Factors driving collaboration in natural resource conflict management: Evidence from Romania

A critical challenge in natural resource management is to bring all stakeholders together to negotiate solutions to critical problems. However, various collaborative approaches to heading off conflicts and resolving natural resource management disputes have been used. What drives these efforts, however, still needs further research. Our study provides a systematic look at the drivers likely to initiate collaborative problem-solving efforts in four cases in Romania. We use Emerson’s et al. (2012) framework for collaborative governance and multi-value qualitative comparative analysis (mvQCA) to analyze cases involving endangered species, restrictions on forest harvest, conflicts associated with infrastructure development projects, and disputes over the management of environmentally sensitive areas. Our findings contribute to the already existing collaborative governance literature indicating which of the four factors: uncertainty, interdependence, consequential incentives, and leadership, in which combination, are necessary and sufficient to spur collaborative resource management efforts. Our results showed that in Romania the initiation of collaboration is best explained by positive consequential incentives (i.e., financial opportunities) which has determined leaders to take initiative. This study provides additional information for the complicated process of natural resource management which is often overriding collaboration by investigating what enables and constrains collaborative efforts in a country where natural resources were managed and used according to the principles of central planning.     

Freshwater systems and ecosystem services: Challenges and chances for cross-fertilization of disciplines

Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened in the world, while providing numerous essential ecosystem services (ES) to humans. Despite their importance, research on freshwater ecosystem services is limited. Here, we examine how freshwater studies could help to advance ES research and vice versa. We summarize major knowledge gaps and suggest solutions focusing on science and policy in Europe. We found several features that are unique to freshwater ecosystems, but often disregarded in ES assessments. Insufficient transfer of knowledge towards stakeholders is also problematic. Knowledge transfer and implementation seems to be less effective towards South-east Europe. Focusing on the strengths of freshwater research regarding connectivity, across borders, involving multiple actors can help to improve ES research towards a more dynamic, landscape-level approach, which we believe can boost the implementation of the ES concept in freshwater policies. Bridging these gaps can contribute to achieve the ambitious targets of the EU’s Green Deal.     

Distribution of Heavy Metals in Surface Sediments from an Antarctic Marine Ecosystem

The concentrations of lead, cadmium, copper,chromium, iron, manganese and zinc in surfacesediments collected from Potter Cove, in the 25de Mayo Island (King George Island), Antarctica, andits drainage basin, were measured by atomic absorptionspectroscopy. The obtained results were use todetermine the areal and vertical distribution of themetals of in the Cove and potential sources of thesemetals to this environment. The geochemical datasuggest that most of the metals found in Potter Coveconstitute a redistribution of autochthonous materialswithin the ecosystem. Therefore, the metalconcentrations can be considered to be present atnatural background levels in surface sediments.     

Application of Taguchi method to selection of optimal lubrication and cutting conditions in face milling of AlMg3

This paper outlines the Taguchi optimization methodology, which is applied to optimize the cutting parameters in face milling when machining AlMg₃ (EN AW 5754) with HSS (high speed steel) tool under semi-finishing conditions in order to get the best surface roughness and the minimum power consumption. Beside the conventional flood lubrication, the investigations include the minimal quantity lubrication and the dry milling. These environment-friendly cutting techniques are considered two practical ways to the cleaner manufacturing in the context of the sustainable production. The parameters evaluated are the cutting speed, the depth of cut, the feed rate and the cooling lubrication techniques (cutting fluid flow). The appropriate orthogonal array, signal to noise (S/N) ratio and Pareto analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to analyze the effect of the mentioned parameters on the good surface finish (surface roughness). This paper illustrates the application of the techniques for single performance characteristics optimization, which employs the weighting factors to each of the S/N ration of the responses to obtain a multi-response S/N ratio for each trial of the orthogonal array and, finally, a single optimal process parameters setting. Using Taguchi method for the design of experiments (DOE), it is investigated the significant influence and the parameters interaction effect with minimum number of trials as compared with a full factorial design.     

The role of leaf litter as a protective barrier for copper-containing pesticides in orchard soils

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study assessed the capacity of leaf litters to adsorb copper ions applied as a copper-based pesticide. Leaf litters of two fruit tree species...     

Air pollution exposure—the (in)visible risk factor for respiratory diseases

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - There is increasing interest in understanding the role of air pollution as one of the greatest threats to human health worldwide. Nine of 10...     

Phytoplankton food quality determines time windows for successful zooplankton reproductive pulses

Recruitment success at the early life stages is a critical process for zooplankton demography. Copepods often dominate the zooplankton in marine coastal zones and are prey of the majority of fish larvae. Hypotheses interpreting variations of copepod recruitment are based on the concepts of "naupliar predation," "nutritional deficiency," and "toxic effect" of diatom diets. Contradictory laboratory and field studies have reached opposite conclusions on the effects of diatoms on copepod reproductive success, blurring our view of marine food-web energy flow from diatoms to higher consumers by means of copepods. Here we report estimates of copepod feeding selectivity and reproduction in response to seasonally changing phytoplankton characteristics measured in a highly productive coastal upwelling area off the coast of central Chile. The variable phytoplankton diversity and changing food quality had a strong and highly significant impact on the feeding selectivity, reproduction, and larval survival of three indigenous copepod species. Seasonal changes in copepod feeding behavior were related to the alternating protozoan-diatom diets, mostly based on dinoflagellates and ciliates during winter and autumn (low highly unsaturated fatty acids [HUFA]/polyunsaturated fatty acids [PUFA] availability), but switched to a diet of centric and chain-forming diatoms (high HUFA/PUFA availability) during the spring/summer upwelling period. Ingestion of diatom cells induced a positive effect on egg production. However, a negative relationship was found between egg hatching success, naupliar survival, and diatom ingestion. Depending on the phytoplankton species, diets had different effects on copepod reproduction and recruitment. In consequence, it seems that the classical marine food web model does not apply to some coastal upwelling systems.