Maritime ports and beach management as sources of coastal macro-, meso-, and microplastic pollution

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Plastic pollution is a major environmental issue that affects coasts all around the world. Many studies point out the importance of a better...     

Cautious but Committed: Moving Toward Adaptive Planning and Operation Strategies for Renewable Energy’s Wildlife Implications

Wildlife planning for renewable energy must cope with the uncertainties of potential wildlife impacts. Unfortunately, the environmental policies which instigate renewable energy and those which protect wildlife are not coherently aligned—creating a green versus green dilemma. Thus, climate mitigation efforts trigger renewable energy development, but then face substantial barriers from biodiversity protection instruments and practices. This article briefly reviews wind energy and wildlife interactions, highlighting the lively debated effects on bats. Today, planning and siting of renewable energy are guided by the precautionary principle in an attempt to carefully address wildlife challenges. However, this planning attitude creates limitations as it struggles to negotiate the aforementioned green versus green dilemma. More adaptive planning and management strategies and practices hold the potential to reconcile these discrepancies to some degree. This adaptive approach is discussed using facets of case studies from policy, planning, siting, and operational stages of wind energy in Germany and the United States, with one case showing adaptive planning in action for solar energy as well. This article attempts to highlight the benefits of more adaptive approaches as well as the possible shortcomings, such as reduced planning security for renewable energy developers. In conclusion, these studies show that adaptive planning and operation strategies can be designed to supplement and enhance the precautionary principle in wildlife planning for green energy.     

Ancient pests: the season of the Santorini Minoan volcanic eruption and a date from insect chitin

Attributing a season and a date to the volcanic eruption of Santorini in the Aegean has become possible by using preserved remains of the bean weevil, Bruchus rufipes, pests of pulses, from the storage jars of the West House, in the Bronze Age settlement at Akrotiri. We have applied an improved pre-treatment methodology for dating the charred insects, and this provides a date of 1744–1538 BC. This date is within the range of others obtained from pulses from the same context and confirms the utility of chitin as a dating material. Based on the nature of the insect material and the life cycle of the species involved, we argue for a summer eruption, which took place after harvest, shortly after this material was transported into the West House storeroom.     

UV-radiation versus grazing pressure: long-term floating of kelp rafts (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Macrocystis pyrifera</Emphasis>) is facilitated by efficient photoacclimation but undermined by grazing losses

Large quantities of floating macroalgae are traveling in coastal waters of the SE Pacific and in other temperate climate zones. While afloat, these algae are potentially exposed to full solar radiation, including UVA and UVB, which can have profound effects on their physiological and growth performance. Latitudinal variations in UV-radiation (UVR) are hypothesized to affect floating algae differently with higher impacts at low latitudes than at high latitudes. In addition, UVR together with grazing might accelerate the demise of floating kelps. This hypothesis was tested with outdoor laboratory experiments in which sporophytes of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera (L.) C. Agardh were exposed to a combination of different UVR regimes (PAR only, PAR + UV) and grazing at three sites along the Chilean coast (20°S, 30°S, and 40°S). A latitudinal trend in irradiance was detected with increasing values from 40°S to 20°S. Surprisingly, floating M. pyrifera responded with a high acclimation potential within this latitudinal UVR gradient. At 20°S, floating kelps were slightly sensitive to UVR, which was reflected in reduced blade growth. At 30°S, physiological responses were hardly affected by the prevailing irradiance but sporophyte growth and thus persistence mainly depended on the presence or absence of amphipod grazers. At high latitudes, grazing had only minor impacts on algal biomass and blade growth, and kelps thrived well under all tested environmental conditions. Overall, our results reveal that floating M. pyrifera was only slightly affected by UVR and that sporophytes can efficiently acclimate over a latitudinal UVR gradient that spans from 20°S to 40°S. Given this high acclimation potential, we suggest that these (and possibly other) positively buoyant algae are important dispersal agents over a wide range of temperate latitude conditions.     

European Farmland Bird Distribution Explained by Remotely Sensed Phenological Indices

Birds are important components of biodiversity conservation since they are capable of indicating changes in the general status of wildlife and of the countryside. The Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (PECBM) has been launched by the BirdLife Partnership in Europe, where the European Bird Census Council has been collecting data from 20 independent breeding bird survey programs across Europe over the last 25 years. These data show dramatic declines in European farmland birds. We suggest that seasonal characteristics of vegetation cover derived from high temporal resolution remote sensing images could facilitate the monitoring the suitability of farmland bird habitats, and that these indicators may be a better choice for monitoring than climate data. We used redundancy analysis to link the PECBM data of the estimated number of farmland birds in Europe to a set of phenological and climatic indicators and to the biogeographic regions of Europe. Variance partitioning was used to account for the variation explained by the phenological and climate variables and by the area of the environmental strata individually, to define the pure effect of the variables, and to extract the total explained variance. The analysis revealed high statistical significance (p < 0.001) of the correlations between species and environment. Phenological indices explained 38% of the variance in community composition of the 23 farmland bird species, whereas climate explained 30% of the variance. After partitioning the other variables as covariables, the pure effect of phenology, climate, and environmental strata were 16%, 8%, and 16%, respectively. Based on the probability results, we suggest that phenological indicators derived from remote sensing may supply better indicators for continental scale biodiversity studies than climate only. In addition, these indicators are cost and time effective, are on continuous scale, and are readily repeatable on a large spatial coverage while supplying standardized results.     

Landscape protection as a tool for managing agricultural landscapes in Norway

Norwegian Protected Landscapes aim to preserve landscape character. As most of the agricultural land in Protected Landscapes is privately owned, the attitudes and behaviour of farmers are crucial in achieving this goal. We present results of a nationwide questionnaire to farmers who owned or managed farmland in Protected Landscapes. Thirty-eight percent of the respondents claimed that their farm business had been changed as a consequence of landscape protection. Niche products and alternative income possibilities, commonly forwarded as potential benefits of landscape protection status, had generally not been realised. Although we found that most farmers agreed on the importance of taking care of cultural landscapes, 76% felt that this was best done by using rather than protecting the landscape. The study revealed negative attitudes towards municipal authorities. A quarter of respondents were strongly against the establishment of new Protected Landscapes, even if they were compensated for economic losses. Based on results of the study we suggest that major improvements to the protection system could be made by improving communication between management authorities and farmers, and ensuring real involvement of farmers in making and carrying out management plans.     

Path creation for sustainable consumption: promoting alternative heating systems in Finland

There are many cost-effective technologies to reduce resource use and carbon dioxide emissions in space heating, yet they are adopted very slowly, and inefficient heating systems persist. In this article, we examine path dependence and path creation in home heating systems. Path dependence refers to the self-sustaining characteristics of existing systems such as the dominant energy system. Path creation is a related concept that highlights entrepreneurship in ‘mindfully deviating’ from existing paths and creating new ones by engaging various stakeholders and generating momentum. Research on path creation in energy systems has focused on energy production systems, whereas end-use technologies have gained less attention. We explore the role of path creation in end-use technologies through four attempts to change heating systems for detached houses in Finland via the promotion of heat pump technologies. Within the path creation process, we focus on how the initiators of new paths try to counter the forces maintaining the dominant system. In particular, we pay attention to how small organizations make use of co-operation to challenge the existing path. The aim is to identify the conditions for successful path creation by entrepreneurs and energy end-users under adverse conditions.     

Novel semi-decentralised mobile system for the sanitization and dehydration of septic sludge: a pilot-scale evaluation in the Jordan Valley

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The provision of effective sanitation strategies has a significant impact on public health. However, the treatment of septic sludge still presents...     

Arsenic concentration in topsoil of central Chile is associated with aberrant methylation of P53 gene in human blood cells: a cross-sectional study

Gene expression can be modified in people who are chronically exposed to high concentrations of heavy metals. The soil surrounding the Ventanas Industrial Complex, located on the coastal zone of Puchuncaví and Quintero townships (Chile), contain heavy metal concentrations (As, Cu, Pb, Zn, among others) that far exceed international standards. The aim of this study was to determine the potential association of the heavy metals in soils, especially arsenic, with the status of methylation of four tumor suppressor genes in permanent residents in those townships. To study the methylation status in genes p53, p16, APC, and RASSF1A, we took blood samples from adults living in areas near the industrial complex for at least 5 years and compared it to blood samples from adults living in areas with normal heavy metal concentrations of soils. Results indicated that inhabitants of an area with high levels of heavy metals in soil have a significantly higher proportion of methylation in the promoter region of the p53 tumor suppressor gene compared with control areas (p-value: 0.0035). This is the first study to consider associations between heavy metal exposure in humans and aberrant DNA methylation in Chile. Our results suggest more research to support consistent decision-making on processes of environmental remediation or prevention of exposure.