Assessment of National Parks affected by naturbanization processes in Southern Europe

This paper assesses land-use changes related to naturbanization processes on three biosphere reserves in Southern Europe. A comparative analysis has been done on the National Parks in Peneda-Gerês in North Portugal, Cévennes in South France and Sierra Nevada in South Spain, using Corine Land Cover data from 1990 until 2006. Results indicate that the process of land-use intensification is taking place in the frame of naturbanization dynamics that could jeopardize the role of Protected Areas. Focusing on the trends faced by National Parks and their surrounding territories, the analysis demonstrates, both in quantitative and spatial terms, the intensification processes of land-use changes and how it is important to know them for coping with increasing threats. The article concludes that in the current context of increasing stresses, a broader focus on nature protection, encompassing the wider countryside, is needed if the initiatives for biodiversity protection are to be effective.     

Estimation of effect of sugarcane bagasse biochar amendment in landfill soil cover on geotechnical properties and landfill gas emission

In a sanitary landfill, the final cover plays an important role in reducing the landfill gas emission to the atmosphere and in preventing the ingress of rainwater into the dumped waste. The present study investigated the suitability of sugarcane bagasse biochar as an amendment to the cover soil to improve the required landfill liner properties. The amended cover soil sugarcane bagasse (SSB) was tested for its stability and effectiveness, in terms of both geotechnical properties and methane mitigation efficiency. The effects of amending 15%, 20%, and 25% of sugarcane bagasse biochar (passing through 300 micron Indian Standard sieve) on the geotechnical properties of the SSB indicated that the SSB with 25% biochar showed the required values as per the standard with maximum dry density of 1.57 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cm³), liquid limit, plasticity index, and percentage of fines 48.5%, 16.3%, and 74.7%, respectively, and permeability of 0.9 × 10^?7. A column study that was conducted to determine the methane emission from the cover soil showed a 65.8% reduction in the methane emission compared to that of a column without SSB cover, with a cumulative methane emission of 410 milliliters (mL) at the end of 200 hours (h). On the other hand, the volume of methane emitted after 310 h from the column without cover and with the SSB cover was 1850 mL and 692 mL, respectively. The difference between these two values is found to be 22% of the total methane that the cover would have handled in its lifetime (5267 mL). Thus, there is an increase in the percentage of methane adsorption by soil cover from 15% to 22% when the soil was amended with 25% sugarcane bagasse biochar.     

Changes in Shallow Groundwater Quality Beneath Recently Urbanized Areas in the Memphis,Tennessee Area1

Barlow, Jeannie R.B., James A. Kingsbury, and Richard H. Coupe, 2012. Changes in Shallow Groundwater Quality Beneath Recently Urbanized Areas in the Memphis, Tennessee Area. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(2): 336‐354. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00616.x Abstract: Memphis, the largest city in the state of Tennessee, and its surrounding suburbs depend on a confined aquifer, the Memphis aquifer, for drinking water. Concern over the potential for downward movement of water from an overlying shallow aquifer to the underlying Memphis aquifer provided impetus for monitoring groundwater quality within the shallow aquifer. The occurrence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrate, and pesticides in samples from the shallow well network indicate a widespread affect on water quality from the overlying urban land use. Total pesticide concentration was generally higher in more recently recharged groundwater indicating that as the proportion of recent water increases, the occurrence of pesticides related to the current urban land use also increases. Groundwater samples with nitrate concentrations greater than 1.5 mg/l and detectable concentrations of the pesticides atrazine and simazine also had higher concentrations of chloroform, a VOC primarily associated with urban land use, than in other samples. The age of the water from these wells indicates that these concentrations are most likely not representative of past agricultural use, but of more recent urban use of these chemicals. Given that the median age of water represented by the shallow well network was 21 years, a lag time likely exists between changes in land use and the occurrence of constituents related to urbanization in shallow groundwater.     

金沙江流域植被覆盖时空变化特征

金沙江流域是长江上游生态脆弱地区,是长江上游水土保持重点防治工程、天然林保护工程和退耕还林工程等生态建设工程的重点实施区。首次利用遥感数据的归一化差值植被指数,采取线性相关分析方法,借助地理信息系统软件,定量化的分析金沙江流域生态建设工程对流域植被的影响。研究结果表明：1999～2008年,金沙江流域年均NDVI在波动中呈显著增加趋势,变化趋势的空间分布存在明显的区域差异,增加速率最快的是农田植被,增加趋势最显著的是灌丛植被;季节平均的NDVI空间分布与年内变化具有明显的空间分异性,不同季节NDVI的变化趋势也存在空间分异性,春、夏、秋和冬季金沙江流域NDVI呈增加趋势的像元分别占总像元的1650%、830%、1170%和1403%;春、夏和秋季都是灌丛NDVI的增加占主导地位,冬季则是草地NDVI的增加占主导地位。基于分析,在“长治”工程、天然林保护工程和退耕还林工程等生态建设工程的综合治理和气候变化的双重影响下,金沙江流域环境向有利的方向发展     

Damage Caused to the Environment by Reforestation Policies in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas of China

Traditional approaches to ecosystem restoration have considered afforestation to be an important tool. To alleviate land degradation in China, the Chinese government has therefore invested huge amounts of money in planting trees. However, the results of more than half a century of large-scale afforestation in arid and semi-arid China have shown that when the trees are not adapted to the local environment, the policy does not improve the environment, and may instead increase environmental degradation. When precipitation is lower than potential evaporation, surface soil moisture typically cannot sustain forest vegetation, and shrubs or steppe species replace the forest to form a sustainable natural ecosystem that exists in a stable equilibrium with the available water supply. The climate of much of northwestern China appears to be unsuitable for afforestation owing to the extremely low rainfall. Although some small-scale or short-term afforestation efforts have succeeded in this region, many of the resulting forests have died or degraded over longer periods, so policymakers must understand that these small-scale or short-term results do not support an inflexible policy of large-scale afforestation throughout arid and semi-arid northwestern China. Rather than focusing solely on afforestation, it would be more effective to attempt to recreate natural ecosystems that are better adapted to local environments and that thus provide a better chance of sustainable, long-term rehabilitation.     

Relation between forest vegetation, atmospheric deposition and site conditions at regional and European scales

Several monitoring programs have been set up to assess effects of atmospheric deposition on forest ecosystems. The aim of the present study was to evaluate effects on the understorey vegetation, based on the first round of a regional (the Netherlands) and a European forest monitoring program. A multivariate statistical analysis showed surprisingly similar results for both data sets; the vegetation appeared to be largely determined by the ‘traditional’ factors soil, climate, and tree species, but there was a small but statistically significant effect of atmospheric deposition. The effects of deposition include a slight shift towards nitrophytic species at high N deposition in the European network, and towards acidophytic species at high S-deposition in the Dutch network. The relatively small effect of atmospheric deposition is understandable in view of the very large natural variation in environmental conditions. Time series of both vegetation and environment are needed to assess deposition effects in detail.     

Neighborhood satisfaction,physical and perceived naturalness and openness

This study examined neighborhood satisfaction in relation to naturalness and openness. It used Geographic Information System (GIS) and Landsat satellite imagery to physically measure the environmental attributes. Through path analysis it examined the relationship among the attributes, resident ratings of those environmental attributes, their satisfaction with them, and their overall neighborhood satisfaction (n = 725). We expected overall neighborhood satisfaction to relate to the resident's ratings of the environmental attributes and to the physical measures of them. The path model showed that overall neighborhood satisfaction was associated directly with the physical measure of building density and indirectly with the physical measure of vegetation rate through perception and evaluation of them. The perceptions and evaluations of the attributes related to one another. With refinements, GIS and Landsat data geo-related to survey data can offer a powerful tool for understanding the complex nature of neighborhood satisfaction and behavior.     

Lake Temperature and Ice Cover Regimes in the Alaskan Subarctic and Arctic: Integrated Monitoring,Remote Sensing,and Modeling1

Arp, C.D., B.M. Jones, M. Whitman, A. Larsen, and F.E. Urban, 2010. Lake Temperature and Ice Cover Regimes in the Alaskan Subarctic and Arctic: Integrated Monitoring, Remote Sensing, and Modeling. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(4): 777-791. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00451.x Abstract: Lake surface regimes are fundamental attributes of lake ecosystems and their interaction with the land and atmosphere. High latitudes may be particularly sensitive to climate change, however, adequate baselines for these lakes are often lacking. In this study, we couple monitoring, remote sensing, and modeling techniques to generate baseline datasets of lake surface temperature and ice cover in the Alaskan Subarctic and Arctic. No detectable trends were observed during this study period, but a number of interesting patterns were noted among lakes and between regions. The largest Arctic lake was relatively unresponsive to air temperature, while the largest Subarctic lake was very responsive likely because it is fed by glacial runoff. Mean late summer water temperatures were higher than air temperatures with differences ranging from 1.7 to 5.4°C in Subarctic lakes and from 2.4 to 3.2°C in Arctic lakes. The warmest mean summer water temperature in both regions was in 2004, with the exception of Subarctic glacially fed lake that was highest in 2005. Ice-out timing had high coherence within regions and years, typically occurring in late May in Subarctic and in early-July in Arctic lakes. Ice-on timing was more dependent on lake size and depth, often varying among lakes within a region. Such analyses provide an important baseline of lake surface regimes at a time when there is increasing interest in high-latitude water ecosystems and resources during an uncertain climate future.     

长江流域土地利用结构及其空间自相关分析

按照中国科学院资源环境分类系统,将WESTDC_Land_Cover_Products2.0数据集重分类为耕地、林地、草地、水域、城乡建设用地和其它未利用土地等6类,借助GIS平台研究了长江流域土地利用数量结构特点及其空间自相关特征。结果表明,长江流域的主要土地利用类型为林地、耕地和草地,三者占流域总面积的90%以上,而水域、城乡建设用地和其它未利用土地所占比例较小。各省市之间土地利用结构差异较大,与一定的空间格局相联系,并形成了土地利用结构特征不同的4个大的区域。各土地利用类型比重属性值相似的省市在长江流域全局空间内聚集分布、空间邻接,呈极显著的全局空间正自相关。其中耕地、林地、草地、城乡建设用地和其它未利用土地分布特征的空间正自相关极显著,水域分布特征的空间正自相关显著,但各种土地利用类型空间分布的重心、格局、空间自相关构成及回归机制不同。各种土地利用类型空间分布的局部空间自相关为高高(H-H)聚集或低低(L-L)聚集,高值为低值所包围或低值为高值所包围的空间孤立点(Spatial Outlier)不显著。研究表明各种土地利用类型在长江流域的空间分布具有明显的聚集性和区域特征。     

Effects of wastewater from olive processing on seed germination and early plant growth of different vegetable species

Abstract

The effects of wastewater from olive processing on seed germination and early plant growth of different vegetable species were examined. Three types of wastewater at different concentrations were tested: raw wastewater, wastewater with organic matter removed and deionized wastewater.

Results generally indicate an inhibitory effect on seed germination and early plant growth by all treatments containing any kind of wastewater. Of the three types of effluent, raw wastewater had the greatest depressive effect, followed by deionized wastewater and finally effluent with organic matter removed. Barley showed the least sensitivity to phytotoxic effects while tomato was the plant most affected. The remaining vegetable species showed an intermediate sensitivity.