Investigating biodiversity trajectories using scenarios – Lessons from two contrasting agricultural landscapes

Agriculture is the major land use at a global scale. In addition to food production, multifunctionality of landscapes, including values and ecosystem services like biodiversity, recreation and culture, is now focus for management. This study explores how a scenario approach, involving different stakeholders, may help to improve landscape management for biodiversity conservation. Local farmers and executives at the County Administrative Board were invited to discuss rural development and conditions for farmland biodiversity in two Swedish landscapes. The potential biodiversity for three future land use scenarios for the two landscapes was discussed: nature conservation, outdoor recreation and energy production, and compared with current and historical landscapes in each region.Analyses of habitat areas, connectedness and landscape diversity suggested that the energy and recreation scenarios had a negative impact on farmland biodiversity, whereas the nature conservation scenario, the current and historically reconstructed landscapes had a higher potential for biodiversity. The farmers appreciated the nature conservation scenario, but also the energy production scenario and they highlighted the need of increased subsidies for management of biodiversity. The farmers in the high production area were less interested in nature quality per se. The executives had similar opinions as the farmers, but disagreed on the advantages with energy production, as this would be in conflict with the high biodiversity and recreational values. The local physical and socio-economical conditions differ between landscapes and potentially shaped the stakeholders emotional attachment to the local environment, their opinions and decisions on how to manage the land. We stress the importance of incorporating local knowledge, visions and regional prerequisites for different land uses in conservation, since site and landscape specific planning for biodiversity together with a flexible subsidy system are necessary to reach the conservation goals within EU.     

Urban growth management in Jeddah

The towns and cities of Saudi Arabia have been subjected to sustained growth pressures since the transformation of the country's economy following the discovery of oil in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom. The rapid growth which has been experienced has created major problems for the central and local government agencies responsible for planning and managing urban growth. The experience of Jeddah, one of the major cities in Saudi Arabia, is described and the problems of planning and managing its growth are analysed. Weaknesses relating to the structure of the planning system are identified, as are major difficulties in relation to the quality and quantity of professional staff. Recent attempts to improve the operation of the planning system are described and evaluated.     

New view of environmental health: Toward an environmental research policy for international strategies

We are witnessing a growing concern with the global dimension of many environmental issues, reflected in the increase in the number and significance of international environmental organizations. Yet there is no internationally applicable strategy for environmental research which is management oriented. A new type of research policy, which integrates ideas derived from environmental and human ecology, is required in order to deal with cultural and ecological diversity and their interactions as reflected in the ecology of landscapes. The newly defined concept of environmental health is proposed to fill this gap. This concept integrates the latest developments in landscape evolutionary ecology and environmental health, bringing out a conflict between making the environment conducive to human health and increasing the available options for supporting the essential biological and ecological processes of the environment. Lessons derived from the evolution of human environments are used in order to illustrate how health may become un umbrella for developing an environmental research policy, which could also serve as a catalyst for international environmental projects.     

Comparison of emissions estimates derived from atmospheric measurements with national estimates of HFCs,PFCs and SF6

This paper assesses the feasibility of using atmospheric measurement of fluorinated greenhouse gases (HFCs, PFCs and SF6) for the review and verification of greenhouse gas inventories provided by national governments. For this purpose, available data were compiled. It was found that atmospheric measurements of these gases are available and provide an indication of global annual emissions with sufficient certainty to reach the following conclusions: Within the uncertainty of the method, it was found that emissions of HFC-23, a by-product of HCFC-22 production, as obtained from atmospheric measurements did not decrease as fast, as the countries have reported. In contrast, SF6 concentrations in the atmosphere suggest higher emissions than reported by countries. Regional emission estimates from atmospheric measurements are still in a more pioneering state and cannot be compared to national estimates. Intensified efforts to measure HFCs, PFCs and SF6 in the atmosphere are recommended.     

Chemical Changes in Sediment Pore-Waters of an Acidic Mining Lake After Addition of Organic Substrate and Lime for Stimulating Lake Remediation

In the past five years, enclosures have beeninstalled in an acidic mining lake in Lusatia to investigate insitu remediation processes. They were treated with straw, withstraw and Carbokalk, or with Carbokalk alone, where Carbokalkis a by-product of the sugar industry (solid precipitate ofnon-sugars after lime clarification of extracted sugar beetjuice). Sediment samples were taken as cores to get informationabout the behaviour of organic and inorganic components insediment pore-water with depth. Vertical distributions of pH,soluble reactive phosphate, nitrate, ammonium, silica,aluminium, iron, manganese, calcium, magnesium, sodium,potassium, sulphate, and DOC were measured. The resultingprofiles, each consisting of 15 data points at differentdepths, were compared by cluster analysis. The similarities ofsediment cores from different treated enclosures relating toprofiles of chemical components were discussed. Increasedconcentrations of potassium and sulphate were found in pore-water after substrate treatment. The data imply dissolution ofpotassium iron sulphate hydroxide minerals (jarosite) after anincrease of pH caused by dissolution of lime and by sulphatereducing processes which were stimulated by organic substrateaddition.     

Trends in the Water Chemistry of High Altitude Lakes in Europe

Here we present the chemical trends of seven high altitude lakes, analysed within the AL:PE and MOLAR Projects of the EU (1999) and selected on the basis of the availability of complete and reliable data for the period 1984–1999. The lakes are representative of the Scandinavian Alps, the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland, the Alps and the Pyrenees. Significant trends were identified for some indicators of acidification, for instance pH and alkalinity, but not all lakes reacted similarly to decreasing depositions of sulphate and base cations. Differences in lake response are discussed in relation to recent variations of atmospheric deposition chemistry and associated changes in climatic conditions. Beside individual variations of the studied lakes, depending, among other things, on altitude and morphology, catchment characteristics and climate trends play a major role for the reaction of high altitude lakes on changes in atmospheric depositions.