Monitoring Diffuse Impacts: Australian Tourism Developments

/ The scientific quality of monitoring for diffuse environmental impacts has rarely been quantified. This paper presents an analysis of all formal environmental monitoring programs for Australian tourism developments over a 15-year period from 1980 to 1995. The tourism sector provides a good test bed for this study because tourism developments are (1) often adjacent to or even within conservation reserves and other relatively undisturbed natural environments, and (2) often clustered, with resulting cumulative impacts that require detection at an early stage. Here we analyze the precision and reliability with which monitoring programs as actually implemented can detect diffuse environmental impacts against natural variation. Of 175 Australian tourism developments subject to EIA from 1980 to 1993 inclusive, only 13 were subject to formal monitoring. Only 44 individual parameters, in total, were monitored for all these developments together. No baseline monitoring was conducted for nine of the 44 parameters. For the remaining 35, only one was monitored for a full year. Before, after, control, impact, paired sampling (BACIP) monitoring designs were used for 24 of the 44 parameters, and power analysis in 10. The scientific quality of monitoring was significantly better for developments subject to control by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA). The key factor appears to be the way in which GBRMPA uses external referees and manages external consultants. The GBRMPA model merits wider adoption.     

Precision placement of separated dairy sludge improves early phosphorus nutrition and growth in corn ( L.)

Efficient use of manure nutrients by crops is necessary to minimize losses to the environment. This field study examined the possibility of replacing side-banded mineral P with precision-placed high-P sludge (6.2-11.0% dry matter) obtained after settling dairy manure slurry. The sludge was injected at about 30 kg P ha (36.0-51.2 m ha) into the soil at corn row spacing, and the corn was planted 5, 10, and 15 cm beside the injection furrow. Controls included no added P and side-banded commercial P fertilizer. The treatments were tested on corn with low and high root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM). The study showed that sludge did not impede AM root colonization, corn germination, or seedling growth. Corn plants with both high and low levels of AM colonization responded to the sludge from the three-leaf stage and showed the greatest benefit at the six-leaf stage. Corn responded more to sludge placed at 5 than at 15 cm from the corn rows, whereas the response at the 10-cm spacing was intermediate. There was little difference in seedling growth or final harvest parameters between the side-banded fertilizer P and the 5-cm sludge treatment. The results show a new way to use manure nutrients, namely precision-placement sludge for corn. This may obviate the need for chemical fertilizers for improving farm nutrient balances. Other anticipated benefits are less energy use for hauling and injection of the sludge fraction and reduced risk of nutrient loss by runoff and volatilization (ammonia) and nuisance odors due to injection.     

Forecasting the e ects of EU policy measures on the nitrate pollution of groundwater and surface waters

We used the interdisciplinary model network REGFLUD to predict the actual mean nitrate concentration in percolation water at the scale of the Weser river basin (Germany) using an area di erentiated (100 m 100 m) approach. REGFLUD combines the agro-economic model RAUMIS for estimating nitrogen surpluses and the hydrological models GROWA/DENUZ for assessing the nitrate leaching from the soil. For areas showing predicted nitrate concentrations in percolation water above the European Union (EU) groundwater quality standard of 50 mg NO3-N/L, e ective agri-environmental reduction measures need to be derived and implemented to improve groundwater and surface water quality by 2015. The e ects of already implemented agricultural policy are quantified by a baseline scenario projecting the N-surpluses from agricultural sector to 2015. The REGFLUD model is used to estimate the e ects of this scenario concerning groundwater and surface water pollution by nitrate. From the results of the model analysis the needs for additional measures can be derived in terms of required additional N-surplus reduction and in terms of regional prioritization of measures. Research work will therefore directly support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive of the European Union in the Weser basin.     

CCall--healthy and successful work in call centres.

Call centre workplaces are in many ways a challenge to occupational health and safety. The occupation itself can be described as an IT information technology-supported, communication-intensive form of work with often unusual working hours and a high rate of part-time employment. Data on the employee turnover as well as absenteeism related to occupational disability is quite contradictory. Occupational safety and its proponents still have to find new ways into the corporate structures and cultures of this relatively new and rapidly growing branch of industry. In a 2-year research and development project, using a holistic approach and under consideration of all the relevant disciplines, call centre workplaces were studied, and organisational measures were developed and field tested by putting them into practice. Practical help was developed for a sustainable strategy for successful and healthy work in call centres.     

Neanderthal medics? Evidence for food, cooking, and medicinal plants entrapped in dental calculus

Neanderthals disappeared sometime between 30,000 and 24,000?years ago. Until recently, Neanderthals were understood to have been predominantly meat-eaters; however, a growing body of evidence suggests their diet also included plants. We present the results of a study, in which sequential thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) were combined with morphological analysis of plant microfossils, to identify material entrapped in dental calculus from five Neanderthal individuals from the north Spanish site of El Sidrón. Our results provide the first molecular evidence for inhalation of wood-fire smoke and bitumen or oil shale and ingestion of a range of cooked plant foods. We also offer the first evidence for the use of medicinal plants by a Neanderthal individual. The varied use of plants that we have identified suggests that the Neanderthal occupants of El Sidrón had a sophisticated knowledge of their natural surroundings which included the ability to select and use certain plants.     

Forecasting the effects of EU policy measures on the nitrate pollution of groundwater and surface waters

We used the interdisciplinary model network REGFLUD to predict the actual mean nitrate concentration in percolation water at the scale of the Weser river basin (Germany) using an area differentiated (100 m × 100 m) approach.REGFLUD combines the agro-economic model RAUMIS for estimating nitrogen surpluses and the hydrological models GROWA/DENUZ for assessing the nitrate leaching from the soil.For areas showing predicted nitrate concentrations in percolation water above the European Union (EU) groundwater quality standard of 50 mg NO 3 -N/L,effective agri-environmental reduction measures need to be derived and implemented to improve groundwater and surface water quality by 2015.The effects of already implemented agricultural policy are quantified by a baseline scenario projecting the N-surpluses from agricultural sector to 2015.The REGFLUD model is used to estimate the effects of this scenario concerning groundwater and surface water pollution by nitrate.From the results of the model analysis the needs for additional measures can be derived in terms of required additional N-surplus reduction and in terms of regional prioritization of measures.Research work will therefore directly support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive of the European Union in the Weser basin.     

A qualitative sampling method for monitoring water quality in temporary channels or point sources and its application to pesticide contamination

A water-sampling device to monitor the quality of water periodically and temporarily flowing out of concrete tubes, sewers or channels is described. It inexpensively and easily enables a qualitative characterization of contamination via these point-source entry routes. The water sampler can be reverse engineered with different sizes and materials, once installed needs no maintenance, passively samples the first surge, and the emptying procedure is short. In an agricultural catchment area in Germany we monitored an emergency overflow of a sewage sewer, an outlet of a rainwater sewer and two small drainage channels as input sources to a small stream. Seven inflow events were analysed for 20 pesticide agents (insecticides, fungicides and herbicides). All three entry routes were remarkably contaminated. We found parathion-ethyl concentrations of 0.3 microg l(-1), diuron up to 17.3 microg l(-1), ethofumesate up to 51.1 microg l(-1), metamitron up to 92 microg l(-1) and prosulfocarb up to 130 microg l(-1).     

Competing TCE and cis-DCE degradation kinetics by zero-valent iron-experimental results and numerical simulation

The successful dechlorination of mixtures of chlorinated hydrocarbons with zero-valent metals requires information concerning the kinetics of simultaneous degradation of different contaminants. This includes intraspecies competitive effects (loading of the reactive iron surface by a single contaminant) as well as interspecies competition of several contaminants for the reactive sites available. In columns packed with zero-valent iron, the degradation behaviour of trichloroethylene (TCE), cis-dichloroethylene (DCE) and mixtures of both was measured in order to investigate interspecies competition. Although a decreasing rate of dechlorination is to be expected, when several degradable substances compete for the reactive sites on the iron surface, TCE degradation is nearly unaffected by the presence of cis-DCE. In contrast, cis-DCE degradation rates decrease significantly when TCE is added. A new modelling approach is developed in order to identify and quantify the observed competitive effects. The numerical model TBC (Transport, Biochemistry and Chemistry, Sch?fer et al., 1998a) is used to describe adsorption, desorption and dechlorination in a mechanistic way. Adsorption and degradation of a contaminant based on a limited number of reactive sites leads to a combined zero- and first-order degradation kinetics for high and low concentrations, respectively. The adsorption of several contaminants with different sorption parameters to a limited reactive surface causes interspecies competition. The reaction scheme and the parameters required are successfully transferred from Arnold and Roberts (2000b) to the model TBC. The degradation behaviour of the mixed contamination observed in the column experiments can be related to the adsorption properties of TCE and cis-DCE. By predicting the degradation of the single substances TCE and cis-DCE as well as mixtures of both, the calibrated model is used to investigate the effects of interspecies competition on the design of permeable reactive iron barriers. Even if TCE is present in only small concentrations (>3% of molar cis-DCE concentration) it is the contaminant limiting the residence time and the required thickness of the iron barrier.