Managing the impacts of sugarcane farming on the Great Barrier Reef: An evaluation of the implementation of the Polluter Pays Principle

This report provides an evaluation of the implementation of the Polluter Pays Principle (PPP) – a principle of international environmental law – in the context of pollution from sugarcane farming affecting Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The research was part of an experiment to test methods for evaluating the effectiveness of environmental laws. Overall, we found that whilst the PPP is reflected to a limited extent in Australian law (more so in Queensland law, than at the national level), the behaviour one might expect in terms of implementing the principle was largely inadequate. Evidence of a longer term, explicit commitment to the PPP was particularly weak.

Improving SEA procedures within Italian regions: Towards a more effective evaluation of urban sustainability

Sustainable urban development, a major issue at global scale, will become more relevant according to population growth predictions in developed and developing countries. Societal and international recognition of sustainability concerns led to the development of specific tools and procedures, known as sustainability assessments/appraisals (SA). Their effectiveness however, considering that global quality life indicators have worsened since their introduction, has promoted a re-thinking of SA instruments. More precisely, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), – a tool introduced in the European context to evaluate policies, plans, and programmes (PPPs), – is being reconsidered because of several features that seem to limit its effectiveness. Over time, SEA has evolved in response to external and internal factors dealing with technical, procedural, planning and governance systems thus involving a shift of paradigm from EIA-based SEAs (first generation protocols) towards more integrated approaches (second generation ones). Changes affecting SEA are formalised through legislation in each Member State, to guide institutions at regional and local level. Defining SEA effectiveness is quite difficult. Its’ capacity-building process appears quite far from its conclusion, even if any definitive version can be conceptualized. In this paper, we consider some European nations with different planning systems and SA traditions. After the identification of some analytical criteria, a multi-dimensional cluster analysis is developed on some case studies, to outline current weaknesses.

Improving SEA prodedures within Italian regions: Towards a more effective evaluation of urban sustainability

Sustainable urban development, a major issue at global scale, will become more relevant according to population growth predictions in developed and developing countries. Societal and international recognition of sustainability concerns led to the development of specific tools and procedures, known as sustainability assessments/appraisals (SA). Their effectiveness however, considering that global quality life indicators have worsened since their introduction, has promoted a re-thinking of SA instruments. More precisely, Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), – a tool introduced in the European context to evaluate policies, plans, and programmes (PPPs), – is being reconsidered because of several features that seem to limit its effectiveness. Over time, SEA has evolved in response to external and internal factors dealing with technical, procedural, planning and governance systems thus involving a shift of paradigm from EIA-based SEAs (first generation protocols) towards more integrated approaches (second generation ones). Changes affecting SEA are formalised through legislation in each Member State, to guide institutions at regional and local level. Defining SEA effectiveness is quite difficult. Its’ capacity-building process appears quite far from its conclusion, even if any definitive version can be conceptualized. In this paper, we consider some European nations with different planning systems and SA traditions. After the identification of some analytical criteria, a multi-dimensional cluster analysis is developed on some case studies, to outline current weaknesses.

Sediment concentration prediction and statistical evaluation for annual load estimation

We consider the development of statistical models for prediction of constituent concentration of riverine pollutants, which is a key step in load estimation from frequent flow rate data and less frequently collected concentration data. We consider how to capture the impacts of past flow patterns via the average discounted flow (ADF) which discounts the past flux based on the time lapsed - more recent fluxes are given more weight. However, the effectiveness of ADF depends critically on the choice of the discount factor which reflects the unknown environmental cumulating process of the concentration compounds. We propose to choose the discount factor by maximizing the adjusted R-2 values or the Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient. The R2 values are also adjusted to take account of the number of parameters in the model fit. The resulting optimal discount factor can be interpreted as a measure of constituent exhaustion rate during flood events. To evaluate the performance of the proposed regression estimators, we examine two different sampling scenarios by resampling fortnightly and opportunistically from two real daily datasets, which come from two United States Geological Survey (USGS) gaging stations located in Des Plaines River and Illinois River basin. The generalized rating-curve approach produces biased estimates of the total sediment loads by -30% to 83%, whereas the new approaches produce relatively much lower biases, ranging from -24% to 35%. This substantial improvement in the estimates of the total load is due to the fact that predictability of concentration is greatly improved by the additional predictors.

Evaluation of aerial photography for predicting trends in structural attributes of Australian woodland including comparison with ground-based monitoring data

The accurate assessment of trends in the woody structure of savannas has important implications for greenhouse accounting and land-use industries such as pastoralism. Two recent assessments of live woody biomass change from north-east Australian eucalypt woodland between the 1980s and 1990s present divergent results. The first estimate is derived from a network of permanent monitoring plots and the second from woody cover assessments from aerial photography. The differences between the studies are reviewed and include sample density, spatial scale and design. Further analyses targeting potential biases in the indirect aerial photography technique are conducted including a comparison of basal area estimates derived from 28 permanent monitoring sites with basal area estimates derived by the aerial photography technique. It is concluded that the effect of photo-scale; or the failure to include appropriate back-transformation of biomass estimates in the aerial photography study are not likely to have contributed significantly to the discrepancy. However, temporal changes in the structure of woodlands, for example, woodlands maturing from many smaller trees to fewer larger trees or seasonal changes, which affect the relationship between cover and basal area could impact on the detection of trends using the aerial photography technique. It is also possible that issues concerning photo-quality may bias assessments through time, and that the limited sample of the permanent monitoring network may inadequately represent change at regional scales

Environmental change and human history in the Jabal Harun area, Jordan

The research is related to the Finnish Jabal Harun Project (FJHP), which is part of the research unit directed by Professor Jaakko Frösén. The project consists of two interrelated parts: the excavation of a Byzantine monastery/pilgrimage centre on Jabal Harun, and a multiperiod archaeological survey of the surrounding landscape. It is generally held that the Near Eastern landscape has been modified by millennia of human habitation and activity. Past climatic changes and human activities could be expected to have significantly changed also the landscape of the Jabal Harun area. Therefore it was considered that a study of erosion in the Jabal Harun area could shed light on the environmental and human history of the area. It was hoped that it would be possible to connect the results of the sedimentological studies either to wider climatic changes in the Near East, or to archaeologically observable periods of human activity and land use. As evidence of some archaeological periods is completely missing from the Jabal Harun area, it was also of interest whether catastrophic erosion or unfavourable environmental change, caused either by natural forces or by human agency, could explain the gaps in the archaeological record. Changes in climate and/or land-use were expected to be reflected in the sedimentary record. The field research, carried out as part of the FJHP survey fieldwork, included the mapping of wadi terraces and cleaning of sediment profiles which were recorded and sampled for laboratory analyses of facies and lithology. To obtain a chronology for the sedimentation and erosion phases also OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) dating samples were collected. The results were compared to the record of the Near Eastern palaeoclimate, and to data from geoarchaeological studies in central and southern Jordan. The picture of the environmental development was then compared to the human history in the area, based on archaeological evidence from the FJHP survey and the published archaeological research in the Petra region, and the question of the relationship between human activity and environmental change was critically discussed. Using the palaeoclimatic data and the results from geoarchaeological studies it was possible to outline the environmental development in the Jabal Harun area from the Pleistocene to the present.It is appears that there was a phase of accumulation of sediment before the Middle Palaeolithic period, possibly related to tectonic movement. This phase was later followed by erosion, tentatively suggested to have taken place during the Upper Palaeolithic. A period of wadi aggradation probably occurred during the Late Glacial and continued until the end of the Pleistocene, followed by significant channel degradation, attributed to increased rainfall during the Early Holocene. It seems that during the later Holocene channel incision has been dominant in the Jabal Harûn area although there have been also small-scale channel aggradation phases, two of which were OSL-dated to around 4000-3000 BP and 2400-2000 BP. As there is no evidence of tectonic movements in the Jabal Harun area after the early Pleistocene, it is suggested that climate change and human activity have been the major causes of environmental change in the area. At a brief glance it seems that many of the changes in the settlement and land use in the Jabal Harun area can be explained by climatic and environmental conditions. However, the responses of human societies to environmental change are dependent on many factors. Therefore an evaluation of the significance of environmental, cultural, socio-economic and political factors is needed to decide whether certain phenomena are environmentally induced. Comparison with the wider Petra region is also needed to judge whether the phenomena are characteristic of the Jabal Harun area only, or can they be connected to social, political and economic development over a wider area.

Assessing the sustainability of wheat-based cropping systems using APSIM: Model parameterisation and evaluation

Assessing the sustainability of crop and soil management practices in wheat-based rotations requires a well-tested model with the demonstrated ability to sensibly predict crop productivity and changes in the soil resource. The Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) suite of models was parameterised and subsequently used to predict biomass production, yield, crop water and nitrogen (N) use, as well as long-term soil water and organic matter dynamics in wheat/chickpea systems at Tel Hadya, north-western Syria. The model satisfactorily simulated the productivity and water and N use of wheat and chickpea crops grown under different N and/or water supply levels in the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 experimental seasons. Analysis of soil-water dynamics showed that the 2-stage soil evaporation model in APSIM's cascading water-balance module did not sufficiently explain the actual soil drying following crop harvest under conditions where unused water remained in the soil profile. This might have been related to evaporation from soil cracks in the montmorillonitic clay soil, a process not explicitly simulated by APSIM. Soil-water dynamics in wheat-fallow and wheat-chickpea rotations (1987-98) were nevertheless well simulated when the soil water content in 0-0.45 m soil depth was set to 'air dry' at the end of the growing season each year. The model satisfactorily simulated the amounts of NO3-N in the soil, whereas it underestimated the amounts of NH 4-N. Ammonium fixation might be part of the soil mineral-N dynamics at the study site because montmorillonite is the major clay mineral. This process is not simulated by APSIM's nitrogen module. APSIM was capable of predicting long-term trends (1985-98) in soil organic matter in wheat-fallow and wheat-chickpea rotations at Tel Hadya as reported in literature. Overall, results showed that the model is generic and mature enough to be extended to this set of environmental conditions and can therefore be applied to assess the sustainability of wheat-chickpea rotations at Tel Hadya.

Pre-release evaluation of the efficacy of the leaf-sucking bug Carvalhotingis visenda (Heteroptera: Tingidae) as a biological control agent for cat's claw creeper Macfadyena unguis-cati (Bignoniaceae)

In classical weed biological control, assessing weed response to simulated herbivory is one option to assist in the prioritization of available agents and prediction of their potential efficacy. Previously reported simulated herbivory studies suggested that a specialist herbivore in the leaf-feeding guild is desirable as an effective biological control agent for cat's claw creeper Macfadyena unguis-cati (Bignoniaceae), an environmental weed that is currently a target for biological control. In this study, we tested (i) whether the results from glasshouse-based simulated herbivory can be used to prioritise potential biological control agents by evaluating the impact of a leaf-sucking tingid bug Carvalhotingis visenda (Drake & Hambleton) (Hemiptera: Tingidae) in quarantine; and (ii) the likely effectiveness of low- and high-densities of the leaf-sucking tingid after its release in the field. The results suggest that a single generation of C. visenda has the potential to reduce leaf chlorophyll content significantly, resulting in reduced plant height and leaf biomass. However, the impact of one generation of tingid herbivory on below-ground plant components, including the roots and tuber size and biomass, were not significant. These findings are consistent with results obtained from a simulated herbivory trial, highlighting the potential role of simulated herbivory studies in agent prioritisation.

Evaluation of transgenic bananas expressing anti-apoptotic genes for resistance against Fusarium wilt

The banana industry worldwide is under threat from a fungal disease known as Fusarium wilt, a disease for which there is no chemical control. Conventional breeding approaches to generate resistant banana varieties are lengthy and very difficult. As such, genetic engineering for disease resistance is considered the most viable control option. In this PhD thesis, genetically modified banana plants were generated using several different stress tolerance genes. When challenged with Fusarium wilt in glasshouse trials, some lines showed increased resistance to the disease. The promising elite lines generated in this study will now require testing in field trials.

Evaluation of exclusion netting for insect pest control and fruit quality enhancement in tree crops

This work evaluated the following aspects of the use of exclusion netting in low chill stone fruit: the efficacy of protection from fruit fly for this highly susceptible crop; the effects on environmental factors; and the effects on crop development. Concurrently, an economic viability study on the use of exclusion netting was undertaken. The trial site was a 0.6-ha block of low chill stone fruit at Nambour, south-east Queensland, Australia. In this area, populations of Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni) are known to be substantial, particularly in spring and summer. The trial block contained healthy 4-year-old trees as follows: 96 peach trees (Prunus persica cv. Flordaprince) and 80 nectarine trees (40 P. persica var. nucipersica cv. White Satin and 40 P. persica var. nucipersica cv. Sunwright). Exclusion netting was installed over approximately half of the block in february 2001. The net was a UV-stabilized structural knitted fabric made from high-density polyethylene yarn with a 10-year prorated UV degradation warranty. The results demonstrated the efficacy of exclusion netting in the control of fruit flies. Exclusion netting increased maximum temperatures by 4.4 deg C and decreased minimum temperatures by 0.5 deg C. Although exclusion netting reduced irradiance by approximately 20%, it enhanced fruit development by 7-10 days and improved fruit quality by increasing sugar concentration by 20-30% and colour intensity by 20%.

Information preferences for the evaluation of coastal development impacts on ecosystem services: A multi-criteria assessment in the Australian context

Ecosystem based management requires the integration of various types of assessment indicators. Understanding stakeholders' information preferences is important, in selecting those indicators that best support management and policy. Both the preferences of decision-makers and the general public may matter, in democratic participatory management institutions. This paper presents a multi-criteria analysis aimed at quantifying the relative importance to these groups of economic, ecological and socio-economic indicators usually considered when managing ecosystem services in a coastal development context. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is applied within two nationwide surveys in Australia, and preferences of both the general public and decision-makers for these indicators are elicited and compared. Results show that, on average across both groups, the priority in assessing a generic coastal development project is for the ecological assessment of its impacts on marine biodiversity. Ecological assessment indicators are globally preferred to both economic and socio-economic indicators regardless of the nature of the impacts studied. These results are observed for a significantly larger proportion of decision-maker than general public respondents, questioning the extent to which the general public's preferences are well reflected in decision-making processes.

Environmental factors affecting the occurrence of periglacial landforms in Finnish Lapland: a numerical approach

Determination of the environmental factors controlling earth surface processes and landform patterns is one of the central themes in physical geography. However, the identification of the main drivers of the geomorphological phenomena is often challenging. Novel spatial analysis and modelling methods could provide new insights into the process-environment relationships. The objective of this research was to map and quantitatively analyse the occurrence of cryogenic phenomena in subarctic Finland. More precisely, utilising a grid-based approach the distribution and abundance of periglacial landforms were modelled to identify important landscape scale environmental factors. The study was performed using a comprehensive empirical data set of periglacial landforms from an area of 600 km2 at a 25-ha resolution. The utilised statistical methods were generalized linear modelling (GLM) and hierarchical partitioning (HP). GLMs were used to produce distribution and abundance models and HP to reveal independently the most likely causal variables. The GLM models were assessed utilising statistical evaluation measures, prediction maps, field observations and the results of HP analyses. A total of 40 different landform types and subtypes were identified. Topographical, soil property and vegetation variables were the primary correlates for the occurrence and cover of active periglacial landforms on the landscape scale. In the model evaluation, most of the GLMs were shown to be robust although the explanation power, prediction ability as well as the selected explanatory variables varied between the models. The great potential of the combination of a spatial grid system, terrain data and novel statistical techniques to map the occurrence of periglacial landforms was demonstrated in this study. GLM proved to be a useful modelling framework for testing the shapes of the response functions and significances of the environmental variables and the HP method helped to make better deductions of the important factors of earth surface processes. Hence, the numerical approach presented in this study can be a useful addition to the current range of techniques available to researchers to map and monitor different geographical phenomena.

Evaluation of potential candidate genes involved in salinity tolerance in striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) using an RNA-Seq approach

Increasing salinity levels in freshwater and coastal environments caused by sea level rise linked to climate change is now recognized to be a major factor that can impact fish growth negatively, especially for freshwater teleost species. Striped catfish (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) is an important freshwater teleost that is now widely farmed across the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam. Understanding the basis for tolerance and adaptation to raised environmental salinity conditions can assist the regional culture industry to mitigate predicted impacts of climate change across this region. Attempt of next generation sequencing using the ion proton platform results in more than 174 million raw reads from three tissue libraries (gill, kidney and intestine). Reads were filtered and de novo assembled using a variety of assemblers and then clustered together to generate a combined reference transcriptome. Downstream analysis resulted in a final reference transcriptome that contained 60,585 transcripts with an N50 of 683 bp. This resource was further annotated using a variety of bioinformatics databases, followed by differential gene expression analysis that resulted in 3062 transcripts that were differentially expressed in catfish samples raised under two experimental conditions (0 and 15 ppt). A number of transcripts with a potential role in salinity tolerance were then classified into six different functional gene categories based on their gene ontology assignments. These included; energy metabolism, ion transportation, detoxification, signal transduction, structural organization and detoxification. Finally, we combined the data on functional salinity tolerance genes into a hypothetical schematic model that attempted to describe potential relationships and interactions among target genes to explain the molecular pathways that control adaptive salinity responses in P. hypophthalmus. Our results indicate that P. hypophthalmus exhibit predictable plastic regulatory responses to elevated salinity by means of characteristic gene expression patterns, providing numerous candidate genes for future investigations.

Evaluation of methods and applications for behavioural profiling of transgenic mice

During the last 10-15 years interest in mouse behavioural analysis has evolved considerably. The driving force is development in molecular biological techniques that allow manipulation of the mouse genome by changing the expression of genes. Therefore, with some limitations it is possible to study how genes participate in regulation of physiological functions and to create models explaining genetic contribution to various pathological conditions. The first aim of our study was to establish a framework for behavioural phenotyping of genetically modified mice. We established comprehensive battery of tests for the initial screening of mutant mice. These included tests for exploratory and locomotor activity, emotional behaviour, sensory functions, and cognitive performance. Our interest was in the behavioural patterns of common background strains used for genetic manipulations in mice. Additionally we studied the behavioural effect of sex differences, test history, and individual housing. Our findings highlight the importance of careful consideration of genetic background for analysis of mutant mice. It was evident that some backgrounds may mask or modify the behavioural phenotype of mutants and thereby lead to false positive or negative findings. Moreover, there is no universal strain that is equally suitable for all tests, and using different backgrounds allows one to address possible phenotype modifying factors. We discovered that previous experience affected performance in several tasks. The most sensitive traits were the exploratory and emotional behaviour, as well as motor and nociceptive functions. Therefore, it may be essential to repeat some of the tests in naïve animals for assuring the phenotype. Social isolation for a long time period had strong effects on exploratory behaviour, but also on learning and memory. All experiments revealed significant interactions between strain and environmental factors (test history or housing condition) indicating genotype-dependent effects of environmental manipulations. Several mutant line analyses utilize this information. For example, we studied mice overexpressing as well as those lacking extracellular matrix protein heparin-binding growth-associated molecule (HB-GAM), and mice lacking N-syndecan (a receptor for HB-GAM). All mutant mice appeared to be fertile and healthy, without any apparent neurological or sensory defects. The lack of HB-GAM and N-syndecan, however, significantly reduced the learning capacity of the mice. On the other hand, overexpression of HB-GAM resulted in facilitated learning. Moreover, HB-GAM knockout mice displayed higher anxiety-like behaviour, whereas anxiety was reduced in HB-GAM overexpressing mice. Changes in hippocampal plasticity accompanied the behavioural phenotypes. We conclude that HB-GAM and N-syndecan are involved in the modulation of synaptic plasticity in hippocampus and play a role in regulation of anxiety- and learning-related behaviour.