Production and fate of copepod fecal pellets across the Southern Indian Ocean

The vertical distribution of copepods, fecal pellets and the fecal pellet production of copepods were measured at seven stations across the Southern Indian Ocean from productive areas off South Africa to oligotrophic waters off Northern Australia during October/November 2006. We quantified export of copepod fecal pellet from surface waters and how much was retained. Furthermore, the potential impact of Oncaea spp. and harpacticoid copepods on fecal pellets degradation was evaluated and found to be regional substantial. The highest copepod abundance and fecal pellet production was found in the western nutrient-rich stations close to South Africa and the lowest at the central oligotrophic stations. The in situ copepod fecal pellet production varied between 1 and 1,000 μg C m⁻³ day⁻¹. At all stations, the retention of fecal pellets in the upper 400 m of the water column was more than 99% and the vertical export of fecal pellets was low (<0.02 mg m⁻² day⁻¹).     

Life cycle assessment of natural gas combined cycle power plant with post-combustion carbon capture,transport and storage

Hybrid life cycle assessment has been used to assess the environmental impacts of natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) electricity generation with carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS). The CCS chain modeled in this study consists of carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture from flue gas using monoethanolamine (MEA), pipeline transport and storage in a saline aquifer.Results show that the sequestration of 90% CO₂ from the flue gas results in avoiding 70% of CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere per kWh and reduces global warming potential (GWP) by 64%. Calculation of other environmental impacts shows the trade-offs: an increase of 43% in acidification, 35% in eutrophication, and 120–170% in various toxicity impacts. Given the assumptions employed in this analysis, emissions of MEA and formaldehyde during capture process and generation of reclaimer wastes contributes to various toxicity potentials and cause many-fold increase in the on-site direct freshwater ecotoxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity impacts. NO_x from fuel combustion is still the dominant contributor to most direct impacts, other than toxicity potentials and GWP. It is found that the direct emission of MEA contribute little to human toxicity (HT < 1%), however it makes 16% of terrestrial ecotoxicity impact. Hazardous reclaimer waste causes significant freshwater and marine ecotoxicity impacts. Most increases in impact are due to increased fuel requirements or increased investments and operating inputs.The reductions in GWP range from 58% to 68% for the worst-case to best-case CCS system. Acidification, eutrophication and toxicity potentials show an even large range of variation in the sensitivity analysis. Decreases in energy use and solvent degradation will significantly reduce the impact in all categories.     

Design study of a 150 kWth double loop circulating fluidized bed reactor system for chemical looping combustion with focus on industrial applicability and pressurization

Nowadays the lab scale feasibility of the chemical looping combustion technology has been proved. This article deals with many of the design requirements that need to be fulfilled to make this technology applicable at industrial scale. A design for a 150 kW_th chemical looping combustion reactor system is proposed. In the base case it is supposed to work with gaseous fuels and inexpensive oxygen carriers derived from industrial by-products or natural minerals. More specifically the fuel will be methane and a manganese ore will be the basis for the oxygen carrier. It is a double loop circulating fluidized bed where both the air reactor and the fuel reactor are capable to work in the fast fluidization regime in order to increase the gas solids contact along the reactor body. High operational flexibility is aimed, in this way it will be possible to run with different fuels and oxygen carriers as well as different operating conditions such as variation in air excess. Compactness is a major goal in order to reduce the required solid material and possibly to enclose the reactor body into a pressurized vessel to investigate the chemical looping combustion under pressurized conditions. The mass and heat balance are described, as well as the hydrodynamic investigations performed. Most design solutions presented are taken from industrial standards as one main objective is to meet commercial requirements.     

Distribution and mortality of diapause eggs from calanoid copepods in relation to sedimentation regimes

Distribution, abundance and age of diapause eggs from three species of calanoid copepods (in particular from Acartia spp. most likely Acartia tonsa, and Centropages hamatus and less numerous from Temora longicornis) were recorded in sediment profiles by enumerating hatched nauplii from incubated sediment samples. Phytoplankton pigments and ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs analyses indicated that the sedimentation regimes were different between two southern and two northern stations of the island Funen, Denmark. Significant variations in vertical distribution, abundance and mortality of diapause eggs were found between the stations. Dating of the sediment cores suggested a ~70-year maximum age of viable eggs on the northernmost stations, and ~28 year at the southernmost stations. The eggs exhibited a significantly higher mortality rate at the southernmost stations compared with the northernmost, 0.35–0.53 year⁻¹ vs. 0.07–0.08 year⁻¹ with no systematic pattern among species. The differences in abundance, mortality and age of the diapause eggs are suggested to be due to the sediment characteristics in which they are buried.     

Short-term responses of soil chemistry, needle macronutrients and tree growth to clinker dust and fertiliser in a stand of Scots pine

Waste management of clinker dust by spreading it on forest soil was studied in a 25-year-old Scots pine stand on acidic sandy soil. Clinker dust (0.5 kg m?2), fertiliser (N, P, K, Mg, 0.05 kg m?2; N 190 kg ha?1) and untreated soil were applied on 120-m2 plots in four replicates. The fertiliser was included to confirm the nutrient limitation in the stand. Clinker dust increased the soil pH by 1.2 units relative to the pH of 4.6 in the untreated soil by the second year. Soil K and Mg concentrations were larger in the dust and fertiliser treatments. Nutrient diagnostics indicated that needles of untreated trees were deficient in N and K. Fertiliser treatment indicated that the growth of trees was limited by N, since the fertiliser tended to increase needle K, N, N/P, needle dry mass and diameters of stem and shoots. By an auxiliary dataset, no effects of the dust and fertiliser on possible excess of the micronutrient Mn were observed. Clinker dust increased needle K concentration, but due to the N limitation, there was no increase in the growth of stems, branches, shoots and needles. It was concluded that in plots of 120 m2 application of clinker dust at a rate of 0.5 kg m?2 was safe for the 21-year-old Scots pine stand in this trial on an acid nutrient-poor sandy soil during 4 years after the treatment.     

Organisational learning and continuous improvement of health and safety in certified manufacturers

Certified management systems have increasingly been applied by firms in recent decades and now cover the management of health and safety, principally through the OHSAS 18001 standard. In order to become certified, firms must not only observe the relevant legislation, but also improve performance and raise goals within health and safety on a continuous basis. The article examines how certified occupational and health management systems influence this process to evaluate how far they hinder or support learning. It presents a model with which it is possible to identify and analyse improvement processes. The model is applied to five cases from a qualitative study of Danish manufacturers with certified health and safety management systems. The cases illustrate the wide variation in health and safety management among certified firms.Certification is found to support lower levels of continuous improvement performance in handling health and safety issues. However, more advanced improvement practices are shown to be connected to the integration of health and safety in other managerial areas, as well as to the employment of similar advanced improvement processes within firms. The article argues that certified health and safety management does not obstruct learning, and can support advanced learning. Improvement practices with regard to health and safety are mainly dependent upon the firm’s overall organisational processes and do not automatically arise from the standard alone.     

Presence and partitioning properties of the flame retardants pentabromotoluene, pentabromoethylbenzene and hexabromobenzene near suspected source zones in Norway

The brominated flame retardants (BFRs), pentabromotoluene (PBT), pentabromoethylbenzene (PBEB) and hexabromobenzene (HBB), exhibit physical-chemical properties similar to other persistent organic pollutants, and have been in use as flame retardants for several decades. Data on these BFRs in diverse environmental samples can be found in studies from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as in recent years, though very little in the years in between. Due to a lack of data, the cause for the apparent re-emergence of these BFRs in recent studies is unclear, and could reflect changes in production volumes, accumulation of transformation products from BFR precursors, improved analytical techniques or simply a re-emergence in concern. Very little data are available on their environmentally relevant partitioning properties, which could help to explain the occurrence and fate of these BFRs. In this study we analysed for the presence of HBB, PBT, and PBEB in diverse environmental samples from potential Norwegian BFR source zones. Additionally, environmental partitioning properties of these BFRs as well as brominated benzenes were estimated and validated using experimental data for brominated benzenes. Of the three BFRs, HBB was identified in detectable quantities at most source zones, PBEB only near a metal recycling factory, and PBT only in a few additional locations from where PBEB was detected. Data from this study show that HBB is likely widely distributed, as verified both by chemical analysis and estimated properties. Measured HBB levels in wastewater treatment plants indicate that the treatment practices used in the study locations are not effective at lowering HBB levels, perhaps due to association with low density suspended solids (e.g. microplastics).     

Temperature Dependent Depuration of Norovirus GII and Tulane Virus from Oysters (Crassostrea gigas)

Raw oysters are considered a culinary delicacy but are frequently the culprit in food-borne norovirus (NoV) infections. As commercial depuration procedures are currently unable to efficiently eliminate NoV from oysters, an optimisation of the process should be considered. This study addresses the ability of elevated water temperatures to enhance the elimination of NoV and Tulane virus (TuV) from Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas). Both viruses were experimentally bioaccumulated in oysters, which were thereafter depurated at 12 °C and 17 °C for 4 weeks. Infectious TuV and viral RNA were monitored weekly for 28 days by TCID₅₀ and (PMAxx-) RT-qPCR, respectively. TuV RNA was more persistent than NoV and decreased by?<?0.5 log₁₀ after 14 days, while NoV reductions were already?>?1.0 log₁₀ at this time. For RT-qPCR there was no detectable benefit of elevated water temperatures or PMAxx for either virus (p?>?0.05). TuV TCID₅₀ decreased steadily, and reductions were significantly different between the two temperatures (p?<?0.001). This was most evident on days 14 and 21 when reductions at 17 °C were 1.3–1.7 log₁₀ higher than at 12 °C. After 3 weeks, reductions?>?3.0 log₁₀ were observed at 17 °C, while at 12 °C reductions did not exceed 1.9 log₁₀. The length of depuration also had an influence on virus numbers. TuV reductions increased from?<?1.0 log₁₀ after seven days to?>?4.0 log₁₀ after 4 weeks. This implies that an extension of the depuration period to more than seven days, possibly in combination with elevated water temperatures, may be beneficial for the inactivation and removal of viral pathogens.

     

The rarity of twins: a result of an evolutionary battle between mothers and daughters—or do they agree?

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that parent–offspring conflict over parental investment might have led to the rarity of dizygotic twins in humans. We explored the theoretical prediction that twins maximize their inclusive fitness by the death of a co-twin, while mothers of twins maximize fitness by raising both twins to independence. We used life history data (1700–1900) from two parishes in Central Norway to compare differences in inclusive fitness (measured as number of children reared to the age of 16 years, using Hamilton's rule) between twins and mothers of twins. Our results show that twins maximize their inclusive fitness by the death of a co-twin, while mothers of twins raise more children by rearing both twins to adulthood. However, because twins growing up as singletons may produce higher or at least equal number of offspring than the sum of the two twins growing up together, mothers might gain more grandchildren by allowing twins to grow up as singletons. To conclude, both selfish twins and their mothers might benefit by the death of a co-twin, indicating that there is no parent–offspring conflict responsible for the rareness of twins in these human populations. Finally, we discuss the results in the light of “The Insurance Egg Hypothesis” and “The Natural Selection Hypothesis”.