bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Sewage Treatment for Small Communities
Authors: Mann Henry T. 
Published: August 2009

Many small communities use septic tanks as a method of partial sewage treatment in situations where effluents may be satisfactorily discharged into the soil. These systems are also suitable for use in many situations where intermittent occupation occurs. Where effluents are discharged into streams in which serious pollution is likely, further treatment by secondary processes is necessary, and in many situations tertiary treatment processes are added as a final safeguard. Prefabricated or package-plant systems using variants of the activated-sludge process or special types of percolating filter, have become available and can be designed by the manufacturers to satisfy all of the purposes of primary and secondary treatment in specific situations. Maintenance requirements of most of these processes are small, but no system may be operated for long periods without a minimum of maintenance.Some of the simplest systems of sewage treatment can provide excellent sanitary conditions and a high level of protection from health hazards and environmental deterioration if properly designed and operated. Package plants are compact and convenient but not necessarily more effective. They are usually dependent on a reliable power-supply, but have many advantages on restricted sites or sites requiring rapid development or expansion.
The Coming Energy Crisis and Solar Sources
Authors: Bockris John O'M. 
Published: August 2009

The nature of the present (pseudo) and coming (real) energy crises have been indicated. Recent evidence suggests that pollutive dangers from nuclear fission plants are far greater than had been thought. The resuscitation on a large scale of coal as an energy source would give pollutive dangers, including climatic changes due to excess carbon dioxide.Solar energy systems, earlier impossibly expensive, are now predicted to have the same capital cost-range as have nuclear reactors. Cheap, high-purity silicon coatings which adsorb at <10–4 cm but do not emit at >10–4 cm, thin-film photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, and photosynthesis, are areas of immediate solar energy research interest.Roof-top energy collection may be a permanent part of the future, but will not avoid the necessity of large ‘solar farms’ to collect energy for industry and transportation. Storage should be in the form of hydrogen: there are advantages in developing cheap hydrogen as a general and clean fuel, for transportation and other purposes.
Restoration of the Northamptonshire Ironstone Areas
Authors: Gregory Malcolm 
Published: August 2009

Since the passing of the Mineral Workings Act 1951 there have been (1) changing pursuits in agriculture and improved methods of restoration, (2) continually rising costs of machinery and labour, and (3) nationalization of the steel industry.Recently, a new Act was passed, namely the Mineral Workings Act 1971, to make further provision in relation to contributions to and payments out of the Ironstone Restoration Fund, and to abolish the Advisory Committee on Ironstone Restoration. This Act necessited new regulations as follows:Statutory Instrument 1972 No. 210:‘This Order prescribes the full and reduced rates of contributions to be paid by ironstone operators towards the Ironstone Restoration Fund under section 1 of the Mineral Workings Act 1971, in respect of ironstone extracted on or after 1 April 1971 and the sum which may be deducted from payments made under mining leases and mineral rights orders (in accordance with section 3 of that Act) in respect of full-rate contributions.’Statutory Instrument 1972 No. 211:‘Section 9 of the Mineral Workings Act 1951 provides that the rate of payments out of the Ironstone Restoration Fund to be made to ironstone operators in respect of the restoration of worked ironstone land in compliance with conditions of a planning permission shall represent the amount by which the estimated cost per acre of the work of restoration exceeds such sum per acre as the Minister may determine to be the standard rate. The Ironstone Restoration Fund (Standard Rate) Order 1955 determined that rate to be £110 per acre.This Order made under section 3 of the Mineral Workings Act 1971 prescribes a new rate of £260 per acre in respect of all work completed after 31 March 1972.’
Challenges in a Changing World
Authors: Mitchell Harold P. 
Published: August 2009

Six problems faced by the developed and developing worlds are discussed and possible solutions are considered. Given its relatively stable populations and adequate food supplies, the developed world must be prepared both to pay for and to encourage efforts to control pollution of the environment. Its comparative over-consumption of energy must be countered by the development of new energy sources, bearing in mind the risks involved in the use of nuclear energy. Also, great efforts must be made to assist the developing world by improving the quality and quantity of aid and by voluntary changes in world trade patterns.The developing world's most serious problem is its exploding population which can be slowed by birth control and improved standards of living. Population growth puts pressure on cities, and makes it imperative that new sources of food be found and new agricultural techniques be developed. Population also exacerbates the difficulties of providing education in the developing world.Hope for the future rests on Man's capacity to foresee problems and to solve them.
The Crown-of-thorns Crisis in Australia: A Retrospective Analysis
Authors: Kenchington Richard A. 
Published: August 2009

The Crown-of-thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planci) was perceived to be a threat to coral reefs of the Indo–West Pacific region partly as a consequence of new technology, in the form of SCUBA diving, becoming generally available. It took some years, however, for field practices to be developed which employed the new technology effectively in sampling such a phenomenon over large areas.In Australia an emotional environmental campaign followed the publication of a report to the Queensland Government in 1969, which claimed that the Starfish was a major threat to the Great Barrier Reef, that it was probably Man-induced, and that it could be controlled. The report was neither adopted nor rejected in the period of more than a year which elapsed between its submission and its publication. As the public campaign gained momentum, official inquiries reviewed and questioned the data-base of the initial report but no attempt was made to devise, test, or implement, a more acceptable sampling procedure until 1973. In retrospect it is suggested that an early practical initiative to assess and remedy claimed defects of the initial sampling programme, would have removed the element of speculation which led to considerable heat in the Crown-of-thorns debate in Australia.The recommendation of the official inquiries resulted in the establishment of a trust fund to give special support to research into the problem. The research thus conducted materially increased understanding of the phenomenon, but it has been claimed that vital areas of investigation were omitted, and the value of such special support has been questioned. It is suggested here that the special problems and expense of research into the ecology of remote reefs would have precluded almost all research into the Crown-of-thorns Starfish and its effects without suchad hocsupport. However, it is further suggested that more direct management of the programme would have coordinated research effort and made more effective use of the facilities and support available.
Exotic Plants and Their Effects in Southeastern Florida
Authors: Austin Daniel F. 
Published: August 2009

Europeans began introducing plants into southeastern Florida during the 16th century, and by the middle of the 18th century several of these were already naturalized. Few of these events have been recorded, but we know that the Guava, Papaya, and oranges, were among the early immigrants. American settlement in the middle 1800s began another phase of plant movement which continues to the present. H. M. Flagler, Henry Nehrling, John C. Gifford, and others, brought plants in for landscaping or other uses. Among those brought in by the United States Department of Agriculture were the Sisal, introduced by Henry Perrine, and the many food and ornamental plants sent by David Fairchild to the Miami Introduction Station. Many of the plants brought to Florida have become important as ornamentals or foods; however, some of the exotics have escaped and now present problems to the native ecosystems and to Man.Over 170 species of ferns and flowering plants are naturalized in southeastern Florida. Hundreds of other exotic plants have been introduced into the region and the potential exists for others to escape. Species such asMelaleuca quinquenerviaare invading wet habitats and decreasing diversity; the Australian Pine (Casuarina equisetifolia) has become so abundant on some beaches that it interferes with nesting seaturtles and American Crocodiles, as well as contributing to dune erosion. Water-hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) and Florida Elodea (Hydrilla verticillata) clog natural and artificial lakes, ponds, and canals, blocking boat traffic and slowing water movement. Several grasses that were introduced as pasture plants are now considered pests. Even human health is being threatened by exotic plants such as theMelaleucaand Pepper-tree (Schinus terebinthifolius), which cause respiratory allergies and contact dermatitis.
The Role of Landscape Ecology in Development
Authors: Naveh Zev 
Published: August 2009

Landscape ecology is concerned with the interrelations between the Total Human Ecosystem—integrating natural ecosystems and human techno-ecosystems —and its concrete, spatial landscape units. It deals not only with natural and semi-natural landscapes but also with cultural–rural and urban–industrial landscapes and their inputs of fossil energy, artefacts, and cultural information and control. As an emerging branch of human ecosystem science with an interdisciplinary outlook on modern land-uses, it could play an important role in developing countries. Here, one of its greatest challenges is to find a compromise between the needs for conservation or reconstitution of open landscapes and the socio-economic needs of society. This can be achieved by transforming the noneconomic richness of the local ecosystem into workable parameters for the land-use planners and decisionmakers.As an example of such an attempt, the development and improvement of non-tillable Mediterranean uplands is presented by a model of multiple-use ecosystem management strategies and their benefits. Highest overall benefit for nature conservation, wildlife and recreation amenities, protection of environmental quality as well as livestock, forestry production, and water yields, can be expected by multiple-purpose reafforestation and revegetation.For the assessment of compatibility of these different land-use factors and their mutual influences, a cybernetic sensitivity model is proposed and the most active and critical variables—foresty, livestock production, and recreation—and the most passive one— water yields—are determined.In order to make possible cost-benefit analyses and achieve optimization for dynamic planning, these relative values should be replaced by actual quantitative ecological, economic, and socio-ecological, parameters —to be implemented on a national level as parts of comprehensive landscape master-plans.
Developments in Tertiary Environmental Engineering Education in Australasia
Authors: Lawson J. D. , Mainwaring S. J. 
Published: August 2009

This paper examines the concept of environmental education as it relates to engineering education. The main area of applicability is considered to be in the continuing and postgraduate education areas, although some environmental input into undergraduate degree programmes is thought to be desirable.The interdisciplinary nature of environmental problems necessitates a certain amount of formal coursework which should be coupled with a project to provide experience in solving real problems. The course-work should contain both broadening elements to introduce students to the relevance of disciplines outside their undergraduate experience and a specialization in a particular multidisciplinary area such as air pollution control or water resources engineering.The criteria for environmental programmes in engineering are developed with special reference to the new Environmental Engineering Postgraduate Programme at the University of Melbourne.
Toxic Substances in Discharges of Hypolimnetic Waters from a Seasonally Stratified Impoundment
Authors: Oglesby George Bret , Noell W. C. , Delo H. O. , Dyer W. A. , England R. H. , Fatora J. R. , Grizzle J. M. , Deutsch Stuart J. 
Published: August 2009

A massive fish-kill at a trout hatchery located below the discharge of a seasonally stratified impoundment provided a unique opportunity to examine mechanisms of toxicity (using in situ water) by means of a largescale experiment at the hatchery itself. In order to assess the relative impact on the fish of a number of water constituents such as heavy-metals and organic materials, a variety of dosing chemicals were employed within the hatchery. Fish tissue and blood samples were collected for histological and chemical analysis, respectively.It was concluded that a combination of manganese and organic material (probably humic in nature) in reduced chemical states in discharges of bottom (hypolimnetic) waters of the impoundment during periods of minimum power-generation was responsible for the mortality. Parallels between the fish-kill under investigation and other reported causes of hypolimnetic water toxicity were also drawn. It would appear that the redox state and nature of organic materials present may control the mechanisms in the various fish-kill situations. Implications for other users of the water are currently under investigation in an expanded programme.
Urban Ecosystems and Island Biogeography
Authors: Davis Anthony M. , Glick Thomas F. 
Published: August 2009

In urban areas, continuing fragmentation of natural habitat, disturbance, and increasing isolation of individual ‘habitat islands’, has brought on almost general reduction in species richness. Sensitive species are being replaced by aggressive synanthropic ones. Continued loss seems inevitable, but reducing the rate of that loss is a worthwhile conservation goal. It is imperative that the numerous and varied habitats within each urban area be considered as interrelated and not as separate units. Island biogeography models supply the means for unifying the disparate elements in urban ecological studies and can provide a useful strategy for conservation.It is difficult to define colonization, extinction, and equilibrium, in disturbed, often transient, urban habitats. Pseudo- and successional turnover dominate. The occupation of each ‘habitat island’ is a function of its own geography and of its position relative to other ‘islands’. Each habitat may serve as isolated ‘island’, ‘stepping-stone’, or ‘corridor’, depending on its spatial relationships with other ‘habitat islands’ and with the nature of each organism present.‘Habitat islands’ in small cities appear to function like large or near oceanic islands, while those in large cities seem to respond like small or distant oceanic islands. In all cases, the analogy with land-bridge islands is appropriate. Continuing urbanization is leading to reduced ‘habitat island’ size, and increasing the isolation of units from one another and from the surrounding rural ‘reservoir’.
Dieback of Salt-water Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora Loisel.) in the Lower Cape Fear Estuary of North Carolina: An Experimental Approach to Re-establishment
Authors: Linthurst Rick A. , Seneca Ernest D. 
Published: August 2009

Spartina alterniflora is the dominant endemic saltmarsh angiosperm along the East and Gulf coasts of the United States. Dieback of S. alterniflora became evident through aerial surveys of the Lower Cape Fear Estuary of North Carolina. The areas affected varied in size, the largest being greater than 40 ha in areal extent. As S. alterniflora productivity losses can subsequently affect the productivity of the estuarine detritus-based food-web, studies were initiated in 1975 to examine the dieback phenomenon, follow successional trends, and determine the recolonization potential of S. alterniflora in dieback-affected salt-marshes.Three S. alterniflora dieback sites in the Lower Cape Fear Estuary were selected for study. Two of the sites, both above mean high-water, were recolonized by Salicornia europaea, Distichlis spicata, Scirpus robustus, Spartina patens, and S. alterniflora. At a third site, found to be below mean high-water, all volunteer plants were of S. alterniflora. Final stabilization of all three sites was mainly by S. alterniflora, with the living standing-crop biomass ranging from 341 to 1,565 g/m2 in September of 1978.Experimental plots within each of the three dieback sites were sprigged with S. alterniflora plants from three sources: (i) sandy dredge-material, (ii) volunteer plants within affected sites, and (iii) unaffected sites near the dieback areas. The success of these sprigs was strongly site-dependent. It is suggested that the plants used for revegetation of dieback sites should be obtained from areas similar to the site that is being transplanted and/or plants which have large rhizome systems.
The Relevance of MAB
Authors: Batisse Michel 
Published: August 2009

Recent debate has shown disenchantement over the capacity of technology to provide solutions to current and future development problems, and this has led to questioning the value of scientific research itself, including that in the environmental field. The paper describes the objectives and approach of the Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), which was launched by UNESCO in 1971 as a major solution to important environmental and resources problems.Centred around 14 research themes relating to human interactions with major ecosystems, MAB activities are focused particularly on regional networks of integrated pilot projects, combining interdisciplinary research, demonstration, training, and education. Many of these pilot projects are associated with ‘Biosphere Reserves’, which provide a new tool for ecosystems conservation. As an example of this approach, which involves cooperation of research workers of various disciplines with decision makers and with the populations concerned, the paper describes the MAB network dealing with the problems of the humid tropics, which is now fully operational. While indicating the difficulties encountered, it stresses the merits of this new approach in filling existing knowledge-gaps, in ensuring social and economic applicability of the results achieved, and in allowing fruitful cooperation between developed and developing countries.
A Synopsis of Wildlife Conservation in Nigeria
Authors: Afolayan Timothy A. 
Published: August 2009

Conservation and utilization of wildlife resources are not new among our local communities in Nigeria, although the present approach to the management of these resources is very recent. Modern technology, urbanization, and human population expansion, have caused the destruction of many indigenous animal and plant species in Nigeria.This paper highlights the recent developments in the overall conservation programme in Nigeria. It describes the important role which wildlife is playing in helping to feed the nation, in creating employment opportunities, in education, in research, in recreation, and in local medicine. Inadequacy of Nigerian wildlife legislation and of trained manpower to protect and manage the wildlife resources are among the crucial wildlife management problems identified in this paper. It is also stressed that the basic information for effective management is often lacking where Nigerian wildlife reserves are concerned.
Wastewater Effluents from a Tannery: Their Effects on Soil and Vegetation in Pakistan
Authors: Sheikh Khalid Hamid , Irshad Muhammad 
Published: August 2009

The wastewater of Firdaus Tanneries, Muridke, Pakistan, was very highly saline and very highly sodic (water-quality class: C4-S4). It was being used for irrigating fields near the Tanneries but there was a piece of wasteland which, because of its elevation, could not receive this water. The vegetation of this wasteland and that of the irrigated field was studied.The effects of wastewater application on characteristics of the soil were studied in the irrigation field and, for comparison, also in the wasteland soil. The soil samples were taken from the surface and from 5, 10, and 20 cm depths. Moisture content, water-stable aggregates, water-holding and cation-exchange capacities, amounts of organic matter, and exchangeable sodium, were greater in the irrigated field as compared with wasteland soil at each corresponding soil-depth. Electrical conductivity, pH, and the amounts of calcium, magnesium, soluble sodium, chlorides, sulphates, and the values of Sodium Adsorption Ratio and Exchangeable Sodium Percentage, were significantly higher in wasteland as compared with those in the irrigated field at each corresponding soil-depth. These values tended to decrease from the surface to 20 cm soil depth in each site.
Sustainable Development: Theoretical Construct or Attainable Goal?
Authors: Simon David 
Published: August 2009

Awareness of the environmental implications of different development strategies has grown significantly since the early 1970s. Although much destruction is still being wrought, there are at last hopeful signs that some major multilateral development agencies, governments, and NGOs, are beginning to adopt more environmentally sensitive policies.Recent advances in environmental and development theory have focused on the concept of sustainable development, arguing that the environment must be seen as an integral part of long-term sustainable development rather than merely as a resource to be exploited or traded for economic development.This paper reviews recent contributions to the literature on both conceptual and empirical aspects of this topical debate, stressing particularly the ‘Brundtland Commission’ report and the work of Michael Redclift. An historically sensitive political perspective is proposed as most appropriate for embracing not only the more traditional ecological and economic aspects but also the crucial political factors underlying uneven development and underdevelopment in the age of an increasingly integrated global economic system. Although we now have a fairly sophisticated theoretical understanding of sustainable development, appropriate methodologies and techniques for translating this into practice are still required. The paper concludes that a blend of ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ approaches would give greatest flexibility, and suggests how the assessment of sustainability at the level of individual agro-ecological systems might be advanced.