Detection and quantitation of trace levels of low molecular weight halocarbons (LMHs) associated with commercial sodium humate

Examination of vapor above commercial sodium humate and above 10wt% aqueous humate solution by gas chromatography (GC) revealed the presence of chloroform and trichloroethylene. Further examination of the aqueous humate by the purge and trap procedure confirmed the association of chloroform and trichloroethylene with the humate. GC/mass spectrometry analyses of methylene chloride extract of the humate established the association of LMHs with the humate. Improved headspace capillary GC technique showed that the humate contained not only chloroform, trichloroethylene but several other LMHs in the range 190 to 4000ng·kg^‐1.     

Crediting uncertain ecosystem services in a market

The margin of safety (MOS) approach is an increasingly prevalent tool for ensuring the integrity of market-based programs for providing ecosystem services. Over-crediting is reduced by setting aside mean estimates of uncertain services in favor of a more conservative estimate. Like many environmental policy problems, ecosystem service markets involve the aggregation of uncertainty over multiple scales, e.g. from landowners to market intermediaries to the overall market. We examine how the MOS instrument affects, and is affected by, an ecosystem services market. We show that the common bottom-up approach of imposing risk preferences at a local, disaggregated level—held over from earlier development in the context of toxics and command and control-style health risk regulation—leads to several unintended consequences. Furthermore, discounting landowner services can actually increase their profits, conditional on the elasticity of credit demand. We illustrate theoretical insights with an empirical application to greenhouse gas offset crediting in agriculture.     

Polychlorinated-dibenzo-p-dioxins, -dibenzofurans and -dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls in aquatic organisms from lake Kasumigaura,Japan

Polychlorinated-dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), -dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and -dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DLPCBs) were determined in aquatic wildlife of Kasumigaura Lake (KUL), Japan from 1978 to 2001. Two plankton species elucidated several fold greater concentrations (2400–7800) than small tiger fish (310–6500), shrimp (160–1100), and three large fish namely, black bass (120–240), carp (94–120) and mullet (54) on pg/g fat. PCDD homologues were predominant accumulants with >68–<95% contribution and remaining was shared by PCDFs. Accumulation, non-ortho DLPCBs in plankton (3500–9200), shrimp (1600–8600) and small fish (2000–8800) and large fish (1300–3900) on ng/g fat basis were several orders magnitude greater than PCDD/DFs. The mono-ortho DLPCBs in large fish species were 23?000–83?000?ng/g fat and which it is accounted 94.3–95.9% the total dioxin-like PCBs accumulation. Temporal trends of PCDDs, PCDFs, non-ortho PCBs and TEQ in shrimp and small tiger fish were varied. The mullet had minimum toxic equivalency “TEQ” (14?pg?TEQ/g) followed by plankton Neomysis intermedia (25?pg?TEQ/g), small tiger fish (mean: 33, ranges 14–66?pg?TEQ/g), plankton Cyclopus vicinus (34?pg?TEQ/g), carp (mean: 35, ranges 32–38?pg?TEQ/g), shrimp (mean: 38, ranges 11–68?pg?TEQ/g) and black bass (mean: 59, ranges 38–79?pg?TEQ/g) on fat basis. In all the samples, PCDD was predominant TEQ contributor followed by PCDFs and DLPCBs. The contribution of mono-ortho DLPCBs to the total TEQ was 0.52–0.92 in large fish.     

Exploring system interactions for building resilience within coastal environments and communities

This paper focuses on identifying examples of first-order system interactions, which make important contributions to building coastal resilience for coastal zone management. This discussion is based on an application of the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework to a case-study analysis of coastal management in South Australia. The study suggests that cross-scale interactions and informal relationships within and between users and managers are key interactions defining resilience outcomes within the current system. A significant constraint on improving resilience was the lack of evaluative criteria for identifying sustainable forms of system behaviour. The paper argues that resilience is a function of a normative statement on the characteristics desirable in the functioning system. Analyses of coastal resilience, which facilitate greater understanding of the range of complexities in coastal behaviour, are therefore central to gaining the most useful insights into the options and pathways for building more sustainable coastal futures.     

土壤中短链氯化石蜡的气相色谱-电子捕获负化学电离-质谱分析方法

通过考察层析柱对测定短链氯化石蜡(SCCPs)干扰物去除效果的影响,结合实际土壤样品的净化需求,建立了一套适合分析土壤中SCCPs的前处理方法.土壤样品使用索氏抽提,采用硅胶复合柱和弗罗里硅土柱净化,运用气相色谱-质谱(ECNI源)检测SCCPs.SCCPs的仪器定量限为100—600 pg.μL-1.空白加标和基质加标中SCCPs的回收率分别为130%±8.50%和108%±17.8%(SD,n=3).利用该方法分析了采自广州市郊区的6个土壤样品,其SCCPs的含量范围为12.9—34.5 ng.g-1,平均值为26.1 ng.g-1.     

简易垃圾填埋场地下水污染风险评价

对简易垃圾填埋场污染地下水的风险进行评价是开展地下水保护的重要手段. 基于对简易垃圾填埋场污染地下水的系统结构分析,构建了包括填埋场危险性、评价对象暴露性、包气带抗污性、含水层脆弱性以及地下水危害性等影响因素的地下水污染风险评价指标体系,确定了各评价指标的取值依据和取值范围(为1~10),采用层次分析(AHP)法确定了各评价指标的权重,并建立了综合指数风险评价模型. 以北天堂简易垃圾填埋场对北京市水源四厂地下水污染的风险评价为例,对该风险评价模型进行了验证. 结果表明,北天堂简易垃圾填埋场对北京市水源四厂地下水污染风险指数为7.455 6,污染风险等级较高,与有关研究结果相符,证实所建立的地下水污染的综合指数风险评价模型与指标体系合理.      

郑州市大气氨排放清单及驱动力分析

采用排放因子法建立郑州市分县区2017年大气氨排放清单,并实现1 km×1 km空间网格分配,同时进行2007~2017年氨排放趋势及1989~2017年氨排放驱动力相关性分析.结果表明,郑州市2017年氨排放量为18143.3 t,排放强度为2.4 t ·km^-2,农业源为主要排放源（63.4%）,逸散源次之（11.3%）;农业源中畜禽养殖氨排放主要来自蛋禽、肉猪和奶牛养殖;排放量前三的区县为登封市、荥阳市和新密市,分别占总量的19.3%、16.5%和15.6%;空间上郑州市南部及中西部地区排放量较高,东北部地区排放量较小;2007~2017年各区县氨排放整体呈下降趋势,1989~2017年郑州市氨排放呈类似环境库兹涅茨曲线趋势,即氨排放整体上随着人均GDP和城镇化率上升而先增加再下降.     

物质代谢分析框架及其研究述评

追溯了物质代谢概念的起源和发展,剖析了不同学科视角下物质代谢内涵的共性和差异性,并将物质代谢划分为生命代谢、生态代谢和经济或社会代谢等三大类.在此基础上,根据研究重点和目标不同,将物质代谢分析划分为代谢主体分析和代谢物质分析两大类,并进一步细分为组织代谢、区域代谢、物质分析、材料分析;对主要的物质代谢分析方法的适用范围、研究对象进行了比较和界定.基于物质代谢分析框架,对国内外相关研究系统地进行了归纳和总结,客观分析和评价了当前研究存在的问题和不足,并展望了物质代谢研究的重点领域和发展方向.      

Modeling high-frequency position data of large herbivores with a phase-state model

Understanding the rules and factors that drive the foraging behavior of large herbivores is important to describe their interaction with the landscape at various spatial scales. Some unresolved questions refer to landscape-behavioral interactions that result in oriented or random search in seasonally changing landscapes. Remotely sensed position data indicate that herbivores select local patches of heterogeneous landscapes depending on a complex host of dynamically varying animal and environmental conditions. Since foraging paths consist in successions of relatively short steps, increasing the frequency at which position information is acquired would contribute to entangle the mechanisms resulting in herbivores’ foraging paths. We addressed the question whether herbivores would obtain information at a patch scale that would modify their distribution at a landscape scale based on directed movement or navigation ability. We considered a set of 100,000 high-frequency (1 min intervals) position data of several free-ranging sheep (Ovis aries) at a seasonal-varying range (Patagonian Monte, Argentina) and observed their movements at landscape and at single vegetation patch scales. At a landscape scale, we inspected the spatial co-variation of seasonally varying forage offer and ewes’ movement speeds. At a patch scale, we developed a phase-state (P-S) model of movement cycles based on the occurrence of behavioral phases along foraging paths, and fitted it to the observed daily time series of ewes’ movement speeds. Ewes were preferentially distributed in areas with high forage offer during periods of low forage availability and the reverse occurred during the season of high forage availability. Parameters of the model of activity cycles amenable to control by ewes (duration of speed phases, time elapsed between speed cycles) did not covariate with forage offer, but varied significantly among ewes. The shape (kurtosis) parameter of the model of movement cycles, one which is unlikely under ewes’ control, co-varied significantly with spatial forage offer but did not differ among ewes. We conclude that ewes allocated foraging time along a series of similar movement efforts irrespective of forage availability at small patches. Average forage scarcity at multi-patch level increases the ratio of searching to feeding time. This results in apparent selective time allocation to richer forage areas but does not imply evidence for oriented movement at a landscape scale. We advance a behavioral-based definition of forage patches and discuss its implications in developing foraging theory and models. The P-S model applied to high-frequency position data of large herbivores substantially improves the interpretation of the factors controlling their time allocation in space with respect to previous models of herbivore spatial behavior by discriminating among behavioral-based and environmentally induced components of their movements.     

Matching the Multiple Scales of Conservation with the Multiple Scales of Climate Change

Abstract:  To anticipate the rapidly changing world resulting from global climate change, the projections of climate models must be incorporated into conservation. This requires that the scales of conservation be aligned with the scales of climate-change projections. We considered how conservation has incorporated spatial scale into protecting biodiversity, how the projections of climate-change models vary with scale, and how the two do or do not align. Conservation planners use information about past and current ecological conditions at multiple scales to identify conservation targets and threats and guide conservation actions. Projections of climate change are also made at multiple scales, from global and regional circulation models to projections downscaled to local scales. These downscaled projections carry with them the uncertainties associated with the broad-scale models from which they are derived; thus, their high resolution may be more apparent than real. Conservation at regional or global scales is about establishing priorities and influencing policy. At these scales, the coarseness and uncertainties of global and regional climate models may be less important than what they reveal about possible futures. At the ecoregional scale, the uncertainties associated with downscaling climate models become more critical because the distributions of conservation targets on which plans are founded may shift under future climates. At a local scale, variations in topography and land cover influence local climate, often overriding the projections of broad-scale climate models and increasing uncertainty. Despite the uncertainties, ecologists and conservationists must work with climate-change modelers to focus on the most likely projections. The future will be different from the past and full of surprises; judicious use of model projections at appropriate scales may help us prepare.