Evolution and maintenance of the environmental component of the phenotypic variance: benefit of plastic traits under changing environments

How environmental variances in quantitative traits are influenced by variable environments is an important problem in evolutionary biology. In this study, the evolution and maintenance of phenotypic variance in a plastic trait under stabilizing selection are investigated. The mapping from genotypic value to phenotypic value of the quantitative trait is approximated by a linear reaction norm, with genotypic effects on its phenotypic mean and sensitivity to environment. The environmental deviation is assumed to be decomposed into environmental quality, which interacts with genotypic value, and residual developmental noise, which is independent of genotype. Environmental quality and the optimal phenotype of stabilizing selection are allowed to randomly fluctuate in both space and time, and individuals migrate equally before development and reproduction among different niches. Analyses show that phenotypic plasticity is adaptive within variable environments if correlations have become established between the optimal phenotype and environmental quality in space and/or time. The evolved plasticity increases with variances in optimal phenotypes and correlations between optimal phenotype and environmental quality; this further induces increases in mean fitness and the environmental variance in the trait. Under certain circumstances, however, the environmental variance may decrease with increase in variation in environmental quality.     

Cell surface characteristics of environmental and clinical isolates of Vibrio cholerae non-O1.

The cell surfaces of several toxigenic and nontoxigenic environmental and clinical isolates of Vibrio cholerae non-O1 have been examined. The environmental strains, irrespective of toxigenicity, are significantly more resistant to antibiotics and detergents than are V. cholerae O1 strains. The clinical isolates of non-O1 vibrios are as sensitive to a wide variety of chemicals as the O1 vibrios. The environmental non-O1 strains are also less susceptible to lysis when treated with protein denaturants or neutral and anionic detergents than are O1 vibrios and the clinical non-O1 strains. In contrast to O1 vibrios, the environmental non-O1 vibrios do not have exposed phospholipids in their outer membranes. These features of the cell surfaces of environmental non-O1 vibrios might have a role in the better survival of these organisms under environmental fluctuations.     

Cell surface characteristics of environmental and clinical isolates of Vibrio cholerae non-O1.

The cell surfaces of several toxigenic and nontoxigenic environmental and clinical isolates of Vibrio cholerae non-O1 have been examined. The environmental strains, irrespective of toxigenicity, are significantly more resistant to antibiotics and detergents than are V. cholerae O1 strains. The clinical isolates of non-O1 vibrios are as sensitive to a wide variety of chemicals as the O1 vibrios. The environmental non-O1 strains are also less susceptible to lysis when treated with protein denaturants or neutral and anionic detergents than are O1 vibrios and the clinical non-O1 strains. In contrast to O1 vibrios, the environmental non-O1 vibrios do not have exposed phospholipids in their outer membranes. These features of the cell surfaces of environmental non-O1 vibrios might have a role in the better survival of these organisms under environmental fluctuations.     

An integrated approach for environmental assessments

LCA is a system-wide assessment, and the LCIA phase is confronted with the difficulties of local and regional effects in a number of impact categories. We integrate three different environmental techniques to demonstrate how these effects can be addressed in an environmental assessment. The techniques are life cycle inventory, environmental fate models, and an ecological impact assessment using fuzzy expert systems. Results of the LCI are mass and energy flows. In the environmental fate modelling step these mass flows are transformed into concentration and immission values by dispersion-reaction models. A generalised fuzzy expert system for the environmental mechanisms compares calculated exposure with site specific buffering capacities and formulates a generalised dose-response relationship. This generalised fuzzy expert system is used as a template for the assessment of local and regional environmental impacts. An application of this integrated approach is shown for a practical problem: production of magnesium car components. The environmental fate of nitrogen oxides which are released due to the major combustion source within that production system is simulated. Fuzzy expert models for crop damage, soil acidification and eutrophication determine the possible environmental impact of the immited nitrogen oxides. The important methodological extension of this integrated approach is a regionalised impact assessment depending on the spatial distribution of environmental characteristics.     

Supply Curves for Eco-efficient Environmental Improvements Using Different Weighting Methods

Eco-efficiency implies environmental improvement at the lowest possible cost. When several environmental measures are possible, these can be ranked according to their cost per unit of environmental improvement, after which an eco-efficient set of measures can be selected that yields a given level of environmental improvement at least cost. This procedure can be visualized as a supply curve for environmental improvement. Such a curve plots cumulative cost or cost per unit of environmental improvement against cumulative environmental improvement, with measures ordered according to increasing cost per unit of environmental improvement. This paper presents supply curves for environmental improvement on the basis of a set of possible environmental measures for a company in the Dutch oil and gas producing industry.
To measure aggregated potential environmental improvement for a given measure, different environmental impacts are lumped together using weighting factors. We compare five methods for weighting environmental impacts, covering a wide range of current practices.
The supply curves that were determined for each of the five weighting methods show relatively small differences, except for one (the distance-to-target method). The ranking of measures differs significantly, though, and as a result, so do the measures that are selected if total costs are restricted to a certain budget. Also, the consequent reduction in emissions of specific substances, in particular nitrogen oxides (NO x ), depends on the weighting method selected.     

The combined effects of temporal autocorrelation and the costs of plasticity on the evolution of plasticity

Adaptive phenotypic plasticity is an important source of intraspecific variation, and for many plastic traits, the costs or factors limiting plasticity seem cryptic. However, there are several different factors that may constrain the evolution of plasticity, but few models have considered costs and limiting factors simultaneously. Here we use a simulation model to investigate how the optimal level of plasticity in a population depends on a fixed maintenance fitness cost for plasticity or an incremental fitness cost for producing a plastic response in combination with environmental unpredictability (environmental fluctuation speed) limiting plasticity. Our model identifies two mechanisms that act, almost separately, to constrain the evolution of plasticity: (i) the fitness cost of plasticity scaled by the nonplastic environmental tolerance, and (ii) the environmental fluctuation speed scaled by the rate of phenotypic change. That is, the evolution of plasticity is constrained by the high cost of plasticity in combination with high tolerance for environmental variation, or fast environmental changes in combination with slow plastic response. Qualitatively similar results are found when maintenance and incremental fitness costs of plasticity are incorporated, although a larger degree of plasticity is selected for with an incremental cost. Our model highlights that it is important to consider direct fitness costs and phenotypic limitations in relation to nonplastic environmental tolerance and environmental fluctuations, respectively, to understand what constrains the evolution of phenotypic plasticity.     

中国省域环境可持续性时空格局及其影响因素

人类活动已成为人类世背景下全球环境变化的主要驱动力,因此将其合理调控在地球环境边界之内是实现可持续发展的前提条件。作为全球尺度的环境边界,行星边界秉持"地球系统观",为统筹不同区域的环境可持续性评估提供了新视角。以行星边界为切入点,评估中国省域主要人类活动的环境可持续性状况,揭示其时空格局演变及社会经济影响因素。结果表明：（1）中国省域碳、氮、磷排放的不可持续性北部整体高于南部,分异程度随时间逐步拉大,不可持续省份数量的占比均已超出2/3;省域水、土地利用的可持续性南部整体高于北部,保持相对稳定,可持续省份数量的占比均已超出3/4。（2）中国省域环境可持续性大体受人口、经济、技术等因素的综合影响,且各类环境要素的可持续性之间存在一定的协同效应。其中,各类环境可持续性均受人口规模的正向驱动,同时氮、磷、水和土地的可持续性均受农业活动的负向驱动。（3）碳排放可持续性主要受能源消费强度的负向驱动,而磷排放可持续性同时受人口城镇化率的负向驱动,水可持续性受二产占比的负向驱动。基于行星边界的环境可持续性研究,可为区域合理界定和有效承担全球环境可持续性责任提供科学参考。     

Linking Water Quality and Quantity in Environmental Flow Assessment in Deteriorated Ecosystems: A Food Web View

Most rivers worldwide are highly regulated by anthropogenic activities through flow regulation and water pollution. Environmental flow regulation is used to reduce the effects of anthropogenic activities on aquatic ecosystems. Formulating flow alteration–ecological response relationships is a key factor in environmental flow assessment. Traditional environmental flow models are characterized by natural relationships between flow regimes and ecosystem factors. However, food webs are often altered from natural states, which disturb environmental flow assessment in such ecosystems. In ecosystems deteriorated by heavy anthropogenic activities, the effects of environmental flow regulation on species are difficult to assess with current modeling approaches. Environmental flow management compels the development of tools that link flow regimes and food webs in an ecosystem. Food web approaches are more suitable for the task because they are more adaptive for disordered multiple species in a food web deteriorated by anthropogenic activities. This paper presents a global method of environmental flow assessment in deteriorated aquatic ecosystems. Linkages between flow regimes and food web dynamics are modeled by incorporating multiple species into an ecosystem to explore ecosystem-based environmental flow management. The approach allows scientists and water resources managers to analyze environmental flows in deteriorated ecosystems in an ecosystem-based way.     

Regional variations in greenhouse gas emissions of biobased products in the United States—corn-based ethanol and soybean oil

Background, aim, and scope  

Regional variations in the environmental impacts of plant biomass production are significant, and the environmental impacts associated with feedstock supply also contribute substantially to the environmental performance of biobased products. Thus, the regional variations in the environmental performance of biobased products are also significant. This study scrutinizes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with two biobased products (i.e., ethanol and soybean oil) whose feedstocks (i.e., corn and soybean) are produced in different farming locations.     

Visibility of the impact of environmental noise: a response to Kaitala and Ranta

Based on simulation modelling, Kaitala and Ranta (2001 Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 268, 1769-1774) have argued that detecting the statistical relationships between environmental variability and population fluctuations will be difficult. However, their study was limited in that only one pattern of density dependence and one detection method were used. Here, we show that their conclusion is in part a consequence of their choice of population model and in part a consequence of using relatively weak or inappropriate statistical methods. Other patterns of density dependence respond differently to environmental fluctuations, and the impact of the disturbance on these is clearly visible using their methods. For some patterns of population dynamics, environmental impacts are more readily detectable by correlating running-average environmental conditions with the population time-series or by correlating the first differences of the population time-series with environmental noise. When more appropriate statistical methods are used, environmental forcing is detectable in the majority of cases used by Kaitala and Ranta. The interplay between environmental stochasticity and density-dependent population growth means that there is no single best method to detect the influence of environmental forcing, even when population dynamics are approximately linear. But environmental forcing will often be detectable, contrary to Kaitala and Ranta's assertions.     

An Ecological Risk Assessment of Formaldehyde

A multi-tiered environmental risk assessment of formaldehyde determined the possibility of harmful effects on organisms in certain environmental compartments in Canada. A review of the relevant information indicates that biota are exposed to formaldehyde primarily in air and, to a lesser extent, in water. Worst-case scenarios predict that the estimated exposure values likely to be encountered in Canada for water and air are not expected to exceed estimated no-effects values. Therefore, the environmental risks associated with concentrations of formaldehyde likely to be found in Canada are low.     

北京城市及近郊区环境结构对鸟类的影响

本文研究了北京市区及近郊环境结构与四季鸟类群落的关系,用相对数量路线调查法估计了鸟类的实际分布。环境结构分为面积和空间异质性两个主要因素,后者又包括自然度和环境多样性两个方面。结果表明,空间异质性对鸟类物种数及多样性有显著的影响,其中自然度的作用较环境多样性的作用更为显著。“边缘效应”是由于环境多样造成的。当空间异质性较高时,面积对鸟类物种数的影响是明显的。由于城市环境的空间异质性较低,由少数优势种决定了鸟类群落特征。为改善城市环境结构,建议增加绿化面积,丰富植被层次及物种组成,同时在北京城市环境中适当增加各种形式的水体。     

Will small population sizes warn us of impending extinctions?

Several models are used to show that population sizes are often relatively insensitive to deteriorating environmental conditions over most of the range of environments that allow population persistence. As conditions continue to worsen in these cases, equilibrium population sizes ultimately decline rapidly toward extinction from sizes similar to or larger than those before environmental decline began. Consumer-resource models predict that equilibrium or average population size can increase with deteriorating environmental conditions over a large part of the range of the environmental parameter that allows persistence. The initial insensitivity or increase in the population of the focal species occurs because changes in the populations of other components of the food web compensate for the decline in one or more fitness components of the focal population. However, the compensatory processes are generally nonlinear and often approach their limits abruptly rather than gradually. When there is steady directional change in the environment, populations lag behind the equilibrium population size specified by current environmental conditions. The environmental variable can then decline below the level required for population persistence while the population size is still close to or greater than its original value. Efficient consumers and self-reproducing resources are especially likely to produce this outcome. More complex models with adaptive behavior, additional consumers, or additional resources often exhibit similar trajectories of population size under environmental deterioration.     

Renal responses to stressful environmental stimuli

The effects of stressful environmental stimuli on urinary sodium excretion in conscious dogs, rats, and humans are reviewed. Environmental stress can increase sympathetic neural outflow and decrease sodium excretion. The antinatriuretic response to environmental stress is accompanied by an unchanged renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate, which indicates mediation via an increased renal tubular sodium reabsorption. The antinatriuresis resulting from environmental stress is associated with increased renal sympathetic nerve activity, and is abolished by surgical renal denervation. In the central nervous system, but not in the kidney, beta adrenoceptors mediate the increased renal sympathetic nerve activity and antinatriuretic responses to environmental stress. The increased renal sympathetic nerve activity and antinatriuretic responses to environmental stress are greater in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) than in normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. In SHR, but not WKY rats, the increased renal sympathetic nerve activity and antinatriuretic responses are enhanced by a high-sodium diet. Similarly, stressful competition in human young adult males results in an antinatriuresis only if a positive family history of hypertension is present. Thus, environmental stress can increase renal tubular sodium reabsorption via a central beta-adrenoceptor mechanism with activation of the renal sympathetic nerves in both conscious dogs and SHR. The antinatriuretic response to environmental stress is greater in rats and humans with a genetic predisposition to develop hypertension.     

Functional biodiversity of macroinvertebrate assemblages along major ecological gradients of boreal headwater streams

1. Biodiversity–environment relationships are increasingly well‐understood in the context of species richness and species composition, whereas other aspects of biodiversity, including variability in functional diversity (FD), have received rather little rigorous attention. For streams, most studies to date have examined either taxonomic assemblage patterns or have experimentally addressed the importance of species richness for ecosystem functioning. 2. I examined the relationships of the functional biodiversity of stream macroinvertebrates to major environmental and spatial gradients across 111 boreal headwater streams in Finland. Functional biodiversity encompassed functional richness (FR – the number of functional groups derived from a combination of functional feeding groups and habit trait groups), FD – the number of functional groups and division of individuals among these groups, and functional evenness (FE – the division of individuals among functional groups). Furthermore, functional structure (FS) comprised the composition and abundance of functional groups at each site. 3. FR increased with increasing pH, with additional variation related to moss cover, total nitrogen, water colour and substratum particle size. FD similarly increased with increasing pH and decreased with increasing canopy cover. FE decreased with increasing canopy cover and water colour. Significant variation in FS was attributable to pH, stream width, moss cover, substratum particle size, nitrogen, water colour with the dominant pattern in FS being related to the increase of shredder‐sprawlers and the decrease of scraper‐swimmers in acidic conditions. 4. In regression analysis and redundancy analysis, variation in functional biodiversity was not only related to local environmental factors, but a considerable proportion of variability was also attributable to spatial patterning of environmental variables and pure spatial gradients. For FR, 23.4% was related to pure environmental effects, 15.0% to shared environmental and spatial effects and 8.0% to spatial trends. For FD, 13.8% was attributable to environmental effects, 15.2% to shared environmental and spatial effects and 5% to spatial trends. For FE, 9.0% was related to environmental variables, 12.7% to shared effects of environmental and spatial variables and 4.5% to spatial variables. For FS, 13.5% was related to environmental effects, 16.9% to shared environmental and spatial effects and 15.4% to spatial trends. 5. Given that functional biodiversity should portray variability in ecosystem functioning, one might expect to find functionally rather differing ecosystems at the opposite ends of major environmental gradients (e.g. acidity, stream size). However, the degree to which variation in the functional biodiversity of stream macroinvertebrates truly portrays variability in ecosystem functioning is difficult to judge because species traits, such as feeding roles and habit traits, are themselves strongly affected by the habitat template. 6. If functional characteristics show strong responses to natural environmental gradients, they also are likely to do so to anthropogenic environmental changes, including changes in habitat structure, organic inputs and acidifying elements. However, given the considerable degree of spatial structure in functional biodiversity, one should not expect that only the local environment and anthropogenic changes therein are responsible for this variability. Rather, the spatial context, as well as natural variability along environmental gradients, should also be explicitly considered in applied research.     

Selection in a fluctuating environment leads to decreased genetic variation and facilitates the evolution of phenotypic plasticity

Changes in the environment are expected to induce changes in the quantitative genetic variation, which influences the ability of a population to adapt to environmental change. Furthermore, environmental changes are not constant in time, but fluctuate. Here, we investigate the effect of rapid, continuous and/or fluctuating temperature changes in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, using an evolution experiment followed by a split-brood experiment. In line with expectations, individuals responded in a plastic way and had an overall higher potential to respond to selection after a rapid change in the environment. After selection in an environment with increasing temperature, plasticity remained unchanged (or decreased) and environmental variation decreased, especially when fluctuations were added; these results were unexpected. As expected, the genetic variation decreased after fluctuating selection. Our results suggest that fluctuations in the environment have major impact on the response of a population to environmental change; in a highly variable environment with low predictability, a plastic response might not be beneficial and the response is genetically and environmentally canalized resulting in a low potential to respond to selection and low environmental sensitivity. Interestingly, we found greater variation for phenotypic plasticity after selection, suggesting that the potential for plasticity to evolve is facilitated after exposure to environmental fluctuations. Our study highlights that environmental fluctuations should be considered when investigating the response of a population to environmental change.     

Using a Strategic Environmental Assessment framework to quantify the environmental impact of bioenergy plans

Renewable energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets are driving an acceleration in the use of bioenergy resources. The environmental impact of national and regional development plans must be assessed in compliance with the EU Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive (2001/42/EC). Here, we quantify the environmental impact of an Irish Government bioenergy plan to replace 30% of peat used in three peat‐burning power stations, located within the midlands region, with biomass. Four plan alternatives for supplying biomass to the power plant were considered in this study: (1) importation of palm kernel shell from south‐east Asia, (2) importation of olive cake pellets from Spain and (3) growing either willow or (4) Miscanthus in the vicinity of the power stations. The impact of each alternative on each of the environmental receptors proposed in the SEA Directive was first quantified before the data were normalized on either an Irish, regional or global scale. Positive environmental impacts were very small compared to the negative environmental impacts for each of the plan alternatives considered. Comparison of normalized indicator values confirmed that the adverse environmental consequences of each plan alternative are concentrated at the location where the biomass is produced. The analysis showed that the adverse environmental consequences of biomass importation are substantially greater than those associated with the use of willow and Miscanthus grown on former grassland. The use of olive cake pellets had a greater adverse environmental effect compared to the use of peat whereas replacement of peat with either willow or Miscanthus feedstocks led to a substantial reduction in environmental pressure. The proposed assessment framework combines the scope of SEA with the quantitative benefits of life cycle assessment and can be used to evaluate the environmental consequences of bioenergy plans.     

Approaches to valuation in LCA impact assessment

One of the major problems with the future development of lifecycle assessment is the difficulty in converting lifecycle inventory results into environmental impacts, owing to problems associated with the interpretation and weighting of the data. The four main valuation approaches: distance-to-target, environmental control costs, environmental damage costs and scoring approaches are assessed and the individual methodologies evaluated. In conclusion it is considered that in a country which has clear, up-to-date, politically acceptable emission standards, a distance-to-target valuation system maybe acceptable. However, these circumstances are likely to be rare, and the choice of standards arbitrary and not scientifically based. Therefore a better choice is probably environmental damage costs, provided suitable economic damage figures are available.     

Smaller predator-prey body size ratios in longer food chains

Maximum food-chain length has been correlated with resource availability, ecosystem size, environmental stability and colonization history. Some of these correlations may result from environmental effects on predator-prey body size ratios. We investigate relationships between maximum food-chain length, predator-prey mass ratios, primary production and environmental stability in marine food webs with a natural history of community assembly. Our analyses provide empirical evidence that smaller mean predator-prey body size ratios are characteristic of more stable environments and that food chains are longer when mean predator-prey body size ratios are small. We conclude that environmental effects on predator-prey body size ratios contribute to observed differences in maximum food-chain length.     

Environmental Impacts of Conventional and Sustainable Investment Funds Compared Using Input-Output Life-Cycle Assessment

This study compares equity funds that are managed according to sustainability goals with conventionally managed funds with respect to their environmental impacts. Overlap in the portfolios of sustainable equity funds and conventional equity funds can be very large. Further, the sector allocation of both types of funds is generally very similar, because portfolio managers follow a chosen benchmark to minimize risk. These two effects may result in no difference existing between the two types of funds in terms of their environmental impact and damage (null hypothesis of this research). This study comparatively assesses the environmental impact of portfolios of 26 investment funds: 13 sustainable investment funds and 13 conventional funds, which are managed according to the benchmark MSCI World. The study applies input–output life-cycle assessment (IO-LCA) in combination with a simulation of company-specific environmental performance. The environmental impact is evaluated per functional unit for each fund, measured as the risk-adjusted financial performance. The statistical analysis showed that the analyzed sustainable investment funds performed better with respect to environmental impact assessment but worse in economic risk-adjusted performance (RAP) over the period 2000-2004. In 2004, however, the RAP of the selected sustainable investment funds showed better performance. Both samples considerably overlap for the environmental and economic parameters. The results suggest that the environmental impact of sustainable investment funds in the sample is slightly less than that of conventional funds.