THE LODGING VELOCITY FOR EMERGENT AQUATIC PLANTS IN OPEN CHANNELS1

ABSTRACT: The growth of aquatic plants in open‐channels has many adverse environmental effects including, but not limited to, impeding the transport of water, hindering navigation, increasing flood elevations, increasing sediment deposition, and degrading water quality. Existing control strategies include physical removal and chemical treatment. Physical removal is only a temporary solution and chemical treatment is unacceptable if the water will be consumed by humans. The hydrodynamic method can wash out the encroached aquatic plants by keeping flow velocity higher than the critical velocity required to bend and rupture (lodge) their stems. This approach is a promising, physically‐based, efficient, economic, and permanent solution for this problem. However, the success of this approach requires the accurate prediction of the critical lodging velocity. This paper presents an analytic study of the lodging velocity for the submerged portion of aquatic plants of narrow leaved emergent stems that are wider at bottom than the top. Based on the principles of engineering materials and the theory of turbulent flow, a semi‐empirical formula is derived for the prediction of the critical lodging velocity. It indicates that the lodging of aquatic plants is controlled not only by flow conditions but also the geometric and mechanical characteristics of the plants. These analytic results provide a satisfactory explanation of the lodging phenomena observed in the field and are verified by the available experimental data.     

PRIESTLEY‐TAYLOR ALPHA COEFFICIENT: VARIABILITY AND RELATIONSHIP TO NDVI IN ARCTIC TUNDRA LANDSCAPES1

ABSTRACT: Average daily values of the Priestley‐Taylor coefficient (a) were calculated for two eddy covariance (flux) tower sites with contrasting vegetation, soil moisture, and temperature characteristics on the North Slope of Alaska over the 1994 and 1995 growing seasons. Because variations in a have been shown to be associated with changes in vegetation, soil moisture, and meteorological conditions in Arctic ecosystems, we hypothesized that a values would be significantly different between sites. Since variations in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) follow patterns of vegetation community composition and state that are largely controlled by moisture and temperature gradients on the North Slope of Alaska, we hypothesized that temporal variations in a respond to these same conditions and thus co‐vary with NDVI. Significant differences in a values were found between the two sites in 1994 under average precipitation conditions. However, in 1995, when precipitation conditions were above average, no significant difference was found. Overall, the variations in a over the two growing seasons showed little relationship to the seasonal progression of the regional NDVI. The only significant relationship was found at the drier, upland study site.     

Securing water for people, crops, and ecosystems: New mindset and new priorities

A fundamentally new approach to water and human development will be needed during this new century if we are to secure sufficient freshwater to meet the needs of some 9 billion people while at the same time protecting the critical ecosystem services upon which the human economy depends. Signs of unsustainable water use — including falling water tables, shrinking lakes, and the drying up of rivers and streams — are widespread and spreading. In many regions, greater modification and appropriation of freshwater systems for human purposes will yield greater costs than benefits and create the risk of irreversible losses of species and ecosystem services. A new mindset is needed to guide water use and management in this new century, one that views the human water economy as a subset of nature's water economy. Living within nature's limits will require that societies satisfy the basic needs of people and ecosystems before non-essential water demands are met. It will require on the order of a doubling of water productivity. And it will require stronger institutions to encourage equitable sharing of water to alleviate tensions within and between countries.     

Dynamic phosphorus budget for lake-watershed ecosystems

Lake eutrophication caused by excess phosphorus （P） loading from point sources （PS） and nonpoint sources （NPS） is a persistent and serious ecological problem in China. A phosphorus budget, based on material flow analysis（MFA） and system dynamic （SD）, is proposed and applied for the agriculture-dominated Qionghai Lake watershed located in southwestern China. The MFA-SD approach will not only cover the transporting process of P in the lake-watershed ecosystems, but also can deal with the changes of P budget due to the dynamics of watershed. P inflows include the fertilizer for agricultural croplands, soil losses, domestic sewage discharges, and the atmospheric disposition such as precipitation and dust sinking. Outflows are consisted of hydrologic export, water resources development, fishery and aquatic plants harvesting. The internal P recycling processes are also considered in this paper. From 1988 to 2015, the total P inflows for Lake Qionghai are in a rapid increase from 35.65 to 78.73 t/a, which results in the rising of P concentration in the lake. Among the total P load 2015, agricultural loss and domestic sewage account for 70.60% and 17.27% respectively, directly related to the rapid social-economic development and the swift urbanization. Future management programs designed to reduce P inputs must be put into practices in the coming years to ensure the ecosystem health in the watershed.     

重庆酸雨对陆地生态系统的影响和控制对策——中日酸雨合作研究总结

中日合作研究项目：酸沉降对陆地生态系统的影响及其控制对策的研究,于１９９０至１９９５年期间在中国重庆地区进行。本文是该项目最终研究结果主要方面的报导,包括大气污染和酸雨的状况,酸沉降对池塘、森林和土壤生态系统的影响以及大气污染和酸雨控制对策。该项研究为今后酸沉降生态监测的研究,打下了有力的基础。     

Effect-Directed Analysis of Key Toxicants in European River Basins. A Review (9 pp)

Background, Aim and Scope Extensive monitoring programs on chemical contamination are run in many European river basins. With respect to the implementation of the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive (WFD), these programs are increasingly accompanied by monitoring the ecological status of the river basins. Assuming an impact of chemical contamination on the ecological status, the assignment of effects in aquatic ecosystems to those stressors that cause the effects is a prerequisite for taking political or technical measures to achieve the goals of the WFD. Thus, one focus of present European research is on toxicant identification in European river basins in order to allow for a reduction of toxic pressure on aquatic ecosystems according to the WFD. Main Features: An overview is presented on studies that were performed to link chemical pollution in European river basins to measurable ecotoxic effects. This includes correlation-based approaches as well as investigations that apply effect-directed analysis (EDA) integrating toxicity testing, fractionation and non-target chemical analysis. Effect-based key toxicants that were identified in European surface waters are compiled and compared to EU priority pollutants. Further needs for research are identified. Results: Studies on the identification of effect-based key toxicants focused on mutagenicity, aryl hydrocarbon receptor-mediated effects, endocrine disruption, green algae, and invertebrates. The identified pollutants include priority pollutants and other well-known environmental pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, furans, and biphenyls, nonylphenol, some pesticides and tributyltin, but also other compounds that were neither considered as environmental pollutants before nor regulated such as substituted phenols, natural or synthetic estrogens and androgens, dinaphthofurans, 2-(2-naphthalenyl)benzothiophene, and N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine. Discussion: Individual studies at specific sites in a European river basin demonstrated the power of combined biological and chemical analytical approaches and, particularly, of effect-directed analysis. However, the available information on effect-based key toxicants is very limited with respect to the entirety of rivers possibly at risk due to chemical contamination and with respect to toxicological endpoints considered at a specific site. A relatively broad basis of information exists only for estrogenicity and aryl hydrocarbon, receptor-mediated effects. Conclusions: The development of tools and strategies for an identification of key toxicants on a broader scale are a challenging task for the next years. Since investigations dealing with toxicant identification are too labor and cost-intensive for monitoring purposes, they have to be focused on the key sites in a river basin. These should include hot spots of contamination, particularly if there is evidence that they might pose a risk for downstream areas, but may also involve accumulation zones in the lower reach of a river in order to get an integrated picture on the contamination of the basin. Perspectives: While EDA is almost exclusively based on measurable effects in in vitro and in vivo biotests to date, an increasing focus in the future should be on the integration of EDA into Ecological Risk Assessment and on the development of tools to confirm EDA-determined key toxicants as stressors in populations, communities and ecosystems. Considering these requirements and applied in a focused way, toxicant identification may significantly help to implement the Water Framework Directive by providing evidence on the main stressors and possible mitigation measures in order to improve the ecological status of a river ecosystem.     

Spatial and Temporal Performance of the MiniFACE (Free Air CO2 Enrichment) System on Bog Ecosystems in Northern and Central Europe

The Bog Ecosystem Research Initiative (BERI) projectwas initiated to investigate, at five climaticallydifferent sites across Europe, the effects of elevatedCO₂ and N deposition on the net exchange ofCO₂ and CH₄ between bogs and the atmosphere,and to study the effects of elevated CO₂ and Ndeposition on the plant biodiversity of bogcommunities. A major challenge to investigate theeffects of elevated CO₂ on vegetation andecosystems is to apply elevated CO₂concentrations to growing vegetation without changingthe physical conditions like climate and radiation.Most available CO₂ enrichment methods disturb thenatural conditions to some degree, for instance closedchambers or open top chambers. Free Air CO₂Enrichment (FACE) systems have proven to be suitableto expose plants to elevated CO₂ concentrationswith minimal disturbance of their natural environment.The size and spatial scale of the vegetation studiedwithin the BERI project allowed the use of a modifiedversion of a small FACE system called MiniFACE. Thispaper describes the BERI MiniFACE design as well asits temporal and spatial performance at the five BERIfield locations. The temporal performance of theMiniFACE system largely met the quality criteriadefined by the FACE Protocol. One minute averageCO₂ concentrations measured at the centre of thering stayed within 20% of the pre-set target for morethan 95% of the time. Increased wind speeds werefound to improve the MiniFACE system's temporalperformance. Spatial analyses showed no apparentCO₂ gradients across a ring during a 4 day periodand the mean differences between each sampling pointand the centre of the ring did not exceed 10%.Observations made during a windy day, causing aCO₂ concentration gradient, and observations madeduring a calm day indicated that short term gradientstend to average out over longer periods of time. On aday with unidirectional strong winds, CO₂concentrations at the upwind side of the ring centrewere higher than those made at the centre and at thedownwind side of the ring centre, but the bell-shapeddistribution was found basically the same for thecentre and the four surrounding measurement points,implying that the short term (1 sec) variability ofCO₂ concentrations across the MiniFACE ring isalmost the same at any point in the ring. Based on gasdispersion simulations and measured CO₂concentration profiles, the possible interferencebetween CO₂-enriched and control rings was foundto be negligible beyond a centre-to-centre ringdistance of 6 m.     

EFFECTS OF URBANIZATION ON CHANNEL INSTABILITY1

ABSTRACT: Channel instability and aquatic ecosystem degradation have been linked to watershed imperviousness in humid regions of the U.S. In an effort to provide a more process‐based linkage between observed thresholds of aquatic ecosystem degradation and urbanization, standard single event approaches (U.S. Geological Survey Flood Regression Equations and rational) and continuous hydrologic models (HSPF and CASC2D) were used to examine potential changes in flow regime associated with varying levels of watershed imperviousness. The predicted changes in flow parameters were then interpreted in concert with risk‐based models of channel form and instability. Although low levels of imperviousness (10 to 20 percent) clearly have the potential to destabilize streams, changes in discharge, and thus stream power, associated with increased impervious area are highly variable and dependent upon watershed‐specific conditions. In addition to the storage characteristics of the pre‐development watershed, the magnitude of change is sensitive to the connectivity and conveyance of impervious areas as well as the specific characteristics of the receiving channels. Different stream types are likely to exhibit varying degrees and types of instability, depending on entrenchment, relative erodibility of bed and banks, riparian condition, mode of sediment transport (bedload versus suspended load), and proximity to geomorphic thresholds. Nonetheless, simple risk‐based analyses of the potential impacts of land use change on aquatic ecosystems have the potential to redirect and improve the effectiveness of watershed management strategies by facilitating the identification of channels that may be most sensitive to changes in stream power.     

A simulation model for projecting changes in salinity concentrations and species dominance in the coastal margin habitats of the Everglades

Sharp boundaries typically separate the salinity tolerant mangroves from the salinity intolerant hardwood hammock species, which occupy the similar geographical areas of southern Florida. Evidence of strong feedback between tree community-type and the salinity of the unsaturated (vadose) zone of the soil suggests that a severe disturbance that significantly tilts the salinity in the vadose zone might cause a shift from one vegetation type to the other. In this study, a model based upon the feedback dynamics between vegetation and salinity of the vadose zone of the soil was used to take account of storm surge events to investigate the mechanisms that by which this large-scale disturbance could affect the spatial pattern of hardwood hammocks and mangroves. Model simulation results indicated that a heavy storm surge that completely saturated the vadose zone at 30 ppt for 1 day could lead to a regime shift in which there is domination by mangroves of areas previously dominated by hardwood hammocks. Lighter storm surges that saturated the vadose zone at less than 7 ppt did not cause vegetation shifts. Investigations of model sensitivity analysis indicated that the thickness of the vadose zone, coupled with precipitation, influenced the residence time of high salinity in the vadose zone and therefore determined the rate of mangrove domination. The model was developed for a southern Florida coastal ecosystem, but its applicability may be much broader.     

Mass balanced and dynamic simulations of trophic models of kelp ecosystems near the Mejillones Peninsula of northern Chile (SE Pacific): Comparative network structure and assessment of harvest strategies

Mass balanced trophic models for kelp ecosystems which include subsystems dominated by Macrocystis integrifolia, Lessonia trabeculata and areas of barren ground (BG) were constructed for subtidal areas near the Mejillones Peninsula (SE Pacific), Chile. Information on biomass, P/B ratios, catches, food spectrum, consumption and dynamics of commercial and non-commercial populations was obtained and examined using Ecopath with Ecosim software analyses. The biomass of blades of L. trabeculata and M. integrifolia represented the compartments most relevant to the subsystems studied. Within the herbivores, the sea urchin Tetrapigus niger was dominant, followed by the snails Turritella sp. and Tegula sp. The fishes Pinguipes chilensis and Cheilodactylus variegatus were the dominant predators, followed by the asteroids Heliaster helianthus and Meyenaster gelatinosus. The highest system throughput (72,512 g wet weight m⁻² year⁻¹) was calculated for the subsystem dominated by M. integrifolia. The mean trophic level of the catch ranged from 1.1 (subsystem dominated by L. trabeculata) to 1.3 (subsystem dominated by M. integrifolia) to 3.2 (barren ground subsystem), showing that harvesting in each system was concentrated either on primary producers (blades of kelp species) or top predator fishes. Although the values for the Relative Ascendency (A/C) fluctuated from 36.5 to 45%, suggesting that all the systems were immature, the subsystem dominated by M. integrifolia emerged as the least resistant to external disturbances (e.g. fisheries). This result agreed with the high value of the system recovery time (SRT) for the M. integrifolia subsystem as a response to combined fisheries scenarios. The results obtained using mixed trophic impact (MTI) and Ecosim [increasing the fishing mortality F_i by 4×] showed that in most of the cases the predictions had the same qualitative tendencies. One of the most important results obtained in this study was that exploitation of kelp blades as an alternative strategy to harvesting the whole plants appeared to be ecologically sustainable, since harvesting the blades propagated only small effects on the entire subsystem. The fish P. chilensis may be considered as a top predator species with a strong top-down control since an increase in its fishing mortality in the subsystem dominated by M. integrifolia produced a high SRT value, and the F_MSY was less than the originally entered F_i in Ecopath. Based on the results obtained, it was concluded that the trophic mass balanced models and simulated management scenarios offered good possibilities for the planning of interventions and manipulations or the planning of more sustainable management strategies in highly disturbed natural systems.