Beaver-mediated methane emission: The effects of population growth in Eurasia and the Americas

Globally, greenhouse gas budgets are dominated by natural sources, and aquatic ecosystems are a prominent source of methane (CH₄) to the atmosphere. Beaver (Castor canadensis and Castor fiber) populations have experienced human-driven change, and CH₄ emissions associated with their habitat remain uncertain. This study reports the effect of near extinction and recovery of beavers globally on aquatic CH₄ emissions and habitat. Resurgence of native beaver populations and their introduction in other regions accounts for emission of 0.18–0.80 Tg CH₄ year⁻¹ (year 2000). This flux is approximately 200 times larger than emissions from the same systems (ponds and flowing waters that became ponds) circa 1900. Beaver population recovery was estimated to have led to the creation of 9500–42 000 km² of ponded water, and increased riparian interface length of >200 000 km. Continued range expansion and population growth in South America and Europe could further increase CH₄ emissions.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0575-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

火电灰渣场自然恢复下灰渣养分及重金属含量研究

对自然恢复下4类不同年代样地的灰渣养分含量及重金属含量进行研究,通过对比分析发现,有机质、全氮、全钾、全磷含量随着自然恢复时间的增加呈现递增的趋势,全磷含量在各恢复阶段与对照样地之间并不存在显著差异(P0.05)。pH随着恢复时间的增加呈现递减的趋势。对灰渣综合质量指数进行研究发现,自然恢复长期、中期、短期与自然恢复初期对比均有显著提高(P0.05),且随着自然恢复时间的增加灰渣综合质量指数逐渐提高。对灰渣场锌、铅、铜3种重金属研究后发现,在自然恢复下随着时间的增加,灰渣中重金属含量均呈现递减的趋势。     

Hypoxia in the Baltic Sea: Biogeochemical Cycles, Benthic Fauna, and Management

Hypoxia has occurred intermittently over the Holocene in the Baltic Sea, but the recent expansion from less than 10 000 km² before 1950 to >60 000 km² since 2000 is mainly caused by enhanced nutrient inputs from land and atmosphere. With worsening hypoxia, the role of sediments changes from nitrogen removal to nitrogen release as ammonium. At present, denitrification in the water column and sediments is equally important. Phosphorus is currently buried in sediments mainly in organic form, with an additional contribution of reduced Fe-phosphate minerals in the deep anoxic basins. Upon the transition to oxic conditions, a significant proportion of the organic phosphorus will be remineralized, with the phosphorus then being bound to iron oxides. This iron-oxide bound phosphorus is readily released to the water column upon the onset of hypoxia again. Important ecosystems services carried out by the benthic fauna, including biogeochemical feedback-loops and biomass production, are also lost with hypoxia. The results provide quantitative knowledge of nutrient release and recycling processes under various environmental conditions in support of decision support tools underlying the Baltic Sea Action Plan.     

Forest Die-Back Modified Plankton Recovery from Acidic Stress

We examined long-term data on water chemistry of Lake Rachelsee (Germany) following the changes in acidic depositions in central Europe since 1980s. Despite gradual chemical recovery of Rachelsee, its biological recovery was delayed. In 1999, lake recovery was abruptly reversed by a coincident forest die-back, which resulted in elevated terrestrial export of nitrate and ionic aluminum lasting ~5 years. This re-acidification episode provided unique opportunity to study plankton recovery in the rapidly recovering lake water after the abrupt decline in nitrate leaching from the catchment. There were sudden changes both in lake water chemistry and in plankton biomass structure, such as decreased bacterial filaments, increased phytoplankton biomass, and rotifer abundance. The shift from dominance of heterotrophic to autotrophic organisms suggested their substantial release from severe phosphorus stress. Such a rapid change in plankton structure in a lake recovering from acidity has, to the best of our knowledge, not been previously documented.     

柴油低温临界吸收法回收装车挥发油气

研究了采用柴油低温临界吸收法回收装车挥发油气的效果。实验结果表明：按装车挥发油气中的总烃体积分数为20.88%、装车挥发油气流量为280 m³/h、年运行时间为2 668 h计,装置年回收油气量为291 t,装置年最大运行功率为206.770 MW,装置投资回收期为3 a;处理后净化气中的总烃体积分数为1.24%,排放质量浓度低于25 g/m³,油气回收率达95%。处理后净化气满足GB 20950—2007《储油库大气污染物排放标准》,取得了较好的环保效益和经济效益。     

垃圾焚烧发电厂渗滤液MBR-NF截留液中腐植酸的超滤分离回收

垃圾焚烧发电厂渗滤液MBR-NF膜截留液因含有高浓度的难降解有机物和无机盐而难以处理。考虑其所含有机物大部分为腐植酸,可加于资源利用。本研究采用超滤对MBR-NF膜截留液中的腐植酸进行分离回收。实验结果表明,超滤能有效分离截留液中有机物和无机盐离子,分离因子与体积浓缩倍数(CF)呈良好的线性关系;回收样品的腐植酸含量达到36 g/L以上,重金属含量低于相关标准限值,表明采用超滤分离回收垃圾焚烧发电厂渗滤液MBR-NF截留液中的腐植酸是可行的。     

利用白云石石灰去除与回收污泥厌氧消化液中氮和磷

以白云石石灰为实验材料去除与回收污泥厌氧消化液中的氮磷,通过小试实验研究不同投药固液比S/L、初始pH值、反应温度、搅拌速度及反应时间对去除与回收氮磷效果的影响。实验结果表明,在最佳投药固液比S/L为300mg/L,最佳初始pH值范围为8.5~9.5,反应温度为25.0℃,搅拌速度为150 r/min,反应时间为24 h条件下,氨氮(NH+4-N)和磷(PO3-4-P)的去除率分别为37.26%和89.60%。利用X射线衍射仪(XRD)、扫描电镜(SEM)对沉淀产物进行了表征,通过分析可知沉淀产物中含有磷酸铵镁(MAP),可实现废水中氮磷经济有效的回收。     

电镀污泥的热处理特性以及对金属回收的影响

焙烧-酸浸法可有效回收电镀污泥中的有价金属,而污泥的热处理特性是决定能否采用焙烧预处理的重要因素。研究了氧化焙烧和还原焙烧对污泥成分和金属浸出性的影响,并对焙烧前后的污泥进行了金属形态分析和X射线衍射(XRD)分析。结果表明,焙烧预处理实现了污泥减量和金属富集;ES1经氧化焙烧后金属浸出率接近原泥,Cu的浸出率达99%;ES2的还原焙烧效果优于氧化焙烧,特别是Cu的浸出率超过97%,XRD分析发现,还原焙烧过程中金属Cu被还原为铁铜合金;2种焙烧均造成了ES3中目标金属Ni的浸出率的降低;金属浸出性的下降与残渣态的形成有关。     

Testing The Pearl Hypothesis: Natural resources and trust

Do natural resources reduce social trust? This paper reviews the literature on natural resources and on trust. The existing theoretical and empirical literature suggests that natural resources can reduce trust through several indirect mechanisms. Notably, studies show that natural resources lead to institutional degradation, corruption, inequality, and civil war, all of which have been associated with reduced trust. In addition, game theoretical work on windfall gains suggests that there may be direct effect of natural resources on trust. This paper tests empirically whether there is a direct effect of natural resources on trust (The Pearl Hypothesis), using cross-country data. The results indicate that no such direct effect exists, but we find a significant effect on trust of intermediate variables affected by natural resources, such as institutions, corruption, inequality and/or civil war. Importantly, the relationship between corruption and trust turns out to be non-linear, indicating that the effect of natural resources on trust depends on the initial corruption level of a country. In highly corrupt societies, institutional improvements that reduce corruption may also undermine trust, which poses difficult challenges for anti-corruption policy.     

A theoretical overview of the relationship between the resource curse and genuine savings as an indicator for “weak” sustainability

This paper shows the strong relation between the factors that lead to the resource curse (RC) and factors that lead to a decline of genuine savings (GS). There is substantial empirical evidence that economies that rely predominantly on their natural resources are also characterized by slower economic growth. This so‐called RC is commonly traced back to the fact that natural resources' generate rents that are independent of a country's economic performance, which can lead to suboptimal reinvestments of this consumed natural capital. We argue that the factors responsible for the RC also have a negative effect on GS, a concept that measures “weak” sustainable development by considering reinvestment of natural capital rents in physical and human capital. We discuss whether the RC hampers possibilities for resource abundant countries to obtain sufficiently high rates of GS, and find indeed many reasons why resource‐dependent countries have problems achieving positive GS rates. We survey both areas of research, emphasizing the influence of the exogenous and endogenous determinants of economic growth, which are usually used to theoretically and empirically explain the RC on the three different forms of capital considered by GS. We specify why most countries suffering from the RC have negative GS rates and explain in detail where the linkages are. This overview could help with potential advancements in the explanation of GS through the inclusion of RC effects.