Heading for the hills: climate-driven community relocations in the Solomon Islands and Alaska provide insight for a 1.5 °C future

Whilst future air temperature thresholds have become the centrepiece of international climate negotiations, even the most ambitious target of 1.5 °C will result in significant sea-level rise and associated impacts on human populations globally. Of additional concern in Arctic regions is declining sea ice and warming permafrost which can increasingly expose coastal areas to erosion particularly through exposure to wave action due to storm activity. Regional variability over the past two decades provides insight into the coastal and human responses to anticipated future rates of sea-level rise under 1.5 °C scenarios. Exceeding 1.5 °C will generate sea-level rise scenarios beyond that currently experienced and substantially increase the proportion of the global population impacted. Despite these dire challenges, there has been limited analysis of how, where and why communities will relocate inland in response. Here, we present case studies of local responses to coastal erosion driven by sea-level rise and warming in remote indigenous communities of the Solomon Islands and Alaska, USA, respectively. In both the Solomon Islands and the USA, there is no national government agency that has the organisational and technical capacity and resources to facilitate a community-wide relocation. In the Solomon Islands, communities have been able to draw on flexible land tenure regimes to rapidly adapt to coastal erosion through relocations. These relocations have led to ad hoc fragmentation of communities into smaller hamlets. Government-supported relocation initiatives in both countries have been less successful in the short term due to limitations of land tenure, lacking relocation governance framework, financial support and complex planning processes. These experiences from the Solomon Islands and USA demonstrate the urgent need to create a relocation governance framework that protects people’s human rights.     

In Flanders Fields: De/politicization and Democratic Debate on a GM Potato Field Trial Controversy in News Media

In May 2011, a highly mediatized direct action in the form of a “field liberation” took place in Flanders, Belgium, against a field trial of genetically modified potatoes. This direct action and its aftermath revealed the conflictual and antagonistic nature of the genetically modified organisms debate in Flanders. Consequently, it serves as a particularly suitable case to investigate the post-political thesis with regard to environmental discourse and politics. The aim of this paper is to investigate in what ways news media in their reporting contribute to processes of depoliticization and, resultantly, impede a democratic debate on the issues at stake. This paper attempts to provide an answer to this question based on a critical discourse analysis of the reporting by Flanders’ two generalist, elite newspapers, De Standaard and De Morgen and the alternative online news site DeWereldMorgen. The findings reveal the existence of three ideological cultures, which are characterized by different degrees of de/politicization. We conclude by discussing how this study adds to our understanding of the relation between the depoliticization of environmental discourse, democratic debate and twenty-first-century news media.     

Fine atmospheric particles emitted by industrial,traffic and urban sources in France: characterization and genotoxicity

Health risks associated with inhalation of fine particulate matter of 2.5 µm in diameter or smaller depend on their atmospheric levels and physicochemical properties. The relationships between chemical compositions and genotoxic activities of particles emitted by mineral industries, traffic and urban sources during summer and winter in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (France) were investigated.

The fine particles were separated in respect to water-soluble (13 minerals and metals) and organic-extractable (16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) components that were quantified. The chromosome damaging properties of the hydrophilic and lipophilic extracts were assessed using the centromeric micronucleus assay on a human lung fibroblast cell line.

The composition of the fine particulate matter was variable and depended upon the sources and seasons. Both the hydrophilic and lipophilic extracts induced chromosome damage: (1) in hydrophilic extracts, Ca and Zn affected chromosome losses induction; (2) acenapthylene affected chromosome damage (breakages and losses) induction and naphthalene affected chromosome damage and losses induction in lipophilic extracts without metabolic activation; and (3) benzo[a]pyrene affected chromosome losses induction in lipophilic extracts with metabolic activation. Fine particulate matter arising from coal-fired power station, road traffic, and other urban sources were the most efficient to induce chromosome breakage.     

Water Challenges for Geologic Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) has been proposed as a means to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the continued use of fossil fuels. For geologic sequestration, the carbon dioxide is captured from large point sources (e.g., power plants or other industrial sources), transported to the injection site and injected into deep geological formations for storage. This will produce new water challenges, such as the amount of water used in energy resource development and utilization and the “capture penalty” for water use. At depth, brine displacement within formations, storage reservoir pressure increases resulting from injection, and leakage are potential concerns. Potential impacts range from increasing water demand for capture to contamination of groundwater through leakage or brine displacement. Understanding these potential impacts and the conditions under which they arise informs the design and implementation of appropriate monitoring and controls, important both for assurance of environmental safety and for accounting purposes. Potential benefits also exist, such as co-production and treatment of water to both offset reservoir pressure increase and to provide local water for beneficial use.     

The Watershed Deposition Tool: A Tool for Incorporating Atmospheric Deposition in Water‐Quality Analyses1

Abstract: A tool for providing the linkage between air and water‐quality modeling needed for determining the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and for analyzing related nonpoint‐source impacts on watersheds has been developed. Using gridded output of atmospheric deposition from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, the Watershed Deposition Tool (WDT) calculates average per unit area and total deposition to selected watersheds and subwatersheds. CMAQ estimates the wet and dry deposition for all of its gaseous and particulate chemical species, including ozone, sulfur species, nitrogen species, secondary organic aerosols, and hazardous air pollutants at grid scale sizes ranging from 4 to 36 km. An overview of the CMAQ model is provided. The somewhat specialized format of the CMAQ files is not easily imported into standard spatial analysis tools. The WDT provides a graphical user interface that allows users to visualize CMAQ gridded data and perform further analyses on selected watersheds or simply convert CMAQ gridded data to a shapefile for use in other programs. Shapefiles for the 8‐digit (cataloging unit) hydrologic unit code polygons for the United States are provided with the WDT; however, other user‐supplied closed polygons may be used. An example application of the WDT for assessing the contributions of different source categories to deposition estimates, the contributions of wet and dry deposition to total deposition, and the potential reductions in total nitrogen deposition to the Albemarle‐Pamlico basin stemming from future air emissions reductions is used to illustrate the WDT capabilities.     

Biofilm enhanced geologic sequestration of supercritical CO2

In order to develop subsurface CO₂ storage as a viable engineered mechanism to reduce the emission of CO₂ into the atmosphere, any potential leakage of injected supercritical CO₂ (SC-CO₂) from the deep subsurface to the atmosphere must be reduced. Here, we investigate the utility of biofilms, which are microorganism assemblages firmly attached to a surface, as a means of reducing the permeability of deep subsurface porous geological matrices under high pressure and in the presence of SC-CO₂, using a unique high pressure (8.9 MPa), moderate temperature (32 °C) flow reactor containing 40 millidarcy Berea sandstone cores. The flow reactor containing the sandstone core was inoculated with the biofilm forming organism Shewanella fridgidimarina. Electron microscopy of the rock core revealed substantial biofilm growth and accumulation under high-pressure conditions in the rock pore space which caused >95% reduction in core permeability. Permeability increased only slightly in response to SC-CO₂ challenges of up to 71 h and starvation for up to 363 h in length. Viable population assays of microorganisms in the effluent indicated survival of the cells following SC-CO₂ challenges and starvation, although S. fridgidimarina was succeeded by Bacillus mojavensis and Citrobacter sp. which were native in the core. These observations suggest that engineered biofilm barriers may be used to enhance the geologic sequestration of atmospheric CO₂.     

HPLC determination of chlorate metabolism in bovine ruminal fluid

Salmonella and Escherichia coli are two bacteria that are important causes of human and animal disease worldwide. Chlorate is converted in the cell to chlorite, which is lethal to these bacteria. An HPLC procedure was developed for the rapid analysis of chlorate (ClO(3)(-)), nitrate (NO(3)(-)), and nitrite (NO(2)(-)) ions in bovine ruminal fluid samples. Standard curves for chlorite, nitrite, nitrate, and chlorate were well defined linear curves with R(2) values of 0.99846, 0.99106, 0.99854, and 0.99138, respectively. Concentrations of chlorite could not be accurately determined in bovine ruminal fluid because chlorite reacts with or binds a component(s) or is reduced to chloride in bovine ruminal fluid resulting in low chlorite measurements. A standard curve ranging from 25 to 150 ppm ClO(3)(-) ion was used to measure chlorate fortified into ruminal fluid. The concentration of chlorate was more rapidly lowered (P < 0.01) under anaerobic compared to aerobic incubation conditions. Chlorate alone or chlorate supplemented with the reductants sodium lactate or glycerol were bactericidal in anaerobic incubations. In anaerobic culture, the addition of sodium formate to chlorate-fortified ruminal fluid appeared to decrease chlorate concentrations; however, formate also appeared to moderate the bactericidal effect of chlorate against E. coli. Addition of the reductants, glycerol or lactate, to chlorate-fortified ruminal fluid did not increase the killing of E. coli at 24 h, but may be useful when the reducing equivalents are limiting as in waste holding reservoirs or composting systems required for intense animal production.     

Toxicity of cobalt-complexed cyanide to <Emphasis Type="Italic">Oncorhynchus mykiss,Daphnia magna</Emphasis>, and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Ceriodaphnia dubia</Emphasis>

Background Cobalt cyanide complexes often result when ore is treated with cyanide solutions to extract gold and other metals. These have recently been discovered in low but significant concentrations in effluents from gold leach operations. This study was conducted to determine the potential toxicity of cobalt-cyanide complexes to freshwater organisms and the extent to which ultraviolet radiation (UV) potentiates this toxicity. Tests were also conducted to determine if humic acids or if adaptation to UV influenced sensitivity to the cyanide complexes. Methods Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), Daphnia magna, and Ceriodaphnia dubia were exposed to potassium hexacyanocobaltate in the presence and absence of UV radiation, in the presence and absence of humic acids. Cyano-cobalt exposures were also conducted with C. dubia from cultures adapted to elevated UV. Results With an LC50 concentration of 0.38 mg/L, cyanocobalt was over a 1000 times more toxic to rainbow trout in the presence of UV at a low, environmentally relevant irradiance level (4 μW/cm² as UVB) than exposure to this compound in the absence of UV with an LC50 of 112.9 mg/L. Toxicity was immediately apparent, with mortality occurring within an hour of the onset of exposure at the highest concentration. Fish were unaffected by exposure to UV alone. Weak-acid dissociable cyanide concentrations were observed in irradiated aqueous solutions of cyanocobaltate within hours of UV exposure and persisted in the presence of UV for at least 96 hours, whereas negligible concentrations were observed in the absence of UV. The presence of humic acids significantly diminished cyanocobalt toxicity to D. magna and reduced mortality from UV exposure. Humic acids did not significantly influence survival among C. dubia. C. dubia from UV-adapted populations were less sensitive to metallocyanide compounds than organisms from unadapted populations. Conclusions The results indicate that metallocyanide complexes may pose a hazard to aquatic life through photochemically induced processes. Factors that decrease UV exposure such as dissolved organic carbon or increased pigmentation would diminish toxicity.     

Heavy metal and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Ebrié lagoon sediments, Côte d’Ivoire

Surface sediments throughout Ebrié lagoon, Côte d’Ivoire were collected in 2001 and analyzed for their heavy metal and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) contaminant content. Geochemical maps of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn) in the surface sediment were produced based on geographical information system (GIS) technology. Heavy metals and PAH were detected at high concentration and provide evidence for several anthropogenic inputs to the lagoon. A significant spatial relationship was found for Fe, Zn, and Cu in the sediment using a GIS-based analysis, suggesting that these metal contaminants in the sediments of the Biétri bay had common sources.     

Statistical distributions of trace metal concentrations in the northwestern Mediterranean atmospheric aerosol

The concentrations of 11 crustal and anthropogenic trace metals (Li, Al, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb) were measured from 2006 to 2008 in the atmospheric aerosol at a northwestern Mediterranean coast (station of Cap Ferrat, situated on the southeastern coast of France). Statistical models (lognormal, Weibull, and gamma) that best represented the trace metal distribution for this environment are described. The lognormal model was selected for the distributions of (in decreasing strength of the fit) Al, Co, Li, Zn, Mn, Cu, Pb, and Cd, i.e., metals that are introduced into the atmospheric aerosol by pulses inducing temporal variability in their concentrations. The gamma model was associated with Fe, i.e., metals that exhibit less inter-annual variability than the former trace metals. The third mode (Weibull) represented the distribution of the concentrations of V and Ni. The statistical approach presented in this study contributed to better define and constrain the distribution of the 11 trace metals of the atmospheric aerosol from the northwestern Mediterranean coast. In a close future, knowledge of these statistical distributions will allow using convolution models to separate their natural and anthropogenic contributions, therefore increasing our ability to study anthropogenic emissions of trace metals and their impact on the environment.