Salar Rezapour  O. Alipour 《Chemistry and Ecology》2017,33(3):213-228

The impacts of deforestation on soil fertility indices – are still not well understood in the forest lands of Iran characterised by Mediterranean type climate. Consistent with this, 8 soil pedons and 32 soil cores were described and sampled from four different soil types of forest and adjacent cultivated soil along a Mollisols transect. The results revealed a considerable depletion in the values of soil organic carbon (by 60–88%), total N (by 67–88%), available K (by 20–45%), cation exchange capacity (by 9–21%), and the diethylene-triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) fraction of Fe (by 40–72%), Mn (by 10–60%), and Zn (by 49–80%) after deforestation. In contrast, soil pH (by 0.36–0.9 units), C:N ratio (by 3–84%), available P (22–139%), and DTPA Cu (by 4–55%) tended to increase due to deforestation. Cultivated soils showed a drop of 70–82% in the values of the soil productivity index than to those of the forest soil, indicating a degrading and declining effect of deforestation on soil productivity capacity. It was found that the majority of soil fertility indices were affected negatively by deforestation and more than half of the organic matter was lost to deforestation, which, in turn, could lead to deterioration in soil quality or land productivity capacity.  相似文献   

    

Mingxuan Mao  Li Zhang  Qichang Duan  O.J.K Oghorada  Pan Duan  Bei Hu 《International Journal of Green Energy》2017,14(8):694-702

The power-voltage (P-V) characteristic curves of a PV array are nonlinear and have multiple peaks under partially shaded conditions (PSCs). This paper proposes a novel maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method for a PV system with reduced steady-state oscillation based on a two-stage particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The grouping method of the shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) is incorporated in the basic PSO algorithm (PSO-SFLA), ensuring fast and accurate searching of the global extremum. An adaptive speed factor is also introduced into the improved PSO to further enhance its convergence speed. Test results show that the proposed method converges in less than half the time taken by the conventional PSO method, and the power is improved by 33% under the worst PSCs, which confirms the superiority of the proposed method over the standard PSO algorithm in terms of tracking speed and steady-state oscillations under different PSCs.  相似文献   

    

Lu Zhang  Yasutomo Hoshik  Elisa Carrari  Kent O. Burkey  Elena Paoletti 《环境科学学报(英文版)》2018,30(4):31-40

Tropospheric ozone(O_3) is a major air pollutant and causes serious injury to vegetation. To protect sensitive plants from O_3 damage, several agrochemicals have been assessed,including cytokinin(e.g., kinetin, KIN) and ethylenediurea(EDU) with cytokinin-like activity.In higher plant, leaves are primarily injured by O_3 and protective agrochemicals are often applied by leaf spraying. To our knowledge, the mitigating abilities of EDU and KIN have not been compared directly in a realistic setup. In the present research, impacts of elevated O3(2 × ambient O_3, 24 hr per day, for 8 days) on an O_3 sensitive line(S156) of snap bean(Phaseolus vulgaris), which is often used for biomonitoring O_3 pollution, were studied in a free air controlled exposure system. The day before starting the O_3 exposure, plants were sprayed with a solution of EDU(300 ppm), KIN(1 mmol/L) or distilled water, to compare their protective abilities. The results demonstrated that 2 × ambient O_3 inhibited net photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance, increased the minimal fluorescence yield of the dark-adapted state, decreased the maximal quantum yield of PSII photochemistry, and led to visible injury. KIN and EDU alleviated the reduction of the photosynthetic performance, and visible injury under O_3 fumigation. The plants sprayed with EDU showed greater ability to mitigate the O_3 damage than those sprayed with KIN. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging may have detected more precisely the differences in O_3 response across the leaf than the conventional fluorometer.  相似文献   

    

Amy M. Moore  Michael O. Rodgers  Steven P. French 《International Journal of Green Energy》2020,17(3):208-218

ABSTRACT

Climate change has increased the need for clean, nonpolluting energy sources to decrease dependence on fossil fuels. Alternative energy sources, mainly solar and horizontal wind, have been the primary focus for producing clean energy. New technologies are being developed, such as the Solar Vortex (SoV), which was developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and relies on a vertical wind resource to generate power. The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has resource models representing solar and horizontal wind resources across the 48 United States. This research developed a vertical wind resource model that is comparable in resolution to NREL’s solar and horizontal wind resource models and uses the model for estimating power output for the SoV. This model complements NREL’s existing resource models and supports the deployment of an additional clean energy generation technology. The model was applied to Mesa, Arizona to find feasible sites for a small-scale vertical wind farm.  相似文献   

    

Evangelia Mitraka  Mikhail Vagin  Anna Sjstedt  Magnus Berggren  Karl M. O. Hkansson  Magnus P. Jonsson  Xavier Crispin 《Advanced Sustainable Systems》2019,3(12)

The mass implementation of renewable energy sources is limited by the lack of energy storage solutions operating on various timescales. Electrochemical technologies such as supercapacitors and batteries cannot handle long storage time because of self‐discharge issues. The combination of fuel storage technology and fuel cells is an attractive solution for long storage times. In that context, large‐scale fuel cell solutions are required for massive energy storage in cities, which leads to possible concepts such as low‐cost disposable fully organic membrane assemblies in fuel cells to avoid regeneration of expensive poisoned electrodes. Here, the formation of an organic gas diffusion electrode (GDE) fabricated by paper‐making production, combined with in situ polymerization is demonstrated for the first time. Cellulose is used as a 3D scaffold functionalized with poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) serving as both an electrical conductor and an electrocatalyst of high efficiency for the oxygen reduction reaction. The PEDOT‐cellulose porous GDE is implemented in a membrane assembly and demonstrated in a H₂‐O₂ fuel cell. The demonstration of low‐cost material/manufacturing that is environmentally friendly is a paradigm shift in the development of fuel cells for a sustainable society.  相似文献   

    

Queena K. Qian  Winky K.O. Ho  J. Jorge Ochoa  Edwin H.W. Chan 《Sustainable Development》2019,27(4):657-668

The aging population is one of the demographic changes in the 21st century. World Health Organization defines an age‐friendly city as a place that has an “inclusive and accessible urban environment that promotes active aging.” It receives considerable attention in the field of gerontology and contains important aspects of sustainable urban development. Unfortunately, there have not much research that addresses the relationship between aging‐friendly and sustainability. There is a need to modify the market mechanism to achieve environmental objectives while striking a balance between social and economic considerations. This paper aims to empirically examine the integrated relationships between the dense urban environment and the social and emotional needs of the elderly in the Hong Kong context. The on‐street survey was conducted in eight districts in Hong Kong to collect the opinions about aging‐friendly criteria and sustainability indicators. It utilizes principal component analysis and multiple regression technique to unveil the mask of their intrinsic relationship. The empirical results suggest how the aging‐friendly factors have impacted the economic, environmental, and social sustainability to a certain extent. Notably, two key findings were revealed from the empirical results. (a) “Outdoor Spaces” is consistently found not to be a planning factor that can enhance three types of sustainability, irrespective of the age groups in Hong Kong; (b) “Community Support and Health Services” is regarded as a significant factor, with the exception of economic sustainability (age group ≤60).  相似文献   

    

Jeremy J. Cusack  A. Brad Duthie  O. Sarobidy Rakotonarivo  Rocío A. Pozo  Tom H.E. Mason  Johan Månsson  Lovisa Nilsson  Ingunn M. Tombre  Einar Eythórsson  Jesper Madsen  Ayesha Tulloch  Richard D. Hearn  Steve Redpath  Nils Bunnefeld 《Conservation Letters》2019,12(1):e12450

The management of conflicts between wildlife conservation and agricultural practices often involves the implementation of strategies aimed at reducing the cost of wildlife impacts on crops. Vital to the success of these strategies is the perception that changes in management efforts are synchronized relative to changes in impact levels, yet this expectation is never evaluated. We assess the level of synchrony between time series of population counts and management effort in the context of conflicts between agriculture and five populations of large grazing birds in northern Europe. We reveal inconsistent patterns of synchrony and asynchrony between changes in population counts and impact management effort relating to population harvesting, monetary payments, or scaring practices. This variation is likely due to differing management aims, the existence of lags between management decisions and population monitoring, and the inconsistent use of predictive models across case studies. Overall, our findings highlight the need for more adaptive and timely responses of management to changes in target species numbers so as not to unexpectedly increase social conflicts and jeopardize the status of wildlife populations.  相似文献   

    

Jan C. Habel  Livia Rasche  Uwe A. Schneider  Jan O. Engler  Erwin Schmid  Dennis Rödder  Sebastian T. Meyer  Natalie Trapp  Ruth Sos del Diego  Hilde Eggermont  Luc Lens  Nigel E. Stork 《Conservation Letters》2019,12(6):e12668

Most of Earth's biodiversity is found in 36 biodiversity hotspots, yet less than 10% natural intact vegetation remains. We calculated models projecting the future state of most of these hotspots for the year 2050, based on future climatic and agroeconomic pressure. Our models project an increasing demand for agricultural land resulting in the conversion of >50% of remaining natural intact vegetation in about one third of all hotspots, and in 2–6 hotspots resulting from climatic pressure. This confirms that, in the short term, habitat loss is of greater concern than climate change for hotspots and their biodiversity. Hotspots are most severely threatened in tropical Africa and parts of Asia, where demographic pressure and the demand for agricultural land is highest. The speed and magnitude of pristine habitat loss is, according to our models, much greater than previously shown when combining both scenarios on future climatic and agroeconomic pressure.  相似文献   

    

Alireza A. Shamshirsaz  Kelsey A. Stewart  Hadi Erfani  Ahmed A. Nassr  Nathan C. Sundgren  Amy R. Mehollin-Ray  Shaine A. Morris  Jimmy Espinoza  Magdalena Sanz Cortes  Christopher Cassady  Timothy C. Lee  Eumenia C. Castro  Olutoyin A. Olutoye  Deepak K. Mehta  Darrell Cass  Oluyinka O. Olutoye  Michael A. Belfort 《黑龙江环境通报》2019,39(4):287-292

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Alvaro Maia da Costa  Pedro V. M da Costa  Okhiria D. Udebhulu  Ricardo Cabral Azevedo  Nelson F. F. Ebecken  Antonio C. O. Miranda  Srgio M. de Eston  Giorgio de Tomi  Julio R. Meneghini  Kazuo Nishimoto  Felipe Ruggiere  Edgard Malta  Mauro lis Rocha Fernandes  Camila Brando  Alexandre Breda 《Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology》2019,9(1):79-94

Salt caverns have been identified as one of the best options for the underground storage of gases due to salt rock's excellent sealing capabilities and interesting mechanical properties, such as self‐healing when damaged or cracked. It is feasible to build salt caverns in the Brazilian pre‐salt ultra‐deep water environment for gas storage. However, the peculiar geology of the Brazilian province considered here is characterized by the stratification of thick layers of halite with intercalations of carnallite and tachyhydrite salt rock, whose creep strain rate is almost two orders of magnitude higher than halite's creep strain rate under the same conditions of temperature and pressure. Computational mechanics is being used for the design of offshore salt caverns opened by dissolution mining for the storage of natural gas. The challenge presented in this paper requires the storage of natural gas with high CO₂ content offshore in ultra‐deep water (2140 m) in salt caverns. If the economics proves feasible, this offshore gas storage station will be the first of its kind in the world. A technical feasibility rock mechanics study of giant salt caverns, 450 m high by 150 m in diameter, has shown that one cavern can store 4 billion Sm³ or 7.2 million tons of CO₂. The salt dome studied can accommodate the construction of 15 caverns, thus providing the confinement of approximately 108 million tons of gas. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献