Under the shadow of Asian Brown Clouds: Unbalanced regional productivities in China and environmental concerns

China has seen rapid economic growth over the past two decades, but severe environmental problems have accompanied this, such as the looming danger of Asian Brown Clouds. This paper analyzes the regional development of China by examining economic performance and environmental factors. Technical efficiency and productivity changes in 31 regions of China are computed for the period 1997–2001. In the case of regional GDP, the fast-developing eastern (coastal) regions experience higher technical efficiency and productivity growth than the inland central and western regions. When environmental factors are incorporated, the eastern regions still perform better than inland regions, both from static and dynamic analysis. This phenomenon is termed the 'double deterioration' of the inland areas in China. Double deterioration is attributed to the lack of economic resources to replace highly-polluting production equipment and technology in those less developed regions.     

Life cycle of the copepod Calanus hyperboreus in the Greenland Sea

The seasonal ontogenetic migration of the Arctic copepod Calanus hyperboreus was described from surface-to-bottom hauls in the central Greenland Sea Gyre (GSG) and in the Westspitsbergen Current (WSC). All stages except females spent the winter below 500 m in the GSG and below 1000 m in the WSC. Seasonal ascent begins in April, and descent in July. For the C.␣hyperboreus population an active downward transport of 8.1 g m⁻² dry weight during 8 months of overwintering was estimated, similar to flux rates of particulate matter in sediment traps. Seasonal distribution of biomass was determined from weight measurements of single stages. Annual means varied from 4.0 to 9.2 g m⁻² in two different years in the GSG and were 1.1 in 1 year in the WSC. The life cycle in the Greenland Sea was reconstructed from field data on stage composition, vertical distribution, reproduction, and moult cycle phase from tooth development of CV. Laboratory experiments were conducted on the moulting of CIV and CV in fall. A 3-year (males) and 3- to 4-year (females) life cycle is proposed for the GSG and 2 to 3 years for the WSC. However, the small number of young larvae and the incomplete spring ascent by older copepodites observed in the WSC cast doubt on the reproductive success in the WSC. A suite of physiological strategies and adaptations performed by the developmental stages support survival of this species in harsh environments. Received: 25 January 1997 / Accepted: 11 February 1997     

Life on glass houses: sponge stalk communities in the deep sea

Photographs of the deep-sea floor often show organisms attached to biogenic structures that protrude from the soft bottom. In particular, the stalks of glass sponges (hexactinellids) provide hard substrata and act as habitat islands for deep-sea fauna. The primary objectives of this study were to determine the abundance of glass sponge “stalks” at an abyssal station in the NE Pacific, to identify the fauna associated with stalks, and to compare the distribution patterns of epifaunal taxa both horizontally and vertically. Densities of stalks and large epifauna were estimated from analysis of ∼9 km of photographic transects taken in 1994–1995 at station M (34°45′N; 123°00′W; 4,100 m depth) off California, USA. At least 87% of the stalks were the spicule columns of live or dead hexactinellids in the genus Hyalonema (Gray, 1832). Stalks appeared to be distributed randomly across the sea floor (density: 0.13 stalks m⁻²). A colonial zoanthid, Epizoanthus stellaris (Hertwig, 1888), inhabited 20% of the stalks and was the most commonly observed epifaunal organism, followed by other suspension feeders that generally were situated at the top of the structures. Thirty-five stalk communities were collected in tube cores in 1994–1995 using the submersible “Alvin”. A total of 139 taxa was associated with these hard-substratum habitats (another five species were observed only in photographs). Although taxon richness was high, the species diversity of these communities was relatively low due to the dominance in percentage abundance of a foraminiferan, Cibicides lobatulus (Walker and Jakob, 1798), and a serpulid polychaete, Bathyvermilia sp. (Zibrowius, 1973). The relationship between number of taxa and surface area of the stalks yielded a slope (z-value) typical of islands with a low rate of immigration. Three-dimensional complexity created by branching epifauna on the stalks provided more surface area and a variety of cryptic microhabitats. Vertical zonation on the stalks appeared to be controlled by biological interactions among species, with solitary fauna and certain functional groups of colonial organisms restricted by sheet-like colonial organisms that appeared to be dominant space competitors. Received: 13 April 2000 / Accepted: 9 November 2000     

Life cycle ofRhopilema nomadica: a new immigrant scyphomedusan in the Mediterranean

Rhopilema nomadica is an Indopacific scyphomedusan, which has migrated into the eastern Mediterranean in recent years. Large aggregations of the medusae were recorded in Haifa Bay, Israel, reaching 5.5×10⁵ medusae per square nautical mile during summer 1989. The life cycle ofR. nomadica from planula to young medusa is described. Fertilization is external and planulae are formed within a few hours at 20°C. After settlement, polyps were fed withArtemia sp. nauplii and developed into polydisc strobilae within 45 d. The strobilation process was completed within 7 d, and the liberated ephyrae developed into young medusae within 2 mo. Asexual reproduction occurred mainly via podocyst formation. The population explosion ofR. nomadica could be attributed to its high reproductive potential.     

城市生活垃圾生命周期管理

生命周期评价是一种全面的环境管理工具,具有潜在的发展前景。０它通过对产品,产品系统,工艺活动整个生命周期的环境影响环境改善的机会进行评价。根据国际环境毒理与化学学会１９９３年和ＩＳＯ１４０００环境管理体系中关于生命周期评价的技术框架,本文应生命周期评价在城市生产垃圾管理系统中的作用及管理系统的清单分析,影响评价和改善评价进行研究。     

Life history of the temperate subtidal gastropod Umbonium costatum

The life history and reproductive biology of the trochid sand snail Umbonium costatum (Kiener) were investigated on a subtidal sandy shore in Hakodate Bay, Japan between 1988 and 1991. Female U. costatum mature at 1 yr of age (shell diameter-11 mm), reproduce twice (in June-July and September-October) in successive years, grow to a maximum size (shell diameter=22 mm) at age 8 yr, increase annual fecundity with age from 2000 (age 1 yr) to 37000 (age 8 yr), and show a maximum monthly gonad somatic index of 8% which is constant among ages. In comparison to a previously studied life history of a tropical Umbonium vestiatium, temperate U. costatum shows more sustained growth and a longer life span after maturation. This could be explained by: (1) the optimal size model concerned with resource investment, in gametes (Sebens 1987); and by (2) bet hedging to compensate large variability in larval success at high latitudes. These two hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, but both are based on season-related extremes of environment at high latitudes where the period suitable for reproduction is short.     

当代公共生活面临的伦理困境研究

在当前中国社会转型时期,人们的生活方式、行为方式、价值规范和文化观念都发生了急剧的变化,使得公共生活产生了许多新的伦理问题,面临着新的伦理困境.主要表现在:一是"熟人社会"向"陌生人社会"转变,交往实践前所未有的拓宽了,信息交流产生不对称;二是社会公共生活在"情"和"理"之间矛盾增加;三是群己调适的问题凸显,在"群己"问题上更强调二者的合理性共存.参9.     

Life history trade-offs in tropical trees and lianas

It has been hypothesized that tropical trees partition forest light environments through a life history trade-off between juvenile growth and survival; however, the generality of this trade-off across life stages and functional groups has been questioned. We quantified trade-offs between growth and survival for trees and lianas on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama using first-year seedlings of 22 liana and 31 tree species and saplings (10 mm < dbh < 39 mm) of 30 tree species. Lianas showed trade-offs similar to those of trees, with both groups exhibiting broadly overlapping ranges in survival and relative growth rates as seedlings. Life history strategies at the seedling stage were highly correlated with those at the sapling stage among tree species, with all species showing an increase in survival with size. Only one of 30 tree species demonstrated a statistically significant ontogenetic shift, having a relatively lower survival rate at the sapling stage than expected. Our results indicate that similar life history trade-offs apply across two functional groups (lianas and trees), and that life history strategies are largely conserved across seedling and sapling life-stages for most tropical tree species.     

中国长江三角洲流域百菌清水生生物基准研究

通过生态毒理试验,获得百菌清对长江三角洲流域14种代表性水生生物的毒性数据。分别采用评价因子法、物种敏感度分布法和毒性百分数排序法,推导长江三角洲流域百菌清水生生物基准值。评价因子法、物种敏感度分布法和毒性百分数排序法得出的急性基准值分别是0.066μg·L~(-1)、3.00μg·L~(-1)和0.51μg·L~(-1),慢性基准值分别是0.0089μg·L~(-1)、0.40μg·L~(-1)和0.136μg·L~(-1)。比较了3种方法得出的基准值之间的差异并分析了原因,在此基础上,提出了我国长江三角洲流域百菌清水生生物基准推荐值,并与国外基准值进行了比较。研究结果可为中国农药水质标准制修订及水生生物风险评估提供科学依据。     

Life and Death in the Fast Lane: Demographic Consequences of Road Mortality in the Florida Scrub-Jay

Abstract: We examined the demographic consequences of road mortality in the cooperatively breeding Florida Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens ), a threatened species restricted to the oak scrub of peninsular Florida. Between May 1986 and July 1995 we monitored the survival and reproductive success of a color-banded population of jays along a two-lane highway at Archbold Biological Station. Annual mortality of breeding adults was 0.38 on road territories, significantly higher than the rate of 0.23 for breeders on nonroad territories. High mortality on road territories appeared to be a direct result of automobile traffic per se and not a consequence of road-induced changes in habitat characteristics. Mortality was especially high for immigrants without previous experience living along the road: in their first two years as breeders on road territories, naive immigrants experienced annual mortality of 0.50 and 0.45. From year 3 onward, however, annual mortality dropped to 0.29, not significantly different from the rate for birds on nonroad territories. This experience-dependent decline in road mortality could be caused either by surviving jays learning to avoid automobiles or by selective mortality operating through time (demographic heterogeneity). Proximity to the road had no effect on nesting success beyond its indirect effects on breeder experience and group size. Because the mortality of 30- to 90-day-old fledglings was significantly higher on road territories than on nonroad territories, however, breeder mortality greatly exceeded production of yearlings on road territories. Roadside territories therefore are sinks that can maintain populations of Florida Scrub-Jays only via immigration. Because Florida Scrub-Jays do not avoid roadside habitats and may even be attracted to them, road mortality presents a difficult challenge for the management and conservation of this threatened and declining species.     

Overcoming the inadequacy of single-criterion approaches to Life Cycle Assessment

In this work, the authors intend to introduce to the scientific community a novel integrated approach to environmental impact assessment, appropriately named SUstainability Multicriteria Multiscale Assessment (SUMMA). Its main objective is to overcome the inherent shortcomings of all single-criterion approaches, which constitute the vast majority of the Life Cycle Assessments performed to date in the scientific literature, and which invariably lead to partial and often misleading results. Furthermore, SUMMA is structured so as to enable a consistent sensitivity analysis of all the calculated impact indicators, a procedure that is of crucial importance for assessing the variability and reliability of the results, but which is only rarely adopted. The suggested framework is applied to selected case studies (coal gasification, bauxite mining, aluminium production and fuel cell manufacture), the results of which are discussed.     

Life cycle engineering im Automobilbau

Ecobalance represents the basic principle for an environmental analysis and the starting point for the possibility of achieving improvements. Using the criteria related to both technology and ecology, this method has been expanded upon by IKP/PE and, over the course of many years, has proven to be a satisfactory method for those fields associated with industry and research. Data banks and software systems have been designed and are today applied in industry. An expansion of the holistic balancing to include the ‘social’ dimension is currently being developed by the IKP. Today, ecological decisions in technically and economically-associated areas are continuously being developed which place more emphasis on the preliminary developments than on a purely retrospective analysis. Aside from the continuous, further developments of these types of analysis with regard to never technical questions as well as the integration of newer aspects of optimization based on life cycle information (e.g. production balancing), the goal of further work includes the preparation of process-chain information in the respective in preliminary developments related to the design. The automobile industry consequently plays a significant role here, as was also the case in the initial transformation of methodology which was carried out in the 1990s. Finally, these developments are additionally motivated through the new ordinances presented to be employed throughout the entire EU. The responsibility attributed to a product over the course of its entire lifetime therefore plays a more prominent role. This is also reflected in ordinances like those related to the redemption of old automobiles or in the WEEE of the electronics industry (Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment).