Prymnesium parvum: The Texas Experience1

Southard, Gregory M., Loraine T. Fries, and Aaron Barkoh, 2010. Prymnesium parvum: The Texas Experience. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(1):14-23. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2009.00387.x Abstract: Golden alga Prymnesium parvum was first identified in Texas during a fish kill investigation on the Pecos River in 1985. Since then golden alga kills occurred sporadically in a variety of waters in the western part of the state until 2001 when the alga became endemic in the Brazos, Canadian, Colorado, Red, and Rio Grande river systems, including the water supplies of two public fish hatcheries, the Possum Kingdom and Dundee state fish hatcheries. The increasing area adversely affected by the alga and frequent massive fish kills heightened public and political awareness and concerns regarding the ecological and economic impacts of P. parvum blooms. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD), the wildlife conservation agency of the state, responded to these concerns with a program to assess the ecological and economic impacts and to develop management options. To date 33 water bodies have been affected and losses are conservatively estimated at 34 million fish valued at US$13 million. Several sport fisheries, including smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu, striped bass Morone saxatilis, channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus, and blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus, have been severely affected. Additionally, 26 imperiled fish species occur in the affected water basins and some have been adversely affected. Economic losses associated with reduced fishing and other water-based recreational activities appear considerable. The combined economic losses to three counties (Palo Pinto, Stephens, and Young) surrounding Possum Kingdom reservoir for 2001 and 2003 were estimated at US$2.8 million and US$1.1 million, respectively. This paper describes how the TPWD responded to public and political concerns relative to the emergence of golden alga, its harmful effects to fisheries, and its historic and current statewide distribution.     

Ecologically Functional Floodplains: Connectivity,Flow Regime,and Scale1

Opperman, Jeffrey J., Ryan Luster, Bruce A. McKenney, Michael Roberts, and Amanda Wrona Meadows, 2010. Ecologically Functional Floodplains: Connectivity, Flow Regime, and Scale. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 46(2):211-226. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00426.x Abstract: This paper proposes a conceptual model that captures key attributes of ecologically functional floodplains, encompassing three basic elements: (1) hydrologic connectivity between the river and the floodplain, (2) a variable hydrograph that reflects seasonal precipitation patterns and retains a range of both high and low flow events, and (3) sufficient spatial scale to encompass dynamic processes and for floodplain benefits to accrue to a meaningful level. Although floodplains support high levels of biodiversity and some of the most productive ecosystems on Earth, they are also among the most converted and threatened ecosystems and therefore have recently become the focus of conservation and restoration programs across the United States and globally. These efforts seek to conserve or restore complex, highly variable ecosystems and often must simultaneously address both land and water management. Thus, such efforts must overcome considerable scientific, technical, and socioeconomic challenges. In addition to proposing a scientific conceptual model, this paper also includes three case studies that illustrate methods for addressing these technical and socioeconomic challenges within projects that seek to promote ecologically functional floodplains through river-floodplain reconnection and/or restoration of key components of hydrological variability.     

Stewardship among lifestyle oriented rural landowners

Changes in landownership associated with amenity migration are affecting the demographic, cadastral and ecological conditions of rural landscapes. These changes and concerns about their impacts on natural resource management, including ecological conservation, relate to both the structural consequences of landownership change, land subdivision and to the motivations, management ability and attitudes of lifestyle oriented rural landowners. Based on an Australian case study near Sydney, NSW, this paper examines the motivations and practices of such landowners, assesses potential consequences for vegetation and characterises the landowners according to three stewardship types.     

石溪水库水环境容量研究

分析了江西宜春石溪水库的水环境状况,运用沃伦威德尔模型和狄龙模型等水库水环境容量计算方法,对石溪水库COD Mn、NH 3-N、TN、TP的水环境容量进行了计算。结果表明:石溪水库2012年水质为Ⅳ类,营养状态为中营养,入库的污染物量超出其自净能力。将水环境容量按照Ⅲ类和Ⅱ类水标准分为近期目标和远期目标,按近期目标CODM n、NH 3-N、TN、TP的超标率分别为7.6%、86.1%、121.1%、40.7%。在此基础上,分析了石溪水库水污染原因,提出了水污染控制方案。     

经环境污染损失调整的重庆市绿色GDP核算研究及应用

传统的GDP核算模式建立在资源耗减、环境破坏和公众健康不断透支的基础之上,不能体现经济活动对自然资源的消耗和对生态环境造成的破坏。为了将环境污染损失纳入GDP核算体系,以2010年重庆市绿色GDP核算为例,运用虚拟治理成本法进行环境价值量核算。结果表明,基于环境污染损失调整后的重庆市绿色GDP为7920.28亿元,污染扣减指数为0.4%。     

谈环境监察对节能减排的促进作用

环境监察是直接而具体的环境保护行为,是国家环保部门进行监督、强性执法的方式,是对环境进行有效监督的方法。环境监察需要执法部门现场进行监督与处理。具有直接性、强制性。大多分为事前、事中与事后监察。环境监察范围主要是对乱排放污染物,对生态造成破坏的单位或个人及时进行检查、处理。有些情况下,需要进行强制性执法。     

Examining the determinants of public environmental concern: Evidence from national public surveys

Early research showed that citizens’ environmental concern in the United States was linked to three individual-level factors: socio-demographic variables, political orientations, and personal beliefs or worldviews about human-nature relations. Given many changes in the American society over the last several decades, one important, yet unanswered question is whether these factors still drive public environmental concern in the United States today, and if so, to what extent. This study, drawing from extant theoretical and empirical studies, aims to reinvestigate the determinants of citizens’ environmental concern by employing three national public surveys conducted in 2004, 2007, and 2013. Our data analyses confirm and expand the findings of previous research on the significance and importance of political ideology, fundamental beliefs about human-nature relations, and certain socioeconomic factors such as gender and race in explaining citizens’ environmental concern. More specifically, political liberals, people with higher New Ecological Paradigm values, females, and Non-Whites tend to be more concerned about environmental problems than their counterparts are. Our data analyses also reveal some interesting findings when compared to many previous studies: first, our data indicate a positive relationship between age and environmental concern, suggesting that older people in the United States are more concerned about the environment than younger adults; second, unlike most past research showing a positive Education-Environmental Concern relationship, our study suggests that education level seems to have little effect in explaining citizens’ environmental concern measured in this study. Key implications for environmental policymaking and recommendations for future research are discussed in the conclusion.     

武夷新区土地利用变化及景观格局研究

以2010年的LandsatTM遥感影像图和武夷新区总体规划中新区2030年土地利用规划图为基础数据,在RS和GIS技术支持下,结合马尔科夫模型和景观生态学方法分析了未来武夷新区的土地利用与案观格局变化。结果表明：在规划实施后,建设用地通过占用耕地和林地而大面积增加,使得林地和耕地相应减少,人类活动对景观的干扰强度增大,区域景观斑块形状趋于规则简单化,斑块总数有所减少,平均斑块面积增大,景观连接度增强,破碎化程度降低,景观多样性增加。     

Effective environmental management through life cycle assessment

Unplanned and unsustainable development (particularly rapid industrialisation) has placed great pressure in every dimension of the environment (air, water, soil, health, etc.). The resulting disturbance in the natural ecological balance is a serious concern. Sustainable development is the need of the hour; it can only be achieved through effective environmental management. Environmental management will become indispensable in the future as regulatory restrictions tighten and public expectations of environmental performance increase. The day is not far away when a customer will prefer to buy products produced by an environmentally committed organisation. In short, the environmental commitment of an organisation will become a market strategy.

Environmental management is a set of actions based on a structured methodology to ensure that an organisation is committed to the environment and that the production process has minimal/no adverse affect on it. This article emphasises environmental management in the real engineering sense of the term, and discusses how to develop an effective environmental management system through life cycle assessment. It further demonstrates through a real life case study how an industry has achieved landmark success in managing its environment, production, as well as winning the good faith of society.     

Predicting the frequency of accidents in port areas by developing event trees from historical analysis

The historical analysis of 828 accidents in port areas, which have been selected from a database, has been used to identify the sequences of the accidents. Processing these data has allowed the event trees and the probability of the various accident scenarios to be determined. By using these event trees and figures detailing the frequency of the events that initiated the accidents, as taken from various authors, the frequency of the accidents has been determined.