Rethinking assessment of success of mitigation strategies for elephant-induced crop damage

Crop damage is the most common impact of negative interactions between people and elephants and poses a significant threat to rural livelihoods and conservation efforts. Numerous approaches to mitigate and prevent crop damage have been implemented throughout Africa and Asia. Despite the documented high efficacy of many approaches, losses remain common, and in many areas, damage is intensifying. We examined the literature on effectiveness of crop-damage-mitigation strategies and identified key gaps in evaluations. We determined there is a need to better understand existing solutions within affected communities and to extend evaluations of effectiveness beyond measurement of efficacy to include rates of and barriers to adoption. We devised a conceptual framework for evaluating effectiveness that incorporates the need for increased emphasis on adoption and can be used to inform the design of future crop-damage mitigation assessments for elephants and conflict species more widely. The ability to prevent crop loss in practice is affected by both the efficacy of a given approach and rates of uptake among target users. We identified the primary factors that influence uptake as local attitudes, sustainability, and scalability and examined each of these factors in detail. We argue that even moderately efficacious interventions may make significant progress in preventing damage if widely employed and recommend that wherever possible scientists and practitioners engage with communities to build on and strengthen existing solutions and expertise. When new approaches are required, they should align with local attitudes and fit within limitations on labor, financial requirements, and technical capacity.     

Analysis of the Trend and Seasonal Cycle of Carbon Monoxide Concentrations in an Urban Area (4 pp)

Background, Aim and Scope Air quality is an field of major concern in large cities. This problem has led administrations to introduce plans and regulations to reduce pollutant emissions. The analysis of variations in the concentration of pollutants is useful when evaluating the effectiveness of these plans. However, such an analysis cannot be undertaken using standard statistical techniques, due to the fact that concentrations of atmospheric pollutants often exhibit a lack of normality and are autocorrelated. On the other hand, if long-term trends of any pollutant’s emissions are to be detected, meteorological effects must be removed from the time series analysed, due to their strong masking effects. Materials and Methods The application of statistical methods to analyse temporal variations is illustrated using monthly carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations observed at an urban site. The sampling site is located at a street intersection in central Valencia (Spain) with a high traffic density. Valencia is the third largest city in Spain. It is a typical Mediterranean city in terms of its urban structure and climatology. The sampling site started operation in January 1994 and monitored CO ground level concentrations until February 2002. Its geographic coordinates are W0°22′52″ N39°28′05″ and its altitude is 11 m. Two nonparametric trend tests are applied. One of these is robust against serial correlation with regards to the false rejection rate, when observations have a strong persistence or when the sample size per month is small. A nonparametric analysis of the homogeneity of trends between seasons is also discussed. A multiple linear regression model is used with the transformed data, including the effect of meteorological variables. The method of generalized least squares is applied to estimate the model parameters to take into account the serial dependence of the residuals of this model. This study also assesses temporal changes using the Kolmogorov-Zurbenko (KZ) filter. The KZ filter has been shown to be an effective way to remove the influence of meteorological conditions on O₃ and PM to examine underlying trends. Results The nonparametric tests indicate a decreasing, significant trend in the sampled site. The application of the linear model yields a significant decrease every twelve months of 15.8% for the average monthly CO concentration. The 95% confidence interval for the trend ranges from 13.9% to 17.7%. The seasonal cycle also provides significant results. There are no differences in trends throughout the months. The percentage of CO variance explained by the linear model is 90.3%. The KZ filter separates out long, short-term and seasonal variations in the CO series. The estimated, significant, long-term trend every year results in 10.3% with this method. The 95% confidence interval ranges from 8.8% to 11.9%. This approach explains 89.9% of the CO temporal variations. Discussion The differences between the linear model and KZ filter trend estimations are due to the fact that the KZ filter performs the analysis on the smoothed data rather than the original data. In the KZ filter trend estimation, the effect of meteorological conditions has been removed. The CO short-term componentis attributable to weather and short-term fluctuations in emissions. There is a significant seasonal cycle. This component is a result of changes in the traffic, the yearly meteorological cycle and the interactions between these two factors. There are peaks during the autumn and winter months, which have more traffic density in the sampled site. There is a minimum during the month of August, reflecting the very low level of vehicle emissions which is a direct consequence of the holiday period. Conclusions The significant, decreasing trend implies to a certain extent that the urban environment in the area is improving. This trend results from changes in overall emissions, pollutant transport, climate, policy and economics. It is also due to the effect of introducing reformulated gasoline. The additives enable vehicles to burn fuel with a higher air/fuel ratio, thereby lowering the emission of CO. The KZ filter has been the most effective method to separate the CO series components and to obtain an estimate of the long-term trend due to changes in emissions, removing the effect of meteorological conditions. Recommendations and Perspectives Air quality managers and policy-makers must understand the link between climate and pollutants to select optimal pollutant reduction strategies and avoid exceeding emission directives. This paper analyses eight years of ambient CO data at a site with a high traffic density, and provides results that are useful for decision-making. The assessment of long-term changes in air pollutants to evaluate reduction strategies has to be done while taking into account meteorological variability     

垃圾焚烧烟气中HCl与消石灰的反应机理研究

测试了两种消石灰与垃圾焚烧烟气中HCl的反应率,得出了消石灰的反应率与反应时间的反应曲线,分析了消石灰与HCl的反应机理及影响消石灰最终反应率的因素。试验结果表明,消石灰与HCl反应初期按灰层扩散控制进行,两种消石灰的最终反应率分别为16％和36％。     

Male-biassed response of garden chafer, Phyllopertha horticola L., to leaf alcohol and attraction of both sexes to floral plant volatiles

Summary. Field tests were performed to evaluate the response of the garden chafer, Phyllopertha horticola (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) to known scarab attractants and to investigate the influence of trap colour and height on the number of captured beetles. Both sexes were attracted by a lure mixture composed of geraniol, eugenol, and 2-phenylethyl propionate (PEP) (ratio 3:7:3). When testing floral volatiles individually, only geraniol, eugenol and methyl anthranilate but not PEP was attractive. Response of garden chafer to (Z)- 3-hexen-1-ol was strongly male-biassed. Both the response to floral volatiles and (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol was increased by using funnel traps with yellow instead of grey vanes. Traps positioned at 50 and 125 cm above ground captured significantly more garden chafers than those at 200 cm. The strongly male-biassed response to (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol suggests that in P. horticola (subfamily Rutelinae) orientation towards plant volatiles emitted upon mechanical damage of plants is part of the male mate finding strategy as recently demonstrated for cockchafers of the genus Melolontha (subfamily Melolonthinae). Possible application of plant volatiles for control of P. horticola is discussed.     

电感耦合等离子体质谱法在环境监测中的应用

针对ICP-MS技术的使用特点及其近年来在环境监测领域的应用进行综合阐述，并对ICP-MS技术的发展前景作出简单的评述。     

外源8''-炔基脱落酸强化东南景天吸收重金属的研究

为探究脱落酸类似物8''-炔基脱落酸[8''-（C₂H）ABA]强化东南景天富集重金属的效应,通过水培的方法研究了外源8''-（C₂H）ABA分别对Cd（20 mg·L^-1）、Zn（160 mg·L^-1）单一胁迫下东南景天Cd/Zn积累和生理特性的影响,以及初步探讨了8''-（C₂H）ABA在植物重金属胁迫响应中的作用.实验结果表明：与天然ABA相比,外源8''-（C₂H）ABA能达到与ABA类似的作用效果,且对Cd胁迫下东南景天促进效果好于Zn;在Cd胁迫下,与对照相比,外源8''-（C₂H）ABA能显著增加东南景天根、叶中的Cd含量（44.2%、27.5%）,以及光合色素（10.7%）和叶中过氧化物酶（SOD）活性（52.9%）、超氧化物歧化酶（POD）（24.7%）和过氧化氢酶（CAT）活性（27.9%）抗氧化酶活性,使可溶性糖（SS）（13%）和游离脯氨酸（Pro）（37.4%）含量增加,而叶中丙二醛（MDA）（40%）含量明显降低.上述结果表明,一定浓度的8''-（C₂H）ABA可以提高东南景天抗氧化酶活性来增强其对重金属Cd的抗性及吸收和转运能力,在强化东南景天修复重金属污染方面具有应用潜力.     

我国中部地区大气CO2柱浓度时空分布

基于日本GOSAT及美国AIRS反演数据产品,对我国中部六省大气CO₂时空分布特征进行研究,结果表明：由GOSAT反演的中部地区2010~2013年大气CO₂年均柱浓度由389.36×10^-6增长到396.52×10^-6,年均绝对增长率达2.39×10^-6/a,呈现出冬春季高值、夏秋季低值的季节变化特征,其柱浓度年均值及去长期趋势后的月均值均略低于长三角地区,高于京津冀和东三省地区;其CO₂柱浓度高值区集中在湖南、江西及周边一带,年均绝对增长率为2.01×10^-6,其柱浓度年均值及去长期趋势后的月均值与长三角地区相当,略低于京津冀和东三省地区,由于受地面源汇影响较小,其与GOSAT反演结果相反,可能是由于AIRS反映了对流层中层大气状况,而GOSAT则更多地反映了近地面层大气CO₂变化.     

乌鲁木齐市汽车尾气污染状况调查

对乌鲁木齐市主要街道受汽车尾气污染的调查和综合分析得到CO、NOx、HC的污染规律,主要街道路中心空气中CO、NOx日均值已超出国家大气环境质量二级标准,市区主要街道的人行道空气中NOx含量已超出二级标准,Ⅱ、Ⅲ类道路人行道空气中CO含量已超标;在三类街道中,Ⅰ类街道车流量最大,Ⅱ类次之,Ⅲ类最少,而汽车排放尾气对街道空气污染状况为Ⅲ类最重、Ⅱ类次之、Ⅰ类最轻。     

基于N，N─二甲基苯胺与NO_2~－─对氨基苯磺酸重氮盐的偶联反应示波极谱法测定NO_2~－

报道了利用Ｎ，Ｎ─二甲基苯胺为偶联试剂的Ｃｒｉｅｓｓ反应以示波极谱法测定ＮＯ_２~－的测试方法。在拟定的实验条件下，ＮＯ_２~－在４．０×１０~－３～４．８×１０~－１μｇ／ｍｌ范围内与极谱波波高呈良好的线性关系。环境水测定的相对标准偏差小于ｌ％，回收率在９７％～１０１％之间。     

硝化反应及其控制因素

对硝化菌和亚硝化菌的特性进行了分析，并就碳源不足的废水实行短程硝化—反硝化脱氮的途径进行探讨。