Resilience of stocking capacity to changing climate in arid to Mediterranean landscapes

Small livestock is an important resource for rural human populations in dry climates. How strongly will climate change affect the capacity of the rangeland? We used hierarchical modelling to scale quantitatively the growth of shrubs and annual plants, the main food of sheep and goats, to the landscape extent in the eastern Mediterranean region. Without grazing, productivity increased in a sigmoid way with mean annual precipitation. Grazing reduced productivity more strongly the drier the landscape. At a point just under the stocking capacity of the vegetation, productivity declined precipitously with more intense grazing due to a lack of seed production of annuals. We repeated simulations with precipitation patterns projected by two contrasting IPCC scenarios. Compared to results based on historic patterns, productivity and stocking capacity did not differ in most cases. Thus, grazing intensity remains the stronger impact on landscape productivity in this dry region even in the future.     

Impact of global warming on European tidal estuaries: some evidence of northward migration of estuarine fish species

The aim of this study was to determine whether the latitudinal distribution of fish species that use estuaries to complete their entire life cycle has shifted northward as an expected consequence of global warming. The mean latitude of past fish species distributions found in 1970s’ literature was compared with the mean latitude of distributions today based on fish density indices collected in 55 tidal estuaries along the Atlantic European seaboard, from Portugal to Scotland. Among the 15 most common species, 11 displayed a positive difference between current and past mean latitudes suggesting a northward shift of the populations. Using the occurrence of subtropical species in temperate areas as an indicator of water warming, the northernmost range limit of 10 subtropical species was subsequently focused on. Six of them were recorded up to their past northern latitudinal limit. These results reinforced the idea that a number of fish species associated to estuaries have migrated northwards over the last 30 years, possibly due to water warming. These ecological changes can get important managerial implications, i.e. in the assessment of the ecological status in European directives.     

A combined approach of physicochemical and biological methods for the characterization of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soil

Main physicochemical and microbiological parameters of collected petroleum-contaminated soils with different degrees of contamination from DaGang oil field (southeast of Tianjin, northeast China) were comparatively analyzed in order to assess the influence of petroleum contaminants on the physicochemical and microbiological properties of soil. An integration of microcalorimetric technique with urease enzyme analysis was used with the aim to assess a general status of soil metabolism and the potential availability of nitrogen nutrient in soils stressed by petroleum-derived contaminants. The total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) content of contaminated soils varied from 752.3 to 29,114 mg kg^?1. Although the studied physicochemical and biological parameters showed variations dependent on TPH content, the correlation matrix showed also highly significant correlation coefficients among parameters, suggesting their utility in describing a complex matrix such as soil even in the presence of a high level of contaminants. The microcalorimetric measures gave evidence of microbial adaptation under highest TPH concentration; this would help in assessing the potential of a polluted soil to promote self-degradation of oil-derived hydrocarbon under natural or assisted remediation. The results highlighted the importance of the application of combined approach in the study of those parameters driving the soil amelioration and bioremediation.     

New Approaches to Creative Conservation on Farms in South-west England

This paper reports findings from research which sought to examine the characteristics and the behaviour of farms which participate in environmentally friendly farming schemes and initiatives. In contrast with some earlier work in other regions, a wide variety of farmers in the south-west sample had an active level of sympathy or interest in conservation issues, which, despite the broad and at times inaccurate conservation definitions employed by the farmers, led some to spend generously on creative activities, especially woodland planting. However, the importance of geographical influences was paramount, with creative conservation activity almost always undertaken on comparatively poorer land. Poorer land was always most suitable for conservation work, whether that work be done for cosmetic or holistic reasons.     

Black and Smelly Waters: how citizen-generated transparency is addressing gaps in China’s environmental management

ABSTRACT

Information communication technologies (ICTs) generate new forums for transparency via governance-by-disclosure initiatives designed to improve environmental management and policy. Data generated by these programs are a means to empower citizens, narrowing the accountability gap between governments and people and enhancing public service. There is little empirical evidence, however, that supports the theory that citizen-generated data can be used to improve the accountability of local government officials. Citizen-led transparency efforts are emerging in China, as the country undergoes an information revolution that has brought ICTs to near ubiquity. We evaluate the transformative potential of a new ICT initiative, the ‘Black and Smelly Waters’ program, which China’s government launched to help enforce local government water remediation efforts. Many examples of citizen-generated transparency are grassroots initiatives, yet the Black and Smelly Waters program is distinct in its top-down structure. An empirical evaluation of preliminary data illuminates Black and Smelly Waters’s early successes and challenges as a means to generate transparency and accountability. We discuss these findings and propose a broad application of this new type of disclosure to reshape environmental management in China.     

Stress and the union steward's role

This paper develops and tests hypotheses concerning some psychological correlates of role ambiguity and role conflict in a population that has not been extensively studied in relation to stress, union stewards. Survey data on role ambiguity and role conflict, the indicators of stress, were collected from 285 stewards at the local union steward meeting, with the stewards perceiving a moderate amount of role ambiguity and perceiving a lesser amount of role conflict. The stewards were also asked about their role expectations, their motivations for remaining a steward, their grievance handling strategies, and their affective commitment toward the union and employer. Each of those four sets of variables was hypothesized to be related to role ambiguity and role conflict and each was influential in explaining variance. As predicted, those stewards who were more motivated to remain stewards for personal reasons had both higher role ambiguity and higher role conflict. Further, the conditions of being more motivated to remain a steward to help the union and employees and having higher union commitment were associated with lower role conflict, but, opposite to the hypotheses, higher role ambiguity.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMBINED WATER QUALITY INDEX1

ABSTRACT: Use-oriented benefits and treatment costs analysis has been incorporated into a water quality index to show an economically optimized concentration for the treatment of the pollutants and the resulting water quality. This combined water quality index can be used in decisionmaking at the federal and local government levels. Five major pollutants, i.e., coliforms, nitrogen, phosphorus, suspended solids, and detergent, have been considered for the municipal waste water. With each higher level of improvement the treatment costs increase accordingly and the benefits associated with the reuse of this treated waste water will increase too but not for the nutrient removal in agricultural use. The optimal concentration is determined when the marginal costs equal the marginal benefits. The combined water quality index is the combination of the maximum net benefits and the water quality index of the optimized residual concentrations. This water quality index is zero dollars for the Tucson region in this study. The possible reclaimed use of municipal waste water is for agricultural irrigation and recreational lakes for the Tucson region.