Dioxins in the Venice lagoon

Venice is famous around the world for its uniqueness and architectural splendours, arts and the history of the “Serenissima Repubblica”, as it was known in the past, but few are aware that Venice economy is strongly dependent on the industrial activities based mainly on the adjacent Porto Marghera area. For many years, the lagoon that physically separates the city from the dry land has avoided association between the concern connected with the pollution derived from these industrial activities and the public perception of Venice. Since 1995, dioxins have appeared as a lagoon contaminant, and their presence, at such a level requiring immediate “in depth” studies and interventions, has been fully realized for decades.     

The history of seabird colonies and the North Water ecosystem: Contributions from palaeoecological and archaeological evidence

The North Water (NOW) polynya is one of the most productive marine areas of the Arctic and an important breeding area for millions of seabirds. There is, however, little information on the dynamics of the polynya or the bird populations over the long term. Here, we used sediment archives from a lake and peat deposits along the Greenland coast of the NOW polynya to track long-term patterns in the dynamics of the seabird populations. Radiocarbon dates show that the thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) and the common eider (Somateria mollissima) have been present for at least 5500 cal. years. The first recorded arrival of the little auk (Alle alle) was around 4400 cal. years bp at Annikitsoq, with arrival at Qeqertaq (Salve Ø) colony dated to 3600 cal. years bp. Concentrations of cadmium and phosphorus (both abundant in little auk guano) in the lake and peat cores suggest that there was a period of large variation in bird numbers between 2500 and 1500 cal. years bp. The little auk arrival times show a strong accord with past periods of colder climate and with some aspects of human settlement in the area.     

Characteristics of deforestation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) between the 1980s and 2000s

There has been a significant lack of land cover change studies in relation to deforestation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea). The purpose of this study is to characterize deforestation in North Korea through land cover change trajectory and spatial analysis. We used three 30-m gridded land cover data sets for North Korea representing the conditions of the late 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, respectively, as well as a digital elevation model. We examined the land cover trajectories during the two decades, i.e., which land cover became which at the pixel level. In addition, we calculated topographic characteristics of deforested pixels. Major findings from the study are summarized as follows: (1) net forest loss in North Korea was negligible in the latter decade compared to the former (>5000 km²), whereas other land cover changes were still active; (2) as a result of deforestation, forest land cover became mostly agricultural, particularly in the latter decade (95 %); (3) expansion of agricultural land cover continued during the time, increasing by >42 %; and (4) elevation and slope of deforested areas decreased slightly in the latter decade. The key contribution of the study is that it has demonstrated which land cover became which at the 30-m pixel level, complementing existing studies that examined overall forest stock in North Korea.     

Identifying the European Fossil Fuel Plumes in the Atmosphere Over the Northeast Atlantic Region Through Isotopic Observations and Numerical Modelling

As part of the Danish NEAREX project the origin and variability of anthropogenic atmospheric CO₂ over the Northeast Atlantic Region (NEAR) has been studied. The project consisted of a combination of experimental and modelling activities. Local volunteers operated CO₂ sampling stations, built at University of Copenhagen, for ¹⁴C analysis at four locations (East Denmark, Shetland Isles, Faroe Isles and Iceland). The samples were only collected during winter periods of south-easterly winds in an attempt to trace air enriched in fossil-fuel derived CO₂ due to combustion of fossil fuels within European countries. In order to study the transport and concentration fields over the region in detail, a three-dimensional Eulerian hemispheric air pollution model has been extended to include the main anthropogenic sources for atmospheric CO₂. During the project period (1998–2001) only a few episodes of transport from Central Europe towards NEAR arose, which makes the data set for the evaluation of the method sparse. The analysed samples indicate that the signal for fossil CO₂, as expected, is largest (up to 3.7±0.4% fossil CO₂) at the Danish location closest to the European emissions areas and much weaker (up to ∼1.5±0.6% fossil CO₂) at the most remote location. As the anthropogenic signal is weak in the clean atmosphere over NEAR these numbers will, however, be very sensitive to the assumed background ¹⁴CO₂ activity and the precision of the measurements. The model simulations include the interplay between the driving processes from the emission into the boundary layer and the following horizontal/vertical mixing and atmospheric transport and are used to analyse the meteorological conditions leading to the observed events of high fossil CO₂ over NEAR. This information about the history of the air masses is essential if an observed signal is to be utilised for identifying and quantifying sources for fossil CO₂.     

Environmental Security: A Geographic Information System Analysis Approach—The Case of Kenya

Studies into the relationships between environmental factors and violence or conflicts constitute a very debated research field called environmental security. Several authors think that environmental scarcity, which is scarcity of renewable resources, can contribute to generate violence or social unrest, particularly within states scarcely endowed with technical know-how and social structures, such as developing countries. In this work, we referred to the theoretical model developed by the Environmental Change and Acute Conflict Project. Our goal was to use easily available spatial databases to map the various sources of environmental scarcity through geographic information systems, in order to locate the areas apparently most at risk of suffering negative social effects and their consequences in terms of internal security. The analysis was carried out at a subnational level and applied to the case of Kenya. A first phase of the work included a careful selection of databases relative to renewable resources. Spatial operations among these data allowed us to obtain new information on the availability of renewable resources (cropland, forests, water), on the present and foreseen demographic pressure, as well as on the social and technical ingenuity. The results made it possible to identify areas suffering from scarcity of one or more renewable resources, indicating different levels of gravity. Accounts from Kenya seem to confirm our results, reporting clashes between tribal groups over the access to scarce resources in areas that our work showed to be at high risk.     

Assessing Societal Impacts When Planning Restoration of Large Alluvial Rivers: A Case Study of the Sacramento River Project, California

Studies have shown that ecological restoration projects are more likely to gain public support if they simultaneously increase important human services that natural resources provide to people. River restoration projects have the potential to influence many of the societal functions (e.g., flood control, water quality) that rivers provide, yet most projects fail to consider this in a comprehensive manner. Most river restoration projects also fail to take into account opportunities for revitalization of large-scale river processes, focusing instead on opportunities presented at individual parcels. In an effort to avoid these pitfalls while planning restoration of the Sacramento River, we conducted a set of coordinated studies to evaluate societal impacts of alternative restoration actions over a large geographic area. Our studies were designed to identify restoration actions that offer benefits to both society and the ecosystem and to meet the information needs of agency planning teams focusing on the area. We worked with local partners and public stakeholders to design and implement studies that assessed the effects of alternative restoration actions on flooding and erosion patterns, socioeconomics, cultural resources, and public access and recreation. We found that by explicitly and scientifically melding societal and ecosystem perspectives, it was possible to identify restoration actions that simultaneously improve both ecosystem health and the services (e.g., flood protection and recreation) that the Sacramento River and its floodplain provide to people. Further, we found that by directly engaging with local stakeholders to formulate, implement, and interpret the studies, we were able to develop a high level of trust that ultimately translated into widespread support for the project.     

Polychlorinated biphenyls, organochlorine pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in a one-off global survey of bivalves

During the Danish Galathea 3 expedition, bivalve samples were collected at the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Ghana, South Africa, Australia, Solomon Islands, New Zealand, Chile, US Virgin Islands, Boston, Newfoundland and Shetland Islands and analysed for organochlorines and PAHs. Concentration differences of up to three orders of magnitude were observed, with the highest concentrations at Boston harbour (SPCB 338 ng g(-1) dw, ΣSPAH 5966 ng g(-1) dw) and the Sydney estuary (ΣSPCB 282 ng g(-1) dw, SPAH 1453 ng g(-1) dw). Local impacts were also found for the Greenland capital Nuuk in terms of PCB and PAH levels, while other Greenland samples came closest to representing PAH background levels. Several locations had undetectable organochlorine levels, including Hobart and Chile, which had the lowest SPAH concentrations (<200 ng g(-1) dw). It was possible to group the stations according to their pyrogenic/petrogenic influence using Principal Component Analyses, and indications of petroleum sources were found at Nuuk.     

Designing a Spatially Balanced, Randomized Site Selection Process for Regional Stream Surveys: The EMAP Mid-Atlantic Pilot Study

In 1993, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), initiated a sample survey of streams in the mid-Atlantic. A major objective of the survey was to quantify ecological condition in wadeable streams across the region. To accomplish this goal, we selected 615 stream sites using a randomized sampling design with some restrictions. The design utilized the digitized stream network taken from 1:100,000-scale USGS topographic maps as the sample frame. Using a GIS, first- through third-order (wadeable) stream segments in the sample frame were randomly laid out in a line and sampled at fixed intervals after a random start. We used a variable probability approach so that roughly equal numbers of first-, second-, and third-order stream sites would appear in the sample. The sample design allows inference from the sample data to the status of the entire 230,400 km of wadeable stream length in the mid-Atlantic study area. Of this mapped stream length, 10% was not in the target population because no stream channel existed (4%), the stream channel was dry (5%), or the stream was not wadeable (1%). We were unable to collect field data from another 10% of the mapped stream length due to lack of access (mostly landowner denials). Thus, the field data we collected at 509 sites allows inference to the ecological condition for 184,600 km of the mapped stream length in the region.     

Material and energy recovery in integrated waste management systems: project overview and main results

This paper describes the context, the basic assumptions and the main findings of a joint research project aimed at identifying the optimal breakdown between material recovery and energy recovery from municipal solid waste (MSW) in the framework of integrated waste management systems (IWMS). The project was carried out from 2007 to 2009 by five research groups at Politecnico di Milano, the Universities of Bologna and Trento, and the Bocconi University (Milan), with funding from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR). Since the optimization of IWMSs by analytical methods is practically impossible, the search for the most attractive strategy was carried out by comparing a number of relevant recovery paths from the point of view of mass and energy flows, technological features, environmental impact and economics. The main focus has been on mature processes applicable to MSW in Italy and Europe. Results show that, contrary to a rather widespread opinion, increasing the source separation level (SSL) has a very marginal effects on energy efficiency. What does generate very significant variations in energy efficiency is scale, i.e. the size of the waste-to-energy (WTE) plant. The mere value of SSL is inadequate to qualify the recovery system. The energy and environmental outcome of recovery depends not only on "how much" source separation is carried out, but rather on "how" a given SSL is reached.     

Monitoring anthropogenic sewage pollution on mangrove creeks in southern Mozambique: a test of Palaemon concinnus Dana, 1852 (Palaemonidae) as a biological indicator

Tropical coastal ecosystems, such as mangroves, have a great ecological and socioeconomic importance for adjacent systems and local populations, but intensive environmental impact monitoring is still lacking, mainly in East Africa. This study evaluated the potential anthropogenic disturbance on Palaemon concinnus population structure and fitness. Palaemon concinnus populations from one peri-urban (domestic sewage impacted) and two pristine mangrove creeks were studied by sampling nearly 100 shrimps per location every 15 days for 12 months. The shrimps at the peri-urban location were larger, experienced longer reproductive periods, presented higher proportion of ovigerous females and better embryo quality when compared with shrimps inhabiting pristine locations. Physiological indices (RNA/DNA ratio) were similar between shrimps at pristine and peri-urban mangroves. However, a higher level of parasitation by a Bopyridae isopod, Pseudione elongata indicated some degree of stress on the host at the peri-urban mangrove, with potential effects on the host population dynamics.