The importance of monitoring and evaluation in adaptive maritime spatial planning

Adaptive maritime spatial planning (MSP) uses monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of spatial and temporal management measures to promote understanding and improve planning and decision-making. An adaptive approach to MSP involves exploring alternative ways to meet management objectives, predicting the outcomes of alternative management measures, implementing one or more of these alternative management measures, monitoring to learn about the effects of management measures, and then using the results to update knowledge and adjust management actions. A monitoring and evaluation plan should be designed to be both cost effective and comprehensive. The process of setting and assessing performance metrics requires that the ecological and socio-economic objectives of the spatial management plan must be clearly stated up front for management actions to reflect those objectives accurately. To evaluate the effectiveness of a MSP plan, a range of ecological, socio-economic and institutional indicators need to be developed and monitored.     

Modelling short-term effects of ozone on morbidity: an application to the city of Milano,Italy, 1995–2003

In this paper, we explore a range of concerns that arise in measuring short-term effects of ozone on health. In particular, we tackle the problem of measuring exposure using alternative daily measures of ozone derived from hourly concentrations. We adopt the exposure paradigm of Chiogna and Bellini (Environmetrics 13:55–69, 2002) extending it to ozone concentrations, and we compare its performances with respect to traditional exposure measures by exploiting model selection. To investigate the stability of model selection, we then apply the idea of bootstrapping the modelling process.     

Effects of salinity on multiplication and transmission of an intertidal trematode parasite

Salinity levels vary spatially in coastal areas, depending on proximity to freshwater sources, and may also be slowly decreasing as a result of anthropogenic climatic changes. The impact of salinity on host–parasite interactions is potentially a key regulator of transmission processes in intertidal areas, where trematodes are extremely common parasites of invertebrates and vertebrates. We investigated experimentally the effects of long-term exposure to decreased salinity levels on output of infective stages (cercariae) and their transmission success in the trematode Philophthalmus sp. This parasite uses the snail Zeacumantus subcarinatus as intermediate host, in which it asexually produces cercariae. After leaving the snail, cercariae encyst externally on hard substrates to await accidental ingestion by shorebirds, which serve as definitive hosts. We found that at reduced salinities (25 or 30 psu), the cercarial output of the parasite was lower, the time taken by cercariae to encyst was longer, fewer cercariae successfully encysted and encysted parasites had lower long-term survival than at normal seawater salinity (35 psu). The strong effect of salinity on the replication and transmission of this parasite suggests that there may be sources and sinks of transmission to birds along coastal areas, depending on local salinity conditions. Also, unless it evolves to adapt to changing conditions, the predicted reduction in salinity as a consequence of climate change may have negative impact on the parasite’s abundance.     

Do corals select zooxanthellae by alternative discharge?

Loss of zooxanthellae (dinoflagellate Symbiodinium) from corals will sometimes lead to mass mortality of corals. To detect and quantify Symbiodinium released from corals, we developed a zooxanthellae “trap” and a quantitative PCR (qPCR) system with Symbiodinium clades A–F-specific primer sets. The trap was attached to a branch or the surface of several wild stony corals, and the water samples within the traps, including released Symbiodinium, were subjected to qPCR. All tested corals released clade C Symbiodinium at estimates of ~5,900 cells h⁻¹ cm⁻² of coral surface. Although all tested Pocillopora eydouxi harboured both clades C and D, some of these colonies released only clade C or released a lesser amount of clade D than that in the tissues. Our Symbiodinium quantification system revealed that wild hermatypic corals constantly release Symbiodinium to the environment. Our result suggests that some corals may discharge certain clades of Symbiodinium alternatively.     

Esterification of sugarcane bagasse by citric acid for Pb2+ adsorption: effect of different chemical pretreatment methods

In this study, different pretreatment strategies of sugarcane bagasse prior to citric acid modification were investigated in terms of Pb²⁺ adsorption capacity. Pretreatment strategies included the use of NaOH, HCl, and C₂H₅OH in various concentrations. In order to fundamentally understand how these pretreatment methods affect the modification of sugarcane bagasse by citric acid as well as the Pb²⁺ adsorption capacity of sugarcane bagasse, three main components of sugarcane bagasse namely cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin were isolated and esterified by citric acid under the same conditions. ATR-FTIR, XPS, SEM, and an analysis of the number of carboxylic acid groups were used to investigate the physicochemical and chemical properties of the materials. These three components were proved to participate in adsorption and induce the esterification with citric acid. Hence, pretreatment with ethanol and 0.01 M NaOH which could retain cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin in sugarcane bagasse achieved a high Pb²⁺ adsorption capacity, i.e., 122.4 and 97 mg/g after the esterification with citric acid. In contrast, pretreatment with 0.5 M NaOH and 0.1 M HCl removed lignin and hemicellulose, leading to the lowest value of approximately 45 mg/g for citric acid esterified-pretreated sugarcane bagasse. XPS analysis and number of carboxylic group measurement confirmed the esterification between bagasse and citric acid. To understand the adsorption mechanism of adsorbent, two kinetic models including pseudo-first-order model and pseudo-second-order model were applied. The experimental data were well described by the pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted Langmuir and Freundlich.

     

Sorbent-based devices for the removal of spilled oil from water: a review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Always, oil spills do cause serious and dire consequences for the environment, nature, and society that it consumes much time and socio-economic...     

Status of water use and potential of rainwater harvesting for replacing centralized supply system in remote mountainous areas: a case study

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The failure of the centralized water supply system forced XY community to become more dependent on uncertain and unstable water sources. The results...     

Comparative mammalian cell cytotoxicity of wastewater with elevated bromide and iodide after chlorination, chloramination, or ozonation

Recycling wastewater is becoming more common as communities around the world try to better control their water resources against an increased frequency of either prolonged droughts or intense flooding. For communities in coastal areas, wastewaters may contain elevated levels of bromide(Br~-) and iodide(I~-) from seawater intrusion or high mineral content of source waters. Disinfection of such wastewater is mandatory to prevent the spread of pathogens, however little is known about the toxicity of wastewater after disinfection in the presence of Br~-and I~-. In this study we compared the induction of chronic cytotoxicity in mammalian cells in samples of municipal secondary wastewater effluent amended with elevated levels of Br~-/I~-after disinfection by chlorine, chloramines or ozone to identify which disinfection process generated wastewater with the lowest level of adverse biological response. Chlorination increased mammalian cell cytotoxicity by 5times as compared to non-disinfected controls. Chloramination produced disinfected wastewater that expressed 6.3 times more cytotoxicity than the non-disinfected controls and was 1.3 times more cytotoxic than the chlorinated samples. Ozonation produced wastewater with cytotoxicity comparable to the non-disinfected controls and was at least 4times less cytotoxic than the chlorine disinfected wastewaters. These results indicate that compared to chlorination and chloramination, ozonation of wastewater with high Br~-/Ilevels yielded the lowest mammalian cell cytotoxicity, suggesting its potential as a more favorable method to disinfect wastewater with minimizing the biological toxicity in mind.