Assessing of Environmental Quality in Six Areas in India,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

Environmental quality for environmental health has been examined visually by describing general conditions and drinking water supply, sanitation and solid waste treatment conditions and practices in six South-East Asian villages with a dense population. The environmental review was supplemented by discussions with local people and political and administrative decision makers. Some drinking water analyses were done in order to show the water quality to the local people. The quality of the general conditions and the conditions and practices of drinking water supply, excreta disposal and solid waste treatment practices have been graded with the grading system presented below. The grading could be done in 1 or 2 days in each area by two persons, of which one was an environmental scientist and the other a social scientist, who also knew the local culture and worked as a translator.     

Influence of diatoms on copepod reproduction. III. Consequences of abnormal oocyte maturation on reproductive factors in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Calanus helgolandicus</Emphasis>

Observations of gonads and oocyte development stages (OS) have been achieved in Calanus helgolandicus females fed different algal diets and starved in filtered sea water under laboratory conditions during 8 days. The effects of 20 diets on egg production rates (EPR), hatching success (HS) and proportion of abnormal larvae (AL, development stages N1-2) were examined. With the control diet Prorocentrum minimum EPR and HS values were high, while AL was very low, coinciding with intact cell structures in oogonia (OO) and normal OS (OS1-OS4). With the other diets, oocyte maturation, EPR, HS and AL patterns were partially or totally impaired. Decrease of EPR coincided with the arrest of OS3 maturation and oocyte degradations, characterised by cell fragmentation, presence of apoptotic bodies in the OS3, degradation of cytoplasm in OS3 and OS4 and consequently the arrest of OS4 formation. These degradations were reversible when females were fed a favourable diet. Results reflect the presence of two distinct inhibitory mechanisms. Inhibition mechanism (1) impairs egg production. It was induced by starvation or by several species belonging to Bacillariophyceae (Chaetoceros calcitrans, Guinardia delicatula, Guinardia striata, Odontella regia, Rhizosolenia setigera, Stephanopyxis turris, Thalassiosira pseudonana) and mixed-diatom assemblages (collected in the field) and to the prymnesiophyte Pavlova lutherii. Remarkably other diatoms like Navicula sp., Nitzschia sp., Skeletonema costatum and Thalassiosira rotula did not induce mechanism (1) Inhibitory mechanism (2) affected exclusively HS and AL and was triggered by species independent of the production of polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUA), which are supposed to have adverse impacts on HS and larval development.     

Specific features of bird community formation depending on the degree of anthropogenic impact

The population density and relative abundance of some bird species reach the highest values in the communities of habitats with a high degree of anthropogenic transformation. The species diversity of birds shows an inverse correlation with the index of anthropogenic impact (in grades) calculated with regard to a number of parameters. Relevant correlations change periodically, with the correlation coefficient reaching the highest values in the nesting period and decreasing to a minimum during the flight period.     

Chromosome aberrations as indicator of technogenic impact on conifer stands

The level of chromosome aberrations at different stages of mitosis has been studied in the seed sprout meristem of four conifer species growing in the Southern Urals in areas differing in the kind and degree of industrial pollution. The results provide evidence for the adverse effect of pollution on the chromosomal machinery of these species. With respect to environmental quality assessment, the Scots pine is the most sensitive indicator species among conifers growing in the Southern Urals and analysis of chromosome aberrations in anaphase-telophase cells is most effective among the cytogenetic methods tested.     

Residues and mutagenicity of captan applied to apple trees and potential human exposure

The fungicide captan (cis-N-((trichloromethyl)thio) 4-cyclo-hexene-1,2-dicarboximide) was applied at the rate of 2.4 g/l to apple trees (c.v. Golden Delicious) individually or as part of a standard treatment program where it was applied eight times during the growing season together with several pesticides. Leaf samples (100 discs of 2.2 cm diameter) were collected from treated and control trees before treatment and at 0, 1, 3, 7, 14, 28, 56, 90 and 112 days after treatment. Fruit samples were taken at mid-season (56 days) and at harvest (112 days). The objective of this study was to determine the captan residue and mutagenicity of leaf and fruit extracts to ascertain the potential health hazard to agricultural workers in these orchards. Surface residues were extracted from leaves and fruits with methylene chloride. These extracts were subsequently analyzed for captan by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) utilizing an electron-capture detector, and for mutagenicity with two strains (TA98 and TA100) of Salmonella typhimurium, with and without microsomal enzyme activation. Positive mutagenic effects were observed with strain TA100 at 0-14 days post spray, even with extracts from one leaf disc's surface (3.8 cm2) of the single treatment. Captan residues in these samples indicated a decline from 9.3 micrograms/cm2 at 0 days to 0.80 micrograms/cm2 at 14 days and a trace after 112 days. With the standard treatment, in which captan was incorporated eight times in the program starting at the 7-day interval, leaf extracts showed mutagenic activity at 7, 14, 28 and 90 days. Captan residues at these intervals were 11.4, 5.0, 4.1 and 3.4 micrograms/cm2, respectively. Fruit sample extracts of the standard spray were mutagenic to the tester strains TA100 and TA98 both at mid-season and at harvest. Residues of captan on fruits declined from 10.4 micrograms/cm2 at mid-season to 1.1 micrograms/cm2 at harvest. No mutagenic activity was detected with extracts from fruit samples from the single captan application.     

Ecological Function Zoning for Environmental Planning at Different Levels

Environmental planning at different levels has been called for by environmental departments in China during last years to integrate environment consideration to economic development. Based on the accomplished environmental planning practice in Xiamen China, the paper suggests a general environmental planning process with ecological function zoning as its key steps, at the same time an effective method for ecological function zoning was formulated. The case studies of Dongfu suburban town environmental planning and Xiamen eco-city conceptual planning indicate that scientifically sound results of ecological function zoning can contribute to improving not only the adaptability and acceptability of environmental planning, also the environmental management and the decision-making. The experience shows that the ecological function zoning methods should be applied according to the principles of adaptive management, resource-based and community-based, so that it can integrate science into decision-making process, avoiding both narrow-minded viewpoints of planners and natural resource use conflicts among variety of stakeholders. Problems to be resolved in the future are also pointed out in the ending part.