Linking Land Cover and Water Quality in New York City’S Water Supply Watersheds

The Catskill/Delaware reservoirs supply 90% of New York City’s drinking water. The City has implemented a series of watershed protection measures, including land acquisition, aimed at preserving water quality in the Catskill/Delaware watersheds. The objective of this study was to examine how relationships between landscape and surface water measurements change between years. Thirty-two drainage areas delineated from surface water sample points (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and fecal coliform bacteria concentrations) were used in step-wise regression analyses to test landscape and surface-water quality relationships. Two measurements of land use, percent agriculture and percent urban development, were positively related to water quality and consistently present in all regression models. Together these two land uses explained 25 to 75% of the regression model variation. However, the contribution of agriculture to water quality condition showed a decreasing trend with time as overall agricultural land cover decreased. Results from this study demonstrate that relationships between land cover and surface water concentrations of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and fecal coliform bacteria counts over a large area can be evaluated using a relatively simple geographic information system method. Land managers may find this method useful for targeting resources in relation to a particular water quality concern, focusing best management efforts, and maximizing benefits to water quality with minimal costs.The United States Environmental Protection Agency through its Office of Research and Development funded and managed the research described here. It has been subjected to Agency’s administrative review and approved for publication as an EPA document.     

ECONOMIC POLICIES FOR REGULATING AGRICULTURAL DRAINAGE WATER1

ABSTRACT: Agricultural drainage water is a major source of environmental pollution in many areas. This paper reviews the literature on the economics of nonpoint-source pollution and applies it to the regulation of agricultural drainage water. Four types of regulatory policies are considered. The empirical analysis is carried out for cotton production in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Variable inputs are the quantity of water applied and the type of irrigation system. All four policies can achieve economic efficiency under the conditions assumed here, but the policies differ in terms of the distributional impacts and administrative requirements.     

Effect of Macroalgal Expansion and Marine Protected Areas on Coral Recovery Following a Climatic Disturbance

Disturbance plays an important role in structuring marine ecosystems, and there is a need to understand how conservation practices, such as the designation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), facilitate postdisturbance recovery. We evaluated the association of MPAs, herbivorous fish biomass, substrate type, postdisturbance coral cover, and change in macroalgal cover with coral recovery on the fringing reefs of the inner Seychelle islands, where coral mortality after a 1998 bleaching event was extensive. We visually estimated benthic cover and fish biomass at 9 sites in MPAs where fishing is banned and at 12 sites where fishing is permitted in 1994, 2005, 2008, and 2011. We used analysis of variance to examine spatial and temporal variations in coral cover and generalized additive models to identify relations between coral recovery and the aforementioned factors that may promote recovery. Coral recovery occurred on all substrate types, but it was highly variable among sites and times. Between 2005 and 2011 the increase in coral cover averaged 1%/year across 21 sites, and the maximum increase was 4%/year. However, mean coral cover across the study area (14%) remained at half of 1994 levels (28%). Sites within MPAs had faster rates of coral recovery than sites in fished areas only where cover of macroalgae was low and had not increased over time. In MPAs where macroalgae cover expanded since 1998 there was no recovery. Where coral was recovering on granite reefs there was a shift in relative prevalence of colony life‐form from branching to encrusting species. This simplification of reef structure may affect associated reef fauna even if predisturbance levels of coral cover are attained. Efecto de la Expansión de Macroalgas y Áreas Marinas Protegidas sobre la Recuperación de Coral Después de una Perturbación Climática     

The European Commission's sustainable consumption and production and sustainable industrial policy action plan

The promotion of sustainable consumption and production patterns is enshrined as a key objective in the renewed European Union Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS). Sustainable consumption and production is arguably the most challenging aspect of the EU SDS. It requires changes to the way products and services are designed, produced, used and disposed of, taking into account producer and consumer behaviours. This paper reviews the European Commission's Communication on the sustainable consumption and production and sustainable industrial policy action plan, introduced on July 16, 2008. The paper examines the priority areas identified for action, the means adopted to improve energy and environmental performance of products as well as uptake by consumers. The paper concludes that the absence of mandatory quantifiable targets and deadlines and a reliance on both cross-sectoral and multi-level relationships are likely to weaken the ability of the action plan's fundamental objective of decoupling economic growth from resource use.     

Persistent organic pollutants in Antarctica: current and future research priorities

As Antarctica's pivotal role in influencing global climate processes gains increasing attention so too does public and scientific interest in the general state of Antarctic ecosystem health as a function of multiple stressors, including contamination by anthropogenic chemicals. Persistent organic pollutant (POP) research internationally has sought to elucidate the impacts of an ever increasing diversity of POPs on the environment. The challenges of this research are compounded in the Antarctic context, by key gaps in historical data and our understanding of chemical behaviour in polar landscapes. In order to ensure maximum longevity and value of research outputs, efforts must be centred upon addressing these research gaps. Ultimately, Antarctic POP research will benefit from co-ordinated investment into spatially and temporally comprehensive research and monitoring efforts such as those responsible for the continued progress of this research field in the Arctic and other global regions.     

高效液相色谱与电感耦合等离子体质谱联用测定矿泉水中的三价铬与六价铬

由于铬在各种工业生产中应用广泛,加之来源于自然界中铬的腐蚀,使得铬在环境中普遍存在.因此,对环境、食品以及水资源中的铬进行监测,并以此评价由于铬暴露所造成的潜在危害是至关重要的.Cr(Ⅲ)和Cr(Ⅵ)在价态上的差异导致其在毒性、反应活性以及生物可利用性方面存在显著不同,因此,对于铬的价态区分显得十分重要.Cr(Ⅲ)是人体的必需元素,它在葡萄糖、蛋白质以及脂肪代谢等生命活动中扮演着很重要的角色,对于成人而言,Cr(Ⅲ)的每日推荐摄取量为50到200μg;急性动物实验表明,Cr(Ⅲ)若经口摄入,会产生中等毒性,而对于Cr(Ⅵ),由于其强的氧化性,误食或者吸入后将对人体产生非常大的毒害,有证据表明,一定量的Cr(Ⅵ)暴露能刺激皮肤、鼻、眼睛以及咽喉;严重时会造成肺和肾脏循环系统以及神经组织的损害,甚至引起呼吸系统方面的癌症,鉴于此,世界卫生组织(WHO)推荐饮用水中Cr(Ⅵ)的最大允许浓度为0.05 mg·l-1,美国环境保护署(EPA)和欧盟(EU)各自颁布法令规定饮用水中总铬含量最大容许浓度分别为0.1和0.05 mg·l-1.     

Ocean acidification: assessing the vulnerability of socioeconomic systems in Small Island Developing States

Regional Environmental Change - Ocean acidification poses an increasing threat to marine ecosystems and also interacts with other anthropogenic environmental drivers. A planned response strategy...     

Watershed vulnerability predictions for the Ozarks using landscape models

Forty-six broad-scale landscape metrics derived from commonly used landscape metrics were used to develop potential indicators of total phosphorus (TP) concentration, total ammonia (TA) concentration, and Escherichia coli bacteria count among 244 sub-watersheds of the Upper White River (Ozark Mountains, USA). Indicator models were developed by correlating field-based water quality measurements and contemporaneous remote-sensing-based ecological metrics using partial least squares (PLS) analyses. The TP PLS model resulted in one significant factor explaining 91% of the variability in surface water TP concentrations. Among the 18 contributing landscape model variables for the TP PLS model, the proportions of a sub-watershed that are barren and in human use were key indicators of water chemistry in the associated sub-watersheds. The increased presence and reduced fragmentation of forested areas are negatively correlated with TP concentrations in associated sub-watersheds, particularly within close proximity to rivers and streams. The TA PLS model resulted in one significant factor explaining 93% of the variability in surface water TA concentrations. The eight contributing landscape model variables for the TA PLS model were among the same forest and urban metrics for the TP model, with a similar spatial gradient trend in relationship to distance from streams and rivers within a sub-watershed. The E. coli PLS model resulted in two significant factors explaining 99.7% of the variability in E. coli cell count. The 17 contributing landscape model variables for the E. coli PLS model were similar to the TP and TA models. The integration of model results demonstrates that forest, riparian, and urban attributes of sub-watersheds affect all three models. The results provide watershed managers in the Ozark Mountains with a broad-scale vulnerability prediction tool, focusing on TP, TA, and E. coli, and are being used to prioritize and evaluate monitoring and restoration efforts in the vicinity of the White River, a major tributary to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico.