Pimp Your Landscape: A Tool for Qualitative Evaluation of the Effects of Regional Planning Measures on Ecosystem Services

The article presents the platform “Pimp your landscape” (PYL), which aims firstly at the support of planners by simulating alternative land-use scenarios and by an evaluation of benefits or risks for regionally important ecosystem services. Second, PYL supports an integration of information on environmental and landscape conditions into impact assessment. Third, PYL supports the integration of impacts of planning measures on ecosystem services. PYL is a modified 2-D cellular automaton with GIS features. The cells have the major attribute “land-use type” and can be supplemented with additional information, such as specifics regarding geology, topography and climate. The GIS features support the delineation of non-cellular infrastructural elements, such as roads or water bodies. An evaluation matrix represents the core element of the system. In this matrix, values in a relative scale from 0 (lowest value) to 100 (highest value) are assigned to the land-use types and infrastructural elements depending on their effect on ecosystem services. The option to configure rules for describing the impact of environmental attributes and proximity effects on cell values and land-use transition probabilities is of particular importance. User interface and usage of the platform are demonstrated by an application case. Constraints and limits of the recent version are discussed, including the need to consider in the evaluation, landscape-structure aspects such as patch size, fragmentation and spatial connectivity. Regarding the further development, it is planned to include the impact of land management practices to support climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in regional planning.     

An ultracompact photo-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer with a novel vacuum ultraviolet light source for on-line detection of organic trace compounds and as a detector for gas chromatography

A recently developed novel intense rare-gas excimer vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light source, the electron beam-pumped excimer lamp (EBEL), has been applied to the soft single-photon ionization (SPI) of organic molecules in a compact orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometer (oaTOFMS). The SPI-oaTOFMS system was applied to the on-line monitoring of tobacco smoke. With this setup, it was possible to analyze the composition of individual puffs of cigarette smoke. Furthermore, a gas chromatograph (GC) was coupled to the EBEL SPIoaTOFMS system. Soft photo-ionization represents an additional separation dimension. By combination of the gas chromatographic and the soft-ionization mass spectroscopic separation dimensions, a truly multidimensional comprehensive analytical method could be derived.     

Consequences of correlations between habitat modifications and negative impact of climate change for regional species survival

While several empirical and theoretical studies have clearly shown the negative effects of climate or landscape changes on population and species survival only few of them addressed combined and correlated consequences of these key environmental drivers. This also includes positive landscape changes such as active habitat management and restoration to buffer the negative effects of deteriorating climatic conditions. In this study, we apply a conceptual spatial modelling approach based on functional types to explore the effects of both positive and negative correlations between changes in habitat and climate conditions on the survival of spatially structured populations. We test the effect of different climate and landscape change scenarios on four different functional types that represent a broad spectrum of species characterised by their landscape level carrying capacity, the local population turnover rates at the patch level (K-strategies vs. r-strategies) and dispersal characterstics. As expected, simulation results show that correlated landscape and climatic changes can accelerate (in case of habitat loss or degradation) or slow down (in case of habitat gain or improvement) regional species extinction. However, the strength of the combined changes depends on local turnover at the patch level, the overall landscape capacity of the species, and its specific dispersal characteristics. Under all scenarios of correlated changes in habitat and climate conditions we found the highest sensitivity for functional types representing species with a low landscape capacity but a high population growth rate and a strong density regulation causing a high turnover at the local patch level.The relative importance of habitat loss or habitat degradation, in combination with climate deterioration, differed among the functional types. However, an increase in regional capacity revealed a similar response pattern: For all types, habitat improvement led to higher survival times than habitat gain, i.e. the establishment of new habitat patches. This suggests that improving local habitat quality at a regional scale is a more promising conservation strategy under climate change than implementing new habitat patches. This conceptual modelling study provides a general framework to better understand and support the management of populations prone to complex environmental changes.     

Distinctive effects of nano-sized permethrin in the environment

Pesticides are an essential tool in integrated pest management. Nanopermethrin was prepared by solvent evaporation from an oil-in-water volatile microemulsion. The efficacy of the formulated nanopermethrin was tested against Aedes aegypti and the results compared to those of regular, microparticular permethrin. The 24 h LC₅₀ for nanopermethrin and permethrin was found to be 0.0063 and 0.0199 mg/L, respectively. The formulated nanopermethrin was tested for toxicity against non-target organisms. Nanopermethrin did not show antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (ATCC 13534 and 25922) or against Bacillus subtilis. Phytotoxicity studies of nanopermethrin to the seeds of Lycopersicum esculentum, Cucumis sativus, and Zea mays showed no restraint in root length and germination percentage. In the Allium cepa test, regular microparticular permethrin treatment of 0.13 mg/L showed a mitotic index (MI) of 46.8 % and chromosomal aberration of 0.6 %, which was statistically significant (p?<?0.05) compared to control. No significant differences were observed in 0.13 mg/L nanopermethrin exposure as compared to control (MI of 52.0 and 55.03 % and chromosomal aberration of 0.2 and 0 %, respectively). It was concluded that formulated nanopermethrin can be used as a safe and effectual alternative to commercially available permethrin formulation in agricultural practices.     

Microbial Fe(III) Reduction in Acidic Mining Lake Sediments after Addition of an Organic Substrate and Lime

To elucidate the role of Fe(III) reduction in mining lake sediments amended with organic substrates, we performed a large (10 m diameter) enclosure experiment in which sediments were amended with Carbokalk, a waste product from sugar industry containing organic carbon and lime. Fe(III) reduction rates were determined monthly by measuring the accumulation of Fe(II) in the sediments in the field. Fe(III) reduction rates were also determined by incubating sediment samples with synthetic Fe(III) oxyhydroxide under in situ temperature in the laboratory. Sulfate reduction was selectively inhibited in the Fe(III) reduction experiments by addition of sodium molybdate. Sulfate reduction was measured by accumulation of reduced inorganic sulfides in the field and by ³⁵S radiotracer using a core injection technique. Sediment incubation and determination of sulfate reduction rates with radiotracer showed that sulfate reduction and direct microbial Fe(III) reduction occured simultaneously in the upper centimeters of the sediments and that both processes contributed to alkalinity generation. However, Fe(III) reduction was the initial process and rates were at least 3.5 fold higher than sulfate reduction rates. The results indicate that the presence of suitable anions for Fe(II) precipitation as carbonate or sulfide is needed in order to prevent loss of potential alkalinity by Fe(II) diffusion and reoxidation in the water column.     

Occurrence of organochlorine pesticides in indoor dust

Organochlorine pesticides are present in the environment and suspected of causing serious health effects. Diet has been the main exposure source, but indoor source release is gaining focus. Within a monitoring study of polychlorinated biphenyls of Danish buildings built during the 1960s and 1970s, we coincidently determined extreme levels of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) levels in two of ten random samples. This raises concern and further large scale investigations are warranted to confirm this.     

Perfluorocarbon background concentrations in Europe

Five studies of the background level of several perfluorocarbon compounds in Europe are here presented together with measurements from the European Tracer Experiment (ETEX). The tracers used during the two ETEX tracer releases were the perfluorocarbons (PFCs); perfluoromethylcyclohexane (C₇F₁₄, PMCH) and perfluoromethylcyclopentane (C₆F₁₂, PMCP). Their background concentrations were detected by using both passive and active sampling techniques, to define the spatial and temporal variation of the PFCs over Europe. Also the background variations of four isomers of the PFC compound perfluorodimethylcyclohexane (C₈F₁₆, PDCH) were studied. The results were compared to other PFC tracer studies in the U.S.A. and Europe. The mean and median values of the measured PFCs were found to vary slightly and randomly in space and time. They were found to be higher and to have a larger standard deviation than the measurements from the American studies. The background concentrations were still found to be low and stable enough for PFCs to be highly suitable for use in tracer studies. The following concentrations were found: PMCP; 4.6±0.3 fl ℓ^-1, PMCH: 4.6±0.8 fl ℓ^-1, ocPDCH: 0.96±0.33 fl ℓ^-1, mtPDCH: 9.3±0.8 fl ℓ^-1, mcPDCH: 8.8±0.8 fl ℓ^-1, ptPDCH: 6.1±0.8 fl ℓ^-1. A study of the correlation between the measured PFC compounds showed a significant correlation between most of the compounds, which indicate that there are no major PFC sources in Europe.     

Correction to: Status and trends of circumpolar peregrine falcon and gyrfalcon populations

While collating contributions and comments from 36 researchers, the coordinating authors accidentally omitted Dr. Suzanne Carrière from the list of contributing co-authors. Dr. Carrière’s data are described in Tables 1 and 3, Figure 2 and several places in the narrative. The new author list is thus updated in this article.     

Persistent organochlorine compounds in peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) eggs from South Greenland: levels and temporal changes between 1986 and 2003

Thirty-seven addled peregrine falcon eggs collected in South Greenland between 1986 and 2003 were analysed for their content of the organochlorine compounds polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyl tricloroethane (DDT) and its degradation products, hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) isomers and hexachlorobenzene (HCB). PCBs and DDT (including metabolites) were by far the most abundant OC groups, with median concentrations of 55 and 40 microg/g lw, respectively. The concentrations were high in an Arctic context, but similar to previously reported levels from Alaska and Norway and slightly lower than concentrations measured in eggs from industrialised regions. Geographical differences may be of importance, considering the migration of peregrine falcons and their prey. SigmaHCH and HCB had median concentrations of 0.39 and 0.17 microg/g lw, respectively. On average, DDE accounted for 97% of SigmaDDT, but was below critical levels for eggshell thinning. All compound groups showed a weak decreasing trend over the study period, which was statistically significant for HCB and close to being significant for SigmaHCH. The weak decrease of SigmaPCB and SigmaDDT is different from other time trend studies from Greenland, usually showing a more pronounced decrease in the beginning of the study period, followed by a certain stabilisation in recent years.