Humanarzneimittel im aquatischen Ökosystem

Goal

In the Brandenburg State Office for the Environment an approach to assess the potential risk of drug residues in aquatic ecosystems has been developed based on an investigation of the consumption amounts in 1999 to identify or to exclude a potential environmental risk of important human drugs and further to define priority substances for monitoring programs in Brandenburg in the future.

Method

This assessment approach tested with 60 drug agents is based on an exposure estimation considering the main path for the entry human—waste water—sewage plant—surface water, on a substance specific analysis of effects and on an analysis of the environmental fate as compartment distribution, bioaccumulation and persistence.

Results

In Brandenburg surface waters the drug agent concentration for eight of the considered substances is supposed to be greater than 1 μg/l and for at least 13 of the considered substanoes the PNEC in aquatic ecosystems is assumed to be lower than 1 μg/l. A potential risk for the environment can be seen for the antibiotics Ciprofloxacin-HCl and Clarithromycin, the disinfectants Benzalkonium Chloride, Cocospropylendiaminguaniacetat, Glucoprotamine, Laurylpropylenediamine and Polyvidone-iodine, the sexual hormon Ethinylestradiol, the antidiabetic Metformin-HCl, the antiepileptic Carbamazepine and the lipid regulator Clofibrinic acid on the basis of effects because their PEC:PNEC-relation is about 1 or higher. For further 19 drug agents an environmental risk is to be assumed because of their environmental behaviour without support by ecotoxicological data at present.

Conclusion

Although there is only a small base of valid ecotoxicological data, this risk assessment shows that adverse effects in the aquatic environment by some drug agents cannot be excluded. However, it should be noted that this first assessment gives only a crude orientation. Appropriate test data are necessary to refine the assessment in future.     

固相萃取和液相色谱/质谱/质谱在正离子和负离子模式下检测水中的农药残留

使用固相萃取和液相色谱/质谱/质谱,在正离子和负离子模式下,分别分析了46个和14个农药化合物.无需衍生化,就能达到pg水平的分析灵敏度.对于所有农药的化合物,在5 pg-1 ng的范围内具有很好的线性.     

Estimating the biogenic enhancement factor of weathering using an inverse viability method

To determine the influence of the biosphere on weathering we use a dynamic model of the global carbon cycle. It takes into account the most important processes for the long-term evolution of the Earth. The model is solved under a slowly changing environment of increasing solar luminosity and volcanic activity and continental area. By comparing the model results for the global average temperature with data derived from δ¹⁸O values from cherts it is possible to quantify the biogenic enhancement factor of weathering. For this purpose a newly developed inverse viability method is applied, which allows for calculating the range of possible biogenic enhancement factors consistent with the data. We find that in the Precambrian the weathering was 5.4 times lower than in the Phanerozoic era. This supports the hypothesis that the Cambrian explosion was caused by a positive feedback between the spread of biosphere, increased silicate weathering, and a consequent cooling of the climate.     

Null model analysis of species nestedness patterns

Nestedness is a common biogeographic pattern in which small communities form proper subsets of large communities. However, the detection of nestedness in binary presence-absence matrices will be affected by both the metric used to quantify nestedness and the reference null distribution. In this study, we assessed the statistical performance of eight nestedness metrics and six null model algorithms. The metrics and algorithms were tested against a benchmark set of 200 random matrices and 200 nested matrices that were created by passive sampling. Many algorithms that have been used in nestedness studies are vulnerable to type I errors (falsely rejecting a true null hypothesis). The best-performing algorithm maintains fixed row and fixed column totals, but it is conservative and may not always detect nestedness when it is present. Among the eight indices, the popular matrix temperature metric did not have good statistical properties. Instead, the Brualdi and Sanderson discrepancy index and Cutler's index of unexpected presences performed best. When used with the fixed-fixed algorithm, these indices provide a conservative test for nestedness. Although previous studies have revealed a high frequency of nestedness, a reanalysis of 288 empirical matrices suggests that the true frequency of nested matrices is between 10% and 40%.     

Attributing changes in land cover using independent disturbance datasets: a case study of the Yucatan Peninsula,Mexico

Detailed observations of natural and anthropogenic disturbance events that impact forest structure and the distribution of carbon are essential to estimate changes in terrestrial carbon pools and the associated emissions and removals of greenhouse gasses. Recent advances in remote sensing approaches have resulted in annual and decadal estimates of land-cover change derived from observations using broad-scale moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250 m–1 km imagery. These land-use change estimates, however, are often not attributed directly to a cause or activity and are not well validated, especially in tropical areas. Knowledge of the type of disturbance that caused the observed land-cover changes is important, however, for the quantification of the associated impacts on ecosystem carbon stocks and fluxes. In this paper, we provide estimates of the amount of forest land-cover change in a Mexican forested region and propose an approach for attributing the cause of the observed changes to the underlying disturbance driver. To do so, we collate geospatial and remote sensing data from a variety of sources to summarize statistics about the major disturbances within the Yucatan Peninsula, an “early action” region for the reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation, from 2005 to 2010. We combine the datasets to develop rules to estimate the likely disturbances that caused the observed land-cover changes based on their spatially explicit location. Finally, we compare our observed disturbance rates to those detected using classified land-cover data derived from MODIS.     

Residential satisfaction among aging people living in place

Residential satisfaction is a significant topic in environmental psychology yet there is little research on residential satisfaction among elders. This research aims to identify the cognitive structure of residential satisfaction of elderly persons living in their own dwellings and to identify demographic and psychological variables related to this residential satisfaction. One hundred and three participants, ranging in age from 72 to 86 years old and living at home in the central France, answered (a) a purpose-developed questionnaire to measure their residential satisfaction, (b) an environmental quality questionnaire aimed at evaluating both the physical and social environments, and (c) several psychological variables including: the ESV, a French adaptation of the Satisfaction with Life Scale which examines the general well-being of aging people; and three single well-being items assessing financial well-being, perceived health, and perception of oneself as active. The results indicated that in this sample, residential satisfaction corresponds to a four-dimension structure organized by physical location rather than psychological or behavioral aspects. The four components were the local area, access to services, relations with neighbors, and the home itself. Satisfaction with each component was related to different predictors, supporting the idea that elders hold complex and nuanced views of their homes and neighborhoods.