Flavonoid wing pigments increase attractiveness of female common blue (Polyommatus icarus) butterflies to mate-searching males

 Common blue butterflies (Polyommatus icarus) sequester flavonoids from their larval host plants and allocate these UV-absorbing pigments to the wings. In field experiments using dummies constructed from female butterflies, mate-searching males inspected flavonoid-rich dummies more intensively than those with little or no flavonoids. Flavonoid content as signalled by UV-wing pattern may indicate ontogenetically determined female quality or enhance detectability to males. Received: 21 March 2000 / Accepted in revised form: 17 May 2000     

Simulating transport of non-Chernobyl (137)Cs and (90)Sr in the North Atlantic-Arctic region

The spatial and temporal distributions of the anthropogenic radionuclides (137)Cs and (90)Sr, originating from nuclear bomb testing and the Sellafield reprocessing plants in the Irish Sea, are simulated using a global version of the Miami Isopycnic Coordinate Ocean Model (MICOM). The physical model is forced with daily atmospheric re-analysed fields for the period 1950 to present. Comparison of temporal evolution of observed and simulated concentrations of (137)Cs have been conducted for the regions east of Scotland, west of central Norway and at the entrance of the Barents Sea. It follows that the radionuclides from the Sellafield discharge reach the Barents Sea region after 4-5 years, in accordance with observations. The simulation provides a detailed distribution and evolution of the radionuclides over the integration time. For the Atlantic waters off the coast of Norway and in the southern Barents Sea, the atmospheric fallout dominates over the Sellafield release up to the mid 1960s and from the early 1990s, whereas Sellafield is the main source for the two radionuclides in the 1970s and 1980s. It is furthermore argued that model systems like the one presented here can be used for future prediction of radioactive contaminations in the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean, for instance under various global warming scenarios.     

Sustainable management of demolition waste—an integrated model for the evaluation of environmental, economic and social aspects

A model is presented for evaluating waste management systems for their contribution to a sustainable development, including environmental, economic and social aspects. The model was tested in a case-study, where groups of long-term unemployed people were offered both education on environmental issues and practical work with the recovery and recycling of building and demolition waste as a form of vocational development. Application of the suggested model revealed the overall effects on sustainability of different methods of waste management. In addition, negative aspects of the systems analysed were identified, which led to discussions about possible improved practices within the waste management systems. Two of the waste management systems investigated (the recycling of steel and re-use of sanitary porcelain) showed a potential contribution to sustainable development in all of the aspects studied. Preparing bricks for re-use showed the largest potential for eco-efficiency, but had negative effects on sustainability from the social perspective of health and the working environment. The possibility of further use of the model and the remaining obstacles to such analyses are discussed. One observation is that the data collection needed to perform this kind of sustainability analysis is resource-demanding, and that it would therefore be better to identify a smaller number of key indicators.     

Tradescantia micronucleus test indicates genotoxic potential of traffic emissions in European cities

Urban atmospheres contain complex mixtures of air pollutants including mutagenic and carcinogenic substances such as benzene, diesel soot, heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. In the frame of a European network for the assessment of air quality by the use of bioindicator plants, the Tradescantia micronucleus (Trad-MCN) test was applied to examine the genotoxicity of urban air pollution. Cuttings of Tradescantia clone #4430 were exposed to ambient air at 65 monitoring sites in 10 conurbations employing a standardised methodology. The tests revealed an elevated genotoxic potential mainly at those urban sites which were exposed to severe car traffic emissions. This bioassay proved to be a suitable tool to detect local 'hot spots' of mutagenic air pollution in urban areas. For its use in routine monitoring programmes, however, further standardisation of cultivation and exposure techniques is recommended in order to reduce the variability of results due to varying environmental conditions.     

Ozone pollution and ozone biomonitoring in European cities. Part I: Ozone concentrations and cumulative exposure indices at urban and suburban sites

In the frame of a European research project on air quality in urban agglomerations, data on ozone concentrations from 23 automated urban and suburban monitoring stations in 11 cities from seven countries were analysed and evaluated. Daily and summer mean and maximum concentrations were computed based on hourly mean values, and cumulative ozone exposure indices (Accumulated exposure Over a Threshold of 40 ppb (AOT40), AOT20) were calculated. The diurnal profiles showed a characteristic pattern in most city centres, with minimum values in the early morning hours, a strong rise during the morning, peak concentrations in the afternoon, and a decline during the night. The widest amplitudes between minimum and maximum values were found in central and southern European cities such as Düsseldorf, Verona, Klagenfurt, Lyon or Barcelona. In the northern European cities of Edinburgh and Copenhagen, by contrast, maximum values were lower and diurnal variation was much smaller. Based on ozone concentrations as well as on cumulative exposure indices, a clear north–south gradient in ozone pollution, with increasing levels from northern and northwestern sites to central and southern European sites, was observed. Only the Spanish cities did not fit this pattern; there, ozone levels were again lower than in central European cities, probably due to the direct influence of strong car traffic emissions. In general, ozone concentrations and cumulative exposure were significantly higher at suburban sites than at urban and traffic-exposed sites. When applying the newly established European Union (EU) Directive on ozone pollution in ambient air, it was demonstrated that the target value for the protection of human health was regularly surpassed at urban as well as suburban sites, particularly in cities in Austria, France, northern Italy and southern Germany. European target values and long-term objectives for the protection of vegetation expressed as AOT40 were also exceeded at many monitoring sites.     

Implementing optimal taxes using tradable share permits

This paper presents a simple system for efficient regulation under asymmetric information. Each firm's income is controlled by a tax that depends on the firm's own output and on a parameter construed as a share permit. These “shares of total expected output” lower a firm's tax burden and are acquired in a competitive market. By employing this scheme, the planner only requires knowledge of marginal damage to induce the first-best outcome. Relative to a traditional cap-and-trade approach the system increases expected social welfare.     

Competition for a mate restricts mate search of female pied flycatchers

Summary We studied the mate sampling behaviour of female pied flycatchers, Ficedula hypoleuca, in a 40-ha area containing 10–12 unmated males whose nestboxes were monitored with videocameras. The main results were: (1) The females undertook a restricted mate search. The females that mated in the area during three monitoring periods (n = 20, 12 females released by us and 8 females that arrived naturally) sampled 1–10 males (median 4.5). This was about 40% of the available mating options. (2) Search costs in terms of time and energy were low. The search period was short (median 5.1 h) and only a small proportion of the search period was spent at the nestboxes of males (median 4%). The females visited up to seven different males in 1 h, and the time elapsing between visits to different males was short (median 13 min). The minimum distance travelled during the search was also short (median 1.4 km). (3) There was competition between the females. We recorded seven cases of two females visiting the same male at the same time, including at least one case involving physical fighting. (4) Females that experienced a high level of competition had a more restricted mate search than females that experienced a low level of competition. (5) The search pattern of most of the females did not conform to the best-of-n-males rule nor to the threshold criterion rule, because they made repeated visits to many of the males sampled.     

Formation, release and control of dioxins in cement kilns

Co-processing of hazardous wastes in cement kilns have for decades been thought to cause increased emissions of PCDD/PCDFs--a perception that has been evaluated in this study. Hundreds of PCDD/PCDF measurements conducted by the cement industry and others in the last few years, on emissions and solid materials, as well as recent test burns with hazardous wastes in developing countries do not support this perception. Newer data has been compared with older literature data and shows in particular that many emission factors have to be reconsidered. Early emission factors for cement kilns co-processing hazardous waste, which are still used in inventories, are shown to be too high compared with actual measurements. Less than 10 years ago it was believed that the cement industry was the main contributor of PCDD/PCDFs to air; data collected in this study indicates however that the industry contributes with less than 1% of total emissions to air. The Stockholm Convention on POPs presently ratified by 144 parties, classifies cement kilns co-processing hazardous waste as a source category having the potential for comparatively high formation and release of PCDD/PCDFs. This classification is based on early investigations from the 1980s and 1990s where kilns co-processing hazardous waste had higher emissions compared to those that did not burn hazardous waste. However, the testing of these kilns was often done under worst case scenario conditions known to favour PCDD/PCDF formation. More than 2000 PCDD/PCDF cement kiln measurements have been evaluated in this study, representing most production technologies and waste feeding scenarios. They generally indicate that most modern cement kilns co-processing waste today can meet an emission level of 0.1ngI-TEQ/m(3), when well managed and operated. In these cases, proper and responsible use of waste including organic hazardous waste to replace parts of the fossil fuel does not seem to increase formation of PCDD/PCDFs. Modern preheater/precalciner kilns generally seems to have lower emissions than older wet-process cement kilns. It seems that the main factors stimulating formation of PCDD/PCDFs is the availability of organics in the raw material and the temperature of the air pollution control device. Feeding of materials containing elevated concentrations of organics as part of raw-material-mix should therefore be avoided and the exhaust gases should be cooled down quickly in long wet and long dry cement kilns without preheating. PCDD/PCDFs could be detected in all types of solid samples analysed: raw meal, pellets and slurry; alternative raw materials as sand, chalk and different ashes; cement kiln dust, clinker and cement. The concentrations are however generally low, similar to soil and sediment.