Ambio - The choice of tree species used in production forests matters for biodiversity and ecosystem services. In Sweden, damage to young production forests by large browsing herbivores is helping... 相似文献
Over the last 10 years, there has been a plethora of experimental studies estimating the potential of microplastic particles (MPs) to exert toxic effects in the environment, many specifically focusing on their postulated capacity to enhance the transfer of environmental pollutants into organisms after ingestion. Obviously, there is little to no consensus on appropriate experimental design, which is mainly owing to the novelty, the interdisciplinarity of the subject, and the complexity of parameters involved. This results in fundamental discrepancies regarding the materials applied, the approach for spiking MPs with pollutants, and the exact exposure scenario. Aiming for a non-chemist audience and providing illustrative, representative, and comparative examples, this review first outlines the theoretical essentials of processes involved in sorption. Also, it discusses the implications for designing experimental approaches using MPs and interpreting the results obtained under consideration of their relevance for environmental conditions. It may help to improve the interpretation of studies on MP toxicity already published, while also calling experimenters’ attention to various aspects important to consider when designing and performing environmentally relevant experiments with MPs.
Abstract Real‐time concentrations of black carbon, particle‐bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen dioxide, and fine particulate counts, as well as integrated and real‐time fine particulate matter (PM2.5) mass concentrations were measured inside school buses during long commutes on Los Angeles Unified School District bus routes, at bus stops along the routes, at the bus loading/unloading zone in front of the selected school, and at nearby urban “background” sites. Across all of the pollutants, mean concentrations during bus commutes were higher than in any other microenvironment. Mean exposures (mean concentration times time spent in a particular microenvironment) in bus commutes were between 50 and 200 times greater than those for the loading/unloading microenvironment, and 20–40 times higher than those for the bus stops, depending on the pollutant. Although the analyzed school bus commutes represented only 10% of a child’s day, on average they contributed one‐third of a child’s 24‐hr overall black carbon exposure during a school day. For species closely related to vehicle exhaust, the within‐cabin exposures were generally dominated by the effect of surrounding traffic when windows were open and by the bus’s own exhaust when windows were closed. Low‐emitting buses generally exhibited high concentrations only when traveling behind a diesel vehicle, whereas high‐emitting buses exhibited high concentrations both when following other diesel vehicles and when idling without another diesel vehicle in front of the bus. To reduce school bus commute exposures, we recommend minimizing commute times, avoiding caravanning with other school buses, using the cleanest buses for the longest bus routes, maintaining conventional diesel buses to eliminate visible emissions, and transitioning to cleaner fuels and advanced particulate control technologies as soon as possible. 相似文献
Federal land managers are faced with the task of balancing multiple uses and goals when making decisions about land use and
the activities that occur on public lands. Though climate change is now well recognized by federal agencies and their local
land and resource managers, it is not yet clear how issues related to climate change will be incorporated into on-the-ground
decision making within the framework of multiple use objectives. We conducted a case study of a federal land management agency
field office, the San Juan Public Lands Center in Durango, CO, U.S.A., to understand from their perspective how decisions
are currently made, and how climate change and carbon management are being factored into decision making. We evaluated three
major management sectors in which climate change or carbon management may intersect other use goals: forests, biofuels, and
grazing. While land managers are aware of climate change and eager to understand more about how it might affect land resources,
the incorporation of climate change considerations into everyday decision making is currently quite limited. Climate change
is therefore on the radar screen, but remains a lower priority than other issues. To assist the office in making decisions
that are based on sound scientific information, further research is needed into how management activities influence carbon
storage and resilience of the landscape under climate change. 相似文献
To facilitate forest planning and management on National Wildlife Refuges, we synthesized multiple data sources to describe
land ownership patterns, land cover, landscape pattern, and changes in forest composition for four ecoregions and their associated
refuges of the Upper Midwest. We related observed patterns to ecological processes important for forest conservation and restoration,
with specific attention to refuge patterns of importance for forest landbirds of conservation priority. The large amount of
public land within the ecoregions (31–80%) suggests that opportunities exist for coarse and meso-scale approaches to conserving
and restoring ecological processes affecting the refuges, particularly historical fire regimes. Forests dominate both ecoregions
and refuges, but refuge forest patches are generally larger and more aggregated than in associated ecoregions. Broadleaf taxa
have increased in dominance in the ecoregions and displaced fire-dependent taxa such as pine (Pinus spp.) and other coniferous species; these changes in forest composition have likely also affected refuge forests. Despite
compositional changes, larger forest patches on refuges suggests that they may provide better habitat for area-sensitive forest
landbirds of mature, compositionally diverse forests than surrounding lands if management continues to promote increased patch
size. We reason that although fine-scale research and monitoring for species of conservation priority is important, broad
scale (ecoregional) assessments provide crucial context for effective forest and wildlife management in protected areas. 相似文献
Phosphorus retention in lowland soils depends on redox conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate how the Fe(III) reduction degree affects phosphate adsorption and precipitation. Two similarly P-saturated, ferric Fe-rich lowland soils, a sandy and a peat soil, were incubated under anaerobic conditions. M?ssbauer spectroscopy demonstrated that Fe(III) in the sandy soil was present as goethite and phyllosilicates, whereas Fe(III) in the peat soil was mainly present as polynuclear, Fe-humic complexes. Following anoxic incubation, extensive formation of Fe(II) in the solids occurred. After 100 d, the Fe(II) production reached its maximum and 34% of the citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite extractable Fe (Fe(CBD)) was reduced to Fe(II) in the sandy soil. The peat soil showed a much faster reduction of Fe(III) and the maximum reduction of 89% of Fe(CBD) was reached after 200 d. Neoformation of a metavivianite/vivianite phase under anoxic conditions was identified by X-ray diffraction in the peat. The sandy soil exhibited small changes in the point of zero net sorption (EPC?) and P(i) desorption with increasing Fe(III) reduction, whereas in the peat soil P desorption increased from 80 to 3100 μmol kg?1 and EPC? increased from 1.7 to 83 μM, after 322 d of anoxic incubation. The fast Fe(III) reduction made the peat soils particularly vulnerable to changes in redox conditions. However, the precipitation of vivianite/metavivianite minerals may control soluble P(i) concentrations to between 2 and 3 μM in the long term if the soil is not disturbed. 相似文献
Having volunteers collect data can be a cost-effective strategy to complement or replace those collected by scientists. The quality of these data is essential where field-collected data are used to monitor progress against predetermined standards because they provide decision makers with confidence that choices they make will not cause more harm than good. The integrity of volunteer-collected data is often doubted. In this study, we made estimates of seven vegetation attributes and a composite measure of six of those seven, to simulate benchmark values. These attributes are routinely recorded as part of rehabilitation projects in Australia and elsewhere in the world. The degree of agreement in data collected by volunteers was compared with those recorded by professional scientists. Combined results showed that scientists collected data that was in closer agreement with benchmarks than those of volunteers, but when data collected by individuals were analyzed, some volunteers collected data that were in similar or closer agreement, than scientists. Both groups’ estimates were in closer agreement for particular attributes than others, suggesting that some attributes are more difficult to estimate than others, or that some are more subjective than others. There are a number of ways in which higher degrees of agreement could be achieved and introducing these will no doubt result in better, more effective programs, to monitor rehabilitation activities. Alternatively, less subjective measures should be sought when developing monitoring protocols. Quality assurance should be part of developing monitoring methods and explicitly budgeted for in project planning to prevent misleading declarations of rehabilitation success. 相似文献
The objective of our study was to identify how actors from the main socio-economic sectors perceive their interactions and impacts on a sensitive wetland in an arid climate, specifically the salt pans of Chott Merouane in Algeria. The results revealed that there are three main economic stakes including agriculture, livestock production and salt mining, each activity providing a great benefit for local and national populations. The local population perceived that the current activities are conducted in such a way that they created conflict between socio-economic sectors and caused a threat for long term sustainability of the wetlands. The results highlighted the need to initiate an integrated management approach between the different sectors and to develop a shared vision for the territory. 相似文献
A global trend of a warming climate may seriously affect species dependent on sea ice. We investigated the impact of climate on the Baltic ringed seals (Phoca hispida botnica), using historical and future climatological time series. Availability of suitable breeding ice is known to affect pup survival. We used detailed information on how winter temperatures affect the extent of breeding ice and a climatological model (RCA3) to project the expected effects on the Baltic ringed seal population. The population comprises of three sub-populations, and our simulations suggest that all of them will experience severely hampered growth rates during the coming 90 years. The projected 30 730 seals at the end of the twenty-first century constitutes only 16 % of the historical population size, and thus reduced ice cover alone will severely limit their growth rate. This adds burden to a species already haunted by other anthropogenic impacts. 相似文献