A framework for understanding climate change impacts on coral reef social–ecological systems

Corals and coral-associated species are highly vulnerable to the emerging effects of global climate change. The widespread degradation of coral reefs, which will be accelerated by climate change, jeopardizes the goods and services that tropical nations derive from reef ecosystems. However, climate change impacts to reef social–ecological systems can also be bi-directional. For example, some climate impacts, such as storms and sea level rise, can directly impact societies, with repercussions for how they interact with the environment. This study identifies the multiple impact pathways within coral reef social–ecological systems arising from four key climatic drivers: increased sea surface temperature, severe tropical storms, sea level rise and ocean acidification. We develop a novel framework for investigating climate change impacts in social–ecological systems, which helps to highlight the diverse impacts that must be considered in order to develop a more complete understanding of the impacts of climate change, as well as developing appropriate management actions to mitigate climate change impacts on coral reef and people.     

Forest protection and economic development by offshoring wood extraction: Bhutan’s clean development path

With globalization, virtual exchanges of natural resources embodied in traded commodities redistribute geographically land use and its environmental impacts. Benefits of national forest protection may be undermined at the global-scale by leakage through international trade. We studied land use displacement associated with national policies to protect forests in Bhutan. This case study provides a simple situation: a dominant forest cover almost unaffected by agricultural expansion, a rural economy dominated by the primary sector, centralized forest conservation policies, and a dominant trading partner. We assessed the net effects at the international level of the Bhutanese forest protection policies by accounting for trade in wood products with India. Our results show that these policies have been effective in maintaining a high forest cover, but have been accompanied by an increasing displacement of forest use to India. In 1996–2011, the difference between the total volume of wood imported from India and the total volume exported from Bhutan—i.e., the net displacement—corresponds to 27 % of the total volume consumed in Bhutan. In 2011, 68 % of the total forest area required to produce the wood consumed in Bhutan was located in India. The wood imported by Bhutan was likely originating from tree plantations in the northeastern Indian states. Since Bhutan has few tree plantations and very valuable natural forests, the net international-level ecological impacts of this land use displacement is arguably positive. Most of the wood imports of Bhutan were wood charcoal for its emerging chemical industries. This case of displacement reflects functional upgrading in the value-chain rather than an externalization of consumption-based environmental costs. Through its government policies, Bhutan has managed to support its economic development while protecting its forests and leapfrogging the negative impacts on forests generally associated with the early stages of modernization.     

Utilizing international networks for accelerating research and learning in transformational sustainability science

A promising approach for addressing sustainability problems is to recognize the unique conditions of a particular place, such as problem features and solution capabilities, and adopt and adapt solutions developed at other places around the world. Therefore, research and teaching in international networks becomes critical, as it allows for accelerating learning by sharing problem understandings, successful solutions, and important contextual considerations. This article identifies eight distinct types of research and teaching collaborations in international networks that can support such accelerated learning. The four research types are, with increasing intensity of collaboration: (1) solution adoption; (2) solution consultation; (3) joint research on different problems; and (4) joint research on similar problems. The four teaching types are, with increasing intensity of collaboration: (1) adopted course; (2) course with visiting faculty; (3) joint course with traveling faculty; and (4) joint course with traveling students. The typology is illustrated by extending existing research and teaching projects on urban sustainability in the International Network of Programs in Sustainability, with partner universities from Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. The article concludes with challenges and strategies for extending individual projects into collaborations in international networks.     

A review of potential physical impacts on harbours in the Mediterranean Sea under climate change

Regional Environmental Change - The potential impact of climate change on port operations and infrastructures has received much less attention than the corresponding impact for beach systems....     

Dissolved phosphorus transport from soil to surface water in catchments with different land use

Diffuse phosphorus (P) export from agricultural land to surface waters is a significant environmental problem. It is critical to determine the natural background P losses from diffuse sources, but their identification and quantification is difficult. In this study, three headwater catchments with differing land use (arable, pasture and forest) were monitored for 3 years to quantify exports of dissolved (<0.45 µm) reactive P and total dissolved P. Mean total P exports from the arable catchment ranged between 0.08 and 0.28 kg ha^?1 year^?1. Compared with the reference condition (forest), arable land and pasture exported up to 11-fold more dissolved P. The contribution of dissolved (<0.45 µm) unreactive P was low to negligible in every catchment. Agricultural practices can exert large pressures on surface waters that are controlled by hydrological factors. Adapting policy to cope with these factors is needed for lowering these pressures in the future.     

Comprehensive Environmental Investigation at Former Industrial/Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Sites in Long Beach,CA: A Forensic Perspective

Two industrial sites were investigated based on years of available hydrogeologic information and monitoring data for soil and groundwater. Collected data were forensically evaluated using age-dating and fingerprinting methods. The previous business uses of the project sites were as a gas station, laundry/dry-cleaning service, and car wash with petroleum underground storage tanks (USTs). As a result, these sites were exposed to a number of toxic contaminants at relatively high concentrations. Source control was necessary for successful remediation and the ultimate removal of the remaining compounds from these industrial sites. Although contaminated soil around the source was excavated during the remedial action and the high concentrations of contaminants were reduced, typical groundwater contaminants such as petroleum hydrocarbons as gasoline (TPH-G), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes (BTEX), and oxygenates including methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), diisopropyl ether (DIPE), ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), tert-amyl methyl ether (TAME), and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) were persistently found at the studied sites around the source points. The plume and concentration of contaminants had changed their shapes and strength for all monitoring periods. Thus, additional source control seems to be a requirement for the complete removal of source contamination, which must be ascertained with groundwater and soil monitoring on a regular time base. For the study sites, monitored natural attenuation was relatively feasible for the long-term plan; however, it did not offer a perfect remediation solution for an ultimate goal because of residual toxic compounds that might have affected the surrounding residential areas at higher concentrations than their health limits. Therefore, as a remediation strategy, the combination of clean-up technology and natural attenuation with monitoring activities are more highly recommended than either clean-up or natural attenuation used separately.     

A Systematic Approach to the Evaluation of RCRA Disposal Facilities Under Future Climate‐Induced Events

The ability of near‐surface disposal facility cover designs to meet percolation performance criteria can be influenced by naturally occurring climatic mechanisms as well as anthropogenic forcing. This study was conducted to determine the effect of climate‐induced events on percolation based, probabilistic distributions derived from historical climate data. Water balance predictions were evaluated using the HELP model, employing several variations of degradation in a traditional RCRA disposal facility cover design over a 100‐year simulation period. Results demonstrated that changes in precipitation and temperature can influence performance. The analysis also revealed that when both precipitation and temperature are increased, warmer temperatures tend to offset some of the impact from greater precipitation. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Biogeochemical consequences of a changing Arctic shelf seafloor ecosystem

Unprecedented and dramatic transformations are occurring in the Arctic in response to climate change, but academic, public, and political discourse has disproportionately focussed on the most visible and direct aspects of change, including sea ice melt, permafrost thaw, the fate of charismatic megafauna, and the expansion of fisheries. Such narratives disregard the importance of less visible and indirect processes and, in particular, miss the substantive contribution of the shelf seafloor in regulating nutrients and sequestering carbon. Here, we summarise the biogeochemical functioning of the Arctic shelf seafloor before considering how climate change and regional adjustments to human activities may alter its biogeochemical and ecological dynamics, including ecosystem function, carbon burial, or nutrient recycling. We highlight the importance of the Arctic benthic system in mitigating climatic and anthropogenic change and, with a focus on the Barents Sea, offer some observations and our perspectives on future management and policy.     

Cement/clay interactions-- a review: experiments, natural analogues, and modeling

The concept of storing radioactive waste in geological formations calls for large quantities of concrete that will be in contact with the clay material of the engineered barriers as well as with the geological formation. France, Switzerland and Belgium are studying the option of clayey geological formations. The clay and cement media have very contrasted chemistries that will interact and lead to a degradation of both types of material. The purpose of this review is to establish an exhaustive list of laboratory experiments so as to identify the reaction sequences in the evolution of both the clay minerals and accessory minerals during their alteration in an alkaline environment. We review the data on clay dissolution kinetics in this environment, and include an invaluable study of natural analogues that allow one to correlate the phenomena in time. The available data and experiments make it possible to construct predictive numerical models. However, as the quality of the data is inhomogeneous, we recommend a continuation of the thermodynamic and kinetic data acquisition. It is obvious that the numerical modeling of the alkaline disturbance will be more relevant if it can combine the advantages of the different detailed models: mineralogical completeness, combined modeling of the clay and cement media, evolution of the porosity, consideration of the pCO2 and all the surface reactions.     

Bioconversion of selenate in methanogenic anaerobic granular sludge

The capacity of anaerobic granular sludge to remove selenate from contaminated wastewater was investigated. The potential of different types of granular sludge to remove selenate from the liquid phase was compared to that of suspended sludge and contaminated soil and sediment samples. The selenate removal rates ranged from 400 to 1500 microg g VSS(-1) h(-1), depending on the source of biomass, electron donor, and the initial selenate concentration. The granular structure protects the microorganisms when exposed to high selenate concentrations (0.1 to 1 mM). Anaerobic granular sludge "Eerbeek," originating from a UASB reactor treating paper mill wastewater, removed about 90, 50, and 36% of 0.1, 0.5, and 1 mM of Se, respectively, from the liquid phase when incubated with 20 mM lactate at 30 degrees C and pH 7.5. Selenite, elemental Se (Se(o)), and metal selenide precipitates were the conversion products. Enrichments from the anaerobic granular sludge "Eerbeek" were able to convert 90% of the 10-mM selenate to Se(o) at a rate of 1505 microg Se(VI) g cells(-1) h(-1), a specific growth rate of 0.0125 g cells h(-1), and a yield of 0.083 g cells mg Se(-1). Both microbial metabolic processes (e.g dissimilatory reduction) as well as microbially mediated physicochemical mechanisms (adsorption and precipitation) contribute to the removal of selenate from the Se-containing medium.