Dissolved organic carbon fluxes under bare soil

The flux of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in soil facilitates transport of nutrients and contaminants in soil. There is little information on DOC fluxes and the relationship between DOC concentration and water flux in agricultural soils. The DOC fluxes and concentrations were measured during 2.5 yr using 30 automatic equilibrium tension plate lysimeters (AETPLs) at 0.4 m and 30 AETPLs at 1.20-m depth in a bare luvisol, previously used as an arable soil. Average annual DOC fluxes of the 30 AETPLS were 4.9 g C m(-2) y(-1) at 0.4 m and 2.4 g C m(-2) y(-1) at 1.2 m depth. The average leachate DOC concentrations were 17 mg C L(-1) (0.4 m) and 9 mg C L(-1) (1.2 m). The DOC concentrations were unrelated to soil moisture content or average temperature and rarely dropped below 9 mg C L(-1) (0.4 m) and 5 mg C L(-1) (1.2 m). The variability in cumulative DOC fluxes among the plates was positively related to leachate volume and not to average DOC concentrations at both depths. This suggests that water fluxes are the main determinants of spatial variability in DOC fluxes. However, the largest DOC concentrations were inversely proportional to the mean water velocity between succeeding sampling periods, suggesting that the maximal net DOC mobilization rate in the topsoil is limited. Elevated DOC concentrations, up to 90 mg C L(-1), were only observed at low water velocities, reducing the risks of DOC-facilitated transport of contaminants to groundwater. The study emphasizes that water flux and velocity are important parameters for DOC fluxes and concentrations.     

Support,shape and number of replicate samples for tree foliage analysis

Many fundamental features of a sampling program are determined by the heterogeneity of the object under study and the settings for the error (alpha), the power (beta), the effect size (ES), the number of replicate samples, and sample support, which is a feature that is often overlooked. The number of replicates, alpha, beta, ES, and sample support are interconnected. The effect of the sample support and its shape on the required number of replicate samples was investigated by means of a resampling method. The method was applied to a simulated distribution of Cd in the crown of a Salix fragilis L. tree. Increasing the dimensions of the sample support results in a decrease in the variance of the element concentration under study. Analysis of the variance is often the foundation of statistical tests, therefore, valid statistical testing requires the use of a fixed sample support during the experiment. This requirement might be difficult to meet in time-series analyses and long-term monitoring programs. Sample supports have their largest dimension in the direction with the largest heterogeneity, i.e. the direction representing the crown height, and this will give more accurate results than supports with other shapes. Taking the relationships between the sample support and the variance of the element concentrations in tree crowns into account provides guidelines for sampling efficiency in terms of precision and costs. In terms of time, the optimal support to test whether the average Cd concentration of the crown exceeds a threshold value is 0.405 m3 (alpha = 0.05, beta = 0.20, ES = 1.0 mg kg(-1) dry mass). The average weight of this support is 23 g dry mass, and 11 replicate samples need to be taken. It should be noted that in this case the optimal support applies to Cd under conditions similar to those of the simulation, but not necessarily all the examinations for this tree species, element, and hypothesis test.     

Response of native plants of northeastern United States and southern Spain to ozone exposures; determining exposure/response relationships

Tropospheric ozone has been identified as the most important regional scale air pollutant across much of eastern United States of America and many areas of Mediterranean climes in southern Europe. Recent field surveys in the northeastern USA and in southeastern Spain have revealed many additional plant species that exhibit symptoms typical of ozone-induced injuries. Objectives of this study were to confirm ozone as the cause of the observed foliar symptoms, determine ozone induced exposure/response relationships, and identify possible bio-indicator species. Thirteen native species of northeastern USA and 27 native species of southeastern Spain were selected for study. Plant species were exposed to ozone within 16 CSTR chambers in a greenhouse during the summer seasons of 2000 and 2001; ozone exposures of 30, 60, 90, and 120 ppb were delivered for 7 h/day, 5 days/week. Results have confirmed that with few exceptions, symptoms observed in the field were induced by exposures to ambient ozone. Species differed significantly in terms of the exposures required for the initiation of visible symptoms and subsequent injury progression.     

The ‘new’ economics of iron and steel

The author commences his analysis of the iron and steel industry by examining the historical background of the industry, and discusses its importance for the world economy. He examines the implications for the world industry of the successful development of the steel industry in Japan, and traces the evolution of a commodity cartel in the iron ore market, analysing the price levels of the commodity in the ‘free’ and ‘controlled’ markets. Following a discussion of the role of energy and coking coal supplies in the industry, the author examines the evolution of this industry in the less developed countries, with particular reference to the role of technology in the industry's development. He concludes that there have been important structural changes in the world industry, embraced by the concept of ‘partial demise’.     

EU sustainable development indicators: An overview

The European Union's commitment to sustainable development at the 1992 Earth Summit resulted in an EU‐wide sustainable development strategy, adopted in Gothenburg in 2001. This article presents an overview of the set of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) recently adopted by the European Commission to monitor, assess and revise the strategy. It provides a critical assessment of the current status of the indicator set, and reviews the main policy trends in the areas of the strategy through a brief analysis of headline indicators, placing energy and climate change issues in a broader perspective. Finally, the article compares the energy SDIs to the recent inter‐agency energy indicators for sustainable development (EISD), underlining their similarities as well as their different priorities and objectives. The article concludes that further research is needed to improve the SDI set and further explore the linkages between themes.