保护地球环境

1972年联合国在瑞典的斯德哥尔摩召开了有113个国家参加的联合国人类环境会议。会议讨论了保护全球环境的行动计划,通过了《人类环境宣言》。会议建议联合国大会将这次会议开幕的6月5日定为“世界环境保护日”。同年10月联合国大会第27届会议接受并通过了这一建议。每年的6月5日,世界各国都开展群众性的环境保护宣传纪念活动,以唤起全世界人民都来注意保护人类赖以生存的环境,自觉采取行动参与环境保护的共同努力,同时要求各国政府和联合国系统为推进环境保护进程做出贡献。     

历史上的灾难年2007

2007年是历史上的灾难年。由于受全球气候变暖影响,我国多个省市发生了各种自然灾害,如干旱、洪水、泥石流、滑坡、飓风等,尤其是洪涝灾害,经济损失惨重。另有朝鲜、缅甸以及南亚的印度、孟加拉国、尼泊尔也成了一片泽国;就连美国也未幸免于洪灾。现简述如下。     

Towards saving freshwater: halophytes as unconventional feedstuffs in livestock feed: a review

Water represents 71% of all earth area and about 97% of this water is salty water. So, only 3% of the overall world water quantity is freshwater. Human can benefit only from 1% of this water and the remaining 2% freeze at both poles of earth. Therefore, it is important to preserve the freshwater through increasing the plants consuming salty water. The future prosperity of feed resources in arid and semi-arid countries depends on economic use of alternative resources that have been marginalized for long periods of time, such as halophytic plants, which are one such potential future resource. Halophyte plants can grow in high salinity water and soil and to some extent during drought. The growth of these plants depends on the contact of the salted water with plant roots as in semi-desert saline water, mangrove swamps, marshes, and seashores. Halophyte plants need high levels of sodium chloride in the soil water for growth, and the soil water must also contain high levels of salts, as sodium hydroxide or magnesium sulfate. There are many uses for halophyte plants, including feed for animals, vegetables, drugs, sand dune stabilizers, wind shelter, soil cover, wetland cultivation, laundry detergents, and paper production. This paper will focus on the use of halophytes as a feed additive for animals. In spite of the good nutritional value of halophytes, some anti-nutritional factors as nitrates, nitrite complexes, tannins, glycosides, phenolic compounds, saponins, oxalates, and alkaloids may be present in some of them. The presence of such anti-nutritional agents makes halophytes unpalatable to animals, which tends to reduce feed intake and nutrient use. Therefore, the negative effects of these plants on animal performance are the only objection against using halophytes in animal feed diets. This review article highlights the beneficial impact of considering halophytes in animal feeding on saving freshwater and illustrates its nutritive value for livestock from different aspects.     

Minimizing irrigation water demand: An evaluation of shifting planting dates in Sri Lanka

Climate change coupled with increasing demands for water necessitates an improved understanding of the water–food nexus at a scale local enough to inform farmer adaptations. Such assessments are particularly important for nations with significant small-scale farming and high spatial variability in climate, such as Sri Lanka. By comparing historical patterns of irrigation water requirements (IWRs) to rice planting records, we estimate that shifting rice planting dates to earlier in the season could yield water savings of up to 6%. Our findings demonstrate the potential of low-cost adaptation strategies to help meet crop production demands in water-scarce environments. This local-scale assessment of IWRs in Sri Lanka highlights the value of using historical data to inform agricultural management of water resources when high-skilled forecasts are not available. Given national policies prioritizing in-country production and farmers’ sensitivities to water stress, decision-makers should consider local degrees of climate variability in institutional design of irrigation management structures.     

Food nitrogen footprint reductions related to a balanced Japanese diet

Dietary choices largely affect human-induced reactive nitrogen accumulation in the environment and resultant environmental problems. A nitrogen footprint (NF) is an indicator of how an individual’s consumption patterns impact nitrogen pollution. Here, we examined the impact of changes in the Japanese diet from 1961 to 2011 and the effect of alternative diets (the recommended protein diet, a pescetarian diet, a low-NF food diet, and a balanced Japanese diet) on the food NF. The annual per capita Japanese food NF has increased by 55% as a result of dietary changes since 1961. The 1975 Japanese diet, a balanced omnivorous diet that reportedly delays senescence, with a protein content similar to the current level, reduced the current food NF (15.2 kg N) to 12.6 kg N, which is comparable to the level in the recommended protein diet (12.3 kg N). These findings will help consumers make dietary choices to reduce their impacts on nitrogen pollution.     

Studies on transitory laxative effects of sorbitol and maltitol I: Estimation of 50% effective dose and maximum non-effective dose

The dose-response relationship between low-caloric sweetening agents, sorbitol and maltitol, administered orally in single doses, and the induction of diarrheal symptoms was investigated. Seven healthy male and 7 healthy female Japanese each in their twenties, thirties, and forties, respectively, or a total of 42 subjects were admitted to the study. The 50% laxative effective dose of sorbitol was estimated to be 0.4 g/kg for males and 1.0 g/kg for females and that of maltitol was estimated to be 0.8 g/kg for both males and females. The maximum non-effective dose of sorbitol was estimated to be 0.15 g/kg for males and 0.3 g/kg for females and that of maltitol was estimated to be 0.3 g/kg for both males and females.     

The asiatic clam, Corbicula fluminea: An indicator of trace metal pollution in the Shatt al-Arab River, Iraq

The potential of Corbicula fluminea (Müller) as an indicator for trace metal pollution was investigated. Laboratory experiments show that Corbicula has the capability to accumulate and eliminate trace metals in relation to their concentrations in ambient water. However, an effect of individual size was observed. Seasonal variations in the concentrations of Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn in Corbicula, water and particulate matter from the upper section of the Shatt al-Arab River were studied. Sediment samples were also analysed. Metal concentrations were determined by means of flameless AAS. It was found that Corbicula is a suitable bio-indicator for monitoring of trace metal pollution. Metal concentrations in Corbicula tissues correlated better with their corresponding concentrations in particulate matter than with the dissolved form. Temporal variations in metal concentrations were attributed to several factors, including fluctuations in metal inputs, and in geochemical and hydrological characteristics of the water. The obtained levels of trace metals were comparable to those reported for control sites, with the exception of Cd, Cu and Zn whose concentrations were higher in both Corbicula and particulate matter.     

Effects of ozone on yield, growth, and root starch concentrations of two alfalfa (Medicago sativ A L.) cultivars

Ozone (O3) is considered to be a major air pollutant that affects the yield of several sensitive crop species. Its concentration may reach phytotoxic levels several times during the growing season in Eastern Canada. This study was initiated to evaluate the O3 effects on alfalfa, a major crop species. The objective was to compare the yield and growth parameters of the main alfalfa cultivar used in Québec, Apica, to a cultivar more tolerant to O3, Team. Effects on root starch concentrations were also examined as this parameter is an important indicator of alfalfa perennity. The results obtained have shown that the forage yield of Apica was more reduced by O3 during two growing seasons than the yield of Team. For O3 concentrations of 20 to 40 nl liter(-1), yield reductions were 14-26% for Apica and 0-20% for Team. Whereas Apica could be considered more susceptible to O3 than Team, the latter has shown contrasting responses from year to year. This fact suggests that the mechanisms involved in O3-tolerance could be modulated by environmental conditions. At low O3 levels, Apica has shown reduced root growth in terms of dry matter and length. However, contrary to the current hypothesis that O3 would affect more root than shoot growth, we were unable to show a consistent alteration of the biomass allocation between the two. Ozone seems to reduce globally the growth of the whole plants. The greater O3-tolerance of Team could partly be associated to its capacity to maintain more leaves, to delay their senescence, or to keep a larger leaf:stem ratio under increasing levels of O3. At the end of the two growing seasons, the amount of starch reserves stored below ground was shown to be reduced by the current O3 levels. This reduction was mainly associated with a decrease in root biomass under O3 stress. This result support the hypothesis that O3 may accelerate alfalfa decline under field conditions.     

Assessment of trace metal distribution and contamination in surface soils of Hong Kong

An intensive investigation was conducted to study the distribution of trace metals in surface soils of Hong Kong and to assess the soil environmental quality. From results of cluster analysis, and comparisons among soil types and areas, it is clearly shown that increases in trace metal concentrations in the soils were generally extensive and obvious in urban and orchard soils, less so in vegetable soils, whilst rural and forest soils were subjected to the least impact of anthropogenic sources of trace metals. However, some of the forest soils also contained elevated levels of As, Cu, and Pb. Urban soils in Hong Kong were heavily polluted by Pb from gasoline combustion. Agricultural soils, both orchard and vegetable soils, usually accumulated As, Cd, Cu, and Zn originating from applications of pesticides, animal manures, and fertilizers. In general, trace metal pollution in soils of the industrial areas and Pb pollution in the soils of the commercial and residential areas were obvious.     

Selectivity in the complexation of actinides by humic substances

The interactions of a range of actinide elements (Th, U, Np, Pu, Am) with humic substances from the Needle's Eye natural analogue site were studied by gel permeation chromatography. Bulk humic substances were isolated by ammonia extraction, followed by dialysis against distilled water and freeze-drying. The gel permeation results suggest that Needle's Eye humic substances can be fractionated into three incompletely resolved fractions with average molecular weights determined by analytical ultracentrifugation around 49 000 for Fraction 1, around 14 700 for Fraction 2 and around 8000 for Fraction 3. Although there are significant differences between the organic matter elution patterns in individual gel permeation experiments, presumably due to differences in column packing, these are much smaller than the differences between metal ions. The uranium that is naturally present in these humic substances is largely bound in the late-eluting fraction. Spikes of the early actinides, including Np and Pu in controlled valency states, have been added to the humic substances, and gel permeation of the spiked humic substances shows that the three humic fractions vary greatly in their effectiveness and selectivity as ligands for early actinides.