What is in a name? Language,framing and environmental justice activism in California's Central Valley

According to the environmental justice (EJ) literature, one important factor in the movement's success is the development of a frame linking inequality to the disproportionate presence of environmental toxins in low-income communities of colour. This article highlights the resonance of this frame among grassroots activists and professional advocates in California's Central Valley. However, through interviews and focus groups with activists and advocates in six Central Valley communities, we found that only the latter identified their work as EJ. Grassroots activists instead identified their work as about health, community development and environmentalism. Moreover, some were unfamiliar with EJ as a concept while others denied its applicability to their work. Theoretically, our findings suggest that frame resonance needs to be delinked conceptually from movement identification; it is possible for a movement's analysis of social problems and solutions to resonate among those who do not identify with the movement itself. Pragmatically speaking, this can prevent some grassroots activists who are directly affected by environmental racism from accessing the resources and networks that the EJ movement has painstakingly built, and suggests that movement leaders may need to increase their outreach to community groups.     

Cattle Grazing Mediates Climate Change Impacts on Ephemeral Wetlands

Abstract:  Climate change impacts depend in large part on land-management decisions; interactions between global changes and local resource management, however, rarely have been quantified. We used a combination of experimental manipulations and simulation modeling to investigate the effects of interactions between cattle grazing and regional climate change on vernal pool communities. Data from a grazing exclosure study indicated that 3 years after the removal of grazing, ungrazed vernal pools dried an average of 50 days per year earlier than grazed control pools. Modeling showed that regional climate change could also alter vernal pool hydrology. Increased temperatures and winter precipitation were predicted to increase periods of inundation. We evaluated the ecological implications of interactions between grazing and climate change for branchiopods and the California tiger salamander (  Ambystoma californiense ) at four sites spanning a latitudinal climate gradient. Grazing played an important role in maintaining the suitability of vernal pool hydrological conditions for fairy shrimp and salamander reproduction. The ecological importance of the interaction varied nonlinearly across the region. Our results show that grazing can confound hydrologic changes driven by climate change and play a critical role in maintaining the hydrologic suitability of vernal pools for endangered aquatic invertebrates and amphibians. These observations suggest an important limitation of impact assessments of climate change based on experiments in unmanaged ecosystems. The biophysical impacts of land management may be critical for understanding the vulnerability of ecological systems to climate change.     

赠曲河流域开发规划的环境影响优化调整方案研究

针对四川省甘孜州白玉县赠曲河流域开发规划进行了分析,发现在该流域实施梯级电站建设,存在淹没实物指标较大、破坏保护鱼类栖息地和淹没尾矿库等问题。论文结合当地环境条件和防护要求,从环境保护角度提出了调整规划河段范围、放弃支沟引水、调整梯级正常蓄水位和枢纽布置以及搬迁尾矿库等优化调整方案,为规划的合理实施和规划环评的开展提供了可资借鉴的参考。     

深度开发利用长江流域的土壤资源

长江流域河流网系中，沿河谷平原两侧为起伏丘陵与岗地，其上分布着以红壤为主，也有黄褐土与黄棕壤及多种类型的石灰岩风化发育的土壤。过去在单一粮食生产格局下，往往破坏岗丘上的土壤，促使严重退化。随着人口不断增长，应立足沟谷农田的不断增产，并合理经营与开发岗丘上的土壤，建立立体农业与生态农业生产格局，使共相互协调，增加丰盛的物质财富，改善生态环境，养育更多的人口。     

硅改性生物炭吸附水中Cd(Ⅱ)机理的量化分析

以纳米二氧化硅为硅源制备硅改性生物炭,利用吸附动力学、吸附等温线及SEM-EDS、XRD、FTIR、XPS等表征研究硅改性生物炭对水中Cd(Ⅱ)的吸附机理,并定量分析各种吸附机制的贡献率.结果表明,当添加SiO₂质量比为0.5%时制备的生物炭(0.5SiBC)吸附Cd(Ⅱ)效果最佳,最大吸附量为132.64 mg·g^-1,是未改性生物炭(BC)的1.56倍;0.5SiBC对Cd(Ⅱ)吸附过程符合拟二级动力学和Freundlich模型,其吸附过程属于化学吸附;XRD、FTIR和XPS等结果表明,0.5SiBC吸附Cd(Ⅱ)的机理主要有矿物质沉淀、离子交换作用和络合作用,各种机理贡献率依次为：矿物质沉淀(46.61%)>离子交换(33.79%)>其他机理(18.36%)>络合作用(1.24%);0.5SiBC对Cd(Ⅱ)的离子交换和矿物质沉淀量比BC分别提高133.80%和41.46%,硅改性主要通过提高生物炭的离子交换和矿物质沉淀能力来提高吸附Cd(Ⅱ)的能力.研究表明,硅改性生物炭作为去除水溶液中Cd(Ⅱ)的吸附剂具有较好的...     

SIMULATION OF SEDIMENT AND PLANT NUTRIENT LOSSES BY THE CREAMS WATER QUALITY MODEL1

ABSTRACT: CREAMS was applied to a field-sized watershed planted to cotton in the Limestone Valley region of northern Alabama. The field was cultivated for three years with conventional tillage (CvT) followed by three years of conservation tillage (CsT). CREAMS is composed of three components: hydrology, erosion, and chemistry. Surface runoff and losses of sediment, N and P were simulated and results were compared with the observed data from the watershed. Curve numbers recommended in the CREAMS user's guide were not adequate for the watershed conditions. The hydrology submodel improved runoff simulation from CvT and CsT when field-data based curve numbers were used. The erosion submodel demonstrated that CsT reduced sediment loss more than CvT, even though CsT had higher runoff than CvT. The nutrient submodel based on the simulated runoff and sediment underpredicted N loss for both CvT and CsT. This submodel, however, accurately predicted P loss for CvT, but underpredicted for CsT (50 percent lower than the observed). The results of CREAMS simulation generally matched the observed order of magnitude for higher runoff, lower sediment, and higher N and P losses from CsT than from CvT.     

Distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls in the Fort Edward,New York,water system

Levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been determined in the water, in the soils and sediments, and in the biota of a small upstate New York public water supply system, which is near the heavily polluted section of the Hudson River and a disposal site for PCB-containing waste. The impounded water exhibits a significant and relatively uniform level of Aroclor 1016, whereas the ground and surface waters supplying the reservoir do not. Rainfall, which exhibits a high level of Aroclor 1016, constitutes a small but significant source of PCB input. Soil and sediment samples exhibit significant median levels of both Aroclor 1016 and Aroclor 1254, but the local concentrations vary widely. The biota exhibit much higher PCB levels than the water or sediments, and show a strong preference for Aroclor 1254. The PCB levels in the macroinvertebrates are particularly high, suggesting that these organisms may provide a useful indicator for monitoring PCB contamination in aquatic systems. Risk assessment indicates that the lifetime incremental risk of cancer associated with the drinking water is below 10^–6. Management of such low levels of PCB contamination is best achieved by reducing the input of PCBs.     

Use of Radar Remote Sensing (RADARSAT) to Map Winter Wetland Habitat for Shorebirds in an Agricultural Landscape

Many of todays agricultural landscapes once held vast amounts of wetland habitat for waterbirds and other wildlife. Successful restoration of these landscapes relies on access to accurate maps of the wetlands that remain. We used C-band (5.6-cm-wavelength), HH-polarized radar remote sensing (RADARSAT) at a 38° incidence angle (8-m resolution) to map the distribution of winter shorebird (Charadriiformes) habitat on agricultural lands in the Willamette Valley of western Oregon. We acquired imagery on three dates (10 December 1999, 27 January 2000, and 15 March 2000) and simultaneously collected ground reference data to classify radar signatures and evaluate map accuracy of four habitat classes: (1) wet with 50% vegetation (considered optimal shorebird habitat), (2) wet with > 50% vegetation, (3) dry with 50% vegetation, and (4) dry with > 50% vegetation. Overall accuracy varied from 45 to 60% among the three images, but the accuracy of focal class 1 was greater, ranging from 72 to 80%. Class 4 coverage was stable and dominated maps (40% of mapped study area) for all three dates, while class 3 coverage decreased slightly throughout the study period. Among wet classes, class 1 was most abundant (30% coverage) in December and January, decreasing in March by 15%. Conversely, class 2 increased dramatically from January to March, likely due to transition from class 1 as vegetation grew. This approach was successful in detecting optimal habitat for shorebirds on agricultural lands. For modest classification schemes, radar remote sensing is a valuable option for wetland mapping in areas where cloud cover is persistent. Also, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA     

RIO GRANDE VALLEY,COLORADO, NEW MEXICO,AND TEXAS1

ABSTRACT: The Rio Grande Valley National Water-Quality Assessment study unit encompasses about 45,700 square miles in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas upstream from the gaging station Rio Grande at El Paso, Texas, and includes surface-water closed basins east of the Continental Divide in New Mexico, and the San Luis Closed Basin in Colorado. The mean annual precipitation ranges from less than 6 to more than 50 inches; potential evapo-transpiration ranges from less than 35 to more than 80 inches per year. Land use is mainly rangeland, forest land, and cropland. Total irrigated acreage in 1990 was about 914,000 acres and water use was about 3,410,000 acre-feet. Two structural settings are found in the study unit: alluvial basins and bedrock basins. The alluvial basins can have through-flowing surface water or be closed basins. The discussion of streamflow and water quality for the surface-water system is based on four river reaches for the 750 miles of the main stem. The quality of the ground water is affected by both natural process and human activities and by nonpoint and point sources. Nonpoint sources for surface water include agriculture, hydromodification, and mining operations; point sources are mainly discharge from wastewater treatment plants. Nonpoint sources for ground water include agriculture and septic tanks and cesspools; point sources include leaking underground storage tanks, unlined or manure-lined holding ponds used for disposal of dairy wastes, landfills, and mining operations.     

Evolutionary or fragmented environmental policy making? coal,power, and agriculture in the Hunter Valley,Australia

Intensified surface mining, power generation, and smelting operations in the Hunter River lowlands, NSW, Australia have posed numerous new environmental management problems. Legislative controls over water, soils, and land use management have been clearly insufficient and remain so. The complex range of environmental changes is challenging government agencies as well as coal developers. While water demands are increasing in the region the proportionally greatest competitors are power generation and irrigation. Comprehensive regional water quality assessment is inadequate and divided between a number of agencies with fragmentary interests. Coal development inquiries signal further controversy over appropriate management solutions and are an ongoing phenomenon in the region. The early 1980s resource boom has been followed by lower rates of economic growth, which have resulted in disparate agency responses to major ongoing environmental questions. While issue attention cycles are often remarkably short in environmental management, matters of water, land, and air quality require intensive and ongoing monitoring and policy development.