A Sensitivity Analysis of Nitrogen Losses from Dairy Farms

International attention has focused on agricultural production systems as non-point sources of pollution affecting the quality of streams, estuaries and ground water resources. The objective of the current study was to develop a model of nitrogen management on the dairy farm, and to perform sensitivity analyses in order to determine the relative importance of manipulating herd nutrition, manure management and crop selection in reducing nitrogen (N) losses from the farm. The importance of the method of N input to the farm (purchased feed, legume fixation, inorganic fertilizer, imported manure) was investigated, and the potential to reduce N losses from dairy farms was evaluated. Nitrogen balance equations were derived, and related efficiency coefficients were set to reference values representing common management practices. Total farm N efficiency (animal product N per N input), and N losses per product N were determined for different situations by solving the set of simultaneous equations. Improvements in animal diet and management that increase the conversion of feed N to animal product by 50% would increase total farm N efficiency by 48% and reduce N losses per product by 36 to 40%. In contrast, reducing losses from manure collection, storage and application to improve the percentage of manure N that becomes available in soil by 100% would only improve total farm N efficiency by 13% and reduce total N losses by 14%. Selecting crops and management that can use soil nutrients 50% more efficiently would improve total farm efficiency by up to 59% and reduce N losses by up to 41% depending on the predominant nitrogen sources to the farm. Legume production would reduce N losses per product compared with non-legumes. There was more than a five fold difference in N losses per animal product N between the most extreme scenarios suggesting considerable opportunity to reduce N losses from dairy farms.     

Neurophysiological Effects Induced in the Nervous Tissue by Low-Frequency, Pulsed Magnetic Fields

Summary The influence of pulsed magnetic fields (PMF) on the properties of nervous tissue was investigated. Hippocampal slices or synaptosomes obtained from hippocampal tissue were used as model systems. The amplitude of potentials recorded in vitro from one of the hippocampal pathways (Schaffer collaterals that use glutamate as a neurotransmitter) was employed as a measure of the influence of magnetic fields on synaptic efficiency. The synaptic glutamate turnover and radioactive calcium accumulation were used as markers of the PMF influence on biochemistry of synaptic mechanisms. The exposure of hippocampal slices for 30 min to PMF amplified evoked potentials. While the frequency of 0.16 Hz exerted the strongest effect, lower (0.01, 0.07, 0.03 Hz) and higher (0.5 Hz) frequencies were much less effective. The enhancement of the neuronal excitability was correlated with significant increase in the neuronal spontaneous activity mediated by electrical synapses. The PMF-induced changes in the excitability of the tissue were accompanied by an increase in the synaptic turnover of glutamate. The release of radioactive D-Aspartate (a glutamate analog used as a marker for glutamate turnover) from the slices, and its uptake by synaptosomes were enhanced, and reduced respectively, following the stimulation with pulsed magnetic fields. The frequency which was the most efficient in amplification of evoked potentials (0.16 Hz) was also the most effective in the modulation of the release and uptake processes. The PMF-induced changes in neurotransmitter turnover coincided with an increase in ⁴⁵Ca²⁺ accumulation observed in hippocampal slices exposed to PMF.     

Coalition of injustice? Bodies,business, and the biosphere in struggles against unwanted land uses

Scholars of environmental injustice have pushed to see beyond the spatial distribution of environmental harms in studies of unwanted land uses. Building upon this work, this article examines how the complex geographies of environmental injustice play out in a coalition to prevent the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Surry County, Virginia. While spatially dispersed coalitions of negatively affected actors can strengthen efforts to prevent the construction of an unwanted land use, they can also perpetuate the environmental injustices surrounding it. To make this argument, particular attention is paid to the diverse reasons and ways differentially situated actors oppose an unwanted land use. It is demonstrated how the disparate concerns and differential tactics deployed by actors in coalitions against unwanted land uses are often embedded in and potentially contribute to longer histories of social injustice.     

Valuation of Irrigation Water by the Hedonic Price Method: A Case Study in Chalkidiki,Greece

The design of efficient water allocation systems depends, among other factors, on economic issues and, above all, on a reliable estimate of the economic value of water. In this paper the hedonic price method is utilized to reveal the implicit value of irrigation water by analyzing agricultural land values in Chalkidiki, a typical rural area in Greece. The method was applied to a sample of both irrigated and nonirrigated properties and the value of irrigation water was estimated by disaggregating the total price of each parcel of land, obtained through a local survey. Results show that, apart from typical value attributes, the agricultural characteristics of the land, including irrigation water availability, have a significant influence on land prices.     

Assessment of Soil Cover Degradation and Desertification in Northern Lowland Dagestan

New principles of the assessment of soil cover degradation and desertification, the scale and intensity of destructive processes manifestation are determined.     

Molecular composition of recycled organic wastes,as determined by solid-state 13C NMR and elemental analyses

Using solid state ¹³C NMR data and elemental composition in a molecular mixing model, we estimated the molecular components of the organic matter in 16 recycled organic (RO) wastes representative of the major materials generated in the Sydney basin area. Close correspondence was found between the measured NMR signal intensities and those predicted by the model for all RO wastes except for poultry manure char. Molecular nature of the organic matter differed widely between the RO wastes. As a proportion of organic C, carbohydrate C ranged from 0.07 to 0.63, protein C from <0.01 to 0.66, lignin C from <0.01 to 0.31, aliphatic C from 0.09 to 0.73, carbonyl C from 0.02 to 0.23, and char C from 0 to 0.45. This method is considered preferable to techniques involving imprecise extraction methods for RO wastes. Molecular composition data has great potential as a predictor of RO waste soil carbon and nutrient outcomes.     

Inexact fuzzy-stochastic constraint-softened programming – A case study for waste management

In this study, an inexact fuzzy-stochastic constraint-softened programming method is developed for municipal solid waste (MSW) management under uncertainty. The developed method can deal with multiple uncertainties presented in terms of fuzzy sets, interval values and random variables. Moreover, a number of violation levels for the system constraints are allowed. This is realized through introduction of violation variables to soften system constraints, such that the model’s decision space can be expanded under demanding conditions. This can help generate a range of decision alternatives under various conditions, allowing in-depth analyses of tradeoffs among economic objective, satisfaction degree, and constraint-violation risk. The developed method is applied to a case study of planning a MSW management system. The uncertain and dynamic information can be incorporated within a multi-layer scenario tree; revised decisions are permitted in each time period based on the realized values of uncertain events. Solutions associated with different satisfaction degree levels have been generated, corresponding to different constraint-violation risks. They are useful for supporting decisions of waste flow allocation and system-capacity expansion within a multistage context.     

Fire Regime Changes in La Michilía Biosphere Reserve, Durango, Mexico

Abstract: The ability of reserves to maintain natural ecosystem processes such as fire disturbance regimes is central to long-term conservation. Fire-scarred tree samples were used to reconstruct fire regimes at five study sites totaling approximately 230 ha in pine (   Pinus spp.) and oak ( Quercus spp.) forests of La Michilía Biosphere Reserve on the dry east slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental, Durango, Mexico. Study sites covered a 20-km environmental gradient of elevation, topography, and human land uses. Plant communities ranged from oak-pine to mixed conifer forests. Fires were frequent at all sites prior to 1930, when large-scale grazing of domestic livestock was initiated. Widespread fires have been excluded from four of the five sites since 1945, with an essentially uninterrupted regime of frequent fires continuing only in the reserve core. Xeric sites had many, smaller fires, whereas mesic sites had fewer but larger fires. On a reserve-wide scale, a fire burned on at least one site nearly every year, usually in the dry spring or early summer season, but fire years were rarely synchronous among the sites. Fire occurrence was weakly related to the Southern Oscillation climate pattern; major reserve-wide fire years almost never coincided with wet Southern Oscillation extremes but only occasionally matched dry extremes. Maintenance of the long-term frequent-fire regime in the reserve core is one indicator that the biosphere reserve model has been successful in conserving natural processes, but the protected area is small ( 7000 ha). Because of the key role of frequent-fire regimes in regulating ecosystem structure and function, restoration of the ecological role of fire disturbance is a desirable conservation strategy.     

Experimental and numerical study of the dispersion of motor vehicle pollutants under idle condition

The aim of the work presented here is to study experimentally and numerically the dispersion characteristics of vehicular exhaust plume at an idle condition in an idealized and simplified environment. The gaseous and particulate concentrations in the exhaust plume of three idling motor vehicles were measured in an isolated environment under calm weather conditions. Despite the difference in the initial concentrations, the pollutants decayed exponentially in all directions.The CFD code PHOENICS 3.3, with the k–ε eddy dissipation sub-model, was used for the numerical simulation. The simulated results match very well with the experimental results close to the source of emission but decay to the ambient concentrations much slower. The effects of the initial emission concentration, exit velocity, exit direction and crosswind intensity have been investigated parametrically. The initial pollutant concentration will increase the local concentrations but the pattern of dispersion remains the same. The exit velocity will increase the momentum of the jet, resulting in a deeper penetration downstream. The exit angle has a stronger influence on pollutant dispersion than both initial pollutant concentration and exit velocity. When the exit angle is 15°, the pollutants tend to spread on the ground region. Crosswind shows a significant effect on the dispersion of the exhaust plume also. It will divert the plume to disperse in the same direction of the wind with limited penetration in the downstream direction.