A model-based assessment of the effects of projected climate change on the water resources of Jordan

This paper is concerned with the quantification of the likely effect of anthropogenic climate change on the water resources of Jordan by the end of the twenty-first century. Specifically, a suite of hydrological models are used in conjunction with modelled outcomes from a regional climate model, HadRM3, and a weather generator to determine how future flows in the upper River Jordan and in the Wadi Faynan may change. The results indicate that groundwater will play an important role in the water security of the country as irrigation demands increase. Given future projections of reduced winter rainfall and increased near-surface air temperatures, the already low groundwater recharge will decrease further. Interestingly, the modelled discharge at the Wadi Faynan indicates that extreme flood flows will increase in magnitude, despite a decrease in the mean annual rainfall. Simulations projected no increase in flood magnitude in the upper River Jordan. Discussion focuses on the utility of the modelling framework, the problems of making quantitative forecasts and the implications of reduced water availability in Jordan.

Sequential variations of phytoplankton growth and mortality in an NPZ model: a remote-sensing-based assessment

Radiometric data in the visible domain acquired by satellite remote sensing have proven to be powerful for monitoring the states of the ocean, both physical and biological. With the help of these data it is possible to understand certain variations in biological responses of marine phytoplankton on ecological time scales. Here, we implement a sequential data-assimilation technique to estimate from a conventional nutrient–phytoplankton–zooplankton (NPZ) model the time variations of observed and unobserved variables. In addition, we estimate the time evolution of two biological parameters, namely, the specific growth rate and specific mortality of phytoplankton. Our study demonstrates that: (i) the series of time-varying estimates of specific growth rate obtained by sequential data assimilation improves the fitting of the NPZ model to the satellite-derived time series: the model trajectories are closer to the observations than those obtained by implementing static values of the parameter; (ii) the estimates of unobserved variables, i.e., nutrient and zooplankton, obtained from an NPZ model by implementation of a pre-defined parameter evolution can be different from those obtained on applying the sequences of parameters estimated by assimilation; and (iii) the maximum estimated specific growth rate of phytoplankton in the study area is more sensitive to the sea-surface temperature than would be predicted by temperature-dependent functions reported previously. The overall results of the study are potentially useful for enhancing our understanding of the biological response of phytoplankton in a changing environment.

Normative, systemic and procedural aspects: a review of indicator‐based sustainability assessments in agriculture

Several methods for assessing the sustainability of agricultural systems have been developed. These methods do not fully: (i) take into account the multi‐functionality of agriculture; (ii) include multidimensionality; (iii) utilize and implement the assessment knowledge; and (iv) identify conflicting goals and trade‐offs. This paper reviews seven recently developed multidisciplinary indicator‐based assessment methods with respect to their contribution to these shortcomings. All approaches include (1) normative aspects such as goal setting, (2) systemic aspects such as a specification of scale of analysis, (3) a reproducible structure of the approach. The approaches can be categorized into three typologies. The top‐down farm assessments focus on field or farm assessment. They have a clear procedure for measuring the indicators and assessing the sustainability of the system, which allows for benchmarking across farms. The degree of participation is low, potentially affecting the implementation of the results negatively. The top‐down regional assessment assesses the on‐farm and the regional effects. They include some participation to increase acceptance of the results. However, they miss the analysis of potential trade‐offs. The bottom‐up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches focus on a regional scale. Stakeholders are included throughout the whole process assuring the acceptance of the results and increasing the probability of implementation of developed measures. As they include the interaction between the indicators in their system representation, they allow for performing a trade‐off analysis. The bottom‐up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches seem to better overcome the four shortcomings mentioned above.

Normative, systemic and procedural aspects: a review of indicator-based sustainability assessments in agriculture

Methods for assessing the sustainability of agricultural systems do often not fully (i) take into account the multifunctionality of agriculture, (ii) include multidimensionality, (iii) utilize and implement the assessment knowledge and (iv) identify conflicting goals and trade-offs. This chapter reviews seven recently developed multidisciplinary indicator-based assessment methods with respect to their contribution to these shortcomings. All approaches include (1) normative aspects such as goal setting, (2) systemic aspects such as a specification of scale of analysis and (3) a reproducible structure of the approach. The approaches can be categorized into three typologies: first, top-down farm assessments, which focus on field or farm assessment; second, top-down regional assessments, which assess the on-farm and the regional effects; and third, bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches, which focus on a regional scale. Our analysis shows that the bottom-up, integrated participatory or transdisciplinary approaches seem to better overcome the four shortcomings mentioned above.

Conservation ecology of bees: populations, species and communities

Recent concerns regarding the decline of plant and pollinator species, and the impact on ecosystem functioning, has focused attention on the local and global threats to bee diversity. As evidence for bee declines is now accumulating from over broad taxonomic and geographic scales, we review the role of ecology in bee conservation at the levels of species, populations and communities. Bee populations and communities are typified by considerable spatiotemporal variation; whereby autecological traits, population size and growth rate, and plant-pollinator network architecture all play a role in their vulnerability to extinction. As contemporary insect conservation management is broadly based on species- and habitat-targeted approaches, ecological data will be central to integrating management strategies into a broader, landscape scale of dynamic, interconnected habitats capable of delivering bee conservation in the context of global environmental change.

GM crops: a potential for pest mismanagement

In the absence of equivalent research on genetically modified (GM) pest-resistant crops, their impact in pest management can be predicted from experience with traditionally bred varieties which share with GM crops the characteristic that the resistance is based on high expression of a single toxin. Such varieties lead to the rapid selection of tolerant pest strains, damage biological control and induce tolerance to synthetic pesticides. By contrast, polygenic and more broadly based resistant varieties will maintain their resistance for longer, and often synergise beneficially with biological control. The pests also become more susceptible to insecticides, giving the opportunity for applications which are selective in favour of natural enemies. However, although GM crops compare badly with traditional pest-resistant varieties, they compare favourably with insecticides, the technology they are most likely to replace.

Probiotics: their potential to impact human health

Probiotics—live microorganisms that when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host—have been studied for both human and animal applications, and worldwide research on this topic has accelerated in recent years. This paper reviews the literature on probiotics, describes how probiotics work in human ecosystems, and outlines the impact of probiotics on human health and disease. The paper also addresses safety issues of probiotic use, suggests future developments in the field of probiotics, and provides research and policy recommendations. Product considerations and potential future developments regarding probiotics also are discussed. The authors conclude that controlled human studies have revealed a diverse range of health benefits from consumption of probiotics, due largely to their impact on immune function or on microbes colonizing the body. Additional, well-designed and properly controlled human and mechanistic studies with probiotics will advance the essential understanding of active principles, mechanisms of action, and degree of effects that can be realized by specific consumer groups. Recommendations include establishment of a standard of identity for the term “probiotic,” adoption of third-party verification of label claims, use of probiotics selectively in clinical conditions, and use of science-based assessment of the benefits and risks of genetically engineered probiotic microbes.

Fine root biomass and turnover in southern taiga estimated by root inclusion nets

Fine roots play an important part in forest carbon, nutrient and water cycles. The turnover of fine roots constitutes a major carbon input to soils. Estimation of fine root turnover is difficult, labour intensive and is often compounded by artefacts created by soil disturbance. In this work, an alternative approach of using inclusion nets installed in an undisturbed soil profile was used to measure fine root production and was compared to the in-growth core method. There was no difference between fine root production estimated by the two methods in three southern taiga sites with contrasting soil conditions and tree species composition in the Central Forest State Biosphere Reserve, Russia. Expressed as annual production over standing biomass, Norway spruce fine root turnover was in the region of 0.10 to 0.24 y-1. The inclusion net technique is suitable for field based assessment of fine root production. There are several advantages over the in-growth core method, due to non-disturbance of the soil profile and its potential for very high rate of replication.

Identification of metabolites in human hepatic bile using 800 MHz 1H NMR spectroscopy, HPLC-NMR/MS and UPLC-MS

The first application of high field NMR spectroscopy (800 MHz for 1H observation) to human hepatic bile (as opposed to gall bladder bile) is reported. The bile sample used for detailed investigation was from a donor liver with mild fat infiltration, collected during organ retrieval prior to transplantation. In addition, to focus on the detection of bile acids in particular, a bile extract was analysed by 800 MHz 1H NMR spectroscopy, HPLC-NMR/MS and UPLC-MS. In the whole bile sample, 40 compounds have been assigned with the aid of two-dimensional 1H–1H TOCSY and 1H–13C HSQC spectra. These include phosphatidylcholine, 14 amino acids, 10 organic acids, 4 carbohydrates and polyols (glucose, glucuronate, glycerol and myo-inositol), choline, phosphocholine, betaine, trimethylamine-N-oxide and other small molecules. An initial NMR-based assessment of the concentration range of some key metabolites has been made. Some observed chemical shifts differ from expected database values, probably due to a difference in bulk diamagnetic susceptibility. The NMR spectra of the whole extract gave identification of the major bile acids (cholic, deoxycholic and chenodeoxycholic), but the glycine and taurine conjugates of a given bile acid could not be distinguished. However, this was achieved by HPLC-NMR/MS, which enabled the separation and identification of ten conjugated bile acids with relative abundances varying from approximately 0.1% (taurolithocholic acid) to 34.0% (glycocholic acid), of which, only the five most abundant acids could be detected by NMR, including the isomers glycodeoxycholic acid and glycochenodeoxycholic acid, which are difficult to distinguish by conventional LC-MS analysis. In a separate experiment, the use of UPLC-MS allowed the detection and identification of 13 bile acids. This work has shown the complementary potential of NMR spectroscopy, MS and hyphenated NMR/MS for elucidating the complex metabolic profile of human hepatic bile. This will be useful baseline information in ongoing studies of liver excretory function and organ transplantation.

A 27 day persistence model of near-Earth solar wind conditions: a long lead-time forecast and a benchmark for dynamical models

Geomagnetic activity has long been known to exhibit approximately 27 day periodicity, resulting from solar wind structures repeating each solar rotation. Thus a very simple near-Earth solar wind forecast is 27 day persistence, wherein the near-Earth solar wind conditions today are assumed to be identical to those 27 days previously. Effective use of such a persistence model as a forecast tool, however, requires the performance and uncertainty to be fully characterized. The first half of this study determines which solar wind parameters can be reliably forecast by persistence and how the forecast skill varies with the solar cycle. The second half of the study shows how persistence can provide a useful benchmark for more sophisticated forecast schemes, namely physics-based numerical models. Point-by-point assessment methods, such as correlation and mean-square error, find persistence skill comparable to numerical models during solar minimum, despite the 27 day lead time of persistence forecasts, versus 2–5 days for numerical schemes. At solar maximum, however, the dynamic nature of the corona means 27 day persistence is no longer a good approximation and skill scores suggest persistence is out-performed by numerical models for almost all solar wind parameters. But point-by-point assessment techniques are not always a reliable indicator of usefulness as a forecast tool. An event-based assessment method, which focusses key solar wind structures, finds persistence to be the most valuable forecast throughout the solar cycle. This reiterates the fact that the means of assessing the “best” forecast model must be specifically tailored to its intended use.

Syndromic approach to arboviral diagnostics for global travelers as a basis for infectious disease surveillance

Background Arboviruses have overlapping geographical distributions and can cause symptoms that coincide with more common infections. Therefore, arbovirus infections are often neglected by travel diagnostics. Here, we assessed the potential of syndrome-based approaches for diagnosis and surveillance of neglected arboviral diseases in returning travelers. Method To map the patients high at risk of missed clinical arboviral infections we compared the quantity of all arboviral diagnostic requests by physicians in the Netherlands, from 2009 through 2013, with a literature-based assessment of the travelers’ likely exposure to an arbovirus. Results 2153 patients, with travel and clinical history were evaluated. The diagnostic assay for dengue virus (DENV) was the most commonly requested (86%). Of travelers returning from Southeast Asia with symptoms compatible with chikungunya virus (CHIKV), only 55% were tested. For travelers in Europe, arbovirus diagnostics were rarely requested. Over all, diagnostics for most arboviruses were requested only on severe clinical presentation. Conclusion Travel destination and syndrome were used inconsistently for triage of diagnostics, likely resulting in vast under-diagnosis of arboviral infections of public health significance. This study shows the need for more awareness among physicians and standardization of syndromic diagnostic algorithms

Uncertainty assessment of a process-based integrated catchment model of phosphorus

Despite the many models developed for phosphorus concentration prediction at differing spatial and temporal scales, there has been little effort to quantify uncertainty in their predictions. Model prediction uncertainty quantification is desirable, for informed decision-making in river-systems management. An uncertainty analysis of the process-based model, integrated catchment model of phosphorus (INCA-P), within the generalised likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) framework is presented. The framework is applied to the Lugg catchment (1,077 km2), a River Wye tributary, on the England–Wales border. Daily discharge and monthly phosphorus (total reactive and total), for a limited number of reaches, are used to initially assess uncertainty and sensitivity of 44 model parameters, identified as being most important for discharge and phosphorus predictions. This study demonstrates that parameter homogeneity assumptions (spatial heterogeneity is treated as land use type fractional areas) can achieve higher model fits, than a previous expertly calibrated parameter set. The model is capable of reproducing the hydrology, but a threshold Nash-Sutcliffe co-efficient of determination (E or R 2) of 0.3 is not achieved when simulating observed total phosphorus (TP) data in the upland reaches or total reactive phosphorus (TRP) in any reach. Despite this, the model reproduces the general dynamics of TP and TRP, in point source dominated lower reaches. This paper discusses why this application of INCA-P fails to find any parameter sets, which simultaneously describe all observed data acceptably. The discussion focuses on uncertainty of readily available input data, and whether such process-based models should be used when there isn’t sufficient data to support the many parameters.

Biosensor-based diagnostics of contaminated groundwater: assessment and remediation strategy

Shallow groundwater beneath a former airfield site in southern England has been heavily contaminated with a wide range of chlorinated solvents. The feasibility of using bacterial biosensors to complement chemical analysis and enable cost-effective, and focussed sampling has been assessed as part of a site evaluation programme. Five different biosensors, three metabolic (Vibrio fischeri, Pseudomonas fluorescens 10568 and Escherichia coli HB101) and two catabolic (Pseudomonas putida TVA8 and E. coli DH5alpha), were employed to identify areas where the availability and toxicity of pollutants is of most immediate environmental concern. The biosensors used showed different sensitivities to each other and to the groundwater samples tested. There was generally a good agreement with chemical analyses. The potential efficacy of remediation strategies was explored by coupling sample manipulation to biosensor tests. Manipulation involved sparging and charcoal treatment procedures to simulate remediative engineering solutions. Sparging was sufficient at most locations. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessment of the consistency of near-infrared water vapor line intensities using high-spectral-resolution ground-based Fourier transform measurements of solar radiation

Calculations of the absorption of solar radiation by atmospheric gases, and water vapor in particular, are dependent on the quality of databases of spectral line parameters. There has been increasing scrutiny of databases such as HITRAN in recent years, but this has mostly been performed on a band-by-band basis. We report nine high-spectral-resolution (0.03 cm(-1)) measurements of the solar radiation reaching the surface in southern England over the wave number range 2000 to 12,500 cm(-1) (0.8 to 5 mm) that allow a unique assessment of the consistency of the spectral line databases over this entire spectral region. The data are assessed in terms of the modeled water vapor column that is required to bring calculations and observations into agreement; for an entirely consistent database, this water vapor column should be constant with frequency. For the HITRAN01 database, the spread in water vapor column is about 11%, with distinct shifts between different spectral regions. The HITRAN04 database is in significantly better agreement (about 5% spread) in the completely updated 3000 to 8000 cm(-1) spectral region, but inconsistencies between individual spectral regions remain: for example, in the 8000 to 9500 cm(-1) spectral region, the results indicate an 18% (+/- 1%) underestimate in line intensities with respect to the 3000 to 8000 cm(-1) region. These measurements also indicate the impact of isotopic fractionation of water vapor in the 2500 to 2900 cm(-1) range, where HDO lines dominate over the lines of the most abundant isotope of H2O.