Levels of PCDD/Fs and trace elements in superficial soils of Pavia Province (Italy)

Trace elements and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) were analyzed in soils from rural and light-industrialized sites (n=168) of Province of Pavia (Northern Italy). Most of the trace element values fit in typical ranges of concentrations in soils and are similar to the ones reported for rural sites in Italy or sites with no direct anthropogenic impact. Total concentrations of 2,3,7,8 chlorine substituted PCDD/Fs in superficial soils ranged between 24.4 and 1287 pg g(-1) dw (0.5-28.9 pg WHO(98)-TEQ g(-1) dw). The North Eastern part of the Province presented significantly higher levels (p<0.001) than the rest of the Province for As, Cd, Hg, Pb, Zn and PCDD/Fs. While the existence of a defined heavy metal polluting source for this specific site has been suggested, in the case of PCDD/Fs, profiles were not linked to any specific emission source fingerprint. In the whole extension of Pavia Province, OCDD/F dominated the 2,3,7,8 chlorine substituted congener soil pattern, followed by the 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 hepta-CDD/F congener. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that this profile could not be associated to any described PCDD/F emission source fingerprint and was relatively similar to the baseline deposition of sites with no direct impact of PCDD/F emission sources independently of land use.     

Quantifying ozone uptake and its effects on the stand level of common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in Southern Germany

Stand level O(3) fluxes were calculated using water balance calculations for 21 Common beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) stands and O(3) data from 20 monitoring stations in Southern Germany. For this intention, the daily loss of water by evapotranspiration per stand area was set against the daily O(3) uptake. During the last 30 years, O(3) uptake ranges between 0 and 187 mmol ha(-1) d(-1) per stand area. Cumulative O(3) uptake (CUO(3)), ranging between 0.1 and 0.7 mmol m(-2) yr(-1) per stand area, shows increasing trends since 1971 with considerably greater values at high altitudes. Effects in radial growth were used to derive an initial approximate critical threshold value for O(3) impacts on the vitality and growth of mature beech stands in Southern Germany. It is concluded that this concept of O(3) flux estimation in combination with dendroecological analyses offers both a site specific and regional applicable approach to derive new critical levels for O(3).     

Prediction of lichen diversity in an UNESCO biosphere reserve – correlation of high resolution remote sensing data with field samples

The present study focuses on developing models to predict lichen species richness in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of the Swiss Pre-Alps following a gradient of land-use intensity combining remote sensing data and regression models. The predictive power of the models and the obtained r ranging from 0.5 for lichens on soil to 0.8 for lichens on trees can be regarded as satisfactory to good, respectively. The study revealed that a combination of airborne and spaceborne remote sensing data produced a variety of ecological meaningful variables.     

Responses to projected changes in climate and UV-B at the species level

Environmental manipulation experiments showed that species respond individualistically to each environmental-change variable. The greatest responses of plants were generally to nutrient, particularly nitrogen, addition. Summer warming experiments showed that woody plant responses were dominant and that mosses and lichens became less abundant. Responses to warming were controlled by moisture availability and snow cover. Many invertebrates increased population growth in response to summer warming, as long as desiccation was not induced. CO2 and UV-B enrichment experiments showed that plant and animal responses were small. However, some microorganisms and species of fungi were sensitive to increased UV-B and some intensive mutagenic actions could, perhaps, lead to unexpected epidemic outbreaks. Tundra soil heating, CO2 enrichment and amendment with mineral nutrients generally accelerated microbial activity. Algae are likely to dominate cyanobacteria in milder climates. Expected increases in winter freeze-thaw cycles leading to ice-crust formation are likely to severely reduce winter survival rate and disrupt the population dynamics of many terrestrial animals. A deeper snow cover is likely to restrict access to winter pastures by reindeer/caribou and their ability to flee from predators while any earlier onset of the snow-free period is likely to stimulate increased plant growth. Initial species responses to climate change might occur at the sub-species level: an Arctic plant or animal species with high genetic/racial diversity has proved an ability to adapt to different environmental conditions in the past and is likely to do so also in the future. Indigenous knowledge, air photographs, satellite images and monitoring show that changes in the distributions of some species are already occurring: Arctic vegetation is becoming more shrubby and more productive, there have been recent changes in the ranges of caribou, and "new" species of insects and birds previously associated with areas south of the treeline have been recorded. In contrast, almost all Arctic breeding bird species are declining and models predict further quite dramatic reductions of the populations of tundra birds due to warming. Species-climate response surface models predict potential future ranges of current Arctic species that are often markedly reduced and displaced northwards in response to warming. In contrast, invertebrates and microorganisms are very likely to quickly expand their ranges northwards into the Arctic.     

Carbon and hydrogen isotope effects during sorption of organic contaminants on carbonaceous materials

Stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes can be an efficient means to validate biodegradation of organic contaminants in groundwater since it results in an isotopic fractionation. A prerequisite in applying this method in the field is the proof that other processes decreasing the contaminant concentration are conservative with respect to isotope effects. In this paper we show for carbon isotopes of halogenated hydrocarbon compounds [trichloroethene (TCE), cis-dichloroethene (c-DCE), vinylchloride (VC)] and carbon and hydrogen isotopes of BTEX compounds (benzene, toluene, p-xylene) that no significant fractionation occurs during equilibrium sorption onto activated carbon, lignite coke and lignite. In general, effects were in the range of the reproducibility limit of the analytical instrument (0.5 per thousand for delta13C, and 8 per thousand for delta2H). This observation was made for fractions sorbed of less than 5% to more than 95%. Also for rate-limited sorption of TCE onto activated carbon, no significant fractionation in carbon isotopes could be observed. These findings support the assumption that for these classes of compounds, sorption processes in aquifer systems are conservative with respect to isotope effects.     

北极4个亚区的影响分析

在评价北极陆地生态系统影响时,人们常常强调物种和生态系统对环境变化响应的地理变化,这种变化往往与气候、生物多样性、植被带、生态系统结构和功能的南-北梯度相关联,可是,环境、生态系统的功能和结构上,以及环境史和当前气候变化的明显东-西变化显然也很重要.尽管一些地方变得温暖,但另一些地方却降温了,海洋、群岛和山脉等地理屏障的东西差异过去也对物种和植被带响应气候变化而改变分布区的能力产生了很大影响,同时,这些地理屏障为种群遗传分化和生物多样性热点区的形成提供了必要的隔离条件,这些屏障在未来气候变暖时,也将影响物种重新分布的能力.为了说明这种东西向的变化,同时也避免过分笼统或过于专业化,基于大尺度的天气和气候形成因素,北极气候影响评价项目确定了4个主要亚区.通过模拟与4个北极气候影响评价亚区有关的主要信息,导致物种分布区发生改变的地理屏障,特别是大陆的分布和海洋产生的隔离,明显会影响植被带的向北移动.对植被区向北移动的地理限制或者促进将影响将来碳的贮存和释放,以及生物圈与大气之间水和能量的交换.此外,气候变化使受威胁物种数量在各个亚区之间差别很大(白令海地区别尤其是热点),各个植被亚区重新分布的能力差异将影响每个区的生物多样性.总而言之,亚区分析表明,在整个北极地区水平上概括生态系统结构和功能的反应、物种的丧失,以及生物圈对气候系统的反馈的趋势是困难的,说明需要对北极陆地生态系统对于气候变化响应的空间变化性有深刻的认识.     

Floral scents affect the distribution of hive bees around dancers

Floral scents are important information cues used to organize foraging-related tasks in honeybees. The waggle dance, apart from encoding spatial information about food sources, might facilitate the transfer of olfactory information by increasing the dissipation of volatiles brought back by successful foragers. By assuming that food scents are more intensive on specific body parts of returning foragers, i.e., the posterior legs of pollen foragers and mouthparts of nectar foragers, we quantified the interactions between hive mates and foragers during dances advertising different types of food sources. For natural sources, a higher proportion of hive mates contacted the hind legs of pollen dancers (where the pollen loads were located) with their heads compared to non-pollen dancers. On the other hand, the proportion of head-to-head contacts was higher for non-pollen foragers during the waggle runs. When the food scent was manipulated, dancers collecting scented sugar solution had a higher proportion of head-to-head contacts and a lower proportion around their hind legs compared to dancers collecting unscented solution. The presence of food odors did not affect in-hive behaviors of dancers, but it increased the number of trophallaxes in-between waggle runs (i.e., during circle phases). These results suggest that the honeybee dance facilitates the olfactory information transfer between incoming foragers and hive mates, and we propose that excitatory displays in other social insect species serve the same purpose. While recent empirical and theoretical findings suggested that the colony level foraging benefits of the spatial information encoded in the waggle dance vary seasonally and with habitats, the role of the dance as a compound signal not only indicating the presence of a profitable resource but also amplifying the information transfer regarding floral odors may be important under any ecological circumstances.