Response of forest communities of xylotrophic fungi on industrial pollution: Multimodel inference

Communities of xylotrophic basidial fungi of the South taiga subzone of the Middle Urals that are exposed to industrial air pollutants have been studied. We quantitatively assessed the dependence of basic cenotic parameters of xylomycocomplexes on the distance from the source of technogenic pollution and the peculiarities of wood substrates. It was noted that the species abundance and generative and competitive activity of basidial fungi significantly decrease upon approaching the source of air pollutants, and defectiveness of trees trunks moderately increase. A higher activity of the phytopathogenic component was shown in polluted regions as compared to background zone. The data were analyzed using generalized linear model theory. For the sake of optimal models selection the consistent Akaike criterion was used.     

Community,mobility and racism in a semi-rural area: Comparing minority experience in East Kent

Much research into community, racism and racialization has been conducted in metropolitan urban settings. It is only recently that race in rural areas has received some attention. A key theme of existing research on race in rural areas has focused on the issue of racial violence. Drawing on interviews with a variety of ethnic minority groups in East Kent the article will focus on broader issues of race and ethnicity in a semi-rural area. The study explores the meaning of race, ethnicity and belonging in the partially rural setting of East Kent, UK. The article will raise issues around the intersection of the regional and global, the problematic notion of “community”, and the fluidity of racialization in a setting in which many ethnic minorities were transitory and mobile. We conclude by highlighting the ways in which community, racism and racialization are embedded in differentiated discourses and processes.     

Toxic metals in freshwater fish from the Zagreb area as indicators of environmental pollution

The aim of this investigation was to determine the levels of heavy metals and metalloids in freshwater fish from the Zagreb area. A total of 216 freshwater fish samples from 5 sites were examined: Sava river upstream from Zagreb, Sava river at Zagreb, Sava river downstream from Zagreb, Jarun Lake, and 5 "ecologic" fishponds from the Zagreb surroundings. The metals lead, cadmium, mercury and the metalloid arsenic were determined by the method of atomic absorption spectrometry. The mean pooled levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic in all fish samples were 112.3 +/- 95 micrograms/kg, 8.5 +/- 11 micrograms/kg and 23.5 +/- 36 micrograms/kg, and did not exceed the allowed levels of 1,000 mg/kg, 100 micrograms/kg and 200 micrograms/kg, respectively. In 4 fish samples, the levels of mercury exceeded the allowed limit of 500 micrograms/kg (509, 596, 605 and 788 micrograms/kg), however, the pooled mean level of mercury was 127.8 +/- 90 micrograms/kg. There was no major difference in the levels of heavy metals between the two fish families observed, although the levels of lead, cadmium and mercury were higher in the family Ictaluridae (144 vs. 107 micrograms/kg, 10.4 vs. 8.2 micrograms/kg, and 153 vs. 124 micrograms/kg, respectively), whereas the level of arsenic was higher in the family Cyprinidae (23.8 vs. 21.8 micrograms/kg). Although the Sava river at Zagreb is the main recipient of sewage and wastewater in the Republic of Croatia, the levels of heavy metals were within the allowed limits in all groups of freshwater fish samples, with the exception of 4 samples that contained moderately elevated levels of mercury. Study results suggest that only mercury could be considered a good indicator of environmental pollution, because higher levels of mercury were measured in the fish from the Sava river than in the fish from the Jarun Lake and fishponds from the Zagreb surroundings, considering both pooleded and fish family specified data.     

Toxic pollution and parasitism in freshwater fish

As aquatic habitats throughout the world are increasingly contaminated with toxic chemicals, toxicologist strive to determine what impact these substances will have an biological systems. So far, the effects of this type of pollution on fish parasites has received little attention, despite their important status as determinants of fish health. Robert Poulin discusses the many ways in which toxic pollution may affect infections of metazoan parasites in freshwater fish. Effects on fish immunity, parasites survival and intermediate host populations are not independent, and currently the outcome of toxic pollution and parasitism in fish is impossible to predict. Future research will have to answer several questions if we are to understand and forecast pollution-mediated changes in parasitism, an urgent challenge for ecotoxicologists and fish parasitologists alike.     

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: environmental pollution and bioremediation

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widely distributed and relocated in the environment as a result of the incomplete combustion of organic matter. Many PAHs and their epoxides are highly toxic, mutagenic and/or carcinogenic to microorganisms as well as to higher systems including humans. Although various physicochemical methods have been used to remove these compounds from our environment, they have many limitations. Xenobiotic-degrading microorganisms have tremendous potential for bioremediation but new modifications are required to make such microorganisms effective and efficient in removing these compounds, which were once thought to be recalcitrant. Metabolic engineering might help to improve the efficiency of degradation of toxic compounds by microorganisms. However, efficiency of naturally occurring microorganisms for field bioremediation could be significantly improved by optimizing certain factors such as bioavailability, adsorption and mass transfer. Chemotaxis could also have an important role in enhancing biodegradation of pollutants. Here, we discuss the problems of PAH pollution and PAH degradation, and relevant bioremediation efforts.     

湘江流域工业污染源对农田生态系统土壤动物群落影响的研究

对湘江流域工业污染区的土壤动物群落研究表明,接近污染源和污染物质富集的农田,土壤动物的种类和数量减少;工业污染区土壤的污染主要是重金属有毒物质的过量累积。调查共获得29类土壤动物,隶属于4门10纲,动物的种类与数量随着重金属污染程度的增加而递减,土壤动物密度与重金属元素Hg、Cd,zn、Cu、As、Pb的浓度密切相关,这在污染模拟实验中也得到证明。     

Toxic ethics: environmental genomics and the health of populations

Dealing primarily with implications rather than foundations, and focusing downstream at the expense of upstream prevention, mainstream bioethics is at a toxic watershed. Through an extended analysis of the Environmental Genome Project (EGP), we offer new tools from the philosophy of science and from critical epidemiology to help bioethics to move ahead. Our aim in this paper is not to resolve the moral and conceptual problems we reveal, but rather to outline ways to prevent such problems from arising in future research.     

Middle-class residential mobility in Mexico City: Toward a cross-cultural theory

Few social-psychological theories of intraurban residential mobility have been offered, despite a number of empirical studies of personal motives. A complete explanation of residential mobility would interrelate macroscopic economic factors with household preferences. A cross-cultural socio-psychological model is presented as a step toward a comprehensive theory. Data from an exploratory study of middle-class Mexico City residents are used to test the model. Results suggest that middle-class Mexicans decide to move because of space needs accompanying life-cycle changes, desire for home ownership, and environmental reasons. Home selection was primarily a function of availability, cost, and terms. Unlike North Americans, suburban Mexicans were uninterested in community activities and maintained close contact with relatives; central-city respondents enjoyed living in the city despite dissatisfaction with residence or neighborhood. Most would avoid the suburbs because of communication problems and distance from relatives. Results support the model and justify further testing and development.I am grateful to the University of Alabama Research Grants Committee and Center for International Studies for financial support to carry out this study.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Society in New York, August 1976.     

Doubly estranged: racism,the body and reflection

This paper introduces the concept of “double estrangement”. Drawing on a large qualitative dataset it will argue that young migrant group boys in Dublin’s north inner city suffer from a break with their embodied selves as they are pushed between habitual and reflective action. The dual elements of “double estrangement” will be outlined, firstly, through the contention that visible difference and dispositions of the body mark minority boys out as not belonging within peer exchanges in three primary schools. Secondly, by arguing this has the effect of heightening a boy’s self-consciousness of their body as an object of value estranging them from their habitual embodied being.     

Aquaculture,pollution and fishery - dynamics of marine industrial interactions

We model bioeconomic interrelations between a commercial fishery and an aquaculture industry by using a dynamical systems theory approach. The biomass follows a logistic growth where the pollution emerging from aquaculture is accounted for by means of a retardation term. We investigate the existence and stability of the equilibrium states of this model as a function of the growth-retardation parameter and find that a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for stability is low and moderate values of the emission-remediation ratio. Three intervals of the growth-retardation parameter are identified in this regime of the emission-remediation ratio. The regime of low and negligible influence of the pollution on the biomass evolution gives rise to the existence of an asymptotically stable equilibrium state characterized by a finite biomass and a finite effort in the fishery. In the same regime we identify two unstable equilibrium states of which the former one is characterized by no effort in the fishery, whereas the latter one is characterized by no biomass and no effort. When the growth retardation parameter exceeds a certain threshold, the fishery becomes unprofitable and the equilibrium state characterized by no effort in the fishery becomes asymptotically stable. By a further increase in this parameter above a higher threshold value, also the biomass is wiped out and the equilibrium state characterized by no biomass and no effort becomes asymptotically stable.     

Scientific racism,popular racism and the discourse of the Gypsy Lore Society

Scientific racism continued to be the guiding paradigm of the oldest scholarly association for the study of Gypsies well into the 1970s. It is important to acknowledge and analyse this when considering the continuing influence of racism on policy towards Roma.     

Spatial mobility and environmental effects on obesity

In this paper, we used a randomized experiment, the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing Demonstration (MTO) study, to assess whether several environmental attributes are causes of obesity. To accomplish our objective, we linked the MTO data with several external data sources that provide information on potential determinants of obesity including food prices, restaurant and food store availability, physical activity facility availability, the prevalence of crime and population density. We find that the environmental factors we examined are unable to explain the observed decrease in obesity associated with the MTO experiment among low-income minority women.     

Urban bat communities are affected by wetland size,quality, and pollution levels

Wetlands support unique biota and provide important ecosystem services. These services are highly threatened due to the rate of loss and relative rarity of wetlands in most landscapes, an issue that is exacerbated in highly modified urban environments. Despite this, critical ecological knowledge is currently lacking for many wetland‐dependent taxa, such as insectivorous bats, which can persist in urban areas if their habitats are managed appropriately. Here, we use a novel paired landscape approach to investigate the role of wetlands in urban bat conservation and examine local and landscape factors driving bat species richness and activity. We acoustically monitored bat activity at 58 urban wetlands and 35 nonwetland sites (ecologically similar sites without free‐standing water) in the greater Melbourne area, southeastern Australia. We analyzed bat species richness and activity patterns using generalized linear mixed‐effects models. We found that the presence of water in urban Melbourne was an important driver of bat species richness and activity at a landscape scale. Increasing distance to bushland and increasing levels of heavy metal pollution within the waterbody also negatively influenced bat richness and individual species activity. Areas with high levels of artificial night light had reduced bat species richness, and reduced activity for all species except those adapted to urban areas, such as the White‐striped free‐tailed bat (Austronomus australis). Increased surrounding tree cover and wetland size had a positive effect on bat species richness. Our findings indicate that wetlands form critical habitats for insectivorous bats in urban environments. Large, unlit, and unpolluted wetlands flanked by high tree cover in close proximity to bushland contribute most to the richness of the bat community. Our findings clarify the role of wetlands for insectivorous bats in urban areas and will also allow for the preservation, construction, and management of wetlands that maximize conservation outcomes for urban bats and possibly other wetland‐dependent and nocturnal fauna.     

High species mobility in species-rich plant communities: An intercontinental comparison

Using results from a long-term study of fine-scale dynamics in grasslands in four widely separated study areas from two continents, we provide further evidence to support the idea of the carousel model as an aid to describe the high fine-scale temporal and spatial species mobility found in grassland communities. Cumulative species numbers on small subplots in plots situated in stable plant communities, determined as the sum of species appearing in these subplots in one or more years over a period of time, are very high. In floristically different species-rich grasslands, varying from moist pine savannas in North Carolina and Mississippi, to humid chalk grassland in the Netherlands and seasonally dry limestone grassland in Sweden, average species numbers on subplots of 0.01 m² in plots of 2.5 m² over the period 1985–1989 were similar, most plots falling in the range 10.8–13.2. The total cumulative species numbers were similar as well, most plots falling in the range 17.4 and 20.9. Yearly average species numbers remained relatively constant. Considerable species turnover is occurring in all these communities; on average three species appear and three disappear each year in each 0.01 m² subplot. Total species accumulation on 0.01 m² subplots over the period 1985–1989 varied considerably, from 4.1 to 11.6, and is correlated with the cumulative species total on the plot, the latter figure being considered as correlated with the size of the species pool.     

Soil pollution through industrial effluent and its management

During the survey of sewer water/industrial effluent composition, we identified a site at Sonepat that had turned barren due to excessive irrigation with cycle industry effluent. To study the ameliorative effect of farmyard manure, the bulk surface soil sample was brought from the site. Soil was amended with five levels of farmyard manure (0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0% on a soil weight basis), and carrot, fenugreek, spinach, and wheat crops were grown as test crops in a screen house. The deleterious effect of excessive heavy metals, particularly Ni, on the yield of all the crops was reduced with the application of 2% farmyard manure. The Ni content was highest in carrot, followed by spinach, fenugreek, and wheat. With the application of 2% farmyard manure, Ni content was reduced from 434 to 267 mg/kg in carrot, 167 to 100 mg/kg in fenugreek, 300 to 166 mg/kg in spinach, and 65 to 42 mg/kg in wheat grain.