Tolerance of calluna vulgaris and peatland plant communities to sulphuric acid deposition

Critical loads offer a unique way of evaluating impacts of acid deposition by quantifying environmental sensitivity. The critical loads of acidity for UK peat soils have been based upon an arbitrary reduction in pH of 0.2 units. This chemical shift needs to be better related to adverse effects on sensitive biological receptors. It is known that effective precipitation pH equates closely to soil solution pH, and the latter is directly linkable to biotic effects of pH change. On continuation of a long-term experiment assessing impacts of simulated acid rain on peat microcosms in a realistic outdoor environment, Calluna vulgaris continued to flourish at acid deposition loads well above the existing critical load. Calluna plants were harvested and analysed, and acid deposition treatments to the microcosms continued to allow natural vegetation to regenerate. A diverse mixture of moorland plants and bryophytes established at acidity treatments well above the existing critical load, and only a very high acid load resulted in no natural regeneration. A critical effective rain pH value of 3.6 is suggested as a basis for setting critical loads. At this pH, Calluna grows well, and a healthy diverse vegetation community re-establishes when harvested. It is suggested that the peat critical load should be set at the acid load that, at any specific site, would result in a mean effective precipitation pH of 3.6.     

基于底栖动物的松花江流域不同地形分区水质指标阈值研究

为全面了解松花江流域不同地形分区内底栖动物群落对水质指标的响应规律,识别不同分区水质指标指示物种的差异,于2016—2018年对松花江流域97个采样点的水质指标〔EC、ρ（DO）、ρ（COD_Mn）、ρ（NH₃-N）、ρ（TN）、ρ（TP）〕和大型底栖动物群落进行调查分析,采用临界指示物种分析法（threshold indicator taxa analysis,TITAN）分别探讨松花江流域山区、丘陵区和平原区水质指标的生态阈值,当污染物浓度超过负响应阈值时敏感种密度降低,当超过正响应阈值时耐受种也会受到明显影响,底栖动物群落结构会发生显著变化.将TITAN法所得的负响应阈值作为触发底栖动物群落发生变化的最低值,正响应阈值为底栖动物群落的耐受极限值.结果表明:①松花江流域水质指标在不同地形分区内的阈值不同,除ρ（DO）和ρ（COD_Mn）外,其他指标负响应阈值均表现为山区 < 丘陵区 < 平原区,ρ（DO）则表现相反,ρ（COD_Mn）在丘陵区出现最高阈值（5.46 mg/L）、山区出现最低阈值（4.01 mg/L）.除ρ（DO）以外,其他指标的正响应阈值均呈山区 < 丘陵区 < 平原区的趋势,ρ（DO）正响应阈值的变化趋势则与之相反.②松花江流域内超过50%的采样点水质指标值均超过其负响应阈值,超出正响应阈值的采样点比例在6%~40%之间,说明流域受到一定的干扰,但干扰程度不严重.③同一物种在不同地形分区内对水体理化指标的指示方向可能相反.萝卜螺属在丘陵区为ρ（NH₃-N）的正响应指示物种,在平原区则转变为负响应指示物种;短沟蜷属在丘陵区为ρ（TN）和ρ（TP）的正响应物种,在平原区则转变为负响应物种.研究显示,大型底栖动物群落结构的分布特征是影响水质指标阈值指示物种识别的主要原因,而不同分区的自然地理状况、栖境状况和水质状况则是造成大型底栖动物群落结构分布差异的主要因素.      

全国及区域性人均耕地阈值的探讨

论文首先指出并不存在联合国粮农组织提出的人均耕地面积阈值;继而认为人均耕地面积阈值具有鲜明的时间和空间特征,需要有明确的前提条件。为此按1995年的耕地实际生产力(在耕地面积中扣除菜地和经济作物用地面积),以人均400kg、450kg、500kg粮食需求量的生活标准,提出就全国平均而言,人均耕地面积不应小于0.092hm₂、0.104hm₂、0.115hm₂(可以看作当前的人均耕地面积阈值)。根据2010、2030、2050年我国的预期耕地面积以及可能达到的生产能力,按人均400kg、450kg、500kg粮食需求量的生活标准,就全国平均而言,2010年人均耕地面积不应小于0.059hm₂、0.067hm₂、0.074hm₂(可以看作近期的人均耕地面积阈值);2030年人均耕地面积不应小于0.052hm₂、0.058hm₂、0.064hm₂(可以作为中期的人均耕地面积阈值);2050年人均耕地面积不应小于0.046hm₂、0.052hm₂、0.058hm₂(可以作为远期的人均耕地面积阈值)。     

砷对蔬菜生长的影响和临界值的研究

本文研究了紫色土添加砷对蔬菜生长的影响与临界值,并采用灰色系统的关联度分析方法,使它们与土壤性度联系起来,结果表明:三种紫色土砷的临界值一般为:红紫泥> 灰棕紫泥>红棕紫泥.     

Specific Contributions of Politics,Economics, and Toxicology in Setting Socially Consensual Limit Values

/ Limit values are legal limits for the concentrations of substances in the environment. They must be agreed upon in a consensual procedure between science, economics/technology, and political forces. This is a crucial political precondition for their social acceptance. The arguments put forward to justify their expediency and numerical level are based not only on risk-benefit considerations but also on the aspect of the technical avoidability of direct and indirect exposure. The critical assessment of the direct benefit of specified exposures falls within the responsibility of economics/technology, whereas criteria for their potential adverse effects (direct and indirect) are provided by medicine/biochemistry and/or ecology. Within this concept, the avoidance of nonbeneficial-even if not openly adverse-exposure is the essential aim of environmental hygiene and should be promoted by politics/science. In general, society or segments thereof reject adverse, accept beneficial, and tolerate unavoidable exposure. Conflicts of interest arise when different groups of society simultaneously define a given exposure as being adverse, beneficial, and unavoidable. Therefore, from the viewpoint of society as a whole, an optimal exposure lies as far as reasonably achievable at a level lower than known or plausible adverse effect thresholds (as defined by toxicology or ecology). This optimal level of exposure must be determined using a transparent and, hence, public procedure.KEY WORDS: Legal limit values; Benefit threshold; Social acceptance; Social tolerability; Adverse effect threshold; Avoidable exposure; Tolerance threshold; Environmental hygiene     

有毒有害蒸气云扩散的危害估算

因事故排放形成的有毒有害蒸气云,有可能造成爆炸、火灾、中毒等危害后果,但危害后果的大小(危害程度),则与事故造成危害的时刻(延迟时间)有关。笔者在以往研究成果基础上,考虑该因素,并通过引入正态分布假设,时、空变换及误差分析,给出了估算危害程度(特别是延迟爆炸危害)的有效而简便方法,补充了以往危害估算方法(不考虑延迟时间)的不足,提高了危害后果估算精度,可广泛应用于生产安全评价、环境风险评价、风险工程设计、事故应急预案、事故应急救援等工作领域,对于保障环境安全具有显著的科学价值与现实意义。     

事故和安全舰艇指挥员的心理素质对比研究

对有过不同程度操舰事故经历的舰艇指挥员和无事故经历的舰艇指挥员的心理素质测评比较研究 ,为舰艇指挥员心理素质的选拔和培训提供依据。根据研究要求选择了 4 2名被试者 ,并对其进行实验测评研究。结果表明 ,实验组在颜色视觉、立体视觉、注意分配能力、简单反应时间、复杂反应时间、速度预期反应等的能力水平都比控制组低 ,同时在结果的图表中 ,还注意到二组被试者在各个反应时指标中的临界值。对比研究的 6个项目指标 ,在一定程度上可以认为是舰艇指挥员心理品质指标中的重要组成部分 ,其临界值可以为更好地选拔合格舰艇指挥员的心理素质提供科学依据。     

Negotiating environmental agreements under ratification constraints

We analyze the impact of ratification constraints on the optimal terms of international environmental agreements (IEAs). For this, we combine the literature on IEAs with the public choice literature on two-level games. By also incorporating uncertain preferences of the pivotal voter in the ratification stage, we make several important contributions: (i) we contribute to a more realistic modeling of the temporal structure of international agreements, (ii) we show a surprising, yet intuitive non-monotonic relationship between the optimal commitment level and the variance of ratification decisions, (iii) we identify reasons to expect a larger number of countries to join international negotiations than predicted by most of the coalition formation literature based on a representative agent model. Ratification constraints thereby can improve the welfare gains from stable international agreements.     

Review of LCA studies of solid waste management systems – Part II: Methodological guidance for a better practice

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used in waste management to identify strategies that prevent or minimise negative impacts on ecosystems, human health or natural resources. However, the quality of the provided support to decision- and policy-makers is strongly dependent on a proper conduct of the LCA. How has LCA been applied until now? Are there any inconsistencies in the past practice? To answer these questions, we draw on a critical review of 222 published LCA studies of solid waste management systems. We analyse the past practice against the ISO standard requirements and the ILCD Handbook guidelines for each major step within the goal definition, scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and interpretation phases of the methodology. Results show that malpractices exist in several aspects of the LCA with large differences across studies. Examples are a frequent neglect of the goal definition, a frequent lack of transparency and precision in the definition of the scope of the study, e.g. an unclear delimitation of the system boundaries, a truncated impact coverage, difficulties in capturing influential local specificities such as representative waste compositions into the inventory, and a frequent lack of essential sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Many of these aspects are important for the reliability of the results. For each of them, we therefore provide detailed recommendations to practitioners of waste management LCAs.     

Modeling a spatially restricted distribution in the Neotropics: How the size of calibration area affects the performance of five presence-only methods

We here examine species distribution models for a Neotropical anuran restricted to ombrophilous areas in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest hotspot. We extend the known occurrence for the treefrog Hypsiboas bischoffi (Anura: Hylidae) through GPS field surveys and use five modeling methods (BIOCLIM, DOMAIN, OM-GARP, SVM, and MAXENT) and selected bioclimatic and topographic variables to model the species distribution. Models were first trained using two calibration areas: the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (BAF) and the whole of South America (SA). All modeling methods showed good levels of predictive power and accuracy with mean AUC ranging from 0.77 (BIOCLIM/BAF) to 0.99 (MAXENT/SA). MAXENT and SVM were the most accurate presence-only methods among those tested here. All but the SVM models calibrated with SA predicted larger distribution areas when compared to models calibrated in BAF. OM-GARP dramatically overpredicted the species distribution for the model calibrated in SA, with a predicted area around 10⁶ km² larger than predicted by other SDMs. With increased calibration area (and environmental space), OM-GARP predictions followed changes in the environmental space associated with the increased calibration area, while MAXENT models were more consistent across calibration areas. MAXENT was the only method that retrieved consistent predictions across calibration areas, while allowing for some overprediction, a result that may be relevant for modeling the distribution of other spatially restricted organisms.