Selenium in agriculture and the environment

Selenium occurs naturally in the soil environment in amounts which may cause nutritional toxicity or deficiency to livestock in areas throughout the world. Normal soils contain between 0.1 and 2.0 μg g^?1 selenium compared with 30–324 μg g^?1 (dry weight) or above from a seleniferous area. Plant selenium concentrations can generally be used as an indicator of the soil selenium status. Selenium accumulator plants may contain thousands of μg g^?1 selenium and grow healthily on highly seleniferous soils. Most plants contain small amounts of selenium; less than 1 μg g^?1 when growing on normal soils. A third group of plants, containing large amounts of sulphur, contain higher amounts of selenium when growing on normal soils.Animals consuming plants containing unusually small or large amounts of selenium over a prolonged period may develop nutritional selenium disorders. Development of sensitive analytical techniques has permitted detection of the very low amounts of selenium present in livestock suffering from selenium deficiency and associated problems. Required amounts of selenium necessary for animal nutrition range from 0.04 to 0.10 μg g^?1 depending on the animal species and the level of vitamin E in the diet. Amounts of selenium causing nutritional toxicity are usually an order of magnitude higher than those producing deficiency.Factors affecting selenium absorption in animals include the form of selenium in the diet and the type of animal. Ruminants moderate their dietary intake by reducing selenium to insoluble forms, which they excrete. Monogastric animals, by contrast, may absorb up to 80% or more of their dietary selenium intake, depending on its biological availability.Although there are areas where livestock poisoning occurs, much evidence has been accumulated to indicate that agricultural livestock is deficient, or bordering on selenium deficiency, in many areas of the world. Overt selenium deficiency in man has been reported in China, indicating the possibility of widespread non-overt sub-clinical selenium deficiency in humans. No definite evidence for human selenium toxicity has been reported.Although anthropogenic selenium contributes to the total selenium in the soil environment, most of it is biologically unavailable. Organisms such as bacteria and fungi reduce biologically available selenium to elemental insoluble forms, whilst others produce volatile organic forms of selenium which are lost to the atmosphere. Some bacteria are able to oxidise colloidal selenium so that it becomes biologically available. Whether the overall amount of biologically available selenium is increasing or decreasing in the soil environment is of vital consequence to agricultural productivity. It is recommended that work should be carried out to quantify amounts of available selenium that are lost from soil systems, and to identify the forms and amounts of selenium that enter the soil environment from natural and anthropogenic sources. Tests to indicate the presence of non-overt selenium deficiency in animals, such as blood selenium measurements, are recommended for areas under suspicion from soil and crop analyses.     

浙江省农业地质环境信息系统建设初探

应用计算机技术、地理信息系统技术、遥感技术以及系统科学的理论和方法建立农业地质环境信息系统，可以实现对农业地质环境信息的收集、存储、加工、使用、动态更新、统计分析和辅助决策。该系统不但为农业地质环境项目的科学管理提供标准化、信息化，为社会提供信息共享服务，也极大提升了农业地质环境动态监测管理和决策的科学性。结合浙江省农业地质环境信息系统建设实践，本文对农业地质环境信息管理系统建设的内容、方法以及应用前景进行了初步探讨。     

人力资本法评估农业污染地下水环境价值损失

应用人力资本法(HCA)评估了华北典型高产粮区地下水资源硝酸盐污染的价值损失.引用国外的研究结果,建立了硝酸盐污染浓度与健康损害的剂量反应关系,分病因预测了地下水污染超标区增加的死亡人口数量.按照潜在寿命损失人年(YPLL)的计算方法,构造了人力资本损失总量估算函数.应用该函数评估了研究区农业面源污染地下水资源的价值损失为860.8万元/a,相当于每公顷耕地面积上增加外部环境成本293.9元/a.     

环境与健康领域队列研究进展

环境与健康问题是影响人类健康和社会发展的重要因素,也是当前我国环境保护工作关注的重点内容。针对队列研究在因果判定方面的独特优势及当前我国环境与健康问题日益突出的现实,对环境与健康领域队列研究的应用与发展进行了综述,阐述了环境与健康领域队列研究的主要内容,提出了进一步开展环境与健康领域队列研究的必要性,并分析了我国在该领域开展大型队列研究所面临的机遇和挑战,旨在为队列研究在环境与健康领域的应用提供多样化视角及更合理的分析框架。     

Noisy and definitely not normal: responding to wicked issues in the environment,energy and health

Attempts by researchers and policy-makers to address the ‘wicked’ issues which pervade environmental policy usually revolve around attempting – or recommending – both more participatory and transparent, and more systematic and evidence-based, policy-making. Post-normal science (PNS), with its ‘extended peer community’, has emerged as one approach, whilst others focus on procedural reforms of the policy process, particularly on enhancing democratic decision-making. This paper applies a novel analytical framework to a primarily documentary analysis of three cases we argue are wicked—Canadian regulatory review of health products and food, European union (EU) environmental thematic strategies, and United Kingdom (UK) energy and climate change policy. It explores how various responses to wicked issues are implemented, through the ‘lenses’ of PNS and, more generally, ‘democratic and effective decision-making’. It finds such responses are often limited by practical and fundamental barriers relating to handling of uncertainty, issue framing, participation, power, politics, and attitude to evidence. We draw conclusions about future research on PNS, particularly the need to more clearly relate theory to different strands of literature on the evidence–policy-making relationship, and to continue empirical testing.     

厦门市能源消费对环境及公共健康影响研究

由能源消费排放的多种大气污染物对环境和公共健康的影响越来越严重.以厦门市为研究案例,应用LEAP模型、剂量效应（Doseeffective）和暴露-响应（Exposure-response）原理构建能源-环境-公共健康模型,计算厦门市不同情景下主要大气污染物PM10和SO2排放量和由这两种污染物引发的公共健康经济损失,...     

Chemicals,man and the environment

The interaction of chemicals with biological organisms is as old as life itself. Chemical pollution is usually considered to be human interference with natural chemical cycles and the release of man-made, unnatural compounds. The article traces five areas of chemical pollution and health hazards: air pollution, water pollution, occupational exposure, pollution from agricultural practices and contamination of food. It is suggested that historic perspective can aid in rational and prudent evaluation of present-day pollution problems.     

新冠肺炎疫情防控对环境与健康工作的若干启示

新冠肺炎疫情发生以来,全国上下万众一心,采取了一系列防控举措,坚决遏制疫情蔓延扩散,取得了积极成效。保障公众健康是生态环境保护的根本目的,环境与健康工作作为公共卫生管理的重要内容之一,在很多方面同疫情防控工作具有共性,我们需要从本次疫情防控工作中汲取经验和教训,提高应对环境与健康问题的能力和水平。本文分析了开展环境与健康工作的重要意义,梳理总结了环境与健康工作应在此次疫情防控工作中借鉴的宝贵经验,并有针对性地提出了下一步加强环境与健康工作的几点建议。     

城市水环境PFAAs前驱体污染特征及健康风险

为揭示城市水环境中前驱体对全氟烷基酸（PFAAs）输入特征、分布格局及健康风险的影响,对南京城市污水处理厂出水、河流、湖泊、长江饮用水源地等水体进行了考察.利用HPLC-MS/MS及总可氧化前驱体法（TOP Assay）分析了17种PFAAs与其总可氧化前驱体的污染特征,并通过推演耐受剂量评估了饮水途径的健康风险商（HQ）.结果表明,污水处理厂出水中PFAAs浓度90.6～278ng/L,主要单体PFBS、PFHxA、PFOA占总浓度的63%;总可氧化前驱体浓度239～839pmol/L,PFBA前驱体含量最高.城市地表水中PFAAs浓度61.8～157ng/L,总可氧化前驱体浓度195～572pmol/L,PFBA、PFPe A、PFHxA3种全氟羧酸的前驱体含量最高,城市河流流经人口密集区后,PFAAs赋存浓度有所上升,但总可氧化前驱体浓度下降.饮用水源地中PFAAs浓度50.9～54.6ng/L,总可氧化前驱体浓度273～372pmol/L,以PFBA、PFPe A和PFHx A3种全氟羧酸的前驱体为主.相对高风险来源于PFOS的免疫毒性（HQ=0.024）以及PFOA的发育毒性...     

水体微囊藻毒素污染对人群的非致癌健康风险

利用重庆某区2个水库的水样及水产品中微囊藻毒素的浓度,使用美国环境保护署推荐的健康风险评估模型计算微囊藻毒素通过饮水途径和食用水产品途径的人群非致癌健康年风险度以及两条途径的总非致癌健康年风险度.结果表明饮用水库A水的非致癌健康年风险度为0.001×10-6~0.004×10-6 a-1,饮用水库B水的非致癌健康年风险度为0.002×10-6~0.046×10-6 a-1;食用水库A水产品的非致癌健康年风险度为0.083×10-6~0.262×10-6 a-1,食用水库B水产品的非致癌健康年风险度为0.116×10-6~0.747×10-6 a-1,白鲢是水库A与水库B非致癌健康年风险度最高的水产品.水库A两条暴露途径的总非致癌健康年风险度的最大值为0.266×10-6 a-1;水库B两条暴露途径的总非致癌健康年风险度的最大值是0.793×10-6 a-1.水产品的非致癌健康年风险度高于饮水;水库B两条暴露途径的的总非致癌健康年风险度接近国际上最常用的最大可接受风险水平1.0×10-6 a-1.应优先加强水库B中微囊藻毒素的监测,同时限制食用水库A和水库B的水产品,特别是白鲢.     

The adaptive capacity of institutions in the spatial planning,water, agriculture and nature sectors in the Netherlands

The climate change problem calls for a continuously responding society. This raises the question: Do our institutions allow and encourage society to continuously adapt to climate change? This paper uses the Adaptive Capacity Wheel (ACW) to assess the adaptive capacity of formal and informal institutions in four sectors in the Netherlands: spatial planning, water, agriculture and nature. Formal institutions are examined through an assessment of 11 key policy documents and informal institutions are analysed through four case studies covering each sector. Based on these ACW analyses, both sector-specific and more general strengths and weaknesses of the adaptive capacity of institutions in the Netherlands are identified. The paper concludes that the most important challenge for increasing institutional adaptive capacity lies in combining decentralized, participatory approaches with more top-down methods that generate leadership (visions, goals) standards, instruments, resources and monitoring.     

Soil fertility dynamics in runoff-capture agriculture, Canary Islands, Spain

In the extremely arid (∼150 mm yr⁻¹) eastern Canary Islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and La Graciosa, agriculture has been sustained for decades by a traditional runoff-capture (RC) farming system known as “gavias”. Although the main goal of these systems is to increase water supply for crops, making unnecessary conventional irrigation, a secondary and equally important factor is that this system allows for sustainable agricultural production without addition of chemical or organic fertilizers. A field study was conducted to assess the impact of long-term agriculture (>50 yr) on soil fertility and to evaluate key factors affecting the nutrient sustainability of RC agricultural production. Soil fertility and nutrient dynamics were studied through chemical characterization of the arable layer (0-25 cm) of RC agricultural plots, adjacent natural soils (control) not affected by runoff and cultivation, and sediments contributed by a series of RC events. Results showed that RC soils have enhanced fertility status, particularly because they are less affected by salinity and sodicity (mean electrical conductivity = 1.8 dS m⁻¹ vs. 51.0 dS m⁻¹ in control soils; mean exchangeable sodium percentage = 11.1% vs. 30.6% in control soils), and have higher water and nutrient holding capacities (mean clay plus silt contents ≈87% vs. 69% in control soils). In general, sediments transported with the runoff and deposited in RC plots (average sediment yield ≈ 46 ton ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹), contain sufficient nutrients to prevent a progressive reduction of essential plant nutrients below natural levels in spite of nutrient uptake and removal by the harvested crop. Average additions of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium with the runoff sediments were 33.6, 35.3 and 48.8 kg ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹, respectively. Results of this study show how a crop production system can be sustained in the long term by natural hydrological and biogeochemical catchment processes. This system maintains a nutrient balance that is not based on energy-intensive inputs of fertilizers, but is integrated in natural nutrient cycling processes, unlike other tropical farming agroecosystems.     

Energy policy, planning and the environment in developing countries

MICROCOSM is a modified system dynamics model of the energy sector of a developing country, intended for energy analysis work of short duration in small, data-poor economies. It is also quite useful for quick survey use on a regional or national basis in more complex economies and assists in early identification of sectoral bottlenecks in major energy planning projects. Its other major application is in the teaching and training of energy planners and policy makers. MICROCOSM is an indicative planning tool for professionals in the energy-planning field. It does not present an optimal solution to balancing energy supply and demand, but is intended for circumstances where there are insufficient data to reach such conclusions. The purpose of this article is to explain the way in which the model works, as well as the equations upon which it is based. It concentrates on the conceptual basis and methodology, in order to assist the reader in understanding the model.     

太湖流域(苏南地区)农业活动区人群PAEs健康风险评估

对太湖流域(苏南)无锡、常州、镇江3市经口介质(地下水、土壤、农作物共346个样品)中15种PAEs的污染状况进行实验室分析,采用US EPA推荐的健康风险评价“四步法”,结合暴露参数实测等方法,对太湖流域居民经口途径PAEs健康风险进行科学评估.结果表明:流域各经口介质中除部分蔬菜外,均有PAEs检出,地下水、土壤、主食(水稻、小麦)、蔬菜(生菜、韭菜、茄子、毛豆、山芋藤、木耳菜、长豇豆、苋菜、辣椒、空心菜、黄瓜、南瓜藤)中PAEs所占比例最高的为DNP、DCHP、DBP、DNP;流域人群男性PAEs经口总暴露风险为4.88×10-5,女性PAEs经口总暴露风险为4.29×10-5,其中DEHP的贡献率均最大.男性PAEs经口暴露总健康风险大于女性,男性夏秋季节PAEs经口暴露的健康风险等于春冬季节,女性春冬季节PAEs经口暴露风险大于夏秋季节.流域人群的经口暴露的健康风险均高于英国皇家协会推荐的可接受健康风险水平1×10-6,但低于美国环境保护局推荐的健康风险水平1×10-4.     

Evidence,politics and power in public policy for the environment

Despite a recent emphasis on ‘evidence based policy’ accompanied by an abundance of ‘green’ policy instruments, experience from the European Union and OECD countries shows that decisions which truly aim to balance environmental considerations with social and economic ones remain thin on the ground. Moreover, many policies seem to fall short of, or directly contradict what the available ‘evidence’ suggests is required. This is a synthesis paper bringing together literature from the fields of political science, geography, sociology and science and technology studies to outline some of the obscurities relating to the use of scientific evidence in environmental decision-making. In this paper, we suggest that an exploration of three key inter-related issues is necessary to develop a richer understanding of why evidence and policy interact as they do. These are the nature of evidence itself; the normative, moral or ethical ‘politics’ of policy-making; and the operation of power in the policy process. Our primary goal is to bring various literatures together to better conceptualise the evidence–policy relationship. In so doing, we outline specific challenges for knowledge producers who set research priorities, and design and direct research projects. We also highlight significant implications for policy decision-making processes.     

我国地表水新烟碱类杀虫剂对水生生物安全的威胁

针对我国新烟碱类杀虫剂（NNIs）使用量大且地表水中浓度逐渐上升的现状,基于物种敏感度分布法,利用危害商法和概率风险评价法评估了我国地表水中NNIs对淡水水生生物的单一和复合生态风险,并对我国地表水质监管NNIs提出了目标建议值.结果表明：（1）单一化合物,吡虫啉的急性危害最大,吡虫啉和啶虫脒的慢性危害较大,最敏感生物均为昆虫;（2）海南省是地表水NNIs浓度最高的地区,急慢性危害最大;（3）联合毒性的概率曲线表明,5种NNIs对5%淡水水生生物产生慢性联合毒性的概率高达92.12%,严重威胁我国水生生物的安全;（4）基于物种敏感度分布曲线得到毒性参考值,结合危害商和概率风险评价的结果,建议我国保护水生生物安全的地表水质监管目标值分别为吡虫啉0.01μg·L^-1、噻虫啉0.03μg·L^-1、啶虫脒0.04μg·L^-1、噻虫胺0.22μg·L^-1和噻虫嗪0.24μg·L^-1.总之,我国地表水中NNIs浓度已经威胁到水生生物的安全,必须加强监管.     

黄土高原沟道农业系统与优化模式

黄土高原沟道农业是现代人地关系耦合发展的一种新兴农业地域类型,其可持续发展对于区域农业提质增效、乡村振兴和黄河流域高质量发展具有重大现实意义。本文基于人地系统科学原理阐述了沟道农业的概念内涵、科学认知、优化模式及其保障政策。结果表明：（1）沟道农业可持续性应遵从“要素—系统”到“结构—功能”,注重“沟坡水土保持、流域生态建设与区域乡村振兴”的多目标有机结合。同时,处理好宏观与微观效益的关系以及不同尺度的沟道水土构型、农田景观、农业系统的层次体系,深化贯通式研究,全面揭示沟道农业发展演变过程及其微观作用机理。（2）总结了沟道农业优化模式,搭建了不同模式的框架图,建议完善相关的技术与制度保障体系,以支撑实现区域乡村振兴和黄河流域高质量发展目标。（3）新时期黄土高原现代沟道农业高质量发展应立足于人地系统科学前沿,全面构建现代沟道农业系统理论与方法,深入探究优化沟道农业生产方式和创新经营管理模式的新途径。（4）基于要素流、产业链、流通网,面向SDGs目标和乡村振兴、粮食与生态安全,深入探究不同尺度沟道农业状态评估与情景模拟,服务支撑区域现代化建设决策。黄土高原沟道农业系统特征与优化模式研究,是推动农业地理学研究理论与方法创新,进而为黄土高原农业高质量发展提供科学依据的重要途径。