Livelihood vulnerability approach to assessing climate change impacts on mixed agro-livestock smallholders around the Gandaki River Basin in Nepal

Climate change vulnerability depends upon various factors and differs between places, sectors and communities. People in developing countries whose subsistence livelihood depends mainly upon agriculture and livestock production are identified as particularly vulnerable. Nepal, where the majority of people are in a mixed agro-livestock system, is identified as the world’s fourth most vulnerable country to climate change. However, there is limited knowledge on how vulnerable mixed agro-livestock smallholders are and how their vulnerability differs across different ecological regions in Nepal. This study aims to test two vulnerability assessment indices, livelihood vulnerability index and IPCC vulnerability index, around the Gandaki River Basin of central Nepal. A total of 543 households practicing mixed agro-livestock were surveyed from three districts, namely Dhading, Syangja and Kapilvastu representing three major ecological zones: mountain, mid-hill and Terai (lowland). Data on socio-demographics, livelihood determinants, social networks, health, food and water security, natural disasters and climate variability were collected and combined into the indices. Both indices differed for mixed agro-livestock smallholders across the three districts, with Dhading scoring as the most vulnerable and Syangja the least. Substantial variation across the districts was observed in components, sub-components and three dimensions (exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) of vulnerability. The findings help in designing site-specific intervention strategies to reduce vulnerability of mixed agro-livestock smallholders to climate change.     

Study on Assessing Economic Vulnerability of Small Island Regions

The main purpose of this study is to assess economic vulnerability of small island development regions as part of their sustainability constraints. By combining economic and environmental time series data, we assessed a composite index of economic vulnerability which is constructed from three exogenous variables, namely economic exposure, economic remoteness, and economic impact of environmental and natural disasters. We used the Amami Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan as the case studies for this paper.The results indicated that using a gross island products based valuation index, Kikaijima is the most vulnerable island in the Amami Islands with a composite economic vulnerability index (CEVI) value of 0.678, while by using a per capita based index, Okinoerabujima is considered the most vulnerable island with a CEVI value of 0.680. From the results we also revealed that smaller islands have relative higher vulnerability than the bigger one, which also confirms some previous country-level vulnerability studies.However, it is matter of fact that some islands that have relatively high vulnerability also have good economic performance as shown by their per capita income. In this regard, it can be argued that the success of these small islands could have been achieved in spite of and not because of their inherent vulnerability conditions as an indicator of sustainability constraint. Regarding these findings, we also examined a comparison between vulnerability results and the preliminary concept of an island's resilience in order to capture another perspective on sustainability assessment in a small island region.     

Sexual selection on mature male parr of masu salmon (Oncorhynchus masou): does sneaking behavior favor small body size and less-developed sexual characters?

In many salmonid species, males exhibit morphological dimorphism associated with alternative mating behaviors. ”Precocious males” have a small body size with little or no development of sexual characters and adopt sneaking to gain access to females, while ”migratory males” of large body size and well-developed secondary sexual characters fight. We quantified selection on precocious male parr of masu salmon (Oncorhynchus masou) under simulated natural conditions to examine the contribution of morphology to sneaking success. In contrast to the prediction that sneaking behavior favors small body size, we detected selection favoring relatively large body size for sneaking success. This selection pressure was caused by the dominance hierarchy within parr and may have been facilitated by indifference of dominant migratory males to parr. Unlike the secondary sexual characters exhibited by migratory male salmon, such as the hooked snout and humped back, no morphological characters other than body size contributed to the reproductive success of masu salmon parr. This non-contribution may have been responsible for the lack of development of sexual characters in precocious males. Received: 15 November 1999 / Accepted: 20 May 2000     

安徽沿江地区的区域发展特点与开发对策

安徽沿江地区虽然交通网络初具规模,城市专业化分工明显经济发展水平较低,属长江干流地区的低谷地带。另外,整个沿江地区应发挥水运与矿产资源的双重优势,促使建材,钢铁,石经等临江工业进一步开并予以合理布局。     

氮磷在阶式水生植物床中的去除效果及组成变化

利用串联运行的阶式水生植物床净化富营养化河水。考察了不同形态的氮磷在处理前后的浓度变化,在此基础上阐述水生植物床去除富营养化水体中氮磷的过程与机理。在水力负荷为74cm/d的条件下,总磷和总氮的去除率分别达73.1%和64.5%。植物根系对悬浮物的截留对去除河水中的氮磷起关键作用。采用多级串联的运行方式能有效克服一般湿地运行一段时间后因沉积物释放作用而引起处理水溶解性营养盐浓度上升的难题。     

苯胺-邻氨基酚共聚物对水中Hg(Ⅱ)吸附性能的研究

利用化学氧化法合成了苯胺-邻氨基苯酚的共聚物,并通过静态实验研究了材料对水中汞离子的吸附性能。研究结果表明,该共聚物对废水中汞离子有优异的去除效果,其吸附容量可达212.13 mg/g;吸附等温线符合Langmu ir单层吸附模型,动力学过程符合准二级动力学模型;溶液pH值对吸附影响不是很大,pH 5~10范围都有较好的吸附效果;氯离子易与汞离子形成水溶性更强的络合物,对共聚物的吸附有很大的抑制作用。     

Changes in the levels of aspartate and alanine aminotransferase activities of Anabastestudineus (Bloch) exposed to disyston

In $\text{Anabas}$$\text{testudineus}$, the per cent changes noted in the aspartate aminotransferase (AAT) activities of gill, brain, intestine, liver, muscle and kidney until 6 hr of exposure to lethal concentration (10.5 mg/L disyston) were relatively much less when compared to those of sublethal concentration (4.0 mg/L disyston). But in the case of alanine aminotransferase (AIAT) activity, the tissues which showed such effect (paradoxical effect) were gill, brain and liver.     

Genotoxicity of two novel pesticides for the earthworm, Eisenia fetida

In this paper, several studies were conducted to evaluate the genotoxicity of two pesticides, Imidacloprid and RH-5849, for earthworm (Eisenia fetida). Earthworms were exposed in different exposure systems to evaluate their acute toxicity and the genotoxicity of the two pesticides was evaluated by using the method of sperm deformity assessment, micronucleus test of root tip cells in Vicia faba, a mouse bone-marrow micronucleus test, and comet assay. LC(50) (interpolated concentration at which 50% mortality of test population occurs) for earthworms varied in different exposure systems. The results indicated that Imidacloprid was consistently more toxic than RH-5849 in all exposure systems. In this study, sperm deformity test was used to detect the potential adverse influences of pesticides on the reproduction of earthworms. The results demonstrated that significant induction of sperm deformity (p<0.01) and a dose-effect relationship displayed at Imidacloprid concentrations higher than 0.5 mg/kg dry soil. However, the sperm deformity frequency of groups exposed to RH-5849 did not show significant difference (p>0.05) from the control until the dose reached 100 mg/kg dry soil. The results of the V. faba micronucleus tests showed that micronuclei frequency of the exposed group did not show significant difference (p>0.05) from the control until the concentration of Imidacloprid and RH-5849 reached 100 mg/ml. The results of the mouse bone-marrow micronuclei test also indicate that two pesticides did not show significant effects (p>0.05) on the micronuclei frequency in mice bone-marrow cells until the dose reached 100 mg/kg for Imidacloprid and 300 mg/kg for RH-5849 (2/3 LD(50)). Although no genotoxicity was detected by using the micronucleus tests, the results of the comet assay showed that the two pesticides induce significant DNA damage (p<0.01) in earthworms and dose-effect relationships were displayed. The 'earthworm comet assay' is a rapid and sensitive way to screen chemicals or terrestrial environments for their DNA-damaging properties.     

微咸水膜下滴灌对白僵土盐碱地水盐特性及油葵生长的影响

为了解滴灌条件下不同微咸水矿化度及覆膜与否对盐碱地土壤水盐特性及油葵生长的影响,在宁夏平罗西大滩盐碱地进行不同灌水矿化度(0.2、1、2、3 g/L)膜下滴灌田间试验.结果表明,地膜覆盖比不覆盖处理土壤含水量高约2%,盐分表聚减缓,油葵株高、产量及其构成均高于不覆膜处理,产量最高增幅达82.5%;不同矿化度微咸水之间比较发现,利用矿化度为1 g/L的微咸水进行灌溉时,下层土壤含水量较高,微咸水滴灌不但没有为上层土壤带去过多盐分,反而由于土壤有一定的渗透性能,灌水将土壤上层盐分逐渐淋洗至下层.膜下滴灌微咸水矿化度为1 g/L时,油葵产量最大.因此在适宜条件、合理措施下,微咸水覆膜滴灌技术可以促进作物生长,确保作物产量,在淡水缺乏而微咸水较为丰富的盐碱地地区应积极推广利用.     

两级气浮--生物接触氧化工艺处理乳化液废水

采用两级所浮及生物接触氧化工艺对高浓度乳 化液含油废水处理工艺进行了研究。试验和运行研究结果表明，采用ＰＦＳ混凝剂有较好的破乳效果，二级气浮出水再经生物接触氧化工艺处理后，ＣＯＤＣｒ和油总去除率分别为９９．５％、９９．９％，各项指标均达到排放标准。