A principle of natural self-organization

The Science of Nature - This paper is the first part of a trilogy, which comprises a detailed study of a special type of functional organization and demonstrates its relevance with respect to the...     

Buchbesprechungen

The Science of Nature -     

Reagenzienfreie Bestimmung von Quecksilberspuren in Wasserproben

Routinef?hige, kostengünstige analytische Messverfahren sind die Grundlage für ein fl?chendeckendes Umweltmonitoring von Schadstoffen und somit für die Sicherung unserer Gesundheit und natürlichen Lebensgrundlagen. Hierbei kann die Analytik zur nachhaltigen Nutzung und zur Schonung unserer Umweltressourcen beitragen, indem auf den Einsatz umweltgef?hrdender Reagenzien verzichtet wird.     

Climate change collaboration among natural resource management agencies: lessons learned from two US regions

It has been argued that regional collaboration can facilitate adaptation to climate change impacts through integrated planning and management. In an attempt to understand the underlying institutional factors that either support or contest this assumption, this paper explores the institutional factors influencing adaptation to climate change at the regional scale, where multiple public land and natural resource management jurisdictions are involved. Insights from two mid-western US case studies reveal that several challenges to collaboration persist and prevent fully integrative multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning at a regional scale. We propose that some of these challenges, such as lack of adequate time, funding and communication channels, be reframed as opportunities to build interdependence, identify issue-linkages and collaboratively explore the nature and extent of organisational trade-offs with respect to regional climate change adaptation efforts. Such a reframing can better facilitate multi-jurisdictional adaptation planning and management of shared biophysical resources generally while simultaneously enhancing organisational capacity to mitigate negative effects and take advantage of potentially favourable future conditions in an era characterised by rapid climate change.     

Reagenzienfreie Bestimmung von Quecksilberspuren in Wasserproben

A comprehensive ecological monitoring of hazardous substances is indispensable to preserve our health and environment. Therefore, fast and inexpensive techniques for routine analysis of pollutants are essential. However, in the measuring procedure itself often toxic reagents are used producing hazardous waste. Omitting environmentally hazardous substances in the analysis procedure is an important contribution to a more sustainable and green analytical chemistry. A reagent-free method for ultra-trace (pg to ng?L^-1) mercury determination in water samples was developed and validated. An active nanogold collector integrated in a fully automated flow injection system is the core of this new method. All mercury species dissolved in the water sample are adsorbed and preconcentrated on the nano-structured gold surface of the collector. After rinsing and drying of the collector, the enriched mercury is thermally desorbed and finally measured by atomic fluorescence spectrometry. This method was optimized and validated for the determination of mercury in natural waters. The influence of various water constituents was investigated and only high contents of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) showed interferences of mercury preconcentration due to the strong complexation of mercury by DOC. This restriction can be solved by UV-irradiation, i.?e. reagent-free digestion of DOC rich samples prior to the preconcentration procedure. Mercury concentration of several natural river and sea waters and water from the discharge of a waste water treatment plant were determined with this new analytical method. Accuracy and precision of the method were demonstrated by several recovery experiments in natural water samples (recoveries: 96–102?%) and by analysis of the certified reference material BCR-579 (Mercury in Coastal Sea Water; recovery: 101?±?1?%). With a detection limit of only 80?pg?Hg?L^–1 the proposed method is highly sensitive. Furthermore the method avoids potential contamination of the sample by reagent addition and is due to the reagent-free procedure environment-friendly. Hence this work is an important contribution to sustainable environmental analysis and at the same time improves accurate routine mercury trace analysis.     

Entfernung von Schwermetallen aus einem Boden mit hohem Schluffanteil

A soil, containing 2.8% organic carbon and a high concentration (76.4%) of small particles (<63 μm), and which had been contaminated over a long period of time by galvanic waste waters (Ni, Cu) and lead wastes, was subjected to detailed analysis and subsequently treated with various extracting solutions in order to remove the heavy metals. For this purpose, representative samples containing 114 mg kg^?1 Cu, 1151 mg kg^?1 Ni and 366 mg kg^?1 Pb were treated with amino acids and solutions containing other complexing agents, as well as with diluted acids, in order to compare the relative effectiveness of these solutions. Satisfactory metal extractions were only achieved by the use of diluted mineral acids, notably hydrochloric acid, which released more than 90% of the nickel and approximately 80% of the copper and lead from the soil. The results obtained with weak complexing agents such as tartaric acid (0.07–2.9%, 24 h) and amino acids (0.01–36%, 24h) were worse. For reprocessing of the hydrochloric acid solutions, a direct precipitation of the heavy metals in their hydroxide forms and selective separation with N-acylthiourea modified polysiloxanes were carried out.     

Flows of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Originating from Health Care Practices on a Local, Regional, and Nationwide Level in Germany—Is Hospital Effluent Treatment an Effective Approach for Risk Reduction?

Pharmaceuticals are designed to be bioactive and therefore are among the most important chemical compounds manufactured. In recent years pharmaceuticals have been detected in a range of environment compartments, with concerns raised that they may impose a risk to both humans and environmental organisms. To support informed management of any associated risks, knowledge about their substance flows is indispensable. However, little is known about sources and attributable substance flows with regard to the use of human pharmaceuticals. Often data available on a national level are used to judge local or regional situations and to calculate expected concentrations. In this paper, computations on the use of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) of drugs used in human medicine at the local, regional and national levels were conducted. Different data sources were used and raw-data were scaled up- or downwards and compared. Results of this analysis indicated that hospitals are, by far, minor sources of pharmaceuticals to the aquatic environment in comparison to non-point emissions from households. Differences in flows at the local, regional and national scales are also identified.