Sources and factors controlling the disposal of biodegradable municipal solid waste in urban and rural areas of Cyprus

An inventory of sources of biodegradable municipal soil waste (BMSW) was constructed for urban and rural areas in the EU accession region of Cyprus. Composition analysis was performed on source-separated BMSW collected from households in the rural Ergates Community and an urban area within the Agglanjia Municipality. The data were statistically scrutinized to identify the main factors influencing the quantities of BMSW disposed by urban and rural communities in Cyprus. The results were extrapolated to predict the quantities and types of BMSW disposed by the entire communities. Significantly more BMSW was disposed in the urban area compared to the rural community due to lower diversion rates for green waste and the disposal of food waste from commercial sources. The quantity of food waste collected from households was influenced by socio-economic (household size, income, percentage of children) and behavioural (feeding of food waste to domestic animals, consuming processed 'ready' food) factors, whereas garden size, the type of vegetation, the reuse of trimmings and home composting were the main factors controlling the disposal of green waste.     

Soot Control During the Combustion of Polystyrene

This paper describes an experimental study on the control of soot formation during the combustion of polystyrene (PS). A stable, twodimensional flame generated by using a Wolfhard-Parker type diffusion flame burner was used to simulate practical combustion situations. The combustion characteristics, effects of operating conditions on soot formation, and the effectiveness of various metallic additives as soot suppressants were investigated. It was found that soot yield could not be significantly reduced by controlling the oxidizer (air) flow rate. Increasing the O₂ mole fraction of the oxidlzer increased soot yield under typical operating conditions. However, soot yield could be greatly reduced by adding small amounts of air into the pyrolysis zone of the flame. The additional air would probably increase the combustion reaction rate while decreasing the soot precursor formation rate, thereby causing the observed effect. It was thus suggested that effective soot control could be accomplished by improving mixing between air and the PS devolatilizatlon products In practical combustion situations. The metallic additives tested in this study were the salts of Na, K, Ca, and Ba. Among these salts, Ca was the least effective in reducing soot, and K and Na were nearly equally effective. Ba was much more effective than all the others, and Its effectiveness was strongly dependent on its addition rate.     

Inventory of Ocean Monitoring in the Southern California Bight

Monitoring of the ocean environment in southern California, USA, has been conducted by a diverse array of public and private organizations with different motivations, working on a variety of spatial and temporal scales. To create a basis from which to integrate information from these diverse programs, we conducted an inventory of ocean monitoring activities in the Southern California Bight to address the following questions: (1) How much money is being expended annually on marine monitoring programs? (2) Which organizations are conducting the most monitoring? (3) How are resources allocated among the different types of monitoring programs? This inventory focused on programs existing, or those expected to be in existence, for at least 10 years and that were active at any time between 1994 and 1997. For each program identified for inclusion in this study, information was collected on the number of sites, sampling intensity, parameters measured, and methods used. Levels of effort were translated into cost estimates based upon a market survey of local consulting firms. One hundred fourteen marine monitoring programs, conducted by 65 organizations and costing US $31 million annually, were identified. Most of the effort (81 programs, 65% of samples, 70% of costs) was expended by ocean dischargers as part of their compliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements. Federal programs (11 programs, 25% of samples, 10% of total expenditures) expended more than state or local government programs. More than one quarter of monitoring expenditures were conducted to measure concentrations and mass of effluent inputs to the ocean. The largest effort expended on receiving water monitoring was for measuring bacteria, followed by sediments, fish/shellfish, water quality, and intertidal habitats. The large level of expenditures by individual agencies has presented opportunities for integrating small, site-specific ocean monitoring programs into regional- and national-scale monitoring and assessment programs.     

Predicting System-Scale Impacts of Oyster Clearance on Phytoplankton Productivity in a Small Subtropical Estuary

Oyster populations in south Florida estuaries have declined in part through altered salinity driven by anthropogenic changes in freshwater inputs. In particular, the St. Lucie Estuary (SLE) in southeastern Florida has suffered widespread loss of oyster habitat. With efforts underway to improve water quality and oyster habitat in the SLE, the goal of this study was to develop a model to assess ecosystem level impacts of oyster restoration. Phytoplankton and oyster biomass modeling targets were established from observational data collected from 2005 to 2009. Modeled oyster biomass production and filtration fluctuated with temperature, salinity, and total suspended solids from a combination of observational and predicted input functions in 10-year simulations (1998–2007). Model estimates of oyster biomass fluctuated with salinity from near zero after extreme freshwater discharge in 2002–2003 and 2004–2005 to maximum values near 150.0 and 200.0 g?C?m^?2 in spring 1999 and fall 2006. There was potential for algal blooms as turnover time for the phytoplankton standing stock (15.6 days) was faster than water mass turnover (21.0 days). While >1,000 days were required for 50 ha of oyster habitat to filter the entire volume of the estuarine segment, filter time reduced to <20 days with an estimated fivefold increase in net consumption of phytoplankton if the oyster habitat was increased to 300 ha. Re-establishment of biologically desirable salinity envelopes would stabilize oyster survival allowing the possibility for successful habitat restoration to benefit water quality and faunal attributes of the St. Lucie Estuary.     

Developmental Instability in Fragmented Populations of Prairie Phlox: A Cautionary Tale

Abstract: Considerable attention has recently been focused on using levels of developmental instability among members of a population to detect environmental or genetic stresses on animals or plants. It is not yet clear, however, that high developmental instability in a sample of individuals always indicates environmental stress or poor genetic quality. We studied 13 fragmented populations of prairie phlox (   Phlox pilosa L.) to test the hypothesis that developmental instability should decrease with increasing population size—as expected if small populations suffer genetic problems associated with inbreeding or are exposed to more environmental stress than larger populations. We used two different measures of developmental instability, each calculated for two different traits: radial asymmetry of flowers (for petal width and petal length) and modular fluctuating asymmetry of leaves (  for leaf widths at two points along the leaf  ). There were weak but significant correlations among individuals for four of six pairwise combinations of these measures. Surprisingly, three of our four measures of developmental instability showed strong population size effects that were opposite to those expected: developmental instability increased with population size. We conclude that measures of developmental instability cannot be applied uncritically for biomonitoring without considerable knowledge of developmental mechanisms, natural history, and population biology of the species in question.