GROUND WATER NITRATE REDUCTION IN GIANT CANE AND FOREST RIPARIAN BUFFER ZONES1

ABSTRACT: Ground water contamination by excess nitrate leaching in row‐crop fields is an important issue in intensive agricultural areas of the United States and abroad. Giant cane and forest riparian buffer zones were monitored to determine each cover type's ability to reduce ground water nitrate concentrations. Ground water was sampled at varying distances from the field edge to determine an effective width for maximum nitrate attenuation. Ground water samples were analyzed for nitrate concentrations as well as chloride concentrations, which were used as a conservative ion to assess dilution or concentration effects within the riparian zone. Significant nitrate reductions occurred in both the cane and the forest riparian buffer zones within the first 3.3 m, a relatively narrow width. In this first 3.3 m, the cane and forest buffer reduced ground water nitrate levels by 90 percent and 61 percent, respectively. Approximately 40 percent of the observed 99 percent nitrate reduction over the 10 m cane buffer could be attributed to dilution by upwelling ground water. Neither ground water dilution nor concentration was observed in the forest buffer. The ground water nitrate attenuation capabilities of the cane and forest riparian zones were not statistically different. During the spring, both plant assimilation and denitrification were probably important nitrate loss mechanisms, while in the summer nitrate was more likely lost via denitrification since the water table dropped below the rooting zone.     

Send in the Clones ... Don't Bother, They're Here

The creation of a cloned sheep from mammary tissue has raisedmajor social concern, and much talk about major ethical issuesoccasioned by this technology. It is necessary to separategenuine from spurious ethical issues here, a task made failureto initiate ethical discussion and explanation of new technologyas well as by fear reactions in society. As in geneticengineering of animals, issues about cloning fall into threecategories – suggestions that the technology is inherently wrong,risk emerging from the technology and harm to the creatureengendered. The issues regarding the cloning of humans can beanalyzed using the same categories.     

PESTICIDES AND PESTICIDE DEGRADATION PRODUCTS IN STORMWATER RUNOFF: SACRAMENTO RWER BASIN,CALIFORNIA1

ABSTRACT: Pesticides in stormwater runoff, within the Sacramento River Basin, California, were assessed during a storm that occurred in January 1994. Two organophosphate insecticides (diazinon and methidathion), two carbamate pesticides (molinate and carbofuran), and one triazine herbicide (simazine) were detected. Organophosphate pesticide concentrations increased with the rising stage of the hydrographs; peak concentrations were measured near peak discharge. Diazinon oxon, a toxic degradation product of diazinon, made up approximately 1 to 3 percent of the diazinon load. The Feather River was the principal source of organophosphate pesticides to the Sacramento River during this storm. The concentrations of molinate and carbofuran, pesticides applied to rice fields during May and June, were relatively constant during and after the storm. Their presence in surface water was attributed to the flooding and subsequent drainage, as a management practice to degrade rice stubble prior to the next planting. A photo-degradation product of molinate, 4-keto molinate, was in all samples where molinate was detected and made up approximately 50 percent of the total molinate load. Simazine, a herbicide used in orchards and to control weeds along the roadways, was detected in the storm runoff, but it was not possible to differentiate the two sources of that pesticide to the Sacramento River.     

甘肃省农业生产风险因素分析

农业生产风险主要受耕地生产潜力、播种面积、抵御自然灾害的能力及政策保障能力等因素的影响。根据甘肃省粮食产量统计资料，在甘肃省粮食综合生产能力评价研究的基础上，讨论了各类风险因素对粮食生产和粮食安全的影响，提出加强农田水利建设，提高抵御自然灾害风险的能力应是提高全省粮食综合生产能力的重要策略。     

农业旱灾监测中土壤水分遥感反演研究进展

土壤水分是农业干旱监测最重要的指标之一。文章全面回顾了光学遥感和微波遥感土壤水分遥感反演进展，重点讨论了符种反演方法的优点和不足。光学遥感中，热惯量法和作物缺水指数法可分别较好地应用于裸露地和作物覆盖地的土壤水分监测；距平植被指数、植被条件指数采用了植被指数因子实现农业旱情监测，温度植被指数、植被供水指数和条件植被温度指数同时考虑了作物植被指数和地表温度。微波遥感被认为是当前土壤水分监测中最有效的方法。主动微波遥感空间分辨率较高，但对土壤粗糙度和植被敏感；被动微波遥感空间分辨率低，重访周期短，对大尺度农业旱灾监测具有较大潜力。为提高农业旱灾监测巾土壤水分遥感反演的精度和效率，采用光学遥感和微波遥感的结合可能是较为实际的方法。     

浅析黄河三角洲地区土地开发整理中的农业生态环境保护问题

土地开发整理是一项旨在提高土地生产力,改善农业生产条件和生态环境的活动,本文从目前黄河三角洲地区实际土地开发整理的情况分析,通过土地开发整理增加耕地面积,提高土地生产力,进一步呼吁对农业生态环境保护这一目标加强重视,形成一整套完整的土地开发整理生态绩效的评价体系和方法,以利于土地经济和土地生态的均衡发展。从生态学的角度对这一问题做出了比较全面的思考。     

南充市农地资源可持续利用探讨

农地资源的可持续利用是实现农业可持续发展的基础.在分析南充市农地资源特点的基础上,阐述了农地利用中存在的主要问题,并就合理利用农地提出了农地资源可持续利用的主要原则、对策与措施.     

环境伦理学刍议

本文研究了环境伦理学产生的背景，环境伦理学所具有的特点，环境伦理学研究的内容以及对环境伦理学应用等问题。     

Environmental Ethics Beyond Principle? The Case for a Pragmatic Contextualism

Many nonanthropocentric environmental ethicists subscribe to a ``principle-ist' approach to moral argument, whereby specific natural resource and environmental policy judgments are deduced from the prior articulation of a general moral principle. More often than not, this principle is one requiring the promotion of the intrinsic value of nonhuman nature. Yet there are several problems with this method of moral reasoning, including the short-circuiting of reflective inquiry and the disregard of the complex nature of specific environmental problems and policy arguments. In the present paper, we advance an alternative, pragmatic contextualist approach to environmental ethics, one grounded in the moral theory of John Dewey. We present the results of an empirical study of public environmental ethics and natural resource management attitudes to support our position, and we conclude with a few recommendations for future inquiry in the field of environmental ethics.     

The Ethical Contract as a Tool in Organic Animal Husbandry

This article explores what an ethicfor organic animal husbandry might look like,departing from the assumption that organicfarming is substantially based in ecocentricethics. We argue that farm animals arenecessary functional partners in sustainableagroecosystems. This opens up additional waysto argue for their moral standing. We suggestan ethical contract to be used as acomplementary to the ecocentric framework. Weexpound the content of the contract and end bysuggesting how to apply this contract inpractice. The contract enjoins us to share thewealth created in the agroecosystem (by ourjoint contributions) by enjoining us to carefor the welfare and needs of the individualanimal, and to protect them from exploitation(just as human co-workers should not beexploited). The contract makes promoting goodanimal welfare a necessary condition forbenefiting farm animals. Animals for their partare guaranteed coverage under the contract solong as they continue to contribute to thesystem with products and services.