Impact of ocean acidification on escape performance of the king scallop, Pecten maximus, from Norway

The ongoing process of ocean acidification already affects marine life, and according to the concept of oxygen and capacity limitation of thermal tolerance, these effects may be intensified at the borders of the thermal tolerance window. We studied the effects of elevated CO₂ concentrations on clapping performance and energy metabolism of the commercially important scallop Pecten maximus. Individuals were exposed for at least 30 days to 4 °C (winter) or to 10 °C (spring/summer) at either ambient (0.04 kPa, normocapnia) or predicted future PCO₂ levels (0.11 kPa, hypercapnia). Cold-exposed (4 °C) groups revealed thermal stress exacerbated by PCO₂ indicated by a high mortality overall and its increase from 55 % under normocapnia to 90 % under hypercapnia. We therefore excluded the 4 °C groups from further experimentation. Scallops at 10 °C showed impaired clapping performance following hypercapnic exposure. Force production was significantly reduced although the number of claps was unchanged between normocapnia- and hypercapnia-exposed scallops. The difference between maximal and resting metabolic rate (aerobic scope) of the hypercapnic scallops was significantly reduced compared with normocapnic animals, indicating a reduction in net aerobic scope. Our data confirm that ocean acidification narrows the thermal tolerance range of scallops resulting in elevated vulnerability to temperature extremes and impairs the animal’s performance capacity with potentially detrimental consequences for its fitness and survival in the ocean of tomorrow.     

Innovation and diffusion of clean/green technology: Can patent commons help?

This paper explores the characteristics of 238 patents on 90 inventions contributed by major multinational innovators to the “Eco-Patent Commons”, which provides royalty-free access to third parties to patented innovations on green technologies. We compare the pledged patents to other patents in the same technologies or held by the same multinationals to investigate the motives of the contributing firms as well as the potential for such commons to encourage innovation and diffusion of climate change related technologies. We find pledged patents to protect environmentally friendly technologies and to be of similar value as the average patent in a pledging firm's patent portfolio but of lower value than other patents in their class. Our analysis of the impact of the patent commons on diffusion of patented technologies suggests that making patents accessible royalty-free did not result in any significant increase in diffusion as measured by citing patents. This study, therefore, indirectly provides evidence on the role of patents in the development and diffusion of green technologies.     

Earthworms highly increase ciprofloxacin mineralization in soils

This report shows that earthworms increase up to eight times the mineralization of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin in soils. Antibiotics are extensively used and disseminated in environmental compartments. Antibiotics may enter food chains and thus induce resistance in environmental and human commensal bacteria. The antibiotic ciprofloxacin is suspected to induce significant adverse effects on soil microbial processes, with possible consequences on soil functions. Nevertheless, little is known concerning the fate of ciprofloxacin in soils. Here, we studied the mineralization and distribution of the [2-¹⁴C]-ciprofloxacin in soil–plant–water systems where ciprofloxacin was applied by amendment of spiked pig slurry. Results show that a very weak microbial mineralization of the antibiotic, lower than 0.01 %, occurred after 84 days of incubation. By contrast, the addition of earthworms increased from 5 to 8 times ciprofloxacin mineralization during the following 84 days incubation. In addition, earthworm activity induced the transfer of 40 % of radioactive compounds from the upper to the lower layer of soil, modifying the distribution of the antibiotic within the soil profile. We conclude that earthworms can be used efficiently to mineralize ciprofloxacin and modify its distribution in soils. As a consequence, earthworms change the exposure of soil organisms to ciprofloxacin, and, in turn, the eco-toxicological impact of the antibiotic.     

The effect of grazing on biodiversity in coastal dune heathlands

The effect of sheep grazing on species richness, higher order diversity measures, inequality, species composition, functional diversity and allometric relationships at a coastal dune heathland site was investigated. After a prescribed fire in 2002, the site was divided into two parts, where one of the parts was unmanaged and the other part was fenced and grazed by sheep. Sheep grazing had a positive effect on species richness as well as a significant positive effect on the functional diversity at the coastal dune heathland site. Generally, the cover of dwarf shrubs was negatively affected by grazing, whereas the cover of sedges and grasses was positively affected by grazing. There is a need for comparative investigations of the effect of different management methods not only on floristic biodiversity, but on all relevant kinds of biodiversity as well as on soil structure, soil chemistry and habitat micro- and macrostructure. Consequently, we advocate the initiation of an international systematic investigation of the effect of different management methods.     

Leadership, psychological capital and safety research: Conceptual issues and future research questions

In this theory-driven literature review we examine how leadership and emerging research in positive organizational behaviour (POB) may inform our understanding of human mechanisms that affect safety outcomes. According to authentic leadership theory, leader self-awareness and self-regulation processes are vital mechanisms in the leader-follower exchange. From emerging research on authentic leadership, we propose that production management values, attitudes, and behaviour are linked to safety climate and safety outcomes in safety critical organizations (SCOs). According to recent developments in management theory, “psychological capital” is comprised of four distinct aspects that can be linked to desirable organizational outcomes and sustained high quality performance in individual workers. From this we offer a research model and five research propositions implicating that authentic leadership directly affects safety outcomes via promoting positive safety climate perceptions. Furthermore, we propose a second path where psychological capital mediates the relationship between authentic leadership, safety climate and safety outcomes in SCOs.     

Between a rock and a hard place: Accident and near-miss reporting on offshore service vessels

Reporting accidents and near misses is an important aspect of safety management. This study explores reporting in contract work, exemplified by offshore service vessels, and the associations with external and internal organisational factors. The empirical foundation for the study is a questionnaire survey (N = 1108). Reporting was negatively related to high efficiency demands from external actors and low quality of feedback to the reporting community. These factors were more strongly related to reporting than internal factors within the safety climate construct. Short-term contract engagement was also negatively associated with reporting. The results could reflect the organisational complexity that characterises much contract work. The study implies that attempts to increase the level of reporting in contract work should not be limited to focusing on internal organisational factors. Framework conditions and signals from external actors regarding the actual priority accorded to safety should also be considered.     

Cadmium levels in Europe: implications for human health

In this study we used the Forum of European Geological Surveys geochemical baseline data to examine the distribution of cadmium (Cd) in Europe, with a particular reference to the international soil and water guideline values. The highest cadmium levels were found to occur in topsoil and to follow closely the distribution of P₂O₅, suggesting that the contamination was from the use of rock phosphate fertilizer in intensive arable agriculture. In terms of human health impacts, food (up to several hundred μg/day) was found as the only major route of exposure to Cd for the non-smoking general population. It appeared that low levels of chronic exposure to Cd resulted in completely different human health impacts than those high levels that had caused the ‘itai–itai’ disease. Some correlations were suggested between cadmium levels and the age-adjusted prostate or breast cancer rates distributed in the European countries under study.     

A framework for evaluating regional-scale numerical photochemical modeling systems

This paper discusses the need for critically evaluating regional-scale (~200–2,000 km) three-dimensional numerical photochemical air quality modeling systems to establish a model’s credibility in simulating the spatio-temporal features embedded in the observations. Because of limitations of currently used approaches for evaluating regional air quality models, a framework for model evaluation is introduced here for determining the suitability of a modeling system for a given application, distinguishing the performance between different models through confidence-testing of model results, guiding model development and analyzing the impacts of regulatory policy options. The framework identifies operational, diagnostic, dynamic, and probabilistic types of model evaluation. Operational evaluation techniques include statistical and graphical analyses aimed at determining whether model estimates are in agreement with the observations in an overall sense. Diagnostic evaluation focuses on process-oriented analyses to determine whether the individual processes and components of the model system are working correctly, both independently and in combination. Dynamic evaluation assesses the ability of the air quality model to simulate changes in air quality stemming from changes in source emissions and/or meteorology, the principal forces that drive the air quality model. Probabilistic evaluation attempts to assess the confidence that can be placed in model predictions using techniques such as ensemble modeling and Bayesian model averaging. The advantages of these types of model evaluation approaches are discussed in this paper.     

pH-dependent release of cadmium,copper, and lead from natural and sludge-amended soils

The pH-dependent release of cadmium, copper, and lead from soil materials was studied by use of a stirred flow cell to quantify their release and release rates, and to evaluate the method as a test for the bonding strength and potential mobility of heavy metals in soils. Soil materials from sludge-amended and nonamended A horizons from a Thai coarse-textured Kandiustult and a Danish loamy Hapludalf were characterized and tested. For each soil sample, release experiments with steady state pH values in the range 2.9 to 7.1 and duration of 7 d were performed. The effluent was continuously collected and analyzed. Release rates and total releases were higher for the Hapludalf than the Kandiustult and higher for the sludge-amended soils than the nonamended soils. With two exceptions the relative release rates (release rate/total content of metal in soil) plotted vs. steady state pH followed the same curves for each metal, indicating similar bonding strengths. These curves could be described by a rate expression of the form: relative release rate = k[H+]a, with specific a (empirical constant) and k (rate constant) parameters for each metal demonstrating that metal release in these systems can be explained by proton-induced desorption and dissolution reactions. With decreasing pH, pronounced increases in release rates were observed in the sequence cadmium > lead > copper, which express the order of metal lability in the soils. The flow cell system is useful for comparison of metal releases as a function of soil properties, and can be used as a test to rank soils with respect to heavy metal leaching.