Field Surveys of Ozone Symptoms on Spontaneous Vegetation. Limitations and Potentialities of the European Programme

Within the European intensive forest monitoring programme, the native vegetation on permanent Level II plots has been monitored for visible ozone injuries. The main purpose of the programme is to assess the potential risks for the forest vegetation and the natural ecosystems at the intensive monitoring plots. During the first years of the programme the surveys were qualitative, reporting only the number and the name of the symptomatic species in selected Light Exposed Sampling Site. In 2003 a new plot design was tested, based on the distribution of a number of miniplots along the edge of the forest, so as to obtain quantitative findings about the occurrence and distribution of the symptoms. The problems that still persist are related to: (i) the forest edge assessed for ozone symptoms may have a different floristic composition from the Level II plot itself; (ii) the anthropic pressure and the disturbances affecting the forest edge alters the floristic composition; (iii) the variability of the plant composition in the forest edge, which makes comparability difficult between different sites; and (iv) the evaluation of symptoms in several species that have not yet been experimentally tested. Further difficulties are due to the fact that symptoms observed in the field are often aspecific and cannot, therefore, be attributed solely to the phytotoxic action of ozone. To improve the effectiveness of the European programme, it is necessary: (i) to individualise and select common sensitive plant species for homogeneous ecological regions; (ii) to enhance experimental activities to test the sensitivity of a large number of plant species.     

Ecotoxicological Classification of the Berlin River System Using Bioassays in Respect to the European Water Framework Directive

Bioassays as well as biochemical responses (biomarkers) in ecosystems due to environmental stress provide us with signals (environmentally signalling) of potential damage in the environment. If these responses are perceived in this early stage in ecosystems, the eventual damage can be prevented. Once ecosystem damage has occurred, the remedial action processes for recovery could be expensive and pose certain logistical problems. Ideally, “early warning signals” in ecosystems using sensing systems of biochemical responses (biomarkers) would not only tell us the initial levels of damage, but these signals will also provide us with answers by the development of control strategies and precautionary measures in respect to the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). Clear technical guidelines or technical specifications on monitoring are necessary to establish and characterise reference conditions for use in an ecological status classification system for surface water bodies. For the Ecotoxicological Risk Assessment (ERA) of endocrine effects we used an approach of the exposure – dose – response concept. Based on the “Ecototoxicological Classification System of Sediments” that uses pT-values to classify effects in different river systems, we transferred the bio-monitoring data to the five-level ecological system of the WFD. To understand the complexity of the structure of populations and processes behind the health of populations, communities and ecosystems an ERA should establish links between natural factors, chemicals, and biological responses so as to assess causality. So, our ecological monitoring assessment has incorporated exposure & effects data.     

Fucus spiralis as monitoring tool of metal contamination in the northwest coast of Portugal under the European Water Framework Directives

Metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) in coastal seawaters and soft tissues of macroalga Fucus spiralis from the northwest coast of Portugal were determined to assess spatial variations of metal bioavailabilities and bioaccumulation factors to compare different ecological quality classifications. Both coastal seawaters and soft tissues of F. spiralis showed significant spatial variations in their metal concentrations along the coast. The macroalgae F. spiralis accumulated more efficiently Cd, Mn and Zn and showed low bioaccumulation factors to Cr, Cu and Fe. Regarding the metal guidelines of the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority, the entire northwest (NW) coast of Portugal in April 2013 should be classified as ‘class I—unpolluted’ for all metals, except in Ave for Cu (‘class II—moderately polluted’) and Cavado for Cd and Cu (‘class II—moderately polluted’), revealing the low metal bioavailabilities of these seawaters. As there were always significant positive correlations between all metals in seawaters and F. spiralis, this macroalga species was considered a suitable monitoring tool of metal contamination in the NW coast of Portugal and a useful aquatic organism to be included in the European Environmental Specimen Banks in order to establish a real-time environmental monitoring network under the European Water Framework Directives.     

Classification and management issues of Greek lakes under the European Water Framework Directive: a DPSIR approach

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes a framework for the protection of water bodies. The aim of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is to ensure sustainable management of groundwater, freshwater and marine water in the European Union, such that a minimum "good ecological status" will be obtained by 2015. We used background morphometric, hydrologic, physico-chemical and biological data, in order to highlight the ecological status of the natural Greek lakes using also the Driving-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) approach in order to link the driving forces and further the pressures with the present state of the lakes' ecosystems. In addition detailed biodiversity and habitat typology data are provided. The assessment of the DPSIR approach under the view of WFD provided a quite clear identification of pressures and the subsequent impacts of the qualitative status of the Greek lakes.     

Biomonitoring in the protected areas of the Czech Republic

The purpose of the biomonitoring project in the Nature Conservancy in the Czech Republic is to obtain information on long-term development of some selected living components of ecosystems in protected areas. A survey of methods was conducted to select the monitoring areas as well as to study birds, epigean, vegetation and water communities (a minimal programme). A system for the monitoring areas and data storage and processing (to gather a body of evidence) was established. Simultaneously, close linkage with abiotic factor monitoring is planned. The project has been carried out by the Czech Institute for Nature Conservation.     

Monitoring of ozone effects on the vitality and increment of Norway spruce and European beech in the Central European forests

The ozone effect on Norway spruce (Picea abies (L) Karst.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) was studied on 48 monitoring plots in 2005-2008. These plots represent two major forest tree species stands of different ages in eight regions of the Czech Republic. The forest conditions were represented by defoliation and the annual radial increment of individual trees. The ozone exposure was assessed by using modeled values of mean annual O(3) concentration and the AOT40 index. The malondialdehyde (MDA) content of the foliage was analysed and used as an indicator of oxidative stress. The correlation analysis showed a significant relation of Norway spruce defoliation to the AOT40 exposure index, and European beech defoliation to the MDA level. The radial increment response to ozone was significant only for the European beech: (a) the correlation analysis showed its decrease with increasing AOT40; (b) the regression model showed its decrease with increasing mean annual ozone concentration only at lower altitudes (<700 m a.s.l.).     

Assessing the Impact of Carbon Tax Differentiation in the European Union

To what extent do the welfare costs associated with the implementation of the Burden Sharing Agreement in the European Union depend on sectoral allocation of emissions rights? What are the prospects for strategic climate policy to favor domestic production? This paper attempts to answer those questions using a CGE model featuring a detailed representation of the European economies. First, numerical simulations show that equalizing marginal abatement costs across domestic sectors greatly reduces the burden of the emissions constraint but also that other allocations may be preferable for some countries because of pre-existing tax distortions. Second, we show that the effect of a single country's attempt to undertake a strategic policy to limit impacts on its domestic energy-intensive industries has mixed effects. Exempting energy-intensive industries from the reduction program is a costly solution to maintain the international competitiveness of these industries; a tax-cum-subsidy approach is shown to be better than exemption policy to sustain exports. The welfare impact either policy – exemption or subsidy – on other European countries is likely to be small because of general equilibrium effects.     

Basal soil monitoring scheme in the protected areas of the Czech Republic

The purpose and aims of environmental monitoring are discussed, particularly in the context of soils as part of the environment, and examples of such schemes currently in operation within Europe are outlined. These are compared with the Basal Soil Monitoring Scheme (BSMS) in the Czech Republic which is the product of collaboration between the Ministries of Agriculture and the Environment and five agricultural, forestry and environmental research institutes. The BSMS consists of over 250 monitoring plots covering three distinct land uses: agriculture, forestry and environmentally protected areas. Each land use class has its own subsystem of monitoring plots which together comprise the whole system. The main principles and methodologies employed in the environmentally protected areas of the Czech Republic are described in some detail.     

Strategies used to Guide the Design and Implementation of a National River Monitoring Programme in South Africa

This article explores the strategies that were, and are being, used to facilitate the transition from scientific developmentto operational application of the South African River Health Programme (RHP). Theoretical models from the field of the management of technology are used to provide insight into the dynamics that influence the relationship between the creation and application of environmental programmes, and the RHP in particular. Four key components of the RHP design are analysed,namely the (a) guiding team, (b) concepts, tools and methods, (c) infra-structural innovations and (d) communication. These key components evolved over three broad life stages of the programme, which are called the design, growth and anchoring stages.     

西藏自治区“十二五”和“十三五”环境空气质量变化特征

"十二五"以来中国先后颁布了一系列大气污染防治政策并实施相应的大气污染治理措施以提高环境空气质量。为研究西藏自治区"十二五"(2011-2015年)和"十三五"(2016 -2020年)时期环境空气质量变化状况,评估大气污染防治措施实施效果,笔者对2011-2020年西藏自治区7个城市(地区)主要大气污染物浓度和优良天数比例变化进行分析。结果表明:随着一系列大气污染防治措施的实施,西藏自治区环境空气质量显著提升,与"十二五"时期相比,"十三五"时期西藏自治区年平均优良天数比例由97.5%±2.0%提升至99.3%±0.4%,SO₂、 NO₂、 PM₁₀、 PM_2.5浓度年均值和CO 浓度第95百分位数均呈下降趋势,其中CO、PM₁₀和PM_2.5浓度下降幅度较大,O₃日最大8h滑动平均值第90百分位数略有上升。西藏自治区环境空气质量与人口、经济发展程度呈负相关关系。受污染源排放、气象条件和区域传输等因素影响,西藏自治区O₃浓度春、夏季较高,而其余污染物浓度冬季较高。     

Chemistry of lakes in designated wilderness areas in the western United States

A synoptic survey of 719 lakes representing an estimated 10,393 lakes in mountainous areas of the western United States was conducted in autumn 1985. Nearly two-thirds of the study lakes were located in wilderness areas or national parks and were sampled by ground access. The results of a comparability study of 45 wilderness lakes accessed by helicopter and ground crews indicated that the data were generally indistinguishable, making it possible to use data from lakes sampled by ground crews without modification. Wilderness lakes had lower acid neutralizing capacity (ANC), base cations, sulfate, and dissolved organic carbon than nonwilderness lakes throughout the West. The highest estimated number (849) and percentage (42.1) of low ANC (50 eq L^-1) wilderness lakes were located in California; the lowest number (66) was located in the Southern Rockies. The Sierra Nevada contained an estimated 808 low ANC lakes, representing the largest subpopulation of low ANC lakes associated with an individual mountain range in the West. Wilderness lakes in selected geographic areas of the Rocky Mountains generally contained higher concentrations of major ions than lakes in the far West and the concentrations generally increased from the Northern to the Southern Rockies. Comparison of wilderness lakes in the West with lakes in the Adirondack Park, New York, and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area/Voyagers National Park in Northeastern Minnesota showed that western lakes are highly sensitive resources that currently exhibit little evidence of anthropogenic acidification. Although wilderness lakes do not exhibit symptoms of chronic acidification, short-term depression of pH and ANC from snowmelt and thunderstorms occur and episodic acidification influenced by anthropogenic sources cannot be discounted on the basis of this survey.Contribution from Fourth World Wilderness Congress-Acid Rain Symposium, Denver (Estes Park), Colorado, September 11–18, 1987.     

Exploring the utility of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Posidonia oceanica</Emphasis> chlorophyll fluorescence as an indicator of water quality within the European Water Framework Directive

The European Water Framework Directive commits partner countries to evolve uniform protocols for monitoring the environmental condition of natural water bodies, crucially integrating biological and ecological criteria from the associated ecosystems. This has encouraged considerable research on the development of bioindicator-based systems of water quality monitoring. A critical step towards this end is providing evidence that the proposed bioindicator system adequately reflects the human pressures to which a specific water body is submitted. Here we investigate the utility of pulse-amplitude-modulated (PAM) fluorometry, a fast, non-destructive and increasingly popular bioindicator-based method, in assessing water quality based on the widespread Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica, an important constituent of submersed benthic vegetation. Specifically, we evaluated the ability of PAM to discriminate between sites along a pre-established gradient of anthropogenic pressures and the consistency and reliability of PAM parameters across spatial scales. Our results show that the maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm), representing the structural photosynthetic efficiency of the plant, responds significantly to the degree of site-level anthropogenic pressure. However, Fv/Fm values in our study increased with increasing pressure, in striking contrast with other studies that report declines in Fv/Fm values with increasing stress. A potential explanation for this discrepancy is that our study sites were influenced by multiple diffuse stressors (characteristic of most coastal waters) that could potentially interact with each other to influence Fv/Fm values in often unpredictable ways. The photosynthetic variables calculated from rapid light curves (ETR_max, maximum electron transport rate; α, initial slope of the curve; I _k, saturating irradiance), which represent an instant picture of the photosynthetic activity of the plant, were unable to clearly discriminate between sites subject to different anthropogenic pressures due to considerable small-scale variability. Taken together, these results suggest that even though PAM fluorometry may be a good candidate tool for monitoring water bodies in terms of costs and applicability, considerably more needs to be understood about how its parameters respond to real-world stressors, particularly when they act in concert with each other. With our present understanding of seagrass photosynthetic responses to anthropogenic stress, it would be ill advised to employ PAM as anything but a complementary tool to validate environmental stress derived with other, more robust methodologies.     

Monitoring the effect of urban green areas on the heat island in Athens

The role of urban green areas in the microclimatic conditions of cities, during summer, is investigated in this paper through monitoring campaigns carried out at the National garden, at the city centre of Athens. Two types of investigations were carried out: i) a microscopic one that investigated the thermal conditions inside the Garden and the immediate surrounding urban area and ii) a macroscopic one that compared the temperature profile of the Garden with that of the greater city centre area. It was concluded that in microscopic level, the temperature profile inside the National Garden and the immediate surrounding urban area did not showed a clear evidence of the influence of the Garden and it was dependent on the characteristics of each location. In a macroscopic scale, the Garden was found cooler than the other monitored urban locations and temperature differences were mainly greater during the night, especially in streets with high building height to street width (H/W) ratio and low traffic, while in streets with high anthropogenic heat during the day, the biggest temperature differences were recorded during the day.     

Occurrence of potential bacterial pathogens in coastal areas of the Adriatic Sea

A monitoring program was carried out in bathing waters along the sea-coast of the Adriatic Sea. The investigation was aimedat obtaining a quali-quantitative picture of microorganisms ofanthropic origin and of a more strictly autochthonous origin and at verifying the existence of possible reciprocal correlations and combinations of relationship between them. Results showed that the concentrations of indicators of faecal contamination, whether within or over the values established by legislation, are not always related to the presence and density of microorganisms of environmental origin but the regression modelsused can help to describe how these latter microorganisms can bein relation to levels of the other parameters. The difficultyis evident of the predictability of health effects swimming-associated; for this reason more complex models that are currently used should be taken into account for minimising the risk for bathers.     

PM10 Chemical Model Simulations Over Northern Italy in the Framework of the CityDelta Exercise

Within the framework of CityDelta open model inter-comparison exercise, two different atmospheric chemical transport models, comprehensive air quality model with extension and transport chemical aerosol model, have been applied over a domain centred on Milan (North of Italy) as a result of a cooperation of five Italian groups. The two models have shared the same input fields for yearly PM10 simulations. The paper illustrates the analysis of the particulate matter-simulated concentrations and the comparison with the available experimental data.     

Landscape changes of desertification in arid areas: the case of south-west Algeria

This study aims to monitor the arid Algerian High Plateaus, a key region for pastoral activities which has suffered harsh and widespread degradation from the eighties. This area is not sufficiently known by the international scientific community. For this purpose, we considered phytoecological inventories and thematic maps that have been carried out during 30 years. Available data for the study are vegetation maps derived from aerial photographs (1975-1978) and from satellite imagery (2006). The parameters considered include vegetation, flora, and soil surface properties. The study area is part of the ROSELT/OSS (ROSELT: Réseau d'Observatoires de Surveillance Ecologique à Long Terme (Long Term Ecological Monitoring Observatories Network); OSS: Observatory of the Sahara and the Sahel) network observatory (OSS 2008). To assess land degradation, we used landscape ecology parameters. These include the number and surface area of vegetation units, synthesized by the large patch index and the Shannon landscape diversity index. All parameters reflect an increase in landscape heterogeneity. The largest decline is observed for Stipa tenacissima vegetation units constituting 2/3 of the landscape in 1978 and occupied just 1/10 in 2006. Vegetation units linked to degradation, such those dominated by Salsola vermiculata, inexistent in 1978, now dominate the steppe. Another result of the ongoing landscape degradation on the plateaus between 1975 and 2006 is the decrease of vegetation cover. In 1978, 1/3 of rangelands only had low vegetation covers, inferior to 15%. Presently 9/10 present the same class cover. This can be explained by severe spells of drought combined by an exponential rise of livestock during the last 30 years. This has in turn greatly undermined the fodder potential of the steppe. Results suggest that the "greening-up" described by several authors in the Sahel over the last 40 years is not observed in the Algerian, nor in the North African steppes. On the contrary, the desertification is still ongoing and the threshold of irreversibility seems to be imminent.     

Organochlorine pesticide residues in drinking water in the rural areas of Haryana,India

Drinking water samples collected from rural areas of three districts of Haryana during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods were analysed for the presence of organochlorine pesticide residues. The main source of drinking water in rural areas, i.e. groundwater in Ambala and Gurgaon districts and surface water supply in Hisar district, was found to be contaminated with isomers of HCH and endosulfan and metabolites of DDT, whereas dieldrin remained below detection limits. During the study period, the mean values observed for total HCH, DDT and endosulfan were 87.6, 848.2, and 27.4 ng/L and 99.8, 275.3 and 164.2 ng/L, respectively, for Ambala and Gurgaon districts. In the case of Hisar district, the values were 78.5, 115.9, and 53.0 ng/L, respectively. During the study period, 37% of the samples exceeded the total pesticide level of 500 ng/L indicated in the EECD directive for drinking water. Seasonal variations of pesticide residues were also observed during the study period.     

化工园区恶臭异味管控技术框架初探

针对当前化工园区面临异味投诉问题的迫切挑战,探索一套以监测设备为基础、信息平台为手段和管控服务为核心的新技术框架,既有助于企业达标排放,又推动了园区环境质量持续改善。阐述了从国家到园区层面异味管控模式的三大目标,以如东化工园区为例,从设计有效技术框架、筛选异味优控因子、建设监测站点、搭建信息平台和建立管控服务等方面对技术框架进行了探讨;其次,基于“设备+平台+服务”综合管控模式,实现如东化工园区环境效益、经济效益和社会效益的有机统一;此外,为深化和推广如东化工园区异味管控模式,提出建立“点—线—面”监测网络、一体化管理平台和运维服务机制等建议,以期为我国化工园区恶臭异味管控提供参考。     

Use of the environmentally sensitive areas rule by county governments in Washington State

The Washington SEPA empowers local governments with the responsibility of reviewing otherwise exempt proposals which could affect important natural resources. Most county governments have not used the ESA system, but reasons have varied from counties which have legal review systems in place, and for which non-use of the SEPA provision is a technicality, to counties which simply do not recognize ESAs. Most counties recognize some important fragile resources, and in one form or another attempt to influence land uses which could diminish those resources or cause public harm. The question remains as to whether the review process in each county includes a comprehensive approach to “… places with unstable soils, steep slopes, unusual or unique plants or animals, wetlands, or areas which lie within floodplains” (WAC 197-11-908). Additionally, it is unclear if local governments are adequately maintaining natural resources within their jurisdictions in the public interest by using the current planning strategy. This study shows that a county level environmental review process for sensitive natural resources in Washington is highly inconsistent among counties in choice of resources for review consideration and in criteria used to define resources. A uniform statewide approach toward ESAs may be appropriate for resources such as wetlands and critical wildlife habitats which require ecologically consistent regional management.