A GPS-based system for recording the flight paths of birds

 The GPS recorder consists of a GPS receiver board, a logging facility, an antenna, a power supply, a DC-DC converter and a casing. Currently, it has a weight of 33 g. The recorder works reliably with a sampling rate of 1/s and with an operation time of about 3 h, providing time-indexed data on geographic positions and ground speed. The data are downloaded when the animal is recaptured. Prototypes were tested on homing pigeons. The records of complete flight paths with surprising details illustrate the potential of this new method that can be used on a variety of medium-sized and large vertebrates. Received: 2 February 2000 / Accepted in revised form: 17 April 2000     

Size distributions of fine and ultrafine particles in the city of Strasbourg: correlation between number of particles and concentrations of NO(x) and SO(2) gases and some soluble ions concentration determination

An Electrical Low Pressure Impactor (ELPI) was used during spring and autumn 2003 in the centre of Strasbourg for the measurement of atmospheric aerosols size distribution. The concentration of NO(x) and SO(2) in air was simultaneously measured with specific analysers. Samples were collected in the range 0.007-10 microm in equivalent aerodynamic diameter size. Number distributions are representative of a pollution originating from urban traffic with a particle size distribution exhibiting a nucleation mode below 29 nm and an accumulation mode around 80 nm in size. A mean particle density equal to 39000+/-35000 total particles per cm(3) with a size ranging from 7 to 10 microm was obtained after a sampling period of 2 weeks in spring. About 86.9% of the number of particles have an aerodynamic diameter below 0.1 microm and 13.1% between 0.1 and 1 microm. Correlation coefficients between the number of particles impacted on each ELPI plate and gas concentrations (SO(2) and NO(x)) showed that the numbers of particles with diameter between 0.10 and 0.62 microm are highly related to the NO(x) concentration. This result indicates that particles are traffic induced since NO(x) is mainly emitted by cars as shown by measurements on various sites. Particles are less clearly correlated to the SO(2) concentration. Particle analysis on different ELPI plates for a sampling period of 2 weeks in autumn showed high level of soluble NO(3)(-), SO(4)(2-) and NH(4)(+) ions. Indeed, up to 90% b.w. of these three species were found in the particle range 0.1-1 microm. The formation of particulate NH(4)NO(3) is favoured by high NO(x) concentration, which induces the formation of gaseous HNO(3).     

Development of a highly sensitive extractive spectrophotometric method for the determination of nickel(II) from environmental matrices using N-ethyl-3-carbazolecarboxaldehyde-3-thiosemicarbazone

Nickel(II) reacts with N-ethyl-3-carbazolecarboxaldehyde-3-thiosemicarbazone (ECCT) and forms a yellow colored complex, which was extracted into n-butanol from sodium acetate and acetic acid buffer at pH 6.0. The absorbance value of the Ni(II)-ECCT complex was measured at different intervals of time at 400nm, to ascertain the time stability of the complex. The extraction of the complex into the solvent was instantaneous and stable for more than 72h. The system obeyed Beer's law in the concentration range of 1.2-5.6mugml(-1) of nickel(II), with an excellent linearity and a correlation coefficient of 0.999. The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity of the extracted species were found to be 1.114x10(4)Lmol(-1)cm(-1) and 5.29x10(-3)mugcm(-2) at 400nm, respectively. Hence, a detailed study of the extraction of nickel(II) with ECCT has been undertaken with a view to developing a rapid and sensitive extractive spectrophotometric method for the determination of nickel(II) when present alone or in the presence of diverse ions which are usually associated with nickel(II) in environmental matrices like soil and industrial effluents. Various standard alloy samples (CM 247 LC, IN 718, BCS 233, 266, 253 and 251) have been tested for the determination of nickel for the purpose of validation of the present method. The results of the proposed method are comparable with those from atomic absorption spectrometry and were found to be in good agreement.     

Social Sciences and landscape analysis: opportunities for the improvement of conservation policy design

This article develops a methodology aimed at generating a systematic social diagnosis of social and natural landscapes. The analytical process is divided into six easily replicable and causatively connected steps. The goal is two-fold: first, to present the inextricable connections between physical landscapes and the communities that occupy them. And second, to provide a fundamental tool to public policy designers that should simultaneously improve social acceptability of conservation policies and policy efficiency and effectiveness. Finally, this methodology is consciously heterogeneous from a theoretical perspective. This article puts together, in fruitful dialogue, contributions from varying places on the social theory spectrum: from political economy to poststructural theory.     

Variability of soil-water quality due to Tsunami-2004 in the coastal belt of Nagapattinam district, Tamilnadu

In this study, the Tsunami-caused deterioration of soil and groundwater quality in the agricultural fields of coastal Nagapattinam district of Tamilnadu state in India is presented by analyzing their salinity and sodicity parameters. To accomplish this, three sets of soil samples up to a depth of 30cm from the land surface were collected for the first six months of the year 2005 from 28 locations and the ground water samples were monitored from seven existing dug wells and hand pumps covering the study region at intervals of 3 months. The EC and pH values of both the soil and ground water samples were estimated and the spatial and temporal variability mappings of these parameters were performed using the geostatistical analysis module of ArcGIS((R)). It was observed that the spherical semivariogram fitted well with the data set of both EC and pH and the generated kriged maps explained the spatial and temporal variability under different ranges of EC and pH values. Further, the recorded EC and pH data of soil and ground water during pre-Tsunami periods were compared with the collected data and generated variability soil maps of EC and pH of the post-Tsunami period. It was revealed from this analysis that the soil quality six months after the Tsunami was nearing the pre-Tsunami scenario (EC< 1.5dSm(-1); pH<8), whereas the quality of ground water remained highly saline and unfit for irrigation and drinking. These observations were compared with the ground scenarios of the study region and possible causes for such changes and the remedial measures for taking up regular agricultural practices are also discussed.     

Sustainability, substance flow management and time. Part I Temporal analysis of substance flows

Flows of chemical substances need to be managed in a sustainable way. Sustainable development as a whole and the sustainable management of substance flows in particular are both time issues. These include the importance of the dynamics of substance flows and the way these interconnect with the use of resources, the avoidance of environmental pollution, and their effects on health and food production. Another prerequisite for the proper management of substance flows is justice within and between generations. This requires a systematic approach and a systematic analysis of the issues as well as of the actions to be taken. One tool for such a systematic approach is temporal analysis. It brings the temporal aspects of the substances themselves and of their intended use, as well as factors affecting the stakeholders, such as decision makers, producers and consumers, into focus. In the past, timing factors were rarely taken into account. Knowledge of the temporal dynamics of substance flows and their resultant outcomes, as well as of their interaction with ecological, economic and social systems, is a basic requirement for successful substance flow management. The need to include temporal aspects into substance flow management and how to do so is outlined here. Included are not only politicians but also practitioners and scientists who must explicitly take into account adequate time scales, points in time, breaks and other forms of time in planning and acting.     

Projecting Cumulative Benefits of Multiple River Restoration Projects: An Example from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River System in California

Despite increasingly large investments, the potential ecological effects of river restoration programs are still small compared to the degree of human alterations to physical and ecological function. Thus, it is rarely possible to “restore” pre-disturbance conditions; rather restoration programs (even large, well-funded ones) will nearly always involve multiple small projects, each of which can make some modest change to selected ecosystem processes and habitats. At present, such projects are typically selected based on their attributes as individual projects (e.g., consistency with programmatic goals of the funders, scientific soundness, and acceptance by local communities), and ease of implementation. Projects are rarely prioritized (at least explicitly) based on how they will cumulatively affect ecosystem function over coming decades. Such projections require an understanding of the form of the restoration response curve, or at least that we assume some plausible relations and estimate cumulative effects based thereon. Drawing on our experience with the CALFED Bay-Delta Ecosystem Restoration Program in California, we consider potential cumulative system-wide benefits of a restoration activity extensively implemented in the region: isolating/filling abandoned floodplain gravel pits captured by rivers to reduce predation of outmigrating juvenile salmon by exotic warmwater species inhabiting the pits. We present a simple spreadsheet model to show how different assumptions about gravel pit bathymetry and predator behavior would affect the cumulative benefits of multiple pit-filling and isolation projects, and how these insights could help managers prioritize which pits to fill.     

The MANAGE database: nutrient load and site characteristic updates and runoff concentration data

The "Measured Annual Nutrient loads from AGricultural Environments" (MANAGE) database was developed to be a readily accessible, easily queried database of site characteristic and field-scale nutrient export data. The original version of MANAGE, which drew heavily from an early 1980s compilation of nutrient export data, created an electronic database with nutrient load data and corresponding site characteristics from 40 studies on agricultural (cultivated and pasture/range) land uses. In the current update, N and P load data from 15 additional studies of agricultural runoff were included along with N and P concentration data for all 55 studies. The database now contains 1677 watershed years of data for various agricultural land uses (703 for pasture/rangeland; 333 for corn; 291 for various crop rotations; 177 for wheat/oats; and 4-33 yr for barley, citrus, vegetables, sorghum, soybeans, cotton, fallow, and peanuts). Across all land uses, annual runoff loads averaged 14.2 kg ha(-1) for total N and 2.2 kg ha(-1) for total P. On average, these losses represented 10 to 25% of applied fertilizer N and 4 to 9% of applied fertilizer P. Although such statistics produce interesting generalities across a wide range of land use, management, and climatic conditions, regional crop-specific analyses should be conducted to guide regulatory and programmatic decisions. With this update, MANAGE contains data from a vast majority of published peer-reviewed N and P export studies on homogeneous agricultural land uses in the USA under natural rainfall-runoff conditions and thus provides necessary data for modeling and decision-making related to agricultural runoff. The current version can be downloaded at http://www.ars.usda.gov/spa/manage-nutrient.     

A Socio-Ecological Assessment Aiming at Improved Forest Resource Management and Sustainable Ecotourism Development in the Mangroves of Tanbi Wetland National Park, The Gambia, West Africa

Although mangroves dominated by Avicennia germinans and Rhizophora mangle are extending over 6000 ha in the Tanbi Wetland National Park (TWNP) (The Gambia), their importance for local populations (both peri-urban and urban) is not well documented. For the first time, this study evaluates the different mangrove resources in and around Banjul (i.e., timber, non-timber, edible, and ethnomedicinal products) and their utilization patterns, including the possibility of ecotourism development. The questionnaire-based results have indicated that more than 80% of peri-urban population rely on mangroves for timber and non-timber products and consider them as very important for their livelihoods. However, at the same time, urban households demonstrate limited knowledge on mangrove species and their ecological/economic benefits. Among others, fishing (including the oyster—Crassostrea cf. gasar collection) and tourism are the major income-generating activities found in the TWNP. The age-old practices of agriculture in some parts of the TWNP are due to scarcity of land available for agriculture, increased family size, and alternative sources of income. The recent focus on ecotourism (i.e., boardwalk construction inside the mangroves near Banjul city) received a positive response from the local stakeholders (i.e., users, government, and non-government organizations), with their appropriate roles in sharing the revenue, rights, and responsibilities of this project. Though the guidelines for conservation and management of the TWNP seem to be compatible, the harmony between local people and sustainable resource utilization should be ascertained.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-012-0248-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Exposure to toxic waste containing high concentrations of hydrogen sulphide illegally dumped in Abidjan, C?te d’Ivoire

Introduction

On August 2006, a cargo ship illegally dumped 500?t of toxic waste containing high concentrations of hydrogen sulphide in numerous sites across Abidjan. Thousands of people became ill. Seventeen deaths were associated with toxic waste exposure.

Materials and methods

This study reports on environmental and health problems associated with the incident. A cross-sectional transect study was conducted in five waste dumping site areas.

Results

Of the households, 62.1% (n?=?502) were exposed to the effects of the pollutants and 51.1% of the interviewed people (n?=?2,368) in these households showed signs of poisoning. Most important symptoms were cough (37.1%), asthenia (33.1%), pruritus (29.9%) and nausea (29.1%).

Discussion

The health effects showed different frequencies in the five waste impact sites. Among the poisoned persons, 21.1% (n?=?532) presented symptoms on the survey day (i.e., 4?months after incident). Transect sampling allowed to determine a radius of vulnerability to exposure of up to 3?km from the point of toxic waste disposal.

Conclusion

The area of higher vulnerability is influenced by various environmental factors, such as size and severity of pollution site, duration of toxic waste pollution on the impact site and locally climatic conditions. The surveillance of effects on environment and human health is warranted to monitor the development.