Kosetice, Czech Republic--ten years of air pollution monitoring and four years of evaluating the origin of persistent organic pollutants

The regional observatory Kosetice is a central European background station. Unique continuous monitoring from 1988 on is held here. POP (persistent organic pollutant) concentration values of air samples from Kosetice taken between 1996 and 2005 were statistically processed. Values of Czech ambient air quality standards were not exceeded. Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons reached two maxima, in 1996 and 2001-2002. Polychlorinated biphenyls concentrations reached the highest values in 1997 and 1998 and hexachlorocyclohexanes concentrations in 1998. DDTs, hexachlorobenzene and pentachlorobenzene were analysed as well. Long-range transport of pollutants between 2002 and 2005 was evaluated using the Potential Source Contribution Function hybrid receptor model. Indicated potential source areas of PCBs coincide with many well-known urban and industrialised areas, while the indicated potential source areas of HCHs and DDTs coincide with many agricultural and/or forested regions and the potential source areas of HCB comprise all land use types.     

突发性背景噪声的修正计算分析

噪声测量过程中蝗受背景噪声的影响,而对于突发性背景噪声因其重现性差,实际操作上的“非同时性”给背景噪声的测量结果及修正均带来一些失准问题。为此对突发性背景噪声的校正问题提出初步建议。     

环境影响预测中基准值问题的探讨

鉴于目前环境影响预测中基准值取法存在的问题,提出了结合目前通用做法与灰色预测的灰靶方案,该方案使得环境影响预测结果在一定范围内变化,从而更为切合评价实际。     

电感耦合等离子体质谱法分析碘元素时的有机增敏效应及消除

本文验证了碘元素在用电感耦合等离子体质谱法测定时的有机增敏效应,并采用虚拟内标或者基体匹配的方法有效降低了有机增敏的影响,准确分析食品中的碘元素。考察了不同雾化气流量和不同有机物含量下碘以及铑铟碲铼等内标元素的信号强度变化规律,筛选出由铑和碲组成虚拟内标用来校正碘的有机增敏效应,优于单内标校正效果;通过向内标溶液中添加50%异丙醇做到基体匹配后,各内标校正后的分析结果同样准确可靠。     

城市环境噪声管理的新探索——环境噪声的总量控制

本文对目前城市环境噪声源的评价方法和管理方法作了研究和阐述,并针对其缺点提出了一种值得尝试的新方法——环境噪声的总量控制：由城市区域环境噪声标准和环境背景噪声计算出环境噪声的容量,并以此为尺度来控制噪声污染源的排放量。文中对此评价方法和管理方法作了必要的阐述和论证。     

Effects of spatial autocorrelation and sampling design on estimates of protected area effectiveness

Estimating the effectiveness of protected areas (PAs) in reducing deforestation is useful to support decisions on whether to invest in better management of areas already protected or to create new ones. Statistical matching is commonly used to assess this effectiveness, but spatial autocorrelation and regional differences in protection effectiveness are frequently overlooked. Using Colombia as a case study, we employed statistical matching to account for confounding factors in park location and accounted for for spatial autocorrelation to determine statistical significance. We compared the performance of different matching procedures—ways of generating matching pairs at different scales—in estimating PA effectiveness. Differences in matching procedures affected covariate similarity between matched pairs (balance) and estimates of PA effectiveness in reducing deforestation. Independent matching yielded the greatest balance. On average 95% of variables in each region were balanced with independent matching, whereas 33% of variables were balanced when using the method that performed worst. The best estimates suggested that average deforestation inside protected areas in Colombia was 40% lower than in matched sites. Protection significantly reduced deforestation, but PA effectiveness differed among regions. Protected areas in Caribe were the most effective, whereas those in Orinoco and Pacific were least effective. Our results demonstrate that accounting for spatial autocorrelation and using independent matching for each subset of data is needed to infer the effectiveness of protection in reducing deforestation. Not accounting for spatial autocorrelation can distort the assessment of protection effectiveness, increasing type I and II errors and inflating effect size. Our method allowed improved estimates of protection effectiveness across scales and under different conditions and can be applied to other regions to effectively assess PA performance.     

The Impact of Global NGOs on Japanese Press Coverage of Climate Negotiations: An Analysis of the New “Background Media Strategy”

This article assesses the success of WWF Japan’s “Background Media Strategy” in influencing Japanese mainstream news outlets’ coverage of climate change negotiations. WWF Japan adopted this “Background Media Strategy” after the Bali COP in 2007; instead of lobbying, it aims to build journalists’ expertise. This article examines its success after seven years through three research approaches: the analysis of participant lists; two surveys (conducted in 2009 and 2015); and a content analysis of climate change articles that appeared in four large mainstream newspapers between April and July 2015. Based on these different data, the author concludes that the new media strategy was successful: Japanese journalists increasingly rely on information provided by WWF Japan and less on information provided by the government and industry. This experiment suggests that a new relationship between global NGOs and the media can improve environmental communications—an approach that could help advocacy groups around the world.     

Formulation of cleanup standards for trace elements with probability plots

Probability plots of trace element concentrations may be used to partition, or segregate, sample data into its constituent populations. Two populations are typically present in data from sites requiring remedial action, one representing clean, uncontaminated soil or sediment (background) and the other representing contaminated ground. The use of such plots in the analysis and evaluation of environmental data permits a statistical characterization of the background populations, from which defensible cleanup criteria may be developed. These criteria will be environmentally conservative, yet will minimize the amount of soil removed in a remedial action. An example is given from a successful cleanup of a surface impoundment.     

pH,有机质和石灰反应对土壤背景值的影响

从上海全市214个土壤剖面样品的13个元素的背景含量,探讨了pH、有机质和石灰反应对其之影响,并对几个主要土类、亚类和土属进行了详细阐述。调查表明,上海表层土壤中,pH和有机质都与Mn、Hg、Se呈中度相关:水稻土、潮土和盐土等3个主要土类之间的pH值、有机质含量都有极显著差异,一些相应元素也有显著差异:随石灰反应的强烈,含Cu量增加,而Zn、Cr、F、Se的含量减少。     

Comparison between background concentrations of arsenic in urban and non-urban areas of Florida

Arsenic contamination is of great environmental concern due to its toxic effects as a carcinogen. Knowledge of arsenic background concentrations is important for land application of wastes and for making remediation decisions. The soil clean-up target level for arsenic in Florida (0.8 and 3.7 mg kg⁻¹ for residential and commercial areas, respectively) lies within the range of both background and analytical quantification limits. The objective of this study was to compare arsenic distribution in urban and non-urban areas of Florida. Approximately 440 urban and 448 non-urban Florida soil samples were compared. For urban areas, soil samples were collected from three land-use classes (residential, commercial and public land) in two cities, Gainesville and Miami. For the non-urban areas, samples were collected from relatively undisturbed non-inhabited areas. Arsenic concentrations varied greatly in Gainesville, ranging from 0.21 to approximately 660 mg kg⁻¹ with a geometric mean (GM) of 0.40 mg kg⁻¹, which were lower than Miami samples (ranging from 0.32 to 112 mg kg⁻¹; GM=2.81 mg kg⁻¹). Arsenic background concentrations in urban soils were significantly greater and showed greater variation than those from relatively undisturbed non-urban soils (GM=0.27 mg kg⁻¹) in general.