The Environmental “Risky” Region: Identifying Land Degradation Processes Through Integration of Socio-Economic and Ecological Indicators in a Multivariate Regionalization Model

The economic policy needs to pay increasingly more attention to the environmental issues, which requires the development of methodologies able to incorporate environmental, as well as macroeconomic, goals in the design of public policies. Starting from this observation, this article proposes a methodology based upon a Simonian satisficing logic made operational with the help of goal programming (GP) models, to address the joint design of macroeconomic and environmental policies. The methodology is applied to the Spanish economy, where a joint policy is elicited, taking into consideration macroeconomic goals (economic growth, inflation, unemployment, public deficit) and environmental goals (CO₂, NO _x and SO _x emissions) within the context of a computable general equilibrium model. The results show how the government can “fine-tune” its policy according to different criteria using GP models. The resulting policies aggregate the environmental and the economic goals in different ways: maximum aggregate performance, maximum balance and a lexicographic hierarchy of the goals.     

Predicting Recovery Criteria for Threatened and Endangered Plant Species on the Basis of Past Abundances and Biological Traits

Recovery plans for species listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act are required to specify measurable criteria that can be used to determine when the species can be delisted. For the 642 listed endangered and threatened plant species that have recovery plans, we applied recursive partitioning methods to test whether the number of individuals or populations required for delisting can be predicted on the basis of distributional and biological traits, previous abundance at multiple time steps, or a combination of traits and previous abundances. We also tested listing status (threatened or endangered) and the year the recovery plan was written as predictors of recovery criteria. We analyzed separately recovery criteria that were stated as number of populations and as number of individuals (population‐based and individual‐based criteria, respectively). Previous abundances alone were relatively good predictors of population‐based recovery criteria. Fewer populations, but a greater proportion of historically known populations, were required to delist species that had few populations at listing compared with species that had more populations at listing. Previous abundances were also good predictors of individual‐based delisting criteria when models included both abundances and traits. The physiographic division in which the species occur was also a good predictor of individual‐based criteria. Our results suggest managers are relying on previous abundances and patterns of decline as guidelines for setting recovery criteria. This may be justifiable in that previous abundances inform managers of the effects of both intrinsic traits and extrinsic threats that interact and determine extinction risk. Predicción de Criterios de Recuperación para Especies de Plantas en Peligro y Amenazadas con Base en Abundancias Pasadas y Atributos Biológicos     

Gas chromatographic methods for monitoring of wastewater chlorophenol degradation in anaerobic reactors

Wastewater samples from an anaerobic reactor were extracted with hexane and derivatized with diazomethane (method 1) and with acetic anidride (method 2). Gas chromatography with electron-capture detection (ECD) was employed for separating the parent compound and intermediates trichlorophenols (TCP) and dichlorophenols (DCP) which originated from the penta chlorophenol (PCP) degradation process. The relations between concentrations of PCP, TCP and DCP areas were linear in the range of concentrations of 0.2 to 8 mg/L and 0.025 mg/L to 5 mg/L for methods 1 and 2, respectively. The repeatability of the extraction methods was satisfactory, with variation coefficients lower than 11%. For method 1, at the fortification level of 0.2 mg/L, recovery of PCP, TCP, and DCP was 112%, 74% and 45%, respectively. For method 2, the corresponding recovery values at the fortification level of 0.1 mg/L were 91%, 93% and 103%, respectively. Storage of the frozen samples did not alter their PCP determination properties. The chromatographic methods adapted for chlorophenol determination in wastewater were suitable with relatively simple manipulation techniques. The obtained results were reproducible and allowed identification of intermediates formed during the PCP degradation process.     

Identifying Biotic Integrity and Water Chemistry Relations in Nonwadeable Rivers of Wisconsin: Toward the Development of Nutrient Criteria

We sampled 41 sites on 34 nonwadeable rivers that represent the types of rivers in Wisconsin, and the kinds and intensities of nutrient and other anthropogenic stressors upon each river type. Sites covered much of United States Environmental Protection Agency national nutrient ecoregions VII—Mostly Glaciated Dairy Region, and VIII—Nutrient Poor, Largely Glaciated upper Midwest. Fish, macroinvertebrates, and three categories of environmental variables including nutrients, other water chemistry, and watershed features were collected using standard protocols. We summarized fish assemblages by index of biotic integrity (IBI) and its 10 component measures, and macroinvertebrates by 2 organic pollution tolerance and 12 proportional richness measures. All biotic and environmental variables represented a wide range of conditions, with biotic measures ranging from poor to excellent status, despite nutrient concentrations being consistently higher than reference concentrations reported for the regions. Regression tree analyses of nutrients on a suite of biotic measures identified breakpoints in total phosphorus (~0.06 mg/l) and total nitrogen (~0.64 mg/l) concentrations at which biotic assemblages were consistently impaired. Redundancy analyses (RDA) were used to identify the most important variables within each of the three environmental variable categories, which were then used to determine the relative influence of each variable category on the biota. Nutrient measures, suspended chlorophyll a, water clarity, and watershed land cover type (forest or row-crop agriculture) were the most important variables and they explained significant amounts of variation within the macroinvertebrate (R ² = 60.6%) and fish (R ² = 43.6%) assemblages. The environmental variables selected in the macroinvertebrate model were correlated to such an extent that partial RDA analyses could not attribute variation explained to individual environmental categories, assigning 89% of the explained variation to interactions among the categories. In contrast, partial RDA attributed much of the explained variation to the nutrient (25%) and other water chemistry (38%) categories for the fish model. Our analyses suggest that it would be beneficial to develop criteria based upon a suite of biotic and nutrient variables simultaneously to deem waters as not meeting their designated uses.     

Multinational,Freshwater Biomonitoring Programs in the Developing World: Lessons Learned from African and Southeast Asian River Surveys

Biomonitoring programs are widely used in developed countries. They also offer many advantages in assessing ecological consequences of perturbations in developing countries, including reducing the equipment-operation, maintenance, and training costs associated with physicochemical monitoring. Three case histories of river biomonitoring using freshwater organisms (fish, benthic macroinvertebrates, diatoms, zooplankton) are described that involve (1) documentation of environmental effects from long-term, large-scale applications of insecticides to control insect-vectors of river blindness (onchocerciasis) in 11 West African countries; (2) water quality assessments and restoration planning in and around national parks in three East African countries; and (3) evaluation of overall ecological health of the Lower Mekong River in four Southeast Asian countries. As in developed countries, benthic macroinvertebrates are the organisms most widely used in biomonitoring in developing countries. Conflicting opinions of system resilience and whether expected changes are within natural variation may result in differences in underlying hypotheses proposed, study designs implemented, and study execution; each may lead to uncorrectable bias. Direct transfers of approaches used from developed to developing countries are often appropriate; however, techniques dependent on pollution-tolerance values are often region specific and not transferable. Typically expressed concerns about applications of biomonitoring in developing countries include poor coordination among agencies; lack of legislation, identification keys, and trained personnel; and incomplete information on how tropical rivers function. Problems are real but solvable, as evident from accomplishments in several multicountry programs in developing countries. Developed countries requiring coordinated monitoring of international rivers may benefit from examining successful programs under way in developing countries.     

多因子影响下铜的水质基准及生态风险

为探究特定水环境中多因子影响下的铜水质基准及生态风险,采用物种权重敏感度分布法、水效应比法和生物配体模型推导保护太湖水生生物铜的水质基准.根据推导结果,推荐采用最大浓度基准值(CMC)1.43 μg/L和持续浓度基准值(CCC)1.33 μg/L.结合水效应比法和生物配体模型,采用联合概率法评估太湖铜的生态风险.结果表明,两种方法下丰水期5%水生生物受到铜慢性毒性影响的概率分别为23.43%和39.43%,而未考虑多因子影响的风险概率为85.01%,高估了太湖铜生态风险.可见,水环境多因子对水质基准和生态风险的影响不容忽视,我国目前使用的铜标准可能无法保护特定区域的水生生物.考虑多因子影响可提高基准值推导和风险评估的科学性,避免"过保护"和"欠保护"现象.     

Economic Growth and Sustainable Development: Could Multicriteria Analysis be used to Solve this Dichotomy?

This paper presents a multicriteria method to treat difficult EIA problems where several alternatives or options are to be gauged through many different types of criteria. To illustrate the method a case example for an urban road project is proposed involving 14 criteria and comprising government, public opinion, social, environment, infrastructure and economic issues, and in accordance with a chosen objective. This example tries to demonstrate that equilibrium can be reached between economic growth and sustainable development. Although the proposed example as a whole does not depict a real life application, its components have been tested in actual situations and in different countries. Dichotomy: Division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

自然保护区评价研究的进展

本文论述了自然保护区评价这一新学科在近30年内的发展史,同时介绍了自然保护区评价的几个组成部分和一些基本概念,分析了其存在的不足和有待解决的问题。     

Shrub communities as inhibitors of plant succession in southern Quebec

The purpose of our research was to identify shrub species growing in southern Quebec that inhibit ecological succession in power-line corridors. Results are presented in three parts. First, clonal characteristics that allowed the establishment of stable communities were identified. Second, successional vector analysis identified those species that have the potential to inhibit succession. In poorly drained sites those species wereCornus stolonifera, C. obliqua, Salix petiolaris, andSpiraea alba. In well-drained sites, those species wereZanthoxylum americanum, Rubus idaeus, Spiraea alba, Rhus typhina, andThuja occidentalis. Third, analysis of variance showed that there is a significantly larger number of tree seedlings found in adjacent herbaceous communities than found under the dense cover ofCornus stolonifera, C. obliqua, Salix petiolaris, Spiraea alba, Rhus typhina, Rubus idaeus, Thuya occidentalis, andZanthoxylum americanum. These results indicate that the planting of selected shrub species could, through biological control, delay reforestation.     

太湖双酚A的水质基准研究及风险评价

水质基准是制定水质标准的重要科学依据,制定符合我国实际情况的水质基准已成为当前的迫切需求.BPA（bisphenol A,双酚A）是一种典型的内分泌干扰物,基于太湖流域的人群暴露参数和生物累积系数,采用HJ 837-2017《人体健康水质基准制定技术指南》推荐方法,推导出太湖BPA的人体健康水质基准为0.738 μg/L,通过太湖儿童暴露参数得到保护儿童BPA的人体健康基准为0.628 μg/L（6~ < 9岁）、0.821 μg/L（9~ < 12岁）、0.620 μg/L（12~ < 15岁）,与成人基准差异不大.基于太湖流域水生生物的毒性数据,采用SSD（species sensitivity distribution,物种敏感度分布）法得到水生生物慢性基准为0.189 μg/L.使用RQ（risk quotient,风险商值）法评价太湖水体中BPA暴露所造成的健康与生态风险,结果表明,太湖中有0.03%区域面积水体存在较高健康风险,有2.03%区域面积水体存在较高的生态风险.另外,采用联合概率曲线法进一步分析生态风险发现,太湖水体中BPA对1%与5%的水生生物造成危害的概率分别为0.71%和0.33%.研究显示,我国太湖水体中BPA暴露造成的健康与生态风险处于可接受水平.