Impacts of climate change on land-use and wetland productivity in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America

Wetland productivity in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America is closely linked to climate. A warmer and drier climate, as predicted, will negatively affect the productivity of PPR wetlands and the services they provide. The effect of climate change on wetland productivity, however, will not only depend on natural processes (e.g., evapotranspiration), but also on human responses. Agricultural land use, the predominant use in the PPR, is unlikely to remain static as climate change affects crop yields and prices. Land use in uplands surrounding wetlands will further affect wetland water budgets and hence wetland productivity. The net impact of climate change on wetland productivity will therefore depend on both the direct effects of climate change on wetlands and the indirect effects on upland land use. We examine the effect of climate change and land-use response on semipermanent wetland productivity by combining an economic model of agricultural land-use change with an ecological model of wetland dynamics. Our results suggest that the climate change scenarios evaluated are likely to have profound effects on land use in the North and South Dakota PPR, with wheat displacing other crops and pasture. The combined pressure of land-use and climate change significantly reduces wetland productivity. In a climate scenario with a +4 °C increase in temperature, our model predicts that almost the entire region may lack the wetland productivity necessary to support wetland-dependent species.     

Substance-related environmental monitoring strategies regarding soil, groundwater and surface water — an overview

Substance-related monitoring is an essential tool within environmental risk assessment processes. The soundness of policy decisions including risk management measures is often directly related to the reliability of the environmental monitoring programs. In addition, monitoring programs are required for identifying new and less-investigated pollutants of concern in different environmental media. Scientifically sound and feasible monitoring concepts strongly depend on the aim of the study. The proper definition of questions to be answered is thus of pivotal importance. Decisions on sample handling, storage and the analysis of the samples are important steps for the elaboration of problem-oriented monitoring strategies. The same applies to the selection of the sampling sites as being representative for scenarios to be investigated. These steps may become critical to handle for larger international monitoring programs and thus trigger the quality of their results. This study based on the work of an IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) task group addresses different kinds and approaches of substance-related monitoring of different compartments of soil, groundwater and surface water, and discusses their advantages and limitations. Further important aspects are the monitoring across policies and the monitoring data management using information systems.     

The Sampling and Electron Microscopy of Asbestos Aerosol in Ambient Air By Means of Nuclepore Filters

Despite the fact that adverse health effects of asbestos have been known since shortly after the turn of the century,¹ there has been little progress in techniques for determining the mineral in the airborne state. This absence of sampling and analysis methods appears to derive from two main sources: (1) In the environments of the asbestos using industries, asbestos concentrations tend to be high relative to other particulate species, and especially compared with other fibrous species, making estimation of concentration by microscopy relatively easy. (2) The term "asbestos" describes a crystal habit, not a chemical compound; therefore there is no unique chemical property of asbestos that can be used as the basis for its measurement. Interestingly, there appears to be no basis for distinguishing the health effects of one type of asbestos over another;² the physiological response seems more dependent on crystal habit than on composition.     

Air Emission Inventories in North America: A Critical Assessment

Abstract

Although emission inventories are the foundation of air quality management and have supported substantial improvements in North American air quality, they have a number of shortcomings that can potentially lead to ineffective air quality management strategies. Major reductions in the largest emissions sources have made accurate inventories of previously minor sources much more important to the understanding and improvement of local air quality. Changes in manufacturing processes, industry types, vehicle technologies, and metropolitan infrastructure are occurring at an increasingly rapid pace, emphasizing the importance of inventories that reflect current conditions. New technologies for measuring source emissions and ambient pollutant concentrations, both at the point of emissions and from remote platforms, are providing novel approaches to collecting data for inventory developers. Advances in information technologies are allowing data to be shared more quickly, more easily, and processed and compared in novel ways that can speed the development of emission inventories. Approaches to improving quantitative measures of inventory uncertainty allow air quality management decisions to take into account the uncertainties associated with emissions estimates, providing more accurate projections of how well alternative strategies may work. This paper discusses applications of these technologies and techniques to improve the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of emission inventories across North America and outlines a series of eight recommendations aimed at inventory developers and air quality management decision-makers to improve emission inventories and enable them to support effective air quality management decisions for the foreseeable future.     

Fractionation of technical p-nonylphenol with preparative capillary gas chromatography

A fractionation procedure for technical p-nonylphenol using preparative capillary gas chromatography (pcGC) was developed and evaluated for its potential applicability in effect-directed analysis (EDA). The instrument is composed of (1) a preparative unit equipped with a cold injection system (CIS), two preparative fraction collectors (PFCs) with six fraction traps each, and a flame ionization detector (FID) and (2) an analytical unit sharing the same GC oven and equipped with another CIS and mass spectrometric detection (MSD) for isomer identification. The pcGC methodology used in this study is characterized by a high reproducibility of retention times and peak areas. This provides the fractionation of nonylphenol isomers into 11 fractions containing 77-552microg of isomers collected after 600 single injections. This yield is sufficient to allow subsequent biotesting in the E-screen assay.     

Seasonal differences and within-canopy variations of antioxidants in mature spruce (Picea abies) trees under elevated ozone in a free-air exposure system

The effect of free-air ozone fumigation and crown position on antioxidants were determined in old-growth spruce (Picea abies) trees in the seasonal course of two consecutive years (2003 and 2004). Levels of total ascorbate and its redox state in the apoplastic washing fluid (AWF) were increased under double ambient ozone concentrations (2xO3), whilst ascorbate concentrations in needle extracts were unchanged. Concentrations of apoplastic and symplastic ascorbate were significantly higher in 2003 compared to 2004 indicating a combined effect of the drought conditions in 2003 with enhanced ozone exposure. Elevated ozone had only weak effects on total glutathione levels in needle extracts, phloem exudates and xylem saps. Total and oxidised glutathione concentrations were higher in 2004 compared to 2003 and seemed to be more affected by enhanced ozone influx in the more humid year 2004 compared to the combined effect of elevated ozone and drought in 2003 as observed for ascorbate.     

Langfristigkeit ?kosystemarer Forschung

Zusammenfassung  Nach wie vor findet der Faktor Zeit in den Umweltwissenschaften zu wenig Beachtung. Langfristige Beobachtungen und Me?reihen in der ?kologischen Forschung, wie sie für die Bewertung und Prognosen von Umweltzust?nden und-entwicklunger, unabdingbar w?ren, scheinen die Ausnahme zu sein. Besonders komplexe ?kosysteme, wie terrestrische oder marine Systeme, kennzeichnen sich auch durch l?ngere natürliche Eigenzeiten, die deshalb bei ihrer Erforschung berücksichtigt werden mü?ten. In diesem Zusammenhang soll verdeutlicht werden, welche Rolle zeitliche Parameter speziell in der terrestrischen ?kosystemforschung spielen. Zu diesem Zweck wurde eine Datenbank konzipiert, die Hauptcharakteristika von ?kosystemaren Analysen aufnehmen kann. Forschungsberichte verschiedener ?kosystemforschungszentren wurden zur Aufnahme in die Datenbank bearbeitet. Gezielte Abfragen auf den Datenpool erm?glichen dann eine Auswertung hinsichtlich der zeitlichen Ausrichtung bestimmter Untersuchungen. Dabei stellte sich — neben einer teilweisen Ungleichheit der Zeitskalen von Experiment und Realit?t — u.a. heraus, da? l?ngerfristige Untersuchungen ?u?erst selten durchgeführt werden. So vielf?ltig die Gründe für dieses Defizit auch sein m?gen, sie k?nnen nicht von der Forderung nach st?rkerer Berücksichtigung von langzeitlichen Beobachtungen ablenken, will die ?kosystemforschung die an sie gestellten Aufgaben erfüllen.      

Can current management maintain forest landscape multifunctionality in the Eastern Alps in Austria under climate change?

In Central Europe, management of forests for multiple ecosystem services (ES) has a long tradition and is currently drawing much attention due to increasing interest in non-timber services. In face of a changing climate and diverse ES portfolios, a key issue for forest managers is to assess vulnerability of ES provisioning. In a case study catchment of 250 ha in the Eastern Alps, the currently practiced uneven-aged management regime (BAU; business as usual) which is based on irregularly shaped patch cuts along skyline corridors was analysed under historic climate (represented by the period 1961–1990) and five transient climate change scenarios (period 2010–2110) and compared to an unmanaged scenario (NOM). The study addressed (1) the future provisioning of timber, carbon sequestration, protection against gravitational hazards, and nature conservation values under BAU management, (2) the effect of spatial scale (1, 5, 10 ha grain size) in mapping ES indicators and (3) how the spatial scale of ES assessment affects the simultaneous provision of several ES (i.e. multifunctionality). The analysis employed the PICUS forest simulation model in combination with novel landscape assessment tools. In BAU management, timber harvests were smaller than periodic increments. The resulting increase in standing stock benefitted carbon sequestration. In four out of five climate change scenarios, volume increment was increasing. With the exception of the mildest climate change scenario (+2.6 °C, no change in precipitation), all other analysed climate change scenarios reduced standing tree volume, carbon pools and number of large old trees, and increased standing deadwood volume due to an intensifying bark beetle disturbance regime. However, increases in deadwood and patchy canopy openings benefitted bird habitat quality. Under historic climate, the NOM regime showed better performance in all non-timber ES. Under climate change conditions, the damages from bark beetle disturbances increased more in NOM compared with BAU. Despite favourable temperature conditions in climate change scenarios, the share of admixed broadleaved species was not increasing in BAU management, mainly due to the heavy browsing pressure by ungulates. In NOM, it even decreased and mean tree age increased. Thus, in the long run NOM may enter a phase of lower resilience compared with BAU. Most ES indicators were fairly insensitive to the spatial scale of indicator mapping. ES indicators that were based on sparse tree and stand attributes such as rare admixed tree species, large snags and live trees achieved better results when mapped at larger scales. The share of landscape area with simultaneous provisioning of ES at reasonable performance levels (i.e. multifunctionality) decreased with increasing number of considered ES, while it increased with increasing spatial scale of the assessment. In the case study, landscape between 53 and 100 % was classified as multifunctional, depending on number and combinations of ES.     

Biologische Sanierung von Rüstungsaltlasten

Many sites of former ammunition plants are contaminated with the explosive 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, its derivatives and reduction products. Such nitroaromatic compounds have a high human and ecotoxic potential. Plant uptake of these organic pollutants is known and could be confirmed under field conditions. In this paper rhizospheric soil was analyzed to characterize the effect of vegetation on TNT-contaminated soil. Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) were used as test plants. The experiments were performed on two areas with different TNT concentrations. The data reveal a significant decrease of extractable TNT in rhizospheric soil by a factor of 5 to 6 during the vegetation period. On the area with high TNT concentration, an enrichment of nitroaromatic compounds in root tissue was found compared to the rhizospheric soil. Aminodinitrotoluene could be confirmed as the primary pollutant in the root. These results refer to a potential application of plants to biological remediation of soil contaminated with ammunition-specific pollutants.     

The value of composting in Germany – Economy,ecology, and legislation

Based on a recent survey of German composting plants an evaluation of costs and benefits of composting was attempted. In this regard, several economical, ecological and legal aspects and some interrelations are discussed in this paper. A special emphasis is placed on the fees and compost prices of composting plants. It is also shown how the legal framework provides the economic basis for composting in Germany, how economical and ecological costs and benefits could be assessed, and why it is so difficult to determine the value of composting.