Population-level variation in plant secondary chemistry,and the population biology of herbivores

Summary Modern population ecology is becoming increasingly spatially-explicit. For insect hervibores, spatial variation in plant quality is a critical component of distribution and abundance. We argue that populationlevel measurements of phytochemical variation among individual plants has not kept pace with recent developments in population ecology. With examples from our own work, we demonstrate the importance of spatial variation in plant chemistry for insect herbivores, and suggest that phytochemistry should play a central role in the development of any spatially-based ecological theory.     

Some Interpolation Estimators in Environmental Risk Assessment for Spatially Misaligned Health Data

Ecological regression studies are widely used in geographical epidemiology to assess the relationships between health hazard and putative risk factors. Very often, health data are measured at an aggregate level because of confidentiality restrictions, while putative risk factors are measured on a different grid, i.e., independent (exposure) variable and response (counts) variable are spatially misaligned. To perform a regression of risk on exposure, one needs to realign the spatial support of the variables. Bayesian hierarchical models constitute a natural approach to the problem because of their ability to model the exposure field and the relationship between exposure and relative risk at different levels of the hierarchy, taking proper account of the variability induced by the covariate estimation. In the current paper, we propose two fully Bayesian solutions to the problem. The first one is based on the kernel-smoothing technique, while the second one is built on the tessellation of the study region. We illustrate our methods by assessing the relationship between exposure to uranium in drinkable waters and cancer incidence, in South Carolina (USA).     

环境中的邻苯二甲酸酯

本文较为系统地评述了邻苯二甲酸酯的环境行为、生态效应、环境归趋、数学模型和处理技术。指出邻苯二甲酸酯是生产量大和应用面广的人工合成有机化学品,是目前世界上全球性的一类环境有机污染物。这类化合物的低水溶度和低挥发性导致了它们的高吸附亲和性,从而使得该类化合物在固体颗粒物表面的行为对于研究它们在环境中各种过程具有十分重要的作用。     

Incorporation of Recreational Fishing Effort into Design of Marine Protected Areas

Abstract:  Theoretical models of marine protected areas (MPAs) that explore benefits to fisheries or biodiversity conservation often assume a dynamic pool of fishing effort. For instance, effort is homogenously distributed over areas from which subsets of reserves are chosen. I tested this and other model assumptions with a case study of the multiple-use Jervis Bay Marine Park. Prior to zoning of the park I conducted 166 surveys of the park's recreational fisheries, plotting the location of 16,009 anglers. I converted these plots into diagrams of fishing effort and analyzed correlates between fishing and habitat and the effect of two reserve designs—the draft and final zoning plans of the park—on the 15 fisheries observed. Fisheries were strongly correlated with particular habitats and had negatively skewed and often bimodal spatial distribution. The second mode of intensely fished habitat could be 6 SD greater than the fishery's mean allocation of effort by area. In the draft-zoning plan, sanctuary zone (no-take) area and potential subduction of fishing effort were similar. In the final plan, which was altered in response to public comment, the area of sanctuary zone increased, and the impact on fishing effort decreased. In only one case was a fishery's most intensely targeted location closed to fishing. Because of the discriminating manner with which fishers target habitats, if simple percentage targets are used for planning, sanctuary location can be adjusted to avoid existing fishing effort. According to modeled outcomes, the implication of this may be diminished reserve effectiveness. To address this, reserve area should be implicitly linked to subducted fishing effort when promoting or modeling MPAs.     

Representational success: A new paradigm for achieving species protection by reserve site selection

Models for designing habitat reserve networks have focused on minimizing the number of sites necessary to cover each species one or more times. A solution to this problem is usually one from among a large number of alternative optimal configurations of sites. This paper develops an iterative method for building reserve networks that produces an optimal solution to the species set covering problem (SSCP) and also maximizes the number of species covered two or more times, three or more times, and so on, conditional on the solution to the previous iteration. We refer to this as representational success. Thus, a pareto optimal species set covering is achieved that is preferable to an arbitrary optimal solution to the SSCP.     

Structural perturbations of models used in mathematical biology

The paper discusses the importance of understanding structural perturbations of models used in mathematical biology, where we mainly focus on ecology and dynamical systems. We describe first briefly the classical modeling strategy and the derivation of model structures. Structural perturbations are then discussed, mainly in the framework of ODEs. We give some examples how insights obtained from this type of model could be transfered to other kinds of models. Finally we propose an alternative modeling strategy characterized by a systematic investigation of a models neighbourhood in an appropriately chosen model class.     

Project of an Air Quality Monitoring Network for Industrial Site in Italy

In this paper results concerning project of an atmospheric monitoring network applied to an area of south of Italy carried out using chemical measurement campaigns (for traffic emissions characterisation couple with diffusional simulation of industrial pollutant emissions will be presented. The area selected is characterised by an high concentration of high environmental impacting industrial activities, with also high concentration of urban settlement and vehicular traffic. A comprehensive definition of all the monitoring system to be installed in order to have a correct monitoring system for the all province will be described and discussed.     

Assessment of Ground Water Vulnerability and its Application to the Development of Protection Strategy for the Water Supply Aquifer in Owerri, Southeastern Nigeria

Pollution vulnerability of theOwerri regional water supply aquifer wasevaluated as a basis for developing appropriateprotection strategy for the groundwaterresource. The assessment was accomplished usingLegrand, GOD, Siga and DRASTIC models.Techniques of the models generally involvedparameters rating and point count systems, whichare based on the evaluation of various parameterin relation to their capacity for enhancing orattenuating contaminants in the groundwatersystem. Field and laboratory evaluations of theparameters indicate that the Owerri areagenerally occupies a nearly, flat topographywith a relatively high groundwater recharge. Thearea is underlain by predominantly sandyfacies in the Northern area which grades intogravelly sequences towards the southwest. TheSoutheastern area is distinguished by thickclayey facies that thin westwards towards theOwerri metropolis. Effective hydraulicconductivity (Kz) in the downward directionranges from 1.44 × 10^-3 to 5.6 × 10^-9 m s^-1; with the upper limits reflecting coarsesands and gravelly units. The amount of clay andclay-size particles in the sandy and gravellyunits is negligible, suggesting that thesorptive capacity of the units is low. Depth towater table decreases southwards while hydraulichead gradients vary between 0.09 and 0.22.Groundwater occurs in unconfined conditions inmost places except in the southeastern zonewhere it is semi-confined due to the presence ofa clayey unit. The groundwater vulnerabilitymap developed on the basis of the models andseveral other thematic maps shows that theOwerri metropolis and the southwest area ofOwerri have high vulnerability, indicatinggroundwater pollution. The existing wastedisposal sites in these sub-areas should beabandoned and rehabilitated to forstall furtherpollution of the groundwater system. Areas tothe North and Southeast of Owerri have moderateand low vulnerabilities, respectively,indicating the relatively lower sensitivity ofthe groundwater system in the sub-areas tocontamination. The lower sensitivity couldfurther be matched with properly engineeredsanitary landfills in the event of choice ofsites, as an additional protective strategy forthe groundwater system.     

Condensed atmospheric photooxidation mechanisms for isoprene

Two condensed mechanisms for the atmospheric reactions of isoprene, which differ in the number of species used to represent isoprene's reactive products, have been developed for use in ambient air quality modehng. They are based on a detailed isoprene mechanism that has recently been developed and extensively evaluated against environmental chamber data. The new condensed mechanisms give very close predictions to those of the detailed mechanism for ozone, OH radicals, nitric acid, H₂O₂, formaldehyde, total PANS, and for incremental effects of isoprene on ozone formation in one day simulations. The effects of the condensations become somewhat greater in multi-day simulations, particularly in cases where NO₃ reactions are important at nighttime, but the ozone predictions are still very close. On the other hand, the SAPRC-90, RADM-2, and Carbon Bond IV isoprene mechanisms give quite different predictions of these quantities. It is recommended that the new mechanisms replace those currently used in airshed simulations where isoprene emissions are important.