Assessment of physico-chemical properties and metal contents of water and sediments of Bodo Creek,Niger Delta,Nigeria

Some physico-chemical properties and the concentrations of the metals Fe, Mn, Ni, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Pb, and Zn in water and sediments were examined from September 2011 to January 2012 in Bodo Creek, where oil spills have been recurrent. Temperature, pH, total dissolved solid, conductivity, salinity, dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total hardness, sulfate, nitrate, and phosphate were determined in surface water. Particle size, total organic matter (TOM), and pH were also determined in the sediments. The parameters were within permissible limits except the mean values of BOD, COD, total hardness, and sulfate that exceeded levels permissible for domestic use. The sediments consisted mainly of sand, with TOM ranging from 0.2% to 5.5%. With the exception of cadmium that was below detection limit, metal levels (mg kg^?1) in the sediments were 12 (Mn), 1070 (Fe), 10 (Cu), 10 (Zn), 5.3 (Cr), 1.1 (Pb), 1.0 (Ni), and 0.5 (Co) while in water they were 24, 98, 21, 6.9, 4.0, 0.6, 0.18, and 0.16, respectively. The latter were higher than World Health Organization recommended permissible levels for both surface and drinking water.     

基于行政层级构建“橄榄型”生态文明建设指标框架

当前生态文明指标体系研究和实践中,一方面生态文明指标体系和生态文明指数构建方法不尽相同,另一方面刻意追求统一的指标体系而忽视了不同行政层级间的差异性,对层级间指标衔接等问题缺乏考虑。依照生态文明内涵以及十八大尤其是十八届三中全会关于生态文明建设尤其是生态文明考核指标要求,提出各行政层级构建“橄榄型”生态文明建设指标框架体系。该指标体系强调国家的顶层宏观引导作用,并以市县级生态文明建设指标体系为基础,向上构建省级生态文明建设指标体系,向下构建乡镇级生态文明建设指标体系,体现“国家—省—市县—乡镇”之间的整体性、衔接性、协调性,真正反映生态文明建设是“自上而下引导力”和“自下而上推动力”的合力作用的结果,服务于我国生态文明建设的持续开展和长效管理。     

滇池浮游植物碳氮同位素时空分布特征及其影响因子分析

通过对旱季、旱雨季过渡期和雨季3个不同时期滇池浮游植物 δ13C、δ15N的研究发现,滇池浮游植物δ13C、δ15N存在显著的时空分布特征.从旱季、过渡期到雨季,浮游植物δ13C值分别为-20.44‰±0.72‰、-17.32‰±1.09‰和-15.92‰±1.74‰,呈逐渐升高趋势;而浮游植物δ15N值的季节变化模式...     

新疆集中式饮用水不同水源类型放射性水平对比分析

本文调查了新疆某集中式饮用水不同水源类型总α、总β放射性水平,对不同的水源类型进行了数据对比,以为测量分析中出现的异常数据提供一个有效的鉴别依据。采集了新疆集中式饮用水不同类型水源经放化分析及测量总α、总β数值,得到新疆集中式饮用水不同水源类型放射性水平,并对不同类型的水源进行了对比分析。研究发现,总体上新疆某集中式饮用水不同水源类型的放射性水平基本处于正常环境本底范围,天然放射性核素水平未见异常;总α、总β的放射性浓度的高低是相依而存的,总α放射性浓度高的,其β的放射性浓度也高,总α放射性浓度低的,其β的放射性浓度也低;湖库型、河流型、地下水三种水源地的总α、总β的放射性浓度的高低的起因,主要包括其地理位置、水源类型等。     

污染场地环境风险评价中可接受风险水平探讨

简述了可接受风险水平的内涵及其发展历程,介绍了国外污染场地环境风险评价中可接受风险水平的选取。提出我国污染场地风险评价和修复治理应合理选取风险可接受水平数值,梳理现有修复治理工程修复目标值的制定过程,建立差异化的可接受风险水平标准体系。     

Adaptation to Climatic Variability and Change: Asian Perspectives on Agriculture and Food Security

The impacts of climate change on potential rice production in Asia are reviewed in the light of the adaptation to climatic variability and change. Collaborative studies carried out by IRRI and US-EPA reported that using process-based crop simulation models increasing temperature may decrease rice potential yield up to 7.4% per degree increment of temperature. When climate scenarios predicted by GCMs were applied it was demonstrated that rice production in Asia may decline by 3.8% under the climates of the next century. Moreover, changes in rainfall pattern and distribution were also found suggesting the possible shift of agricultural lands in the region. The studies however have not taken the impacts of climatic variability into account, which often produce extreme events like that caused by monsoons and El Niño. Shifts in rice-growing areas are likely to be constrained by land-use changes occurring for other developmental reasons, which may force greater cultivation of marginal lands and further deforestation. This should be taken into account and lead to more integrated assessment, especially in developing countries where land-use change is more a top-down policy rather than farmers' decision. A key question is: To what extent will improving the ability of societies to cope with current climatic variability through changing design of agricultural systems and practices help the same societies cope with the likely changes in climate?     

A yearly maximum sea level simulator and its applications: A Stockholm case study

A yearly maximum sea level simulator for Stockholm is presented. The simulator combines extreme sea level estimates and mean sea level rise projections into a joint probabilistic framework. The framework can be used, for example, to assess the risk that new structures placed at the current minimum allowed height above the sea level can become flooded in the future. Such assessments can be used to underpin future building free levels, which would be a great improvement over the much more arbitrary criteria in use today. Another strong point of the framework is that it can be used to quantify the influence of uncertainties in mean sea level projections, estimates of sea level extremes and future emission scenarios on the risk of flooding. For Stockholm mean sea level uncertainty is found to be much more important than extreme sea level uncertainty. The framework is also set-up to test adaptation measures. It is found that protections that are built once the mean sea level has risen above some given threshold can be very efficient. Lastly, the framework is embedded into a simple decision problem that can be used to calculate risk/reward ratios for land development as a function of height above today’s mean sea level.     

Complex call in male rock hyrax (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Procavia capensis</Emphasis>): a multi-information distributing channel

Chemicals such as those used for scent marking, or visual cues such as color badges, can transmit information pertaining to different aspects of individual, group and species recognition and attributes. Here, we show that complex acoustic cues, such as calls also have the capacity for such information transfer. Although songs are usually attributed to birds, rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis) engage in a rich and complex vocalizing behavior that we term ‘singing’. Previous studies on various species have shown that a specific vocalization can closely reflect a specific attribute. Using a series of multiple regressions, we show that a single complex vocalization by the adult male rock hyrax closely reflects numerous individual traits, possibly encoding various types of biologically important information (multiple-messages hypothesis). Our study reveals that hyrax songs provide accurate information regarding body weight, size and condition, social status and hormonal state of the singer. We also show that these independent data are sent in a sequential manner, a pattern that probably allows a better partition of the messages embedded in the song. Our results imply that animals, through complex individual vocalizations, can potentially advertise multiple individual attributes in the same manner as that produced by chemical scent marking. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Impact of climate changes on pollution levels in Denmark

The impact of climate changes on the pollution levels in Denmark is the major topic of this paper. Variations of the Danish air pollution levels that are caused by climatic changes are studied together with variations caused by other factors (emissions, inter-annual variability of meteorological conditions, etc.). The Unified Danish Eulerian Model (UNI-DEM) was run on a fine, 10 km × 10 km, grid over a space domain covering all of Europe to minimize the influence of the boundary conditions on the Danish pollution levels. This study is based on four categories of scenarios: (i) traditional scenarios, (ii) climatic scenarios, (iii) scenarios with variations of the human-made (anthropogenic) emissions and (iv) scenarios in which the biogenic emissions were varied. The total number of applied scenarios was 14, and a time-period of 16 years was used. The results show clearly that although the concentrations of the major pollutants do not depend too much on the climatic changes, some quantities, in particular quantities related to high ozone levels, might be increased significantly as a result of the warming trends in the future climate. The reason for this phenomenon is explained.     

Formaldehyde in China: Production, consumption, exposure levels, and health effects

Formaldehyde, an economically important chemical, is classified as a human carcinogen that causes nasopharyngeal cancer and probably leukemia. As China is the largest producer and consumer of formaldehyde in the world, the Chinese population is potentially at increased risk for cancer and other associated health effects. In this paper we review formaldehyde production, consumption, exposure, and health effects in China. We collected and analyzed over 200 Chinese and English documents from scientific journals, selected newspapers, government publications, and websites pertaining to formaldehyde and its subsequent health effects.Over the last 20 years, China's formaldehyde industry has experienced unprecedented growth, and now produces and consumes one-third of the world's formaldehyde. More than 65% of the Chinese formaldehyde output is used to produce resins mainly found in wood products — the major source of indoor pollution in China. Although the Chinese government has issued a series of standards to regulate formaldehyde exposure, concentrations in homes, office buildings, workshops, public places, and food often exceed the national standards. In addition, there have been numerous reports of formaldehyde-induced health problems, including poisoning and cancer. The lack of quality epidemiological studies and basic data on exposed populations emphasizes the need for more extensive studies on formaldehyde and its related health effects in China.