A synopsis of the book Striking a balance: improvingstewardship of marine areas(by the U. S. National Research Council the operating arm of the U. S National Academiesof Science and Engineering)

Sustainable use of the planet will require a more robust regulatory and management framework for marine areas as advances in offshore technology and changes in market conditions lead to an increase in coastal populations and marine recreation and tourism. Although each area of the world presents unique problems, many principles of stewardship, which can appropriately modified, will serve well anywhere on the planet. The purpose of this brief synopsis is to share these principles ot stewardship with colleagues in China. This volume (Striking a balance: improving stewardship of marine areas) notes:" In addition to the governance problems created by multiple nonmarket uses of marine resources and maintaining access to them, existing systems have two fundamental problems first, fragmentation among federal and local agencies and second, not enough participation and coordination of interests at the local level"( p. 4 ). Although this book focuses on marine ecosystems associated with the United States coastline( such as the Gulf of maine/Massachusetts Bay, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary/Florida Bay ecosystem, and the Southern California coast), the issues, the problems, and strategies should be, with minor adjustments, fully applicable anywhere in the world. The following general elements of the framework for improved governance and management of marine areas are given as recommendations(p. 5)[Comments given in brackets are those of the author].     

Interactions of copper,cadmium and molybdenum in buffalo calves:the levels of trace element in blood,urine and tissues

Ten male buffalo calves were randomly allotted into five groups of two each. Four groups were fed with cadmium, molybdenum, cadmium-molybdenum, and copper-cadmium-molybdenum respectively for 130 days to determine the elements' metabolic interactions in calves. These results indicated that cadmium and molybdenum could increase the accumulation of molybdenum and cadmium in liver and kidneys in buffalo calves, but copper could not. reduce to normal the levels of molybdenum and cadmium in liver and kidneys caused by cadmium-molybdenum. In addition, we found the copper concentrations in liver and kindeys was significantly greater in treatment calves than in controls.     

Article 3.3 and 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol: consequences for industrialised countries’ commitment,the monitoring needs,and possible side effects

In the Kyoto Protocol, industrialised countries have agreed to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. To achieve that target, direct human induced activities initiated in the Land-use Change and Forestry sector since 1990, shall be included. However, the wording in the Protocol has caused confusion. The IPCC has been requested to deliver a Special Report on Land-use, Land-use Change and Forestry issues arising from this Protocol. In the present study a limited initial assessment of the implications of alternative interpretations of Afforestation, Reforestation and Deforestation (ARD), addition of the soils compartment, the selection of additional activities, and feasibility of monitoring was done for a limited number of countries.The results show that it is possible to keep the biosphere articles in the Protocol even though we had to make several assumptions concerning for example, areas of application and effectiveness of additional activities. The consequences of alternative interpretations for ARD have a large impact on the countries’ assigned amount; varying from a compensation of 26% of total national emissions (Forestry interpretation for Sweden) to an addition of an extra 13% of the emissions (Global interpretation for Australia). Through selection of a large set of additional activities, most of the studied industrialised countries achieve more sequestration than the reduction of emissions they have committed themselves to. Methods for monitoring are available, but there is no one ideal method. Depending on scale and site: a combination of forest inventory with flux measurements and remote sensing is proposed.