PVC and PET microplastics in caddisfly (Lepidostoma basale) cases reduce case stability

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Caddisfly larvae occur in streams and rivers, and many caddisfly species build protective cases using material from their habitat such as sand grains....     

The challenges of water,waste and climate change in cities

Cities play a prominent role in our economic development as more than 80 % of the gross world product (GWP) comes from cities. Only 600 urban areas with just 20 % of the world population generate 60 % of the GWP. Rapid urbanization, climate change, inadequate maintenance of water and wastewater infrastructures and poor solid waste management may lead to flooding, water scarcity, water pollution, adverse health effects and rehabilitation costs that may overwhelm the resilience of cities. These megatrends pose urgent challenges in cities as the cost of inaction is high. We present an overview about population growth, urbanization, water, waste, climate change, water governance and transitions. Against this background, we discuss the categorization of cities based on our baseline assessments, i.e. our City Blueprint research on 45 municipalities and regions predominantly in Europe. With this bias towards Europe in mind, the challenges can be discussed globally by clustering cities into distinct categories of sustainability and by providing additional data and information from global regions. We distinguish five categories of sustainability: (1) cities lacking basic water services, (2) wasteful cities, (3) water-efficient cities, (4) resource-efficient and adaptive cities and (5) water-wise cities. Many cities in Western Europe belong to categories 3 and 4. Some cities in Eastern Europe and the few cities we have assessed in Latin America, Asia and Africa can be categorized as cities lacking basic water services. Lack of water infrastructures or obsolete infrastructures, solid waste management and climate adaptation are priorities. It is concluded that cities require a long-term framing of their sectoral challenges into a proactive and coherent Urban Agenda to maximize the co-benefits of adaptation and to minimize the cost. Furthermore, regional platforms of cities are needed to enhance city-to-city learning and to improve governance capacities necessary to accelerate effective and efficient transitions towards water-wise cities. These learning alliances are needed as the time window to solve the global water governance crisis is narrow and rapidly closing. The water sector can play an important role but needs to reframe and refocus radically.     

Country 'choices' or deforestation paths: a method for global change analysis of human-forest interactions.

Data used in quantitative studies of global tropical deforestation are typically of poor quality. These studies use either cross-sectional or panel data to measure the contribution of social and land use factors to forest decline world wide. However, there are pitfalls in the use of either type of data. Panel data studies treat each year's observation as a distinct, reliable, data point, when a careful examination of the data reveals this assumption to be implausible. In contrast, cross-sectional studies discard most of the time series information in the data, calculating a single average deforestation rate for each country. In this paper, we argue for a middle road between these two approaches: one that does not treat the time series information as completely reliable but does not disregard it altogether. Using a well-known global forest data set (FAO's Production Series Yearbooks), we argue that the most the data can reliably tell us is whether a country's deforestation rate falls into one of four categories or country 'path choices'. We then use the data categorised in this way in a small empirical investigation of the socio-economic causes of deforestation. This multinomial logit framework allows for the determination of the influence of independent variables on the probability that a country will follow one deforestation path vs. another. Results from the logit analysis of key social and land use indicators chosen for their importance in the literature in driving deforestation suggest that the effect of these variables will differ for countries depending on the particular set of deforestation trajectories in question.     

Application of the City Blueprint Approach to assess the challenges of water management and governance in Quito (Ecuador)

In this paper, we provide an assessment of the challenges of water, waste and climate change in the city of Quito by performing the City Blueprint Approach consisting of three assessment frameworks: (1) the Trends and Pressure Framework (TPF), (2) the City Blueprint Framework (CBF) and (3) the water Governance Capacity Framework (GCF). The TPF summarizes the main social, environmental and financial aspects that may affect urban water management. The CBF provides a clear overview of sustainable urban water management performance and its bottlenecks in municipalities and regions. The GCF comprises nine governance conditions which each consist of three indicators. The GCF provides insight in the most effective improvements to increase the governance capacity to address the identified urban water challenges. Our results show that poor wastewater treatment and long-term drinking water security are Quito’s main water challenges that may be jeopardized given the city’s rapid urbanization and economic pressure. The GCF analysis reveals that cooperation between stakeholders, implementing capacity and citizens’ awareness are the most important conditions for further development to find adequate solutions for Quito’s long-term drinking water security. We also suggest that more attention should be drawn to the transparency, accountability and participation principles. The results of Quito show that the City Blueprint Approach can serve as an affordable quick-scan to facilitate cities in their strategic planning to reach their sustainable development goals.     

Significance of pelagic bacteria as a trophic resource in a coral reef lagoon,One Tree Island,Great Barrier Reef

Bacterial numbers and frequency of dividing cells (FDC) were estimated in surface waters at seven stations along a transeet across One Tree lagoon and reefs at 2 h intervals over one tidal cycle in May 1984 and once a day on 8 d in December 1984/January 1985. Cell numbers ranged between 1.24 and 13.10x10⁵ ml^-1, with an overall mean value of 4.81x10⁵. There was a progressive depletion in standing stock from windward to leeward stations across the lagoon, also reflected in the FDC, which generally showed similar dynamic patterns to cell numbers throughout the study. Predator-free seawater (filtered through 2 m pore-size filters) and mucus-enriched incubations were also used to establish the relationship between the growth rate () and FDC for coral-reef populations. Average growth rates predicted from FDC values ranged from 0.062 to 0.174 h^-1, which is equivalent to doubling times of 5.74 to 16.00 h, with an overall mean value of 11.5 h. These fast doubling times suggest that bacteria respond rapidly to pulses of enrichment as they float over the lagoon and reefs, characteristically achieving about one doubling per tidal cycle. This probably ensures that the bulk of labile organic matter and dissolved nutrients is conserved within the immediate coral-reef environment. Estimates of bacterial production also suggest that they may contribute up to 40% of total picoplankton production and about 25% of total microplankton production. Pelagic bacteria are therefore potentially a major food resource for benthic filter-feeders, especially for those mainly dependent on the smaller (pico) components of the plankton.     

City Blueprints: baseline assessments of water management and climate change in 45 cities

Climate change and urbanization are among the most significant trends of the twenty-first century, affecting global natural resources such as water, economic development and human well-being. The growth of the world population will be absorbed by the cities. The necessity of cities adapting to these trends calls for radical changes in urban water management. In this paper, baseline assessments, i.e., City Blueprints, have been carried out for 45 municipalities and regions in 27 countries, mainly in Europe. The assessments showed that cities vary considerably with regard to their water management. This is also captured in the Blue City Index^® (BCI), the arithmetic mean of 24 indicators comprising the City Blueprint^®. Theoretically, the BCI has a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 10. The actual BCIs in the 45 cities and regions varied from 3.5 (Kilamba Kiaxi in Angola) to 8.5 (Helsingborg in Sweden). The BCI was positively and significantly correlated with the gross domestic product per person, the ambitions of the local authorities regarding water management, the voluntary participation index and governance indicators according to the World Bank (2013). The study also demonstrated a very significant correlation between the BCI and the University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index. The impacts of water scarcity and floods in cities are discussed. It is concluded that cities in transitional and developing countries are particularly at risk.     

The relative significance of bacteria,meio- and macrofauna on an exposed sandy beach

A survey of the intertidal biota of a sandy beach on the west coast of South Africa has shown standing stocks of macrofauna, meiofauna and bacteria of 241.23, 200.17 and 663.07 g dry wt m^-1 of shoreline respectively, an approximate biomass ratio of 1:1:3. The distribution of the macrofauna was the reverse of the usual pattern, with highest biomass occurring at the level of the current driftline. This appears to be related directly to the ready availability of food in the form of drift algae. Peak meiofaunal numbers were also found below the driftline and it is proposed that meiofaunal distribution is governed by dissolved organic matter (DOM) levels in the interstitial environment. Bacteria were abundant up to 1.2 m below the sediment surface, with the highest concentrations occurring at low tidal levels. The significance of the various biotic components in the energetics of the sandy intertidal is discussed. Turnover estimates suggest that bacteria may account for about 87% of annual production, with meiofauna and macrofauna making up 10 and 3% respectively. Despite this overwhelming importance of bacteria, the macro-and meiofauna probably play a vital role in making small organic particles available to bacteria for mineralization and in optimising conditions for microbial growth.     

Starch-Based Materials Encapsulating Anthocyanins: A Review

Journal of Polymers and the Environment - Anthocyanins (ACNs) are natural pigments broadly used in the food industry due to their color, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties, however, these...