The ongoing biodiversity crisis becomes evident in the widely observed decline in abundance and diversity of species, profound changes in community structure, and shifts in species’ phenology. Insects are among the most affected groups, with documented decreases in abundance up to 76% in the last 25–30 years in some terrestrial ecosystems. Identifying the underlying drivers is a major obstacle as most ecosystems are affected by multiple stressors simultaneously and in situ measurements of environmental variables are often missing. In our study, we investigated a headwater stream belonging to the most common stream type in Germany located in a nature reserve with no major anthropogenic impacts except climate change. We used the most comprehensive quantitative long-term data set on aquatic insects available, which includes weekly measurements of species-level insect abundance, daily water temperature and stream discharge as well as measurements of additional physicochemical variables for a 42-year period (1969–2010). Overall, water temperature increased by 1.88 °C and discharge patterns changed significantly. These changes were accompanied by an 81.6% decline in insect abundance, but an increase in richness (+8.5%), Shannon diversity (+22.7%), evenness (+22.4%), and interannual turnover (+34%). Moreover, the community's trophic structure and phenology changed: the duration of emergence increased by 15.2 days, whereas the peak of emergence moved 13.4 days earlier. Additionally, we observed short-term fluctuations (<5 years) in almost all metrics as well as complex and nonlinear responses of the community toward climate change that would have been missed by simply using snapshot data or shorter time series. Our results indicate that climate change has already altered biotic communities severely even in protected areas, where no other interacting stressors (pollution, habitat fragmentation, etc.) are present. This is a striking example of the scientific value of comprehensive long-term data in capturing the complex responses of communities toward climate change. 相似文献
Maintaining a living plant collection is the most common method of ex situ conservation for plant species that cannot be seed banked (i.e., exceptional species). Viability of living collections, and their value for future conservation efforts, can be limited without coordinated efforts to track and manage individuals across institutions. Using a pedigree-focused approach, the zoological community has established an inter-institutional infrastructure to support long-term viability of captive animal populations. We assessed the ability of this coordinated metacollection infrastructure to support the conservation of 4 plant species curated in living collections at multiple botanic gardens around the world. Limitations in current practices include the inability to compile, share, and analyze plant collections data at the individual level, as well as difficulty in tracking original provenance of ex situ material. The coordinated metacollection framework used by zoos can be adopted by the botanical community to improve conservation outcomes by minimizing the loss of genetic diversity in collections. We suggest actions to improve ex situ conservation of exceptional plant species, including developing a central database to aggregate data and track unique individuals of priority threatened species among institutions and adapting a pedigree-based population management tool that incorporates life-history aspects unique to plants. If approached collaboratively across regional, national, and global scales, these actions could transform ex situ conservation of threatened plant species. 相似文献
Environmental Fluid Mechanics - In plunging jets and at hydraulic jumps, large amounts of air bubbles are entrained at the impingement of the liquid jet into the receiving body. Air is entrapped... 相似文献
Rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) and willow ptarmigan (L. lagopus) are Arctic birds with a circumpolar distribution but there is limited knowledge about their status and trends across their circumpolar distribution. Here, we compiled information from 90 ptarmigan study sites from 7 Arctic countries, where almost half of the sites are still monitored. Rock ptarmigan showed an overall negative trend on Iceland and Greenland, while Svalbard and Newfoundland had positive trends, and no significant trends in Alaska. For willow ptarmigan, there was a negative trend in mid-Sweden and eastern Russia, while northern Fennoscandia, North America and Newfoundland had no significant trends. Both species displayed some periods with population cycles (short 3–6 years and long 9–12 years), but cyclicity changed through time for both species. We propose that simple, cost-efficient systematic surveys that capture the main feature of ptarmigan population dynamics can form the basis for citizen science efforts in order to fill knowledge gaps for the many regions that lack systematic ptarmigan monitoring programs.
Over the last 10 years, there has been a plethora of experimental studies estimating the potential of microplastic particles (MPs) to exert toxic effects in the environment, many specifically focusing on their postulated capacity to enhance the transfer of environmental pollutants into organisms after ingestion. Obviously, there is little to no consensus on appropriate experimental design, which is mainly owing to the novelty, the interdisciplinarity of the subject, and the complexity of parameters involved. This results in fundamental discrepancies regarding the materials applied, the approach for spiking MPs with pollutants, and the exact exposure scenario. Aiming for a non-chemist audience and providing illustrative, representative, and comparative examples, this review first outlines the theoretical essentials of processes involved in sorption. Also, it discusses the implications for designing experimental approaches using MPs and interpreting the results obtained under consideration of their relevance for environmental conditions. It may help to improve the interpretation of studies on MP toxicity already published, while also calling experimenters’ attention to various aspects important to consider when designing and performing environmentally relevant experiments with MPs.
Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Acrylamide (AA), an industrial monomer, may cause multi-organ toxicity through induction of oxidative stress and inflammation. The antioxidant... 相似文献
Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Cobalt (Co) is widely used in many industrial fields such as batteries and paints. Cobalt, a dangerous heavy metal, can be found in high... 相似文献
In this study, the relationship between inhalable particulate (PM10), fine particulate (PM2.5), coarse particles (PM2.5 – 10) and meteorological parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed were statistically analyzed and modelled for urban area of Kolkata during winter months of 2003–2004. Ambient air quality was monitored with a sampling frequency of twenty-four hours at three monitoring sites located near traffic intersections and in an industrial area. The monitoring sites were located 3–5 m above ground near highly trafficked and congested areas. The 24 h average PM10 and PM2.5 samples were collected using Thermo-Andersen high volume samplers and exposed filter papers were extracted and analysed for benzene soluble organic fraction. The ratios between PM2.5 and PM10 were found to be in the range of 0.6 to 0.92 and the highest ratio was found in the most polluted urban site. Statistical analysis has shown a strong positive correlation between PM10 and PM2.5 and inverse correlation was observed between particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) and wind speed. Statistical analysis of air quality data shows that PM10 and PM2.5 are showing poor correlation with temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation. Regression equations for PM10 and PM2.5 and meteorological parameters were developed. The organic fraction of particulate matter soluble in benzene is an indication of poly aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentration present in particulate matter. The relationship between the benzene soluble organic fraction (BSOF) of inhalable particulate (PM10) and fine particulate (PM2.5) were analysed for urban area of Kolkata. Significant positive correlation was observed between benzene soluble organic fraction of PM10 (BSM10) and benzene soluble organic fraction of PM2.5 (BSM2.5). Regression equations for BSM10 and BSM2.5 were developed. 相似文献
A time series model was fitted to the pollen concentration data collected in the Greater Cincinnati area for the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study (CCAAPS). A traditional time series analysis and temporal variogram approach were applied to the regularly spaced databases (collected in 2003) and irregularly spaced ones (collected in 2002), respectively. The aim was to evaluate the effect of the sampling frequency on the sampling precision in terms of inverse of standard error of the overall level of mean value across time. The presence of high autocorrelation in the data was confirmed and indicated some degree of temporal redundancy in the pollen concentration data. Therefore, it was suggested that sampling frequency could be reduced from once a day to once every several days without a major loss of sampling precision of the overall mean over time. Considering the trade-offs between sampling frequency and the possibility of sampling bias increasing with larger sampling interval, we recommend that the sampling interval should take values from 3 to 5 days for the pollen monitoring program, if the goal is to track the long-term average. 相似文献
Food crops such as cassava, cocoyam and other tuber crops grown in mining communities uptake toxic or hazardous chemicals
such as arsenic, and cadmium, from the soil. Cassava is a stable food for Ghanaians. This study evaluated human health risk
from eating cassava grown in some mining communities in Ghana such as Bogoso, Prestea, Tarkwa and Tamso, which are important
mining towns in the Western Region of Ghana. The study evaluated cancer and non-cancer health effects from eating cassava
grown in the study areas in accordance with US Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Assessment guidelines. The results of
the study revealed the following: cancer health risk for Tamso, 0.098 (RME – Reasonable Maximum Exposure) and 0.082 (CTE –
Central Tendency Exposure). This means that approximately 10 and 8 out of 100 resident adults are likely to suffer from cancer
related cases by RME and CTE parameters respectively. For Prestea, we have 0.010 and 0.12, which also means that approximately
1 out of 100 and 10 resident adults out of 100 are also likely to suffer from cancer related diseases by RME and CTE parameters.
The results of the study obtained were found to be above the acceptable cancer risk range of 1× 10−6 to 1× 10−4, i.e., 1 case of cancer out of 1 million or 100,000 people respectively. 相似文献