Accounting for the environment as an economic asset: global progress and realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

National and international efforts to develop natural capital accounts are proliferating. The newly agreed 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development echoes these efforts. Continued cooperation is needed to overcome key scientific and policy challenges.     

Application of a novel modeling tool with multistressor functionality to support management of organic contaminants in the Baltic Sea

Organic contaminants constitute one of many stressors that deteriorate the ecological status of the Baltic Sea. When managing environmental problems in this marine environment, it may be necessary to consider the interactions between various stressors to ensure that averting one problem does not exacerbate another. A novel modeling tool, BALTSEM-POP, is presented here that simulates interactions between climate forcing, hydrodynamic conditions, and water exchange, biogeochemical cycling, and organic contaminant transport and fate in the Baltic Sea. We discuss opportunities to use the model to support different aspects of chemicals management. We exemplify these opportunities with a case study where two emission-reduction strategies for a chemical used in personal care products (decamethylcyclopentasiloxane) are evaluated, and where the confounding influence of future climate change and eutrophication on the impact of the emission-reduction strategies are assessed.     

A method to determine residue levels of persistent organochlorine pesticides in human milk from Indonesian women

A method has been developed for the analysis of organochlorine pesticides in human milk using solvent extraction, Florisil solid phase extraction clean-up and analysis by gas chromatography with an electron capture detector. The recovery of analytes from spiked milk samples was in the range 53 +/- 1% to 109 +/- 7% (n = 9). A small number of samples were obtained from women in a rural and an urban area of Indonesia and analysed using the developed method. The results are reported on a milk fat basis. All samples contained detectable residues of p,p'-DDT (urban mean 0.11 +/- 0.18 mgkg(-1) (n = 5), rural mean 0.07 +/- 0.03 mg kg(-1) (n = 5)) and p,p'-DDE (urban mean 0.05 +/- 0.04 m kg(-1) (n = 5), rural mean 0.76 +/- 1.46 mg kg(-1) (n = 5)). Residues of HCB, betaHCH, alpha-endosulfan and dieldrin were also detected in some samples. There was no significant difference (at the 95% confidence level) in levels of pesticides between urban and rural areas. The levels of organochlorine pesticides in milk from Indonesian women were lower than those reported from Indonesian women exposed to DDT through malaria eradication schemes and were similar to levels reported from UK and Japan.     

Within-year differences in reproductive investment in laboratory zebra finches (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Taeniopygia guttata</Emphasis>), an opportunistically breeding bird

Reproduction in opportunistically breeding bird species has traditionally been considered non-seasonal with individuals taking advantage of favourable environmental conditions as they arise. However, some studies imply that this opportunistic breeding may be superimposed on an underlying seasonality, which has effects on the readiness to breed when conditions are favourable. The zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) is the classic opportunistic breeder and widely used as such in studies. In a series of laboratory-based breeding experiments, we found evidence to suggest that there are seasonal differences in maternal reproductive investment in the zebra finch even when photoperiod, temperature, relative humidity and diet were held constant. Females showed highly significant seasonal differences in clutch size and egg mass with laying order. Clutch size showed a spring/summer peak typical of multi-brooded species in the wild. There was also a significant increase in egg mass with laying order in all seasons except winter. This variation in breeding parameters with season may allow females to adjust investment depending on the potential fitness returns from a given reproductive attempt. These findings also raise a warning about interpreting results of multiple zebra finch breeding experiments that have been carried out in different seasons.     

Honest begging in the blue-footed booby: signaling food deprivation and body condition

To determine whether solicitation by blue-footed booby chicks accurately encodes their need for food, we independently manipulated the body condition and recent food ingestion of singleton chicks and recorded three measures of begging. Variations in the three measures of begging covaried only partially, but in general, chicks begged more intensely when they were in poor body condition and also when suffering recent food deprivation. Effects of body condition and recent food deprivation on begging were broadly additive, although deprived chicks in poor condition failed to beg more intensely than those in good condition. Protracted short-term deprivation may create such a high level of need that the body condition component of need becomes temporarily unimportant. Parents more frequently fed chicks that begged more intensely, chicks in poor condition, and chicks suffering food deprivation. Deprived chicks in poor condition received more food than deprived chicks in normal condition even though they did not beg more intensely, possibly because parents responded not only to current begging but also to begging earlier in the day, or to other cues to body condition. These results support the hypothesis that begging of boobies represents honest signaling of need.     

Analysis of 4-nonylphenols, phthalates, and polychlorinated biphenyls in soils and biosolids

When sewage sludge is added to agricultural land, organic chemicals contaminants are also added. The fate of these chemicals, particularly those shown to have oestrogenic potential, has received much research and regulatory interest in recent years. A method was developed for the analysis of 4-nonylphenols, phthalates, and PCB congeners in soils, mesophilic anaerobially digested dewatered (MADD) sewage sludge, and MADD sludge-amended soil. After Soxhlet-extraction, the 4-nonylphenols and phthalates were separated from the PCBs on an isolute cyanopropyl SPE cartridge and analysed by GC-MS directly. The PCBs were acid treated on a Bakerbond PCB-A cartridge, then passed through a gel filtration column of Biobeads SX-3 resin, before GC-MS analysis. The method was successfully validated and then used for routine analysis, where average recoveries of the surrogate standards were 83+/-17% (4-n-heptylphenol), 96+/-11% (dimethyl-tere-phthalate), 101+/-12% (dibenzyl-phthalate), and 79+/-13% (PCBs 6, 54, 104, 155, and 198).     

Smashing tests? Patterns and mechanisms of adult mortality in a declining echinoid population

Mass mortality of echinoids is well documented, and has potentially profound effects on benthic communities. However, no study to date has quantitatively investigated how regular, predictable events such as winter storms might lead to large mortality events in pivotal echinoid species. Hydrodynamic disturbances can be major drivers of crucial biological processes in benthic communities. For echinoid populations in particular, wave action in shallow waters generated by high winds (winter storms) can cause displacement, damage and even death to individuals. However, evidence for displacement-mediated mortality is scant in the literature, in part because it is so difficult to demonstrate in exposed environments where echinoids are frequently found. In this study, we examined mortality in a sheltered subtidal population of the European purple sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus over a 3-year period, and examined the role that dislodgement by wave action or predation might play in these mortality patterns. Because our study population has been in decline for the past three decades, we considered it important to evaluate its current status in addition to assessing the contribution that adult mortality makes to that decline. We sampled twice per month, using the density of freshly dead echinoid material to assess the extent of adult mortality. The Irish Meteorological Service provided our estimates of wind speed data. We compared historical and recent data on P. lividus size frequency data to investigate change the population structure (Poor recruitment would be caused by failure to spawn over a prolonged period). Our data suggest ongoing declines in this population, and support the theory that the decline of the P. lividus population of Lough Hyne is a result of persistent recruitment failure linked to repeated cool maximum sea surface temperatures. Although we found peaks of P. lividus mortality were coincident with spikes in wind speed, mortality was low, and seems unlikely to have contributed significantly to the dramatic decline in P. lividus in the past three decades.Communicated by J.P. Thorpe, Port Erin     

High-performance size exclusion chromatography with a multi-wavelength absorbance detector study on dissolved organic matter characterisation along a water distribution system

This study examined the associations between dissolved organic matter(DOM) characteristics and potential nitrification occurrence in the presence of chloramine along a drinking water distribution system. High-performance size exclusion chromatography(HPSEC) coupled with a multiple wavelength detector(200–280 nm) was employed to characterise DOM by molecular weight distribution, bacterial activity was analysed using flow cytometry, and a package of simple analytical tools, such as dissolved organic carbon, absorbance at 254 nm, nitrate,nitrite, ammonia and total disinfectant residual were also applied and their applicability to indicate water quality changes in distribution systems were also evaluated. Results showed that multi-wavelength HPSEC analysis was useful to provide information about DOM character while changes in molecule weight profiles at wavelengths less than 230 nm were also able to be related to other water quality parameters. Correct selection of the UV wavelengths can be an important factor for providing appropriate indicators associated with different DOM compositions. DOM molecular weight in the range of 0.2–0.5 k Da measured at210 nm correlated positively with oxidised nitrogen concentration(r = 0.99), and the concentrations of active bacterial cells in the distribution system(r = 0.85). Our study also showed that the changes of DOM character and bacterial cells were significant in those sampling points that had decreases in total disinfectant residual. HPSEC-UV measured at210 nm and flow cytometry can detect the changes of low molecular weight of DOM and bacterial levels, respectively, when nitrification occurred within the chloraminated distribution system.     

Changes in the nature of dissolved organics during pulp and paper mill wastewater treatment: a multivariate statistical study combining data from three analytical techniques

The paper-making process can produce large amounts of wastewater (WW) with high particulate and dissolved organic loads. Generally, in developed countries, stringent international regulations for environmental protection require pulp and paper mill WW to be treated to reduce the organic load prior to discharge into the receiving environment. This can be achieved by primary and secondary treatments involving both chemical and biological processes. These processes result in complex changes in the nature of the organic material, as some components are mineralised and others are transformed. In this study, changes in the nature of organics through different stages of secondary treatment of pulp and paper mill WW were followed using three advanced characterisation techniques: solid-state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, pyrolysis-gas chromatography mass spectrometry (py-GCMS) and high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC). Each technique provided a different perspective on the changes that occurred. To compare the different chemical perspectives in terms of the degree of similarity/difference between samples, we employed non-metric multidimensional scaling. Results indicate that NMR and HPSEC provided strongly correlated perspectives, with 86 % of the discrimination between the organic samples common to both techniques. Conversely, py-GCMS was found to provide a unique, and thus complementary, perspective.