Inexpensive substrate sampler for macroinvertebrates

Assessment of aquatic macroinvertebrates is a critical component of many watershed monitoring programs and passive samplers are often used to collect long-term site data, especially in environments where active sampling is not possible. However, standard passive samplers can be expensive and lost in extreme conditions. We developed a sampler using plastic soda bottles (PSB) filled with river rock and compared its effectiveness with standard Hester-Dendy samplers in both lotic and lentic environments. Abundance, taxa richness, and macroinvertebrate composition showed no significant differences between sampler types in either habitat type. PSB samplers, which can be constructed for less than one dollar each, collected the same number of organisms and represented the same diversity as Hester-Dendy devices that cost around $38 each. In studies where funds are limited, PSB samplers appear to be suitable for passive monitoring.     

Changes in the Distribution of Broadleaf Tree Species in the Central Part of the Southern Urals since the 1970s

Russian Journal of Ecology - Changes in the distribution of broadleaf tree species—Tilia cordata Mill., Quercus robur L., Acer platanoides L., and Ulmus glabra Huds.—in the central part...     

1900～2018年全球自然灾害时空演变特征与相关性研究

全球紧急灾难数据库EM-DAT(Emergency Events Database,简称EM-DAT)中1900～ 2018年的自然灾害数据,综合趋势检验及突变点检测方法、标准差椭圆空间统计方法,探究灾害的时空分布、演变趋势及不同灾害之间的相关性.结果 表明:(1)洪水、干旱和风暴的危害性较大.其中,洪水发生次数最多,干旱造成的死亡人数最多,风暴造成的经济损失最为惨重;(2)从时间上来看,灾害发生次数先增加后稍有减少,总体呈上升趋势;因灾死亡人数则自1932年后大幅度减少,呈下降趋势;灾害经济损失持续增加,呈上升趋势;(3)从空间上来看,灾害发生次数分布格局呈南北方向扩张、东西方向收缩趋势,整体往东南方向移动;灾害死亡人数空间分布先呈现西北-东南分布格局,后转变成西南-东北格局,且这种格局不断弱化,直到最后重新呈现西北-东南分布格局;灾害经济损失重心东西方向移动距离大于南北方向,经济损失主方向总体向西北方向转移;(4)洪水、风暴、地震、流行病、滑坡5种灾害与所有灾害均呈显著正相关,相关性系数都达到0.57以上,相互作用较强,其中,地震与风暴两种灾害间的相关性系数最高(为0.906).     

Unintentional non-traffic injury and fatal events: Threats to children in and around vehicles

Objective: There have been substantial reductions in motor vehicle crash–related child fatalities due to advances in legislation, public safety campaigns, and engineering. Less is known about non-traffic injuries and fatalities to children in and around motor vehicles. The objective of this study was to describe the frequency of various non-traffic incidents, injuries, and fatalities to children using a unique surveillance system and database.

Methods: Instances of non-traffic injuries and fatalities in the United States to children 0–14 years were tracked from January 1990 to December 2014 using a compilation of sources including media reports, individual accounts from families of affected children, medical examiner reports, police reports, child death review teams, coroner reports, medical professionals, legal professionals, and other various modes of publication.

Results: Over the 25-year period, there were at least 11,759 events resulting in 3,396 deaths. The median age of the affected child was 3.7 years. The incident types included 3,115 children unattended in hot vehicles resulting in 729 deaths, 2,251 backovers resulting in 1,232 deaths, 1,439 frontovers resulting in 692 deaths, 777 vehicles knocked into motion resulting in 227 deaths, 415 underage drivers resulting in 203 deaths, 172 power window incidents resulting in 61 deaths, 134 falls resulting in 54 deaths, 79 fires resulting in 41 deaths, and 3,377 other incidents resulting in 157 deaths.

Conclusions: Non-traffic injuries and fatalities present an important threat to the safety and lives of very young children. Future efforts should consider complementary surveillance mechanisms to systematically and comprehensively capture all non-traffic incidents. Continued education, engineering modifications, advocacy, and legislation can help continue to prevent these incidents and must be incorporated in overall child vehicle safety initiatives.     

Estimating Potential Climate Change Effects on the Upper Neuse Watershed Water Balance Using the SWAT Model

Climate change poses water resource challenges for many already water stressed watersheds throughout the world. One such watershed is the Upper Neuse Watershed in North Carolina, which serves as a water source for the large and growing Research Triangle Park region. The aim of this study was to quantify possible changes in the watershed’s water balance due to climate change. To do this, we used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model forced with different climate scenarios for baseline, mid‐century, and end‐century time periods using five different downscaled General Circulation Models. Before running these scenarios, the SWAT model was calibrated and validated using daily streamflow records within the watershed. The study results suggest that, even under a mitigation scenario, precipitation will increase by 7.7% from the baseline to mid‐century time period and by 9.8% between the baseline and end‐century time period. Over the same periods, evapotranspiration (ET) would decrease by 5.5 and 7.6%, water yield would increase by 25.1% and 33.2%, and soil water would increase by 1.4% and 1.9%. Perhaps most importantly, the model results show, under a high emission scenario, large seasonal differences with ET estimated to decrease by up to 42% and water yield to increase by up to 157% in late summer and fall. Planning for the wetter predicted future and corresponding seasonal changes will be critical for mitigating the impacts of climate change on water resources.     

The place of nature in conservation conflicts

Conservation conflicts are gaining importance in contemporary conservation scholarship such that conservation may have entered a conflict hype. We attempted to uncover and deconstruct the normative assumptions behind such studies by raising several questions: what are conservation conflicts, what justifies the attention they receive, do conservation-conflict studies limit wildlife conservation, is scientific knowledge stacked against wildlife in conservation conflicts, do conservation-conflict studies adopt a specific view of democracy, can laws be used to force conservation outcomes, why is flexibility needed in managing conservation conflicts, can conservation conflicts be managed by promoting tolerance, and who needs to compromise in conservation conflicts? We suggest that many of the intellectual premises in the field may defang conservation and prevent it from truly addressing the current conservation crisis as it accelerates. By framing conservation conflicts as conflicts between people about wildlife or nature, the field insidiously transfers guilt, whereby human activities are no longer blamed for causing species decline and extinctions but conservation is instead blamed for causing social conflicts. When the focus is on mitigating social conflicts without limiting in any powerful way human activities damaging to nature, conservation-conflict studies risk keeping conservation within the limits of human activities, instead of keeping human activities within the limits of nature. For conservation to successfully stop the biodiversity crisis, we suggest the alternative goal of recognizing nature's right to existence to maintenance of ecological functions and evolutionary processes. Nature being a rights bearer or legal person would imply its needs must be explicitly taken into account in conflict adjudication. If, even in conservation, nature's interests come second to human interests, it may be no surprise that conservation cannot succeed.     

Correction to: Keeping pace with forestry: Multi-scale conservation in a changing production forest matrix

Ambio - In the original published article, the sentence “Nevertheless, semi-natural forest remnants continue to be harvested and fragmented (Svensson et al. 2018; Jonsson et al. 2019), and...     

Effect of cooking on arsenic concentration in rice

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study assessed the effect of rinsing and boiling on total content of As (tAs) and of its inorganic and organic forms in different types of rice...     

硬质聚氨酯泡沫和组合聚醚中消耗臭氧层物质的便携式GC-MS测定方法

建立了便携式顶空/气相色谱-质谱法测定硬质聚氨酯泡沫和组合聚醚中一氟三氯甲烷（CFC-11）、二氟二氯甲烷（CFC-12）、二氟一氯甲烷（HCFC-22）及一氟二氯乙烷（HCFC-141b）的定性分析方法，系统考察了色谱柱、顶空体系、顶空温度和顶空时间对测定结果的影响。结果表明，DB-WAX色谱柱对目标物质的分离效果最好，顶空温度为50℃、顶空时间为10 min条件下，目标物质的检测灵敏度最高。在优化条件下，硬质聚氨酯泡沫取样体积为1 cm³时，4种目标物的方法检出限为0.6~0.8 μg；组合聚醚取样量为10 mg时，4种目标物的方法检出限为0.5~0.6 μg。该方法具有较高的灵敏度，定性准确，适用于实际样品的现场快速定性分析。     

Adsorptive conversion of nitrogen dioxide from etching vent gases over activated carbon

Some metal etching operations emit limited flow rates of waste gases with reddish-brown NO₂ fume, which may cause visual and acidic-odor complaints, as well as negative health effects. In this study, tests were performed by passing caustic-treated waste gases vented from Al-etching operations through columns packed either with virgin or regenerated granular activated carbon (GAC) to test their adsorptive conversion performance of NO₂ in the gases. The gases contained 5–55 ppm NO₂ and acetic and nitric acids of below 3 ppm. Exhausted carbon was regenerated by scrubbing it with caustic solution and water, and dried for further adsorption tests. Results indicate that with an (empty bed residence time (EBRT) of 0.15 sec for the gas through the GAC-packed space, around 60% of the influent NO₂ of 54 ppm could be removed, and 47% of the removed NO₂ was converted by and desorbed from the carbon as NO. GAC used in the present study could be regenerated at least twice to restore its capacity for NO₂ adsorption. Within EBRTs of 0.076–0.18 sec, the adsorptive conversion capacity was linearly varied with EBRT. In practice, with an EBRT of 0.20 sec, a conversion capacity of 0.80 kg NO₂ (kg GAC)^?1 with an influent NO₂ of 40 ppm can be used as a basis for system design.

Implications: Some metal etching operations emit waste gases with reddish-brown (yellow when diluted) NO₂ fume which may cause visual and acidic-odor complaints, as well as negative health effects. This study provides a simple process for the adsorptive conversion of NO₂ in caustic-treated waste gases vented from metal-etching operations through a GAC column. With an EBRT of 0.20 sec, a conversion capacity of 0.80 kg NO₂ (kg GAC)^?1 with an influent NO₂ of 40 ppm can be used as a basis for system design. Saturated GAC can be regenerated at least twice by simply scrubbing it with aqueous caustic solution.