Truncation Error Estimates in Process Life Cycle Assessment Using Input‐Output Analysis

Process life cycle assessment (PLCA) is widely used to quantify environmental flows associated with the manufacturing of products and other processes. As PLCA always depends on defining a system boundary, its application involves truncation errors. Different methods of estimating truncation errors are proposed in the literature; most of these are based on artificially constructed system complete counterfactuals. In this article, we review the literature on truncation errors and their estimates and systematically explore factors that influence truncation error estimates. We classify estimation approaches, together with underlying factors influencing estimation results according to where in the estimation procedure they occur. By contrasting different PLCA truncation/error modeling frameworks using the same underlying input‐output (I‐O) data set and varying cut‐off criteria, we show that modeling choices can significantly influence estimates for PLCA truncation errors. In addition, we find that differences in I‐O and process inventory databases, such as missing service sector activities, can significantly affect estimates of PLCA truncation errors. Our results expose the challenges related to explicit statements on the magnitude of PLCA truncation errors. They also indicate that increasing the strictness of cut‐off criteria in PLCA has only limited influence on the resulting truncation errors. We conclude that applying an additional I‐O life cycle assessment or a path exchange hybrid life cycle assessment to identify where significant contributions are located in upstream layers could significantly reduce PLCA truncation errors.     

Economic and Environmental Impact Trade‐Offs Related to In‐Water Hull Cleanings of Merchant Vessels

Merchant vessels are equipped with antifouling systems to prevent accumulation of marine organisms on the hull—a phenomenon known as fouling. In many cases, however, fouling accumulates and in‐water hull cleaning is required. Hull cleanings are part of a hull management scheme, and although they are an established practice, their associated environmental and economic trade‐offs and conflicts have remained largely unexplored. The purpose of this article is to quantitatively assess both economic and environmental impacts of hull management schemes on the operation of tanker vessels. After identifying induced and avoided costs and environmental impacts from the hull management system, we used both temporally and spatially distributed models to capture the degradation of the antifouling system as well as the global sailing profile of the vessels. Last, we analyzed how each of the modeled impacts varied with the frequency of hull cleanings within the hull management scheme. Our analysis revealed a convex relationship between the frequency of hull cleanings and fuel savings. The higher the frequency of hull cleanings, the less fuel savings can be achieved per cleaning. In terms of costs, from some point on the costs of the service are likely to offset the savings—especially if fuel prices are low. In regards to climate change, avoided emissions due to fuel savings are likely to outweigh the limited impacts from the service itself. Last, while ecosystem impacts from marine, terrestrial, and freshwater eco‐toxicity are likely to increase from hull cleanings, they are subject to high uncertainties.     

Effects of spontaneous field margin vegetation on the regulation of herbivores in two winter crops

Non-crop vegetation of field margins provides resources for natural enemies of crop herbivores. However, it is still not well known whether this resource provisioning effect is strong enough to improve herbivore regulation within crop fields and which plant species and functional groups favour this ecosystem service. A better understanding of the interactions between field margin vegetation and herbivore regulation is crucial to evaluate management strategies and to design suppressive plant mixtures. We surveyed 64 wheat and oilseed rape fields of Western France for two years (16 fields per year and crop) in order (1) to identify plant diversity or group effects on herbivore regulation within crop fields and (2) to identify species within plant groups that improve regulation. Herbivores, herbivore damage and natural enemies were monitored on crop plants at a distance of 5 and 50 m from the field margin. At the same time, the cover and phenological stage of all vascular plants were estimated in the adjacent field margin. The study demonstrated a positive relationship between the cover of entomophilous plant species that were flowering at the survey date and response variables related to herbivore regulation. Plant species richness and the cover of plant species taxonomically close to crop plants had a small influence on herbivores and natural enemies in wheat whereas related wild Brassicaceae increased herbivory and decreased herbivore regulation in oilseed rape. Within the entomophilous flowering plants, several species were significantly related to a better herbivore regulation in univariate analyses. Multivariate ordination techniques allowed the identification of plant species influencing several response variables of herbivore regulation at the same time. Our study demonstrated the importance of entomophilous species that flowered at peak infestation of crop herbivores. Spontaneous field margins rich in flowering entomophilous species provide an important ecosystem service without expensive sowing of seed mixtures.     

Life-Cycle Assessment in the Service Industries

Despite the dominant role service industries play in modern society, those industries have by and large not been involved in the strong efforts underway to create environmentally responsible operations. Part of the reason is that the role of these industries as driving factors in resource flows has not been recognized. Perhaps more important, no common framework for assessing the environmental responsibility of service industries has been established. This article provides such a framework and applies it to a generic service industry: automotive repair. Among the results are that evaluation must take different forms for different types of services, and that the approaches of service industries to the use of buildings and equipment will require innovative solutions quite unlike those advocated for the "greening" of manufacturing operations.     

论能源管理体系建设与医院后勤精细化管理的相关性

结合医院开展能源管理体系建设的工作要求,通过对能源管理体系建设和精细化管理各自特点以及两者之间相关性分析,找出共同点与相互依存的关系。继而以能源管理体系建设为抓手,分阶段实现医院后勤精细化管理的战略目标。

     

小水电代燃料工程对森林生态服务功能的影响

根据国家林业局发布的《森林生态系统服务功能评估规范》(LY/T 1721—2008),从涵养水源、保育土壤、固碳释氧和积累营养物质功能4个方面进行评价,研究小水电代燃料工程的实施对贵州省麻江县项目区森林生态服务功能的物质量及其价值的影响.结果表明: 小水电代燃料工程对森林生态系统服务功能物质量的增加有显著作用.马尾松和柏木人工林在项目区内涵养水源功能的物质量达20662.04 m³·hm^-2·a^-1,比项目区外增加20.5%,保育土壤量为119.1 t·hm^-2·a^-1,比项目区外增加29.7%,固碳释氧量为220.49 t·hm^-2·a^-1,比项目区外增加40.2%,林木营养积累量达3.49 t·hm^-2·a^-1,比项目区外增加48.5%.小水电代燃料工程对项目区森林生态系统服务功能价值增加额度表现为:固碳释氧功能(7.14 万元·hm^-2·a^-1)>涵养水源功能(6.01万元·hm^-2·a^-1)>林木营养积累功能(1.38万元·hm^-2·a^-1)>保育土壤功能(0.81万元·hm^-2·a^-1).小水电代燃料工程对提高森林生态服务功能价值和实现林区的可持续发展具有重要作用.     

Modeling of Pb(II) adsorption by a fixed-bed column

Removal of Pb(II) from an aqueous environment using biosorbents is a cost-effective and environmentally benign method. The biosorption process, however, is little understood for biosorbents prepared from plant materials. In this study, the biosorption process was investigated by evaluating four adsorption models. A fixed-bed column was prepared using a biosorbent prepared from the aquatic plant Hydrilla verticillata. The effect of bed height and flow rate on the biosorption process was investigated. The objective of the study was to determine the ability of H. verticillata to biosorb Pb(II) from an aqueous environment and to understand the process, through modeling, to provide a basis to develop a practical biosorbent column. Experimental breakthrough curves for biosorption of 50 mg L^?1 aqueous Pb(II) using a fixed-bed column with 1.00 cm inner diameter were fitted to the Thomas, Adams-Bohart, Belter, and bed depth service time (BDST) models to investigate the behavior of each model according to the adsorption system and thus understand the adsorption mechanism. Model parameters were evaluated using linear and nonlinear regression methods. The biosorbent removed 65% (82.39 mg g^?1 of biosorbent) of Pb(II) from an aqueous solution of Pb(NO₃)₂ at a flow rate of 5.0 ml min^?1 in a 10 cm column. Na₂CO₃ was used to recover the adsorbed Pb(II) ions as PbCO₃ from the biosorbent. The Pb(II) was completely desorbed at a bed height of 10.0 cm and a flow rate of 5.0 ml min^?1. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis of the native biosorbent and Pb(II)-loaded biosorbent indicated that the hydroxyl groups and carboxylic acid groups were involved in the metal bonding process. The FT-IR spectrum of Pb(II)-desorbed biosorbent showed an intermediate peak shift, indicating that Pb(II) ions were replaced by Na⁺ ions through an ion-exchange process. Of the four models tested, the Thomas and BDST models showed good agreement with experimental data. The calculated bed sorption capacity N₀ and rate constant k_a were 31.7 g L^?1 and 13.6 × 10^?4 L mg^?1 min^?1 for the C_t/C₀ value of 0.02. The BDST model can be used to estimate the column parameters to design a large-scale column.     

Seasonal variation in the mating system of a selfing annual with large floral displays

Background and Aims Flowering plants display considerable variation in mating system, specifically the relative frequency of cross- and self-fertilization. The majority of estimates of outcrossing rate do not account for temporal variation, particularly during the flowering season. Here, we investigated seasonal variation in mating and fertility in Incarvillea sinensis (Bignoniaceae), an annual with showy, insect-pollinated, ‘one-day’ flowers capable of delayed selfing. We examined the influence of several biotic and abiotic environmental factors on day-to-day variation in fruit set, seed set and patterns of mating.Methods We recorded daily flower number and pollinator abundance in nine 3 × 3-m patches in a population at Mu Us Sand land, Inner Mongolia, China. From marked flowers we collected data on daily fruit and seed set and estimated outcrossing rate and biparental inbreeding using six microsatellite loci and 172 open-pollinated families throughout the flowering period.Key Results Flower density increased significantly over most of the 50-d flowering season, but was associated with a decline in levels of pollinator service by bees, particularly on windy days. Fruit and seed set declined over time, especially during the latter third of the flowering period. Multilocus estimates of outcrossing rate were obtained using two methods (the programs MLTR and BORICE) and both indicated high selfing rates of ∼80 %. There was evidence for a significant increase in levels of selfing as the flowering season progressed and pollinator visitation declined. Biparental inbreeding also declined significantly as the flowering season progressed.Conclusions Temporal variation in outcrossing rates may be a common feature of the mating biology of annual, insect-pollinated plants of harsh environments but our study is the first to examine seasonal mating-system dynamics in this context. Despite having large flowers and showy floral displays, I. sinensis attracted relatively few pollinators. Delayed selfing by corolla dragging largely explains the occurrence of mixed mating in I. sinensis, and this mode of self-fertilization probably functions to promote reproductive assurance when pollinator service is limited by windy environmental conditions and competition from co-occurring flowering plants.     

Macroinvertebrate community traits and nitrate removal in stream sediments

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Pollinator population size and pollination ecosystem service responses to enhancing floral and nesting resources

Modeling pollination ecosystem services requires a spatially explicit, process‐based approach because they depend on both the behavioral responses of pollinators to the amount and spatial arrangement of habitat and on the within‐ and between‐season dynamics of pollinator populations in response to land use. We describe a novel pollinator model predicting flower visitation rates by wild central‐place foragers (e.g., nesting bees) in spatially explicit landscapes. The model goes beyond existing approaches by: (1) integrating preferential use of more rewarding floral and nesting resources; (2) considering population growth over time; (3) allowing different dispersal distances for workers and reproductives; (4) providing visitation rates for use in crop pollination models. We use the model to estimate the effect of establishing grassy field margins offering nesting resources and a low quantity of flower resources, and/or late‐flowering flower strips offering no nesting resources but abundant flowers, on bumble bee populations and visitation rates to flowers in landscapes that differ in amounts of linear seminatural habitats and early mass‐flowering crops. Flower strips were three times more effective in increasing pollinator populations and visitation rates than field margins, and this effect increased over time. Late‐blooming flower strips increased early‐season visitation rates, but decreased visitation rates in other late‐season flowers. Increases in population size over time in response to flower strips and amounts of linear seminatural habitats reduced this apparent competition for pollinators. Our spatially explicit, process‐based model generates emergent patterns reflecting empirical observations, such that adding flower resources may have contrasting short‐ and long‐term effects due to apparent competition for pollinators and pollinator population size increase. It allows exploring these effects and comparing effect sizes in ways not possible with other existing models. Future applications include species comparisons, analysis of the sensitivity of predictions to life‐history traits, as well as large‐scale management intervention and policy assessment.