Developing a circumpolar programme for the monitoring of Arctic terrestrial biodiversity

The Arctic is undergoing biological and environmental changes, and a coordinated effort to monitor is critical to detect these changes. The Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Programme (CBMP) of the Arctic Council biodiversity working group, Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF), has developed pan-Arctic biodiversity monitoring plans that aims to improve the ability to detect and report on long-term changes. Whilst introducing this special issue, this paper also presents the making of the terrestrial monitoring plan and discusses how the plan follows the steps required for an adaptive and ecosystem-based monitoring programme. In this article, we discuss how data on key findings can be used to inform circumpolar and global assessments, including the State of the Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity Report, which will be the first terrestrial assessment made by the CBMP. Key findings, advice for future monitoring and lessons learned will be used in planning next steps of pan-Arctic coordinated monitoring.     

Arctic terrestrial biodiversity status and trends: A synopsis of science supporting the CBMP State of Arctic Terrestrial Biodiversity Report

Ambio - This review provides a synopsis of the main findings of individual papers in the special issue Terrestrial Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing Arctic. The special issue was developed to...     

Stabilization of APC Residues from Waste Incineration with Ferrous Sulfate on a Semi-Industrial Scale

Abstract

A stabilization method for air pollution control (APC) residues from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) involving mixing of the residue with water and FeSO₄ has been demonstrated on a semi-industrial scale on three types of APC residues: a semidry (SD) APC residue, a fly ash (FA), and an FA mixed with sludge (FAS) from a wet flue gas cleaning system. The process was performed in batches of 165-175 kg residue. It generates a wastewater that is highly saline but has a low content of heavy metals such as Cd, Cr, and Pb. The stabilized and raw residues have been subject to a range of leaching tests: the batch leaching test, the pH-static leaching test, the availability test, and the column test. These tests showed that the stabilized residues have remarkably improved leaching properties, especially with respect to Pb but also with respect to Cd, Cu, and Zn. The release of Pb was reduced by a factor of 250-36,000.     

Divergent composition but similar function of soil food webs of individual plants: plant species and community effects

Soils are extremely rich in biodiversity, and soil organisms play pivotal roles in supporting terrestrial life, but the role that individual plants and plant communities play in influencing the diversity and functioning of soil food webs remains highly debated. Plants, as primary producers and providers of resources to the soil food web, are of vital importance for the composition, structure, and functioning of soil communities. However, whether natural soil food webs that are completely open to immigration and emigration differ underneath individual plants remains unknown. In a biodiversity restoration experiment we first compared the soil nematode communities of 228 individual plants belonging to eight herbaceous species. We included grass, leguminous, and non-leguminous species. Each individual plant grew intermingled with other species, but all plant species had a different nematode community. Moreover, nematode communities were more similar when plant individuals were growing in the same as compared to different plant communities, and these effects were most apparent for the groups of bacterivorous, carnivorous, and omnivorous nematodes. Subsequently, we analyzed the composition, structure, and functioning of the complete soil food webs of 58 individual plants, belonging to two of the plant species, Lotus corniculatus (Fabaceae) and Plantago lanceolata (Plantaginaceae). We isolated and identified more than 150 taxa/groups of soil organisms. The soil community composition and structure of the entire food webs were influenced both by the species identity of the plant individual and the surrounding plant community. Unexpectedly, plant identity had the strongest effects on decomposing soil organisms, widely believed to be generalist feeders. In contrast, quantitative food web modeling showed that the composition of the plant community influenced nitrogen mineralization under individual plants, but that plant species identity did not affect nitrogen or carbon mineralization or food web stability. Hence, the composition and structure of entire soil food webs vary at the scale of individual plants and are strongly influenced by the species identity of the plant. However, the ecosystem functions these food webs provide are determined by the identity of the entire plant community.     

Using a fisheries ecosystem model with a water quality model to explore trophic and habitat impacts on a fisheries stock: A case study of the blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay

Recent calls for the development of ecosystem-based fisheries management compel the development of resource management tools and linkages between existing fisheries management tools and other resource tools to enable assessment and management of multiple impacts on fisheries resources. In this paper, we describe the use of the Chesapeake Bay Fisheries Ecosystem Model (CBFEM), developed using the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) software, and the Chesapeake Bay Water Quality Model (WQM) to demonstrate how linkages between available modeling tools can be used to inform ecosystem-based natural resource management. The CBFEM was developed to provide strategic ecosystem information in support of fisheries management. The WQM was developed to assess impacts on water quality. The CBFEM was indirectly coupled with the WQM to assess the effects of water quality and submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) on blue crabs. The output from two WQM scenarios (1985-1994), a baseline scenario representing actual nutrient inputs and another with reduced inputs based on a tributary management strategy, was incorporated into the CBFEM. The results suggested that blue crab biomass could be enhanced under management strategies (reduced nutrient input) when the effective search rate of blue crab young-of-the-year's (YOY's) predators or the vulnerability of blue crab YOY to its predators was adjusted by SAV. Such model linkages are important for incorporating physical and biological components of ecosystems in order to explore ecosystem-based fisheries management options.     

碱性系统中铁对铬的还原作用及其对飞灰中铬的浸出控制

为了控制焚烧飞灰中铬的浸出,将FeSO4加入焚烧飞灰-水系统中和Cr（Ⅵ）的碱性水溶液中,试验二价铁（Fe（Ⅱ））对Cr（Ⅵ）的还原效果,并检验了Cr（Ⅵ）的还原产物的稳定性.热力学分析表明,碱性系统中Fe（Ⅱ）对Cr（Ⅵ）的还原受到Fe（Ⅱ）与O2反应的强烈竞争.实验结果也证实了暴露于空气的飞灰-水系统中的Fe（Ⅱ）对铬没有明显的控制效果,但在碱性溶液相中过量的Fe（Ⅱ）却能快速有效地还原Cr（Ⅵ）,且还原产物十分稳定.此外,焚烧飞灰中铬的溶出受到Pb、Ba、Ca等元素的干扰,不利于Cr（Ⅵ）的还原稳定.为了有效地稳定Cr（Ⅵ）,Fe（Ⅱ）稳定飞灰的过程可分两步进行.试验结果还表明,在碱性系统中铁的氧化物/氢氧化物对Cr（Ⅵ）的吸附和沉淀效果十分有限.     

Effect of loading rate on shear strength parameters of mechanically and biologically treated waste

● Mechanical behavior of MBT waste affected by loading rate was investigated. ● Shear strength ratio of MBT waste increases with an increase in loading rate. ● Cohesion is inversely related to loading rate. ● Internal friction angles are positively related to loading rate. ● MBT waste from China shows smaller range of φ. Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) technology has attracted increasing attention because it can reduce the volume of waste produced. To deal with the current trend of increasing waste, MBT practices are being adopted to address waste generated in developing urban societies. In this study, a total of 20 specimens of consolidated undrained triaxial tests were conducted on waste obtained from the Hangzhou Tianziling landfill, China, to evaluate the effect of loading rate on the shear strength parameters of MBT waste. The MBT waste samples exhibited an evident strain-hardening behavior, and no peak was observed even when the axial strain exceeded 25%. Further, the shear strength increased with an increase in the loading rate; the effect of loading rate on shear strength under a low confining pressure was greater than that under a high confining pressure. Furthermore, the shear strength parameters of MBT waste were related to the loading rate. The relationship between the cohesion, internal friction angle, and logarithm of the loading rate could be fitted to a linear relationship, which was established in this study. Finally, the ranges of shear strength parameters cohesion c and effective cohesion c ´ were determined as 1.0–8.2 kPa and 2.1–14.9 kPa, respectively; the ranges of the internal friction angle φ and effective internal friction angle φ ´ were determined as 16.2°–29° and 19.8°–43.9°, respectively. These results could be used as a valuable reference for conducting stability analyses of MBT landfills.     

Natural attenuation of xenobiotic organic compounds in a landfill leachate plume (Vejen,Denmark)

Demonstration of natural attenuation of xenobiotic organic compounds (XOCs) in landfill leachate plumes is a difficult task and still an emerging discipline within groundwater remediation. One of the early studies was made at the Vejen Landfill in Denmark in the late 1980s, which suggested that natural attenuation of XOCs took place under strongly anaerobic conditions within the first 150 m of the leachate plume. This paper reports on a revisit to the same plume 10 years later. Within the strongly anaerobic part of the plume, 49 groundwater samples were characterized with respect to redox-sensitive species and XOCs. The analytical procedures have been developed further and more compounds and lower detection limits were observed this time. In addition, the samples were screened for degradation intermediates and for toxicity. The plume showed fairly stationary features over the 10-year period except that the XOC level as well as the level of chloride and nonvolatile organic carbon (NVOC) in the plume had decreased somewhat. Most of the compounds studied were subject to degradation in addition to dilution. Exceptions were benzene, the herbicide Mecoprop (MCPP), and NVOC. In the early study, NVOC seemed to degrade in the first part of the plume, but this was no longer the case. Benzyl succinic acid (BSA) was for the first time identified in a leachate plume as a direct indicator, and as the only intermediate of toluene degradation. Toxicity measurements on solid phase-extracted (SPE) samples revealed that toxic compounds not analytically identified were still present in the plume, suggesting that toxicity measurements could be helpful in assessing natural attenuation in leachate plumes.     

Satellite-based decadal change assessments of pan-Arctic environments

Remote sensing can advance the work of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program through monitoring of satellite-derived terrestrial and marine physical and ecological variables. Standardized data facilitate an unbiased comparison across variables and environments. Using MODIS standard products of land surface temperature, percent snow covered area, NDVI, EVI, phenology, burned area, marine chlorophyll, CDOM, sea surface temperature, and marine primary productivity, significant trends were observed in almost all variables between 2000 and 2017. Analysis of seasonal data revealed significant breakpoints in temporal trends. Within the terrestrial environment, data showed significant increasing trends in land surface temperature and NDVI. In the marine environment, significant increasing trends were detected in primary productivity. Significantly earlier onset of green up date was observed in bioclimate subzones C&E and longer end of growing season in B&E. Terrestrial and marine parameters showed similar rates of change with unidirectional change in terrestrial and significant directional and magnitude shifts in marine.