Mercury and trace elements in cloud water and precipitation collected on Mt. Mansfield,Vermont

The lack of high quality measurements of Hg and trace elements in cloud and fog water led to the design of a new collector for clean sequential sampling of cloud and fog water. Cloud water was collected during nine non-precipitating cloud events on Mt. Mansfield, VT in the northeastern USA between August 1 and October 31, 1998. Sequential samples were collected during six of these events. Mercury cloud water concentrations ranged from 7.5 to 71.8 ng l(-1), with a mean of 24.8 ng l(-1). Liquid water content explained about 60% of the variability in Hg cloud concentrations. Highest Hg cloud water concentrations were found to be associated with transport from the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio River Valley, and lowest concentrations with transport from the north of Mt. Mansfield out of Canada. Twenty-nine event precipitation samples were collected during the ten-week cloud sampling period near the base of Mt. Mansfield as part of a long-term deposition study. The Hg concentrations of cloud water were similar to, but higher on average (median of 12.5 ng l(-1)) than Hg precipitation concentrations (median of 10.5 ng l(-1)). Cloud and precipitation samples were analyzed for fifteen trace elements including Mg, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb by ICP-MS. Mean concentrations were higher in cloud water than precipitation for elements with predominately anthropogenic, but not crustal origin in samples from the same source region. One possible explanation is greater in-cloud scavenging of crustal elements in precipitating than non-precipitating clouds, and greater below-cloud scavenging of crustal than anthropogenic aerosols.     

Application of the analytic hierarchy process to select characterization and risk-based decision-making and management methods for hazardous waste sites

Environmental managers at U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) installations overseas are faced with the challenge of managing contaminated sites at these installations with little information on the extent of contamination or the risk posed by the site. In this regard, DoD managers overseas encounter a situation quite similar to the situation faced by decision makers in the U.S. who are managing brownfields. Innovative site characterization and risk-based decision-making methods, which are currently being developed for expeditious application at brownfield sites in the U.S., may also be appropriate for application at overseas DoD sites. In this paper, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used by DoD decision makers to evaluate and rank innovative site characterization technologies and risk-based decision-making and management methods, for use at installations in Korea. Results indicate that for sites with high potential risk the decision makers preferred site characterization technologies that produce data of high quality and a method that can be used to establish credible risk-based remediation goals. This study provides a framework for applying characterization technologies and risk management to poorly characterized contaminated sites in developing countries, where resources for remedial actions may be limited.     

Sustainable resource management coupled to resilient germplasm to provide new intensive cereal–grain–legume–livestock systems in the dry savanna

Sustainable resource management is the critical agricultural research and development challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. The accumulated knowledge on soil management gathered over the last 10 years, combined with solid crop improvement and plant health research at farmers’ level, has brought us to a stage where we can now address with confidence the intensification of cereal–grain–legume-based cropping systems in the dry savanna of West Africa in a sustainable and environmentally positive manner.Two sustainable farming systems that greatly enhance the productivity and sustainability of integrated livestock systems have been developed and implemented in the dry savanna of Nigeria. These are: (i) maize (Zea mays L.)–promiscuous soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] rotations that combine high nitrogen fixation and the ability to kill large numbers of Striga hermonthica seeds in the soil; and (ii) miflet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaerth] and dual-purpose cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.]. Improvement of the cropping systems in the dry savanna has been driven by the adoption of promiscuously nodulating soybean varieties (in particular TGx 1448-2E) and dual-purpose cowpea. The rate of adoption is very high, even in the absence of an efficient seed distribution system. The number of farmers cultivating the improved varieties increased by 228% during the last 3 years. Increased production of promiscuous soybean has been stimulated by increased demand from industries and home utilization. Production in Nigeria was estimated at 405,000 t in 1999 compared to less than 60,000 t in 1984. Economic analysis of these systems shows already an increase of 50–70% in the gross incomes of adopting farmers compared to those still following the current practices, mainly continuous maize cultivation. Furthermore, increases in legume areas of 10% in Nigeria (about 30,000 ha in the northern Guinea savanna) and increases of 20% in yield have translated into additional fixed nitrogen valued annually at US$ 44 million. This reflects, at the same time, an equivalent increase in land-use productivity, and with further spread of the improved crops, there are excellent prospects for additional economic and environmental benefits from a very large recommendation domain across West Africa.     

Recycling plant wax constituents for chemical defense: hemi-biosynthesis of triterpene saponins from β-amyrin in a leaf beetle

Several species of Doryphorina leaf beetles from Central- and South America produce oleanane triterpene glycosides in their defensive glands. The presence of pentacyclic triterpenes in insects is intriguing since they lack the key enzymes necessary to synthesize these compounds. Since -amyrin is a common constituent of leaf waxes, we hypothesized that these leaf beetles use this compound as a precursor to their oleanane glycosides. To test this hypothesis we first confirmed the presence of -amyrin in Ipomoea batatas, the food plant of Platyphora kollari. Next, adults of P. kollari were fed for 10 days with I. batatas leaf disks painted with a solution of [2,2,3-²H₃]-amyrin ([2,2,3-²H₃]-1). The secretion from their defensive glands was collected and analyzed by HPLC-ESIMS. The results demonstrated that the secretion of beetles fed with an amount of [2,2,3-²H₃]-amyrin corresponding to the quantity of unlabeled (natural) -amyrin present in the leaf disks contained on average 5.1% of [2,2,3-²H₃]-3-O--d-glucopyranosyl-(1-->4)--d-glucuronopyranosyl-hederagenin ([2,2,3-²H₃]-2), whereas the secretions of beetles fed with 10 times this amount of [2,2,3-²H₃]-amyrin contained on average 23.9% of [2,2,3-²H₃]-2. In both series of experiments, the percentage of labeled versus unlabeled triterpene glycoside in the secretion was positively correlated with the amount of deuterated -amyrin ingested. These results demonstrate for the first time that some leaf beetles are able to metabolize a widespread triterpenic constituent of leaf wax into more complex glycosides that are stored in their defensive glands.     

黄河下游垦利站溶解N2O浓度和通量的季节变化及其调控因子分析

于2012年3月至2014年3月每月在黄河下游垦利站采集表层河水,测定其溶解氧化亚氮(N_2O)浓度并估算了其水-气交换通量,并于2012年10月至2013年12月每月对表层河水和沉积物进行了受控培养实验以认识其产生过程.结果表明:黄河下游表层河水中溶解N_2O浓度范围为11.63~27.23 nmol·L~(-1),平均值为(16.29±4.23)nmol·L~(-1).N_2O浓度呈现出较为明显的季节变化,具体表现为冬季和春季高于夏季和秋季,但全年变化幅度不大.溶解N_2O浓度主要受到温度、黄河径流量和溶解无机氮等因素的影响.N_2O饱和度范围为101.1%~343.0%,平均值为190.8%±72.3%,黄河下游N_2O全年处于过饱和状态,是大气N_2O的净源.利用LM86、W92和RC01公式估算出其平均水-气交换通量分别为(10.2±12.3)、(17.3±18.8)、(25.8±26.6)μmol·m-2·d~(-1).初步估算了2012—2013年黄河向河口及其邻近海域输入N_2O的量约为5.8×105mol·a~(-1).培养实验表明:水体和沉积物整体表现为净产生N_2O,其中潜在反硝化速率均明显高于硝化速率,反硝化作用在黄河N_2O的产生过程中有重要作用.水体中的潜在反硝化速率(以N计)的变化范围为(0.18~332.20)nmol·L~(-1)·h~(-1),平均值为(52.74±95.63)nmol·L~(-1)·h~(-1),沉积物中潜在反硝化速率的变化范围为0.37~187.60 nmol·kg~(-1)·h~(-1),平均值为(29.61±56.91)nmol·kg~(-1)·h~(-1).     

Organic agriculture and ecosystem services

Ecosystem services (ES), such as biological control, pollination, soil formation, nutrient cycling in agriculture are vital for the sustainable supply of food and fibre. The current trends of decline in the ability of agricultural ecosystems to provide ES pose great threat to food security worldwide. This paper discusses the concept of ES and identifies ES associated with agriculture. It discusses the economic and ecological benefits of these ES on farmland in general and its linkages with organic agriculture. The provision of ES on farmland may help to motivate the redesign of small-scale farms using new eco-technologies based on novel and sound ecological knowledge. This has potential to meet the food demand of growing population without damaging human health and the environment.     

Achieving forest carbon information with higher certainty: A five-part plan

International negotiations on the inclusion of land use activities into an emissions reduction system for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been partially hindered by the technical challenges of measuring, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the policy issues of leakage, additionality, and permanence. This paper outlines a five-part plan for estimating forest carbon stocks and emissions with the accuracy and certainty needed to support a policy for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, forest conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (the REDD-plus framework considered at the UNFCCC COP-15) in developing countries. The plan is aimed at UNFCCC non-Annex 1 developing countries, but the principles outlined are also applicable to developed (Annex 1) countries. The parts of the plan are: (1) Expand the number of national forest carbon Measuring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) systems with a priority on tropical developing countries; (2) Implement continuous global forest carbon assessments through the network of national systems; (3) Achieve commitments from national space agencies for the necessary satellite data; (4) Establish agreed-on standards and independent verification processes to ensure robust reporting; and (5) Enhance coordination among international and multilateral organizations.