Progress and challenges in consolidating the management of Amazonian protected areas and indigenous territories

Effective management refers to the ability of a protected area or indigenous territory to meet its objectives, particularly as they relate to the protection of biodiversity and forest cover. Effective management is achieved through a process of consolidation, which among other things requires legally protecting sites, integrating sites into land‐use planning, developing and implementing management and resource‐use plans, and securing long‐term funding to pay for recurrent costs. Effectively managing all protected areas and indigenous territories in the Amazon may be needed to avoid a deforestation tipping point beyond which regional climatic feedbacks and global climate change interact to catalyze irreversible drying and savannization of large areas. At present, protected areas and indigenous territories cover 45.5% (3.55 million km²) of the Amazon, most of the 60–70% forest cover required to maintain hydrologic and climatic function. Three independent evaluations of a long‐term large‐scale philanthropic initiative in the Amazon yielded insights into the challenges and advances toward achieving effective management of protected areas and indigenous territories. Over the life of the initiative, management of sites has improved considerably, particularly with respect to management planning and capacity building, but few sites are effectively managed and many lack sufficient long‐term financing, adequate governance, support of nongovernmental organizations, and the means to withstand economic pressures. The time and money required to complete consolidation is still poorly understood, but it is clear that philanthropic funding is critical so long as essential funding needs are not met by governments and other sources, which could be on the order of decades. Despite challenges, it is encouraging that legal protection has expanded greatly and management of sites is improving steadily. Management of protected areas in other developing countries could be informed by improvements that have occurred in Amazonian countries.     

Understanding implications of consumer behavior for wildlife farming and sustainable wildlife trade

Unsustainable wildlife trade affects biodiversity and the livelihoods of communities dependent upon those resources. Wildlife farming has been proposed to promote sustainable trade, but characterizing markets and understanding consumer behavior remain neglected but essential steps in the design and evaluation of such operations. We used sea turtle trade in the Cayman Islands, where turtles have been farm raised for human consumption for almost 50 years, as a case study to explore consumer preferences toward wild‐sourced (illegal) and farmed (legal) products and potential conservation implications. Combining methods innovatively (including indirect questioning and choice experiments), we conducted a nationwide trade assessment through in‐person interviews from September to December 2014. Households were randomly selected using disproportionate stratified sampling, and responses were weighted based on district population size. We approached 597 individuals, of which 37 (6.2%) refused to participate. Although 30% of households had consumed turtle in the previous 12 months, the purchase and consumption of wild products was rare (e.g., 64–742 resident households consumed wild turtle meat [i.e., 0.3–3.5% of households] but represented a large threat to wild turtles in the area due to their reduced populations). Differences among groups of consumers were marked, as identified through choice experiments, and price and source of product played important roles in their decisions. Despite the long‐term practice of farming turtles, 13.5% of consumers showed a strong preference for wild products, which demonstrates the limitations of wildlife farming as a single tool for sustainable wildlife trade. By using a combination of indirect questioning, choice experiments, and sales data to investigate demand for wildlife products, we obtained insights about consumer behavior that can be used to develop conservation‐demand‐focused initiatives. Lack of data from long‐term social–ecological assessments hinders the evaluation of and learning from wildlife farming. This information is key to understanding under which conditions different interventions (e.g., bans, wildlife farming, social marketing) are likely to succeed.     

Isotope tracing of submarine groundwater discharge offshore Ubatuba, Brazil: results of the IAEA–UNESCO SGD project

Results of groundwater and seawater analyses for radioactive (³H, ²²²Rn, ²²³Ra, ²²⁴Ra, ²²⁶Ra, and ²²⁸Ra) and stable (D and ¹⁸O) isotopes are presented together with in situ spatial mapping and time series ²²²Rn measurements in seawater, direct seepage measurements using manual and automated seepage meters, pore water investigations using different tracers and piezometric techniques, and geoelectric surveys probing the coast. This study represents first time that such a new complex arsenal of radioactive and non-radioactive tracer techniques and geophysical methods have been used for simultaneous submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) investigations. Large fluctuations of SGD fluxes were observed at sites situated only a few meters apart (from 0 cm d⁻¹ to 360 cm d⁻¹; the unit represents cm³/cm²/day), as well as during a few hours (from 0 cm d⁻¹ to 110 cm d⁻¹), strongly depending on the tidal fluctuations. The average SGD flux estimated from continuous ²²²Rn measurements is 17 ± 10 cm d⁻¹. Integrated coastal SGD flux estimated for the Ubatuba coast using radium isotopes is about 7 × 10³ m³ d⁻¹ per km of the coast. The isotopic composition (δD and δ¹⁸O) of submarine waters was characterised by significant variability and heavy isotope enrichment, indicating that the contribution of groundwater in submarine waters varied from a small percentage to 20%. However, this contribution with increasing offshore distance became negligible. Automated seepage meters and time series measurements of ²²²Rn activity concentration showed a negative correlation between the SGD rates and tidal stage. This is likely caused by sea level changes as tidal effects induce variations of hydraulic gradients. The geoelectric probing and piezometric measurements contributed to better understanding of the spatial distribution of different water masses present along the coast. The radium isotope data showed scattered distributions with offshore distance, which imply that seawater in a complex coast with many small bays and islands was influenced by local currents and groundwater/seawater mixing. This has also been confirmed by a relatively short residence time of 1–2 weeks for water within 25 km offshore, as obtained by short-lived radium isotopes. The irregular distribution of SGD seen at Ubatuba is a characteristic of fractured rock aquifers, fed by coastal groundwater and recirculated seawater with small admixtures of groundwater, which is of potential environmental concern and has implications on the management of freshwater resources in the region.     

Dandy – Walker syndrome and corpus callosum agenesis in 5p deletion

5p deletion syndrome commonly known as cri du chat is well described in affected neonates with catlike cry and hypotonia. Karyotyping will usually show a deletion of the short arm of one chromosome 5 with variable breakpoints. Only a few cases have been reported prenatally, and the fetal form of the syndrome has not been clearly individualised. We report a new case of 5p deletion syndrome diagnosed prenatally in association with Dandy–Walker syndrome and agenesis of the corpus callosum. Other brain anomalies have been reported previously, but this unusual association suggests the use of a specific probe in the investigation of these malformations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synergistic effects of Cu species and acidity of Cu-ZSM-5 on catalytic performance for selective catalytic oxidation of n-butylamine

In this work, a series of Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts with different SiO₂/Al₂O₃ ratios (25, 50, 100 and 200) were synthesized and investigated in n-butylamine catalytic degradation. The n-butylamine can be completely catalytic degradation at 350°C over all Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts. Moreover, Cu-ZSM-5 (25) exhibited the highest selectivity to N₂, exceeding 90% at 350°C. These samples were investigated in detail by several characterizations to illuminate the dependence of the catalytic performance on redox properties, Cu species, and acidity. The characterization results proved that the redox properties and chemisorption oxygen primarily affect n-butylamine conversion. N₂ selectivity was impacted by the Brønsted acidity and the isolated Cu²⁺ species. Meanwhile, the surface acid sites over Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts could influence the formation of Cu species. Furthermore, in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectra was adopted to explore the reaction mechanism. The Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts are the most prospective catalysts for nitrogen-containing volatile organic compounds removal, and the results in this study could provide new insights into catalysts design for VOC catalytic oxidation.     

新型Fe3O4@α-MnO2活化过一硫酸盐降解水中偶氮染料

采用两步水热法制备了新型磁性纳米Fe₃O₄@α-MnO₂复合材料作为催化剂,用于活化过一硫酸盐（PMS）产生强氧化性的硫酸根自由基（SO₄^-·）氧化降解偶氮染料活性黑5（RBK5）.采用透射电子显微镜（TEM）,X射线粉末衍射仪（XRD）和振动样品磁强计（VSM）对制备的催化剂进行表征,证明成功合成了纳米α-MnO₂包覆Fe₃O₄形态的Fe₃O₄@α-MnO₂催化剂,催化剂的饱和磁化强度为39.89emu/g.Fe₃O₄@α-MnO₂催化剂活化PMS与单一的Fe₃O₄和α-MnO₂活化PMS相比,具有更高的催化效率,说明铁锰双金属存在协同作用.同时研究了催化剂的投加量、PMS的浓度和初始pH值等各种因素对RBK5的降解效率以及反应动力学的影响.实验结果表明,Fe₃O₄@α-MnO₂催化剂活化PMS降解RBK5的过程符合准一级反应动力学,在催化剂投加量为1.2g/L,PMS的浓度为4mmol/L,初始pH值为7.0,反应时间为60min的情况下,浓度为30mg/L的RBK5的降解效率可达到91%,此时RBK5的降解速率常数也达到最高值0.023min^-1.此外,通过加入自由基淬灭剂甲醇、叔丁醇和硝基苯判断了Fe₃O₄@α-MnO₂/PMS体系中起主要氧化降解作用的活性物种为SO₄^-·.     

Y5复合产絮菌及其产絮物絮凝特性试验研究

从含大量微生物菌群的土壤中筛选出了具有产絮效果的Y5菌液。比较不同培养条件下Y5菌液的絮凝率得出 :菌液絮凝性能是其中 3种复合菌株共同作用的结果 ;培养基初始pH值在 5 .0～ 9.0的范围内时 ,Y5菌液的生长量及其上清液的絮凝率都较高。     

分光光度法测定雨水中微量过氧化氢的研究

本文提出了以钛（ＩＶ） 过氧化氢 ２ （３，５ 二溴 ２ 吡啶偶氮） ５ 二乙氨基苯酚（３，５ ｄｉＢｒ ＰＡＤＡＰ）三元配合物体系光度测定雨水中微量过氧化氢的方法，该方法简便，灵敏度和选择性较高，所得结果令人满意     

Promotive effect of pyridine on indole degradation by activated sludge under anoxic conditions

Batch experiments were carried out to investigate the promotive effect of pyridine on indole degradation under denitrifying conditions. The seed sludge was obtained from a local coal-coking wastewater treatment facility and was acclimated in the laboratory. Indole and pyridine were supplemented to the synthetic wastewater at different ratios. The optimum ratio of chemical oxygen demand (COD) to nitrate (C/N) was 8.4–8.9 for both denitrification and indole and pyridine degradation. At a temperature of 28°C and pH of 7.0–7.5, the nitrate reductase activity (NRA) was in the best state. The addition of pyridine could promote NRA and the degradation of indole. When the initial concentration of indole was 150 mg/L, the concentration ratio of indole to pyridine was in the range of 1–10. Under optimum C/N conditions, the degradation of indole could be described with pseudo-zero-order kinetics. There was no accumulation of nitrite during the reaction. When the concentration ratio of pyridine to indole was less than 0.25 with an increase in the pyridine proportion, there were more significant augment rates for NRA and the degradation of indole than the situation when the concentration ratio was more than 0.25. __________ Translated from Environmental Science, 2006, 27(2): 300–304 [译自: 环境科学]     

治理催化超临界水氧化处理1,5-萘二磺酸

采用Mn2O3γAl2O3和V2O5γAl2O3为催化剂,在一连续流固定床反应器中进行了超临界水氧化1,5萘二磺酸实验。实验结果表明,在380～440℃,24MPa条件下,Mn2O3γAl2O3和V2O5γAl2O3催化剂对1,5萘二磺酸的氧化降解具有显著的促进作用,TOC去除率达到90%以上;催化剂的催化效果随反应温度的升高而增强,随pH值的降低而增强,随停留时间的延长先增强后趋于平缓。