Stationary in-situ measurements of aerosols, gaseous pollutants and meteorology : chemical and physical characterization of natural and anthropogenic sources

Natural and anthropogenic emissions of gaseous and particulate matter affect the chemical composition of the atmosphere, impact visibility, air quality, clouds and climate. Concerning climate, a comprehensive characterization of the emergence, composition and transformation of aerosol particles is relevant as their influence on the radiation budget is still rarely understood. Regarding air quality and therefore human health, the formation of atmospheric aerosol particles is of particular importance as freshly formed, small particles penetrate into the human alveolar region and can deposit. Additionally, due to the long residence times of aerosol particles in the atmosphere it is crucial to examine their chemical and physical characteristics.This cumulative dissertation deals with stationary measurements of particles, trace gases and meteorological parameters during the DOMINO (Diel Oxidant Mechanism In relation to Nitrogen Oxide) campaign at the southwest coast of Spain in November/December 2008 and the ship emission campaign on the banks of the Elbe in Freiburg/Elbe in April 2011. Measurements were performed using the Mobile research Laboratory “MoLa” which is equipped with state-of-the-art aerosol particle and trace gas instruments as well as a meteorological station.

Fragmentation of Natural Resources Management: Experiences from Lake Kariba

This book is an output of the Defragmenting African Resources Management (DARMA) Project. Lake Kariba and its environs are a complex transboundary ecosystem with multiple, competing and often contested resource uses. The individual chapters in the book describe the current sectoral approach to natural resource management, the interconnections, and the need to adopt an ecosystem approach. The book is an essential reading for students, researchers, academics and managers in the environmental and natural resources sectors interested in advancing the ecosystems approach in management of commons in general and Southern Africa in particular. - See more at: http://www.plaas.org.za/plaas-publication/DARMA-Kariba-LV#sthash.7giSiWiB.dpuf

Capitalisation of Experiences of the Swiss Support to Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (SMNR) in Bulgaria

Following the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, Bulgaria has undergone dramatic political, economic and social transformations. The transition process of the past two decades was characterized by several reforms to support democratisation of the political system and the functioning of a free-market economy. Since 1992, Switzerland has been active in Bulgaria providing assistance to the transition process, with support to Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (SMNR) starting in 1995. The SMNR Capitalisation of Experiences (CapEx) took place between March and September 2007, in the context of SDC phasing out its programmes in Bulgaria by the end of 2007 due to the country’s accession to the European Union. The CapEx exercise has culminated in the identification of 17 lessons learned. In the view of the CapEx team, many of these lessons are relevant for countries that are in the process of joining the EU, facing similar democratisation challenges as Bulgaria. Overall, the Swiss SMNR projects have been effective entry points to support areas that are crucial to democratic transitions, namely participation in public goods management, decentralisation, human capacity development in research and management, and preparation for EU membership. The specificity of the Swiss support stems from an approach that combines a long-term commitment with a clear thematic focus (forestry, biodiversity conservation and organic agriculture). The multistakeholder approach and diversification of support between local, regional and national levels are also important elements that contributed to make a difference in relation to other donors supporting the Bulgarian transition. At the institutional level, there are a number of challenges where the contribution of SMNR activities was only modest, namely improving the legal framework and creating more transparency and accountability, both of which are time and resource-consuming processes. In addition, the emergence of competent and sustainable non-government organisations (NGOs) is a complex process that requires support to membership based organisations, a challenge that was hardly met in the case of SMNR. Finally, reform of government institutions involved in management of natural resources is difficult to achieve via project support only, as it requires leverage and commitment at the level of policy dialogue. At the programme management level, the CapEx team notes that corruption was not systematically addressed in SMNR projects, indicating that more attention should be given to this issue at the outset of any new project.

Monitoring the temporal development of natural hazard risks as a basis indicator for climate change adaptation.

The potential effects of climatic changes on natural risks are widely discussed. But the formulation of strategies for adapting risk management practice to climate changes requires knowledge of the related risks for people and economic values. The main goals of this work were (1) the development of a method for analysing and comparing risks induced by different natural hazard types, (2) highlighting the most relevant natural hazard processes and related damages, (3) the development of an information system for the monitoring of the temporal development of natural hazard risk and (4) the visualisation of the resulting information for the wider public. A comparative exposure analysis provides the basis for pointing out the hot spots of natural hazard risks in the province of Carinthia, Austria. An analysis of flood risks in all municipalities provides the basis for setting the priorities in the planning of flood protection measures. The methods form the basis for a monitoring system that periodically observes the temporal development of natural hazard risks. This makes it possible firstly to identify situations in which natural hazard risks are rising and secondly to differentiate between the most relevant factors responsible for the increasing risks. The factors that most influence the natural risks could be made evident.

Intermediate Kinematics Produce Inferior Feeding Performance in a Classic Case of Natural Hybridization

Selection on naturally occurring hybrid individuals is a key component of speciation theory, but few studies examine the functional basis of hybrid performance. We examine the functional consequences of hybridization in nature, using the freshwater sunfishes (Centrarchidae), where natural hybrids have been studied for more than a century and a half. We examined bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus), and their naturally occurring hybrid, using prey-capture kinematics and morphology to parameterize suction-feeding simulations on divergent parental resources. Hybrid individuals exhibited kinematics intermediate between those of the two parental species. However, performance assays indicated that hybrids display performance most similar to the worse-performing species for a given parental resource. Our results show that intermediate hybrid phenotypes can be impaired by a less-than-intermediate performance and hence suffer a larger loss in fitness than could be inferred from morphology alone.

Iodine-129: Sample preparation, quality control and analyses of pre-nuclear materials and of natural waters from Lower Saxony, Germany

Sample preparation procedures for AMS measurements of 129I and 127I in environmental materials and some methodological aspects of quality assurance are discussed. Measurements from analyses of some pre-nuclear soil and thyroid gland samples and of a systematic investigation of natural waters in Lower Saxony, Germany, are described. Although the up-to-now lowest 129I/127I ratios in soils and thyroid glands were observed, they are still suspect to contamination since they are significantly higher than the pre-nuclear equilibrium ratio in the marine hydrosphere. A survey on all available 129I/127I isotopic ratios in precipitation shows a dramatic increase until the middle of the 1980s and a stabilization since 1987 at high isotopic ratios of about (3.6–8.3)×10−7. In surface waters, ratios of (57–380)×10−10 are measured while shallow ground waters show with ratios of (1.3–200)×10−10 significantly lower values with a much larger spread. The data for 129I in soils and in precipitation are used to estimate pre-nuclear and modern 129I deposition densities.

TIMS measurements of full range of natural Ca isotopes with internally consistent fractionation correction

This study presents static measurements of the Ca isotopic composition of standard reference materials SRM 915 a/b on a Triton Plus™ thermal ionization mass spectrometer with a specially developed Faraday cup array allowing simultaneous measurement of 40Ca and 48Ca. The total amount of Ca in all analyses was kept < 1 µg. With this setup the measurement uncertainties were 0.06 ‰ for 40Ca/44Ca and 0.12 ‰ for 48Ca/40Ca. Measuring all isotopes simultaneously better allows to test the internal consistency of different Ca isotope abundances reported in the literature. The exponential law was observed to correct incompletely instrumental mass fractionation. An improved fractionation correction based on the exponential law is proposed. It changes the 40Ca/44Ca ratio of SRM 915a (corrected relative to 42Ca/44Ca = 0.31221; 48Ca/44Ca = 0.08871) from 47.1635 ± 0.0028 to 47.1649 ± 0.0047. The measurements of SRM 915b were performed with different analytical conditions (runs were prolonged till complete filament load depletion). Even if the 40Ca/44Ca ratio of SRM 915b, when corrected with the simple exponential law, appears different (47.1532 ± 0.0038) from that of SRM 915a, it becomes coincident (47.1613 ± 0.0028) when corrected with a second-order refinement. This supports the use of the improved exponential law to obtain internally consistent Ca isotope ratio for natural samples.

Polar Nature of Biomimetic Fluorapatite/Gelatin Composites: A Comparison of Bipolar Objects and the Polar State of Natural Tissue

The correspondence of the state of alignment of macromolecules in biomimetic materials and natural tissues is demonstrated by investigating a mechanism of electrical polarity formation: An in vitro grown biomimetic FAp/gelatin composite is investigated for its polar properties by second harmonic (SHGM) and scanning pyroelectric microscopy (SPEM). Hexagonal prismatic seed crystals formed in gelatin gels represent a monodomain polar state, due to aligned mineralized gelatin molecules. Later growth stages, showing dumbbell morphologies, develop into a bipolar state because of surface recognition by gelatin functionality: A reversal of the polar alignment of macromolecules, thus, takes place close to that basal plane of the seed. In natural hard tissues (teeth and bone investigated by SPEM) and the biomimetic FAp/gelatin composite, we find a surprising analogy in view of growth-induced states of polarity: The development of polarity in vivo and in vitro can be explained by a Markov-type mechanism of molecular recognition during the attachment of macromolecules.

Occurrence (presence-only) of living Lophelia pertusa reefs in the Irish continental margin

The present data set was used as a training set for a Habitat Suitability Model. It contains occurrence (presence-only) of living Lophelia pertusa reefs in the Irish continental margin, which were assembled from databases, cruise reports and publications. A total of 4423 records were inspected and quality assessed to ensure that they (1) represented confirmed living L. pertusa reefs (so excluding 2900 records of dead and isolated coral colony records); (2) were derived from sampling equipment that allows for accurate (<200 m) geo-referencing (so excluding 620 records derived mainly from trawling and dredging activities); and (3) were not duplicated. A total of 245 occurrences were retained for the analysis. Coral observations are highly clustered in regions targeted by research expeditions, which might lead to falsely inflated model evaluation measures (Veloz, 2009). Therefore, we coarsened the distribution data by deleting all but one record within grid cells of 0.02° resolution (Davies & Guinotte 2011). The remaining 53 points were subject to a spatial cross-validation process: a random presence point was chosen, grouped with its 12 closest neighbour presence points based on Euclidean distance and withheld from model training. This process was repeated for all records, resulting in 53 replicates of spatially non-overlapping sets of test (n=13) and training (n=40) data. The final 53 occurrence records were used for model training.

(Table 2) Concentrations of natural radioactive elements in Black Sea sediments from DSDP Hole 42-381

A description is given of a gamma-ray spectrometer complex consisting of four interchangeable, low-background NaI(Tl) crystals that operate simultaneously. The system is used in determination of concentrations of natural radioactive elements and sedimentation rates of bottom sediments by the ionium method. Three detector sizes are used, depending on amount of material available: 80x80; 100x100, and 150x150. The system is operated clockwise and data are brought out on a punch tape; results are computer-processed. Examples are shown of the complex use in determining sedimentation rates of bottom sediments in the Southeast Pacific and concentrations of natural radioactive elements in DSDP Hole 381.

Occasional papers of the Museum of Natural History, the University of Kansas.

no.64 (1977)