Ecophysiological indicators of the state of animal populations exposed to damaging factors

Indices of abundance and reproduction rate are considered in some groups of aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates from the zones of technogenic disasters. Upon a critical population decline caused by external destructive factors, such as emissions of acute ecotoxicants, the ecophysiological and behavioral compensatory mechanisms are activated, which provide for restoration of the total population size to the optimum within a short period of time. Environmental pollution with substances disturbing the reproductive function has the gravest consequences for animals. In this case, population size may remain fairly high, and, therefore, the effect of enhanced reproduction as a response to population decline does not take place, which eventually leads to a gradual but irreversible destruction of the population. Pathologies of reproduction should be used as a criterion for assessing the state of animals in the zones of technogenic disasters.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 1, 2005, pp. 32–38.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Shilova, Shatunovskii.     

Design and validation of a practical index for trauma assessment

In the past 20 years a variety of indices have been suggested for measuring the severity of trauma, however none of them meets the requirement of being a simple and objective instrument that can be utilized efficiently by lay persons and providers of health services without previous experience in triaging. A new system has been proposed which meets this requirement and which has been validated with 197 injured persons at the emergency ward of the Valle University Hospital in Call, Colombia. The instrument showed a high level of concordance with the conventional triaging method and classifies victims into four categories: critical with recovery unlikely, critical but recoverable, moderately serious, and ambulatory. There is discussion on the reliability of this instrument and it is recommended that it be validated with victims from larger disasters. Regardless, it has the advantage of being specific and free of the subjectivity that characterizes other indices.     

Surveillance for adverse health effects following a chemical release in west virginia

On 11 August 1985, a large inadvertent release occurred from a chemical manufacturing plant in Institute, West Virginia. The emission was related to overheating of a storage tank that contained chemicals for the production of aldicarb, a cholinesterase inhibiting pesticide. As a result of this emission, 136 persons were treated in five local emergency rooms, 29 of whom were hospitalized for one or more days, mostly for observation. No fatalities resulted. Interviews with treated persons and non-treated community residents confirmed that the health effects were transient and compatible with exposure to irritating vapors rather than with exposure to methyl isocyanate (a chemical used in the process) or to aldicarb. Only 5% of the treated persons and 5% of the community residents surveyed were adequately warned of the emission by the plant siren. Because persons in the nearby community are potentially vulnerable to chemical injury, we recommend the development of an improved warning system, a formal evacuation procedure, and other measures to limit exposure of persons in this area in the event of a future release.     

Feeding rates and diel vertical migration of copepods near South Georgia: comparison of shelf and oceanic sites

Seventeen Longhurst Hardy Plankton Recorder profiles were taken over a diel cycle in January 1990 to study the feeding of four major copepods over the South Georgia shelf. Ontogenetic changes in vertical migration were followed and feeding cycles determined by gut fluorometry for Calanoides acutus Stage CV, Calanus sinillimus CV and CVI, C. propinquus CV and Rhincalanus gigas CV and CVI. In common with a neighbouring oceanic site visited two weeks later and reported elsewhere, all four species had a diel cycle of feeding and migration. The vertical distributions of C. simillimus (all stages), R. gigas (nauplii) and Euphausia frigida (postlarvae) were similar at both sites, the night being spent within the chlorophyll maximum at 15 to 30 m. However, the biomass dominants, C. acutus and R. gigas, dwelt below the chlorophyll maximum, about 30 m deeper than their oceanic counterparts. Unlike the oceanic site, feeding at the shelf site was not restricted to darkness, but increased 6 to 10 h before nightfall and finished at dawn; the intervening period coincided with sinking and digestion. Daylight feeding may have been induced by the shorter night, lower light levels or greater food requirements at the shelf site, despite planktonic predators being over three times more abundant. Daily ration estimates for R. gigas at both sites were only 2% body carbon per day. These low values contrast with its smaller competirors, whose rations were in the range 5.6 to 27%.     

Contribution of canopy leaching to sulphate deposition in a Scots pine forest

Radioactive sulphate (35SO4) was applied to the soil below a Scots pine forest on 23 June 1989, and its movement into the canopy and into throughfall and stemflow was measured over 4 months. The specific activity, Bq (mg S)(-1), of the canopy increased monotonically; uptake by current-year (1989) expanding needles was initially twice as fast as by older needles or live twigs. By 10 October the canopy average specific activity was 62 Bq (mg S)(-1). The specific activity of net throughfall (throughfall + stemflow - rain), deduced from measurements from six throughfall collectors, six stemflow collectors and two rain collectors, fell rapidly from 12.6 Bq (mg S)(-1) in late July to <1 Bq (mg S)(-1) in mid-August. The results suggest (assuming rapid equilibration of 35S with sulphate in soil) that root-derived sulphate contributed c. 3% of sulphate in net throughfall and that dry deposition of SO2 and sulphate particles contributed c. 97% of the 0.56 g S m(-2) measured in net throughfall over the period. Simultaneous measurements of SO2 at canopy height and of NH3 above and within the canopy gave mean concentrations of 5.9 and 0.86 microg m(-3), respectively, sufficient to account for the sulphate measured in net throughfall only if codeposition of NH3 and SO2 occurred to canopy surfaces. The large values of specific activity observed in July, however, indicate that throughfall composition may be closely related to recent soil input of sulphate, and that equilibrium cannot be safely assumed. The possibility of a significant contribution of soil-derived sulphate to sulphate deposition in net throughfall cannot be ruled out on the basis of this experiment.     

Responses of microbial populations in the rhizosphere to deposition of simulated acidic rain onto foliage and/or soil

Air pollutants or some chemicals applied to plant foliage can alter the ecology of the rhizosphere. Experiments were conducted to distinguish among possible foliage-mediated versus soil- or root-mediated effects of acid deposition on microorganism in the rhizosphere. Seedlings of a sorghum x sudangrass hybrid in pots of non-sterile soil-sand mix in a greenhouse were exposed to simulated rain solution adjusted with H2SO4 + HNO3 to pH 4.9, 4.2, 3.5 or 2.8. Solutions were applied as simulated rain to foliage and soil, foliage only (soil covered by plastic, and deionized water applied directly to the soil), or soil only (solution applied directly to the soil). Solutions were applied on 16 days during a 6-week period (1.5 cm deposition in 1 h per application). Plant shoot and root dry weights and population densities of selected types of bacteria, filamentous actinomycetes and fungi in the rhizosphere were quantified after exposures were completed. Deposition of simulated acidic rain onto foliage alone had no effect on plant biomass or microbial population densities in the rhizosphere (colony-forming units per gram of rhizosphere soil). However, plant growth was stimulated and all microbial populations in the rhizosphere increased 3- to 8-fold with increased solution acidity (relative to pH 4.9 solution) when solution penetrated the soil. Statistical analyses indicated that the acid dose-population response relationships for soil-only and foliage-and-soil applications were not different. Thus, no foliage-mediated effect of simulated acidic rain on rhizosphere ecology was detected.     

SWOT analysis of renewable energy sector in Mazowieckie Voivodeship (Poland): current progress,prospects and policy implications

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Renewable energy (RE) plays an increasingly important role in the economy of almost every country in the world. In order to examine the state of...