operation. The carbon isotope results obtained from spruce tree rings at our test site reveal an unprecedented and abrupt shift of +4/1000 after the onset of smelter operations. This large and permanent shift exceeds natural variations in regional pre-smelter series or in the series at a remote control site. All trees up to 116 km downwind from the smelter show delta13C positive shifts following the onset of operations. There is also a clear inverse relationship between the amplitude of the first-order trends and distance from the smelter. Those delta13C trends indicate that trees exposed to high levels of SO2 decrease their level of CO2 uptake through activation of stomatal closure. This is strongly supported by the significant departure of the Rouyn-Noranda trends from those measured for trees from non-industrialized areas of the Northern Hemisphere, or calculated using global atmospheric conditions. Considering the large number of SO2 point sources in North America, our results imply that CO2 uptake by the boreal forest in the vicinity of these sources may be lower than previously thought.     

Epilithic Diatoms in an Alpine Lake (Traunsee,Austria) Affected by Soda and Salt Mining Industries

Traunsee, a 191 m deep Alpine lake in Austria, is affected by industrial tailings from the soda and salt mining industries since 1883. In 1998 littoral water chloride concentrations ranged between 40 and 85 mg L^-1 and the highest conductivity was 560 S cm^-1, which is almost double as high as the values reported from the two nearby reference lakes. Chloride concentrations increased towards the location of the industrial salt and soda emission into the lake. Analogously to the chloride gradient, the epilithic littoral diatom flora changes towards the waste inlet. Shifts in the species percentages towards the emission source, a high percentage of taxa with large conductivity tolerances, the presence of a small Achnanthes minutissima Kützing morphotype, and occurrences of taxa focused at habitats of higher electrolyte content, indicate subtle impacts on the epilithic diatom flora. An analysis of the seasonal succession of the epilithic diatoms at the waste inlet compared to a lake intern reference site, reveals that only during the late summer period in 1998 the diatom assemblage at the waste inlet became significantly different, indicating seasonally restricted effects of the industrial emissions.