Editorial The Good,the Bad and the Bubbly

Biodiversity planners increasingly recognise the need for delivering action on a ‘wider countryside’, rather than on a purely site‐centred, basis. Ecological processes often take place at the ‘landscape scale’ and are not sufficiently accommodated within reserves, and a failure to reflect this in biodiversity planning has been one of the contributors to species and habitat decline. However, there are generally few powers to enforce compliance with spatial rural land‐use strategies, and biodiversity plans at the landscape scale must rely heavily on incentives, advice and goodwill. Not surprisingly, this results in a substantial gap between policy and implementation. One way of analysing the causes of, and potential solutions to, implementation failure is to examine the barriers to plan uptake. This paper addresses barriers to biodiversity action in three case‐study areas in terms of ‘force fields’, depicting the nature and strength of negative and positive influences on land managers and conservation staff. It is concluded that a clearer understanding of the nature of ‘barriers’ can lead to improved targeting on potential ‘bridges’ to a better future.     

Effects of silicate depletion on photosynthesis by diatoms in the plume of the Hudson River

Silicate depletion was observed during a bloom of netplankton diatoms. Netplankton chlorophyll a increased over the same salinity range and at the same rate that silicate decreased. Silicate depletion coincided with a decrease in the apparent Si:N uptake ratio as well as a change in the magnitude and diurnal phasing of light saturated photosynthesis (P _m ^B ) by netplankton diatoms. Nanoplankton P _m ^B was unaffected by silicate depletion and increased with temperature. Consequently, nanoplankton P _m ^B eventually exceeded netplankton P _m ^B while netplankton biomass was still increasing relative to nanoplankton biomass.     

Residual and contact herbicide transport through field lysimeters via preferential flow

Usage of glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)-glycine] and glufosinate [2-amino-4-(hydroxy-methylphosphinyl)butanoic acid] may reduce the environmental impact of agriculture because they are more strongly sorbed to soil and may be less toxic than many of the residual herbicides they replace. Preferential flow complicates the picture, because due to this process, even strongly sorbed chemicals can move quickly to ground water. Therefore, four monolith lysimeters (8.1 m(2) by 2.4 m deep) were used to investigate leaching of contact and residual herbicides under a worst-case scenario. Glufosinate, atrazine (6-chloro-N(2)-ethyl-N(4)-isopropyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine), alachlor [2-chloro-N-(2,6-diethylphenyl)-N-(methoxymethyl) acetamide], and linuron (3-3,4-dichlorophenyl-1-methoxy-1-methylurea) were applied in 1999 before corn (Zea mays L.) planting and glyphosate, alachlor, and metribuzin [4-amino-6-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-3-(methylthio)-1,2,4-triazin-5(4H)-one] were applied in 2000 before soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] planting. A high-intensity rainfall was applied shortly after herbicide application both years. Most alachlor, metribuzin, atrazine, and linuron losses occurred within 1.1 d of rainfall initiation and the peak concentration of the herbicides coincided (within 0.1 d of rainfall initiation in 2000). More of the applied metribuzin leached compared with alachlor during the first 1.1 d after rainfall initiation (2.2% vs. 0.035%, P < 0.05). In 1999, 10 of 24 discrete samples contained atrazine above the maximum contaminant level (atrazine maximum contaminant level [MCL] = 3 mug L(-1)) while only one discrete sample contained glufosinate (19 mug L(-1), estimated MCL = 150 mug L(-1)). The results indicate that because of preferential flow, the breakthrough time of herbicides was independent of their sorptive properties but the transport amount was dependent on the herbicide properties. Even with preferential flow, glyphosate and glufosinate were not transported to 2.4 m at concentrations approaching environmental concern.     

STATIC WATER LEVEL MAPPING IN EAST CENTRAL MICHIGAN1

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a methodology for preparing a static water level map using a sample of water level measurements obtained from the well log records of private wells that are finished in glacial drift. The test was conducted in Tyrone Township, located in east central Michigan. A variety of selection criteria were examined and the resulting maps were compared with a ground truth map that was prepared from water level measurements obtained in the field. The map prepared from a random sample of wells at a density of two points per section best approximates the ground truth map. Using a sample of records from the Michigan Statewide Groundwater Database to create static water levels that are used in community ground water vulnerability analyses will provide a more accurate map than using the complete dataset or other selection criteria based on temporal groupings or seasonality.     

个体防护装备国家标准制修订工作流程

个体防护装备国家标准作为国家标准的一个重要组成部分．其制修订工作除了要符合国家的各项规定外，还有其特殊性。现就其具体的工作流程，进行详细的介绍，供个体防护装备科研单位和企业参考。     

Towards a resilience indicator framework for making climate-change adaptation decisions

Activities are already underway within the development community to improve climate-change adaptation decision making. In these and related efforts, a focus on building resilience is an important objective, one that resonates with development objectives. Compiling and applying indicators will help development practitioners consider resilience in projects, plans, and decision making. Exactly how to do this is a challenging, but important task. Drawing on diverse methods in the literature, this paper identifies factors important to understanding the evolution of resilience over time and space, and suggests a framework for developing indicators that analysts might select as useful for particular places or sectors. The paper lays the groundwork for an assessment framework that can make future development and adaptation choices more resilient. The framework is intended as a starting point for wider discussions of factors that contribute to building resilience and thus provide the basis to develop a toolkit of metrics and approaches. These discussions will need to bridge research on climate-change adaptation and resilience with practice.     

Mathematical representation of short term phosphorus variations in a non-stratified southern lake

Total phosphorus concentrations in a small urban hypereutrophic lake undergoing restoration were continually modeled by a modified version of a Vollenweider model for the latter part of a three and one-quarter year restoration period. Results of the modeling effort on Crest Lake were analyzed to determine the compatibility of the basic Vollenweider model with short term applications to highly eutrophic southern lakes. Input parameters such as rainfall and wind speed were considered on a daily basis to see if the model could represent the short term variations observed in the lake. Model simulations were compared to total phosphorus observations collected on the lake at intervals as short as one day. Results indicated that the model can be used as a tool for analysis of system responses on a seasonal basis, but short term variations on the weekly or daily timeframe were poorly represented by the model. Intensive temporal and spatial sampling within the lake verified the validity of the completely mixed assumption for short term applications. Nine sampling locations within the lake, distributed with area and depth, displayed a mean coefficient of variation of only 10.9% when averaged daily for the 54 day intense sampling period. Short term variations were poorly correlated with meterological inputs, suggesting that variability be best represented by a stochastic approach if a practical management tool is desired for situations where variability is critical. The seasonal trends were well represented by the model, reflecting the rapid response of hypereutrophic systems to alterations in phosphorus loadings.