An integrated approach for spatio-temporal variability analysis of wetlands: a case study of Abaya and Chamo lakes, Ethiopia

Starting with the intensification of irrigation activities in the beginning of 1980s in Abaya and Chamo lakes area, the decreasing water inflow to the lakes caused denudation of the wetlands. The ecological situation in the lake region changed significantly during last four decades. The lakes and associated wetlands change have been studied using Landsat MSS (1973), Landsat TM (1986), and Ladsat ETM (2000) satellite imagery. Along with satellite imagery, other hydro-meteorological data were collected and hydro-meteorological data analyses were done to assess the variability of wetlands. From these data, lakes morphometric property estimation at different time series and water balance analysis for both lakes were done. Wetlands are mapped from the TCT image and these maps are subject to change detection to see the temporal and spatial variability of the wetlands. Moreover, the lake-morphometric area and volume variation have been studied. The result showed that between 1986 and 2000, a significant reduction has been observed but lesser than the previous decades (6.4 km(2)). The identified reason behind this change is that the free settlement and shoreline cultivation of the wetlands causing the soil erosion and eventually adds the sediment to the wetlands.     

Comparative analysis of the concentrations of serum cotinine and hydroxycotinine for US children,adolescents, and adults: impact of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke at home and other indoor environments

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study was carried out to investigate how serum cotinine and hydroxycotinine concentrations compare and vary by age, gender, race/ethnicity,...     

Linking Conservation and Development: An Analysis of Local People’s Attitude Towards Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Nepal

Factors influencing local people’s attitudes towards conservation of the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve (KTWR) are analyzed using an ordered logit model. The results indicate that households living closer to the KTWR are more likely to reveal negative attitude towards conservation. Similarly, respondents from larger households tend to show negative conservation attitude. Educated respondents and farmers are likely to demonstrate a positive conservation attitude. The results consistently show that households with poor socioeconomic status and greater dependence on the KTWR for firewood, fodder, and raw materials are likely to possess a more negative attitude towards conservation. Poor households may not necessarily be less concerned about conservation, although institutional settings and abject poverty near protected areas appear to affect their attitudes. Sustainable management of protected areas and local support for natural resource conservation would require socioeconomic development.     

A review of the significance and formation of chlorinated N-organic compounds in water supplies including preliminary studies on the chlorination of alanine,tryptophan, tyrosine,cytosine, and syringic acid

Nitrogenous organic compounds are of environmental significance because of their potential as both trihalomethane (THM) and nonpurgeable organic halide (NPOX) precursors. They additionally lead to falsely positive tests for free available chlorine (FAC) and are components in the reaction of chlorine to form dihaloacetonitriles (DHANs). A large number of naturally occurring nitrogenous compounds additionally react readily with aqueous chlorine exerting significant chlorine demand. Such reactions generally involve the substitution of chlorine for hydrogen on a nitrogen atom. Additionally, N-chloroorganic materials may be produced even when the precursor concentration is low owing to the rapid specific rate of formation. While previous attention has been largely focused on nonpolar chlorinated organic contaminants such as THMs, the wide distribution of N-organic compounds in water, as well as their general reactivity towards aqueous chlorine, warrant further attention and study to this group of materials. Preliminary studies on the chlorination of several N-organic compounds at a few chlorine-to-compound molar ratios at pH 7 and 4.7 over several reaction intervals are presented. NPOX formation was quite rapid and comprised the greatest proportion of the total organic halide formed for the conditions studied.     

A proposal for environmental indicators towards industrial building sustainable assessment

The construction sector carries out a very important role in the development of society. It is a basic component of economic activity, having a great influence on employment generation and country growth. The sector generates appreciable environmental changes and effects throughout the planet, leading to gradual exhaustion of natural resources and contamination of basic elements, such as air, water and soil. Recently, there have been advances in favour of more environmentally friendly buildings. Basically, sustainable construction has centred on residential and office buildings. It could be said that there is a lack of sustainability in the construction of industrial buildings, as they present characteristics which differ from other building typologies. This article aims to assess and analyze industrial building environmental effects, and considers a set of green study criteria, such as: location, materials, energy and water consumption, construction and deconstruction characteristics, and waste management in industrial building. At the same time, the studies are hierarchically structured into different assessment elements, such as: criteria, subcriteria and, finally, indicators, comprising the assessment model.     

Evaluation of SWAT sub-daily runoff estimation at small agricultural watershed in Korea

A study was undertaken for the prediction of runoff flow from 0.8 ha field-sized agricultural watershed in South Korea using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) sub-daily. The SWAT model with sub-daily configuration predicted flow from the watershed within the range of acceptable accuracy. The SWAT sub-daily simulations were carried out for a total of 18 rainfall events, 9 each for calibration and validation. Overall trend and extent of matching simulated flow for the rainfall events in 2007-2008 with measured data during the calibration process were coefficient of determination (R²) value of 0.88 and Nash and Sutcliffe Efficiency (E_NS) value of 0.88. For validation, R² and E_NS values were 0.9 and 0.84, respectively. Whereas R² and E_NS values for simulation results using daily rainfall data were 0.79 and -0.01, respectively, that were observed to be out of acceptable limits for the model simulation. The importance of higher time resolution (hourly) precipitation records for flow simulation were evaluated by comparing R² and E_NS with 15 min, 2 h, 6 h and 12 h precipitation data, which resulted in lower statistics with increases in time resolution of precipitation data. The SWAT sub-daily sensitivity analysis was performed with the consideration of hydraulic parameter and was found as in the rank order of CN2 (curve number), ESCO (soil evaporation compensation factor), GW_DELAY (ground water delay time), ALPHA_BF ( base flow alpha factor), GWQMN ( a threshold minimum depth of water in the shallow aquifer required for return flow to occur) , REVAPMN (minimum depth of water in shallow aquifer for re-evaporation to occur) , LAT_TIME (lateral flow travel time) respectively. These sensitive parameters were evaluated at 10% higher and lower values of the parameters, corresponding to 70.5% higher and 23.2% lower in simulated flow out from the SWAT model. From the results obtained in this study, hourly precipitation record for SWAT sub-daily with Green-Ampt infiltration method was proven to be efficient for runoff estimation at field sized watershed with higher accuracies that could be efficiently used to develop site-specific Best Management Practices (BMPs) considering rainfall intensity, rather than simply using daily rainfall data.     

Foraging movements and habitat niche of two closely related seabirds breeding in sympatry

As central-place foragers, pelagic seabirds are constrained by spatiotemporal heterogeneity to find productive marine areas and compete for prey. We analysed 97 foraging trips to study the movement and oceanographic characteristics of foraging habitats of two different—yet closely related—species of shearwaters (Scopoli’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea and Cory’s shearwater C. borealis) breeding in sympatry in the Mediterranean. We combined various methodological approaches (GPS-tracking, species distribution modelling and stable isotope analysis) to explore the foraging strategies of these two species. Isotopic results suggested that trophic habits of both shearwater species were similar, mainly based on pelagic fish consumption. Foraging areas of both species were characterized by shallow waters near the colony. Both shearwater species exploited persistent productive marine areas. The foraging areas of the two species broadly overlapped during the incubation period, but during chick-rearing period, Scopoli’s shearwaters apparently foraged in different areas than Cory’s shearwaters.     

Concentrations of selected metals in blood,serum, and urine among US adult exclusive users of cigarettes,cigars, and electronic cigarettes

Data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 2013–2014 were used to compare observed levels of selected metals in blood, serum, and urine among US adults aged ≥20 years for exclusive cigar, cigarettes, and e-cigarette users. Adjusted geometric means for e-cigarette users were found to be higher than for cigar users for blood manganese (10.3 vs. 7.9 µg/L, p = 0.02). Cigar users were found to have lower adjusted geometric means than cigarette users for urine cobalt (0.22 vs. 0.4 µg/L, p = 0.04) and urine antimony (0.03 vs. 0.06 µg/L, p = 0.03). Adjusted levels of blood selenium, serum copper, selenium, and zinc, and urine arsenic, barium, molybdenum, tin, strontium, thallium, tungsten, and uranium were found to be comparable among cigarettes only, cigar only, and electronic cigarettes only users. However, irrespective of the comparative levels of these metals among cigar, cigarette, and e-cigarette users, focus must be to assess the short- and long-term health effects of the exposure to these metals particularly nanoparticles via inhalation from e-cigarette aerosols.