A mass balance study of the phytoremediation of perchloroethylene-contaminated groundwater

A mass balance study was performed under controlled field conditions to investigate the phytoremediation of perchloroethylene (PCE) by hybrid poplar trees. Water containing 7–14 mg L^?1 PCE was added to the test bed. Perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and cis-dichloroethylene were detected in the effluent at an average of 0.12 mg L^?1, 3.9 mg L^?1, and 1.9 mg L^?1, respectively. The total mass of chlorinated ethenes in the water was reduced by 99%. Over 95% of the recovered chlorine was as free chloride in the soil, indicating near-complete dehalogenation of the PCE. Transpiration, volatilization, and accumulation in the trees were all found to be minor loss mechanisms. In contrast, 98% of PCE applied to an unplanted soil chamber was recovered as PCE in the effluent water or volatilized into the air. These results suggest that phytoremediation can be an effective method for treating PCE-contaminated groundwater in field applications.     

Roles of academia in regional sustainability initiatives: outreach for a more sustainable future

Institutions of Higher Education have to cope with an array of challenges in the 21st century including globalization of teaching, research and outreach activities; additionally there are dramatic increases in competition for students, staff and funding sources. Meanwhile, local and regional involvement in regional sustainable development is increasing in importance as well. This latter process is driven by the mandates from many sources for academic involvement in working on the multi-faceted issues pertaining to Sustainable Development (SD). This requires concerted action not only at the global, but also at the local and regional levels. This article provides an overview of this special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production on the Roles of Academia in Regional Sustainable Development Initiatives. The essence of the 11 articles contained in this special issue is summarized and contextualized within the rapidly evolving academic efforts on SD. Recommendations are made of ways for academia to help their regions to make more rapid progress toward SD via involvement of their faculty, students and staff in Regional SD programs and processes.     

Consumer attitudes regarding environmentally sustainable wine: an exploratory study of the New Zealand marketplace

Previous research has suggested that consumers are becoming increasingly concerned by the effects of conventional agricultural food production practices on human health and environmental wellbeing. This study sought to understand whether environmentally sustainable practices in the vineyard would equate to advantages in the wine marketplace. Structured questionnaires were used to ascertain the views of wine consumers in Christchurch, New Zealand. The findings of this study indicate that consumers have a strong demand for wine which is produced using “green” production practices. Consumers believe that the quality of sustainable wine will be equal to or better than conventionally produced wine, and they are prepared to pay a higher price for this wine.     

Enhancement of conservation knowledge through increased access to botanical information

Herbarium specimens are increasingly recognized as an important resource for conservation science and virtual herbaria are making specimens freely available to a wider range of users than ever before. Few virtual herbaria are designed with conservation use as a primary driver. Exceptionally, Brazil's Reflora Virtual Herbarium (RVH) was created to increase knowledge and conservation of the Brazilian flora. The RVH is closely integrated with the Flora of Brazil 2020 platform on which Brazil's new national Flora is under construction. Both resources are accessible via the Reflora home page and thousands of users move seamlessly between these Reflora resources. To understand how the Reflora resources are currently used and their impact on conservation science, we conducted a literature review and an online survey. We searched for publications of studies in which Reflora resources were used and publications resulting from Brazilian researchers who were part of Reflora's research and mobility program. The survey contained multiple choice questions and questions that required a written response. We targeted Reflora webpage visitors with the survey to capture a wider range of Reflora users than the literature review. Reflora resources were used for a variety of conservation-relevant purposes. Half the 806 scientific publications in which Reflora was cited and 81% of the 1069 survey respondents accessing Reflora resources mentioned conservation-relevant research outputs. Most conservation-relevant uses of the Reflora resources in scientific publications were research rather than implementation focused. The survey of Reflora users showed conservation uses and impacts of virtual herbaria were more numerous and diverse than the uses captured in the literature review. Virtual herbaria are vital resources for conservation science, but they must document use and impacts more comprehensively to ensure sustainability.     

Global mismatches in aboveground and belowground biodiversity

Human activities are accelerating global biodiversity change and have resulted in severely threatened ecosystem services. A large proportion of terrestrial biodiversity is harbored by soil, but soil biodiversity has been omitted from many global biodiversity assessments and conservation actions, and understanding of global patterns of soil biodiversity remains limited. In particular, the extent to which hotspots and coldspots of aboveground and soil biodiversity overlap is not clear. We examined global patterns of these overlaps by mapping indices of aboveground (mammals, birds, amphibians, vascular plants) and soil (bacteria, fungi, macrofauna) biodiversity that we created using previously published data on species richness. Areas of mismatch between aboveground and soil biodiversity covered 27% of Earth's terrestrial surface. The temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome had the highest proportion of grid cells with high aboveground biodiversity but low soil biodiversity, whereas the boreal and tundra biomes had intermediate soil biodiversity but low aboveground biodiversity. While more data on soil biodiversity are needed, both to cover geographic gaps and to include additional taxa, our results suggest that protecting aboveground biodiversity may not sufficiently reduce threats to soil biodiversity. Given the functional importance of soil biodiversity and the role of soils in human well-being, soil biodiversity should be considered further in policy agendas and conservation actions by adapting management practices to sustain soil biodiversity and considering soil biodiversity when designing protected areas.     

Sexual segregation in distribution,diet and trophic level of seabirds: insights from stable isotope analysis

Considerable attention has focused on inter- and intraspecific variation in trophic niches of marine predators. Although this has revealed evidence for sexual segregation in distribution in some species, few studies have been able to address sex-related dietary specialisation. Stable isotope analysis of blood cells collected from albatrosses and petrels at South Georgia during chick-rearing indicated a difference in δ¹³C, suggesting that females fed to the north of males, only in two species with male-biased sexual size dimorphism; in no species did sexes differ in trophic level (δ¹⁵N). Based on a wider review, significant differences between sexes in isotope signatures were much more common in seabirds during the pre-laying or breeding than the nonbreeding period, presumably reflecting greater between-sex partitioning of resources when foraging ranges are more constrained and competition is greater. Sex differences, or their absence, were usually consistent across successive stages during the pre-laying and breeding periods, but not necessarily year-round nor between populations. Significant differences in isotope signatures between males and females were extremely rare in monomorphic species, suggesting a link between sexual size dimorphism and segregation in diet or distribution. Among the Southern Ocean albatrosses, sex differences in δ¹³C suggested the underlying mechanism was related to habitat specialisation, whereas in other size-dimorphic taxa (both male- and female-biased), sex differences were more common in δ¹⁵N than δ¹³C and therefore more consistent with size-mediated competitive exclusion or dietary specialisation.