Detecting the signal of atmospheric N deposition in recent national-scale vegetation change across Britain

Model estimates of NO_y and NH_x deposition across Britain for 1996 (5 km square resolution) were applied as explanatory variables to account for national-scale, fine-grained changes in plant species composition between 1990 and 1998. Plant species data were recorded from up to 27 fixed plots located within a stratified random sample of 596 1 km². The response variable was a cover-weighted Ellenberg fertility score for each plot. Analyses were carried out separately for woodlands, semi-natural grasslands and heaths/bogs. Most of the variation in the botanical response variable occurred between plots within squares and so could not be explained by the model deposition data. NH_x deposition estimates accounted for significant, but small components of between 1 km² variation in the change in Ellenberg score in grasslands (5.6%) and heath/bogs (9.8%) but not woodlands. NO_y deposition estimates were not significantly associated with vegetation change. Linear models provided the best fit and the slope of the relationship was lower for heath/bogs than grasslands. Further signal attribution at sub-kilometre square scales requires the development of fine-grained models of N deposition that can be generalised across regional sampling domains.     

Improving the Urban Stream Restoration Effort: Identifying Critical Form and Processes Relationships

Stream restoration projects are often based on morphological form or stream type and, as a result, there needs to be a clear tie established between form and function of the stream. An examination of the literature identifies numerous relationships in naturally forming streams that link morphologic form and stream processes. Urban stream restoration designs often work around infrastructure and incorporate bank stabilization and grade control structures. Because of these imposed constraints and highly altered hydrologic and sediment discharge regimens, the design of urban channel projects is rather unclear. In this paper, we examine the state of the art in relationships between form and processes, the strengths and weaknesses of these existing relationships, and the current lack of understanding in applying these relationships in the urban environment. In particular, we identify relationships that are critical to urban stream restoration projects and provide recommendations for future research into how this information can be used to improve urban stream restoration design. It is also suggested that improving the success of urban restoration projects requires further investigation into incorporating process-based methodologies, which can potentially reduce ambiguity in the design and the necessity of using an abundant amount of in-stream structures.     

Human Diets and Animal Welfare: the Illogic of the Larder

Few moral arguments have been made against vegetarian diets. One exception is the “Logic of the Larder:” We do animals a favor by purchasing their meat, eggs, and milk, for if we did not purchase these products, fewer animals would exist. This argument fails because many farm animals have lives that are probably not worth living, while others prevent a significant number of wild animals from existing. Even if this were not so, the purchase of animal products uses resources that could otherwise be used to bring a much greater number of animals into existence.     

Tillage erosion and its effect on soil properties and crop yield in Denmark

Tillage erosion had been identified as a major process of soil redistribution on sloping arable land. The objectives of our study were to investigate the extent of tillage erosion and its effect on soil quality and productivity under Danish conditions. Soil samples were collected to a 0.45-m depth on a regular grid from a 1.9-ha site and analyzed for 137Cs inventories, as a measure of soil redistribution, soil texture, soil organic carbon (SOC) contents, and phosphorus (P) contents. Grain yield was determined at the same sampling points. Substantial soil redistribution had occurred during the past decades, mainly due to tillage. Average tillage erosion rates of 2.7 kg m(-2) yr(-1) occurred on the shoulderslopes, while deposition amounted to 1.2 kg m(-2) yr(-1) on foot- and toeslopes. The pattern of soil redistribution could not be explained by water erosion. Soil organic carbon and P contents in soil profiles increased from the shoulder- toward the toeslopes. Tillage translocation rates were strongly correlated with SOC contents, A-horizon depth, and P contents. Thus, tillage erosion had led to truncated soils on shoulderslopes and deep, colluvial soils on the foot- and toeslopes, substantially affecting within-field variability of soil properties. We concluded that tillage erosion has important implications for SOC dynamics on hummocky land and increases the risk for nutrient losses by overland flow and leaching. Despite the occurrence of deep soils across the study area, evidence suggested that crop productivity was affected by tillage-induced soil redistribution. However, tillage erosion effects on crop yield were confounded by topography-yield relationships.     

Sustainable land application: an overview

Man has land-applied societal nonhazardous wastes for centuries as a means of disposal and to improve the soil via the recycling of nutrients and the addition of organic matter. Nonhazardous wastes include a vast array of materials, including manures, biosolids, composts, wastewater effluents, food-processing wastes, industrial by-products; these are collectively referred to herein as residuals. Because of economic restraints and environmental concerns about land-filling and incineration, interest in land application continues to grow. A major lesson that has been learned, however, is that the traditional definition of land application that emphasizes applying residuals to land in a manner that protects human and animal health, safeguards soil and water resources, and maintains long-term ecosystem quality is incomplete unless the earning of public trust in the practices is included. This overview provides an introduction to a subset of papers and posters presented at the conference, "Sustainable Land Application," held in Orlando, FL, in January 2004. The USEPA, USDA, and multiple national and state organizations with interest in, and/or responsibilities for, ensuring the sustainability of the practice sponsored the conference. The overriding conference objectives were to highlight significant developments in land treatment theory and practice, and to identify future research needs to address critical gaps in the knowledge base that must be addressed to ensure sustainable land application of residuals.     

The effect of Na and Ca salts on MSWI bottom ash activation for reuse as a pozzolanic admixture

In this study the possibility of both chemical and combined chemical + thermal activation of municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash was investigated. A number of chemical activators including Na₂SiO₃·9H₂O, NaOH, Na₂SO₄ and CaCl₂·2H₂O were individually added at varying concentrations to bottom ash/Portland cement mixtures having different bottom ash contents. The effect of the selected compounds was evaluated in terms of macroscopic properties including mechanical strength and composition of cementitious materials/water slurries. The results showed that Na-based activators were not capable of improving the characteristics of the cementitious products if compared to Portland cement under both normal and accelerated curing. Conversely, the use of calcium chloride at 40 °C-curing did promote the pozzolanic properties of bottom ash, leading to UCS values of 45.5 and 60.0 MPa after 10 and 20 days, respectively, as opposed to a value of 43.6 MPa obtained after 28 days for Portland cement under normal curing conditions.     

In situ measurements of nitrate leaching implicate poor nitrogen and irrigation management on sandy soils

Minimizing the risk of nitrate contamination along the waterways of the U.S. Great Plains is essential to continued irrigated corn production and quality water supplies. The objectives of this study were to quantify nitrate (NO(3)) leaching for irrigated sandy soils (Pratt loamy fine sand [sandy, mixed, mesic Lamellic Haplustalfs]) and to evaluate the effects of N fertilizer and irrigation management strategies on NO(3) leaching in irrigated corn. Two irrigation schedules (1.0x and 1.25x optimum) were combined with six N fertilizer treatments broadcast as NH(4)NO(3) (kg N ha(-1)): 300 and 250 applied pre-plant; 250 applied pre-plant and sidedress; 185 applied pre-plant and sidedress; 125 applied pre-plant and sidedress; and 0. Porous-cup tensiometers and solution samplers were installed in each of the four highest N treatments. Soil solution samples were collected during the 2001 and 2002 growing seasons. Maximum corn grain yield was achieved with 125 or 185 kg N ha(-1), regardless of the irrigation schedule (IS). The 1.25x IS exacerbated the amount of NO(3) leached below the 152-cm depth in the preplant N treatments, with a mean of 146 kg N ha(-1) for the 250 and 300 kg N preplant applications compared with 12 kg N ha(-1) for the same N treatments and 1.0x IS. With 185 kg N ha(-1), the 1.25x IS treatment resulted in 74 kg N ha(-1) leached compared with 10 kg N ha(-1) for the 1.0x IS. Appropriate irrigation scheduling and N fertilizer rates are essential to improving N management practices on these sandy soils.     

An alum-based water treatment residual can reduce extractable phosphorus concentrations in three phosphorus-enriched coastal plain soils

The accumulation of excess soil phosphorus (P) in watersheds under intensive animal production has been linked to increases in dissolved P concentrations in rivers and streams draining these watersheds. Reductions in water dissolved P concentrations through very strong P sorption reactions may be obtainable after land application of alum-based drinking water treatment residuals (WTRs). Our objectives were to (i) evaluate the ability of an alum-based WTR to reduce Mehlich-3 phosphorus (M3P) and water-soluble phosphorus (WSP) concentrations in three P-enriched Coastal Plain soils, (ii) estimate WTR application rates necessary to lower soil M3P levels to a target 150 mg kg(-1) soil M3P concentration threshold level, and (iii) determine the effects on soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC). Three soils containing elevated M3P (145-371 mg kg(-1)) and WSP (12.3-23.5 mg kg(-1)) concentrations were laboratory incubated with between 0 and 6% WTR (w w(-1)) for 84 d. Incorporation of WTR into the three soils caused a near linear and significant reduction in soil M3P and WSP concentrations. In two soils, 6% WTR application caused a soil M3P concentration decrease to below the soil P threshold level. An additional incubation on the third soil using higher WTR to soil treatments (10-15%) was required to reduce the mean soil M3P concentration to 178 mg kg(-1). After incubation, most treatments had less than a half pH unit decline and a slight increase in soil EC values suggesting a minimal impact on soil quality properties. The results showed that WTR incorporation into soils with high P concentrations caused larger relative reductions in extractable WSP than M3P concentrations. The larger relative reductions in the extractable WSP fraction suggest that WTR can be more effective at reducing potential runoff P losses than usage as an amendment to lower M3P concentrations.     

Predicting inter-taxa differences in plant uptake of cesium-134/137

For (134/137)Cs, and many other soil contaminants, research into transfer to plants has focused on particular crops and phytoremediation candidates, producing uptake data for a small proportion of all plant taxa. Despite the significance of differences in uptake between plant taxa, the capacity of soil-to-plant transfer models to predict them is currently confined to those taxa for which data exist, there being no method to predict uptake by other taxa. We used residual maximum likelihood (REML) analysis on data from experiments (including 89 plant taxa from China plus 32 phytoremediation candidates) together with data from the literature, to construct a database of relative (134/137)Cs concentrations in 273 plant taxa. The REML (134/137)Cs concentrations in plants are not normally distributed but significantly clustered. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), coded with a recent ordinal phylogeny for flowering plants, showed that plant taxa do not behave independently for (134/137)Cs concentration because 42 and 15% of inter-taxa differences are associated with phylogeny above the species and ordinal level, respectively. In general, Eudicots, and especially the Caryophyllales, Asterales, and Brassicales, have high (134/137)Cs concentrations, while the Fabales and Magnoliids, in particular Poales, have low (134/137)Cs concentrations. Plants of the stress-tolerant ruderal (S-R) growth strategy sensu Grime have, in general, high concentrations of Cs, while those of the competitive (C) and generalist (C-S-R) strategies have low concentrations, although these effects are less pronounced than those of phylogeny. Plant phylogeny and growth strategy might thus be used to predict a significant portion of inter-taxa differences in plant uptake of (134/137)Cs.     

Influence of canola and sunflower diet amendments on cattle feedlot manure

Cattle (Bos taurus) producers can replace a part of the traditional diet of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) grain/silage with sunflower (Helianthus annus L.) seeds or canola meal (Brassica napus L.)/oil to enhance conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) content in milk and meat for its positive health benefits. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of feeding sunflower or canola to finishing steers on cattle manure chemical properties and volatile fatty acid (VFA) content. The control diet contained 84% rolled barley and 15% barley silage, which provided only 2.6% lipid. The other six treatments had 6.6 to 8.6% lipid delivered from sources such as hay, sunflower seed (SS), canola meal/oil, and SS forage pellets. Manure samples (a mixture of cattle urine, feces, and woodchip bedding materials) were collected and analyzed after cattle had been on these diets for 113 d. The dietary source and level of lipid had no effect on organic N and nitrate N content in manure, but significantly affected ammonia N and VFA. Inclusion of SS forage pellets, hay, or canola meal/oil in cattle diets had no significant impact on manure characteristics, but SS significantly reduced the pH and increased propionic, isobutyric, and isovaleric content. In addition, N loss after excretion (mainly from urine N) increases with the pH and N levels in both feed and manure. The combination of SS with barley silage resulted in a lower VFA and NH3 content in manure and should be a more attractive option. To better manage N nutrient cycles and reduce NH3 related odor problems, feed and manure pH should be one of the factors to consider when determining feed mix rations.