The wave-induced solute flux from submerged sediment

The issue of the transport of dissolved nutrients and contaminants between the sediment in the bottom of a lake or reservoir and the body of water above it is an important one for many reasons. In particular the biological and chemical condition of the body of water is intricately linked to these mass transport processes. As the review by Boudreau (Rev Geophys 38(3):389–416, 2000) clearly demonstrates those transport processes are very complex involving mechanisms as diverse as the wave-induced flux between the sediment and the overlying water and the effect of burrowing animals on the transport within the sediment as well as basic diffusion mechanisms. The present paper focuses on one facet of these transport processes; we re-examine the balance of diffusion and wave-induced advection and demonstrate that the wave-induced flux of a solute from submerged sediment is not necessarily purely diffusive as suggested by Harrison et al. (J Geophys Res 88:7617–7622, 1983) but can be dominated by a mean or time-averaged flux induced by the advective fluid motion into and out of the sediment caused by the fluctuating pressure waves associated with wave motion. Indeed along the subtidal shoreline where the fluctuating bottom pressures are greatest, wave-induced advection will dominate the mean, time-averaged transport of solute into or out of the sediment as suggested in the work of Riedl et al. (Mar Biol 13:210–221, 1972). However, the present calculations also indicate that this advective flux decreases rapidly with increasing depth so that further away from the shoreline the advective flux becomes negligible relative to the diffusive flux and therefore the latter dominates in deeper water.     

ADDRESSING TOTAL PHOSPHORUS IMPAIRMENTS WITH WATER QUALITY TRADING1

ABSTRACT: Water quality trading is a voluntary economic process that provides an opportunity for dischargers to reduce the costs associated with meeting a discharge limitation. Trading can provide a cost effective solution for point sources (i.e., wastewater treatment plants) to meet strict effluent limitations set in response to total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). A successful trading program often depends on first determining the trading suitability of a pollutant for a particular watershed. A simple technical approach has been developed to identify sub‐watersheds within the Raritan River Basin, New Jersey, where water quality trading could provide a cost effective and scientifically feasible method for addressing total phosphorus impairments. The methodology presented will serve as a model to conduct similar analyses in other watersheds. The Raritan River Basin was divided into 12 subwatershed‐based study areas. Point‐nonpoint source trading opportunities were examined for each study area by examining the point and nonpoint source total phosphorus loading to impaired water bodies. Of the 12 subwatersheds examined, four had a high potential for implementing a successful trading program. Since instream phosphorus concentrations are closely related to soil erosion, an additional analysis was performed to examine soil erodibility. Recommendations are presented for conducting an economic analysis following the feasibility study.     

发展一种估算石油工业温室气体排放的一致的方法

要获得有意义的温室气体清单,重要的是清单中包括的内容的方法论和定义应该是一致的.国际石油工业环境保护协会(IPIECA)、国际石油和天然气生产者协会(OGP)以及美国石油学会(API)已经制定了温室气体排放计算和报告的准则.国际石油工业环境保护协会(IPITCA)报告温室气体排放的石油工业指南的重点是放在石油工业温室气体排放的计算和报告上.为了提供排放估算一致的方法论,美国石油工业协会制定了石油和天然气工业温室气体排放估算方法论概要.从美国石油学会可以得到一个估算排放的工具--SANGEATM能源和排放估算系统.     

Improving species status assessments under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and implications for multispecies conservation challenges worldwide

Despite its successes, the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) has proven challenging to implement due to funding limitations, workload backlog, and other problems. As threats to species survival intensify and as more species come under threat, the need for the ESA and similar conservation laws and policies in other countries to function efficiently has grown. Attempts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to streamline ESA decisions include multispecies recovery plans and habitat conservation plans. We address species status assessment (SSA), a USFWS process to inform ESA decisions from listing to recovery, within the context of multispecies and ecosystem planning. Although existing SSAs have a single-species focus, ecosystem-based research can efficiently inform multiple SSAs within a region and provide a foundation for transition to multispecies SSAs in the future. We considered at-risk grassland species and ecosystems within the southeastern United States, where a disproportionate number of rare and endemic species are associated with grasslands. To initiate our ecosystem-based approach, we used a combined literature-based and structured World Café workshop format to identify science needs for SSAs. Discussions concentrated on 5 categories of threats to grassland species and ecosystems, consistent with recommendations to make shared threats a focus of planning under the ESA: (1) habitat loss, fragmentation, and disruption of functional connectivity; (2) climate change; (3) altered disturbance regimes; (4) invasive species; and (5) localized impacts. For each threat, workshop participants identified science and information needs, including database availability, research priorities, and modeling and mapping needs. Grouping species by habitat and shared threats can make the SSA process and other planning processes for conservation of at-risk species worldwide more efficient and useful. We found a combination of literature review and structured discussion effective for identifying the scientific information and analysis needed to support the development of multiple SSAs. Article impact statement: Species status assessments can be improved by an ecosystem-based approach that groups imperiled species by shared habitats and threats.     

Ecological literacy and psychographics: lifestyle contributors to ecological knowledge and understanding

Knowledge and understanding about how the ecological systems of the Earth support life form the foundation for ecological literacy, which, in turn, is of critical importance for sustainability. There is widespread concern that levels of ecological literacy within many contemporary human societies are too low to enable effective decision-making about how to live sustainably. This paper presents and discusses the findings of an ecological literacy assessment of South Australian adults. The assessment tested for knowledge and understanding of ecological systems and interconnections with human society. Analyses revealed significant relationships between assessment scores and a range of value-based and behavioural characteristics. Such characteristics included the value placed on nature, time spent outdoors and in nature, involvement in nature-based activities, and perceived sources of ecological knowledge and understanding. Higher average scores were correlated with higher values accorded to involvement in outdoor activities, importance of the outdoors to enjoyment of life, importance of nature in the household, volunteer environmental activity and growing food. Higher scores were also correlated with higher education, research activities, outdoor lifestyles, place-based experiences, volunteer activities, mentors and colleagues, and books and magazines. Lower scores were achieved by those who considered media, natural disasters and environmental marketing to be major contributors to their ecological knowledge. These findings contribute to a broader study of the relationships between ecological literacy and a range of both socio-demographic and psychographic characteristics. They invite serious consideration from any society that values the participation of an informed population with the capacity to make sustainable environmental decisions.     

Recovery of plant diversity following N cessation: effects of recruitment, litter, and elevated N cycling

Plant species richness has declined and composition shifted in response to elevated atmospheric deposition of biologically active nitrogen over much of the industrialized world. Litter thickness, litter nitrogen (N) content, and soil N mineralization rates often remain elevated long after inputs cease, clouding the prospects that plant community diversity and composition would recover should N inputs be reduced. Here we determined how N cycling, litter accumulation, and recruitment limitation influenced community recovery following cessation of long-term N inputs to prairie-like grasslands. We alleviated each of these potential inhibitors through a two-year full-factorial experiment involving organic carbon addition, litter removal, and seed addition. Seed addition had the largest effect on increasing seedling and species numbers and may be necessary to overcome long-term burial of seeds of target perennial grassland species. Litter removal increased light availability and bare sites for colonization, though it had little effect on reducing the biomass of competing neighbors or altering extractable soil N. Nonetheless, these positive influences were enough to lead to small increases in species richness within one year. We found that, although C addition quickly altered many factors assumed favorable for the target community (decreased N availability and biomass of nearby competitors, increased light and site availability), these changes were insufficient to positively impact species richness or seedling numbers over the experimental duration. However, only carbon addition had species-specific effects on the existing plant community, suggesting that its apparent limited utility may be more a result of slow recovery under ambient recruitment rather than from a lack of a restorative effect. There were dramatic interactions among treatments, with the positive effects of litter removal largely negated by carbon addition, and the positive effects of seed addition generally amplified by litter removal. It remains unclear whether each mechanism explored here will induce community recovery, but over different temporal scales. Long-term monitoring will help resolve these remaining questions. Regardless, our results suggest that reversal of species loss and compositional shifts from N deposition in prairies may be more inhibited by habitat fragmentation, recruitment limitation, and long-term suppression of fire than from continued effects of elevated N.     

Chemical defenses, nutritional quality, and structural components in three sponge species: Ircinia felix, I. campana, and Aplysina fulva

Allocating chemical defenses to regions or tissues most at risk for predatory attack may provide protection while simultaneously minimizing associated metabolic costs. Chemical defense allocation patterns were investigated in the aspiculate sponges Ircinia felix, I. campana, and Aplysina fulva collected between July 2005 and April 2006 from J Reef off the coast of Georgia, U.S.A. It was predicted that chemical defenses would be (1) higher in the outermost 2 mm layer of the sponge; (2) positively correlated with tissue nutritional quality; and (3) correlated with structural components such as spongin fibers. Whereas defensive chemicals were concentrated in the outer 2 mm of A. fulva, the Ircinia species had higher concentrations in deeper tissue layers. Furthermore, no significant positive or negative correlation between chemical defenses and nutritional quality or levels of structural components was observed in these sponges. Overall, these results do not support the prediction that predation pressure by fish and large mobile invertebrates significantly impacts chemical defense allocation in these sponges.     

A model for the implementation of ICM in the Mediterranean region

The Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Protocol in the Mediterranean means the coastal zone can be better protected and problems can be targeted in a coordinated manner. This research developed a model to improve Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) implementation in the region. The methodology collected data from Mediterranean coastal zone experts via semi-structured interviews and a review of Mediterranean Coastal Foundation ICM Conferences in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Results identified issues and recommended solutions at various points in the policy process and these were used to propose a model for the implementation of ICM. Research demonstrated the need for non symbolic engagement with science especially during the ex-ante, interim and ex-post reports of implementation. Improved and considered horizontal governance and capacity building was highlighted as crucial. Findings also emphasised the importance of legislatively supported bottom-up policy implementation for the Mediterranean to help develop local coastal management ownership. Finally, the particular complexity of coastal policy in an administratively and culturally diverse region was identified as the main difficulty for successful implementation of coastal policies.     

Song sharing in two populations of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia)

Sharing song types with immediate neighbors is widespread in birds with song repertoires, and sharing songs may confer a selective advantage in some cases. Levels of song sharing vary between different geographical populations of several bird species, and ecological differences often correlate with differences in singing behavior; in particular, males in migratory subspecies often share fewer songs than males in resident subspecies. The song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) appears to fit this pattern: resident song sparrows in western North America generally share 20–40% of their repertoire (of about eight songs) with each neighbor, while migratory subspecies from eastern North America often share 10% or less. We compared song sharing in two populations within a single subspecies of song sparrow (M. m. morphna) in Washington State. These populations, separated by only 120 km, nonetheless differ in migratory tendencies and several other ecological and life history variables. We recorded complete song repertoires from 11 male song sparrows in a high-elevation, migrating population at Gold Creek in west-central Washington, and compared them to two samples (n = 15 and n = 36) from a coastal, resident population at Discovery Park, Seattle, Washington. Despite major differences in habitat, population density, and migratory tendencies, song sharing among Gold Creek males was as high as that among Discovery Park males. In both populations, sharing was highest between immediate neighbors, and declined with distance. We conclude that at the within-subspecies level, neither migration nor population density affect song sharing in song sparrows, a song repertoire species. Received: 26 November 1998 / Received in revised form: 1 May 1999 / Accepted: 29 May 1999     

Do developmental initiatives influence local attitudes toward conservation? A case study from the Kalakad–Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve,India

We evaluated the conservation attitudes of the local villagers living adjacent to the Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in southern India 6 years after implementation of a World Bank funded eco-development project. We assessed attitudes towards three facets of conservation: the tiger, an emblematic species signifying India's commitment to wildlife conservation; the forest, a principle source of fuel-wood and other products; and the Forest Department, which manages the forest. More specifically we predicted that (i) attitudes would be an effective predictor of resource use interest in the forest and (ii) benefits obtained from the EDP would create more favorable attitudes towards conservation and the protected area employees. Twelve villages located within 3 km from the reserve boundary were chosen and 2-3% of the households interviewed with regard to their attitudes towards these three facets of conservation, their household resource use patterns, wealth, sex, age and length of residency. We found significant associations between wealth, sex, age and both tiger and forest conservation. Providing benefits has not changed the underlying attitudes of the communities. The poorer sections of society, whether receiving benefits or not, tended to support tiger conservation because conserving wildlife did not affect their livelihood in any way, whereas both the rich and poor had misgivings about forest conservation due to dependency on forest products. We conclude that the eco-development project has not effectively addressed the most important of the local concerns.