Use of F-Specific RNA Bacteriophage to Estimate Infectious Norovirus Levels in Oysters

Food and Environmental Virology - Contamination of bivalve shellfish, particularly oysters, with norovirus is recognised as a significant food safety risk. Methods for quantification of norovirus...     

Beyond opportunity costs: who bears the implementation costs of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation?

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) in developing countries is based on the premise that conserving tropical forests is a cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions and therefore can be fully funded by international actors with obligations or interests in reducing emissions. However, concerns have repeatedly been raised about whether stakeholders in REDD+ host countries will actually end up bearing the costs of REDD+. Most prior analyses of the costs of REDD+ have focused on the opportunity costs of foregone alternative uses of forest land. We draw on a pan-tropical study of 22 subnational REDD+ initiatives in five countries to explore patterns in implementation costs, including which types of organizations are involved and which are sharing the costs of implementing REDD+. We find that many organizations involved in the implementation of REDD+, particularly at the subnational level and in the public sector, are bearing implementation costs not covered by the budgets of the REDD+ initiatives. To sustain this level of cost-sharing, REDD+ must be designed to deliver local as well as global forest benefits.     

Enhanced biodegradation of pentachlorophenol in unsaturated soil using reversed field electrokinetics

This study investigated the use of electrokinetics in unsaturated soil to promote biodegradation of pentachlorophenol through increased contact between bacteria and contaminant. Soil microcosms, contaminated with approximately 100 mg kg⁻¹ pentachlorophenol (containing [¹⁴C]-PCP as a tracer), and inoculated with a specific pentachlorophenol-degrading bacterium (Sphingobium sp. UG30–1 × 10⁸ cfu g⁻¹) were subjected to constant and regularly reversed electric currents (10 mA). The former caused large pH and moisture content changes due to water electrolysis and electroosmotic effects, with subsequent negative impacts on biodegradation parameters including enzyme activity and contaminant mineralisation (as measured by ¹⁴CO₂ evolution rate). The reversed field caused little change in pH and moisture content and led to more rapid contaminant mineralisation, lower soil contaminant concentration in the majority of the microcosms and increased soil enzyme activity (with the exception of soil immediately adjacent to the anode). The presence of an electric field, if suitably applied, may therefore enhance contaminant biodegradation in unsaturated soil.     

Dissemination of food crops with nutritional benefits: Adoption and disadoption of soybeans in Togo and Benin

To combat high rates of malnutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa, the UN Millennium Project has called for increased emphasis on technologies that explicitly link agricultural and nutritional components. While there is a large literature on the factors that influence household decisions to adopt new agricultural technologies with economic or environmental benefits, less is known about the factors that determine the uptake and continued use of agricultural technologies promoted exclusively for their health benefits. Using data from a 2004 survey in the Tamberma region of Togo and Benin, we identify factors that influence the adoption and disadoption of soybeans — a crop being promoted throughout West Africa for its high protein content. Similar to the literature on adoption of other sustainable agriculture technologies, we find that household preferences, resource endowments, and risk and uncertainty affect household decisions about soybeans. However, by analyzing decisions about initial uptake and continued cultivation separately, we uncover the importance of intrahousehold dynamics and experience with the soybean crop. To successfully address malnutrition through new agricultural technologies, researchers and rural extension agents should take a disaggregated view of technology adoption, seeking to identify and tailor their outreach to the different factors important at different stages of the dissemination process.     

Impact of electrokinetic remediation on microbial communities within PCP contaminated soil

Electrokinetic techniques have been used to stimulate the removal of organic pollutants within soil, by directing contaminant migration to where remediation may be more easily achieved. The effect of this and other physical remediation techniques on the health of soil microbial communities has been poorly studied and indeed, largely ignored. This study reports the impact on soil microbial communities during the application of an electric field within ex situ laboratory soil microcosms contaminated with pentachlorophenol (PCP; 100mg kg(-1) oven dry soil). Electrokinetics reduced counts of culturable bacteria and fungi, soil microbial respiration and carbon substrate utilisation, especially close to the acidic anode where PCP accumulated (36d), perhaps exacerbated by the greater toxicity of PCP at lower soil pH. There is little doubt that a better awareness of the interactions between soil electrokinetic processes and microbial communities is key to improving the efficacy and sustainability of this remediation strategy.     

How conservation and humanitarian groups respond to production of border security on the Arizona–Sonora border

US policies for securing the border with Mexico are driven by multiple political concerns, including the desire to control illegal trade and immigration in a way that conveys “border security” to a national audience. Highly visible border enforcement near urban centres and via the border fence has pushed migrants into far less visible and remote wilderness areas, driving both ecological degradation and a humanitarian crisis. This study employed ethnographic methods to explore how natural resource agency employees and humanitarian volunteers in Altar Valley Arizona perceived and responded to the production of border security. We found that both groups recognised human rights and environmental concerns, although they assigned different priorities and addressed them through conflicting means. As in other cases where consumers are separated from production practices, there was a general consensus among informants that it was important to raise the consciousness of the national audience about the negative externalities of producing border security.