Health impacts of air pollution in China

•Impacts of air pollution on various body systems health in China were highlighted. •China’s actions to control air pollution and their effects were briefly introduced. •Challenges and perspectives of the health effects of air pollution are provided. The health effects of air pollution have attracted considerable attention in China. In this review, the status of air pollution in China is briefly presented. The impacts of air pollution on the health of the respiratory system, the circulatory system, the nervous system, the digestive system, the urinary system, pregnancy and life expectancy are highlighted. Additionally, China’s actions to control air pollution and their effects are briefly introduced. Finally, the challenges and perspectives of the health effects of air pollution are provided. We believe that this review will provide a promising perspective on the health impacts of air pollution in China, and further elicit more attention from governments and researchers worldwide.     

Impacts of freshwater wetlands on water quality: A landscape perspective

In this article, we suggest that a landscape approach might be useful in evaluating the effects of cumulative impacts on freshwater wetlands. The reason for using this approach is that most watersheds contain more than one wetland, and effects on water quality depend on the types of wetlands and their position in the landscape. Riparian areas that border uplands appear to be important sites for nitrogen processing and retention of large sediment particles. Fine particles associated with high concentrations of phosphorus are retained in downstream wetlands, where flow rates are slowed and where the surface water passes through plant litter. Riverine systems also may play an important role in processing nutrients, primarily during flooding events. Lacustrine wetlands appear to have the least impact on water quality, due to the small ratio of vegetated surface to open water. Examples are given of changes that occurred when the hydrology of a Maryland floodplain was altered.     

Vegetation associated with different walking track types in the Kosciuszko alpine area, Australia

Tourism infrastructure such as walking tracks can have negative effects on vegetation including in mountain regions. In the alpine area around continental Australia's highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko (2228 m), there is a range of walking tracks (paved, gravel and raised steel mesh surfaces) in addition to an extensive network of informal/non-hardened tracks. Vegetation characteristics were compared between track types on/under tracks, on the track verge, and in the adjacent native vegetation. For a raised steel mesh walkway there was no difference in vegetation under the walkway, on the verge, and 3m away. In contrast, for a non-hardened track there was 35% bare ground on the track surface but no other detectable impacts. Gravel and paved tracks had distinct verges largely comprising bare ground and exotic species. For non-hardened tracks there was an estimated 270 m2 of disturbance per km of track. For wide gravel tracks the combined area of bare ground, exotic plants and gravel was estimated as 4290 m2 per km, while for narrow gravel tracks it was estimated as 2940 m2 per km. For paved tracks there was around 2680 m2 per km of damage. In contrast, there was no detectable effect of raised steel mesh walkway on vegetation highlighting some of the benefits of this surface over other track types.     

Boosted Regression Tree Models to Explain Watershed Nutrient Concentrations and Biological Condition

Boosted regression tree (BRT) models were developed to quantify the nonlinear relationships between landscape variables and nutrient concentrations in a mesoscale mixed land cover watershed during base‐flow conditions. Factors that affect instream biological components, based on the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI), were also analyzed. Seasonal BRT models at two spatial scales (watershed and riparian buffered area [RBA]) for nitrite‐nitrate (NO₂‐NO₃), total Kjeldahl nitrogen, and total phosphorus (TP) and annual models for the IBI score were developed. Two primary factors — location within the watershed (i.e., geographic position, stream order, and distance to a downstream confluence) and percentage of urban land cover (both scales) — emerged as important predictor variables. Latitude and longitude interacted with other factors to explain the variability in summer NO₂‐NO₃ concentrations and IBI scores. BRT results also suggested that location might be associated with indicators of sources (e.g., land cover), runoff potential (e.g., soil and topographic factors), and processes not easily represented by spatial data indicators. Runoff indicators (e.g., Hydrological Soil Group D and Topographic Wetness Indices) explained a substantial portion of the variability in nutrient concentrations as did point sources for TP in the summer months. The results from our BRT approach can help prioritize areas for nutrient management in mixed‐use and heavily impacted watersheds.     

Temporal and Spatial Trends in Nutrient and Sediment Loading to Lake Tahoe,California‐Nevada,USA

Since 1980, the Lake Tahoe Interagency Monitoring Program (LTIMP) has provided stream‐discharge and water quality data—nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and suspended sediment—at more than 20 stations in Lake Tahoe Basin streams. To characterize the temporal and spatial patterns in nutrient and sediment loading to the lake, and improve the usefulness of the program and the existing database, we have (1) identified and corrected for sources of bias in the water quality database; (2) generated synthetic datasets for sediments and nutrients, and resampled to compare the accuracy and precision of different load calculation models; (3) using the best models, recalculated total annual loads over the period of record; (4) regressed total loads against total annual and annual maximum daily discharge, and tested for time trends in the residuals; (5) compared loads for different forms of N and P; and (6) tested constituent loads against land use‐land cover (LULC) variables using multiple regression. The results show (1) N and P loads are dominated by organic N and particulate P; (2) there are significant long‐term downward trends in some constituent loads of some streams; and (3) anthropogenic impervious surface is the most important LULC variable influencing water quality in basin streams. Many of our recommendations for changes in water quality monitoring and load calculation methods have been adopted by the LTIMP.     

阿勒泰地区雾的气候特征与变化趋势及其对人体的影响研究

利用1961年-2012年阿勒泰地区气象观测资料,对雾的时空分布特征和变化趋势进行分析。结果表明:阿勒泰地区雾日数在时间分布上,初春的3月出现最多;冬季(12月-翌年2月)雾出现的比例最高,占37.6%。20世纪80年代年雾出现日数最多,2000年至今最少。阿勒泰地区雾日数在空间分布上也不是很均匀,区域性为西部的吉木乃、哈巴河县最多,东部的富蕴、青河县最少。阿勒泰地区雾出现日数年变化率与各县站的变化趋势一致,均呈明显的下降趋势,在1966年出现了减少的突变现象。R/S方法分析表明,各县站未来的年雾出现日数仍会呈减少趋势,雾天对人体有一定的影响。     

大型水利工程对洞庭湖区水资源开发利用的影响

洞庭湖区北靠长江,南汇湘、资、沅、澧四水,水资源总量相对丰富,然而近年来在气候变化与人类活动的双重驱动下,开始呈现"旱涝并存、旱涝交替"的特征,水资源供需矛盾逐渐加剧。为探讨上游大型水利工程(主要为三峡工程与四水流域控制性枢纽工程)的运行对洞庭湖区水资源开发利用的影响,结合近50a来长江干流及四水水位与水资源情势的演变规律和总体趋势,对比分析了不同时间节点下洞庭湖区水位与水资源总量的年际、年内变化特征,以期从众多的影响因子中辨识出大型水利工程的影响,为湖区水资源的合理开发与保护提供一定依据。结果表明:三峡工程建成运行初期,对于洞庭湖区的水资源开发利用产生了一定的不利影响,且影响主要集中在荆南三口地区,而四水工程的影响相较之下并不显著。     

快速城市化地区道路对两侧土地利用影响模式研究

基于多时段的卫星影像和土地利用变更调查数据,选取深圳市14条主要道路的代表性影响路段,用城市化影响指数(U)表征道路对土地利用的影响.以社会经济背景、地形条件、道路等级和道路运营年限为道路特征参数,基于相关性和非线性回归分析的方法研究道路对两侧土地利用影响的模式及其成因.研究发现,道路特征参数对两侧土地利用强度的影响表现出显著的差异性,其中,社会经济背景是道路对土地利用影响的主要影响因素,道路运营年限的影响主要表现在道路近距离区域,道路等级在中距离区域,而地形条件影响主要在远距离区域.道路对土地利用的影响模式分为3类,即山峰型、递减型和山谷型,而不同道路特征参数被认为是导致道路影响模式差别的主要原因.根据U值变化的曲线拟合分析得到各道路的影响范围,结果表明,快速路和主干路的影响范围较大,城市化进程起步较早、社会经济发展水平较好的西部地区道路影响范围大于东部.     

An ecological economics approach to the management of a multi-purpose coastal wetland

Three interrelated management problems—eutrophication of multiple use shallow lakes, sea level rise and flood risk mitigation and tourism pressures—are analysed in the context of an internationally important wetland area, the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads in the UK. The ecological-economic research findings presented should provide essential information to underpin the regulatory and management process in this internationally important conservation area. The relevant authority somehow has to integrate the maintenance of public navigation rights, nature conservation, and tourism promotion in a highly dynamic ecosystems setting. Because of the stakeholder conflicts, potential and actual, a more inclusionary decision-making procedure is required, and is currently being implemented.     

Monitoring the growth of tourism — related employment at the local level: the application of a Census‐based,non‐survey method in Yorkshire and Humberside, 1981–1987

The growing political and public profile of tourism has led to the need for local estimates of its economic impact and importance, especially the number of jobs involved. In particular there is a need to produce spatially and temporally disaggregated estimates of visitor numbers, visitor spending and tourism‐related employment. This paper outlines and uses an indirect non‐survey method for estimating the tourism‐related workforce in local areas proposed by Roger Vaughan. The method is applied to recently published 1987 Census of Employment data for Yorkshire and Humberside.