Sorption and degradation of pesticides in nursery recycling ponds

Knowledge of pesticide distribution and persistence in nursery recycling pond water and sediment is critical for preventing phytotoxicity of pesticides during water reuse and to assess their impacts to the environment. In this study, sorption and degradation of four commonly used pesticides (diazinon, chlorpyrifos, chlorothalonil, and pendimethalin) in sediments from two nursery recycling ponds was investigated. Results showed that diazinon and chlorothalonil were moderately sorbed [K(OC) (soil organic carbon distribution coefficient) from 732 to 2.45 x 10(3) mL g(-1)] to the sediments, and their sorption was mainly attributable to organic matter content, whereas chlorpyrifos and pendimethalin were strongly sorbed (K(OC) > or = 7.43 x 10(3) mL g(-1)) to the sediments, and their sorption was related to both organic matter content and sediment texture. The persistence of diazinon and chlorpyrifos was moderate under aerobic conditions (half-lives = 8 to 32 d), and increased under anaerobic conditions (half-lives = 12 to 53 d). In contrast, chlorothalonil and pendimethalin were quickly degraded under aerobic conditions with half-lives < 2.8 d, and their degradation was further enhanced under anaerobic conditions (half-lives < 1.9 d). The strong sorption of chlorpyrifos and pendimethalin by the sediments suggests that the practice of recycling nursery runoff would effectively retain these compounds in the recycling pond, minimizing their offsite movement. The prolonged persistence of diazinon and chlorpyrifos, however, implies that incidental spills, such as overflows caused by storm events, may contribute significant loads of such pesticides into downstream surface water bodies.     

Effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide on biomass and carbon accumulation in a model regenerating longleaf pine community

Plant species vary in response to atmospheric CO2 concentration due to differences in physiology, morphology, phenology, and symbiotic relationships. These differences make it very difficult to predict how plant communities will respond to elevated CO2. Such information is critical to furthering our understanding of community and ecosystem responses to global climate change. To determine how a simple plant community might respond to elevated CO2, a model regenerating longleaf pine community composed of five species was exposed to two CO2 regimes (ambient, 365 micromol mol(-1) and elevated, 720 micromol mol(-1)) for 3 yr. Total above- and belowground biomass was 70 and 49% greater, respectively, in CO2-enriched plots. Carbon (C) content followed a response pattern similar to biomass, resulting in a significant increase of 13.8 Mg C ha(-1) under elevated CO2. Responses of individual species, however, varied. Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) was primarily responsible for the positive response to CO2 enrichment. Wiregrass (Aristida stricta Michx.), rattlebox (Crotalaria rotundifolia Walt. Ex Gmel.), and butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa L.) exhibited negative above- and belowground biomass responses to elevated CO2, while sand post oak (Quercus margaretta Ashe) did not differ significantly between CO2 treatments. As with pine, C content followed patterns similar to biomass. Elevated CO2 resulted in alterations in community structure. Longleaf pine comprised 88% of total biomass in CO2-enriched plots, but only 76% in ambient plots. In contrast, wiregrass, rattlebox, and butterfly weed comprised 19% in ambient CO2 plots, but only 8% under high CO2. Therefore, while longleaf pine may perform well in a high CO2 world, other members of this community may not compete as well, which could alter community function. Effects of elevated CO2 on plant communities are complex, dynamic, and difficult to predict, clearly demonstrating the need for more research in this important area of global change science.     

Soil organic carbon and nitrogen accumulation in plots of rhizoma perennial peanut and bahiagrass grown in elevated carbon dioxide and temperature

Carbon sequestration in soils might mitigate the increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Two contrasting subtropical perennial forage species, bahiagrass (BG; Paspalum notatum Flügge; C4), and rhizoma perennial peanut (PP; Arachis glabrata Benth.; C3 legume), were grown at Gainesville, Florida, in field soil plots in four temperature zones of four temperature-gradient greenhouses, two each at CO2 concentrations of 360 and 700 micromol mol(-1). The site had been cultivated with annual crops for more than 20 yr. Herbage was harvested three to four times each year. Soil samples from the top 20 cm were collected in February 1995, before plant establishment, and in December 2000 at the end of the project. Overall mean soil organic carbon (SOC) gains across 6 yr were 1.396 and 0.746 g kg(-1) in BG and PP, respectively, indicating that BG plots accumulated more SOC than PP. Mean SOC gains in BG plots at 700 and 360 micromol mol(-1) CO2 were 1.450 and 1.343 g kg(-1), respectively (not statistically different). Mean SOC gains in PP plots at 700 and 360 micromol mol(-1) CO2 were 0.949 and 0.544 g kg(-1), respectively, an increase caused by elevated CO2. Relative SON accumulations were similar to SOC increases. Overall mean annual SOC accumulation, pooled for forages and CO2 treatments, was 540 kg ha(-1) yr(-1). Eliminating elevated CO2 effects, overall mean SOC accumulation was 475 kg ha(-1) yr(-1). Conversion from cropland to forages was a greater factor in SOC accumulation than the CO2 fertilization effect.     

Aerating grassland before manure application reduces runoff nutrient loads in a high rainfall environment

The effect of mechanically aerating grassland before liquid manure application in the fall on surface runoff and transport of nutrients and solids was studied in a high rainfall area. The two treatments were control and aeration, the latter receiving one pass with an aerator perpendicular to the slope before fall application of liquid manure (dairy in Years 1-3 and swine in Year 4). Treatments were randomly assigned on 3 to 5% sloping land with a silt loam surface soil (Aquic Dystroxerept) planted in orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.). Runoff from natural rainfall events was sampled for nutrient and solids analysis. Aeration significantly reduced runoff and loads of suspended solids, total Kjeldahl N (TKN), and dissolved reactive P in all years. Annual runoff amounts were reduced by 47 to 81%, suspended and volatile solid loads by 48 to 69% and 42 to 83%, respectively, TKN loads by 56 to 81%, and total P (TP) loads by 25 to 75%. Loads of the soluble nutrient NH4-N, dissolved reactive P, and K were reduced by 41 to 83%. The first three runoff events after manure application accounted for approximately one-third of the annual total runoff and solid and nutrient loads when averaged across treatments, with loads of TKN, K, and NH4-N totaling 4.4, 3.3, and 1.9 kg ha-1, respectively. Aeration slightly increased downward movement of NO3-N, but not other nutrients in the soil. Thus mechanical aeration can be an effective tool for reducing runoff and loads of solids and nutrients after surface application of liquid manure on sloping grassland.     

Spatiotemporal evolution of soil pH and zinc after the Aznalcollar mine spill

The residual pollution after the Aznalcóllar (southwestern Spain) pyrite mine spill is still a threat due to the continuing oxidation of sulfuric minerals. The objective of this paper was to analyze the combined effect of pyrite oxidation, sugar beet foam applications, and meteorological conditions on the spatiotemporal evolution of the pH and EDTA-extractable Zn concentration, using non co-located data from 11 sampling dates between June 1999 and March 2002. Median pH values ranged from 4.4 at the beginning of the monitoring period to 7.6 at the end, although values near 2.5 were observed throughout the entire period, despite of two sugar beet foam (SBF) applications. Zinc distributions were positively skewed and median concentrations ranged from 17 to 94 mg kg(-1). The inverse relationship between pH and Zn became weaker toward the end of the monitoring period as a consequence of the precipitation and posterior dissolution of newly formed minerals from the reaction products of the pyrite oxidation. Normal score maps showed that after the SBF applications only 0.5% of the monitored area was below the pH = 4 threshold, while on other dates up to one-third of the area remained below this value. The better performance of the second SBF application could be explained in terms of pyrite oxidation pathways and environmental conditions. From this analysis, with data obtained under uncontrolled field conditions, it is concluded that SBF should be applied before or during the wet and cold season to alleviate acidification, caused by the oxidation of pyrite or other sulfuric minerals.     

Bottom up and top down: analysis of participatory processes for sustainability indicator identification as a pathway to community empowerment and sustainable environmental management

The modern environmental management literature stresses the need for community involvement to identify indicators to monitor progress towards sustainable development and environmental management goals. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of participatory processes on sustainability indicator identification and environmental management in three disparate case studies. The first is a process of developing partnerships between First Nations communities, environmental groups, and forestry companies to resolve conflicts over forest management in Western Canada. The second describes a situation in Botswana where local pastoral communities worked with development researchers to reduce desertification. The third case study details an on-going government led process of developing sustainability indicators in Guernsey, UK, that was designed to monitor the environmental, social, and economic impacts of changes in the economy. The comparative assessment between case studies allows us to draw three primary conclusions. (1) The identification and collection of sustainability indicators not only provide valuable databases for making management decisions, but the process of engaging people to select indicators also provides an opportunity for community empowerment that conventional development approaches have failed to provide. (2) Multi-stakeholder processes must formally feed into decision-making forums or they risk being viewed as irrelevant by policy-makers and stakeholders. (3) Since ecological boundaries rarely meet up with political jurisdictions, it is necessary to be flexible when choosing the scale at which monitoring and decision-making occurs. This requires an awareness of major environmental pathways that run through landscapes to understand how seemingly remote areas may be connected in ways that are not immediately apparent.     

Vegetation associated with different walking track types in the Kosciuszko alpine area, Australia

Tourism infrastructure such as walking tracks can have negative effects on vegetation including in mountain regions. In the alpine area around continental Australia's highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko (2228 m), there is a range of walking tracks (paved, gravel and raised steel mesh surfaces) in addition to an extensive network of informal/non-hardened tracks. Vegetation characteristics were compared between track types on/under tracks, on the track verge, and in the adjacent native vegetation. For a raised steel mesh walkway there was no difference in vegetation under the walkway, on the verge, and 3m away. In contrast, for a non-hardened track there was 35% bare ground on the track surface but no other detectable impacts. Gravel and paved tracks had distinct verges largely comprising bare ground and exotic species. For non-hardened tracks there was an estimated 270 m2 of disturbance per km of track. For wide gravel tracks the combined area of bare ground, exotic plants and gravel was estimated as 4290 m2 per km, while for narrow gravel tracks it was estimated as 2940 m2 per km. For paved tracks there was around 2680 m2 per km of damage. In contrast, there was no detectable effect of raised steel mesh walkway on vegetation highlighting some of the benefits of this surface over other track types.     

Managing disposal of water produced with petroleum in Kuwait

Disposal of water produced with petroleum has been of great interest in Kuwait for the last 20 years. The current problem arose when the Burgan oil field, which is the second largest field in the world, experienced successive increases in the water content of the produced oil. This study introduces a decision-making analysis of the considered alternatives for the disposal of the produced water. Four alternative solutions exist for the industry as practical solutions for the disposal of water produced in Kuwait. The first method utilizes a large number of pits to discharge water. The second alternative depends on discharging water into sealed pits. The third approach to dispose water is by injecting the water underground. The last method is similar to the previous one, but takes into consideration the recovery of reservoir pressure to maintain the rate of oil production. A questionnaire was distributed to 48 experts at the top management level of the petroleum companies and the governmental authority. The data collected considered cost, efficiency, and environmental parameters. Based on the data, a statistical analysis was conducted using the factor analysis method to reduce the number of investigated variables. The analysis concluded that the optimal solution is to use the effluent injection method to discharge water produced with oil in Burgan and similar fields in Kuwait.     

Multi-stage sampling for large scale natural resources surveys: a case study of rice and waterfowl

Large-scale sample surveys to estimate abundance and distribution of organisms and their habitats are increasingly important in ecological studies. Multi-stage sampling (MSS) is especially suited to large-scale surveys because of the natural clustering of resources. To illustrate an application, we: (1) designed a stratified MSS to estimate late autumn abundance (kg/ha) of rice seeds in harvested fields as food for waterfowl wintering in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV); (2) investigated options for improving the MSS design; and (3) compared statistical and cost efficiency of MSS to simulated simple random sampling (SRS). During 2000-2002, we sampled 25-35 landowners per year, 1 or 2 fields per landowner per year, and measured seed mass in 10 soil cores collected within each field. Analysis of variance components and costs for each stage of the survey design indicated that collecting 10 soil cores per field was near the optimum of 11-15, whereas sampling >1 field per landowner provided few benefits because data from fields within landowners were highly correlated. Coefficients of variation (CV) of annual estimates of rice abundance ranged from 0.23 to 0.31 and were limited by variation among landowners and the number of landowners sampled. Design effects representing the statistical efficiency of MSS relative to SRS ranged from 3.2 to 9.0, and simulations indicated SRS would cost, on average, 1.4 times more than MSS because clustering of sample units in MSS decreased travel costs. We recommend MSS as a potential sampling strategy for large-scale natural resource surveys and specifically for future surveys of the availability of rice as food for waterfowl in the MAV and similar areas.