Dissipation of oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline, tetracycline and doxycycline using HPLC-UV and LC/MS/MS under aquatic semi-field microcosm conditions

A mixture of four tetracyclines; oxytetracycline (OTC), chlortetracycline (CTC), tetracycline (TC), and doxycycline (DC) was applied in fifteen 12000l outdoor microcosms at four treatment levels plus controls each with three replicates (n = 3). The dissipation times of parent compounds were monitored and half-lives (DT50) of 1-4 days, depending on treatment level were recorded. This is in accordance with half-lives from previous findings in bench-top experiments. Parent compound DT50, were determined using HPLC-UV. Furthermore, the samples were analyzed for ten different tetracycline products using LC/MS/MS. Two products were found for chlortetracycline; 4-epi-anh-chlortetracyline and the iso-chlortetracycline. Iso-forms were only found for CTC and only at the highest treatment (300 microg l(-1)). The half-lives, trajectories, and relative amounts of the products were analogous for all four tetracyclines. DT50 for products were less than 1.2 days. Formation of 4-epi-anh-tetracyclines, occurred at neutral to weak alkaline conditions.     

The impact of municipal solid waste management on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States

Technological advancements, environmental regulations, and emphasis on resource conservation and recovery have greatly reduced the environmental impacts of municipal solid waste (MSW) management, including emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). This study was conducted using a life-cycle methodology to track changes in GHG emissions during the past 25 years from the management of MSW in the United States. For the baseline year of 1974, MSW management consisted of limited recycling, combustion without energy recovery, and landfilling without gas collection or control. This was compared with data for 1980, 1990, and 1997, accounting for changes in MSW quantity, composition, management practices, and technology. Over time, the United States has moved toward increased recycling, composting, combustion (with energy recovery) and landfilling with gas recovery, control, and utilization. These changes were accounted for with historical data on MSW composition, quantities, management practices, and technological changes. Included in the analysis were the benefits of materials recycling and energy recovery to the extent that these displace virgin raw materials and fossil fuel electricity production, respectively. Carbon sinks associated with MSW management also were addressed. The results indicate that the MSW management actions taken by U.S. communities have significantly reduced potential GHG emissions despite an almost 2-fold increase in waste generation. GHG emissions from MSW management were estimated to be 36 million metric tons carbon equivalents (MMTCE) in 1974 and 8 MMTCE in 1997. If MSW were being managed today as it was in 1974, GHG emissions would be approximately 60 MMTCE.     

Chemical Plume Tracing

Environmental Fluid Mechanics -     

Epidemic Disease and the Catastrophic Decline of Australian Rain Forest Frogs

In the montane rain forests of eastern Australia at least 14 species of endemic, stream-dwelling frogs have disappeared or declined sharply (by more than 90%) during the past 15 years. We review available information on these declines and present eight lines of evidence that collectively suggest that a rapidly spreading, epidemic disease is the most likely responsible agent. The extreme virulence of the putative frog patbogen suggests it is likely exotic to Australian rain forests. We propose that exotic pathogens may be responsible for some recent declines of amphibian populations on other continents and that the intercontinental spread of such pathogens is greatly facilitated by human activities such as the thriving international trade in aquarium fish. Our hypothesis may help explain why some amphibian populations in seemingly pristine environments have mysteriously declined.     

Potential effects of forest policies on terrestrial biodiversity in a multi-ownership province.

We used spatial simulation models to evaluate how current and two alternative policies might affect potential biodiversity over 100 years in the Coast Ranges Physiographic Province of Oregon. This 2.3-million-ha province is characterized by a diversity of public and private forest owners, and a wide range of forest policy and management objectives. We evaluated habitat availability for seven focal species representing different life histories. We also examined how policies affected old-growth stand structure, age distributions relative to the historical range of variability, and landscape patterns of forest types. Under the current policy scenario, the area of habitat for old-growth forest structure and associated species increased over time, the habitat for some early-successional associates remained stable, and the area of hardwood vegetation and diverse early-successional stages declined. The province is projected to move toward but not reach the historical range of variation of forest age classes that may have occurred under the wildfire regimes of the pre-Euroamerican settlement period. Ownership explained much of the pattern of biodiversity in the province, and under the current policy scenario, its effect increased over time as the landscape diverged into highly contrasting forest structures and ages. Patch type diversity declined slightly overall but declined strongly within ownerships. Most of the modeled change in biodiversity over time resulted from policies on public forest lands that were intended to increase the area of late-successional forests and species. One of the alternative policies, increased retention of wildlife trees on private lands, reduced the contrast between ownerships and increased habitat availability over time for both early- and late-successional species. Analysis of another alternative, stopping thinning of plantations on federal lands, indicated that current thinning regimes improve habitat for the Olive-sided Flycatcher, but the no-thinning alternative had no effect on the habitat scores for the late-successional species in the 100-year simulation. A comparison of indicators of biological diversity suggests that using focal species and forest structural measures can provide complementary information on biodiversity. The multi-ownership perspective provided a more complete synthesis of province-wide biodiversity patterns than assessments based on single ownerships.     

Drought can offset potential water use efficiency of forest ecosystems from rising atmospheric CO2

Increasing atmospheric CO₂ is both leading to climate change and providing a potential fertilisation effect on plant growth. However, southern Australia has also experienced a significant decline in rainfall over the last 30 years, resulting in increased vegetative water stress. To better understand the dynamics and responses of Australian forest ecosystems to drought and elevated CO₂, the magnitude and trend in water use efficiency (WUE) of forests, and their response to drought and elevated CO₂ from 1982 to 2014 were analysed, using the best available model estimates constrained by observed fluxes from simulations with fixed and time-varying CO₂. The ratio of gross primary productivity (GPP) to evapotranspiration (ET) (WUEe) was used to identify the ecosystem scale WUE, while the ratio of GPP to transpiration (Tr) (WUEc) was used as a measure of canopy scale WUE. WUE increased significantly in northern Australia (p < 0.001) for woody savannas (WSA), whereas there was a slight decline in the WUE of evergreen broadleaf forests (EBF) in the southeast and southwest of Australia. The lag of WUEc to drought was consistent and relatively short and stable between biomes (≤3 months), but notably varied for WUEe, with a long time-lag (mean of 10 months). The dissimilar responses of WUEe and WUEc to climate change for different geographical areas result from the different proportion of Tr in ET. CO₂ fertilization and a wetter climate enhanced WUE in northern Australia, whereas drought offset the CO₂ fertilization effect in southern Australia.