Long-term environmental monitoring for assessment of change: measurement inconsistencies over time and potential solutions

The importance of long-term environmental monitoring and research for detecting and understanding changes in ecosystems and human impacts on natural systems is widely acknowledged. Over the last decades, a number of critical components for successful long-term monitoring have been identified. One basic component is quality assurance/quality control protocols to ensure consistency and comparability of data. In Norway, the authorities require environmental monitoring of the impacts of the offshore petroleum industry on the Norwegian continental shelf, and in 1996, a large-scale regional environmental monitoring program was established. As a case study, we used a sub-set of data from this monitoring to explore concepts regarding best practices for long-term environmental monitoring. Specifically, we examined data from physical and chemical sediment samples and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages from 11 stations from six sampling occasions during the period 1996–2011. Despite the established quality assessment and quality control protocols for this monitoring program, we identified several data challenges, such as missing values and outliers, discrepancies in variable and station names, changes in procedures without calibration, and different taxonomic resolution. Furthermore, we show that the use of different laboratories over time makes it difficult to draw conclusions with regard to some of the observed changes. We offer recommendations to facilitate comparison of data over time. We also present a new procedure to handle different taxonomic resolution, so valuable historical data is not discarded. These topics have a broader relevance and application than for our case study.     

Swiss Agricultural Policy and the Environment: An Example for the Rest of Europe to Follow?

The independence of Switzerland from the EU has allowed the development of unilateral agri-environmental policies. Article 31b provides a comprehensive approach to ecological farming that now covers more than half of the farmed area of the country. It is a progressive direct payment system developedin full consultation with farmers and contrasts with environmental incorporation in the Common Agricultural Policy in a number of significant ways. Despite a number of modifications to the scheme in its initial implementation,it provides the foundation for a pervasive sustainable agriculture in combination with the production of high quality ecologically-based food products.     

Visual fields in Flamingos: chick-feeding versus filter-feeding

In birds, the position and extent of the region of binocular vision appears to be determined by feeding ecology. Of prime importance is the degree to which vision is used for the precise control of bill position when pecking or lunging at prey. In birds that do not require such precision (probe and filter-feeders), the bill falls outside the binocular field, which extends above and behind the head, thus providing comprehensive visual coverage. Flamingos Phoenicopteridae are highly specialised filter-feeders. They employ a unique technique that does not require accurate bill positioning in which the inverted head is placed between the feet. Feeding flamingos often walk forwards with the head pointing “backwards”. Here we show that in Lesser Flamingos Phoeniconaias minor visual fields are in fact the same as those of birds that feed by precision pecking and that feeding flamingos are blind in the direction of their walking. We suggest that this is due to the requirement for accurate bill placement when flamingos feed their chicks with “crop-milk”, and possibly when building their nest. We propose that chick-feeding may be the ultimate determinant of visual field topography in birds, not feeding ecology.     

Exceptionally high levels of multiple mating in an army ant

Most species of social insects have singly mated queens, although there are notable exceptions. Competing hypotheses have been proposed to explain the evolution of high levels of multiple mating, but this issue is far from resolved. Here we use microsatellites to investigate mating frequency in the army ant Eciton burchellii and show that queens mate with an exceptionally large number of males, eclipsing all but one other social insect species for which data are available. In addition we present evidence that suggests that mating is serial, continuing throughout the lifetime of the queen. This is the first demonstration of serial mating among social hymenoptera. We propose that high paternity within colonies is most likely to have evolved to increase genetic diversity and to counter high pathogen and parasite loads.     

Complex mosaicism associated with trisomy 9

Fetal karyotypes can be routinely obtained by chorionic villus biopsy, amniocentesis, or fetal blood sampling. Interpretation of results and subsequent counselling can be complicated by pseudomosaicism or mosaicism confined to the placenta or other tissues. We illustrate this by reporting a case of an abnormal fetus with a total of three karyotypically different cell lines (46,XXrpar; 47,XX, + 9; and 47,XX, + del (9) (q11) in different tissues (placenta, lung, gonad, and skin).     

Factors affecting heavy-duty diesel vehicle emissions

Societal and governmental pressures to reduce diesel exhaust emissions are reflected in the existing and projected future heavy-duty certification standards of these emissions. Various factors affect the amount of emissions produced by a heterogeneous charge diesel engine in any given situation, but these are poorly quantified in the existing literature. The parameters that most heavily affect the emissions from compression ignition engine-powered vehicles include vehicle class and weight, driving cycle, vehicle vocation, fuel type, engine exhaust aftertreatment, vehicle age, and the terrain traveled. In addition, engine control effects (such as injection timing strategies) on measured emissions can be significant. Knowing the effect of each aspect of engine and vehicle operation on the emissions from diesel engines is useful in determining methods for reducing these emissions and in assessing the need for improvement in inventory models. The effects of each of these aspects have been quantified in this paper to provide an estimate of the impact each one has on the emissions of diesel engines.     

Is the OECD acute worm toxicity test environmentally relevant? The effect of mineral form on calculated lead toxicity

In a series of experiments the toxicity of lead to worms in soil was determined following the draft OECD earthworm reproduction toxicity protocol except that lead was added as solid lead nitrate, carbonate and sulphide rather than as lead nitrate solution as would normally be the case. The compounds were added to the test soil to give lead concentrations of 625-12 500 microg Pb g(-1) of soil. Calculated toxicities of the lead decreased in the order nitrate> carbonate> sulphide, the same order as the decrease in the solubility of the metal compounds used. The 7-day LC50 (lethal concentration when 50% of the population is killed) for the nitrate was 5321+/-275 microg Pb g(-1) of soil and this did not change with time. The LC50 values for carbonate and sulphide could not be determined at the concentration ranges used. The only parameter sensitive enough to distinguish the toxicities of the three compounds was cocoon (egg) production. The EC50s for cocoon production (the concentration to produce a 50% reduction in cocoon production) were 993, 8604 and 10246 pg Pb g(-1) of soil for lead nitrate, carbonate and sulphide, respectively. Standard toxicity tests need to take into account the form in which the contaminant is present in the soil to be of environmental relevance.     

Measurement of biologically available organic material in intertidal sediments subject to inputs of sea coal or colliery wastes

A method for the measurement of biologically available organic matter in intertidal or subtidal marine sediments subject to an input of sea coal or colliery wastes is described. The method involves boiling sediment in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for 4 h at 160 degrees C to dissolve non-colliery waste organic matter which is then recorded as weight lost after rinsing and drying. Samples are then ashed at 495 degrees C to determine the weight of coal or colliery wastes present. Although H2O2 shows a slight reaction with colliery wastes (overall mean of 0.86% weight loss), it is appropriate to use this technique for the determination of organic matter available to sediment-dwelling biota. We show that shore organic content should not be determined merely by ashing sediment, even on shores which do not appear to contain wastes, since even visibly 'clean' shores in north-east England generally contain some coal fragments in their sediment. Our method is suitable anywhere where biologically available organic matter needs to be measured independently of waste content, e.g. in terrestrial systems close to centres of mining activity.