Point- and nonpoint-source pesticide contamination in the Zwester Ohm catchment, Germany

Reducing pesticide loads in surface waters implies identifying the pathways responsible for the pollution. The current study documents the pesticide contamination of the river Zwester Ohm, a 4917-ha catchment in Germany with 41% of the land used for crop production. Discharges and concentrations of 19 pesticides were measured continuously at three locations for 15 mo. The load detected at the outlet of the catchment amounted to 9048 g a.i. The losses represent 0.22% of the pesticides applied by the farmers. The contamination showed a seasonal pattern following the pesticide application times. The wastewater treatment plant system (WWTPS) in the catchment (two wastewater treatment plants [WWTP], 14 combined sewer overflows (CSO), four CSO tanks) emits during dry weather periods purified sewage and during storm events sewage mixed with stormwater runoff into the river. The contribution by the WWTPS to the pesticide load was defined as point-source pollution (PSP). The load was dominated by PSP with at least 77% of the total pollution. No significant interdependencies between intrinsic properties of the pesticides, hydrometeorological factors, and the loads occurring in the stream could be found. Therefore, it is not possible to predict PSP for other catchments based on the results from this study. Whereas 65% of the total load entered the river via the WWTP, a portion of 12% was attributed to the CSO. The study points out that the influence of CSO on PSP should be taken into account in future catchment studies in areas with comparable agricultural structure.     

A Call for Urgent Monitoring of Food and Water Security Based on Relevant Indicators for the Arctic

This perspective paper argues for an urgent need to monitor a set of 12 concrete, measurable indicators of food and water security in the Arctic over time. Such a quantitative indicator approach may be viewed as representing a reductionist rather than a holistic perspective, but is nevertheless necessary for actually knowing what reality aspects to monitor in order to accurately understand, quantify, and be able to project critical changes to food and water security of both indigenous and non-indigenous people in the Arctic. More relevant indicators may be developed in the future, taking us further toward reconciliation between reductionist and holistic approaches to change assessment and understanding. However, the potential of such further development to improved holistic change assessment is not an argument not to urgently start to monitor and quantify the changes in food and water security indicators that are immediately available and adequate for the Arctic context.     

Integrating economic costs into the analysis of flexible conservation management strategies.

Flexible conservation management, where measures (e.g., mowing of meadows, removing invasive species) are selected in each decision period depending on the current state of the ecological system, is generally perceived as superior to fixed management, where the same measure is applied in each decision period independent of the current state of the system. In past comparisons of fixed and flexible conservation strategies the additional costs that arise only in flexible strategies have usually been ignored. In this paper, we present a framework to integrate costs of flexible management into the evaluation of flexible conservation strategies. Using the example of an endangered butterfly species we demonstrate that the costs of flexible management may reverse the rank order of flexible and fixed conservation strategies, such that fixed strategies may lead to better ecological results than flexible ones for the same financial budget.     

Non-mosaic trisomy 20 presenting at 21 weeks' gestation as a thoraco-abdominal mass

Non-mosaic trisomy 20 is rare in fetuses surviving beyond the first trimester. We report a case of a fetus with non-mosaic trisomy 20 in amniotic fluid cultures obtained during the prenatal evaluation of an unusual thoraco-abdominal mass which was found at autopsy to be pulmonary sequestration. Gross inspection and autopsy of the fetus revealed multiple anomalies. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Local stakeholders' acceptance of model-generated data used as a communication tool in water management: The Rönneå Study

The objective of this study was to increase the knowledge of local stakeholders' acceptance of model-generated data when used as a communication tool in water quality management. The R?nne? catchment in the southwest of Sweden was chosen as the study area. The results indicate the model-generated data served as a uniting factor. Simultaneously, the stakeholders were concerned with presented data, the main problems being sources of pollution, which were not accounted for, lack of trustworthiness when measuring pollution, and the uncertainty of the impact of natural variation and delayed effects. Four clusters of factors were identified as influencing stakeholders' acceptance of the model-generated data: confidence in its practical applications, confidence in the people involved in or providing material for the dialog (such as experts, decision-makers, and media), the social characteristics of the participants (such as age and profession), and the way of communicating the data (such as tone of communication, group composition, duration, and geographical scope of the dialog). The perception of the fairness of the practical application of given model-generated data was also an important factor for acceptance.