Facilitating sustainable development in Chile: a survey of suitable energy technologies

Sustainable development in developing countries is the main aim of the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). However, in the present context, uncertainty prevails as to whether the CDM is actually achieving its aims in terms of achieving sustainable development and to what extent. Chile has several renewable energy and energy efficiency options with significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions abatement potential that are not yet financially and economically competitive. In order to be able to identify potential CDM projects and to formulate a series of possible investment strategies with a sustainable development component, it is crucial to establish a clear understanding of the host country's needs and priorities and the suitable sustainable energy technologies to meet these needs. The main scope of this paper is to present results obtained from an elaborated stakeholder assessment on Chile's high priority energy needs and sustainable energy technologies fulfilling these needs in order to assist Chile in finding ways of encouraging technology transfer that would contribute to low-carbon sustainable energy development.     

Economics of additionality for environmental services from agriculture

We present a model of additionality for offsets sold from agriculture to industrial sector sources regulated by cap-and-trade. We consider a potential policy where agricultural sources would not be covered by cap-and-trade requirements but would be eligible to receive offsets whenever their emissions fall below a policy-specified baseline, and would not be penalized for emissions above their baseline. Major results are: (1) The optimal baseline should be set above the average counterfactual emissions of participating farms, an unexpected result that has been missing from the literature. (2) The optimal trading ratio should be greater than one (a ton of offsets counts for less than a ton of covered emissions) even under emissions certainty. Previous research has justified such trading ratios by emissions uncertainty. (3) Emissions uncertainty does not justify a change in the baseline if the accompanying emissions model is unbiased. (4) An optimal combination of policies is to subsidize offsets and tighten the baseline relative to the no-subsidy case.     

How safe is the playground? An environmental health risk assessment of As and Pb levels in school playing fields in NE England

The risk from potentially toxic elements in playground soils is of concern to children’s health as a result of the potential for intentional or unintentional consumption. Current approaches, based on total potentially toxic element concentration, may overestimate the risk. This has resulted in the development and use of in vitro gastrointestinal extraction protocols. The concentration of arsenic (As) and lead (Pb) in soils collected from 12 schools in north-east England has been compared with Soil Guideline Values from seven countries as well as reported literature concentrations for playgrounds and recreational parks. It was found that the mean As concentration of 14.1 ± 5.4 mg/kg does not exceed the England residential Soil Guideline Value in any location, while the mean Pb concentration of 298 ± 380 mg/kg is high but not excessive. Both concentrations have been assessed using the maximum potential daily intake from soil that a child could ingest. Based on this protocol Pb does not exceed the tolerable daily intake in any playground location, while As is generally 10 times lower than the oral index dose in the majority of playgrounds. The oral bioaccessibility of As and Pb was investigated. It was concluded that the highest concentrations were determined in the gastric phase with maximum bioaccessibilities of 54 and 46 % for As and Pb, respectively. Here we have demonstrated that minimal risk arises from the investigated playgrounds provided that good personal hygiene is adhered to.     

Temporal separation of two fin whale call types across the eastern North Pacific

Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) produce a variety of low-frequency, short-duration, frequency-modulated calls. The differences in temporal patterns between two fin whale call types are described from long-term passive acoustic data collected intermittently between 2005 and 2011 at three locations across the eastern North Pacific: the Bering Sea, off Southern California, and in Canal de Ballenas in the northern Gulf of California. Fin whale calls were detected at all sites year-round, during all periods with recordings. At all three locations, 40-Hz calls peaked in June, preceding a peak in 20-Hz calls by 3–5 months. Monitoring both call types may provide a more accurate insight into the seasonal presence of fin whales across the eastern North Pacific than can be obtained from a single call type. The 40-Hz call may be associated with a foraging function, and temporal separation between 40- and 20-Hz calls may indicate the separation between predominately feeding behavior and other social interactions.     

Seasonal and diel variation in movement rhythms of sand dollar, Peronella lesueuri (Valenciennes 1841), in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia

Rates and direction of movement in the sand dollar Peronella lesueuri were measured in summer and winter in Cockburn Sound, a large coastal embayment in south-western Australia. P. lesueuri was found to have a diurnal activity pattern throughout the year and had a greater movement rate in the summer (mean of 5.3 cm h^?1, day; 3.9 cm h^?1, night) than in the winter (mean of 2.7 cm h^?1, day; 2.0 cm h^?1, night). Seasonal change in temperature and physiological requirements by the sand dollar are the most likely reason for the seasonal differences. Reasons for diurnal variation were not clear. Direction of movement was found to be random at both times of the year. Based on these movement rates, one sand dollar can bioturbate an approximate area of 0.1 m² day^?1 and 36.4 m² year^?1. At a conservative density estimate of 0.5 sand dollars per m² it takes approximately 20 days for the sand dollars to rework the entire area of the sediments in the habitats they occupy.     

Body condition of predatory fishes linked to the availability of sandeels

Lesser sandeels Ammodytes marinus are eaten by a range of predatory fishes including commercially fished species, but are also exploited at large scale by industrial fisheries. Is availability of sandeels, as key prey source, linked to the body condition of predatory fishes? In the North Sea, the largest sandeel biomass is concentrated in the Dogger Bank region. Here we studied predator–sandeel interactions at two sites differing widely in sandeel abundance and local sandeel fishing effort. Surveys took place in 2004, 2005, and 2006, years when local sandeel densities observed at these sites were low, intermediate, and high, respectively. Five predator species––whiting, lesser weever, grey gurnard, plaice, and haddock––showed better body condition indices in either the years or study area (or both) characterised by higher local sandeel densities, when compared to sandeel-poorer conditions. Moreover, whiting, weever, and gurnard condition was better for those individuals actually observed to have eaten sandeels (based on stomach contents) than for those that had not. As body condition relates to growth, reproduction, and survival, predators in sandeel-rich conditions may be inferred to have a higher fitness. These links between sandeel availability, sandeel consumption, and predator condition hint that, if large-scale localised depletions of sandeels were to occur, negative indirect effects on predatory fish might become apparent, underlining the importance of considering the sandeel fishery in an ecosystem context.     

Pluri-annual study of the reproduction of two Mediterranean Oscarella species (Porifera, Homoscleromorpha): cycle, sex-ratio, reproductive effort and phenology

This study presents the phenology of two common Mediterranean sponges belonging to the genus Oscarella (Porifera, Homoscleromorpha). Oscarella tuberculata and Oscarella lobularis are two sibling species, dwellers of shallow benthic communities which tend to have distinct ecological behavior, respectively, euryecious and rather stenoecious. The comparative study of their reproductive cycle showed that both Oscarella species have a seasonal reproductive cycle with a successive phase duration differing from one species to another. In both species, there is a continuous oogenesis, with new oocytes appearing in spring, whereas the spermatogenesis generally starts later with the early warming of the sea. The embryonic development and the larval release are restricted to the warmest months of the year. We also observed a shift in the period of gametogenesis and larval emission depending on species and differences in their sensitivity to changes in thermal regime. It appears that an increase in seawater temperature can affect sex determination, with mainly a shift toward males in both species. Their reproductive efforts are variable in time, and can be in some cases influenced by the temperature regime. This is especially the case of O. lobularis which seems to be the most thermosensitive, its phenology responding significantly to changes in thermal regime, whereas O. tuberculata seems to be less sensitive and/or reactive. By detecting phenological changes among sponges, this study demonstrated the relevance of such monitoring to assess the possible biological response to climate change.     

Comparison and Evaluation of Gridded Precipitation Datasets in a Kansas Agricultural Watershed Using SWAT

Gridded precipitation datasets are becoming a convenient substitute for gauge measurements in hydrological modeling; however, these data have not been fully evaluated across a range of conditions. We compared four gridded datasets (Daily Surface Weather and Climatological Summaries [DAYMET], North American Land Data Assimilation System [NLDAS], Global Land Data Assimilation System [GLDAS], and Parameter‐elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model [PRISM]) as precipitation data sources and evaluated how they affected hydrologic model performance when compared with a gauged dataset, Global Historical Climatology Network‐Daily (GHCN‐D). Analyses were performed for the Delaware Watershed at Perry Lake in eastern Kansas. Precipitation indices for DAYMET and PRISM precipitation closely matched GHCN‐D, whereas NLDAS and GLDAS showed weaker correlations. We also used these precipitation data as input to the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model that confirmed similar trends in streamflow simulation. For stations with complete data, GHCN‐D based SWAT‐simulated streamflow variability better than gridded precipitation data. During low flow periods we found PRISM performed better, whereas both DAYMET and NLDAS performed better in high flow years. Our results demonstrate that combining gridded precipitation sources with gauge‐based measurements can improve hydrologic model performance, especially for extreme events.     

Pollution,place, and premature death: evidence from a mid-sized city

ABSTRACT

Neighborhood life expectancy varies by as much as 10 years across the City of Louisville. In 2013, the Greater Louisville Project funded by local government, businesses, and foundations, argued these differences had little to do with environmental factors. The Greater Louisville Project (2013) study argued that these neighborhood differences could be attributed 40% to socio-economic factors (with a major emphasis on education), 10% to physical environment, 30% to health behaviors, and 20% to access to medical care. To test these claims, we construct our own model of neighborhood variation in years of potential life lost (YPLL) by adding two variables testing environmental degradation. We operationalise two separate measures of environmental contamination: proximity to EPA designated brownfield sites and proximity to chemical factories in an industrial park in the neighborhood known as “Rubbertown”. We conduct several regression analyses, which show a relationship between proximity to environmental contaminants and an increase in neighborhood YPLL. Our beta weights challenge the claims made by the Greater Louisville Project, which minimize the impact nearness to environmental contaminants has on reductions in life expectancy in Louisville neighborhoods.