Understanding local community attitudes toward industrial development in the Great Barrier Reef region World Heritage Area: are environmental impacts perceived to overshadow economic benefits?

Conflicts between industrial development and environmental conservation can be particularly acute when such development occurs in the vicinity of World Heritage sites. A key example is the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) in northeastern Australia, where a 2012 review by the World Heritage Council found that rapid port development inshore of the coral reef posed significant risks to local marine ecosystems. Such instances pose pressing challenges for decision‐makers seeking to manage World Heritage sites for multiple values and needs, including those of key stakeholder groups, such as local communities. There is increasingly a societal expectation that public decision‐making takes into account local views and priorities, and that companies seek a ‘social license to operate’. This research explored local community attitudes toward port development associated with the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and coal through the GBRWHA. Using data drawn from a survey and interviews, the research examined how a range of geographical factors, including proximity to gas infrastructure and the perceived impacts and risks of development to the local community, economy and environment shape community perceptions of the industry. Findings suggest that local attitudes toward gas and coal terminal development inshore of the GBRWHA are shaped predominantly by community perceptions of environmental impacts and risks associated with such infrastructure, in contrast to a broader public narrative that focuses largely on economic benefits. A complex combination of other factors, including social impacts, personal environmental values, community trust in industry, and equity in decision‐making and distribution of the risks and benefits of industrial development also contribute. Placed in a broader, global context, the findings have important implications for public decision‐making processes in Australia and elsewhere as they suggest that, for local communities, the perceived impacts of gas development on the environment may overshadow the benefits of industry.     

A Comprehensive Python Toolkit for Accessing High‐Throughput Computing to Support Large Hydrologic Modeling Tasks

The National Flood Interoperability Experiment (NFIE) was an undertaking that initiated a transformation in national hydrologic forecasting by providing streamflow forecasts at high spatial resolution over the whole country. This type of large‐scale, high‐resolution hydrologic modeling requires flexible and scalable tools to handle the resulting computational loads. While high‐throughput computing (HTC) and cloud computing provide an ideal resource for large‐scale modeling because they are cost‐effective and highly scalable, nevertheless, using these tools requires specialized training that is not always common for hydrologists and engineers. In an effort to facilitate the use of HTC resources the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project, CI‐WATER, has developed a set of Python tools that can automate the tasks of provisioning and configuring an HTC environment in the cloud, and creating and submitting jobs to that environment. These tools are packaged into two Python libraries: CondorPy and TethysCluster. Together these libraries provide a comprehensive toolkit for accessing HTC to support hydrologic modeling. Two use cases are described to demonstrate the use of the toolkit, including a web app that was used to support the NFIE national‐scale modeling.     

How to Constrain Multi‐Objective Calibrations of the SWAT Model Using Water Balance Components

Accurate discharge simulation is one of the most common objectives of hydrological modeling studies. However, a good simulation of discharge is not necessarily the result of a realistic simulation of hydrological processes within the catchment. We propose an evaluation framework that considers both discharge and water balance components as evaluation criteria for calibration of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). In this study, we integrated average annual values of surface runoff, groundwater flow, and evapotranspiration in the model evaluation procedure to constrain the selection of good model runs for the Little River Experimental Watershed in Georgia, United States. For evaluating water balance and discharge dynamics, the Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and percent bias (PBIAS) were used. In addition, the ratio of root mean square error and standard deviation of measured data (RSR) was calculated for individual segments of the flow duration curve to identify the best model runs in terms of discharge magnitude. Our results indicate that good statistics for discharge do not guarantee realistic simulations of individual water balance components. Therefore, we recommend constraining the ranges of water balance components to achieve a more realistic simulation of the entire hydrological system, even if tradeoffs between good statistics for discharge simulations and reasonable amounts of the water balance components are unavoidable. Editor's note : This paper is part of the featured series on SWAT Applications for Emerging Hydrologic and Water Quality Challenges. See the February 2017 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

Does the Temporal Resolution of Precipitation Input Influence the Simulated Hydrological Components Employing the SWAT Model?

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of sub‐daily precipitation time steps on model performance and hydrological components by applying the Green and Ampt infiltration method using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Precipitation was measured at a resolution of 0.1 mm and aggregated to 5‐, 15‐, 30‐, and 60‐min time steps. Daily discharge data over a 10‐year period were used to calibrate and validate the model. Following a global sensitivity analysis, relevant parameters were optimized through an automatic calibration procedure using SWAT‐CUP for each time step. Daily performance statistics were almost equal among all four time steps (NSE ≈ 0.47). Discharge mainly consisted of groundwater flow (55%) and tile flow (42%), in reasonable proportions for the investigated catchment. In conclusion, model outputs were almost identical, showing simulations responded nearly independently of the chosen precipitation time step. This held true for (1) the selection of sensitive parameters, (2) performance statistics, (3) the shape of the hydrographs, and (4) flow components. However, a scenario analysis revealed that the precipitation time step becomes important when saturated hydraulic conductivities are low and curve numbers are high. The study suggests that there is no need in using precipitation time steps <1 h for lowland catchments dominated by soils with a low surface runoff potential if daily flow values are being considered. Editor's note : This paper is part of the featured series on SWAT Applications for Emerging Hydrologic and Water Quality Challenges. See the February 2017 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

Evaluation of Existing and Modified Wetland Equations in the SWAT Model

The ability to accurately simulate flow and nutrient removal in treatment wetlands within an agricultural, watershed‐scale model is needed to develop effective plans for meeting nutrient reduction goals associated with protection of drinking water supplies and reduction of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. The objectives of this study were to incorporate new equations for wetland hydrology and nutrient removal in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), compare model performance using original and improved equations, and evaluate the ramifications of errors in watershed and tile drain simulation on prediction of NO₃‐N dynamics in wetlands. The modified equations produced Nash‐Sutcliffe Efficiency values of 0.88 to 0.99 for daily NO₃‐N load predictions, and percent bias values generally less than 6%. However, statistical improvement over the original equations was marginal and both old and new equations provided accurate simulations. The new equations reduce the model's dependence on detailed monitoring data and hydrologic calibration. Additionally, the modified equations increase SWAT's versatility by incorporating a weir equation and an irreducible nutrient concentration and temperature coefficient. Model improvements enhance the utility of SWAT for simulating flow and nutrients in wetlands and other impoundments, although performance is limited by the accuracy of inflow and NO₃‐N predictions from the contributing watershed. Editor's note : This paper is part of the featured series on SWAT Applications for Emerging Hydrologic and Water Quality Challenges. See the February 2017 issue for the introduction and background to the series.     

温带季节性分层水库浮游植物功能类群的时空演替

为探究我国北方温带季节性分层水库浮游植物群落结构的时空演替特性,于2014年7月~2015年6月对山东枣庄市水源水库周村水库进行每月2次的分层采样分析,采用Renolyds和Padisák等提出的功能类群划分方法对水库浮游植物群落进行分类,并结合水库水文、水质,分析优势功能类群时空演替规律及其主要环境影响因子.结果表明:周村水库共检出浮游植物112种,隶属于7门63属,可划分为18个功能群类.周村水库浮游植物功能类群演替具有明显的季节性分布特性:其中夏秋季热分层期主要以鞘丝藻(Lyngbya sp.)、螺旋藻属(Spirulina sp.)等丝状蓝藻为代表的S₁功能类群占优势,而冬季混合期以梅尼小环藻(Cyclotella meneghiniana)、针杆藻(Synedra sp.)等能适应低温、弱光的C+D功能类群为优势群落;浮游植物功能类群分布在垂向上并无较大差异.冗余分析(RDA)显示:热分层、降雨量和水温是影响浮游植物功能类群时空演替的主要环境因子.     

Microbial community functional structure in response to micro-aerobic conditions in sulfate-reducing sulfur-producing bioreactor

Limited oxygen supply to anaerobic wastewater treatment systems had been demonstrated as an effective strategy to improve elemental sulfur(S0) recovery, coupling sulfate reduction and sulfide oxidation. However, little is known about the impact of dissolved oxygen(DO) on the microbial functional structures in these systems. We used a high throughput tool(GeoChip) to evaluate the microbial community structures in a biological desulfurization reactor under micro-aerobic conditions(DO: 0.02–0.33 mg/L). The results indicated that the microbial community functional compositions and structures were dramatically altered with elevated DO levels. The abundances of dsrA/B genes involved in sulfate reduction processes significantly decreased(p 0.05, LSD test) at relatively high DO concentration(DO: 0.33 mg/L). The abundances of sox and fccA/B genes involved in sulfur/sulfide oxidation processes significantly increased(p 0.05, LSD test) in low DO concentration conditions(DO: 0.09 mg/L) and then gradually decreased with continuously elevated DO levels. Their abundances coincided with the change of sulfate removal efficiencies and elemental sulfur(S0) conversion efficiencies in the bioreactor. In addition, the abundance of carbon degradation genes increased with the raising of DO levels, showing that the heterotrophic microorganisms(e.g., fermentative microorganisms) were thriving under micro-aerobic condition. This study provides new insights into the impacts of micro-aerobic conditions on the microbial functional structure of sulfatereducing sulfur-producing bioreactors, and revealed the potential linkage between functional microbial communities and reactor performance.     

有机物对亚硝化颗粒污泥中功能菌活性的影响

为探明易降解有机物短期冲击对全自养亚硝化颗粒污泥(PNG)中不同功能菌活性的影响,本研究采用多批次连续实验,系统考察了PNG在有机物胁迫与恢复阶段,氮素转化性能与溶解氧(DO)利用情况的演化规律.结果表明,基质C/N比越高,亚硝态氮比累积速率[q(NO-2-N)]的降幅就越大.期间,异养菌(He B)活性的增强,加快了PNG对DO的消耗速率,使得氧亲和力较差的亚硝酸盐氧化菌(NOB)活性得到了有效抑制.当重新采用无机碳源配水时,q(NO-2-N)数值明显增大,同时He B与NOB的活性均处于较低水平.因此,易降解有机物对全自养PNG系统的冲击具有一定可逆性,该过程有助于巩固氨氧化菌(AOB)的相对优势,提升亚硝化反应的稳定性.     

周期性的温度扰动对藻类群落结构演替的影响

为了研究水库生境扰动对藻类水华的作用机制,以中度扰动理论为基础,结合藻类群落生境选择学说和藻类生态功能组,开展了不同温度扰动周期、相同扰动幅度下藻类多样性变化特性和群落结构演替特征的室内控制实验.结果表明:1适度的扰动会促进藻类的生长且增加其多样性.中度扰动组Δ22℃/48 h藻类生物量最大,但多样性最高,不存在绝对占优藻种,而高频次扰动组Δ22℃/24 h生物多样性较小,但可降低藻类生物量.2温度的周期性变化对浮游藻类群落的演替有明显的影响,优势种也呈现一定的差异性.藻类优势功能组演替基本规律为:X_1(小球藻)→J(栅藻)→S_1(席藻)或X_2(衣藻),群落结构呈现出C/CR型藻类先行占优向R型演替的趋势.高温扰动频繁时,R型藻类(S_1)明显占优;无扰动或低扰动时,群落结构组成特点以C/R策略为主.适度的扰动组Δ22℃/48 h形成了多种生长策略的藻类共存的格局,且耐受高温胁迫的S策略藻类(L_0)开始出现.