CORRELATION OF COPROSTANOL TO ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS IN COASTAL AND ESTUARINE SEDIMENTS OF THE U.S.1

ABSTRACT: Results from the National Status and Trends Program, a nationwide effort to evaluate U.S. coastal and estuarine environmental quality, are analyzed to provide information about regional sources of organic contaminants in the benthic environment. Spearman's rank correlation procedure is applied to measurements of coprostanol, a chemical tracer of sewage, and three classes of organic compounds in sediments. The results suggest that discharges from publicly owned treatment works are responsible for concentrations of the organic compounds encountered in the northeastern coastal region, while other sources may predominate in the other regions of the country.     

Measuring Road Traffic Safety Performance: Monitoring Trends in Nonfatal Injury

Traditional indicators used to monitor trends in nonfatal injury are influenced by a range of factors other than the incidence of injury. Indicators based on threat-to-life scales offer a means of addressing this problem. The aim of the research described in this article was to compare trends in the official indicators with trends in selected threat-to-life indicators. We compared indicators based on the New Injury Severity Score and the International Classification of Diseases–based Injury Severity Score with the official New Zealand indicators; namely, (1) reported injuries, (2) reported injuries per 10,000 vehicles, (3) reported injuries per 100,000 people, and (4) number hospitalized (discharges). All the official indicators suggest that there has been a substantive decline in nonfatal Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes (MVTCs) for the period 1988–2000, but a notable increase in 2001. The latter appear to be artifactual increases due to changes in patterns of data collection and do not reflect any real changes in incidence. Further support for this is provided by the results for the two threat-to-life indicators, which suggest that the decline observed for 1988–98 may have been attributable to a decline in the ascertainment or occurrence of minor injuries since those injuries, which represent a significant threat to life, have not declined to the same degree. Given the prominence of motor vehicle crashes as a cause of unnecessary morbidity, more thought needs to be given to deriving valid indicators for measuring trends in serious nonfatal injury.     

Effect of IUCN Red List category on public attention to mammals

Cultural data is a powerful tool to analyze public awareness of key societal issues, including the conservation of nature. I used two publicly available repositories of cultural data, Google Trends and Google Ngram, to quantify the effect of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List conservation status on public attention toward 4539 mammal species. With Google Trends, I calculated whether Google searches for their common and scientific names have been increasing or decreasing over time. I also ran an anomaly detection analysis to investigate whether a change in red-list status directly results in an increase in Google searches. Additionally, I quantified the mentions of species’ common and scientific names in English texts with Google Ngram. Overall, Google searches for most mammal species remained at similar levels or increased since 2008. The severity of species’ IUCN Red List status was a significant predictor of increasing Google searches, although the effect size was relatively small. Red-list status seemed strongly confounded with mammal body size. Species that moved to a higher-risk category spiked significantly in Google searches directly after the new designation. The mention of species’ common names in the Google Ngram's English 2019 corpus significantly increased as the red-list category increased. These results provide valuable insight into the importance of the IUCN Red List for increasing public awareness and the usefulness of publicly available cultural data on examining the effectiveness of specific conservation efforts and thus evaluating targets for support and funding.     

Twenty Years of Change on Campsites in the Backcountry of Grand Canyon National Park

This article draws on three separate research and monitoring studies to describe 20-year trends in the number and condition of campsites in the backcountry of Grand Canyon National Park. Results are used to assess the effectiveness of a complex and innovative management program, adopted in 1983, that sought to concentrate use on designated campsites in popular places and disperse camping in more remote places. In 1984, conditions on 12 high-use campsites and 12 low-use campsites were carefully assessed. Conditions on 22 of these campsites were reassessed in 2005. In addition, campsite-monitoring surveys were conducted between 1985 and 1992 and again in 2003 and 2004. In these surveys, all campsites were located and their condition rapidly assessed. The detailed assessment of a sample of sites suggests relatively little change in condition during the 20-year period. The high-use sites were more highly disturbed than the low-use sites, but they did not change more during the study period. In contrast, changes at larger scales were dramatic. The total number of campsites more than doubled during the study period. Surprisingly, the proliferation of new campsites was greater in places where camping was only allowed on designated campsites than in places where camping was allowed anywhere. Concern that concentration of use on designated sites would cause unacceptable impact was unfounded. Management implications for other internationally significant protected areas that allow backcountry camping are explored.     

Atmospheric heavy metal deposition accumulated in rural forest soils of southern Scandinavia

Thirty-three years of measurements of atmospheric heavy metal (HM) deposition (bulk precipitation) in Denmark combined with European emission inventories form the basis for calculating a 50-year accumulated atmospheric input to a remote forest plantation on the island of Laesoe. Soil samples taken in two depths, 0-10cm and 10-20cm, at eight forest sites at the island were used to determine the increase in HM content in the eolian deposited top soils of the plantation. Concentrations of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), vanadium (V), nickel (Ni) and arsenic (As) were determined in atmospheric deposition and in soils. The accumulated atmospheric deposition is of the same magnitude as the increase of these metals in the top soil.     

A bibliometric review of nitrogen research in eutrophic lakes and reservoirs

The global application of nitrogen is far greater than phosphorus, and it is widely involved in the eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs. We used a bibliometric method to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate nitrogen research in eutrophic lakes and reservoirs to reveal research developments, current research hotspots, and emerging trends in this area. A total of 2695 articles in the past 25 years from the online database of the Scientific Citation Index Expended(SCI-Expanded) were analyzed. Articles in this area increased exponentially from 1991 to 2015.Although the USA was the most productive country over the past 25 years, China achieved the top position in terms of yearly publications after 2010. The most active keywords related to nitrogen in the past 25 years included phosphorus, nutrients, sediment, chlorophyll-a, carbon,phytoplankton, cyanobacteria, water quality, modeling, and stable isotopes, based on analysis within 5-year intervals from 1991 to 2015 as well as the entire past 25 years. In addition, researchers have drawn increasing attention to denitrification, climate change, and internal loading. Future trends in this area should focus on:(1) nutrient amounts, ratios, and major nitrogen sources leading to eutrophication;(2) nitrogen transformation and the bioavailability of different nitrogen forms;(3)nitrogen budget, mass balance model, control, and management;(4) ecosystem responses to nitrogen enrichment and reduction, as well as the relationships between these responses; and(5)interactions between nitrogen and other stressors(e.g., light intensity, carbon, phosphorus, toxic contaminants, climate change, and hydrological variations) in terms of eutrophication.     

“九五”期间大石桥市大气环境质量变化趋势分析

通过对大石桥市“九五”期间大气监测资料的分析研究,从中找出该期间大石桥市大气环境质量的变化规律与发展趋势,分析出大气污染的原因与特征,进一步提出综合防治建议。     

A common pattern in long-term metals production

A common pattern equation for the production of metals over their entire life is proposed. The equation is tested for five metals namely: copper, aluminum, lead, molybdenum and tungsten which have distinctly different historical spans. Various stages of early and take-off growth are identified and labeled stages I–IV. The very early stage of growth leading to a diminishing in activity appears to be decoupled from the later high growth stages. An approximately 12 year perturbation life cycle is noted in stage III for most metals. Copper and aluminum are not yet in stage IV, nor show any signs of entering this stage in the next 50 years. The pattern equation appears to have generality. A strict interpretation of the various parameters in the pattern equation is not attempted in this article.     

Water quality trend analysis for the Karoon River in Iran

The Karoon River basin, with a basin area of 67,000 km², is located in the southern part of Iran. Monthly measurements of the discharge and the water quality variables have been monitored at the Gatvand and Khorramshahr stations of the Karoon River on a monthly basis for the period 1967–2005 and 1969–2005 for Gatvand and Khorramshahr stations, respectively. In this paper the time series of monthly values of water quality parameters and the discharge were analyzed using statistical methods and the existence of trends and the evaluation of the best fitted models were performed. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to select the theoretical distribution which best fitted the data. Simple regression was used to examine the concentration-time relationships. The concentration-time relationships showed better correlation in Khorramshahr station than that of Gatvand station. The exponential model expresses better concentration – time relationships in Khorramshahr station, but in Gatvand station the logarithmic model is more fitted. The correlation coefficients are positive for all of the variables in Khorramshahr station also in Gatvand station all of the variables are positive except magnesium (Mg²⁺), bicarbonates () and temporary hardness which shows a decreasing relationship. The logarithmic and the exponential models describe better the concentration-time relationships for two stations.     

污染土壤修复技术研究现状与趋势

生态保护工作的发展包括环境保护和污染治理两个方面,为了保证生态环境的健康发展,必须要同时做好这两方面工作。在污染治理过程中土壤修复是重要的治理内容,也是污染治理的重要研究方法。本文主要对污染土壤修复技术研究现状进行分析,并对其未来的发展趋势进行预测。