It has been acknowledged that river morphology and hydrology have been intensively altered due to the anthropic demands in floodplain land use and management, flood protection, promotion of navigability or energy production. Rivers were transformed in water highways, having lost contact with their surrounding floodplain as well as the plethora of ecological processes and occupants once thriving in these ecotonal zones. The identification of this emerging threat of morphological and hydrological alteration on ecological integrity adds further complexity in the exploitation of hydrosystem resources. These resources are heavily coveted and guarded by different lobbies each having strategic views on future project development. Stakeholders may want to promote hydro-electricity, ecologists a natural reserve, communes may wish to have an increased flood protection and leisure promoters a nautical center. As a ...
Concentrations of {sup 90}Sr and {sup 137}Cs in Carey`s balsamroot (Balsamorhiza careyana) and Gray`s desert parsley (Lomatium grayi) were similar to concentrations observed in other plants collected on the Hanford Site and from offsite locations surrounding the Site as part of annual Hanford Site surveillance. Observed concentrations may be attributed to historic fallout more than to Hanford Site emissions, although the observation that 200 Area plants had slightly higher concentrations of {sup 137}Cs than 100 Area plants is consistent with other monitoring data of radioactivity in soil and vegetation collected onsite. The present concentrations of {sup 90}Sr and {sup 137}Cs in balsamroot and parsley fluctuate around background levels with some of the higher observed concentrations of {sup 90}Sr found on the Fitzner/Eberhardt Arid LandsEcology (ALE) Reserve. Analytical results and summary statistics by species and ...
Significant development of an oil shale industry has been projected over the next few decades. The nation's largest oil shale reserves exist in the Wyoming Basin and Colorado Plateau physiographic provinces. This study presents a brief description of the environmental setting and land-use pattern of the region, with a review of the major environmental issues associated with each proposed technology for extracting shale oil. Serious effects may be expected from the modification of very large land surfaces through open-pit mining and spent-shale disposal. The impacts include habitat destruction, potential species loss, and deterioration of surface and groundwater quality. In situ retorting of shale may result in major alterations of groundwater quantity, quality, and flow regimes. Mine dewatering from in situ retorting requires the disposal of large volumes of highly saline water, threatening the quality of ...
The impact of surface mining for coal on the nature and extent of freshwater wetlands was assessed on 73,200 ha in western Pennsylvania. The influence of mining on wetlands was not uniform across physiographic regions, varying with regional differences in hydrology and soils. Overall, mined lands supported 18% more palustrine wetlands, than unmined lands, primarily because of a 270% gain in permanent, open-water wetlands on mined lands in the glaciated region. Open-water wetlands declined on mined lands in unglaciated regions owing to unfavorable hydrologic conditions. The number and size of emergent wetlands declined as a result of mining. Mined lands supported 81% fewer riverine wetlands than unmined lands. This was caused primarily by avoidance of lands containing streams, and secondarily by a 10% reduction in replacement of riverine ...
? Introduction Old-growth forests on Changbai Mountain are economically and ecologically important but have been fragmented outside Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve. The trend of forest landscape degradation on Changbai Mountain threatens forest sustainability and biodiversity conservation in the region. Previous studies have focused mainly on the structure and function of protected forests but have ignored managed forests outside the reserve border. ? Objectives In this paper, deforestation processes are studied for two forestry enterprises, namely Baihe and Lushuihe Forestry Bureaus, with different socioeconomic structure due to their differences in proximity to Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve, which attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. Baihe?s income comes from b...
by American scientists, ecosystems containing a greater number of plant species, produce more biomass.This result ...to meet the increasing demand for land for farmland planted with monocultures, buildings and roads.For ...have hypothesized that greater ecological diversity (diversity of plant and animal species) leads to a greater
This article discusses the proper use of sandy land in China from the viewpoint of ecology. The many low-yield fields in every locality across China include sandy land that is unsuited to the cultivation of grains such as paddy rice, corn and wheat. Separate investigations of the northern plain and the southern coast between 1980 and 1982 demonstrated that sandy land in a warm climatic zone (e.g. Huang He) is suited to peanuts, soybeans and other oil-bearing crops; that forestation can be carried out on sandy land in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang; and that coastal sandy land has much salinity and is best suited to growing horsetail beefwood. Moreover, the creation of windbreaks along the coasts of southern China has lessened the threat of wind-blown sand which had made rice not worth cultivating on sandy land. It is concluded that different ...
Two new species of the genus Microplana are described from the Iberian Peninsula. The new taxa are compared with congeneric species. Distributional records for two other European species, Microplana monacensis (Heinzel, 1929) and Microplana groga Jones et al. 2008, are presented and the presence of Microplana terrestris (Muller, 1774) is confirmed on the Iberian Peninsula. A partial re-description of Microplana nana Mateos, Giribet and Carranza, 1998 is provided. The finding of a new and probably introduced, but unidentified, species of land planarian is reported. Land planarians were generally found in the vicinity of deciduous trees and rivers.
As part of on-going study of acid mine drainage (AMD), a comprehensive ecological risk assessment was conducted in the Leading Creek Watershed in southeast Ohio. The watershed is influenced by agriculture and active and abandoned coal-mining operations. This work presents a broad overview of several quantitative measures of hydrology and hydraulic watershed properties available for in risk assessment and evaluates their relation to metrics of ecology. Data analysis included statistical comparisons of metrics of ecology, ecotoxicology, water quality, and physically based parameters describing land use, geomorphology, flow, velocity, and particle size. A multiple regression analysis indicated that abandoned mining operations dominated impacts upon aquatic ecology. It also indicated low flow velocity measurements and a ratio of maximum velocity to average velocity at low flow where ...
The importance of ecosystem restoration to land reclamation is discussed. If a plant community is to be self sustaining, natural diversity processes provide a useful model for restoration. Biodiversity is important for utilitarian, ecological, and ethical/aesthetic reasons. Issues that must be considered include sampling and management scales, the separate richness of the diverse array of species playing a role in ecosystem productivity and stability, and natural trends in diversity. Ecological restoration comprises two fundamental activities: management for some pre-disturbance level of biodiversity and the combination of species in a manner that is essentially experimental. Endeavours to restore biological diversity are a useful method of experimenting with the factors that control ecosystem structure and function. 21 refs.
Baobab fruit are harvested and used throughout Africa as an important source of food and are sold to generate income. Commercial use is increasing rapidly as derivatives of the fruit such as baobab seed oil and fruit pulp are being exported to Europe and North America. The cash derived from the sale of fruit support thousands of rural people. This study examines baobab fruit yields in an area being harvested for commercial use. It represents baobab populations and harvesting scenarios typically found in Southern Africa and is the first study in Africa to combine demographic and production data in determining baobab fruit yields. Fruit production was examined across five land-use types (nature reserves, rocky outcrops, plains, fields and villages) and over three consecutive years. Factors a...
A pilot cropland carbon sequestration program within north central Montana has allowed farmers to receive carbon credit for management adjustments associated with changing from tillage-based agricultural systems to no-till. Carbon credit can also be obtained by adopting conservation reserve, where cropland is planted into perennial vegetation. Summer fallowing is also considered within the crediting process as credit is not given in years that a field is left un-vegetated. The carbon sequestration program has been advocated as a means to mitigate climate change while providing an added source of income for Montana farmers. There is lack of data, however, pertaining to the percentage of lands within this region that have not converted to no-till management, lands under certain crop intensit...
The foundation conducts an environmental monitoring and surveillance program over an area covering much of the upper Snake River Plain and provide environmental education and support services related to INEL natural resource issues. Also, the foundation, with its university affiliates, conducts ecological and radioecological research on the Idaho National Environmental Research Park. This research benefits major DOE-ID programs including waste management, environmental restoration, spent nuclear fuels, and land management issues. Major accomplishments during CY1995 can be divided into five categories: environmental surveillance program, environmental education, environmental services and support, ecological risk assessment, and research benefitting the DOE-ID mission.
National soil quality criteria for the protection of ecological receptors, including livestock and wildlife, are currently under development in Canada. Based on an evaluation of direct soil contact and soil and food ingestion pathways for sensitive species, soil quality criteria for lead, copper, arsenic, cadmium and mercury for three land use categories have been derived. The draft values, in mg/kg soil, for agricultural, residential/parkland, commercial/industrial land uses are: mercury, 4, 4, 30; copper, 62, 62, 100; cadmium, 10, 10, 27; lead, 70, 250, 400; arsenic, 17, 17, 26. Critical data requirements in developing soil quality criteria are also reviewed.
The overarching goals of the 'Kootenai River Floodplain Ecosystem Operational Loss Assessment, Protection, Mitigation and Rehabilitation' Project (BPA Project No.2002-011-00) are to: (1) assess abiotic and biotic factors (i.e., geomorphologic, hydrological, aquatic and riparian/floodplain communities) in determining a definitive composition of ecological integrity, (2) develop strategies to assess and mitigate losses of ecosystem functions, and (3) produce a regional operational loss assessment framework. To produce a scientifically defensible, repeatable, and complete assessment tool, KTOI assembled a team of top scientists in the fields of hydrology, hydraulics, ornithology, entomology, statistics, and river ecology, among other expertise. This advisory team is known as the Research Design and Review Team (RDRT). The RDRT scientists drive the review, selection, and adaptive management of the research designs to evaluate the ...
After the introduction Chapter 2 presents details of the ecological-economic analysis based on the FAO/IIASA agro-ecological zones (AEZ) approach for evaluation of biophysical limitations and agricultural production potentials, and IIASA's Basic Linked System (BLS) for analyzing the world's food economy and trade system. The BLS is a global general equilibrium model system for analyzing agricultural policies and food system prospects in an international setting. BLS views national agricultural systems as embedded in national economies, which interact with each other through trade at the international level. The combination of AEZ and BLS provides an integrated ecological-economic framework for the assessment of the impact of climate change. We consider climate scenarios based on experiments with four General Circulation Models (GCM), and we assess the four basic socioeconomic development pathways and ...
As a result of US Department of Energy (DOE) monitoring activities, it was determined in 1983 that the potential existed for natural gas resources underlying the Naval Oil Shales Reserves Nos. 1 and 3 (NOSrs-1 3) to be drained by privately-owned gas wells that were being drilled along the Reserves borders. In 1985, DOE initiated a limited number of projects to protect the Government's interest in the gas resources by drilling its own offset production'' wells just inside the boundaries, and by formally sharing in the production, revenues and costs of private wells that are drilled near the boundaries ( communitize'' the privately-drilled wells). The scope of these protection efforts must be expanded. DOE is therefore proposing a Natural Gas Protection Program for NOSRs-1 3 which would be implemented over a five-year period that would encompass a total of 200 wells (including the wells drilled and/or ...
The issue of China?s energy supply security is not only the key problem which affects China?s rapid and sustainable development in the 21st century, but also the one which international attention focuses on. Based on the notable characteristic of spatial imbalance between energy production and consumption in China, this paper takes the evolution of China?s primary energy resources development(excluding hydropower) from 1949 to 2007 as the study object, with the aim to sum up the evolutive characteristics and laws of China?s energy resources development in the past nearly 60 years. Then, based on comprehensive considerations of coal?s, oil?s and natural gas?s basic reserves, qualities, geological conditions, production status, and ecological service function of every province, this paper ad...
Fitness, (biometric measurements, reproduction) and behaviour that are ecologically relevant biomarkers in assessing the quality of estuarine sediments were studied by comparing the responses of the polychaete worm Nereis diversicolor - a key species in estuaries - along a pollution gradient. Intersite differences were shown for all the measured parameters: size-weight relationships, energy reserves as glycogen and lipids, sexual maturation patterns, total number of oocytes per female, total and relative fecundity, burrowing behaviour. The physiological and behavioural status of N. diversicolor was consistently disturbed in the larger, most contaminated estuaries (Loire and Seine, Fr.) compared to reference sites (Bay of Bourgneuf, Goyen estuary, Fr.). Many classes of potentially toxic che...
The Ho-Chunk Nation is interested in documenting water-quality conditions in streams adjacent to their Reservationlands in Wisconsin and developing management plans to protect these water resources. The Nation uses these waterways for recreation and as a source for food, and therefore, is dedicated to maintaining and restoring their quality. Ho-Chunk lands encompass more than 10,000 acres ranging primarily over 17 counties in Wisconsin. The study areas for this report include streams adjacent to Ho-Chunk Nation residential lands: Potch-Hah-Chee, Sandpillow, Mission, Bluewing, Chakh Hah Chee, Winnebago Heights, Indian Heights, and Ho-Chunk Village. These residential areas, or housing sites, are located along or near the Middle Branch Embarrass, Black, Lemonweir, and Wisconsin Rivers or their tributaries. Water-quality data were compiled and summarized, and basin maps showing land ...
The report presents an overview of A.I.D. efforts, which encompass a wide range of environmental issues and support environmental training, research, and institutional development. The report's opening section details A.I.D.'s efforts to enlist host-country support for environmental programs, with specific emphasis on improving natural resource management (especially in Africa), encouraging policy change, strengthening the private sector's environmental role, and preparing environmental profiles of host countries and helping them develop conservation strategies. The ensuing sections recount A.I.D. efforts in particular topics of environmental concern (biological diversity and environmental health and safety), critical ecological areas (coastal areas and forests and fragile lands), and specific country programs (reforestation in Haiti). A brief history of the evolution of the Agency's environmental strategy ...
The study concerns the assessment of the state of the environment in Lebanon and the identification of policy options has three specific objectives namely to determine the conditions of the environment in Lebanon after years of wars (1975-1992); to identify environmentals trends associated with Lebanon's development and to assess their sustainability; to identify policy options for environmental management. Issues of the environment concerned are both the brown issues e.g. the management of wastes and effluent arising from human activitiesand green issues, the natural resource base defined through main receptors:air, water (including coastal waters), land and terrestrial ecology sectors such as agriculture, industry, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries, population and human settlements are also studied
A negative public reaction is expected to oppose plans of the British energy industry to take valuable sites for industrial and commercial projects on the ground that government demand forecasts are too high and that they downplay conservation. The United Kingdom (UK) Department of Energy points out that public inquiry always accompanies energy installations and defends the projections made by producers even though each study emphasizes the demand for its own form of energy. At issue are plans to open 150 opencast coal mines a year to compensate for diminishing oil and gas supplies, onshore drilling by oil and gas exploration teams on nearly 50,000 km/sup 2/, and sites required for onshore pipelines, synthetic natural gas facilities, pumped storage plants, and nuclear power stations and waste management. The sites under discussion raise aesthetic and ecological concerns. (DCK)
Climate change is one of the main global issues of modern time. Ever increasing demand for food/feed and the need for higher environmental standards require shaping of the agricultural activities toward ecological and more sustainable efficient systems. One of the principal ways of attaining higher productivity and environmental standards is identification and adoption of beneficial management practices (BMP) by reviewing the conventional agricultural activities. The BMP are agricultural practices that promote sustainable land stewardship and maintain/increase profitability of farms. The BMP are from both crop and animal production systems and tradeoffs between the two systems could provide several opportunities in reducing, removing and/or avoiding of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Des...
The Crown of the Continent is one of the premiere ecosystems in North America containing Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, the Bob Marshall-Great Bear-Scapegoat Wilderness Complex in Montana, various Provincial Parks in British Columbia and Alberta, several national and state forest lands in the USA, and Crown Lands in Canada. The region is also the headwater source for three of the continent's great rivers: Columbia, Missouri and Saskatchewan that flow to the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, respectively. While the region has many remarkably pristine headwater streams and receiving rivers, there are many pending threats to water quality and quantity. One of the most urgent threats comes from the coal and gas fields in the northern part of the Crown of the Continent, where coal deposits are proposed for mountain-top removal and open-pit mining operations. This will have significant effects on the waters of the region, its ...
The present publication is based on facts, data, knowledge and projects, which have been incorporated in the development of an energy concept for the district Schmalkalden-Meiningen. The energy concept of a district is a concept oriented at action on and realisation of mid-term and long term decisions in the fields of energy policy, economy and ecology, which must be taken by municipal and economic decision-making bodies. The energy concept accords with the targets of the Agenda 21, the environmental targets of the Federal Republic of Germany and of the Land Thuringia. Accepting this energy concept the district Schmalkalden-Meiningen shows its willingness to contribute to a lasting development in all fields of economy and ecology and thus does justice to its increasing responsibility. (orig.) [German] Die vorliegende Veroeffentlichung baut auf Fakten, Daten, Erkenntnissen und Projekten auf, die in die Erarbeitung des ...
Map layer displays land designated as Suitable Land For Timber Production for the Forest Plan. It consists of all National Forest Lands less Non-forested ... ...
The Clean Water Act of 1977 directed EPA to establish standards for use and disposal of sewage sludge (biosolids). The application of biosolids to non-agricultural lands is becoming increasingly important as a method of waste disposal. Ecological endpoints at the population, community, and/or ecosystem level have not previously been emphasized in the development of regulatory standards for municipal sewage sludge. This risk assessment focuses on terrestrial endpoints in four ecosystem types to which substantial quantities of sludge have been applied or are expected to be applied in the future: northwest Douglas-fir forest, southeastern loblolly pine plantation, eastern deciduous forest, and semi-arid rangeland. Conceptual models suitable for all ecosystems were developed that depict the links among assessment endpoints. Estimates of risks to wildlife from contaminants and simulations of impacts of nitrogen in sewage sludge on the structure and ...
An important early step in the assessment of ecological risks at contaminated sites is the screening of chemicals detected on the site to identify those that constitute a potential risk. Part of this screening process is the comparison of measured ambient concentrations to concentrations that are believed to be nonhazardous, termed benchmarks. This article discusses 13 methods by which benchmarks may be derived for aquatic biota and presents benchmarks for 105 chemicals. It then compares them with respect to their sensitivity, availability, magnitude relative to background concentrations, and conceptual bases. This compilation is limited to chemicals that have been detected on the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) and to benchmarks derived from studies of toxic effects on freshwater organisms. The list of chemicals includes 45 metals and 56 industrial organic chemicals but only four pesticides. Although some individual ...
Marine ecosystems are suffering severe depletion of apex predators worldwide; shark declines are principally due to conservative life-histories and fisheries overexploitation. On coral reefs, sharks are strongly interacting apex predators and play a key role in maintaining healthy reef ecosystems. Despite increasing fishing pressure, reef shark catches are rarely subject to specific limits, with management approaches typically depending upon no-take marine reserves to maintain populations. Here, we reveal that this approach is failing by documenting an ongoing collapse in two of the most abundant reef shark species on the Great Barrier Reef (Australia). We find an order of magnitude fewer sharks on fished reefs compared to no-entry management zones that encompass only 1% of reefs. No-take zones, which are more difficult to enforce than no-entry zones, offer almost no protection for shark populations. Population viability models of whitetip and gray reef sharks ...
Fitness, (biometric measurements, reproduction) and behaviour that are ecologically relevant biomarkers in assessing the quality of estuarine sediments were studied by comparing the responses of the polychaete worm Nereis diversicolor - a key species in estuaries - along a pollution gradient. Intersite differences were shown for all the measured parameters: size-weight relationships, energy reserves as glycogen and lipids, sexual maturation patterns, total number of oocytes per female, total and relative fecundity, burrowing behaviour. The physiological and behavioural status of N. diversicolor was consistently disturbed in the larger, most contaminated estuaries (Loire and Seine, Fr.) compared to reference sites (Bay of Bourgneuf, Goyen estuary, Fr.). Many classes of potentially toxic chemicals present in these estuaries most likely contribute to these impairments but food availability may act as a confounding factor, interfering with the ...
This Environmental Assessment (EA) reviews the environmental consequences associated with the proposed action of granting a site use permit to construct and operate a conference center on an approximately 70-acre tract of land on the Savannah River Site (SRS). While the proposed action requires an administrative decision by DOE, this EA reviews the linked action of physically constructing and operating a conference center. The SRS is a DOE-owned nuclear production facility encompassing approximately 200,000 acres in southwestern South Carolina. The proposed conference center would have an area of approximately 4,000 square feet, and would infrequently accommodate as many as 150 people, with the average being about 20 people per day. In addition to the No-Action alternative, under which the Research Foundation would not require the 70-acre tract of SRS land for a conference center, this EA considers site preservation. Under Site Preservation ...
Changes in physical and chemical characteristics of aquatic habitats made to reduce or eliminate ecological risks can sometimes have unforeseen consequences. Environmental management activities on the U.S. Dept. of Energy reservation in Oak Ridge, Tennessee,have succeeded in improving water quality in streams impacted by discharges fi-om industrial facilities and waste disposal sites. The diversity and abundance of pollution-sensitive components of the benthic macroinvertebrate communities of three streams improved after new waste treatment systems or remedial actions reduced inputs of various toxic chemicals. Two of the streams were known to be mercury-contaminated from historical spills and waste disposal practices. Waterborne mercury concentrations in the third were typical of uncontaminated systems. In each case, concentrations of mercury in fish, or the apparent biological availability of mercury increased over the period during which ...
The general responses proposed to reduce CO{sub 2} emissions to the atmosphere are conservation, improved efficiency and fuel substitution. These are valid options but other alternatives such as CO{sub 2} capture and disposal may be more attractive for specific areas. There are good reasons why the capture and disposal option fits the situation in Western Canada. The first and obvious reason is the importance of hydrocarbon energy to the regional economy. Here the economy is based on the production, utilization and sale of hydrocarbons such as coal, oil and natural gas and we intend to stay in business. Besides meeting the Canadian demand, natural gas from Alberta is used in the US as far away as Boston and Los Angeles. Canadian heavy crude oil serves much of the American Midwest and coal from the Canadian Rocky Mountains is exported to Japan. Although many may consider these hydrocarbon reserves and fossil fuel production as part of the greenhouse gas problem, ...
The results of an extensive, detailed geologic and geophysical evaluation of the offshore South Florida basin show this area to have considerable hydrocarbon exploration potential. Geophysical mapping on six key horizons identified numerous structural closures at Dollar Bay through Bone Island mapping levels. Geologic evaluation indicated at least four viable potential reservoir horizons, including the Sunniland formation - the main producing unit onshore in what is called the Sunniland trend. Mature, organic rich carbonate source rocks are found in several stratigraphic intervals throughout the basin, and extensively developed seals consisting of micritic limestones and anhydrites are also common in the stratigraphic section. All the critical factors for hydrocarbon accumulation - source, reservoir, trap, and seal - appear to be present in the offshore Pulley ridge area of the South Florida basin. Using high-resolution seismic data, additional evaluation of land ...
Wind River Resources Corporation (WRRC) received a DOE grant in support of its proposal to acquire, process and interpret fifteen square miles of high-quality 3-D seismic data on non-allotted trust lands of the Uintah and Ouray (Ute) Indian Reservation, northeastern Utah, in 2000. Subsequent to receiving notice that its proposal would be funded, WRRC was able to add ten square miles of adjacent state and federal mineral acreage underlying tribal surface lands by arrangement with the operator of the Flat Rock Field. The twenty-five square mile 3-D seismic survey was conducted during the fall of 2000. The data were processed through the winter of 2000-2001, and initial interpretation took place during the spring of 2001. The initial interpretation identified multiple attractive drilling prospects, two of which were staked and permitted during the summer of 2001. The two initial wells were drilled in September and October of ...
Organic farming (or ecological agriculture) is of growing importance in the agricultural sector worldwide. In the Nordic countries, 1-10% of the arable land was in organic production in 1999. Organic farming can be seen as an approach to agriculture where the aim is to create integrated, humane, environmentally and economically sustainable agricultural production systems. Principles like nutrient recycling, prevention rather than treatment and the precautionary principle are included in aims and standards. Animal welfare is another hallmark of organic livestock production but despite this, several studies have indicated severe health problems e.g. in organic poultry production in Denmark. Also the quality of animal food products in relation to human health, particularly the risk of zoonotic infections, has been debated. For these reasons there is a need for improvement of production methods and animal health status. Vets play an important role ...
This poster presentation dealt with a brief overview of the practices in effect in British Columbia related to metal leaching and acid mine drainage. The metals mined in the province include coal, gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, lead, and zinc. Some mines operate under the surface, while others are strip mines, etc. under a variety of climactic conditions and a host of different mining companies, such as Cominco, Placer Dome and Noranda. The primary objective is the prevention of negative environmental impacts on land and in the water. Salmon and other fish need to be protected. A secondary objective is the minimization of impacts on the biota, which requires a detailed study of ecological risks. The solution often lies in soil covering. To illustrate, the author described the situation at Huckleberry Mines Ltd. and the remedial action that was implemented, and discussed the results on the beavers. In conclusion, the author discussed the ...
The current situation in the development of nuclear power in the world and in Czechoslovakia is briefly outlined and the possibilities are discussed of alternative energy resources. The environmental impact is described of conventional power plants firing coal; sulphur and nitrogen oxides are mentioned and their environmental impacts shown. Their quantities and the quantities of other gaseous, liquid and soid wastes produced by coal power plants are given. Annual estimates are presented of radioactive material emissions; trace amount emissions of toxic metals and their ecological risks are shown. Concern over the increasing concentration of CO_2 in the atmosphere is voiced. For nuclear power plants, the amount of radionuclides in stack emission and of those released into water flows is tabulated. Their effect on the aqueous ecosystem is characterized as is thermal pollution of water flows and the environmental impact of cooling towers. Other factors are also ...
ObjectivesThe specific objectives of the research are to: 1. Determine the concentrations of N2O, NO and NO2 in tropical coastal waters in relation to nutrients and salinities. 2. Determine, with excess nitrate present, the potential for nitrate reduction and denitrification in sediments along tropical estuaries, and whether NO, NO2, N2O, N2 or NH4+ are significant products. 3. Establish the balance between denitrification, nitrate ammonification and anammox in tropical estuarine sediments, relative to [continued...]DescriptionThe coastal zone is extremely important in the biogeochemical processes which control the natural cycle of elements of the Earth. In particular, the coastal zone contributes significantly to the nitrogen cycle, removing nitrogen washed in from the land by rivers and so reducing its fertilizing impact on the coastal seas. However, these removal processes, driven by microorganisms, also contribute to the formation of nitrogen gases, some of ...
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) must account for legally protected and endangered species. Uncertainties relating to the validity and sensitivity of EIA arise from predictions and valuation of effects on these species. This paper presents a validity and sensitivity analysis of a model (BIO-SAFE) for assessment of impacts of land use changes and physical reconstruction measures on legally protected and endangered river species. The assessment is based on links between species (higher plants, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, butterflies and dragon- and damselflies) and ecotopes (landscape ecological units, e.g., river dune, soft wood alluvial forests), and on value assignment to protected and endangered species using different valuation criteria (i.e., EU Habitats and Birds directive, Conventions of Bern and Bonn and Red Lists). The validity of BIO-SAFE has been tested by comparing predicted effects of landscape changes on the ...
As nuclear research has become more prevalent, environmental contamination from the disposal of radioactive waste has become a prominent issue. At Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in northern New Mexico, radioactive contamination from disposal operations has raised some very specific concerns. Material Disposal Area G (Area G) is the primary low-level radioactive waste disposal site at LANL and occupies an area adjacent to land belonging to the Native American community of the Pueblo of San Ildefonso. Analyses of soil and vegetation collected from the perimeter of Area G have shown concentrations of radionuclides greater than background concentrations established for northern New Mexico. As a result, Pueblo residents had become concerned that contaminants from Area G could enter tribal lands through various ecological pathways. The residents specifically questioned the safety of consuming meat from elk and deer that ...
A.C.R.O. (Association pour le Controle de la Radioactivite dans l'Ouest) is a French non governmental organisation that operates a laboratory for radioactivity analysis. It was created in 1986 as a response to people demands for information and reliable, independent testing. The organisation mainly carries out missions of information and training for its correspondents and more generally for a wide audience, particularly for people who worry about problems of environment, health, management of radioactive waste and emissions. Thanks to its structure, it enables citizens to involve themselves together with scientists so as to gain access to information that was hither to reserved to specialists. The organisation can vouchsafe its independence from the diversity of its members and volunteers, as well as from the diversity of its money resources. Besides its headquarters situated on the city of Caen area (Normandy), three branches situated in North Normandy, ...
Ecological speciation is the process by which barriers to gene flow between populations evolve due to adaptive divergence via natural selection. A relatively unexplored area in ecological speciation...Full Text Available
...2010-10-01 false Reserve power supply. 80.917 Section 80.917 Telecommunication...Passenger Boats § 80.917 Reserve power supply. (a) The requirements of this section...March 1, 1957, must have a reserve power supply located on the same deck as the...
BackgroundStatistical autoregressive analyses of direct and delayed density dependence are widespread in ecological research. The models suggest that changes in ecological factors...Full Text Available
The ecological approach to perception, as developed by James Gibson, is described and applied to how one knows, by means of the haptic perceptual system, various properties of hand-held objects. Four...Full Text Available
Land degradation reduces the ability of the land to perform many biophysical and chemical functions. The main aim of this study was to determine the status of land degradation in the Budgam area of Kashmir Himalaya using remote sensing and geographic information system. The satellite data together with other geospatial datasets were used to quantify different categories of land degradation. The results were validated in the field and an accuracy of 85% was observed. Land use/land cover of the study area was determined in order to know the effect of land use on the rate of land degradation. Normalized differential vegetation index (NDVI) and slope of the area were determined using LANDSAT-enhanced thematic mapper plus (ETM+) data, advanced space borne thermal emission and reflection radiome...
The model of `ecological forestry' has evolved as a part of the development of the concept of ecosystem management. `Ecological forestry' emphasises that manipulation of a forest ecosystem should consider, and as far as practicable work within the limits of, natural disturbance patterns prior to extensive human alteration of the landscape. This paper evaluates the extent to which forest management practices in jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) and karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor) forests of south-western Australia align with this view of the characteristics and appropriate silviculture of `ecological forestry'. Characteristics and appropriate silviculture of `ecological forestry' are evaluated in relation to (i) the stand level decisions of stand structure and harvest timing and (ii) the landsc...
Elemental composition and distribution of the mineral reserves in the endosperm and embryo tissues of Ricinus communis cultivars Hale and Zanzibarensis were investigated. Energy dispersive...Full Text Available
A new method for computing petroleum reserves which takes into account the volumetric elasticity of stratal petroleum and a porous medium of a collector is examined based on the example of developing petroleum beds of Cretaceous horizon of the Groznenskiy region.
Aggregation of fine-resolution land-cover maps to coarser scales indicates that estimates of the proportions of land-cover types vary as a function of spatial resolution. The magnitude of these proportional errors in a forested area in northern California increase significantly as resolution exceeds a 90-m threshold. These errors could pose difficulties for the use of land-cover products generated from coarse-resolution sensors such as the NOAA-AVHRR and the MODIS sensor planned for the EOS program. The magnitude of the errors appears to be a function of the spatial resolution of the map, the original size of the land-cover classes, and the spatial patterns of the classes.
Based upon the existing regulatory cleanup criteria, remediation of this wetlands was proposed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Energy (NJDEPE). This remedial process would have totally destroyed a thriving Old Field Wetlands. Site-Specific evaluation of the chemicals of potential concern (CPC), remaining source areas, potential environmental fate and transport (EF and T), toxicology (including oral absorption and bioaccumulation) and potential land use scenarios were conducted. It was determined that although the analytical chemistry data reported soil concentrations of arsenic, the compound used by the facility and discharged to the wetlands sediments was in fact gallium arsenide. Secondly, all remaining source areas and hot spots had previously been remediated. Vertical migration to soils had not progressed past a depth of 3 feet and groundwater/surface water did not contain significantly elevated concentrations of gallium arsenide. ...
The position paper will provide the basis for further strategies on offshore wind power development in consideration of ecological and conservation aspects. [German] Das Positionspapier des Bundesministeriums fuer Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (BMU) einschliesslich des Umweltbundesamtes (UBA) und des Bundesamtes fuer Naturschutz (BfN) ist Ergebnis der Arbeiten der BMU-Projektgruppe 'Windenergienutzung im Offshore-Bereich im Hinblick auf die BMU-Anliegen'. Es beschreibt den derzeitigen Stand einer Strategie zur umwelt- und naturvertraeglichen Erschliessung der Windenergienutzung auf See (Offshore). Es bildet die Grundlage fuer die Weiterentwicklung dieser Strategie und dabei insbesondere zur Abstimmung mit den Anliegen anderer Bundesressorts und den Kuestenlaendern, sowie zur intensiveren Einbeziehung beteiligter Verbaende und Fachkreise. Vor dem Hintergrund der zur Genehmigung eingereichten Antraege fuer Offshore-Windparks, mangelnder ...
More than 80% of the people of Nepal are farmers and 90% of the farmers do farming for subsistence. Agricultural productions contribute about 50% of country's GDP. Agricultural sector has been categorized as the top priority sector since many years. The environment of the country has also deteriorated substantially by the unplanned and unscientific use of natural resources such as air, soil, water, air and forest. Fertility of the soil has also been declining and studies show that productions in mountains is decreasing at a rate of 40 Kg/ha. Yr (1). The Terai, a narrow strip of land in the south, is in heavy pressure due to over exploitation and population growth (both natural and migratory). Shallow groundwater (shallow tube wells) is the main source of drinking water in Terai (the lowland region of Nepal). A study conducted by Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS) showed that more than 55% of Terai tube wells are microbiologically contaminated (2). There ...
Jan 22, 2011 ... Abstract: Land use changes and deforestation in tropical rainforests are among the major factors affecting the overall function of the global ...
... operational AUV and Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) ... by Brooks with land-based robots [BROOKS 88 ... system for a mobile land robot called ...
A.C.R.O. (Association pour le Controle de la Radioactivite dans l Ouest) is a French non governmental organisation that operates a laboratory for radioactivity analysis. It was created in 1986 as a response to people demands for information and reliable, independent testing. The organisation mainly carries out missions of information and training for its correspondents and more generally for a wide audience, particularly for people who worry about problems of environment, health, management of radioactive waste and emissions. Thanks to its structure, it enables citizens to involve themselves together with scientists so as to gain access to information that was hither to reserved to specialists. The organisation can vouchsafe its independence from the diversity of its members and volunteers, as well as from the diversity of its money resources. Besides its headquarters situated on the city of Caen area (Normandy), three branches situated in North Normandy, in ...
The environmental impact caused by local people (ecological footprint of consumption, EFc) and the actual environmental impact that the ecosystem burdens (ecological footprint of production, EFp) in West Jilin Province, Northeast China from 1986 to 2006 were evaluated by using ecological footprint (EF) method. And the major driving forces of EFc and EFp were analyzed by STIRPAT model. Both EFc and EFp showed increasing trends in 1986?2006, accompanied by decreasing ecological deficits but expanding ecological overshoots. Population (P), GDP per capita (A 1), quadratic term of GDP per capita (A 2), urbanization (T a1), and quadratic term of urbanization (T a2) were important influencing factors of EFc, among which T a2 and T a1 were the most dominate driving forces of EFc. A 1, A 2 and T a2...
Reserve appreciation, also called reserve growth, is the increase in the estimated ultimate recovery (the sum of year end reserves and cumulative production) from fields subsequent to discovery from extensions, infield drilling, improved recovery of in-place resources, new pools, and intrapool completions. In recent years, reserve appreciation has become a major component of total U.S. annual natural gas reserve additions. Over the past 15 years, reserve appreciation has accounted for more than 80 percent of all annual natural gas reserve additions in the U.S. lower 48 states (Figure 1). The rise of natural gas reserve appreciation basically came with the judgment that reservoirs were much more geologically complex than generally thought, and they hold substantial quantities of natural gas in conventionally movable ...
Competitive bidding for ancillary services (A/S), in addition to bidding for energy, is increasingly recognized as an important part of electricity markets. In this paper, an LP-based approach is presented for solving the multi-product (i.e. energy and A/S products), multi-zone/area physical market dispatch problem. The approach can explicitly represent various constraints, such as reserve requirement constraints, network security limits, and sharing of constrained resource capacity (e.g. maximum unit generation) between energy and reserve. The joint dispatch method, which dispatches energy and reserve market concurrently, is extended to allow inter-zonal reserve trading in multi-zone competitive pool. Numerical examples are included to demonstrate the salient characteristics of the joint dispatch solution.
Some of most used indicators in marine ecology are nucleic acid-derived indices. They can be divided by target levels in three groups: 1) at the organism level as ecophysiologic indicators, indicators...Full Text Available
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are ecologically important root symbionts of most terrestrial plants. Ecological studies of AMF have concentrated on differences between species; largely assuming...Full Text Available
This document gathers the available presentations (articles and transparencies) given at this annual meeting, the 2007 topic of which was the technological, geopolitical, economical, environmental, societal and development stakes of energy. 1 - technological stakes - which energies for the future: new energies, illusion or solution of the future; the Lorraine region, an energy land: strategies and stakes for a sustainable development; from China to Brazil: understanding the nuclear energy revival; hydroelectric power: renewable and sustainable energy; renewable energies and environment protection: the contribution of biofuels; wind power in Germany between success and contestation; 2 - geopolitical stakes - energy levier of power: the Gulf of Guinea hydrocarbons: between development and geopolitics; the complex evaluation of resources and reserves between technology, market and geopolitics; the new Bakou-Tbilissi-Ceyhan pipeline: what impacts ...
At Livermore our hope and our intention is to make important contributions to global sustainability by basing both our scientific and technological research and our business practices on the principles of industrial ecology. Current efforts in the following fields are documented: global security, global ecology, energy for transportation, fusion energy, materials sciences, environmental technology, and bioscience.
The existence of problems with wild pigs (Sus scrofa) is nothing new to the Western Hemisphere. Damage by these introduced animals was reported as far back as 1505 by the early Spanish colonies in the Caribbean, where wild pigs were killing the colonists cattle. Droves of these animals also ravaged cultivated crops of maize and sugarcane on islands in the West Indies during this same time period. These wild pigs reportedly were very aggressive and often attacked Spanish soldiers hunting rebellious Indians or escaped slaves on these islands, especially when these animals were cornered. The documentation of such impacts by introduced populations of this species in the United States has subsequently increased in recent years, and continued up through the present (Towne and Wentworth. 1950, Wood and Barrett 1979, Mayer and Brisbin 1991, Dickson et al. 2001). In spite of a fairly constant history in this country since the early 1900s, wild pigs have had a dramatic recent increase in both ...
The terrestrial biosphere can significantly affect the exchange of water and energy at the biosphere-atmosphere interface. Additionally, the land cover type can affect regional atmospheric chemistry and climate via biogenic volatile organic carbon (VOC) emissions and their formation of secondary organic aerosols. The broad goal of this study is to investigate the impact of land cover and vegetation changes on these specific chemistry and climate effects. The Common Land Model (CLM) is used to parameterize the biosphere-atmosphere interface over the Shanghai region in China. Phase 1 of this study, described in this report, generates input parameters for this model based on a time series of actual and derived parameters. Atmospheric forcing data are generated on an hourly temporal resolution based on a 20-year series of monthly and daily averages. Surface data, including land ...
The article reports the reserves of fossil resources. The world's total coal reserves and recoverable coal reserves the estimated at 8,400 billion tons and 728 billion tons, respectively. For oil, the verified reserves and reserve production ratio in the Middle East are 420.9 billion bbl and about 100 years, respectively. They are 141 billion bbl and about 20 years for North and South America, 81 billion bbl and about 18 years for the Soviet Union, 10.8 billion bbl and 34 years for China, 9.8 billion bbl and 26 years for Western Europe and 38.7 billion bbl and 42 years for Africa. The total reserves of natural gas in the world were shown to be 3,981.6 x 10/sup 12/ cf at the World Petroleum Congress in 1987. The amount of recoverable primitive oil sand resources in the world is 436 billion bbl, of which as much as about 70 percent is in Canada. The ...
Although the oil price is still far from its historical maximum, the oil market is today in crisis. To explain this situation the author discusses the nature of the supply constraints. The reserves are today better known and so more plentiful than at a previous period of the oil history and the russian production since 2004 is stagnating. The main factor seems to be the OPEC policy and in particular the will of limiting the oil production to defend upper prices. (A.L.B.)
In order to ensure a power balance in an electrical network a spinning reserve has to be capable of activation within seconds. However, because of the need to vary the fuel flow in the steam generator, the run-up of output takes minutes. The required capacity response is therefore achieved by storage of steam from the steam generator. In this process the turbine control valves come into action in a specific manner. The paper describes the importance of the initial reserve for unit capacity control. (orig.).
The Kootenay, Luscar/Manville, and Belly River Groups, and the Horseshoe Canyon and Scollard Coalspur Formations are the most important coal measures in Alberta. Estimated current resources and reserves are 89 and 35 billion tonnes, respectively. Ultimate resources and reserves are 2100 and 660 billion tonnes, respectively. Most of the reserves are subbituminous and require underground mining methods. Current production is approximately 39 million tonnes per year, primarily subbituminous coal that is used for domestic electrical generation. Bituminous coal is exported. Long-term development will depend on markets, price, and infrastructure. 11 refs., 4 figs.
Agricultural runoff is a major non-point source pollutant and is the leading impairment of streams and rivers in the USA. This study examined the effects of agricultural, forest and urban land cover on water quality at the watershed level. Forty-three catchments ranging from 12 to 50?km2 were selected based on a land cover gradient within Lower Kaskaskia River Watershed in Illinois. Grab samples were collected and analyzed for nutrients, bacteria, and total suspended solids (TSS). Forest land cover was included in six of the ten regression models produced. Four of these regression models were for base flow conditions, suggesting that forest land cover had a significant impact on base flow water quality. Urban land cover was also included in six of the regression models. However, the majori...
The rate and intensity of land use land cover (LULC) change has increased considerably during the past couple of decades. Mining brings significant alterations in LULC specifically due to its impact on forests. Parts of Central India are well endowed with both forests and minerals. Here, the conflict between human interests and nature has intensified over time. Monitoring and assessment of such conflicts are important for land management and policy making. Remote sensing and Geographical Information System have the potential to serve as accurate tools for environmental monitoring. Understanding the importance of landscape metrics in land use planning is challenging but important. These metrics calculated at landscape, class, and patch level provide an insight into changing spatiotemporal d...
Land cover change can be caused by human-induced activities and natural forces. Land cover change in watershed level has been a main concern for a long time in the world since watersheds play an important role in our life and environment. This paper is focused on how to apply Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) satellite image of 1973 and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite image of 2001 to determine the land cover changes of coastal watersheds from 1973 to 2001. GIS and remote sensing are integrated to derive land cover information from Landsat satellite images of 1973 and 2001. The land cover classification is based on supervised classification method in remote sensing software ERDAS IMAGINE. Historical GIS data is used to replace the areas covered by clouds or shadows in the image o...
This bill was introduced into the US House of Representatives on June 7, 1991 to provide for the designation of Wetlands Stewardship Trusts. This legislation amended the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to establish special rules for contributions of wetlands and riparian lands to Wetlands Stewardship Trusts. Key features of the bill address the following: tax treatment of donations of wetlands and riparian lands to Wetlands Stewardship Trusts; amortization of expenditures to restore wetlands and riparian lands; expenditures for restoring wetlands and riparian lands; exclusion from gross income for amounts received from compatible uses of wetlands or riparian lands; and income from compatible uses of wetlands or riparian lands.
... Air Station, Oahu, Kahuku Training Area ... K-Pier, Hawaii, Bradshaw Army Airfield, Hawaii (R&S ... impact area); Makua Military Reservation, Oahu (R&S ...
Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1 (NPR-1) in California and Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 (NPR-3) in Wyoming continued to be operated at their maximum efficient rates of production during FY 1983. The Government-owned portion of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 2 in California continued to be leased to private operators as it has been for over 50 years, with the Government receiving a royalty share of production from the leases. All of the Government's share of crude oil produced at the Petroleum Reserves during FY 1983 was sold to the Department of Defense, while natural gas and natural gas liquids were sold competitively on the open market. FY 1983 revenues from the three Naval Petroleum Reserves totaled over $1.5 billion in general receipts and Windfall Profit Taxes. Program expenditures totaled approximately $220 million. The drilling of new wells continued to be an important ...
The objective of this work was to compare seasonal variations of reproduction physiology of the ragworm Nereis diversicolor -a key species in estuarine ecosystems-originating from a clean (Authie) and multi-polluted (Seine) estuaries. A particular attention was carried out in female worms, on relationships between sexual maturity stages, energy reserves (glycogen and lipids) and steroid hormone levels (progesterone, 17b-estradiol, and testosterone). Sexual maturity index (SMI), energy reserves and steroid hormones are clearly influenced by season in worms from both sites. Depleted steroid hormone levels were depicted in specimens exhibiting high sexual maturity stage and energy reserves. Intersite analysis has revealed all over the sampling period:-a sexual precocity in worms from Seine,-g...
This paper discusses geology, coalfields, coal quality, seams and strata, coal reserves, mining methods, production, coal liquefaction, and research on spontaneous combustion and methane explosions.
Note the waste water ponds, road network, disturbed land, and undisturbed land. Credit: Image courtesy of NASA GSFC, MITI, ERSDAC, JAROS, and U.S./Japan ...
Types of disorders in the earth's surface as a result of open pit mining operations are analyzed. Trends for recultivation of lands are defined. Formulas are presented for calculating the economic expediency of the selected direction of recultivation.
We used two high profile articles as cases to demonstrate that use of fishery landings data can lead to faulty interpretations about the condition of fishery ecosystems. One case uses the mean trophic...Full Text Available
Surface temperature is measured with an infrared thermometer. Measuring Surface Temperature. Nine sample points are selected with a site of uniform land ...
in pulse applications such as magnetic forming. ... In magnetic-forming electric circuitry, the ..... Aspects of Electrohydraulic land Magnetic Forming. ...
The reports in this series are designed primarily to familiarize professional land use and resource planners with the range of possibilities and effective procedures for achieving integrated mining, reclamation, and land use planning. These reports are ba...
A case study is presented where an integrated, ecologically relevant exposure assessment is presented for a polluted lowland river. Using partial least squares regression of latent structures (PLS), an analysis of the impact of two effluents on physico-chemical water quality measures, macroinvertebrate and diatom communities, and in situ bioassay responses with four different test species are combined into an integrative exposure assessment. Bioassays focussed on growth and condition related endpoints, because they are key functional processes of organisms and populations. Integrating these multiple lines of evidence, we were able to discriminate among the impact of both effluents, link changes in physico-chemical water quality with bioassay endpoints and ecological quality of the ecosystem, and address the importance of integrating all information into one exposure assessment framework. The bioassays under field conditions indicated that most ...
General conclusions, principles and order of substantiating the extractable reserves and coefficients of oil extraction from oil and oil and gas fields are presented. Recommendations are made for solving questions of constructing calculation models for heterogeneous beds, schematization of the working conditions, selection of mathematical models for oil extraction for different geological-field conditions and different stages of ''life'' of the field.
...DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY MILITARY RESERVATIONS AND...REGULATIONS AFFECTING MILITARY RESERVATIONS ...or guide service, dog training for reimbursement...non-profit organizations working in the public...profit, including dog training for reimbursement...non-profit organizations working in the public...
This is the ninth quarterly report as required by the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (Ecology et al. 1990), also known as the Tri-Party Agreement, established between the US Department of Energy (DOE), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology). The Tri-Party Agreement sets the plan and schedule for achieving regulatory compliance and cleanup of waste sites at the Hanford Site. This report covers progress for the quarter that ended June 30, 1991. A total of 87 milestones have been completed to date. 39 refs., 1 fig.
To investigate the future problem of oil field operation in the North Sea, the latest trend of the resources and development/production of the oil fields in the North Sea in British and Norwegian territories are outlined. Recoverable crude oil reserves, potential additional crude oil reserves, and undiscovered recoverable reserves of Britain, as well as probable total potential crude oil reserves in British continental shelf are put in order. Outlines of development and production of crude oil are described. The petroleum and gas development by Norway in 1996 is arranged, and outlines of the reserves, development, and petroleum/gas production are given. As the topics relating to the North Sea in 1996, reports are made on: the effective use of existing infrastructure surplus capacity; dealing with economic efficiency; challenge to abysmal development; applied instances of floating ...
BackgroundSister species divergence and reproductive isolation commonly results from ecological adaptation. In mimetic Heliconius butterflies, shifts in colour pattern...Full Text Available
This paper first discusses the challenge offered by natural and anthropogenic systems in all of their complexity and then indicates some areas of research in which specific scientific and technological needs are identifiable.
Jun 16, 2011 ... Description: Within the Deschutes River basin of central Oregon, the geology, hydrology, and physiography influence geomorphic and ecologic ...
Mangroves are disappearing rapidly worldwide despite their well documented biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide. Failure to link ecological processes and their societal benefits has...Full Text Available
An environmental study was done to examine the prevalence of Vibrio mimicus in some aquatic environments of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and of Okayama, Japan. Water samples from Dhaka environments and water...Full Text Available
From out of the numerous technical alternatives the manual develops a waste management concept with emphasis on methods which can be coordinated for maximum ecological use and minimum economic costs. A clear-cut analysis of the present state of waste utilization and waste disposal in the Federal Republic of Germany (chapter 1) is followed by a detailed description of conventional and modern state-of-the-art waste utilization methods based on ecological evaluation criteria (chapter 3). An optimum waste utilization concept for defined quantities of wastes is derived from the ecological and economic comparison of waste utilization techniques given in chapter 3. Chapter 4 points out different variants of waste utilization and waste disposal methods and shows how to determine the optimum variant of the optimum concept for a particular area or community. (orig.).
Development of New Methods and Means of Assessing of Consequences of Radionuclide and Heavy Metal Salt Effect, Criteria of Forecasting Physiological State and Productivity of the Farm Animals under Conditions of Ecological Pollution of Environment
Due to the use of a limited number of species and subchronic exposures, current ecological hazard assessment processes can underestimate the chronic toxicity of environmental contaminants resulting...Full Text Available
Understanding the erosion and deposition rates in a small watershed is important for designing soil and water conservation measures. The objective of this study is to estimate the net soil loss and gain at points with various land use types and landform positions in a small watershed in the Sichuan Hilly Basin of China by the 137Cs tracing technique. Among various land use types, the order of erosion rate was bare rock > sloping cultivated land > forest land. The paddy field and Caotu (a kind of cultivated land located at the foot of hills) were depositional areas. The erosion rate under different landform was in this order: hillside > saddle > hilltop. The footslope and the valley were depositional areas. The 137Cs technique was shown to provide an effective means of documenting the spatial distribution of soil erosion and deposition within the small watershed.
Utah oil fields have produced over 1.2 billion barrels (191 million m{sup 3}). However, the 13.7 million barrels (2.2 million m{sup 3}) of production in 2002 was the lowest level in over 40 years and continued the steady decline that began in the mid-1980s. The Utah Geological Survey believes this trend can be reversed by providing play portfolios for the major oil-producing provinces (Paradox Basin, Uinta Basin, and thrust belt) in Utah and adjacent areas in Colorado and Wyoming. Oil plays are geographic areas with petroleum potential caused by favorable combinations of source rock, migration paths, reservoir rock characteristics, and other factors. The play portfolios will include: descriptions and maps of the major oil plays by reservoir; production and reservoir data; case-study field evaluations; summaries of the state-of-the-art drilling, completion, and secondary/tertiary techniques for each play; locations of major oil pipelines; descriptions of reservoir outcrop analogs; and ...
This article describes the utilization of plastic wastes in a blast furnace. The plastic waste is a substitution for petroleum and coal as a raw material for synthesis gas production. The synthesis gas is the reducing agent in the blast furnace for the reduction of iron ores. You can find here an ecological and economical analysis of this process in comparison to the utilization of petroleum and coal. (SR)
Bacteriocins are an abundant class of antimicrobial molecules that appear to mediate population dynamics within species. The bacteriocins of Escherichia coli have served as a model for exploring the ecological role of these potent toxins. Studies suggest that colicins provide a competitive edge in nutrient-poor environments and that there might be a trade-off between the costs and benefits of colicin production. PMID:10203843
In the discussion of environmental architecture, we are conjoining two disciplines, the subject of architecture and that of ecology. At their best, green buildings are examples of applied ecology, where designers understand the constitution, organization, and structure of ecosystems, and the impacts of architecture are considered from an environmental perspective. By utilizing the concepts, methods, and language of ecology, designers can create architecture that intentionally engages the natural systems of a site. The establishment of assessment criteria implies the definition of building design criteria. If we establish criteria that are based on our best scientific understanding of environmental capacity, we will begin to develop a building stock that is sustainable. To do this we must quantify the link between the resulting environmental impacts and their cause in building production and use. This is not done in ...
The effect of open pit mine motor transport with ICE on the air basin is examined using the example of shale mines and open pits of the production association ''Estonslanets''. Efficient areas of use of different types of open pit mine motor transport, diesel-trolley tracks and electric cars are determined based on technical-economic and ecologic feasibility.
General trends of developing hydrogen power engineering and technology in Ukraine are considered. Based on a general level of power consumption and real opportunities for hydrogen production, a conclusion is derived that there are possibilities in the near future to partially replace conventional hydrocarbon fuels by hydrogen. Besides, developed technologies for burning hydrogenous gases and hydrogen-fuel systems when applied to transport installations allow one to improve essentially their power and ecological characteristics. 5 refs.
This 'Issues in Ecology' article from the Ecological Society of America provides information about the consequences of nutrient enrichment along the US coast. It describes problems such as harmful algal blooms (HABs), anoxia, hypoxia, and dead zones. It explains which nutrients are involved and describes implications of excess nutrients in regions such as the Gulf of Mexico/Mississippi River basin. The article features several color photographs, maps, and diagrams.
Research programs from the following sections and programs are summarized: aquatic ecology, environmental resources, earth sciences, terrestrial ecology, advanced fossil energy program, toxic substances program, environmental impacts program, biomass, low-level waste research and development program, US DOE low-level waste management program, and waste isolation program.
The purpose of this document is to use existing documentation to review the effectiveness of subsurface flow and surface flow constructed wetlands in treating wastewater and to demonstrate the viability of treating effluent from Savannah River Site outfalls H-02 and H-04 with a subsurface flow constructed wetland to lower copper, lead and zinc concentrations to within National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit limits. Constructed treatment wetlands are engineered systems that have been designed and constructed to use the natural functions of wetlands for wastewater treatment. Constructed wetlands have significantly lower total lifetime costs and often lower capital costs than conventional treatment systems. The two main types of constructed wetlands are surface flow and subsurface flow. In surface flow constructed wetlands, water flows above ground. Subsurface flow constructed wetlands are designed to keep the water level below the top of the rock or gravel media, ...
A survey of wetlands on the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) was conducted in 1990. Wetlands occurring on ORR were identified using National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) maps and field surveys. More than 120 sites were visited and 90 wetlands were identified. Wetland types on ORR included emergent communities in shallow embayments on reservoirs, emergent and aquatic communities in ponds, forested wetland on low ground along major creeks, and wet meadows and marshes associated with streams and seeps. Vascular plant species occurring on sites visited were inventoried, and 57 species were added to the checklist of vascular plants on ORR. Three species listed as rare in Tennessee were discovered on ORR during the wetlands survey. The survey provided an intensive ground truth of the wetlands identified by NWI and offered an indication of wetlands that the NWI remote sensing techniques did not detect.
The application of fossil fuels and the simultaneous dependency on fuel imports can only be decreased through consequent utilisation of efficient hydro power which is the most efficient way to avoid CO{sub 2} emissions. Only some decades ago hydro power plants were buildings erected according to met technical demands. In the 1990s rethinking started and the new designs took into account ecology and architecture. Maintenance and/or improvement of ecological efficiency play a decisive role. Experts of ecology and environmental protection of different faculties are involved right from the beginning when planning starts in order to obtain a maximum of nature compatibility and to develop efficient ecological accompanying and compensating measures. Landscape is being recultivated sustainably during construction activities in order to offer biota optimum conditions of living. Devices supporting fish migration ...
ObjectivesThe overall aim of the project is to understand whether natural Mn oxides can be used to remediate land contaminated with both metals and POPs. The major objectives are:~%~~%~1.Establishment of whether and how metals, POPs and SOM compete for reactive Mn oxide surface.~%~~%~2.Delineate the mechanisms of contaminant immobilisation and degradation.~%~~%~3.Identify the fate of the contaminants in Mn oxide treated soils.~%~~%~4.Measure positive and/or negative effects in the soil system of addition [continued...]DescriptionLand is a valuable but finite resource. The Environment Agency estimates that there are approximately 300,000 hectares of land in the UK affected to some extent by contamination left by industrial activity and worldwide, the extent of the problem is much greater as contaminated land is inextricably linked to ...
This assessment of Queensland's resources of black coal has been prepared by the Coal and Oil Shale Resources Assessment and Development Subprogram, Queensland Department of Mines, in accordance with the 'Code for Reporting of Identified Coal Resources and Reserves'.
The cells of the endosperm of castor bean seeds (Ricinus communis) undergo programmed cell death during germination, after their oil and protein reserves have been mobilized. Nuclear...Full Text Available
This article puts the case for coal fired combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants. The need to gasify the coal for the CCGT, use of fluidised bed combustors or gasification systems, the difference in prices of coal and natural gas, and coal and natural gas reserves are discussed. (UK)
...Goods: promote the protection of ldquo;natural parks and reserves, mangroves, reefs and lagoons,rdquo; and ldquo;expanding forest cover and tree integration with agricultural production systems rdquo;; climate change will be reduced through the trading of pollution permits under the Kyoto Protocol. Enhancing Disaster Management Capabilities:...
Diel variations in rates of C export, sucrose-phosphate synthase (SPS) and sucrose synthase (SS) activity, and C reserves were investigated in Zostera marina L. (eelgrass) to elucidate the environmental...Full Text Available
The reserves and the mine are described. Planned capacity is 27.5 million tonnes per year of coal for the Sasol II and Sasol III liquefaction plants. There will be 7 longwall faces, 15 entry workings with shotfiring, and 19 entries with continuous miners.
An aerial radiological survey of the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) and surrounding area in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was conducted during the period March 30 to April 14,1992. The purpose of the survey was to measure and document the terrestrial radiological environment of the Oak Ridge Reservation for use in environmental management programs and emergency response planning. The aerial survey was flown at an altitude of 150 feet (46 meters) along a series of parallel lines 250 feet (76 meters) apart and included X-10 (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), K-25 (former Gaseous Diffusion Plant), Y-12 (Weapons Production Plant), the Freels Bend Area and Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, the East Fork Poplar Creek (100-year floodplain extending from K-25 to Y-12), Elza Gate (former uranium ore storage site located in the city of Oak Ridge), Parcel A, the Clinch River (river banks extending from Melton Hill Dam to the city of Kingston), and the CSX ...
The purpose is to describe problems associated with the establishment of vegetation on mined lands and practical rehabilitation and restoration methods for establishing a rehabilitation plan. Land disturbed by mining should be restored to its original state, when the mine is decommissioned, but before that can be attained, site problems such as toxicity, moisture supply, and texture must be rectified. The land may need to pass through several conditioning stages, and links need to be formed to maintain a functioning ecosystem. A key aspect to rehabilitation is the need to increase the organic matter content of the substrate. This improves soil structure, increases the moisture holding ability, and provides a pool for nutrient cycling. 11 refs., 2 tabs.
Overhead, high power transmission lines have secured rights of way on agricultural lands in Minnesota. The economic impact of such utility crossings, including effects on land price, was investigated. Sale records and survey data were analyzed. Buyers, sellers, and brokers were interviewed concerning inconvenience, radio interference, appearance, and loss of irrigation possibilities due to the transmission lines. In nine affected sales, there was only one case in which less money was indicated for the farm because of the presence of a transmission line.
Overhead, high power transmission lines have secured rights of way on agricultural lands in Minnesota. The economic impact of such utility crossings, including effects on land price, was investigated. Sale records and survey data were analyzed. Buyers, sellers, and brokers were interviewed concerning inconvenience, radio interference, appearance, and loss of irrigation possibilities due to the transmission lines. In nine affected sales, there was only one case in which less money was indicated for the farm because of the presence of a transmission line.
The twenty-three papers presented at this conference discussed requirements of land reclamation under the Federal surface mining regulations, evaluation techniques for assessing reclaimed land, spoil bank chemistry and its change with time, establishment techniques (vegetative propagation, containerized seedlings, nurse vegetation, nitrogen-fixing tree species, direct seeding, and general cultivation techniques), and results from early land reclamation trials. Twenty-two papers have been abstracted separately. 291 references, 16 figures, 80 tables.
S. 1484 is intended to change the oil-shale-leasing provisions of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 to encourage development of oil-shale resources on federal and non-federal lands. It authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to lease land for mining and additional land for waste-disposal and construction facilities. The text of S. 1484 is followed by the background and legislative history of the bill, a section-by-section analysis of the bill, and an evaluation of its budgetary and regulatory impacts. Pertinent communications are reprinted with recommendations and additional views. (DCK)
There is a model on the Oak Ridge Reservation which provides requirements for determining capacities and capabilities related to low-level, hazardous, and mixed wastes. In FY 1987, the model will be sufficiently advanced to provide various waste management scenarios. These scenarios will be compared technically, operationally, and financially by use of waste characterization data and process simulators that are currently under development. The results of the process simulations will be used to help identify waste treatment, storage, and disposal technologies that need to be demonstrated prior to full-scale development for DOE use. The information derived from this effort will be made available to all DOE facilities.
This document provides information and presents data on the energy situation in many regions of Canada. The first part deals with the petroleum and the bitumen shales of Alberta (reserves, exploitation and production, environmental impacts), the second part discusses with the hydroelectricity choice of Quebec and the 2004 crisis. The nuclear situation of Ontario is presented in the third part (nuclear park, programs, uranium reserves, research and development on Candu reactors), while the fourth part deals with the renewable energies (wind power and biomass). The canadian situation facing the Kyoto protocol is discussed in the last part. (A.L.B.)
Pumped storage plants (PSP) enable the storage of energy with rated capacities of order of GW at a single site. Reservoirs allow charging and discharging times of at least hours, sometimes days or even up to several weeks. Short ramp-up times permit the participation in the secondary reserve market as a standing reserve. For bulk energy storage, PSP reach the lowest, specific costs. In the EU27 countries, Norway and Switzerland, a total of 44 GW of pumped storage capacity is installed. The utilisation of PSP strongly correlates with the amount of conventional generation capacity, rather than with topographical options. (orig.)
This paper shows that a stochastic regime-switching model can represent the volatile behavior of wholesale electricity prices associated with price spikes effectively. The structure of the model is very flexible because the mean prices in the two regimes and the two transition probabilities are functions of the load and/or the implicit reserve margin. Using price data from the single settlement market in PJM (May 1999 to May 2000), the results show that the estimated switching probability from the low to the high regime predicts price spikes well if the reserve margin is measured accurately.
Nat'l Training Center Contact Us Directory Email Us BLM > Socioeconomic Impacts > Timber Print Page Socioeconomic Impacts from Timber BLM-administered lands yielded $337...
... communication with the divisions of the Seventh Army ... the 1st Infantry Division could not ... commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division, landed ...
... 36 7 Corrugated Steel Pipe Concept Layout--Elevation ..... 37 viii ... revetment. 3. Land Use ... Corner modules and capping blocks are available. ...
This report is submitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Air Force, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to Section 6 of the Military Lands Withdrawal Act of 1986. It contains an analysis and evaluation of the effects on public health and safety resulting from DOD and Department of Energy (DOE) military and defense-related uses on withdrawn public lands in the State of Nevada and in airspace overlying the State. This report describes the cumulative impacts of those activities on public and private property in Nevada and on plants, fish and wildlife, cultural, historic, scientific, recreational, wilderness and other resources of the public lands of Nevada. An analysis and evaluation of possible measures to mitigate the cumulative effects of the withdrawal of lands and the use of airspace in Nevada for defense-related purposes was conducted, and those considered ...
Programs & Services Technical Resources Land Use Soils Water Snow Survey & Water Supply Water Management Water Quality Watersheds Wetlands Air Plants & Animals Energy Climate...
The foundation is a key to safety of any structure built on reclaimed land in coastal areas. This paper gives examples of reclamation methods, ground improvement works, foundations adopted, and consequent land subsidence as for structures directly borne by the underlying ground. Structures built on the recently reclaimed land often stand on piles driven into gravel layers. But an emphasis in pile design in usually placed on bearing capacity, with little consideration given to land subsidence and its effects. Appropriate ground improvement works, if followed by an enough consolidation period, produce satisfactory results for both direct and pile foundations. Low and light structures can be more economically built on direct foundations. It will be still safer for those structures if floating foundations or other measures are taken for preventing increases in load. 5 refs., 16 figs.
... and regional land, sea, air, and space-based systems, and ... means of delivery of weapons where such ... a separable and divisible part of the weapon. ...
A section of the northern margin of the Guineo-Congolian rain forest of the Central African Republic is studied to determine to what extent deforestation is evolving. Three sites are presented to highlight the diversity in local environmental settings at the northern margin of the closed equatorial rain forest: the contiguous equatorial rain forest, the boundary between the closed rain forest and the grasslands, and a predominantly secondary grassland environment. Proven image processing procedures for determining land cover and vegetation vigor were applied to Landsat MSS data to determine land cover characteristics and identify alterations in land cover that indicate potentially degraded forest environments. Land cover was independently assessed using spectral signatures determined from a statistical clustering routine. The images presented and image analyses contribute insights and information to an ...
In order to analyze changes in human settlement in Xuzhou city during the past 20 years, changes in land cover and vegetation were investigated based on multi-temporal remote sensing Landsat TM images. We developed a hierarchical classifier system that uses different feature inputs for specific classes and conducted a classification post-processing approach to improve its accuracy. From our statistical analysis of changes in urban land cover from 1987 to 2007, we conclude that built-up land areas have obviously increased, while farmland has seen in a continuous loss due to urban growth and human activities. A NDVI difference approach was used to extract information on changes in vegetation. A false change information elimination approach was developed based on prior knowledge and statistic...
The latent heat of evapotranspiration (ET) plays an important role in the assessment of drought severity as one sensitive indicator of land drought status. A simple and accurate method of estimating global ET for the monitoring of global land surface droughts from remote sensing data is essential. The objective of this research is to develop a hybrid ET model by introducing empirical coefficients based on a simple linear two-source land ET model, and to then use this model to calculate the Evaporative Drought Index (EDI) based on the actual estimated ET and the potential ET in order to characterize global surface drought conditions. This is done using the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) products, AVHRR-NDVI products from the Global Inventory ...
May 4, 2010 ... This routine interpolates atmospheric adtt seconds period forcing ... for one adtt interval. Interpolation is performed based on the value ...
Dec 9, 2005 ... Classification of high resolution imagery is not as straightforward as more ... The challenges of classifying high resolution imagery stems ...
Aug 18, 2004 ... The Arabian Gulf region presents a challenge to meteorologists trying to simulate weather with computer models because sea-surface and land ...
Power supply to Bergen has created headaches. Many will not have the land-based high-voltage wire. But the alternatives are costly and will delay the line by many years. (AG)
Extracting mining subsidence land from remote sensing (RS) images is one of important research contents for environment monitoring in mining area. The accuracy of traditional extracting models based on spectral features is low. In order to extract subsidence land from RS images with high accuracy, some domain knowledge should be imported and new models should be proposed. This paper, in terms of the disadvantage of traditional extracting models, imports domain knowledge from practice and experience, converts semantic knowledge into digital information, and proposes a new model for the specific task. By selecting the Luan mining area as a study area, this new model is tested based on GIS and related knowledge. The result shows that the proposed method is more precise than traditional methods and can satisfy the demands of land subsidence monitoring in mining area. 10 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.
BackgroundSenescence is integral to the flowering plant life-cycle. Senescence-like processes occur also in non-angiosperm land plants, algae and photosynthetic prokaryotes. Increasing...Full Text Available
The change in the energy flow on land used for brown coal mining is examined. Terrain mapping was used to obtain land use data for a 14 km{sup 2} mining area and its surroundings. The focus is on the proportion of incident solar energy that is changed to latent heat during evapotranspiration. Each land use unit was assigned an average value for evapotranspiration for the growing season. Satellite data of surface temperature and surface wetness values show incident radiation converted to heat. Relationships between evapotranspiration and surface temperature and between wetness index and evapotranspiration were verified. The results confirm the hypothesis that changes in land use can have a significant effect on total average evapotranspiration. 18 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.
Wildlife Refuge, CA Rare and endangered endemic plants Diana Anderson Northern Arizona University Geomorphology Kathryn Thomas USGS, Flagstaff, AZ Vegetation dynamics John...
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are mutualistic symbionts living in the roots of 80% of land plant species, and developing extensive, below-ground extraradical hyphae fundamental for the uptake of...Full Text Available
Fuel treatments are being implemented on public and private lands across the western United States. Although scientists and managers have an understanding ... ...
... HAL and VAL limits with the specified PMD of 10-7, the GPS range-rate error must be monitored to assure that the inertial navigation error is not ...
but one test point on the flight cards was achieved before we hit our "bingo," or minimal fuel remaining, and we had to land. The radar was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion...
Abstract Questions: How important is the choice of flow routing algorithm with respect to application of topographic wetness index (TWI) in vegetation ecology? Which flow routing algorithms are preferable for application in vegetation ecology? Location: Forests in three different regions of the Czech Republic. Methods: We used vegetation data from 521 georeferenced plots, recently sampled in a wide range of forest communities. From a digital elevation model, we calculated 11 variations of TWI for each plot with 11 different flow routing algorithms. We evaluated the performance of differently calculated TWI by (1) Spearman rank correlation with average Ellenberg indicator values for soil moisture, (2) Mantel correlation coefficient between dissimilarities of species composition and dissimil...
Environmental assessment in an arid coal mining area requires an understanding of the influences of coal mining, the arid climate and ecological remediation. To that end, we selected vegetation as the key environmental factor to observe. Remote sensing approaches to monitoring the spatio-temporal variation of vegetation caused by mining activities, the arid climate and ecological remediation in the Shengdong coal mining area are described. Over a large regional scale it was found that the vegetation was improved as a result of ecological remediation activities. At the local scale, however, the vegetation coverage and soil moisture in the mined areas were slightly lower than those in un-mined areas due to mining subsidence. These differences are partly attributed to ground fissures that inj...
The Humane metropolis is a rubric to summarize and promote environmental and social quality in contemporary urban mosaics. Because cities, suburbs, and exurbs, as spatially extensive and connected socio-ecological systems, exhibit many negative features, the humane metropolis identifies a strategy to combat the ills and instill more positive and sustainable features and processes in urban systems. Because the humane metropolis as a program has arisen primarily from social motivations, there is the opportunity to articulate more explicitly the role that science can play in addressing the humane metropolis program and evaluating its success. A humane metropolis can be summarized as one that 1) protects and restores ecological services in cities and suburbs, 2) promotes physical and mental he...
Scientific and technological communities have a significant role to play and responsibility for the evolution of global sustainability (continuously improving quality of life into the indefinite future). Sustainability is not possible without a substantially improved science and technology basis for industrial ecology. Society needs data and understanding of complex ecological issues to govern itself in a sustainable manner. We should: support and develop multi-disciplinary programs which create the scientific basis for understanding natural and anthropogenic complex systems and for developing environmentally and economically efficient technology; demonstrate a systems-based approach to science and technology issues which is life-cycle comprehensive, integrates environmental considerations, and promotes conservation of natural resources; and encourage development of responsible, technically and scientifically valid, cost-effective environmental ...
The relative risk model (RRM) was applied in regional ecological risk assessments successfully. In this study, the RRM was developed through increasing the data of risk source and introducing the source?stressor?habitat exposure filter (SSH), the endpoint?habitat exposure filter (EH) and the stressor?endpoint effect filter (SE) to reflect the meaning of exposure and effect more explicit. Water environment which include water quality, water quantity and aquatic ecosystems was selected as the ecological risk assessment endpoints. The Luanhe River Basin located in the North China was selected as model case. The results showed that there were three low risk regions, one medium risk region and two high risk regions in the Luanhe River Basin. The results also indicated habitat destruction was th...
An overview of climatic factors and impact relative to river ice engineering and science is presented. An explanation of the fundamentals of climatic change is followed by a review of direct and indirect climatic influences that govern river ice breakup and related trends. Known responses of river ice to climatic change and potential future changes to ice breakup processes are described along with the probable ecological and socio-economic consequences of these changes. Changes in engineering approaches to accommodate the present ice regime and predicted changes in climatic variables that affect river ice processes and reduce the vulnerability of infrastructure and ecosystems to climatic change are examined. Future research on the links between river ice and stream ecology is suggested to identify ecological concerns that may result from changes in river ice regimes induced by climatic change. 60 refs., 3 figs.
It is necessary that reclaimed land from open pit mining operations has completely settled before it can be returned to the public domain. This paper reports on instrumentation installed to observe settlement of the spoil and behaviour of a prototype foundation on reclaimed land in Alberta, Canada. 6 refs., 7 figs.
This paper provides a review of current air and spaceborne remote sensing techniques which can be used in land use planning and resource management. Emphasis is placed on the development of geographic information systems (GS). It is expected remote sensing will become the preferred tool for data acquisition, while GIS will be used to manage and distribute georeferenced land information.
Ecological investigations were made of habitats containing natural populations of the snail Oncomelania hupensis quadrasi and of habitats free from the snail in the island of Leyte,...Full Text Available
Lake Erie, the southernmost of the Laurentian Great Lakes, is narrow and relatively shallow in comparison to other Great Lakes. The lake experiences extreme water level fluctuations and storm energy restricts the development of wetlands to protected areas within embayments, lagoons, or behind barriers. However, coastal marshes of western Lake Erie fringe the shorelines of Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario and encompass an area of 268 km/sup 2/. This publication reviews the ecological data and information on the wetlands of Lake Erie, which are some of the more productive areas in the Great Lakes ecosystem. The geologic history of the Lake Erie leading to the development of wetlands, the present environment, and present wetland distribution are presented as background in the opening chapters. Biological information available for the Lake Erie wetlands is discussed in detail, and ecological processes contributing to the evolution of wetlands, ...
... The main goal was the analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for the Czech Republic. A paper by Bruha and Scasny, accepted to the European Society of Ecological Economics, ( Lisbon June 2005), analyses driving forces (including economic policy) on ...
This final report for the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) is one of a series of reports concerning municipal development in various cities in Switzerland. The four city districts involved include Basel (Gundeldinger Feld), Lausanne (Bellevaux), Lucerne (Basel-/Bernstrasse) and Zurich (Werdwies). This paper takes a look at aspects of building ecology. In the four areas, the following building types and projects were examined with respect to their ecology: Basel: conversion of commercial premises to a community centre, Lausanne and Lucerne: Enhancement of residential areas, Zurich: a new residential building. Criteria examined include general building ecology, building materials, raw materials, toxic substances, recycling, maintenance and deconstruction, energy for heating and hot water, grey energy, electricity, ground usage, water, wastes and public infrastructure. Knowledge gained along with questions and problems ...
Although deep-sea cephalopods are key marine organims, their feeding ecology remains essentially unknown. Here, we report for the first time the trophic structure of an assemblage of these animals (19...Full Text Available
A previous report of high levels of members of the domain Archaea in Antarctic coastal waters prompted us to investigate the ecology of Antarctic planktonic prokaryotes. rRNA hybridization...Full Text Available
The scaling of reproductive parameters to body size is important for understanding ecological and evolutionary patterns. Here, we derived allometric relationships for the number and mass of seeds, eggs...Full Text Available
... verges of a two-lane highway in continuous Jarrah Eucalyptus marginata forest of south-western Australia. Midway during this ... Birds were recorded from the beginning of continuous Jarrah Eucalyptus marg...
[1] Independent data from the Gulf of Mexico are used to develop and test the hypothesis that the same sequence of physical and ecological events each year allows the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia...Full Text Available
... 12, 2007 | Rate It Distribution and Variety of Equatorial Rain Forest , The http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/rainfo.html (3 votes) an in depth examination of ecological patterns in rainforests from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Added: Mar. 17, 2001 ...
BackgroundLong-term vegetation changes in hyper-arid areas have long been neglected. Mortality, recruitment and change in populations of the ecologically and culturally important...Full Text Available
Pyrethroid insecticides have been extensively used in China and worldwide for public health pest control. Accurate resistance monitoring is essential to guide the rational use of insecticides and resistance...Full Text Available
Enteropathogenic bacteria was isolated from 131 of 447 (29.4%) neotropical Panamanian lizards belonging to 34 species of seven families. Overall, 147 strains of bacteria were isolated comprising 26...Full Text Available
Evolutionary biologists have long been fascinated by both the ways in which species respond to ecological conditions at the edges of their geographic ranges and the way that species' body sizes evolve...Full Text Available
By the time of primary 21st century, water hyacinth had become a serious environmental problem in China. Water hyacinth contributes to the major part of ecological hazards from the invasion of foreign...Full Text Available
• Background and Aims Although mangroves have been extensively studied, little is known about their ecological wood anatomy. This investigation examined the potential use of...Full Text Available
Sauropod dinosaurs, the dominant herbivores throughout the Jurassic, challenge general rules of large vertebrate herbivory. With body weights surpassing those of any other megaherbivore, they relied...Full Text Available
The effective population size (Ne) is an important parameter in ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation biology. It is, however, notoriously difficult to estimate,...Full Text Available
We investigated the effects of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) discharge on the ecology of bacterial communities in the sediment of a small, low-gradient stream in South Australia. The quantification...Full Text Available
Air pollution abatement measures are not an end in themselves, and undesirable side effects should be taken into account. The proposed emission index takes into account the total emissions caused by a technical project as well as the effects of the individual pollutants.
Spatial abilities have been associated with many ecologically-relevant behaviors such as territoriality, mate choice, navigation and acquisition of food resources. Differential demands on spatial...Full Text Available
While pleiotropic adaptive mutations are thought to be central for evolution, little is known on the downstream molecular effects allowing adaptation to complex ecologically relevant environments. Here...Full Text Available
Despite their ecological and economical importance, fishes of the family Ariidae are still genetically and cytogenetically poorly studied. Among the 133 known species of ariids, only eight have been...Full Text Available
BackgroundComplex situations that follow war and natural disasters have a psychosocial impact on not only the individual but also on the family, community and society. Just as the...Full Text Available
BackgroundThe continued depletion of tropical rainforests and fragmentation of natural habitats has led to significant ecological changes which place most top carnivores under heavy...Full Text Available
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are obligate biotrophs, known to play an important role in ecological processes. Conventional light microscopy is the most common method used to detect their presence...Full Text Available
Background and AimsPlants from the family Lemnaceae are widely used in ecological engineering projects to purify wastewater and eutrophic water bodies. However, the biology of nutrient...Full Text Available
... relative suitability of areas for production of commercial timber was determined based on considerations of operability, proximity ... habitats, and an ecologically-based estimate of sustainable timber pr...
BackgroundThe order Tetraodontiformes consists of approximately 429 species of fishes in nine families. Members of the order exhibit striking morphological diversity and radiated...Full Text Available
The role of natural enemies in the regulation of populations is one of the major questions facing population ecologists. Simplification have led to two theoretical ways of incorporating the role of natural enemies in single ecological models: diffusion models and patch-type models. The predictions of the models are different because of the way variability is incorporated. Three equations are presented for diffusion models and one for patch models. Since the two types of models apply at different combinations of spatial and temporal scales, the right model(s) to choose for a particular study requires careful assessment. A continuing dialogue between experimentalists and theoreticians will lead to a better understanding of natural systems such as those that occur in biological control.
Recent research developments in common-pool resource models emphasize the importance of links with ecological systems and the presence of non-linearities, thresholds and multiple steady states. In a recent paper Kossioris et al. (2008) develop a methodology for deriving feedback Nash equilibria for non-linear differential games and apply this methodology to a common-pool resource model of a lake where pollution corresponds to benefits and at the same time affects the ecosystem services. This paper studies the structure of optimal state-dependent taxes that steer the combined economic-ecological system towards the trajectory of optimal management, and provides an algorithm for calculating such taxes.
Geologically estimated natural gas resources are 500 Tcm. With the advance in geological science increase of estimated resources is expected. Natural gas reserves in 2000 have been proved to be around 165 Tcm. As it is known the reserves are subject to two constraints, namely: capital invested in the exploration and drilling technologies used to discover new reserves. The natural gas scarcity factor, i.e. ratio between available reserves and natural gas consumption, is around 300 years for the last 50 years. The new discovery of natural gas reserves has given rise to a new energy strategy based on natural gas. Natural gas utilization is constantly increasing in the last 50 years. With new technologies for deep drilling, we have come to know that there are enormous gas resources available at relatively low price. These new discoveries together wth high demand for the environment ...
Geologically estimated natural gas resources are 500 Tcm. With the advance in geological science increase of estimated resources is expected. Natural gas reserves in 2000 have been proved to be around 165 Tcm. As it is known the reserves are subject to two constraints, namely: capital invested in the exploration and drilling technologies used to discover new reserves. The natural gas scarcity factor, i.e. ratio between available reserves and natural gas consumption, is around 300 years for the last 50 years. The new discovery of natural gas reserves has given rise to a new energy strategy based on natural gas. Natural gas utilization is constantly increasing in the last 50 years. With new technologies for deep drilling, we have come to know that there are enormous gas resources available at relatively low price. These new discoveries together with high demand for the environment ...
This article discussed a project formed to develop innovative seismic imaging technologies. The Kaleidoscope project aims to accelerate the processing of seismic sound waves by several orders of magnitude using advanced computer-based techniques to reveal oil and gas deposits buried deep in the earth in a manner that is both cost-effective and efficient. It is expected that the technology will be used in deep water applications with massive untapped reserves. The seismic technology will be used to locate hydrocarbons and oil reserves buried 20,000 feet beneath the seabed. It is estimated that the Gulf of Mexico contains 56 billion barrels of oil equivalent worth nearly $6 trillion. However, the reserves are difficult to locate due to the interbedded salt bodies in the subsurface. The project is simultaneously working on both hardware and software applications, and are currently writing the first petascale set of seismic ...
Pumped storage plants participate in two structurally different markets: the market for scheduled energy (also known as spot market) and the reserve market. In order to achieve the best possible plant scheduling in terms of revenues the marketing of the available capacity from pumped storage plants needs to be optimised in both markets. Moreover, due to the abilities for providing reserve, pumped storage capacities within an existing power plant portfolio can lead to synergies for the whole portfolio. The optimised combined participation of a power plant in both spot and reserve market as well as the coherent portfolio effect are considered as particular challenges in energy economic assessments, e.g. in the light of investment decisions. Based on an extension project and in cooperation with RWTH Aachen University an optimised combined participation of a power plant in both markets was simulated for the first time, thereby ...
The trade-off which must be established between the various functions of pumped-storage plants is examined. A compromise between supply security and economic planning can be found only by coordinated planning of pumped-storage units and thermal generation plants. A model used by Electricite de France (EDF) to ensure optimized daily planning of thermal and pumped-storage units is described. The model, called the DEMETER model, ensures the optimization of the daily planning of thermal and pumped-storage plants. The model iterates between two levels: coordination where the prices of the generated energy and the operating reserve are determined to adjust generation to load and keep a sufficient reserve; and decomposition where the schedule of each unit is optimized on the basis of the above prices and taking into account local constraints such as unavailability, and minimum shut down time. The role of EDF is to supply customers with energy while ...
The transport of air pollutants in coastal regions has been known to be strongly affected by the mesoscale atmospheric circulations such as sea-land breezes. These mesoscale atmospheric circulations depend on synoptic weather conditions. In this study, a three-dimensional sea-land breeze model was developed to evaluate the effects of the sea and land breezes on the atmospheric dispersion of radioactive materials released from nuclear power plants in Korea. In the model, the hydrostatic primitive equations in the terrain-following coordinate system were used. The mesoscale atmospheric circulation simulation were carried out under various synoptic weather conditions for all seasons around the Wolsung nuclear power plant site.
The transport of air pollutants in coastal regions has been known to be strongly affected by the mesoscale atmospheric circulations such as sea-land breezes. These mesoscale atmospheric circulations depend on synoptic weather conditions. In this study, a three-dimensional sea-land breeze model was developed to evaluate the effects of the sea and land breezes on the atmospheric dispersion of radioactive materials released from nuclear power plants in Korea. In the model, the hydrostatic primitive equations in the terrain-following coordinate system were used. The mesoscale atmospheric circulation simulation were carried out under various synoptic weather conditions for all seasons around the Wolsung nuclear power plant site.
To evaluate soil erodibility under different land uses and to study the applicability of nomograph for estimation of soil erodibility a field experiment was conducted under both natural and simulated rainfall conditions under four land uses viz. barren, cultivated, grassland, and forest in the sub-mountainous tract of Punjab (India). Measured soil erodibility (K) values varied from 033 to 067 under natural rainfall conditions and from 023 to 040 under simulated rainfall conditions. Among different land uses, measured K was in the order of barren > cultivated > grassland > forest soils. The values of the K estimated by nomograph were very low as compared to the observed values. The trends were also in contrast to these observed values of K under simulated and natural rainfall conditions. To...
This study looks at the land use impact of the biofuels expansion on both the intensive and extensive margin, and its environmental consequences. We link economic, geographical and environmental models by using spatially explicit common units of analysis and use remote sensing crop cover maps and digitized soils data as inputs. Land use changes are predicted via economic analysis of crop rotation choice and tillage under alternative crop prices, and the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model is used to predict corresponding environmental impacts. The study focuses on Iowa, which is the leading biofuels hotspot in the U.S. due to intensive corn production and the high concentration of ethanol plants that comprise 28% of total U.S. production. We consider the impact of the biof...
To study the causes of agricultural declines in south-west Sweden, a multi-proxy study including pollen analysis, bog surface wetness indicators and aeolian sediment influx reconstructions was carried out on the Store Mosse Bog, situated on the coastal plain of Halland. Patterns of agricultural changes during the past 6,000?years from this study were compared to one additional site on the coastal plain (Undarsmosse Bog) and to four sites in the forested upland region. First, we compared land use activity on the coastal plain and in upland regions of south-west Sweden. Three periods with reduced agricultural activities were observed, primarily in records from the coastal plain. Next, the causes for these declines were studied by comparing land use indicators in the pollen records from the S...
This BCRS project demonstrates the use of SAR interferometry for measuring and monitoring land subsidence caused by underground coal fires and underground mining in a remote area of north west China. China is the largest producer and consumer of coal in the world. Throughout the N.W., N. and N.E. of China, the coal-seams are very susceptible to spontaneous combustion, causing underground coal fires. As the thick coal seams are burned out, the overburden collapses, causing land subsidence, and producing new cracks and fissures, which allow more air to penetrate and continue the fire to spread. SAR interferometry, especially differential interferometry has been shown to be able to measure small differences in surface height caused by such land subsidence. This report describes the problems, the test area, the procedures and techniques used and the results obtained. It concludes with a description of some of the problems ...
A three dimensional sea-land breeze model and lagrangian particle dispersion model have been employed for the study on the mesoscale atmospheric dispersion of radioactive materials released from Wolsung NPPs. In this study, atmospheric dispersion simulations are carried out under two synoptic weather conditions: the geostrophic flow is a weak northerly wind (CASE 1) and a strong northerly wind (CASE 2) on a clear day in spring. The results show that atmospheric dispersion is affected by sea-land breeze and the recirculation of particles by the change of wind direction between sea breeze and land breeze plays an important role in atmospheric concentration distribution of radioactive materials.
With regard to the creation of river basin plans and programmes of measures according to the EU Water Framework Directive, the importance of model-supported analyses of nutrient inputs into aquatic systems and the localization of source areas is increasing. Especially in lowland regions artificial drainage installations play a major role, but little information exists concerning their location within larger river basins. Therefore, artificially drained lands were identified by interpreting aerial photographs and typical site conditions of the drained plots were derived. A GIS-based approach was then developed, which allows the delineation of artificially drained lands by combining various site conditions like soil properties and land use type. After checking the validity of a derived map f...
A survey of wetlands on the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) was conducted in 1990. Wetlands occurring on ORR were identified using National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) maps and field surveys. More than 120 sites were visited and 90 wetlands were identified. Wetland types on ORR included emergent communities in shallow embayments on reservoirs, emergent and aquatic communities in ponds, forested wetland on low ground along major creeks, and wet meadows and marshes associated with streams and seeps. Vascular plant species occurring on sites visited were inventoried, and 57 species were added to the checklist of vascular plants on ORR. Three species listed as rare in Tennessee were discovered on ORR during the wetlands survey. The survey provided an intensive ground truth of the wetlands identified by NWI and offered an indication of wetlands that the NWI remote sensing techniques did not detect.
Malaysia's petroleum industry is looking forward to an expansionary period until the end of the century, with the role of gas being greatly enhanced. The state oil firm Petronas sees increasing oil and gas reserves, making fuller use of abundant gas reserves, an exploration thrust into deepwater areas and the intensification of environmental protection as some of the points of emphasis in its current programme. The state firm president Tan Sri Datuk Azizan Zainul Abidin says that in the past few years a national economic growth rate of 8 percent has resulted in rising energy demand. Economic growth is projected to continue, so that an increase in power demand can be expected for the next few years. 'Fortunately, we are experiencing the same bullish trend in oil exploration and development,' he says. (author)
Malaysia's petroleum industry is looking forward to an expansionary period until the end of the century, with the role of gas being greatly enhanced. The state oil firm Petronas sees increasing oil and gas reserves, making fuller use of abundant gas reserves, an exploration thrust into deepwater areas and the intensification of environmental protection as some of the points of emphasis in its current programme. The state firm president Tan Sri Datuk Azizan Zainul Abidin says that in the past few years a national economic growth rate of 8 percent has resulted in rising energy demand. Economic growth is projected to continue, so that an increase in power demand can be expected for the next few years. 'Fortunately, we are experiencing the same bullish trend in oil exploration and development,' he says. (author).
Coronary angiography has provided an unrivalled appreciation of coronary anatomy fostering a far greater appreciation of the extent of atherosclerotic disease. However, the subjectivity of coronary angiography at determining the extent of plaque has been exposed with IVUS. Indices of coronary physiology have provided valuable adjunctive information as to the physiological importance of specific lesions. Fractional flow reserve is an established method for evaluating the significance of epicardial stenoses. Fractional flow reserve guided percutaneous coronary intervention is associated with improved outcomes when compared to a conventional angiographic guided strategy, particularly in intermediate lesions. The use of coronary physiology in the cath lab represents a new avenue to guide appro...
Three enriched cultures (48, 15a, and 26a), selected from more than 80 soil and water samples, could grow anaerobically in the presence of crude oil at 30{degrees}C and could ferment molasses to gases and organic acids. Oil recovery by culture 48 in the laboratory model experiment was enhanced by 25.2% over the original reserves and by 53.7% over the residual reserves. Enriched culture 48 was composed of at least 4 species belonging to the genera Eubacterium, Fusobacterium, and Bacteroides. This enriched culture was used as inoculum for MEOR field trials at Jilin oil field with satisfactory results. The importance of the role of these isolates in EOR was confirmed by their presence and behavior in the fluids produced from the microbiologically treated reservoir.
Studies have shown that Canada's national parks are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. A wide range of biophysical climate change impacts could affect the integrity of conservation lands in each region of Canada. This report examines the potential impact of climate change on landscape alterations and vegetation distribution in Canada's wide network of conservation lands. It also presents several ways to integrate climate change into existing conservation policy and adaptation strategies. Canada's conservation lands include provincial parks, migratory bird sanctuaries, national wildlife areas and wildlife protected areas. This is the first study to examine biome changes by applying an equilibrium Global Vegetation Model (GVM) to Canada's network of national park systems. Some of the policy and planning challenges posed by changes in landscape level vegetation were also addressed. ...
Summary of personnel, commitments, and costs ... Origin of complex land-based ecosystems (W. Friedman) ...... technology has brought about the birth of lab- ..... Baross, J.A. and S.E. Hoffman, Submarine hydrothermal vents and ...
ObjectivesThe overall aim of the proposed research is explicit in the project title, i.e. the creation of a map of current vertical land movements in the UK based on an optimal combination of absolute gravity (AG) and continuous GPS (CGPS). This is consistent with specific objective (ii) of WP1.9 of the Oceans 2025 programme and is related to priority topic area 4 (application of satellite geodesy to sea level science) of the NERC Strategic Ocean Funding Initiative (SOFI). From long term geological an [continued...]DescriptionThe proposed research aims to create a map of current vertical land movements in the UK based on an optimal combination of estimates from two geodetic surveying and monitoring techniques; the measurement of absolute gravity (AG) and the use of high precision, continuous GPS (CGPS) observations. From long term geological and geophysical studies, vertical land movements in the UK are thought to be of the ...
Plastid genome content and arrangement are highly conserved across most land plants and their closest relatives, streptophyte algae, with nearly all plastid introns having invaded the genome in their...Full Text Available
Oct 11, 1993 ... Lease: Meadowgreen,3-2.5-2, 2 storyon cuI- ..... also will have the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle elevated over the center of the ...
Aluminium (Al) toxicity, affecting around half of the world¿s arable land, severely hinders the ability of crop plants to utilize moisture and nutrients by restricting root growth and function. Among the cultivated cereals, rye is the most Al-tolerant and represents an important potential source of ...
SummaryIntended Outputs: Documentation demonstrating an improved biophysical understanding of the role of forests on low flows in the arid zone regions of India through the development and outputs from hydrological models such as Hyluc and SWAT.A documented analysis of the impacts on the poor of historical and current water management policies, including the investigation through PRA techniques of people's perceptions and beliefs of land-use/hydrological interactions, and the implications o [continued...]ObjectivesTo establish a better understanding of forest impacts on low flows and the social impact of water resources management in arid zone regions of India, and to develop tools which allow this improved understanding to be disseminated directly to stakeholders.DescriptionProject Background: Reducing river flows and groundwater tables, especially during the dry season, constitutes a major problem causing great hardship to large numbers of rural and urban poor ...
Increased clouds and precipitation normally decrease the diurnal temperature range (DTR) and thus have commonly been offered as explanation for the trend of reduced DTR observed for many land areas...Full Text Available
Foreward: Preface; Introduction; The natural science of global climate change; Land and water use; Coastal zones and oceans; Energy and industry; Energy and social systems; Technological change; and Sponsoring organizations, International Advisory Board, and project participants.
Protected areas (PAs) dominate conservation efforts. They will probably play a role in future climate policies too, as global payments may reward local reductions of loss of natural land cover. We estimate...Full Text Available
Cynodon dactylon (Family: Poaceae) is known to be a tackler in Indian mythology and is offered to Lord Ganesha. It is found everywhere, even on waste land, road side, dry places, and...Full Text Available
Managing public lands for maximum social benefit is becoming an increasingly complex task. The growing need for domestically produced mineral raw materials and energy, and the conflicting interests over the use of public lands, have added new dimensions to the management issues. This report covers the first phase of a long-term program initiated by the Division of State Lands to improve their capability to evaluate the tar-sand and oil-shale resources in Utah. The scope of this phase of the study was limited to examination and analysis of existing information and to development models for data processing and resource evaluation. The study was effective in identifying problem areas and demonstrating the potential value of the proposed systems for management of state lands. It is anticipated that effective evaluation of the oil-shale and tar-sand resources in Utah, supported by readily accessible physical ...
BackgroundPlastid genome content and protein sequence are highly conserved across land plants and their closest algal relatives. Parasitic plants, which obtain some or all of their...Full Text Available
BackgroundProspective measures of high knee abduction moment during landing identify female athletes at high risk for non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury....Full Text Available
This project addresses the problem of flue gas desulfurization (FGD) sludge disposal to land. Specifically, the chemical species of FGD sludge constituents are thermodynamically modeled using the equilibrium constant approach, in an attempt to predict the constituent concentratio...
Fuel treatments are being widely implemented on public and private lands across the western U.S. While scientists and managers have an understanding of how ... ...
The theme of the conference was recent developments in airborne remote sensing and their applications. The proceedings contain the papers presented at 14 general sessions and 13 interactive sessions covering airborne platforms, sensor systems, airborne/spaceborne synergy, atmospheric and oceanic measurements, land cover/land use, emergency response and reconnaissance, data handling, forestry, agriculture, water resources, geospatial reference, system calibration, environmental monitoring and planning, and information product advancements. Two papers are abstracted separately.
By using a model independent Monte Carlo approach, we study the possible structure of charged and neutral lepton mass matrices, under the assumption of an U(2) horizontal symmetry (additional to the usual Standard Model ones) involving the light fermion generations. We assume the most general Majorana mass matrix for neutrinos. We update the results of our previous similar study, by inserting in the analysis the recent KamLAND data, that contributed to find a final solution to the Solar neutrino problem. The introduction of the new experimental data reduce the allowed regions in the nine dimensional space parameters, and show that our procedure gives stable solutions.
In this article the results of a study on sustainability of energy crops are discussed. Contribution to the reduction of the greenhouse effect and other environmental effects were investigated for the Netherlands. The study assumed that energy crops are grown on set-aside land or grain land. Generating electricity and/or heat from hemp, reed, miscanthus, poplar and willow show the best prospects. These crops are sustainable and may in the future be economically feasible. Ethanol from winter wheat shows the most favourable environmental effects, but is not economically efficient. Liquid fuels from oil seed rape and sugar beet are not very sustainable. 2 tabs., 4 refs.
Potential maximum radiation dose rates over a 1,000-year time horizon were calculated for exposure to the decontaminated concrete removed from the 183-H Solar Evaporation Basins at the Hanford Site, Richland, Washington. The RESRAD computer code, Version 5.62, which implements the methodology described in the US Department of Energy`s manual for developing residual radioactive material guidelines, was used in this evaluation. Currently, the concrete is not being used. Four potential exposure scenarios were developed for the land area where the decontaminated concrete will be stored. In Scenario A industrial use of the land is assumed; in Scenario B recreational use of the land is assumed; in Scenario C residential use of the land is assumed; and in Scenario D (a plausible but unlikely land-use scenario), the presence of a subsistence farmer in the immediate vicinity of the ...
Alexandria is the second largest urban governorate in Egypt and has seen significant urban growth in its modern and contemporary history. This study investigates the urban growth phenomenon in Alexandria, Egypt, using the integration of remote sensing and GIS. The urban physical expansion and change were detected using Landsat satellite images. The satellite images of years 1984 and 1993 were first geo referenced, achieving a very small RMSE that provided high accuracy data for satellite image analysis. Then, the images were classified using a tailored classification scheme with accuracy of 93.82% and 95.27% for 1984 and 1993 images respectively. This high accuracy enabled detecting land use/land cover changes with high confidence using a post-classification comparison method. One of the most important findings here is the loss of cultivated land in favour of urban expansion. If the current loss rates continued, 75% of ...
Managing sites contaminated with munitions constituents is an international challenge. Although the choice of approach and the use of Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) tools may vary from country to country, the assurance of quality and the direction of ecotoxicological research are universally recognized as shared concerns. Drawing on a multidisciplinary team of contributors, 'Ecotoxicology of Explosives' provides comprehensive and critical reviews available to date on fate, transport, and effects of explosives. The book delineates the state of the science of the ecotoxicology of explosives, past, present, and recently developed. It reviews the accessible fate and ecotoxicological data for energetic materials (EMs) and the methods for their development. The chapters characterize the fate of explosives in the environment, then provide information on their ecological effects in key environmental media, including aquatic, ...
... Governing Law These terms and conditions of use shall be governed by the laws of Scotland and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts. 7. Website Policies, Modification and Severability We reserve the right to make changes to this website, our policies and these terms and conditions of use at any time. If any of these conditions shall be deemed invalid, void ...
A series of questions and answers addresses issues related to developing synthetic fuels, including the potential supplies, regulatory road blocks, and development incentives to promote the role of the private sector. Chevron's efforts in the area of synfuels are aimed at shale oil tar sands and coal conversion. The status of these research and development projects and the projected recoverable reserves from each are summarized. (DCK)
... Governing LawThese terms and conditions of use shall be governed by the laws of Scotland and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts. Website Policies, Modification and SeverabilityWe reserve the right to make changes to this website, our policies and these terms and conditions of use at any time. If any of these conditions shall be deemed invalid, void or for any reason ...
This autumn, Nice welcomed the thirteen European photovoltaic conference. It was the occasion for the world of solar energy to measure technical progress which were carried out and the market which are still to win. If developing countries are a reserve of new markets, they are not solvent and programmes depend on North/South negotiations. (N.C.).
The invention concerns a procedure for operating reactors in nuclear power plants. It aims at utilizing power reserves in nuclear power plants. This can be achieved by a steam-side connection of the steam generators of two reactors. The amount of steam exchanged between the units is chosen in such a way that power changes at the steam turbines feedback mainly to the corresponding reactor. In order to realize a high power transfer it is necessary to return the amount of condensate produced in the steam receiving unit and corresponding to the power transferred to the feedwater system of the steam donating unit.
As part of a handbook on the efficient use of energy a chapter is included which is intended to give an appreciation of the principles and problems involved in the generation of nuclear power. The subject is discussed under the following headings: introductory nuclear physics; basic reactor physics; thermal reactors; fast reactors; fuel reserves and utilization; environmental considerations; nuclear fusion. (U.K.).
... The moorland landscape looks especially colourful in late summer, while spring is the perfect time to come and see migrant birds like redstarts,...Valley This is a delightful oak woodland to walk through - especially in spring and early summer when lots of migrating birds come to breed ... Fowlmere Fowlmere's reedbeds and pools are fed by natural chalk springs, and a chalk stream runs through the reserve. Special birds ... There are common woodland birds in spring and turtle doves in spring and summer. Haweswater If you want to see a golden ...
An attempt is made to estimate the lithium reserve (the economically recoverable lithium) for the tritium breeding in D-T fusion reactors and other uses. Similar development patterns for fusion energy and fission energy are assumed to estimate the future lithium requirements. These requirements are grouped into three categories; the commercial uses, the lithium batteries for electric cars, and the fusion reactor uses. 5 refs.
Denison Mines Ltd. own extensive coal properties in British Columbia and Alberta. The geological settings, the reserves and the coal quality are described. The most important is the Quintette property where four opencast mines are currently being developed. Other sites in British Columbia are Belcourt and Saxon, and in Alberta, Coalspur.
Biofuels will have more intense impact on the energetic grid of the planet, because known fossil fuels reserves are being exhausted. The biofuel production relies on the transformation process of some organic material in the desired hydrocarbon product. Because of the natural characteristics of the related processes, fibre optic sensors appear to be adequate candidates to be used.
The Fast Flux Test Facility on the federal reservation at Hanford, Washington, has become a bright star in the universe of nuclear science and engineering technologies. The entire FFTF enterprise is now a success story, and this is particularly significant in these days when good news about nuclear power is scarce. The reactor, its testing capabilities and associated test facilities are described.
In the framework of a global analysis of the various available sources of energy, Japan has reserved a prominent place to the nuclear energy, and in the long-term view, to the breeder reactor which will be due for commercial deployment in 2010. To achieve these objectives, three stages are envisaged, one of the experimental reactor Joyo (in service), one of the demonstration reactor Monju (its construction has been decided), and one of the pre-commercial reactor (due to be taken in hand at the beginning of the Nineties). Efforts will be made in parallel concerning the fuel cycle.
The UK's reserves of crude oil could last another 300 years. This is the result it is hoped to obtain from tests currently being carried out in British Coal's liquefaction project of which the objective is to produce a high quality liquid fuel from coal. 1 fig.
Coal exploitation inevitably damages the natural ecological environment through large scale underground exploitation which exhausts the surrounding areas and is the cause of surface subsidence and cracks. These types of damage seriously lower the underground water table. Deterioration of the environment has certainly an impact on and limits growth of vegetation, which is a very important indicator of a healthy ecological system. Dynamically monitoring vegetation growth under coal exploitation stress by remote sensing technology provides advantages such as large scale coverage, high accuracy and abundant information. A scatter plot was built by a TM (Thematic Mapper) infrared and red bands. A detailed analysis of the distributional characteristics of vegetation pixels has been carried out. ...
The Spratly Islands constitute one of the earth's most ecologically significant areas, hosting a high diversity of marine species, providing critical habitats for endangered species, and providing marine larvae to reestablish depleted stocks among the heavily overfished and degraded coastal ecosystems of the South China Sea. Territorial disputes have led to the establishment of environmentally destructive, socially and economically costly military outposts on many of the islands. Given the rapid proliferation of international peace parks around the world, it is time to take positive steps toward the establishment of a Spratly Islands Marine Peace Park. Its purpose would be to manage the area's natural resources and alleviate regional tensions via a freeze on claims and claim supportive act...
Diet overlap and niche breadth are well-known species traits from trophic ecology that can assist in explaining how species interact and coexist as well as the ecological mechanisms that influence biodiversity. In the present study, we analyzed the relationships between these trophic variables and indicators of resource availability with some attributes of fish assemblages (species richness, Shannon diversity index, evenness, density and individual body size). The physical and chemical characteristics of the biotopes (topography, water quality and conservation of slopes) were examined to identify possible patterns. Monthly sampling using electrofishing was conducted in 2003 along five streams located in the Cuiab? River watershed. The relationships between environmental variables and attri...
Krsko NPP plant life extension was analysed and evaluated with respect to system, economy and ecology viewpoints. From the system perspective it was established that also in the extended lifetime the plant will remain in operation as a base load electricity supplier. The systematic review was performed to determine its overall competitiveness against advanced coal, gas and new nuclear units. The analysis considered also hydro and renewable sources. Analysis and evaluations resulted in the conclusion that the Krsko NPP lifetime extension is the most effective alternative for base load production due to small additional capital investments, low fuel costs, no new siting requirements, lowest climate and environmental impact, and reliable and safe operation. (author)
The biota of the Mississippi River in an ecological recovery zone near Red Wing, MN was studied before and after start-up of a nuclear plant to acquire baseline data and to estimate changes due to thermal addition. Thermal addition produced significant decreases in primary production in a plant region during summer month periods when water temperatures were near 36C. Extensive fisheries studies and sonar tagging/tracking of S. vitreum were performed. Comparison of fisheries results with other riverine, lake, and pond studies indicated a favorable environment for the success of the fish species studied. Qualitative macroinvertebrate surveys were conducted.
Summary 1.-Plant-plant interactions fluctuate between competition and facilitation depending upon ecological conditions and species traits. Facilitative interactions are expected to increase in frequency via associational defences with increasing consumer pressure. The ability of species to cope with competition and/or ecological stressors may alter the outcome of plant-plant interactions. 2.-We conducted a transplant experiment to determine if native and non-native grasses and forbs respond similarly to interactions with Juncus effusus L., an unpalatable benefactor species, along a grazing intensity gradient in two contrasting pasture types: intensively managed and semi-natural. We expected competitive taller, erect species (grasses) and non-natives to obtain stronger facilitative effects...
Agricultural sustainability is a vital parameter to be ascertained locally and globally if food security is to be achieved and maintained. Agricultural sustainability is the combined product of social, economic and ecological sustainability. It is also a function of temporal and spatial variations, a fact which indicates that area-specific sustainability indices need to be designed. We present here an Agricultural Sustainability Index (ASI) for rural eastern India and use it to calculate the ASI for 150 farms for three decades over a 60-year period, viz., 1950?1960, 1980?1990 and 2000?2010 for a representative Indian village of Gangapur (25?83?N, 85?65?E). The ASI was calculated using 30 variables, 10 each of social, economic and ecological sustainability. An extensive questionnaire-based ...
... Another solution, hybrid vehicles, combine two sources of energy (electric and chemical), reducing the global consumption of fossil fuels. Fuel cell vehicles are also one of the most promising technologies for the future, with the capacity to use any fuel - hydrogen being the ideal fuel ecologically, but constrained by infrastructure and storage issues. This book explores all these different solutions for moving our vehicles from fossil ...
DescriptionThis cross-disciplinary project will combine chemical, ecological and modelling techniques to determine whether cabbages grown under an organic regime differ in terms of pest dynamics and plant chemistry. There is increasing pressure to de-intensify agricultural practice and organic approaches are becoming more popular and widely adopted. However, there are very few, if any, detailed scientific investigations into the claims made about improved pest control, reduced environmental impact and be [continued...
This paper introduces in detail the compression performance of biogas, the application of compressed biogas to the compression-ignition engine and the possibility as well as the necessity of using compressed biogas. Moreover, the paper also goes further into some problems about the power increasing, efficiency raising and their social, economic and ecological beneficial results, when the compressed biogas is used in the compression ignition-dual fuel engine.
Highlights of the meeting are briefly summarized in this paper. Most of the papers presented at the meeting dealt with remediation and pollution prevention practices. A major focus of the technical sessions was on the identification of pollution sources. Identification of exposures to specific chemicals with disease outcomes was also discussed. Other papers focused on ecological exposures and their effects on wildlife to identify the presence of contaminants. 4 refs.
BackgroundThere are several known factors that cause ischemic heart disease. However, the part played by air pollution still remains something of a mystery. Recent attention has...Full Text Available
...Assemblages of plants and invertebrate animals of tumulus (organic mound) springs of the Swan Coastal Plain Assemblages of plants and invertebrate animals of tumulus ...organic mound) springs of the Swan Coastal Plain [Skip navigation links] About us | Contact us | Publications |...ecological communities Assemblages of plants and invertebrate animals of tumulus (organic mound) springs of the Swan Coastal Plain Advice to the Minister for the ...of the 'Assemblages of plants and invertebrate animals of tumulus (organic mound) springs of the Swan Coastal Plain' community sufficient to distinguish it from ...
This statement summarizes Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory`s committment to making important scientific, technological, and business contributions to global sustainability. The quest has many aspects, some socio-political or economic and some technological, and some in which the soft and hard sciences become indistinguishable, as in visionary national strategies, like Holland`s, and futuristic regional and city development plans, like those of Kagoshima and Chattanooga.
Atrazine (ATR) has been widely applied in the US and Mid Western states. Recently, public health and ecological concerns have been raised about contamination of surface and ground water by ATR and its chlorinated metabolites, due to their toxicity and potential carcinogenic or endocrinology effects....
A short synopsis of each project is given covering the following main areas of research and development: Atmospheric sciences; Biotechnology; Chemical and instrumentation analysis; Computer and information science; Design and manufacture engineering; Ecological science; Electronics and sensors; Experimental technology; Health protection and dosimetry; Hydrologic and geologic science; Marine sciences; Materials science; Nuclear science and engineering; Process science and engineering; Sociotechnical systems analysis; Statistics and applied mathematics; and Thermal and energy systems.
DescriptionCEH - Quest CCMAP see http://quest.bris.ac.uk/research/themes/CCMAP.html CCMAP (Climate-carbon modelling, assimilation and prediction) Leader: Dr. Eleanor Blyth (CEH, Wallingford) Overview and Goals CCMAP is one of QUEST's Theme 1 projects and is about to be commissioned to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Wallingford. The Principal Investigator will be Dr. Eleanor Blyth, with subcontracts to the Universities of Bristol (Dr. Wolfgang Knorr, Earth Sciences and QUEST; Andy Ridgw [continued...
References covering the years 1904-80 are listed under the following headings: cultivation and occurrence (India and Pakistan, Africa, South America, Pacific, Middle East); Taxonomy, morphology, variation and selection; Reference works and reviews; Ecology of Prosopis (General effects on surrounding soil and vegetation): Physiology (General, Roots, Growth, Hydrology, Saline tolerance); Control of mesquite: Propagation (Germination and other nursery techniques, Vegetative propagation): and Utilization (General, Chemical analyses, Food and Ethnobiology, Fodder, Wood, Charcoal, Gum, Paper). 141 references.
Transport and deposition of atmospheric lead over the coastal zone of Northern Germany are investigated. It is shown that marked differences in the impact of the ecologically valuable wadden sea areas can occur between summer and winter time. Due to the formation of sea breeze systems in summer the coastal zone is likely to be less stressed than in winter when the pollutant is confined to a shallow layer above ground. (orig.) 10 refs.
The overall purpose of this project is to evaluate the biological and economic feasibility of restoring high-quality forests on mined land, and to measure carbon sequestration and wood production benefits that would be achieved from forest restoration procedures. In this quarterly report, we present a preliminary comparison of the carbon sequestration potential of forests growing on 14 mined sites in a seven-state region in the Midwestern and Eastern Coalfields. Carbon contents of these forests were compared to adjacent forests on non-mined land. The study was installed as a 3 x 3 factorial in a random complete block design with three replications at each location. The treatments include three forest types (white pine, hybrid poplar, mixed hardwood) and three silvicultural regimes (competition control, competition control plus tillage, competition control plus tillage plus fertilization). Each individual treatment plot is 0.5 acres. Each block ...
The grey-black mudstones of the Sonehat Formation form part of the Middle Jurassic fill of the Jameson Land Basin in East Greenland. The formation is exposed in the southernmost part of the north south-trending, Mesozoic rift system in East Greenland that was part of the epeiric seaway betaveen East Greenland and Norway. Sedimentological observations of the Sortehat Formation indicate deposition in an offshore marine setting that was typically low energy and periodically oxygen-deficient but was influenced by storm currents on occasion. Detailed palynological studies of the Sortehat Formation have resulted in the definition of theee palynological assemblage zones recognised at four localities, namely Enhjoerningen Dal and Pelion (north Jameson Land), the type section at Sortehat (central Jameson Land) and Albuen at Neill Klinter along Hurry Inlet (south-east Jameson Land). In stratigraphic order, these ...
Climates at regional scale are strongly dependent on the interaction between atmosphere and its lower boundary, the oceans and the land surface mosaic. Land surfaces influence climate through their albedo, and the aerodynamic roughness, the processes of the biosphere and many soil hydrological properties; all these factors vary considerably geographically. Land surfaces receive a certain portion of the solar irradiance depending on the cloudiness, atmospheric transparency and surface albedo. Short-wave solar irradiance is the source of the heat energy exchange at the earth`s surface and also regulates many biological processes, e.g. photosynthesis. Methods for estimating solar irradiance, atmospheric transparency and surface albedo were reviewed during the course of this project. The solar energy at earth`s surface is consumed for heating the soil and the lower atmosphere. Where moisture is available, evaporation is one of ...
This report is intended to satisfy two concurrent needs: (1) provide a contract deliverable from Oncorh Consulting to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), with emphasis on identification of salient results of value to ongoing Yakima/Klickitat Fisheries Project (YKFP) planning and (2) summarize results of research that have broader scientific relevance. This is the fourth in a series of reports that address reproductive ecological research and monitoring of spring chinook populations in the Yakima River basin. This annual report summarizes data collected between April 1, 2004 and March 31, 2005 and includes analyses of historical baseline data, as well. Supplementation success in the Yakima Klickitat Fishery Project's (YKFP) spring chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) program is defined as increasing natural production and harvest opportunities, while keeping adverse ecological interactions and genetic impacts within ...
Soil dressing on coal ash reclaimed land is a covering to use the land for agriculture. This study was carried out to find out the necessary depth of soil covering the ash layer in order to have normal crop growth. Two kinds of crops, Japanese radish, and rakkyo were planted in cover soil on the fly ash packed in wooden boxe (90 cm x 90 cm x 90 cm). Depths of cover soil were 20 cm, 30 cm, 40 cm and 50 cm. The results were summarized as follows: growth and yield of Japanese radish and rakkyo were increased with increasing depth of cover soil; root development of Japanese radish was inhibited at the lower coal ash layer. Main root length and edible root length of Japanese radish were decreased with decreasing depth of cover soil; boron and molybdenum contents in the plants remarkably increased with decreasing depth of cover soil. This may be due to the absorption of these elements from fly ash layer; it is concluded that optimum depth of cover ...
The Department of the Interior is custodian of approximately 500 million acres of federally owned land and has an important role to play in the management of wetlands. To contribute to the President's goal of no net loss of America's remaining wetlands, the Department of the Interior has initiated a 3-point program consisting of wetlands protection, restoration, and research: Wetlands Protection--Reduce wetlands losses on federally owned lands and encourage state and private landholders to practice wetlands conservation; Wetlands Restoration--Increase wetlands gains through the restoration and creation of wetlands on both public and private lands; Wetlands Research--Provide a foundation of scientific knowledge to guide future actions and decisions about wetlands. The audiovisual is a slide/tape-to-video transfer illustrating the various ways Interior bureaus are working to preserve our Nation's ...
We used a radiation-transfer equation estimate of July surface temperatures (Ts) in China's Yongding River basin based on thermal infrared Landsat TM images from 1987 and 2005 and Landsat ETM+ images from 2000. Based upon the Ts-NDVI relationship space, we analyzed the scatterplot of Ts versus NDVI to calculate a temperature-vegetation dryness index (TVDI). We used a linear regression model between soil moisture and TVDI to estimate soil moisture to depths of 10 and 20cm. We produced a land use and cover type map by classification of the Landsat images, and used the map to study the influence of land use and cover type changes on soil moisture. Some areas of farmland in 1987 had been converted into grassland by 2000, and soil moisture mainly increased, with increases ranging from 20 to 60%...
A solution based on sludge and Olive oil mill effluent (OME) co-digestion, coupled with a management plan, has been implemented, to treat and dispose safely, the mixed residues, into the natural forest and agricultural land. The mixture of up to 25% OME to the sludge improved anaerobic degradation of phenols and fats. High density fat compounds, present in OME, enhanced aggregation, settling and acetoclastic activity of anaerobic sludge. The full scale unit, obtained by modification of a cold digester, allowed to set-up a low capital cost system. The system produced large quantity of biogas and electric energy. Anaerobic degradation of the mixture improved fertilizing properties, making feasible land application of the digested mixture. Regional plan based in Geographical Information System (GIS) selected 800 ha of adequate land area for application near the WWTP. The experience is technically and economically successful. ...
Use of hydrogen in large scale applications is more usual than public is mentioning normally. Nevertheless reserve against hydrogen can be observed up to highest level decision-makers. Possibly a main reason can be found and eliminated by fixing: Some spectacular accidents happened in the past and found great interest. The publication of impressive accidents and the follow up of the events course was very carefully. The research in finding causalities in former decisions and follow up was not in the interest of some people or institutions. Important facts are even not noticed by insiders, but would have been very important for future decision makings and public acceptance of new applications. It will be demonstrated in three historical examples. Much more examples would be available and each one could help to find new applications for a saver and effective use of hydrogen in power supply. Awaking from new reserves could be avoided. Additional a ...
The Zaafarana oilfield development, operated by Zaafarana Oil Co. (Zafco) presented a series of unique challenges, including redeployment of an internal-turret mooring system, use of a turret-based electrical-cable jumper system, and permanent use of cable-deployed electric submersible pumps in the gravel-pack well completions. Following a detailed three-dimensional (3D) seismic program, the field was discovered by the first well in December 1990. Four subsequent appraisal wells were drilled. The discovery well and two of the appraisal wells tested oil at rates ranging from 2,000 to 10,100 B/D. Initial development plans called for the use of two conventional platforms with a pipeline to a shore-based treatment and storage terminal. Data acquired from subsequent wells were incorporated into the mapping and reserve estimates resulting in a sharp downgrade of the estimated recoverable reserves. The reduced estimate, combined with a revised pricing ...
US Department of Energy (DOE) Order 5400.1 requires the preparation of environmental monitoring plans and implementation of environmental monitoring programs for all DOE facilities. The order identifies two distinct components of environmental monitoring, namely effluent monitoring and environmental surveillance. In general, effluent monitoring has the objectives of characterizing contaminants and demonstrating compliance with applicable standards and permit requirements, whereas environmental surveillance has the broader objective of monitoring the effects of DOE activities on on- and off-site environmental and natural resources. The purpose of this document is to support the Environmental Monitoring Plan for the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR) by describing the groundwater component of the environmental surveillance program for the DOE facilities on the ORR. The distinctions between groundwater effluent monitoring and groundwater surveillance have been defined in the ...
Gas Supplies of Interstate Natural Gas Pipeline Companies 1987 was prepared by the Reserves and Natural Gas Division, Office of Oil and Gas, Energy Information Administration (EIA). The publication provides information on the total reserves, production, and deliverability capabilities of the 87 interstate pipeline companies required to file the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Form 15, ''Interstate Pipeline's Annual Report of Gas Supply.'' This publication is the 25th in a series of annual reports on the total gas supplies of interstate pipeline companies since the inception of individual company reports to the Federal Power Commission (FPC) in 1964 for report year 1963. This publication provides information on the interstate pipeline companies' supply of natural gas during calendar year 1987, for use by the FERC for regulatory purposes. It also provides information to other ...
The Department of Energy (DOE) has prepared an environmental assessment (EA), DOE/EA-0804, for the proposed replacement of a deteriorated brine disposal pipeline from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) Bryan Mound storage facility in Brazoria County, Texas, into the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the ocean discharge outfall would be moved shoreward by locating the brine diffuser at the end of the pipeline 3.5 miles offshore at a minimum depth of 30 feet. The action would occur in a floodplain and wetlands; therefore, a floodplain/wetlands assessment has been prepared in conjunction with this EA. Based on the analyses in the EA, DOE has determined that the proposed action is not a major Federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 USC. 4321, et seg.). Therefore, the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is not required, and the Department ...
Modern combined cycle power plants with natural gas as the only fuel reach efficiencies of up to 58% for electric power generation. Nevertheless the reserves of natural gas are more limited compared to the reserves of coal. Therefore possibilities should be investigated to use coal for such plants also. One concept, that combines the use of coal in a combined cycle application with high efficiencies is examined in this paper. According to this concept the exhaust gas of the gas turbine (vitiated air) is the combustion air for the pulverised coal combustion, that takes place in the bottoming steam generator. Due to the low oxygen content of the vitiated air the burnout of the coal may be incomplete. In order to avoid the incomplete combustion of the coal and the resulting decrease of the efficiency of the plant and possible emission problems, a catalyst, that converts carbon monoxide and unburnt carbon to carbon dioxide should be installed ...
The northeastern part of the Great Divide basin is a separate, unique, and until recently, little-explored subbasin sometimes called the Bison basin. It is bounded by the Wind River Mountains, Sweetwater-Granite Mountain foreland uplift, Lost Soldier-Wertz structure, and a little-studied very positive east-west structural arch approximately coincident with the Sweetwater-Fremont county line. A comprehensive seismic, Landsat, and subsurface geologic examination or, better, dissection of the Bison basin was initiated in 1978. Numerous oil and gas prospects were delineated by this study. Since this small, 12 by 40 mi (19 by 64 km) basin is bordered by known reserves of 260 million bbl of oil and 90 million bcf of gas, these prospects proved to be a popular target of the drill bit. At least one of these prospects appears to be productive; others are currently being drilled. The presence of major east-west wrench faults, a well-documented foreland uplift, until recently ...
Macroinvertebrate communities in Rietvlei nature reserve wetland area and their relationship with water quality were studied with the aim to evaluate their use as potential indicators of pollution. Sampling locations were selected to include outlets from swage effluent, agricultural and informal residential runoff. A large increase in nutrient concentrations was observed downstream from discharged treated sewage with an associated decrease in species richness. Bioassays performed included: Daphnia magna, Hydra attenuate, Lactuca sativa, Allium cepa and Pyxicephalus adspersus. The highest percentage of lethality response to a screen (100% concentration) of sampled wetland water by test specimens were observed at the point source input of the Hartbeespoort treated sewage plant. Data generated from the AUSRIVAS method and multitrophic level bioassays revealed the deterioration of the wetland possibly due to factors such as increasing urbanization, industrialization, ...
Modern combined cycle power plants with natural gas as the only fuel reach efficiencies of up to 55% for electric power generation. Nevertheless the reserve of natural gas is more limited compared to the reserve of coal. Therefore possibilities should be investigated to use coal for such plants also. One concept, that combines the use of coal in a combined cycle application with high efficiencies is examined in this paper. According to this concept the exhaust gas of the gas turbine (vitiated air) is the combustion air for the pulverized coal combustion, that takes place in the bottoming steam generator. Due to the low oxygen content of the vitiated air the burnout of the coal may be incomplete. In order to avoid the incomplete combustion of the coal and the resulting decrease of the efficiency of the plant and possible emission problems, a catalyst, that converts carbon monoxide and unburnt carbon to carbon dioxide, shall be installed between ...
Gas hydrates have impacted the oil and gas industry since 1934, when they were first found to plug pipelines. Today we know that in deep oceans and in permafrost, very substantial gas reserves are present in hydrated form. Concerns are being raised about in situ dissociation for both energy and greenhouse implications upon methane release. In Japan work is underway to consider the storage of carbon dioxide, concentrated in clathrates. This talk will deal with some basic questions. Why should we be interested in gas hydrates? What are gas hydrates? How do gas hydrates form? How might hydrates impact on the energy/environmental picture?
The risk analysis was carried out in consideration of conditions prevailing at the Kalkar site analogous to the investigations in phase A of DRS (German Reactor Study). Earthquake design loads include the probabilities of upper deviations of the site intensities to be expected. The calculations of dynamic loads for select buildings are made using models and computational methods. Component analyses were performed analogous to DRS for the supports of large components, supports of the roof construction of the reactor building taking into account support reserves due to plastic work capacity, wall disks in steam generator buildings and switchboard plant buildings. (DG).
Positron emission tomography (PET) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) performed with PET/CT cameras allow us to obtain concurrently information on the presence and degree of alterations of myocardial perfusion and metabolism and on coronary arteries calcification. Furthermore, by gated myocardial perfusion studies, PET may provide crucial information on regional coronary blood flow reserve and endothelial dysfunction. A number of recent papers provide some insight on the potential of PET/CT in cardiology and in the assessment of various cardiovascular diseases including various types of vasculitis and metabolic diseases.
The founding of the Hanford Engineering Works to produce plutonium is described. The 45-year defense mission has now been replaced with a peaceful mission, that of being the first site for massive cleanup of the 45-year nuclear waste. In order to establish a remedial investigation and feasibility plan, a process of discovery named the Technical Baseline Report must be performed; the task of this process is to discover all that is known about a proposed cleanup site (what the waste was, where did it go). When none of the documentation can answer the question, oral history is utilized. Some of the problems associated with the conduct of oral history interviews are described, particularly Hanford`s legacy of secrecy.
Saskatchewan boasts the greatest concentration of high-grade uranium of any place in the world. Properly managed, its current reserves of 238U can easily fuel the entire province for some 10,000 years (in comparison, the world's oil supplies may be gone in 100). It is likely that Saskatchewan, with all that uranium, can build an industry and renew Canada's nuclear dream. The authors believe in the value of nuclear energy, in general, and the value of uranium mining in Saskatchewan and other parts of the world, in particular. We also believe in the value of research, development, innovation and training in the nuclear industry and the uranium industry
The economy of Poland depends to a large extent upon the exploitation of its vast rich coal reserves for which new mines will have to be sunk and existing mines modernized. Two avenues of coal conversion are being followed. Both involve hydrogenation but one is based on solvent extraction of coal and the other on its pyrolysis. At present large scale established methods of chemical treatment are those which involve the production of coke, production of town-gas, production of synthesis gas and partial oxydation. Total weight amounts to 21,000,000 tons.
This document is a Maintenance Implementation Plan (MIP) for the T Plant Facility complex located in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Reservation in Washington state. This plan has been developed to provide a disciplined approach to maintenance functions and to describe how the T Plant facility will implement and comply with the regulations according to US DOE order 4330.4B, entitled Maintenance Management Program, Chapter 2.0 {open_quotes}Nuclear Facilities{close_quotes}. Physical structures, systems, processes, as well as all associated equipment specifically assigned to these groups are included in the MIP.
This is the first report about a relevant and compiled information on the Mexican Energy Sector. It was realized in one volume by the University Energy Program of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and it comprises information for the period 1996-1997. In the chapter 1 there are presented the numbers of hydrocarbon reserves. Chapter 2 treats about production, events and its results. Likewise chapter 3 shows information about the typical Installations for petroleum, gas and electricity including through of the nuclear energy. In the chapter 4, named Energy Consumption, is presented a National energy balance for 1996 and, finally there are a sections about the prices, the rates and a glossary to facilitate its understanding. (Author)
Free Electron Laser (FEL) with wide wavelength tunability has been developed and used for various applications. We report the structural-changes in P-ion-implanted diamond when we can achieve resonant excitation of the vibrations of specific bonds in the lattice of target (P-C) by using FEL. The change of property was analyzed by SIMS and Raman spectroscopy. After 5.8 #mu#m-FEL irradiation, we observed the crystallization of amorphous structure which was induced by P-ion-implantation. These results indicated the FEL annealing of diamond at room temperature. (Copyright (c) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.)
A first, partial, assessment is included of the low- to medium-temperature geothermal reserves in 20 Mexican States and their aggregate value. The assessment covers about 29.16% of the identified geothermal-surface manifestations in the public database. For reserve assessments, we use the volumetric method, supplemented with Montecarlo simulations and statistics, to quantify inherent uncertainties. Our estimations are presented on a state-by-state basis. We estimate the aggregated reserves of the 20 states as between 7.7 x 1016 and 8.6 x 1016 kJ, with 90% confidence. The most likely reservoir temperatures range between 60-180 degrees Celsius, with a mean of 111 degrees Celsius. Such massive amounts of recoverable energy-and the associated temperatures-are potentially important for the economic development of nearby localities and the nation. [Spanish] En este trabajo se hace una primera estimacion, parcial, de las reservas ...
In this paper extended models for estimating price developments on electricity markets are presented. The models consider deviations from the normality hypothesis of the prices. Based on an ARMA model combination with GARCH, Gaussian-mixture and switching-regime approaches are comparatively discussed. The comparison is based on historic electricity prices of the spot and two reserve markets in Germany. It is shown that the proposed extended models lead to significantly improved representations of the considered stochastic price processes. It is inferred that these models may be preferred for estimating price developments on electricity markets. (author)
The world steel industry and market and the current status and prospects for the Japanese steel industry are discussed with particular reference to China, Europe, and the US. Trends in coking coal supply from Australia, Canada, and Mongolia and changes in demand for hard and semi-soft coking coals are considered. Canadian coal plays a significant role in the hard coking coal and PCI coal markets. This is expected to continue. Emerging concerns include the strong Canadian dollar and increases in fuel and materials costs. Canadian suppliers are asked to improve efficiencies, be competitive in the overall coal chain, and diversify their PCI coal reserves. 14 figs.
A historical background is first given in which the role of biomass is described in relation to its competition with fossil biomass for the production of chemicals and energy. Occurrences of reserves from both sources are then compared. Petrochemical and biomass routes are then analyzed in terms of their relative competitive advantages. The oleochemical and biotechnology cases are analyzed in more detail as examples of biomass utilization. Latin American examples of industrial manufacturing of biomass derived chemicals are then provided. Alcochemicals are analyzed in detail as well as essential oils and other chemicals. Finally, references are made to regional Latin American initiatives regarding biomass and the objectives, organization and nature of the initiative are presented.
We report the case of a 22-year-old man with Ewing's sarcoma who attained a complete remission (CR) after combination radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Secondary acute lymphoblastic leukemia with multiple cytogenetic abnormalities involving chromosome 5 and 7 developed 16 years later. The patient underwent induction chemotherapy and entered a CR. Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation from a matched sibling was performed successfully and he is in complete remission of both ALL and Ewing's sarcoma. (Copyright (c) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.)
The difficult economic circumstances with which almost the whole world had to contend, brought serious financial crisis in many countries. South Africa also had its own share of serious problems. Despite this situation, Transvaal Consolidated Land and Exploration Company, Limited, showed on increase in earnings of 24 per cent per share. The reason for this lies mainly in two areas. Firstly the company acquired the mining related business of Rand Mines, Limited. Included in the acquisition was a partfolio of shares mainly in the company's associated gold and uranium mining companies and additional shares in its listed coal mining subsidiaries. Secondly, the average gold price realised by producers in rand terms, was considerably higher than in the previous year. Consolidated profit attributable to members increased by 52 per cent to R82,6 million.
A comprehensive assessment on the eligibility of reduced activation (RA) steels as structural chamber material in Inertial Fusion Energy thick-liquid concepts is performed. As far as alloying elements, it is shown that the activation of tungsten is a question to discuss. Regarding impurity elements, it is analyzed if they could question the possibility of obtaining real RA steels for shallow land burial (SLB). The effect of the thickness of the liquid wall on the SLB response of alloying and impurity elements is computed. It seems that a reasonable liquid thickness of about 80 cm is allowable to obtain SLB acceptability of real RA steels. And above all, we have estimated the impact of cross section uncertainties when addressing the former questions, and we identify those to be improved. The necessary improvement of some tungsten and niobium cross sections is justified. (authors)
This study was developed as part of the project ?Studies for Environmental and Cultural Sustainability of the Fulni-? Medical System: Office on handling medicinal plants?. The Fulni-? people are located in Pernambuco State, Northeastern Brazil. One of the components of this project was an ethnobotanical diagnosis of the indigenous land, where a phytosociological survey was performed in an area of Caatinga vegetation, located at Ouricuri settlement. Based on these ethnobotanical data, we calculated a conservation priority index aiming to rank species that should receive immediate attention from the Fulni-? people. We identified 44 woody plants, 50% of which have a medicinal use. Among these, six plants were considered highly vulnerable and in need of immediate conservationist attention, in ...
The Western Research Institute plan for addressing oil shale plant siting methodology calls for identifying the available resources such as oil shale, water, topography and transportation, and human resources. Restrictions on development are addressed: land ownership, land use, water rights, environment, socioeconomics, culture, health and safety, and other institutional restrictions. Descriptions of the technologies for development of oil shale resources are included. The impacts of oil shale development on the environment, socioeconomic structure, water availability, and other conditions are discussed. Finally, the Western Research Institute plan proposes to integrate these topics to develop a flow chart for oil shale plant siting. Western Research Institute has (1) identified relative topics for shale oil plant siting, (2) surveyed both published and unpublished information, and (3) identified data gaps and research needs. 910 refs., 3 ...
The present investigation focuses on the study of design parameters for a generic fan-in-wing configuration. The objective is to evaluate the performance of a fan-in-wing concept in a Short-Take-Off and Landing situation. The results presented are also of interest for transition between hover and a wing-sustained flight for a Vertical Take Off and Landing concept. Steady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes computations using an actuator disk technique are performed. The results show a good agreement with experimental data and simulation results obtained in previous investigations for a generic wind tunnel model. A parametric study is conducted for a more realistic wing planform. For a single fan installed in the wing, the streamwise and spanwise influence on the wing aerodynamics is studied. I...
... Home Our work Conservation Advice Land management for nightjars Land management for nightjars Nightjars are masters of camouflage The nightjar is now a scarce breeding bird of lowland heathland, forest clearings and clearfells on suitable light soils throughout Britain, north to southern Scotland, and in coppice woodland in south-east England. Nightjars were once much more numerous and widespread than today, but now appear to be recovering.... This offers shelter, camouflage and seclusion from potential predators. Scattered trees are used to sing from and to roost in. In conifer forest clearings, clear-fells and restocks, especially on former heathland, the vegetation structure is like that of heathland, augmented with lying brash, which provides added concealment. Restocked clearings are abandoned as the tree canopy closes over the open ground around seven to ...
Abstract The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is one of the richest biodiversity hotspots of the world. Paleoclimatic models have predicted two large stability regions in its northern and central parts, whereas southern regions might have suffered strong instability during Pleistocene glaciations. Molecular phylogeographic and endemism studies show, nevertheless, contradictory results: although some results validate these predictions, other data suggest that paleoclimatic models fail to predict stable rainforest areas in the south. Most studies, however, have surveyed species with relatively high dispersal rates whereas taxa with lower dispersion capabilities should be better predictors of habitat stability. Here, we have used two land planarian species as model organisms to analyse the patterns ...
Background, aim, and scope Soil as a landscape body contains wide ranges of physical, chemical, morphological, and mineralogical properties, both laterally and vertically. Soils with similar properties and environments are expected to behave similarly. A statement on land use potential will depend in part on the precision and accuracy of the statements that can be made about the soils. This information has some practical applications in optimizing land management and productivity improvement. The spatial patterns and dependence of some selected physicochemical properties of brackish marsh and surrounding soils were investigated using a 2-D kriging analysis in conjunction with a geostatistical (GS+, Michigan) model. Materials and methods Composite (four subsamples) surface samples (0?20?cm)...
To mitigate damages caused by agricultural runoff, private lake owners' associations are paying for inlake and instream pollution abatement measures and on land-conservation practices. This phenomenon supports the notion that individuals who benefit from improved water quality should be willing to pay part of the abatement costs. The research suggests that on land-conservation measures can substantially reduce sediment delivery at low cost. The Sediment Economics (SEDEC) model was modified and then used to select and to site management systems that achieved stated sediment goals at least cost. Other resource policies such as T value, no-till, and contouring were compared with the least-cost frontier and shown to be more costly. The noncropland areas substantially reduced sediment delivery to water channels and lowered abatement costs. Further research is needed for long-range watershed-planning models such as SEDEC.
Abstract Ovipositing females of the black swallowtail butterfly, Papilio polyxenes Fabricius (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae: Papilioninae), have an innate response to contact chemical cues, but it was not known how naive females would respond to volatile host plant chemicals. Naive and experienced females were tested in a free-flight experiment using model plants and volatile extracts from two hosts, carrot [Daucus carota L. (Apiaceae)] and poison hemlock [Conium maculatum L. (Apiaceae)], and one non-host, fava bean [Vicia faba L. (Fabaceae)]. Naive females responded to both host plant extracts with more approaches and landings than to non-host extracts, with poison hemlock receiving more responses than carrot. Females experienced with one of the two host plants also approached and landed freq...
'Regional climate change: hydrology and land-use' is a topic that is being intensively discussed for quite a while already. At the same time, this topic demands consequences both on the level of politics and other decision makers. We scientists bear a particular responsibility for the analysis of existing data, targeted additional research to fill information gaps, and the critical evaluation and interpretation of the obtained results. The currently gathered sub-population of the scientific community is, albeit small, quite representative of a wide spectrum of activities and can very well offer a deeper insight into the current state-of-the-art. We deliberately organized the contributions such as to offer both overviews and results from detailed projects, as well as a close proximity of very well founded results with rather provocative hypotheses. (orig.)
Following the United Kingdom's nuclear tests at Maralinga in Australia in the 1960's, the Australian government signed away its rights to claim compensation for decontamination costs in a 1968 agreement. Controversy now rages as the Australian government is claiming pound33 million for this purpose from the United Kingdom to compensate the Maralinga Tjarutja for the loss of access to their traditional lands. They claim that the UK clean-up operation was inadequate and that much plutonium was spread over the land, rather than contained in pits. Measurements of contamination at the site were wrong by a factor of ten according to a 1984 visit when Australian scientists were horrified to realize that an Aboriginal child living near Taranaki could inhale more than 460 millisieverts a year. As ministers from both countries meet in June 1993 the debate is likely to be heated and hotly defended. (UK).
Since the publication by the International Commission on Radiological Protection of revised recommendations which set out some general principles for intervention, some ideas have emerged which address interventions in the case of chronic exposure from contaminated lands. In the past there have been interventions proposed or carried out to rehabilitate land contaminated during the era of atmospheric nuclear weapon testing. Some of these interventions are reviewed in the context of these ideas and it is concluded that, by and large, reasonable outcomes have been achieved. The concept of a 'generic action level' (an effective dose of the order of 10 mSv#centre dot#a"-"1 to representative individuals in the critical group) may be useful in future to aid decision makers in determining whether intervention is appropriate. (author)
Abstract Large areas of the southern European countries possess a Mediterranean climate, which influences soil properties, land use, fertilizer application practices and pathways of phosphorus (P) loss from agricultural soils. On average, inputs of fertilizer P exceed P exports from the agricultural areas in these countries; however, large differences in P surplus/deficit and soil P test values exist among regions. Losses of P in drainage water are modest except in some irrigated areas and in those regions where intensive animal production is concentrated. Losses of P in runoff water, whether as dissolved reactive or particulate P, can be substantial as a result of the significance of erosive processes under the land uses typical of the Mediterranean region, where extreme rainfall events c...
This topical report is a compilation of characterizations by different disciplines of the Mississippian Ratcliffe in portions of Richland County, MT. Goals of the report are to increase understanding of the reservoir rocks, oil-in-place, heterogeneity and methods for improved recovery. The report covers investigations of geology, petrography, reservoir engineering and seismic. The Ratcliffe is a low permeability oil reservoir which appears to be developed across much of the study area and occurs across much of the Williston Basin. The reservoir has not been a primary drilling target in the study area because average reserves have been insufficient to payout the cost of drilling and completion despite the application of hydraulic fracture stimulation. Oil trapping does not appear to be structurally controlled. For the Ratcliffe to be a viable drilling objective, methods need to be developed for (1) targeting better reservoir development and (2) better completions. A ...
Taking into consideration India's limited reserves of natural and vast reserves of thorium, the fast reactor route holds a great promise for India's energy supply in future. The fast reactor fueled with "2"3"9Pu/"2"3"8U (unused or depleted) produces (breeds) more fissionable fuel material "2"3"9Pu than it consumes. Calculations show that a fast breeder reactor (FBR) increases energy potential of natural uranium by about 60 times. As the fast reactor can also convert "2"3"2Th into "2"3"3U which is a fissionable material, it can make India's thorium reserves a source of almost inexhaustible energy supply for a long time to come. Significant advantage of FBR plants cooled by sodium and their world-wide operating experience are reviewed. There are two main safety issues of FBR, one nuclear and the other non-nuclear. The nuclear issue concerns core disruptive accident and the non-nuclear one concerns the high chemical energy ...
A complete analysis is performed to simulate biomass production incorporated into a realistic whole farm situation, including or replacing a typical crop mix. Representative farms are constructed to accommodate such simulation. Four management systems are simulated for each firm, with each simulation depicting a different crop mix and/or use of different farming technologies and production methods. The first simulation was a base farm plan in which the operator would maintain the historical crop mix for the area, participate in all price support programs, and not participate in either a conservative reserve or a biomass production program. In the second simulation, the operator would again maintain the historical crop mix, would not participate in a conservation reserve or biomass production program, and would be ineligible to participate in any price support system. The third simulation introduced the Conservation Reserve ...
A complete analysis is performed to simulate biomass production incorporated into a realistic whole farm situation, including or replacing a typical crop mix. Representative farms are constructed to accommodate such simulation. Four management systems are simulated for each firm, with each simulation depicting a different crop mix and/or use of different farming technologies and production methods. The first simulation was a base farm plan in which the operator would maintain the historical crop mix for the area, participate in all price support programs, and not participate in either a conservative reserve or a biomass production program. In the second simulation, the operator would again maintain the historical crop mix, would not participate in a conservation reserve or biomass production program, and would be ineligible to participate in any price support system. The third simulation introduced the Conservation Reserve ...
...Tota-MaharajE-Mail: Interests: water and wastewater treatment, environmental engineering and sustainable systems; sustainable water management; sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS); combined renewable energy applications with reverse osmosis desalination; microbial fuel cells for bioenergy production and treatment of urban wastewater; solar photocatalytic treatment and disinfection of water/wastewater Dr. Simon Toze CSIRO Land and Water, Queensland Bioscience Precinct - St Lucia, 306 Carmody Road, St Lucia QLD 4067,...
The Danish Ministry of Transportation has prepared a national plan of transportation, for the years until 2005. Official policy concerning land, maritime and air transport, personal and cargo transportation, investments and expenditures is outlined. Environmental impacts of energy consumption and air pollution abatement measures are considered. (EG)
Land plants must balance CO2 assimilation with transpiration in order to minimize drought stress and maximize their reproductive success. The ratio of assimilation to transpiration is called...Full Text Available
This article, with 25 references, reviews the soil sources and sinks of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The mitigation of greenhouse gas releases is discussed covering reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by a change in land use, the use of alternative waste disposal methods such as composting or recycling to reduce methane emissions, and management of nitrogen fertiliser applications to reduce nitrous oxide emissions. (Author)
BackgroundLand plant genomes contain multiple members of a eukaryote-specific gene family encoding proteins with pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) motifs. Some PPR proteins were shown...Full Text Available
This report presents information and analysis to assist BLM in clarifying oil shale research needs. It provides technical guidance on research needs in support of their regulatory responsibilities for onshore mineral activities involving oil shale. It provides an assessment of research needed to support the regulatory and managerial role of the BLM as well as others involved in the development of oil shale resources on public and Indian lands in the western United States.
The subject of this volume is remote sensing for environmental monitoring and resource management. This session is divided in eight parts. First part is on general topics, methodology and meteorology. Second part is on geology, environment and land cover. Third part is on disaster monitoring. Fourth part is on operational status of remote sensing. Fifth part is on coastal zones and inland waters. Sixth and seventh parts are on forestry and agriculture. Eighth part is on instrumentation and systems. (A.B.). refs., figs., tabs.
Potential maximum radiation dose rates were calculated for the former Alba Craft Laboratory site in Oxford, Ohio, which was involved in machining of uranium metal in the 1950s for the U.S. atomic energy program. The site is not currently being used. The residual radioactive material guidelines (RESRAD) computer code, which implements the methodology described in the US Department of Energy`s (DOE`s) manual for establishing residual radioactive material guidelines, was sued in this evaluation. Three potential land use scenarios were considered for the former Alba Craft site; the scenarios vary with regard to the type of site use, time spent at the site by the exposed individual, and sources of food consumed. Scenario A (a possible land use scenario) assumed industrial use of the site; Scenario B (a likely future land use scenario) assumed residential use of the site; and Scenario C (a possible but unlikely ...
PRESTO-II is a computer code developed to evaluate possible health effects from shallow land disposal of low level radioactive wastes. PRESTO-PREP is a data preprocessor that has been developed to expedite the formation of input data sets for PRESTO-II. PRESTO-PREP utilizes a library of nuclide and risk-specific data. Given an initial waste inventory, the code creates the radionuclide portion of the associated input data set for PRESTO-II. 2 references.
...Project objectives to restore/create network of secure lapwing breeding sites to provide conservation management advice to planners, developers and land managers to raise awareness of lapwing conservation issues in the local areaKey dates so far First pair of lapwing breeding at Parc Bryn Bach, mitigation site for loss of a nearby large lapwing breeding colony, in May 2008Work planned or underway Continued working with developers and landowners to ...
University research group with research areas: * Land based and submersible autonomous robots, (UUVs: AUVs and ROVs); * Controllers, electronics, sensor design and fusion, motion control; * Guidance and navigation of underwater vehicles; * AI, neural networks, fuzzy logic, subsumption control, behaviour based control; * Optical fibre and ultrasonic sensors for proximal object detection; * Robot arm control, visual servoing; * Imaging sonar applications; * Simulator development: UUV simulator; imaging sonar simulator; Aircraft/flight simulator.
rapid rise in intensive production (particularly intensive pig and poultry production ) much of the expansion in land ...than extensively reared ruminant production, and intensive pig and poultry production is, by a long way, ...In short, intensive pig and poultry production can be seen, from this perspective, as the
In accordance with the comprehensive plan in the eleventh five-year period the main content of prospecting and exploration on land in Axerbaidzhan by the Axneft' association will be done in the central and Western regions of the republic, where Paleogene-Mesozoic deposits will be inspected. Discussed in detail are the directions and volumes of prospecting and exploration in individual regions of Azerbaidzhan. They are determined with consideration of the degree of exploration of the earth's interior, the prospects for the deposits comprising them, and the development of the resources of oil.
Assessing the potential environmental and human effects of deploying renewable energy on private and public lands, along our coasts, on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and in the Great Lakes requires a new way of evaluating potential environmental and human impacts. The author argues that deployment of renewables requires a framework risk paradigm that underpins effective future siting decisions and public policies.
The food ingestion consequences due to radioactive particulates of an accidental release, scenario 1-RD-3, are evaluated for Savannah River Technology Center. The sizes of land areas requiring the protective action of food interdiction are calculated. The consequences of the particulate portion of the release are evaluated with the HOTSPOT model and an EXCEL spreadsheet for particulates.
A Lagrangian atmospheric dispersion model(K-LADM) combining a three dimensional sea-land breeze model has been developed and applied to the estimation of the quaterly and the annual averaged air tritium concentration around Wolsung NPP site. The estimated concentrations were compared with the observed concentration data. The results showed that the present Lagrangian Atmospheric dispersion model(K-LADM) provided very good agreement with the observations.
BackgroundStudies of chronic health effects due to exposures to particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters ≤ 2.5 μm (PM2.5) are often limited by sparse...Full Text Available
This environmental review of right-of-way clearing for transmission projects has been undertaken by the Environmental Analysis Branch for the Division of Land Resources in BPA's Office of Engineering and Construction. It is intended to review the present practices and results of selective clearing, and to make recommendations toward improvements in environmental practices and procedures in mitigation development for impacts associated with right-of-way clearing. 29 figs.
The United States Air Force (USAF) 460th Space Wing (460 SW) proposes to relocate and construct a Military Working Dog (MWD) kennel facility on Buckley Air Force Base (AFB) in response to changing land use surrounding the existing kennel and to accommodat...
This book contains the Proceedings of the Conference on Climate and Water under the following groupings: Impacts of climatic variability and change-resulting from the changes in hydrological variables; Aquatic environment; Terrestrial environment; Coastal zones and navigation; Urban and industrial water supply and drainage; Energy production; Intropogenic changes of climate and water management problems; Flood potential; Irrigation and land drainage.
This book contains the Proceedings of the Conference on Climate and Water under the following groupings: Impacts of climatic variability and change-resulting from the changes in hydrological variables; Aquatic environment; Terrestrial environment; Coastal zones and navigation; Urban and industrial water supply and drainage; Energy production; Intropogenic changes of climate and water management problems; Flood potential; Irrigation and land drainage.
This report draws an account of the consequences of Chernobyl accident 14 years after the disaster. It is made up of 8 chapters whose titles are: (1) Some figures about Chernobyl accident, (2) Chernobyl nuclear power plant, (3)Sanitary consequences of Chernobyl accident, (4) The management of contaminated lands, (5) The impact in France of Chernobyl fallout, (6) International cooperation, (7) More information about Chernobyl and (8) Glossary.
The Earth`s oceans, forests, agricultural lands and other natural areas absorb about half of the carbon dioxide emitted from anthropogenic sources. Terrestrial carbon sequestration strategies are immediately available to bridge the gap between current terrestrial sequestration capacity and high-capacity geologic sequestration projects available in 10 to 20 years. Terrestrial carbon sequestration strategies consist of implementing land management practices aimed at decreasing CO2 emitted into the atmosphere and developing advanced measurement tools to inventory and monitor carbon processes in soils and biota. In addition to atmospheric CO2 mitigation and carbon trading advantages, terrestrial carbon sequestration produces a variety of benefits which include reclamation of degraded lands, increased soil productivity, increased land value and a more secure food source. Carbon storage in soil depends on ...
This document is an addendum to the 1996 Gunnison Monitoring Report for the Gunnison, Colorado, Wetlands Mitigation Report, dated July 1997. The purpose of this addendum is to: (1) modify how information on plant height and plant species criteria are presented; and (2) provide more detailed information regarding the evaluation of the bare ground criteria at the Camp Ketle site. The information in this addendum is provided at the request of the Bureau of Land Management to aid in future monitoring and evaluation of the wetland mitigation sites.
Species interactions research and monitoring was initiated in 1989 to investigate ecological interactions among fish in response to proposed supplementation of salmon and steelhead in the upper Yakima River basin. This is the eighth of a series of progress reports that address species interactions research and pre-supplementation monitoring of fishes in the Yakima River basin. Data have been collected prior to supplementation to characterize the ecology and demographics of non-target taxa (NTT) and target taxon, and develop methods to monitor interactions and supplementation success. Major topics of this report are associated with implementing NTT monitoring prescriptions for detecting potential impacts of hatchery supplementation, hatchery fish interactions, and monitoring fish predation indices. This report is organized into four chapters, with a general introduction preceding the first chapter. This annual report summarizes data collected ...
This is the annual report of the Radiological and Environmental Division of the Argonne National Laboratory for 1982. Studies of the effects of ozone on crop growth and yield have been carried out by the Terrestrial Ecology Group for winter wheat and for sorghum. The Microcosms for Acid Rain Studies (MARS) facility was completed in the early summer. Controlled investigations of plant and soil responses in acid rain were initiated with crop plants grown in two different midwestern soil types. The Transuranics Group has found that the solubility and adsorptive behavior of plutonium previously observed at fallout concentrations in natural waters (approx. 10/sup -16/ to 10/sup -18/ M) is applicable at plutonium concentrations as high as 10/sup -8/ M. The Lake Michigan eutrophication model has been adapted to operation in a Monte Carlo mode. Simulations based on yearly phosphorus loadings and winter conditions were selected at random from prescribed probability ...
The Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (RFETS) has historically released radionuclide chemicals of potential concern into the surrounding environment. The off-site environment was evaluated for Pu"2"3"9"/"2"4"0 and Am"2"4"1 occurrence. An evaluation of exposure and effects to the aquatic ecology within off-site areas including: Standley Lake, Great Western Reservoir, Mower Reservoir and portions of Big Dry Creek, Walnut Creek, and Woman Creek was performed for the completion of an Ecological Risk Assessment. Collocated sampling activities were performed for surface water, sediment, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish. Results of the analytical data were used to assess ongoing exposure and effects. Data collected to determine effects (chemical content of fish tissue, diversity and density of macroinvertebrate populations) provided some of the necessary information needed to evaluate risk. However, due to conditions of interfering stressor ...
Wireless sensor networks can revolutionize soil ecology by providing measurements at temporal and spatial granularities previously impossible. This paper presents a soil monitoring system we developed and deployed at an urban forest in Baltimore as a first step towards realizing this vision. Motes in this network measure and save soil moisture and temperature in situ every minute. Raw measurements are periodically retrieved by a sensor gateway and stored in a central database where calibrated versions are derived and stored. The measurement database is published through Web Services interfaces. In addition, analysis tools let scientists analyze current and historical data and help manage the sensor network. The article describes the system design, what we learned from the deployment, and initial results obtained from the sensors. The system measures soil factors with unprecedented temporal precision. However, the deployment required device-level programming, sensor ...
The K Reactor at the Savannah River Site (SRS) shut-down in spring 1988 for maintenance and safety upgrades. Since that time the receiving stream for thermal effluent, Indian Grave Branch and Pen Branch, have undergone a pattern of post-thermal recovery that is typical of other SRS streams following removal of thermal stress. Divesity of fish and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities has increased and available habitats have been colonized by numerous species of herbaceous and woody plants. K Reactor is scheduled to resume operation in 1991 and operate through 1992 without a cooling tower to cool the discharge. It is likely that the reactor will operate at approximately one-third to one-half of full power (800--1200 MW thermal) during this period and effluent temperatures will be substantially lower than earlier operation at full power. Monthly average discharge temperatures at half-power operation will range from approximately 42 degrees C in winter to 49 degrees C in summer. The ...
Childhood anxiety is impairing and associated with later emotional disorders. Studying risk factors for child anxiety may allow earlier identification of at-risk children for prevention efforts. This study applied an ecological risk model to address how early childhood anxiety symptoms, child temperament, maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, violence exposure, and sociodemographic risk factors predict school-aged anxiety symptoms. This longitudinal, prospective study was conducted in a representative birth cohort (n = 1109). Structural equation modeling was used to examine hypothesized associations between risk factors measured in toddlerhood/preschool (age = 3.0 years) and anxiety symptoms measured in kindergarten (age = 6.0 years) and second grade (age = 8.0 years). Early child risk factors (anxiety symptoms and temperament) emerged as the most robust predictor for both parent-and child-reported anxiety outcomes and mediated the effects of maternal and ...
The atmosphere and the biosphere are inherently coupled to one another. Atmospheric surface state variables such as temperature, winds, water vapor, precipitation, and radiation control biophysical, biogeochemical, and ecological processes at the surface and subsurface. At the same time, surface fluxes of momentum, moisture, heat, and trace gases act as time-dependent boundary conditions providing feedback on atmospheric processes. To understand such phenomena, a coupled set of interactive models is required. Costs are still prohibitive for computing surface/subsurface fluxes directly for medium-resolution atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs), but a technique has been developed for testing large-scale homogeneity and accessing surface parameterizations and models to reduce this computational cost and maintain accuracy. This modeling system potentially bridges the observed spatial and temporal ranges yet allows the incorporation of necessary details about ...
The purpose of this assessment is to develop a versatile process that will provide a mechanism for evaluating both present and future risks to this environment. Much of the regulatory and environmental interest in the port has centered around a Ballast Water Treatment facility that treats and discharges up to 30 mgd of oily ballast water brought in by crude oil tankers. However, six point discharges and other potential sources of pollution exist in the area. The authors have delineated eleven subareas in the port in order to identify the potential anthropogenic stressors, as well as the receptors that could be exposed to these stressors. Potential effects were then characterized for each exposure. Each component is ranked and integrated, resulting in a relative risk estimate in each subarea. Both the discernible risks, based on available data, and the data gaps are presented. Uncertainty is expressed as a range of high and low risk associated with each component. Results of the ranking ...
Data on the postfire dynamics of soil properties in the foci of Siberian moth population outbreaks are considered. It has been shown that controlled fires set in pest-defoliated forests result in the loss of approximately 75% of carbon and 50% of nitrogen from the forest litter through their emission into the atmosphere and in the enrichment of the upper soil horizons with potassium and phosphorus (this concerns both total and movable forms). Microbiological processes in the organogenic horizon undergo significant transformation, the density of microarthropods decreases, and the abundance of mites becomes hundreds of times lower. PMID:15354965
Wetlands have important ecological values and functions. It is estimated that 80 percent of the Nation's coastal fisheries are dependent on wetlands for spawning, nursery areas, and food sources. Both coastal and inland wetlands provide essential breeding, nesting, feeding, and predator escape habitats for millions of waterfowl, other birds, mammals, and reptiles. Well over one-third of the 564 plant and animal species listed as threatened or endangered in the United States utilize wetland habitats during some portion of their life cycle. Wetlands Stewardship is intended as a resource for everyone interested in wetlands protection.
A laboratory stream consisting of two stream sections interrupted by two pools was filled with a mixture of tap water and organically enriched water from rivers nearby. Bottom sediment material, Potamogeton pectinatus, macro-invertebrate organisms, as well as the mosquito fish, Aplocheilichthys johnstonii were collected from rivers around Johannesburg and introduced into the laboratory stream. After initial acclimatization, the distribution of the isotope "3"2P through this laboratory stream was followed. Absorption of this isotope by benthic algae, Potamogeton pectinatus, several macro-invertebrate organisms as well as Aplocheilichthys johnstonii was recorded.
Industrial activities in the river basin of the Elbe have a very long tradition, and have been resulting in the contamination of sediments for centuries. Contamination lasted until the fall of the iron curtain; since then, the situation has improved significantly. In the transition zone between freshwater systems and the marine environment, ports like Hamburg still have to bear this burden of history. An overall (contaminated) management strategy should be developed in the context of the European Water Framework Directive with the emphasis on source control. (orig.)
The long term goal is to determine the ecological importance of specific toxic metals (copper and zinc) in harbors, through an understanding of their chemistry and biological effects at the base of marine food chains. This work provides information on potential problems with Zn and Cu, which may help to foresee problems in the future. Anthropogenic inputs of both metals are increasing; they are derived from diverse sources and are a simple function of population growth in coastal regions.
The lithium-polymer energy storage technology requires the production of thin films of huge surface. The BT-EdF-CEA consortium has studied the various manufacturing techniques of these films and their assembly. The process was chosen according to its productivity, low expensiveness, ecological impact and energy performances with capacities reaching 40 Ah. This paper explains: the objectives and specifications of the project, the advantage of the consortium and the role of the different partners, the results (coating, dry extrusion and battery element manufacturing techniques), and the electrochemical performances of the elements. (J.S.)
This conference was attended by experts on current issues in engineering of an urban ecosystem, composting, biofuels and green energy. The meeting provided a forum to discuss advances in the application of engineering principles and practices dealing with biological systems for the production of food, bioproducts and energy. The discussions focused on engineering practices in agriculture, forestry, bioresources, biochemistry and biosystems. The 7 technical sessions of the conference were entitled: aquaculture; safety and training; bioprocessing; energy production and biofuels; environment and ecology; soil and water; and development of technologies. The conference feature 58 presentations, of which 9 have been catalogued separately for inclusion in this database. refs., tabs., figs.
This document provides information on septic systems with a design capacity of greater than 14,500 gal/d and cribs submitted as requested by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Data for this submittal were taken from the Waste Information Database System (WIDS) and the Hanford Environmental Compliance Record (HECR) database. The current definition used in WIDS for an ''inactive facility'' is one that either no longer receives waste or plans to in the future. Information concerning the deactivation method for a facility is included when such information is available.
The marine environment is becoming increasingly contaminated by environmental pollutants with the potential to damage DNA, with marine sediments acting as a sink for many of these contaminants. Understanding genotoxic responses in sediment-dwelling marine organisms, such as polychaetes, is therefore of increasing importance. This study is an exploration of species-specific and cell-specific differences in cell sensitivities to DNA-damaging agents in polychaete worms, aimed at increasing fundamental knowledge of their responses to genotoxic damage. The sensitivities of coelomocytes from three polychaetes species of high ecological relevance, i.e. the lugworm Arenicola marina, the harbour ragworm Nereis diversicolor and the king ragworm Nereis virens to genotoxic damage are compared, and dif...
...assistantship in Suburban Ecology Location: Bedford, NY Deadline: August 15, 2008 Postdoctoral Fellow in energy Location: University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Deadline: August 11, 2008 Junior Professional Fellowship Sustainable Development Governance Programme Location: UNU, Yokohama, Japan Deadline: August 1, 2008 Center for Ocean Solutions Early Career Fellowship Program Location: Stanford, California Deadline: July 15, 2008 Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis Postdoctoral Research Fellow Location: Singapore Deadline: July 15, ...
A synthesis of papers based on the United Nations Environment Programme meeting on the ozone layer, Washington DC, this book contains valuable information on ongoing and planned activities concerned with stratospheric ozone problems, and presents the recommendations for further action resulting from the meeting. Possible changes in the characteristics of the ozone layer are discussed, together with the environmental, ecological, climatic, economic, and health implications of stratospheric ozone depletion. A comprehensive survey of current research in five European countries, the USA, Canada, and Australia is included and the volume is concluded by the UNEP report of the meeting and a world plan of action.
The environmental Restoration Remedial Action Quality Assurance Requirements Document (DOE/RL 90-28) defines the quality assurance program requirements for the US Department of Energy-Richland Field Office Environmental Restoration Remedial Action Program at the Hanford Site, Richland, Washington. This paper describes the objectives outlined in DOE/RL 90-28. The Environmental Restoration Remedial Action Program implements significant commitments made by the US Department of Energy in the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order entered into with the Washington State Department of Ecology and the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Growing ecological awareness in the car industry resulted in further developments of the otto and diesel engines, and of alternative fuels like cars with electric drive. This article gives an overview on a number of pertinent developments. The possible uses of electric cars are still limited by the battery in terms of storage capacity, output, service life and weight so that for the time being their use can be expected to be restricted to public and local-authority antreprises or to companies driving within city areas preferably. A break-through is expected by the industry in the field of high-temperature batteries although there are still a number of problems unsolved. (BWI).
Since 1983, about 600 research projects received a total of DM 250 million public funds for the following tasks: - Development of scientific fundamentals for monitoring and observation of forest decline and its ecological and economic consequences. - Investigation of the cause-effect relationship of forest damage, with particular regard to the involvement of the various compartments of the forest ecosystem and to the contribution of different pollutants. - Development of the scientific fundamentals required for forestry measures to accompany the air pollution abatement measures. The investigations comprised both laboratory and field tests. The findings and conclusion are summarized. (orig./MG).
... Cameron; Lowell A. Miller; Miller, Lowell A. CSIRO PUBLISHING - Wildlife Research Books Journals Multimedia About Us Shopping Cart You are here: Journals Wildlife Research Ecology, Management and Conservation in Natural and Modified Habitats Search ... Cameron and Lowell A. Miller Abstract Context. Contraception is increasingly used as a management technique to reduce fertility in wildlife populations; however, the feasibility of contraceptive formulations has been limited until recently because they have required multiple treatments to achieve prolonged infertility. ...
The NPPs safety system in Germany is discussed. It is shown that there exists no threat for the German NPPs at the peace times. They release insignificant quantities of radioactive substances into the water and atmosphere. The average equivalent dose constitutes 0.0005 mSv annually. The annual equivalent dose for the personnel is equal to 4.4 mSv. At the same time, the NPPs contribute to a certain degree to the environmental medium improvement, preventing the ingress therein of the sulfur and carbon dioxide, dust and nitrogen oxides by application of fossil fuels. Attention is also paid to reprocessing facilities and also to the nuclear fuel wastes disposal. The advantages of the nuclear power engineering in comparison with the fossil fuel power engineering are enumerated
A revision of some basic concepts related to the analysis of variance of repeated measures is presented within an ecological context topics such as the types of experiments in which the technique is applicable, the hypotheses of interest, and its preference over other traditional techniques such as regression and conventional analysis of variance, are discussed. As an example, the technique was successfully applied to an experiment carried out at Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta, Colombia, in which the concentration of cadmium #mu#g/g in leaves of the black mangrove Avicennia germinans was measured in several monitoring stations and throughout several sampling intervals representing seasons.
Information about surface soil moisture conditions is of critical importance to real-world applications such as agricultural production, water resource management, flood prediction, fire prediction, water supply, military mobility, etc.. Near-surface soil moisture is currently available from non-ideal sensor configuration observations, and two missions targeted at measuring near-surface soil moisture with ideal sensor configuration are expected before the end of the decade (the European Space Agency (ESA), Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Hydrospheric states "Hydros" mission). Though remote sensing can make spatially comprehensive measurements of surface soil moisture, it cannot provide information on the entire land surface hydrologic system, and the measurements represent only a snap shot in time. Alternatively, land surface hydrology process models may be used to ...
The Georges Bank, off southwestern Nova Scotia, is one of the most biologically productive continental shelf ecosystems in the world. It supports a wide diversity of species, including many seabirds. In 1988, federal and provincial legislation placed a moratorium on petroleum exploration and drilling on the Georges Bank, directing the ministers of Natural Resources Canada, and of the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources to make a decision regarding the moratorium by January 1, 2000. This report by the Ecology Action Centre (EAC) asks the Georges Bank Review Panel to recommend extending the moratorium on Georges Bank and adjacent areas until 2012, in part to match the American moratorium. Other reasons why the panel made this recommendation were explored. The principal reason is the EAC concern that when the moratorium is lifted, several oil and gas developments will proceed in this ecologically significant offshore area that could result ...
The central research question of this thesis is: What is the potential of multi-functional biomass systems to improve the costs and the land use efficiency of saving non-renewable energy consumption and reducing GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions in quantitative terms? Therefore, in the following chapters the performance of multi-functional biomass systems is quantified. Biomass system costs are investigated from a societal perspective using e.g. low discount rates. A main focus will be on the review of methodologies for accounting GHG emissions, non-renewable energy consumption, agricultural land use and costs as well as the adaptation of these methodologies to special aspects of multifunctional biomass use. The analysis of the potential benefits of multi-functional biomass systems is carried out by several case studies of biomass systems including various waste treatment technologies for the short term that appeared promising after a first ...
This paper introduces examples of satellite imageries analysis and utilizations for safeguards activities. Recently, many kinds of satellite imageries are available in the world i.e., high-spatial resolution, multi- and hyper-spectral, multi-function, and multi-polarization radars. The problem is that how to obtain the required information from these digital images. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully launched the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS, the nickname is 'Daichi') on 24th January, 2006. The mission objectives are cartography, regional observation, disaster monitoring etc. ALOS has three instruments, PRISM, AVNIR-2, and PALSAR, to achieve these objectives. An overview of ALOS is provided. ALOS follows the Japanese Earth Resources Satellite- 1 (JERS-1) and the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) and utilizes advanced land-observing technology. ALOS is fling in a Sun-synchronous orbit with an ...
Negotiation is the most famous tool for reaching an agreement between parties. Usually, the different parties can be modeled as a buyer and a seller, who negotiate about the price of a given item. In most cases, the parties have incomplete information about one another, but they can invest money and efforts in order to acquire information about each other. This leads to the question of how much each party will be willing to invest on information about its opponent, prior to the negotiation process. In this paper, we consider the profitability of automated negotiators acquiring information on their opponents. In our model, a buyer and a seller negotiate on the price of a given item. Time is costly, and incomplete information exists about the reservation price of both parties. The reservatio...
The discovery of large reserves of oil has resulted in a proliferation of drilling and production platforms in the North Sea, and other offshore areas around the UK will probably be developed. The exploitation of marginal oil fields, particularly in those developing countries which have only limited energy resources, has been made possible by the development of a floating production, storage and offloading (f.p.s.o.) unit consisting of a large tonnage oil tanker converted for the purpose and moored. The increased electrical power demands imposed by the addition of process plant, extra accommodation, and so on, usually necessitate additions to onboard generation and distribution systems, which must of course be integrated with the existing equipment.
Abstract Background:- Surgical dislocation of the hip has been developed to deal with the problems causing femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). This is a relatively recent procedure that was historically reserved for larger areas specializing in hip surgery. Methods:- We hypothesized that surgical dislocation can be used for symptomatic FAI in a typical Australasian tertiary orthopaedic centre with acceptable results. This prospective study reviews the results of 53 surgical dislocations in this setting, looking particularly at functional outcomes and early complications. Results:- There were significant improvements in the Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index score at 1, 2, 3 and 4 years post-operatively. Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index ...
The Spratly Islands are developing into a flashpoint in the South China Sea region. Geological surveys conducted underneath the seabed of these islands following the oil crisis in the 1970s shows an enormous potential of oil and gas reserves. Moreover, with the adoption of the new International Law of the Sea concept there are overlapping claims by contending countries. Unless these claimant countries reconcile their differences and come to terms, the conflict is bound to escalate. This thesis is an in depth study of the disputes over the Spratlys and examines four cases of islands based territorial disputes that could be used as a model in resolving these tensions. This thesis argues that a military option will only create division and in-flame longstanding animosities. Instead, a peaceful solution is recommended as quickly as possible so that regional nations will realize the full potential of these islands. Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
Sandia National Laboratories manages the US Department of Energy program for slimhole drilling. The principal objective of this program is to expand proven geothermal reserves through increased exploration, made possible by lower-cost slimhole drilling. For this to be a valid exploration method, however, it is necessary to demonstrate that slimholes yield enough data to evaluate a geothermal reservoir, and that is the focus of Sandia`s current research. Sandia negotiated an agreement with Far West Capital, which operates the Steamboat Hills geothermal field, to drill and test an exploratory slimhole on their lease. The principal objectives for the slimhole were development of slimhole testing methods, comparison of slimhole data with that from adjacent production-size wells, and definition of possible higher-temperature production zones lying deeper than the existing wells.
Depending on the soil environment, selenium (Se) can exist as several species differing greatly in bioavailability. Characterization of soil Se reserves is thus necessary in assessing the nutritional supply of this essential element. In low-Se areas, Se fertilization is an option for securing adequate Se nutrition. Fertilization is, however, challenged by the unknown fate of the residual Se. In this study, we aimed to clarify the Se status of selenate-fertilized field soils by fractionating soil Se into five pools: salt-soluble (KCl), adsorbed (KH2PO4/K2HPO4), organically associated (NaOH), elemental (Na2SO3) and recalcitrant Se (NaOCl). Changes induced in these fractions by repeated application of low selenate doses were examined by comparing samples collected from the same locations in 1...
The studied coal bearing series has a parallel origin. The following facial complexes are isolated in its composition: lakes free of vegetation without coal interlayers; overgrown lakes of their margins which are poor in coals; swampy lakes, whose peat beds formed coal layers of shallow or moderate depth; channel sediments without coal layers and swamps from between channel spaces which created thick coal strata of high quality for which, however, a strong changeability in thickness is intrinsic. The coal strata are normally split towards the central parts of the lake basins and river channels. The coal presence of the suite is reduced along the section which is associated with the replacement of the lake swamp conditions of sedimentation by lake river conditions. A paleotectonic analysis established that the distribution of the zones richest in coal was controlled by consedimentational structural elements.
This journal contains the following articles (1) The Grand Challenge of Thermonuclear Ignition--Commentary by Edward I. Moses; (2) Orchestrating the World's Most Powerful Laser--The computer control system for the National Ignition Facility will soon have about 1.4-million lines of code running on more than 750 computers; (3) A Randon Walk through Time and Space--Albert einstein's 1905 papers on Brownian motion, random fluctuations, and statistical mechanics are fundamental to many Livermore research projects; (4) The Search for Methane in Earth's Mantle--Scientists are discovering that Earth's mantle may have untapped reserves of methane; and (5) Testing the Physics of Nuclear Isomers--Results from a tri-laboratory project contradict claims of accelerated release of energy from the nuclear isomer hafnium-178.
We collected female greater scaup (Aythya marila) on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska during two breeding seasons to determine if concentrations of 18 trace elements in livers and eggs were elevated and if hepatic concentrations correlated with body condition or affected reproductive status. Fifty-six percent, 5%, and 42% of females, respectively, had elevated hepatic cadmium (Cd: >3mgg-1 dry weight [dw]), mercury (Hg: >3mgg-1dw), and selenium (Se: >10mgg-1dw). Somatic protein and lipid reserves were not correlated with hepatic Cd or Hg, but there was a weak negative correlation between protein and Se. Hepatic Cd, Hg, and Se were similar in females that had and had not initiated egg production. In a sample of six eggs, 33% and 100%, respectively, contained Se and Hg, but concentrations we...
The Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) is a 400-megawatt (thermal) sodium-cooled reactor designed for irradiation testing of fuels, materials and components for LMRs. It is operated by the Westinghouse Hanford Company for the US Department of Energy on the government-owned Hanford reservation near Richland, Washington. The first 100-day operating cycle began in April 1982 and the eighth operating cycle was completed in July 1986. Argon is used as the cover gas for all sodium systems at the plant. A program for cover gas monitoring has been in effect since the start of sodium fill in 1978. The argon is supplied to the FFTF by a liquid argon Dewar System and used without further purification.
The Carter Administration has set a synfuels goal of 1.5 million bopd by the year 1990, with shale oil to furnish 400,000 bpd. Presumably most, if not all, of the shale oil production will be from the Eocene Green River formation that underlies large areas of northwest Colorado, northeast Utah, and southwest Wyoming. A major part of the oil shale resources of the Green River formation occurs in the Piceance Creek basin of Colorado. Where is the available resource base, and what is the possible interest of industry in developing the Green River oil shales. Project readiness in the Piceance Creek basin is reviewed, and projected production is estimated. International potential for development of oil shale reserves also is discussed.
Remote, offshore gas reserves have long been a challenging deepwater petroleum resource to tap. Natural gas in many offshore regions is plentiful, but lacks access to the market because of the logistical challenges and costs. Most large offshore gas discoveries are capped, and gas associated with oil production is re-injected into the reservoir or is flared. A more attractive option is to convert the gas into a liquid product on a floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel. However, some conventional process technologies are not well suited for operation on floating vessels that are highly space and weight constrained and may challenge vessel stability during inclement weather. Microchannel process technology units under development offer intensified processes that are suit...
Abstract Aim- According to the revised Bethesda Guidelines, colorectal cancer (CRC) occurring under age 50-years should be screened to exclude Lynch syndrome. However, in current practice in East Anglia, tumour screening is initiated only after genetics referral, reserved for those with a strong pedigree. This study aimed to determine how many patients with young-onset CRC undergo tumour screening in hospitals in East Anglia. Method- A retrospective case notes review over 5-years in four hospitals was undertaken to determine what proportion of those with young-onset CRC underwent referral for tumour screening and to assess local practices in terms of patient counselling and management. Results- One hundred and twenty-two patients were included. There was an average yearly caseload of 6-9 p...
We have measured K-edge X-ray absorption spectra of argon in sputtered aluminum films at a synchrotron radiation facility (the Photon Factory). We found that the energy and shape of white line change when the film is annealed at 500 C and the spectrum becomes resembling that of argon implanted in silicon. From the analyses of the X-ray absorption spectra and TEM observation we concluded that argon exists as very small atom clusters with a diameter less than 1 nm or exist as isolated atoms in the as-sputtered aluminum film, and that the size of the clusters become as big as 10 nm diameter when the film is heated. (Copyright (c) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam. All rights reserved.)
Ability to predict mechanical response of rock in three dimensions over the spatial and time scales of geologic interest would give the oil and gas industry the ability to reduce risk on prospects, improve pre-project initial reserve estimates, and lower operating costs. A program has recently been initiated, under the auspices of the Advanced Computational Technology Initiative (ACTI), to achieve such a computational technology breakthrough by adapting the unique advanced quasistatic finite element technology developed by Sandia to the mechanics applications important to exploration and production activities within the oil and gas industry. As a precursor to that program, in an effort to evaluate the feasibility of the approach, several complex geologic structures of interest were analyzed with the existing two-dimensional quasistatic finite element code, SANTOS, developed at Sandia. Examples are presented and discussed.
It has been shown that not only there are abundant oil, gas, coal, coal-bed gas, groundwater and giant uranium deposits but also there are abundant oil shale resources in Ordos basin. It has been shown also that the thickness of oil shale is, usually, 4-36m, oil-bearing 1.5%-13.7%, caloric value 1.66-20.98MJ/kg. The resource amount of oil shale with burial depth less than 2000 m is over 2000x108t (334). Within it, confirmed reserve is about 1x108t (121). Not only huge economic benefit but also precious experience in developing oil shale may be obtained in Ordos basin.
A large portion of world?s natural gas reserves are ?stranded?? resources, the drive to monetize these resources leads to the development of gas-to-liquids (GTL) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) technologies. LNG has the advantage of having been developed for the past 40 years and having an excellent safety record. GTL on the other hand is another option with substantial benefits, but its development stage and commercial viability are far behind LNG. This paper presents a techno-economic comparison of GTL with LNG, including technical development, plant efficiency, market potential for the products, and capital cost for the infrastructure. The aim is to give an overall view on both LNG and GTL and provide a perspective on the profitability of these two technologies.
Sand-filled splash cups were used to study the erosive power of rainfall and throughfall in the humid subtropics of Southeast China. The splash cup measurements yielded precise and reproducible results under both open field conditions and forest vegetation. The splash cups were exposed to specific forest stands of different ages and to selected species (Schima superba, Castanopsis eyrei, Daphniphyllum oldhamii, Lithocarpus glaber) in the Gutianshan (???) National Nature Reserve (GNNR). The results of the measurements under forest vegetation show that the erosive power of throughfall drops to be 2.59 times higher compared to the open field. This accentuates the importance of shrub, herb and litter layers in forest ecosystems to protect the soil against erosion. Coalescing drops from leaves ...
This case study is an application, to a nuclear power plant, of the methodology for quantifying environmental costs and benefits, contained in the regional energy plan, adopted in April, 1983, by the Northwest Power Planning Council, pursuant to Public Law 96-501.The study is based on plant number 2 of the Washington Public Power Supply System (WNP-2), currently nearing completion on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington State. This report describes and documents efforts to quantify and estimate monetary values for the following seven areas of environmental effects: radiation/health effects, socioeconomic/infrastructure effects, consumptive use of water, psychological/health effects (fear/stress), waste management, nuclear power plant accidents, and decommissioning costs. 103 references.
Cognitive decline has been described in elderly patients with schizophrenia, but the underlying pathology remains unknown. Some studies report increases in plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, but there is no evidence for an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) in elderly schizophrenics. Models of a decreased cerebral reserve suggest that increases in AD-related neuropathology below the threshold for a neuropathological diagnosis could be related to dementia severity in elderly schizophrenia patients. We tested this hypothesis in 110 autopsy specimens of schizophrenia patients, without a neuropathological diagnosis of AD or other neurodegenerative disorders. Furthermore, we assessed the effects of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) status, a known genetic risk factor for AD. Measures of densit...
The development and installation, by Hydro-Quebec, of a computerized pressure monitoring and control system on its fluid-filled high voltage underground cable network in Montreal, was described. The average age of these underground fluid-filled cables is more than 30 years and the cost to replace the circuits is estimated to be 230 million dollars. It is, therefore, crucial to maintain at all times and under all operating conditions a positive oil pressure in order to maintain the dielectric strength of paper insulation, and to prevent air and moisture from entering the cables and accessories. The monitoring and control system is reliable, flexible, user friendly and easy to upgrade. It reduces intervention time on the cables and ensures the protection of the cable network by remotely operating valves to connect oil reserve banks and by providing efficient maintenance management tools. 1 ref., 1 tab., 4 figs.
A total of 48 papers were presented, and covered the following topics: the current situation in Pakistan with respect to development and utilization of coal resources; the policies that have been responsible for the development and utilization of coal resources in Pakistan; coal development and utilization in other developing nations e.g. Indonesia, Greece, Philippines, China, Thailand and Haiti; and technological developments in coal exploration; extraction, handling, transport and utilization which could accelerate future development of Pakistan's coal resources. Specific subjects covered include the use of coal in the cement industry of Pakistan; the production of briquettes for domestic use, development and training of personnel for the coal industry; and sources of finance for coal development projects. Particular emphasis is given throughout the conference to the Lakhra coal mine/power plant project which aims to develop and effectively utilize the lignite ...
In certain regions of the sea floor, water and methane from organic depositions have turned into a burnable form of ice, i.e. methane hydrates which contain more stored energy than all fossil fuel reserves. If they should desintegrate as a result of global heating, methane will be released and will contribute to further global heating. [Deutsch] Im Boden bestimmter Meeresregionen haben sich Wasser und Methan aus organischen Ablagerungen zu einer brennbaren Form von Eis vereinigt. Diese Methanhydrate speichern mehr Energie als alle fossilen Brennstoffvorraete. Wenn sie sich bei einer globalen Erwaermung zersetzen, koennte das entweichende Methan als Treibhausgas die Erde noch mehr aufheizen. (orig.)
This paper develops optimal bidding strategies for a pumped-storage plant in a pool-based electricity market. In the competitive regime, when compared to simple hydroelectric generator, profit of the pumped-storage plant is maximized by operating it as a generator when market clearing price is high and as a pump when the price is low. Based on forecasted hourly market clearing price, a multistage looping algorithm to maximize the profit of a pumped-storage plant is developed, considering both the spinning and non-spinning reserve bids and meeting the technical operating constraints of the plant. The proposed model is adaptive for the nonlinear three-dimensional relationship between the power produced, the energy stored, and the head of the associated reservoir. Different operating cycles for a realistic pumped-storage plant are considered and simulation results are reported and compared. (author)
Brown coal resources of the Latrobe Valley in Australia total 140 billion tons to a depth of 975 feet, while economically recoverable reserves have been calculated to total 57 billion tons. Although the coal provides only a very low heating value, about 3300 Btu/lb with 60% moisture content, the enormous seam thicknesses with little overburden allow large scale, open cut mining operations. The low cost and high reactivity of the coal is attracting extensive coal liquefaction research. Research into dewatering processes for the high moisture content brown coal is being conducted. The dried brown coal could be used both domestically and internationally for electricity generation and as an industrial fuel.
The Jeanne d`Arc Basin is located 320 km offshore in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. It is a Mesozoic failed-rift basin with recoverable oil reserves of about 2 billion barrels. Its huge Hibernia Field will be in production by late 1997. The basin has been reappraised using sequence stratigraphic concepts, and renewed exploration in the area is expected. The Upper Jurassic - Lower Cretaceous sedimentary accumulation in the Basin was formed by the extensional tectonics that created the North Atlantic Ocean. The sedimentary packages were placed in chronostratigraphic order by calibrating the biostratigraphy of the Oxfordian to Maastrichtian section to the detailed ammonite zonation from the North Sea.
The authors have studied the distribution of H-3 labelled schistosomicidal drug in mice by autoradiography. The H-3-labelled substances were found in liver and kidney and in successfully decreasing amounts in brain, lung, heart, fat, testis, pancreas and spleen. In various cells the silver granules were present mainly in the cytoplasms but a few in the nucleus. After administration of this labelled schistosomicidal drug, the mice were killed and studied in groups successively at 4, 8, 24 hrs. No difference in the distribution of silver granules were observed. This fact indicated that, this drug was rapidly absorbed and highly concentrated with a long duration of reservation in liver. All of these favours the schistosomicidal effect of the drug. As this drug was highly concentrated in the cytoplasm of liver cells, that might provide a pathophysiologic basis for the explanation of jaundice in the clinical practice. Moreover, the appearance of toxic reaction in ...
The emergence of new power electronics and improved battery technology has created renewed interest in Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS). These new systems provide electric utilities with alternatives to conventional storage technologies, such as pumped hydro. BESs has the potential to provide substantial benefits in terms of energy management, improved voltage, spinning reserve and protection from interruptions when compared to large centralized storage. This paper describes a commercial, economically justified, application of the new Battery Energy Storage Systems which is presently under construction in the Metlakatla Power and Light system. The paper outlines the system performance requirements which lead to consideration of BESS as an option; the economic factors which provided the justification for BESS as an economic alternative; and the overall BES system design and performance.
The difficult economic circumstances with which almost the whole world had to contend, brought serious financial crisis in many countries. South Africa also had its own share of serious problems. Despite this situation, Transvaal Consolidated Land and Exploration Company, Limited, showed on increase in earnings of 24 per cent per share. The reason for this lies mainly in two areas. Firstly the company acquired the mining related business of Rand Mines, Limited. Included in the acquisition was a partfolio of shares mainly in the company's associated gold and uranium mining companies and additional shares in its listed coal mining subsidiaries. Secondly, the average gold price realised by producers in rand terms, was considerably higher than in the previous year. Consolidated profit attributable to members increased by 52 per cent to R82,6 million.
Johnston Atoll (JA) is a small (270-ha), but strategic, US possession in the Pacific Ocean, which was previously used in nuclear weapons testing. Nuclear devices were launched by missile for detonations at very high altitudes. In 1962, one missile failed on the launch pad and two failed overhead. The devices were destructed without nuclear yield, but transuranium (TRU) elements were dispersed. Cleanup was swift and incomplete. A 2-ha area was placed under radiological controls and restricted from use due to residual contamination. Planning was begun in 1983 for a total JA cleanup to provide additional (unrestricted) land to meet future requirements. A TRUe soil cleanup is programmed to begin at JA in 1988 utilizing a full-scale mining plant. The plant should be able to process all contaminated soil by 1992 and produce less than #approx# 2000 m"3 of concentrated waste. This cleanup will increase the amount of land available for unrestricted use ...
ObjectivesWe have developed a life cycle perspective inspired conceptual model (CM) that suggests the importance of terrestrial ecosystems as a major repository of ZnO, TiO2, and Ag (Tier 1) manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs) introduced via the land application of MNM-containing biosolids. We propose to investigate the transport, fate, behavior, bioavailability, and effects of MNMs in(to) agroecosystems under environmentally realistic scenarios organized around three key hypotheses: Hypothesis (H1) Surface [continued...]DescriptionWe have developed a life cycle perspective inspired conceptual model (CM) that suggests the importance of terrestrial ecosystems as a major repository of ZnO, TiO2, and Ag (Tier 1) manufactured nanomaterials (MNMs) introduced via the land application of MNM-containing biosolids. We propose to investigate the transport, fate, behavior, bioavailability, and effects of MNMs in(to) agroecosystems under environmentally ...
Summary'THE ROLE OF THE UK PLANNING SYSTEM IN PROTECTING AND ENHANCING SOILS PROJECT REF: UKLQ01 APRIL 2004 INTRODUCTION Soil has long been overlooked in environmental planning. Whilst it has sometimes benefited from indirect protection, until recently its importance and vulnerability have not been reflected in more explicit strategies. This study explored the current and potential role of the planning system in protecting and enhancing soils. Soil is the physical material that covers much o [continued...]DescriptionSNIFFER has commissioned this study on behalf of SEPA, SNH, EHS and the Environment Agency for England and Wales. These UK agencies have an interest in protecting soil quality through a combination of direct regulation of emissions to land, protection of designated sites of special value or sensitivity and engaging other regulatory regimes such as land use planning. All UK environment agencies devote considerable resources to ...
The Argonne Boundary Layer Experiments (ABLE) facility, located in south central Kansas, east of Wichita, is devoted primarily to investigations of and within the planetary boundary layer (PBL), including the dynamics of the mixed layer during both day and night; effects of varying land use and land form; the interactive role of precipitation, runoff, and soil moisture; storm development; and energy budgets on scales of 10 to 100 km. Located entirely within the Walnut River watershed, ABLE provides intense measurements within the northeast quadrant (Fig. 1) of the Southern Great Plains (SGP) Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program (Stokes and Schwarz, 1994). By combining the continuous measurements of ABLE with ancillary continuous measurements of, for example, the ARM and the Global Energy Water cycle Experiment (GEWEX) (Kinster and Shukla, 1990) programs, ABLE provides a platform within which ...
Along the Japan Sea coast in Akita Prefecture and in the vicinity, there exist active fault groups, such as the Kitayuri thrust fault group in the south and Noshiro thrust fault group in the north. It is estimated that there is another fault, running from Akita City located between the above-said two thrust fault groups into the Hachiro-kata reclaimed land, roughly connecting the two thrust fault groups. This third fault is supposed to be related to the hypocenter of Tencho Earthquake of 830, but its location and structural configuration are not known, and it is not known whether it is an active fault, either. Investigations are conducted using S- and P-waves. The greatest problem in the use of P-waves is that there exists a layer in which signal attenuation is high and transmission is anomalously slow. This problem is ascribed to the layer pore water rendered unsaturated though slightly by the inclusion of air bubbles, and is explained for the most part by the ...
Open pit oil sands mining involves the disturbance of thin overburden covers of Boreal forest lands that must be returned to equivalent land capability after mining activities have ceased. Before mining starts, any wetlands are drained, timber is harvested, and peat, topsoils and subsoils are stockpiled for later use. This article discussed wetland reclamation activities conducted by Suncor Energy at its open pit mining operations. Research facilities were constructed in order to determine if wetlands constructed with consolidated tailings (CT) and pond effluent water (PEW) were able to support a sustainable vegetation community. Thirty-three cat-tail plots were established at the facility as well as unplanted plots in order to determine how quickly natural establishment occurred. Shoreline plug transplants and transplants from a natural saline lake were also introduced. Within 5 years, over 23 plant species had naturally colonized the CT ...
Excessive use of poultry litter (PL) on agricultural land is known to cause eutrophication of surface waters. Consequently, both poultry producers and PL users have to meet strict state and federal guidelines on litter storage and land application. This study examined the environmental benefits of adding lime, alum, ferrous sulfate, fly ash (FA), fluidized bed ash (FBA) and soil fix (SF) to PL for immobilizing excess phosphorus (P) while providing sufficient nutrients for proper growth of soybean [Glycine max (L.)] and corn [Zea mays (L.)] on a rotation. Amending PL with lime, alum, SF, FA and FBA significantly (p>0.05) increased corn and soybean yield. In contrast control plots that received a 10-10-10 (N-P2O5-K2) fertilizer showed lower yield and corn quality. Increased yield was ob...
Most wind farms consist of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) due to the high power coefficient (mechanical power output divided by the power of the free-stream air through the turbine cross-sectional area) of an isolated turbine. However when in close proximity to neighboring turbines, HAWTs suffer from a reduced power coefficient. In contrast, previous research on vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) suggests that closely spaced VAWTs may experience only small decreases (or even increases) in an individual turbine's power coefficient when placed in close proximity to neighbors, thus yielding much higher power outputs for a given area of land. A potential flow model of inter-VAWT interactions is developed to investigate the effect of changes in VAWT spatial arrangement on the array performance coefficient, which compares the expected average power coefficient of turbines in an array to a spatially isolated turbine. A geometric arrangement based on the ...
The Fifteenmile Basin Habitat Improvement Project is an ongoing multi-agency effort to improve habitat in the Fifteenmile drainage and increase production of the depressed wild, winter steelhead run. Cooperating agencies include the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, USDA Forest Service. USDA Soil Conservation Service and Bonneville Power Administration. in consultation with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is administering project work on state and private lands and the U.S.D.A. Forest Service is administering project work on National Forest land. Project work on the Forest has been sub-divided into four components; (1) Ramsey Creek, (2) Eightmile Creek, (3) Fifteenmile Creek, and (4) Fivemile Creek. Forest Service activities in the Fifteenmile basin during 1988 involved habitat improvement work on Ramsey Creek, continuation of physical and biological monitoring, collection of spawning ...
Deformation of the ground can be considered as a sum of volume deformation and shear deformation. At circumferential ground of pile axis, simple shear type of shear deformation becomes main factor of settlement. As shear forces with reverse direction are overlapped at parallel face for pile around face of the ground between the piles, the shear deformation is relaxed. At deeper place from top of the pile, volume deformation becomes larger and component of shear deformation approaches to a pure shear type. In case of the land surface loading type consolidation settlement calculation, a method adopting one dimensional consolidation calculating method using only vertical component within stress obtained by elasticity theory even when investigating multi dimensionally is used widely. In Japanese design standards, the method calculating the consolidation settlement by presuming imaginary loading face for land surface is widely adopted. In case of ...
Summary The First Nations people of British Columbia experience reincarnation as a revitalization of their culture. This article documents the perseverance of reincarnation experiences among the Beaver, Witsuwit'en, and Gitxsan peoples of British Columbia, as well as my own growth in understanding such experiences. It recounts examples of rebirth cases. It explains what rebirth experiences mean to the First Nations people. It describes how these experiences are embedded in their perception of this world and embodied in their beliefs of spiritual realms, which include the interconnected and parallel worlds of fish and land animals, on this world and in spiritual dimensions. While the rebirth worldview contrasts with that of the Western scientific world, this is a worldview I have come to en...
Olive tree (Olea european L.) cultivation, the major tree crops in Mediterranean countries is being extended to irrigated lands. However, the limited water availability, the severe climatic conditions and the increased need for good water quality for urban and industrial sector uses are leading to the urgent use of less water qualities (brackish water and recycled wastewater) for olive tree irrigation. The aim of this work was to asses the effects of long term irrigation with treated waste water (TWW) on the soil chemical properties, on olive tree growth and on oil quality characteristics. (Author)
This paper deals with dynamic reliability of embedded systems. It presents a method for deriving feared scenarios (which might lead the system to a critical situation) in Petri nets. A classical way to obtain scenarios in Petri nets is to generate the reachability graph. However, for complex systems, it leads to the state space explosion. To avoid this problem, in our approach, Petri net reachability is translated into provability of linear logic sequents. Linear logic bases are introduced and used to formally define scenarios and minimality of scenarios. These definitions allow the method to produce only pertinent scenarios. The steps of the method are described and illustrated through a landing-gear system example.
... For example, one study used aerial photographs and on-ground observation to determine that Kenai Peninsula in Alaska has been losing wetlands to a dryer, wooded landscape since at least 1950, which has also meant a reduction in habitat for migratory birds, many of which are favorites for birdwatchers (National Research Council of Canada, 2005). In the Arctic, important breeding and nesting areas for migratory birds may be lost, affecting bird watching opportunities at various latitudes in the U.S. (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, ...
This document is a progress report to the USDOE Atmospheric Radiation and Measurement Program (ARM). The overall project goal is to relate subgrid-cumulus-cloud formation, coverage, and population characteristics to statistical properties of surface-layer air, which in turn are modulated by heterogeneous land-usage within GCM-grid-box-size regions. The motivation is to improve the understanding and prediction of climate change by more accurately describing radiative and cloud processes.
...Publications Consultations Application forms Vacancies Contact us About us Air Climate change Flooding Live flood warnings Flood map How to use it About the ...map View the map FAQs Contact us & Feedback Flooding: who does what? Flood warning - what we do Floodline Warnings Direct Flood ...risk Being prepared FAQs Floodline kids Flooding publications External links Business & Flood Risk Seminar Contact us Land Planning Radioactive substances Waste Water ... You are here: Home Page Flooding Flood map View the map View the map: terms and conditions Important information about ...
Generalized dynamic motion of balls and cage in a ball bearing are simulated by solving the differential equations of motion under prescribed operating conditions and bearing geometry. The general cage motion is parametrically evaluated as a function of clearances both in the ball pockets and at the guide lands. The design significance of the modeling approach is demonstrated by the prediction of critical clearances which trigger certain instabilities in the cage motion. In more practical terms, the correlation between cage clearances and instability defines a wear life for the bearing under the prescribed operating conditions. 10 refs.
This paper presents a survey on public preferences in SE England for the use of wind, biomass and nuclear power in electricity generation. Using a labelled CE the perceived importance (value) to the public of distance and the energy options' impacts on biodiversity, emissions, land occupation and household cost was explored. Results suggest that impacts, technology name, demographic characteristics, attitudes towards the environment, knowledge and experience with the technologies were significant choice determinants. Considering the current debate about the development of nuclear power and biomass in UK and worldwide, this survey provides an insight into the factors affecting public acceptability
The technology based portion of the Advanced Turbine Systems Program (ATS) contains several subelements which address generic technology issues for land-based gas-turbine systems. One subelement is the Materials/ Manufacturing Technology Program which is coordinated by DOE Oak Ridge Operations and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The work in this subelement is being performed predominantly by industry with assistance from universities and the national laboratories. Projects in this sub-element are aimed toward hastening the incorporation of new materials and components in gas turbines.
Southeastern Finland belongs to the area covered by the Weichselian ice sheet, where the release of the ice load caused a rapid isostatic rebound during the postglacial time. While the mean overall apparent uplift is of the order of 2 mm/yr today, in the early Holocene time it was several times higher. A marked decrease in the rebound rate occurred around 8500 BP, however, since then the uplift rate has remained high until today, with a slightly decreasing trend towards the present time. According to current understanding there have neither been temporary increases nor decreases in the rate of uplift during the postglacial time. Even so, it is not known for sure whether there are regional irregularities on the rebound in Finland. Concurrently with land uplift, relative sea-level changes in the Baltic basin were also strongly affected by the global eustatic rise of sea-level. During the early Litorina Sea stage on the southern coast of Finland around 7000 BP, the ...
Norwegian authorities regard with some disquiet the possibility of a criticality accident in a ship propulsion reactor core at the Kola coast. Along this coast, in land storages, floating storages and in submarines taken out of service, the total number of spent fuel reactor cores amount to two hundred. The total Cs-137 radioactivity in spent ship propulsion reactor fuel at the Kola peninsula can be assessed to 600,000 TBq. A worst case release may amount to more than 5,000 TBq Cs-137, a quantity which under unfavourable conditions might cause serious contamination locally and even across the border to Norway.
A three dimensional sea-land breeze model has been employed for the study on the inland penetration of sea breeze around Wolsung NPP site. In this study, the sea breeze simulation was carried out under the weak northwesterly geostrophic wind (3.2 m/s, 339 .deg.) at 850 hPa in Spring. The results showed that sea breezes developed near Wolsung site penetrated into about 20 km inland under the weak northwesterly geostrophic wind in Spring. This result agreed with observation data around Wolsung site on May 1996.
A three dimensional sea-land breeze model has been employed for the study on the inland penetration of sea breeze around Wolsung NPP site. In this study, the sea breeze simulation was carried out under the weak northwesterly geostrophic wind (3.2 m/s, 339 .deg.) at 850 hPa in Spring. The results showed that sea breezes developed near Wolsung site penetrated into about 20 km inland under the weak northwesterly geostrophic wind in Spring. This result agreed with observation data around Wolsung site on May 1996.
The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs issued the report on a bill to establish a national program for research, development, and demonstration in fuels and energy and for the coordination and financial supplementation of Federal energy research and development; to establish development corporations to demonstrate technologies for shale oil development, advanced power cycle development, geothermal steam development, and coal liquefaction and gasification development; to authorize and direct the Secretary of the Interior to make mineral resources of the public lands available for the development conporations. Comments from governmental agencies on the bill are published. (MCW)
The brochure contains information about the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. This law establishes a structure at the state and local levels to assist communities in planning for chemical emergencies and requires facilities to provide information on various chemicals present in the community. The Act requires that this information be made available to the public. One of the requirements concerns the reporting of annual releases of toxic chemicals to the air, water, and land. These provisions are outlined in Section 313 which mandates annual release reporting for over 300 chemicals.
Florida posseses climatic, land, and water resources favorable for abundant biomass production. Therefore, a statewide program has been initiated to determine adapted species for the available array of production sites. Plant resources under investigation include woody, aquatic, grasses, hydrocarbon, and root crop species. The goal is to produce a continuous stream of biomass for the various biofuel conversion options. Preliminary yields from energy cropping experiments range from about 10 to nearly 90 metric tons per hectare per year, depending on the crop and the production systems employed. (Refs. 15).
Sustainability of irrigated agriculture in arid and semi arid lands depends, mainly on the level of soil salinity and the quality of irrigation water. Remotely sensed data can provide information about the extent of vegetated irrigated areas. Al-Hassa oasis, Saudi Arabia is probably the largest oasis in the world depends mostly on tapped ground water to irrigate mainly date palm groves for its economic survival. This study tried to investigate the extent of soil salinity and the quality of irrigation water and the relationship with vegetation growth, employing NDVI derived from Landsat satellite imagery.
DescriptionOrchids belong to the family Orchidaceae which, with around 20,000 species, is the largest in the Plant Kingdom. Orchids hold a particular fascination because of their spectacular flowers and the rarity of many species- which has increased in recent years as a result of plant collecting, intensification of agriculture and land use changes have placed many species in jeopardy. One feature of orchids that distinguishes them from many other plants is that their seeds are so reduced in size that th [continued...
The Lake Charles and Port Arthur quadrangles cover approximately 10,950 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River delta area. The area overlies thick sections of the Gulf of Mexico Basin. Surficial exposures are dominated by Recent and Pleistocene sediment. A search of available literature revealed no known uranium deposits. A total of 82 uranium anomalies were detected and are discussed briefly in this report. None were considered significant and all appear to relate to cultural features. Magnetic data appear to be in agreement with existing structural interpretations of the area.
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a complete set of environmental pathways for disposal options and conditions that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) may analyze for a low-level radioactive waste (LLW) license application. The regulations pertaining In the past, shallow-land burial has been used for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste. However, with the advent of the State Compact system of LLW disposal, many alternative technologies may be used. The alternative LLW disposal facilities include below- ground vault, tumulus, above-ground vault, shaft, and mine disposal This paper will form the foundation of an update of the previously developed Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)/NRC LLW performance assessment methodology. Based on the pathway assessment for alternative disposal methods, a determination will be made about whether the current methodology can satisfactorily analyze the pathways and phenomena likely to be important for the full range ...
The biobaler was originally developed for short-rotation willow plantations, but can currently harvest a wide range of woody crops with a basal diameter up to 150 mm. The biobaler is an alternate approach to harvest woody crops as round bales, generally 1.2 m wide by 1.5 m diameter. In addition to harvesting trees, it can improve management of wild brush, forest understory vegetation and encroaching small trees on abandoned land. It allows easy handling, storage and transportation to sites where the biomass can be used for energy use or other applications. This paper reported on a study that was conducted in the fall of 2009 in which a third generation biobaler was used on 8 different sites across Minnesota, notably Waseca, Madelia, Faribault, Afton, Ogilvie, Hinckley, Aurora and Hibbing. A total of 160 bales were harvested from these sites. The average bale mass was 466 kg and average bale density was 296 kg/m{sup 3}. The moisture content averaged 44.9 per cent ...
Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 (NPR-3), also known as Teapot Dome, is a government-owned oil field in Natrona County, Wyoming. It is an asymmetrical anticline located on the western edge of the Powder River Basin, just south of the Salt Creek Anticline. Production started in 1922, and today the field is a marginally economic stripper field with average production of less than 3 BOPD (0.5 m{sup 3}/D) per well. Total field production is about 1,800 BOPD (286 m{sup 3}/D). The Second Wall Creek Formation was waterflooded from 1979 until June 1992 with poor results due to the extensive natural fracture system in this sandstone unit. Since water injection ceased, reservoir pressure has declined to very low levels. Liquids extraction and reinjection of the gas produced from high-GOR wells along the gas-oil contact continues, but the average gas cap pressure has fallen to approximately 150 psi (1.03 MPa) from an original pressure of 1,120 psi (7.72 MPa). Since the oil is ...
The role of the Latin American state oil companies (LASOCs) in establishing national industries to fuel economic development is discussed. LASOCs are represented internationally in an organization called ARPEL (Asistencia Reciproca Petrolera Estatal Latinoamericana) which is aimed to foster interchange, cooperation, and mutual assistance among its 20 member companies, as well as to promote economic integration of Latin America through its petroleum sector. State oil companies in Latin America date from 1922, when the oldest LASOC was created in Argentina. LASOCs are responsible for ca 80% of petroleum activities in Latin America. As of 1990, Latin American oil reserves, including gas liquids, amounted to ca 122 billion bbl or 12.2% of the world total. Regional oil production averaged 7.4 million bbl/d in 1990. Refining capacity is ca 7.7 million bbl/d, of which 80% is operated directly by LASOCs. Natural gas reserves are 7.3 trillion m"3, ca 6% ...
Cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebrovascular reserve capacity (CRC) were measured by stable xenon computerized tomography (Xe-CT) and acetazolamide test in 15 patients with cerebrovascular disease before and after extracranial-intracranial (EC-IC) bypass surgery for minor stroke, reversible ischemic neurological deficit or transient ischemic attack. All had angiographically shown occlusive lesions of the major arterial trunk. In the present series, global analysis showed that the bypass did not increase the resting rCBF, but did increase the rCRC. We divided the patients into four groups according to the preoperative resting rCBF and rCRC. All 3 patients with normal resting rCBF and reduced rCRC showed postoperative improvement of rCRC. Of 6 patients with reduced CBF and reduced CRC, three had postoperative increase in resting CBF and four had increased CRC. One of two patients with reduced CBF and normal CRC showed only an increase in CRC. We propose that reduced ...
Acetylcholine-rich synaptic vesicles were isolated from myenteric plexus-longitudinal muscle strips derived from the guinea pig ileum by the method of Dowe, Kilbinger, and Whittaker [J. Neurochem. 35, 993-1003 (1980)] using either unstimulated preparations or preparations field-stimulated at 1 Hz for 10 min using pulses of 1 ms duration and 10 V . cm-1 intensity. The organ bath contained either tetradeuterated (d4) choline (50 microM) or [3H]acetate (2 muCi . ml-1); d4 acetylcholine was measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. As with Torpedo electromotor cholinergic vesicle preparations made under similar conditions the distribution of newly synthesized (d4 or [3H]) acetylcholine in the zonal gradient from stimulated preparations was not identical with that of endogenous (d0, [1H]) acetylcholine, but corresponded to a subpopulation of denser vesicles (equivalent to the VP2 fraction from Torpedo) that had preferentially taken up newly synthesized transmitter. The density ...
Discussions regarding the use of wood fuels for commercial energy production in the Netherlands began in the 1990's. The main reasons for using wood fuel are: the political demand for using renewable energy, the need to reduce CO_2 emissions, and the lack of markets for surplus timber. Only 10 % of the area of Holland is forested. Therefore, early thinning and cleaning are important management tools for improving growth and producing better quality timber. The energy potential from early thinning and plantation cleaning could be between 400 000 and 570 000 dry tons annually. The Netherlands has not experience in harvesting energy wood. However, through the International Energy Agency/Bioenergy Agreement, knowledge gained in other countries, especially Denmark, Sweden and Finland, is being transferred to Holland. In 1996, there have been made field tests with Danish equipment. Although there are few technical barriers to wood fuel in the Netherlands, the economics of wood fuels ...
Gastrointestinal lymphomas are almost exclusively of a non Hodgkin's type. The Western form is characterized by a higher incidence of stomach location (50 %), a MALT type (mucosa associated lymphoid tissue) (40 %), a B-cell type (90 %), and a high grade (55 %). Chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori is an important risk factor. Mediterranean lymphomas form a particular clinical and pathological entity with diffuse involvement of the small bowel and are frequently being associated with a chronic malabsorption disorder. Eradication of Helicobacter pylori in early lymphomas, and the use of tetracyclines in early Mediterranean lymphomas, have been shown to induce durable remissions. For more advanced gastric lymphomas, treatment usually consists of anthracycline-based chemotherapy followed by involved field radiotherapy. Surgery is usually reserved for complications such as perforation or bleeding, or in some selected cases for salvage after failure of non-surgical ...
The Phase I feasibility study has focused on determining the availability of information for estimating exposures of the public to chemicals and radionuclides released as a result of historical operation of the facilities at the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR). The estimation of such past exposures is frequently called dose reconstruction. The initial project tasks, Tasks 1 and 2 were designed to identify and collect information that documents the history of activities at the ORR that resulted in the release of contamination and to characterize the availability of data that could be used to estimate the magnitude of the contaminant releases or public exposures. A history of operations that are likely to have generated off-site releases has been documented as a result of Task 1 activities. The activities required to perform this task involved the extensive review of historical operation records and interviews with present and past employees as well as other ...
The 66 fields discovered since the 1960s in the northern West Siberian basin contain at least 22 trillion m/sup 3/ (777 tcf) of proved gas, almost one-third of the world's reserves. Half of these fields are giants (> 85 billion m/sup 3/ or 3000 bcf of reserves). These include the largest and second-largest gas fields in the world-Urengoy (8.099 trillion m/sup 3/ or 286 tcf of gas) and Yamburg (4.81 trillion m/sup 3/ or 170 tcf of gas)-as well as most of the other ten largest gas fields in the world. The West Siberian basin occupies a 3.4-million km/sup 2/ (1.31-million mi/sup 2/) arctic lowland immediately east of the Ural Mountains, extending north under the Kara Sea. It is a composite basin, with Mesozoic-Cenozoic basin fill on top of a Paleozoic basin that overlies a crystalline Archean-Proterozoic framework. The productive zones in the northern basin are principally in the Neocomian section (at an average depth of 2800m or 9200 ...
In 1986, following comprehensive preliminary studies, a 17 MW battery energy storage plant was set up in the insular power supply system of Berlin (West) for the purpose of frequency and output control and provision of immediate reserve capacities. The present paper reports on the initial task, and the dimensioning and construction of this large-scale demonstration as well as the costs entailed in this. It also relates the experiences gained with the operation of the battery energy storage plant in its function as a fast-responding control unit and gives an account of its economic efficiency. Recent studies on the economic efficiency of the plant in conditions as they exist in the present interconnected power supply system are presented. Finally the author reports on the experiences gained with individual plant components, i.e., battery, battery periphery, and power converter and quantifies the cost of plant operation, maintenance, and servicing. (orig./HW) ...
The chemical composition and evolution of formation waters associated with gas production in the Palm Valley field, Northern Territory, has important implications for reservoir management, saline water disposal, and gas reserve calculations. Historically, the occurrence of saline formation water in gas fields has been the subject of considerable debate. A better understanding of the origin, chemical evolution and movement of the formation water at Palm Valley has important implications for future reservoir management, disposal of highly saline water and accurate gas reserves estimation. Major and trace element abundance data suggest that a significant component of the highly saline water from Palm Valley has characteristics that may have been derived from a modified evaporated seawater source such as an evaporite horizon. The most dilute waters probably represent condensate and the variation in the chemistry of the intermediate waters suggests ...
This is the second technical report, covering the period from April 1, 2003 through September 30, 2003. This project brings together three parts of the oil exploration, development, and permitting process to form the foundation for a more fully integrated information technology infrastructure for the State of Alaska. The geo-technical component is a shared effort between the State Department of Administration and the US Department of Energy. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is rapidly converting high volumes of paper documents and geo-technical information to formats suitable for search and retrieval over the Internet. The permitting component is under the lead of the DNR Office of Project Management and Permitting. A web-based system will enable the public and other review participants to track permit status, submit and view comments, and obtain important project information on-line. By automating several functions of the current manual process, permit applications will ...
Although destruction of United States wetlands has slowed, their continued conversion, especially in certain inland regions of the country, may pose adverse ecological effects over the next few decades. The Army Corps of Engineers' regulatory program (Section 404 of the Clean Water Act) protects most coastal wetlands, but provides no protection for 95% of the country's wetlands which remain inland. These inland, freshwater wetlands, converted for agricultural purposes, comprise 80% of the wetland losses over the past 30 years. This report outlines options for more effective federal management, such as the mapping and categorizing of wetlands to determine relative values. In effect, agencies can focus protection programs on higher-value wetlands, especially those threatened by agricultural conversion. The report also discusses the contradictory federal policies aimed at wetlands; for example, the tax code encourages the development and draining of ...
This document describes products which the US EPA Wetlands Research Program proposes to develop during the years 1989-1994. The general protocols used to develop these products are also described. All these products are intended to address concerns about the wetlands and water quality, and are part of a larger set of products EPA is developing to deal with other aspects of wetlands. EPA's highly interrelated concerns about wetlands and water quality can be generally categorized as follows: water quality criteria to protect wetland function; ecological status of the wetland resource; and waste-assimilation limits of wetlands.
Fugitive dust emissions from stockpiles in the open storage yards of industrial zones and the subsequent atmospheric dust dispersion have brought about many ecological and economical problems. This paper introduces a new approach to reduce pollutant emissions by simply changing pile configuration and without affecting the operational activity on these parks. Flow around piles of different geometries and for various wind conditions was studied using previously validated Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations. Different pile height scenarios were investigated corresponding to a constant material volume and a fixed angle of repose under various wind magnitudes. The results obtained were integrated in order to evaluate the rate of dust emissions for the various configurations considered. It was found that, for the range of wind conditions and pile dimensions tested, an optimal geometry exists which corresponds to the lower emissions rate. 13 refs., 2 figs., 2 ...
Abstract: Thorough evaluation has made the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List the most widely used and accepted authority on the conservation status of biodiversity. Although the system used to determine risk of extinction is rigorously and objectively applied, the list of threatening processes affecting a species is far more subjectively determined and has not had adequate review. I reviewed the threats listed in the IUCN Red List for randomly selected groups within the three most threatened orders of mammals: Artiodactyla, Carnivora, and Primates. These groups are taxonomically related and often ecologically similar, so I expected they would suffer relatively similar threats. Hominoid primates and all other terrestrial fauna faced similar threats, except for b...
Chlorine is not just one of many chemical feedstocks which is used in a few definitely harmful products like PVC or CFC but is irrelevant in all other respects. Just the opposite is true: There is hardly any product line of the chemical industry that can do without chlorine, from herbicides and pesticides to dyes, plastics, pharmaceuticals, photographic atricles, and cosmetics. Chlorine is not only a key element of chemical production but also an ubiquitous element of everyday life in civilisation. There are even many who would agree that the volume of chlorine production is an indicator of the competitive strength and national wealth of a modern society. By now, however, it has become evident that the unreflected use of chlorine is no longer ecologically acceptable. The consequences of a chlorine phase-out as compared to the continued chlorine production at the present level were investigated scientifically by a PROGNOS team. They are presented in this book. ...
Most heat shock proteins (Hsps) function as molecular chaperones that help organisms to cope with stress. Although the best empirical evidence is related to heat shock, there is evidence that Hsps and their encoding genes are involved in resistance to other ecologically relevant types of stresses such as those imposed by high population density. We quantified density-dependent gene expression of large (i.e. Hsp40, Hsc70 and Hsp90) and small (Hsp20.5, Hsp20.6 and Hsp20.7) heat shock genes in neural tissue of fifth-instar nymphs of the Australian plague locust, Chortoicetes terminifera, using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR. Locusts are of particular interest when studying the influence of stress induced by high population density since they show an extreme form of phenotypic plastici...
Invasive weeds have threatened the integrity of ecosystems throughout the world. They affect not only the species diversity of native areas but also their biological integrity. In India, a number of invasive exotic weeds have been reported but some viz. Parthenium hysterophorus, Lantana camara and Ageratum conyzoides, especially those from tropical America are troublesome and have caused adverse ecological, economic and social impact. These weeds can be seen growing in different landscapes but are luxuriantly localized in unattended forests and cultivated areas. Parthenium hysterophorus (Asteraceae, commonly known as congress grass) is perhaps the most troublesome and noxious weed of urban and rural India. Besides rapidly colonizing areas replacing the native vegetation, it is also known t...
The results of radon concentration measurements inside of the Gabriel caves of Mexico, during three consecutive two-month periods covering almost three seasons, are reported in the present work. The radio-ecological importance of this site is related to the radon and its concentration-dynamic behavior in the cave. Further interest in radiation safety motivated this initiative since routine biological field work is done, with people spending long periods of time there. CR-39 passive nuclear track detector was chosen for this survey. Radon concentration levels decrease during the rainy season and show different values depending on the ventilation and geometeorological structure. Measured values range between 956 and 4931Bqm{sup -3}, an indication that radon doses may exceed the allowed values for workers. This project is part of a larger study of indoor radon alpha emitters in Mexican caves.
The results of radon concentration measurements inside of the Gabriel caves of Mexico, during three consecutive two-month periods covering almost three seasons, are reported in the present work. The radio-ecological importance of this site is related to the radon and its concentration-dynamic behavior in the cave. Further interest in radiation safety motivated this initiative since routine biological field work is done, with people spending long periods of time there. CR-39 passive nuclear track detector was chosen for this survey. Radon concentration levels decrease during the rainy season and show different values depending on the ventilation and geometeorological structure. Measured values range between 956 and 4931Bqm-3, an indication that radon doses may exceed the allowed values for workers. This project is part of a larger study of indoor radon alpha emitters in Mexican caves.
The use of indigenous bacterial root endophytes with biocontrol activity against soil-borne phytopathogens is an environmentally-friendly and ecologically-efficient action within an integrated disease management framework. The earliest steps of olive root colonization by Pseudomonas fluorescens PICF7 and Pseudomonas putida PICP2, effective biocontrol agents (BCAs) against Verticillium wilt of olive (Olea europaea L.) caused by the fungus Verticillium dahliae Kleb., are here described. A gnotobiotic study system using in vitro propagated olive plants, differential fluorescent-protein tagging of bacteria, and confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis have been successfully used to examine olive roots?Pseudomonas spp. interactions at the single-cell level. In vivo simultaneous visualization...
The changed political situation and recognition of the acute destruction of the natural environment in Poland have caused a series of actions aimed at preventing further deterioration of Polish environment. One of the most important events which took place in the last few years was the enactment by the Polish Parliament in May 1991 of the Act on the National Ecological Policy. The basic assumption of the new environmental policy is a declaration that sustainable development will in future direct economic development in Poland. The aim of the presented paper is to introduce existing policy of air protection and instruments which have been implemented to protect the air. Special attention is paid to legislation instruments, introduction and enforcement of proper economic mechanisms strengthening air protection and foreign policy aiming at increasing foreign assistance for this objective. Pollutants involved include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and ...
Several studies have shown that migratory birds play an important role in the ecology, circulation and dissemination of pathogenic organisms. In October 2006, a health status evaluation was performed on a large population of migratory birds passing through the territory of Ustica (Italy), an island located on the migration route of many species of birds to Africa, and various laboratory tests were conducted. In total, 218 faecal swabs and the internal organs of 21 subjects found dead in nets were collected for bacteriological and virological examination, including avian influenza and Newcastle disease. In addition, 19 pooled fresh faecal samples were collected for mycological examination. The bacteriological analysis produced 183 strains belonging to 28 different species of the Enterobacte...
By the department Radio-ecology of the Laboratory for Radiation Research, in the period 1981 up to 1989 inclusive, the transfer has been studied, from soil to plant, of a number of important activation and fission products, originating in the nuclear-power production in nuclear power plants. The purpose of this study was twofold: on the one side the quantification of this transfer for various agrarian systems and on the other side to find out in how far, after an accidental contamination, certain agriculture activities can influence essentially the transfer and subsequently the radiation burden for the population. Emphasis lay, the last years, in particular upon this second aspect. The results of this study form essential basic data for diffusion models for radioactive materials which, in turn, are important in estimating the effects of measures. (author). 6 refs.; 4 figs.
Culture-independent microbiological technologies that interrogate complex microbial populations without prior axenic culture, coupled with high-throughput DNA sequencing, have revolutionized the scale, speed and economics of microbial ecological studies. Their application to the medical realm has led to a highly productive merger of clinical, experimental and environmental microbiology. The functional roles played by members of the human microbiota are being actively explored through experimental manipulation of animal model systems and studies of human populations. In concert, these studies have appreciably expanded our understanding of the composition and dynamics of human-associated microbial communities (microbiota). Of note, several human diseases have been linked to alterations in th...
Man's wastes are polluting the oceans from various sources and delivered by various routes. The result has been the loss of habitat and the irreversible altering of marine ecosystems. Development in the coastal zones and offshore activities that disrupt biologically sensitive areas have led to international negotiations to regulate these impacts and develop a law of the sea. Basic to international cooperation, however, is the need to develop answers to questions about the ecological consequences of development programs and the carrying capacity of the oceans. Current information does not demonstrate long-term global impacts, making it difficult to detect and predict incremental changes and causal relationships. Society needs to determine how much environmental damage it will accept and then to develop appropriate technology, such as biomonitoring. Society also needs to reexamine its positions on technology-based regulatory controls to see if the effects of ...
The population of the hyporheic interstice and moss cushions by meso- and macroinvertebrates as found at the three measuring points along the Alte Riefensbeek and the Grosse Soese, respectively, in the period from March 1987 to May 1988 is studied and evaluated together with chemical measurements performed between 1987 and 1990. The six measuring points are positioned along an acidification gradient ranging from non-acid to severely acidified. Chemical and biological paramerters are studied with regard to their suitability as indicators of acidification. A model is presented which decribes the influence of abiotic anthropogenic and natural factors on invertebrate species diversity and populations and which can serve as a basis for the calculation of critical deposition burdens. (orig.).
The diesel engine is the most efficient device for converting chemical energy stored in liquid hydrocarbon fuels into useful work. Up to 50% of the energy in the fuel is converted into output shaft work. The modern diesel engine is twice as efficient as the early diesel engines and produces as much as sixty times as much power for a given cylinder size. These developments have, in recent years, been accompanied by a substantial reduction in the noxious elements in the exhaust gas so that engines are now, relatively speaking, ecologically clean. The developments have centred around exhaust gas turbocharging and improved fuel injection systems, but recent work on low-heat-rejection engines has resulted in significant advances in structural ceramics and in high-temperature lubricating oil, as well as an enhanced understanding of heat transfer in high-temperature combustion chambers. (author).
Abstract Few butterflies are pests of economic significance, but some may be locally destructive, such as the papilionid Graphium agamemnon Linnaeus, which is known to feed on the commercially important soursop (Annona muricata Linnaeus) in Vietnam. This paper documents the life history and ecology ofG. agamemnon and investigates commonly used control measures in south-east Vietnam. A novel method of controlling G. agamemnon infestation is described. If soursop basal rootstock (Annona glabra Linnaeus) is encouraged to shoot during times of peak butterfly activity, ovipositing G. agamemnon females are preferentially attracted to the new growth where the resulting early stages may be easily detected and removed by hand.
Abstract The benthic marine worm Xenoturbella is frequently contaminated with molluscan DNA, which had earlier caused confusion resulting in a suggested bivalve relationship. In order to find the source of the contaminant, we have used molluscan sequences derived from Xenoturbella and compared them to barcodes obtained from several individuals of the nonmicroscopic molluscs sharing the same environment as Xenoturbella. Using cytochrome oxidase 1, we found the contaminating sequences to be 98% similar to the bivalve Ennucula tenuis. Using the highly variable D1-D2 region of the large ribosomal subunit in Xenoturbella, we found three distinct species of contaminating molluscs, one of which is 99% similar to the bivalve Abra nitida, one of the most abundant bivalves in the Gullmarsfjord where...
As a result of nuclear power plant accidents, large areas receive radioactive inputs of Cs-137. This cesium accumulates in herbs growing in such territories. The problem is whether the herbs contaminated by radiocesium may be used as a raw material for medicine. The answer depends on the amount of Cs-137 transfered from the contaminated raw material to the medicine. We have presented new results of the transfer of Cs-137 from contaminated Digitalis grandiflora Mill. and Convallaria majalis L. to medicine. We found that the extraction of Cs-137 depends strongly on the hydrophilicity of the solvent. For example 96.5%(vol.) ethyl alcohol extracts less Cs-137 (11.6%) than 40%(vol.) ethyl alcohol or pure water (66.2%). The solubility of the cardiac glycosides is inverse to the solubility of cesium, which may be of use in the technological processes for manufacturing ecologically pure herbal medicine.
The 'KUPOLOPT' joint research project has as its target the economic and ecological optimization of cupola furnaces in foundries. The use of natural gas/oxygen burners during foundry operation is being studied on Fritz Winter Eisengiesserei GmbH and Co. KG's cupola furnace with the objective of enhancing melting rate, reducing emissions and permitting re-utilization of foundry and other particulates. This work is also intended to improve the cupola-furnace process in economic terms, in order to enhance its competitiveness. This article presents the results of the first project phase, which served to investigate the natural gas/oxygen burner as an external supplier of energy. (orig.)
This book is mainly a comparison of the cost of pollution with the cost of environmental protection. As to the causes of pollution, a difference is made between pollutants that accumulate and pollutants that do not accumulate. Because of pollutant accumulation it is necessary to carry out both subsequent pollution abatement measures and to take preventive action which helps to avoid pollutant emission. Growth models serve to substantiate why such preventive action is both ecologically and economically useful as a rule. Finally the study makes a comparison between some tools of environmental protection. It stresses in particular that, if a duty on emissions is levied, the polluter has to bear all the cost of the pollution, while at the same time the quality of the environment can be more successfully improved than by emission standards alone.
Summary 1. A primary goal of evolutionary ecology is to understand factors selecting for the diversity of life histories. Life-history components, such as time-to-reproduction, adult survivorship and fecundity, might differ among species because of variation in direct and indirect benefits of these life histories in different environments or might have lower-than-expected variability because of phylogenetic constraints. Here, we present a phylogenetic examination of demography and life histories using a data base of 204 terrestrial plant species. 2. Overall, statistical models without phylogeny were preferred to models with phylogeny for vital rates and elasticities, suggesting that they lacked phylogenetic signal and are evolutionarily labile. However, the effect of phylogeny was signific...
Biodiesel from non-grain feedstock has been considered as one of the proper substitutes for fossil fuels associated with a series of activities emerging in China in order to meet the resource shortage and develop the energy crops. This paper presents an ecological accounting framework based on embodied energy, emergy, and CO2 emission for the whole production chain of biodiesel made from Jatropha curcas L. (JCL) oil. The energy and materials invested in and CO2 emission from the whole process, including cropping, transportation, extraction, and production, are accounted and calculated. Also, EmCO2, the ratio of real CO2 released to the emergy-based sustainability indicator per joule biodiesel, is proposed in this paper to present a new goal function for low-carbon system optimization. Fina...
Climate variability greatly affects animals through direct and indirect effects. Animals with slow reproductive adaptation to ecological changes such as large mammals are likely to have evolved mechanisms to anticipate early such impacts of climate variability on the environment. One of the adaptive mechanisms between reproductive costs and benefits in mammals affects parental investment through biases in sex ratio. Deer might be likely to show an early detection of climate variability because conception takes place in early autumn, but the main raising cost in deer concerns lactation, which takes place at the end of the following spring. The aim of this paper is to assess whether there is a relationship between global indices of climate variability such as El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (EN...
Abstract. Malaria vector control targeting the larval stages of mosquitoes was applied successfully against many species of Anopheles (Diptera: Culicidae) in malarious countries until the mid-20th Century. Since the introduction of DDT in the 1940s and the associated development of indoor residual spraying (IRS), which usually has a more powerful impact than larval control on vectorial capacity, the focus of malaria prevention programmes has shifted to the control of adult vectors. In the Afrotropical Region, where malaria is transmitted mainly by Anopheles funestus Giles and members of the Anopheles gambiae Giles complex, gaps in information on larval ecology and the ability of An. gambiae sensu lato to exploit a wide variety of larval habitats have discouraged efforts to develop and impl...
ObjectivesCoastal ecosystems in developing countries supply a diverse range of services to local communities and national economies, including fish production, protection against floods and storms and support to tourism. Multiple drivers of change are influencing the status of the ecosystems, most of which are anthropogenic (Brown et al., 2006). Managing coastal ecosystems requires recognition of the diverse range of uses and users, and coordination between structures and processes, many of which are curr [continued...]DescriptionCommitment to the management of coastal ecosystems through addressing both ecological and social objectives already exists in East and Southern Africa (Glavovic 2006; Gustavson et al. 2009). More understanding, however, of the ecosystem services of priority to the poor and to poverty alleviation would strengthen the capacity of these initiatives to deliver on poverty alleviation and resource sustainability. The coastal regions of Tanzania, ...
Composting is once again gaining interest among ecological engineers in view of greener industrial and residential activities. Uniform composting is needed to ensure decomposition and to keep the whole system at the same composting stage. A homogeneous temperature must be maintained throughout the media. A bioreactor design consisting of a heater core made of copper tubing was designed and tested. Two four-inch holes were made at the top and bottom of the barrel to allow air to flow through the system and promote aerobic composting. Once composting began and temperature increased, the water began to flow through the copper piping and the core heat was distributed throughout the medium. Three thermocouples were inserted at different heights on a 200 litre plastic barrel fitted with the aforementioned apparatus. Temperature variations were found to be considerably lower when the apparatus was operated with the heat redistribution system, enabling uniform composting, ...
Algal allelopathy is an ecological/physiological phenomenon that has focused attention on the interactions among algae and the production of algal toxins. We investigated the allelopathic interactions between the dinoflagellate genus Prorocentrum micans and diatom genus Skeletonema costatum and between P. micans and dinoflagellate genus Karenia mikimotoi using bi-algal cultures. Because the effects were species-specific and size-dependent, we evaluated the effect of different initial densities. At low densities of P. micans and high densities of S. costatum inoculated into the same medium, the growth of P. micans was weakly restrained, whereas the growth of S. costatum was significantly suppressed. S. costatum and K. mikimotoi were strongly inhibited by P. micans, in both the bi-algal cult...