Conceptual development of a harmonised method for tracking change and evaluating policy in the agri-environment: The Agri-environmental Footprint Index

An aggregated farm-level index, the Agri-environmental Footprint Index (AFI), based on multiple criteria methods and representing a harmonised approach to evaluation of EU agri-environmental schemes is described. The index uses a common framework for the design and evaluation of policy that can be customised to locally relevant agri-environmental issues and circumstances. Evaluation can be strictly policy-focused, or broader and more holistic in that context-relevant assessment criteria that are not necessarily considered in the evaluated policy can nevertheless be incorporated. The Index structure is flexible, and can respond to diverse local needs. The process of Index construction is interactive, engaging farmers and other relevant stakeholders in a transparent decision-making process that can ensure acceptance of the outcome, help to forge an improved understanding of local agri-environmental priorities and potentially increase awareness of the critical role of farmers in environmental management. The structure of the AFI facilitates post-evaluation analysis of relative performance in different dimensions of the agri-environment, permitting identification of current strengths and weaknesses, and enabling future improvement in policy design. Quantification of the environmental impact of agriculture beyond the stated aims of policy using an 'unweighted' form of the AFI has potential as the basis of an ongoing system of environmental audit within a specified agricultural context. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The eMinerals project: developing the concept of the virtual organisation to support collaborative work on molecular-scale environmental simulations

The eMinerals project has established an integrated compute and data minigrid infrastructure together with a set of collaborative tools,. The infrastructure is designed to support molecular simulation scientists working together as a virtual organisation aiming to understand a number of strategic processes in environmental science. The eMinerals virtual organisation is now working towards applying this infrastructure to tackle a new generation of scientific problems. This paper describes the achievements of the eMinerals virtual organisation to date, and describes ongoing applications of the virtual organisation infrastructure.

Contested H2O: science, policy and politics in water resources management in Chile

This paper critically explores the politics that mediate the use of environmental science assessments as the basis of resource management policy. Drawing on recent literature in the political ecology tradition that has emphasised the politicised nature of the production and use of scientific knowledge in environmental management, the paper analyses a hydrological assessment in a small river basin in Chile, undertaken in response to concerns over the possible overexploitation of groundwater resources. The case study illustrates the limitations of an approach based predominantly on hydrogeological modelling to ascertain the effects of increased groundwater abstraction. In particular, it identifies the subjective ways in which the assessment was interpreted and used by the state water resources agency to underpin water allocation decisions in accordance with its own interests, and the role that a desocialised assessment played in reproducing unequal patterns of resource use and configuring uneven waterscapes. Nevertheless, as Chile’s ‘neoliberal’ political-economic framework privileges the role of science and technocracy, producing other forms of environmental knowledge to complement environmental science is likely to be contentious. In conclusion, the paper considers the potential of mobilising the concept of the hydrosocial cycle to further critically engage with environmental science.

A Web Map Service implementation for the visualization of multidimensional gridded environmental data

We describe ncWMS, an implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Web Map Service (WMS) specification for multidimensional gridded environmental data. ncWMS can read data in a large number of common scientific data formats – notably the NetCDF format with the Climate and Forecast conventions – then efficiently generate map imagery in thousands of different coordinate reference systems. It is designed to require minimal configuration from the system administrator and, when used in conjunction with a suitable client tool, provides end users with an interactive means for visualizing data without the need to download large files or interpret complex metadata. It is also used as a “bridging” tool providing interoperability between the environmental science community and users of geographic information systems. ncWMS implements a number of extensions to the WMS standard in order to fulfil some common scientific requirements, including the ability to generate plots representing timeseries and vertical sections. We discuss these extensions and their impact upon present and future interoperability. We discuss the conceptual mapping between the WMS data model and the data models used by gridded data formats, highlighting areas in which the mapping is incomplete or ambiguous. We discuss the architecture of the system and particular technical innovations of note, including the algorithms used for fast data reading and image generation. ncWMS has been widely adopted within the environmental data community and we discuss some of the ways in which the software is integrated within data infrastructures and portals.

The world at one's fingertips: interactive interpretation of environmental data

This chapter introduces the latest practices and technologies in the interactive interpretation of environmental data. With environmental data becoming ever larger, more diverse and more complex, there is a need for a new generation of tools that provides new capabilities over and above those of the standard workhorses of science. These new tools aid the scientist in discovering interesting new features (and also problems) in large datasets by allowing the data to be explored interactively using simple, intuitive graphical tools. In this way, new discoveries are made that are commonly missed by automated batch data processing. This chapter discusses the characteristics of environmental science data, common current practice in data analysis and the supporting tools and infrastructure. New approaches are introduced and illustrated from the points of view of both the end user and the underlying technology. We conclude by speculating as to future developments in the field and what must be achieved to fulfil this vision.

Storing and manipulating environmental big data with JASMIN

JASMIN is a super-data-cluster designed to provide a high-performance high-volume data analysis environment for the UK environmental science community. Thus far JASMIN has been used primarily by the atmospheric science and earth observation communities, both to support their direct scientific workflow, and the curation of data products in the STFC Centre for Environmental Data Archival (CEDA). Initial JASMIN configuration and first experiences are reported here. Useful improvements in scientific workflow are presented. It is clear from the explosive growth in stored data and use that there was a pent up demand for a suitable big-data analysis environment. This demand is not yet satisfied, in part because JASMIN does not yet have enough compute, the storage is fully allocated, and not all software needs are met. Plans to address these constraints are introduced.

Focus on environmental risks and migration: causes and consequences

Environmental change poses risks to societies, including disrupting social and economic systems such as migration. At the same time, migration is an effective adaptation to environmental and other risks. We review novel science on interactions between migration, environmental risks and climate change. We highlight emergent findings, including how dominant flows of rural to urban migration mean that populations are exposed to new risks within destination areas and the requirement for urban sustainability. We highlight the issue of lack of mobility as a major issue limiting the effectiveness of migration as an adaptation strategy and leading to potentially trapped populations. The paper presents scenarios of future migration that show both displacement and trapped populations over the incoming decades. Papers in the special issue bring new insights from demography, human geography, political science and environmental science to this emerging field.

Acute toxicity and environmental risk of teflubenzuron to Daphnia magna, Poecilia reticulata and Lemna minor in the absence and presence of sediment

This study aimed to estimate the acute toxicity of teflubenzuron (1-(3,5-dichloro-2,4-difluorophenyl)-3-(2,6-difluorobenzoyl)urea) (TFB) for Daphnia magna, Lemna minor and Poecilia reticulata, in the absence and presence of sediment; evaluate the effect of sediment on the TFB bioavailability; and to classify this insecticide according to its environmental poisoning risk for agricultural and aquaculture uses. The tests of TFB acute toxicity were conducted in static system in a completely randomized design with increasing TFB concentrations, and a control group. The TFB has been classified according to the estimated values of EC50 and LC50 by its acute toxicity and environmental risk. The sediment significantly reduced toxicity and bioavailability of TFB in water column. Therefore, the insecticide can be classified as being highly toxic to Daphnia magna, which means the agricultural and aquacultural uses of TFB pose a high risk of environmental toxicity to non-target organisms. However, it was practically non-toxic to L. minor and P. reticulata. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Genotoxicity evaluation of environmental pollutants using analysis of nucleolar alterations

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Investigation of the effect of using data collection technology on students' attitudes to science instruction

The purpose of this project was to investigate the effect of using of data collection technology on student attitudes towards science instruction. The study was conducted over the course of two years at Madison High School in Adrian, Michigan, primarily in college preparatory physics classes, but also in one college preparatory chemistry class and one environmental science class. A preliminary study was conducted at a Lenawee County Intermediate Schools student summer environmental science day camp. The data collection technology used was a combination of Texas Instruments TI-84 Silver Plus graphing calculators and Vernier LabPro data collection sleds with various probeware attachments, including motion sensors, pH probes and accelerometers. Students were given written procedures for most laboratory activities and were provided with data tables and analysis questions to answer about the activities. The first year of the study included a pretest and posttest measuring student attitudes towards the class they were enrolled in. Pre-test and post-test data were analyzed to determine effect size, which was found to be very small (Coe, 2002). The second year of the study focused only on a physics class and used Keller’s ARCS model for measuring student motivation based on the four aspects of motivation: Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction (Keller, 2010). According to this model, it was found that there were two distinct groups in the class, one of which was motivated to learn and the other that was not. The data suggest that the use of data collection technology in science classes should be started early in a student’s career, possibly in early middle school or late elementary. This would build familiarity with the equipment and allow for greater exploration by the student as they progress through high school and into upper level science courses.

Science for the Carpathians: Using Regional Capacity to Cope with Global Change

Emphasizing the global and regional importance of mountain ecosystem services and referring to the anticipated future environmental changes affecting the provision of these services, this chapter takes a closer look at the Carpathian Mountains. In addition to climate change and general effects of globalization, rapid socioeconomic transformations after the fall of the Iron Curtain pose an extra challenge to the sustainable development of the region. Describing the early efforts of organizing mountain science through programs such as UNESCO MAB and UNEP at the global scale, this chapter focuses on the recent history of research coordination for the European mountains, in particular on the activities of the Carpathian Convention and the European Program of the Mountain Research Initiative, which were among main driving factors for the initiation of the Science for the Carpathians (S4C) network. This regional mountain research network was established in 2008 to foster scientific collaboration and communication and to promote applied research and capacity building, which in turn would support sustainable development in the Carpathian Mountains. Forum Carpaticum, a biennial open science conference, has become a central activity of the S4C network counting more than 400 members today.

Immunotoxic effects of environmental toxicants in fish - how to assess them?

Numerous environmental chemicals, both long-known toxicants such as persistent organic pollutants as well as emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, are known to modulate immune parameters of wildlife species, what can have adverse consequences for the fitness of individuals including their capability to resist pathogen infections. Despite frequent field observations of impaired immunocompetence and increased disease incidence in contaminant-exposed wildlife populations, the potential relevance of immunotoxic effects for the ecological impact of chemicals is rarely considered in ecotoxicological risk assessment. A limiting factor in the assessment of immunotoxic effects might be the complexity of the immune system what makes it difficult (1) to select appropriate exposure and effect parameters out of the many immune parameters which could be measured, and (2) to evaluate the significance of the selected parameters for the overall fitness and immunocompetence of the organism. Here, we present - on the example of teleost fishes - a brief discussion of how to assess chemical impact on the immune system using parameters at different levels of complexity and integration: immune mediators, humoral immune effectors, cellular immune defenses, macroscopical and microscopical responses of lymphoid tissues and organs, and host resistance to pathogens. Importantly, adverse effects of chemicals on immunocompetence may be detectable only after immune system activation, e.g., after pathogen challenge, but not in the resting immune system of non-infected fish. Current limitations to further development and implementation of immunotoxicity assays and parameters in ecotoxicological risk assessment are not primarily due to technological constraints, but are related from insufficient knowledge of (1) possible modes of action in the immune system, (2) the importance of intra- and inter-species immune system variability for the response against chemical stressors, and (3) deficits in conceptual and mechanistic assessment of combination effects of chemicals and pathogens.