A closed-chamber CO2-flux method for estimating intertidal primary production and respiration under emersed conditions

This paper describes a closed-chamber method for measuring CO₂ fluxes in intertidal soft sediments during periods of emersion. The method relies on closed-circuit incubations of undisturbed sediment and measurement of CO₂ exchanges using an infrared gas analyser. The method was assessed during field experiments, both in light and dark conditions, on an exposed sandy beach and in an estuary. The rates of gross community production measured under moderate irradiance (4.2 mg C m^-2 h^-1 on the exposed sandy beach and 35 mg C m^-2 h^-1 in the estuary) are in good agreement with rates reported in the literature. In conjunction with appropriate sampling strategies, this method can be useful for estimating and comparing production of intertidal areas or for assessing factors that influence production.     

Modeling Parent and Metabolite Fate and Transport in Subsurface Drained Fields With Directly Connected Macropores1

Abstract: Few studies exist that evaluate or apply pesticide transport models based on measured parent and metabolite concentrations in fields with subsurface drainage. Furthermore, recent research suggests pesticide transport through exceedingly efficient direct connections, which occur when macropores are hydrologically connected to subsurface drains, but this connectivity has been simulated at only one field site in Allen County, Indiana. This research evaluates the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) in simulating the transport of a parent compound and its metabolite at two subsurface drained field sites. Previous research used one of the field sites to test the original modification of the RZWQM to simulate directly connected macropores for bromide and the parent compound, but not for the metabolite. This research will evaluate RZWQM for parent/metabolite transformation and transport at this first field site, along with evaluating the model at an additional field site to evaluate whether the parameters for direct connectivity are transferable and whether model performance is consistent for the two field sites with unique soil, hydrologic, and environmental conditions. Isoxaflutole, the active ingredient in BALANCE^® herbicide, was applied to both fields. Isoxaflutole rapidly degrades into a metabolite (RPA 202248). This research used calibrated RZWQM models for each field based on observed subsurface drain flow and/or edge of field conservative tracer concentrations in subsurface flow. The calibrated models for both field sites required a portion (approximately 2% but this fraction may require calibration) of the available water and chemical in macropore flow to be routed directly into the subsurface drains to simulate peak concentrations in edge of field subsurface drain flow shortly after chemical applications. Confirming the results from the first field site, the existing modification for directly connected macropores continually failed to predict pesticide concentrations on the recession limbs of drainage hydrographs, suggesting that the current strategy only partially accounts for direct connectivity. Thirty‐year distributions of annual mass (drainage) loss of parent and metabolite in terms of percent of isoxaflutole applied suggested annual simulated percent losses of parent and metabolite (3.04 and 1.31%) no greater in drainage than losses in runoff on nondrained fields as reported in the literature.     

Sustainable Development and Strategic Thinking

From an economic point of view, the industrial economy is efficient to overcome situations of a scarcity of goods. From a technological point of view, the resource efficiency of the manufacturing processes of the industrial economy has been permanently improved during the last 200 years. In addition, cleaner processes have been developed. However, from an ecologic point of view, an increasing world population with increasing consumption has produced a ＂global footprint＂ which approaches the carrying capacity of the planet. A circular economy and its high-value spin-offs-a lake economy and a performance or functional service economy-can fulfil customers＇ needs with considerably less resource consumption, less environmental impairment in production and considerably less end-of-life product waste, especially in situations of affluence, when a considerable stock of physical goods and infrastructures exists. Also, in situations of a scarcity of natural resources, both energy and materials, often characterised by rapidly rising resource prices, the economic actors of a circular economy have a high competitive advantage over the actors of the industrial economy, due to much lower procurement costs for materials and energy. From a social point of view, a circular economy increases the number of skilled jobs in regional enterprises. However, the shift from a linear manufacturing economy to a circular or service economy means a change in economic thinking from flow （throughput） management to stock （asset） management： in a manufacturing economy with largely unsaturated markets, total wealth increases through accumulation as resource throughput （flow） is transformed into a higher stock of goods of better quality （but in a manufacturing economy with largely saturated markets, wealth represented by the stock of goods will no longer increase）; in a circular or service economy, total wealth increases through a smart management of existing physical assets （stock） that are adapted to changes in both technology and customer demand. This second approach not only applies to physical capital but equally to social capital, such as health and education and green GDP. To measure the social wealth of a population, it is not the amount of money spent on schools and hospitals that matters, butif this expenditure has led to a better education of the students, and a better health of the people.     

The use of ecological scales for indication of the current state of forest communities

A method for estimating the current state of plant communities based on the ecological amplitudes of constituent species is proposed. An original program, Fitoindikatsiya, has been developed to compute the indices of disturbance and homogeneity of plant communities from species ecological scale values. The current state of pine forests in the part of Novosibirsk oblast east of the Ob River has been analyzed; slightly, moderately, and severely disturbed zones have been distinguished.