Biodiversity Loss from Freshwater Use for China’s Electricity Generation

Global Human Consumption Threatens Key Biodiversity Areas

Key biodiversity areas (KBAs) are critical regions for preserving global biodiversity. KBAs are identified by their importance to biodiversity rather than their legal status. As such, KBAs are often under pressure from human activities. KBAs can encompass many different land-use types (e.g., cropland, pastures) and land-use intensities. Here, we...

Resource Footprints are Good Proxies of Environmental Damage

Environmental footprints are increasingly used to quantify and compare environmental impacts of for example products, technologies, households, or nations. This has resulted in a multitude of footprint indicators, ranging from relatively simple measures of resource use (water, energy, materials) to integrated measures of eventual damage (for...

Towards a conceptual framework for social-ecological systems integrating biodiversity and ecosystem services with resource efficiency indicators

In this article we develop a comprehensive conceptual framework for resource efficiency indicators with a consistent link of resource use to the socio-economic system and activities therein as well as to the natural system and its ecosystem functioning. Three broad groups of indicators are defined: (1) resource use indicators representing...

Knowledge collaboration and learning by aligning global sustainability programs: Reflections in the context of Rio+20

There is widespread concern that the 'economy is crashing against the Earth', already causing problems in terms of climate change, water depletion and loss of biodiversity. Yet, the global economy still will have to grow two- to four-fold to provide all future global inhabitants with the average yearly income of $10,000 that is needed to have a...

The relative magnitude of the effects of biological and physical settlement cues for cypris larvae of the acorn barnacle, Semibalanus balanoides L.

Barnacle cypris larvae respond to many cues when selecting a settlement site. The settlement of over a million larvae on tiles of different textures, orientations and densities of incumbent settlers was measured on the rocky intertidal at Great Cumbrae, Scotland. Half of the tiles were replaced every tide whereas the others simultaneously...

Computer-assisted tree taxonomy by automated image recognition

We present an algorithm that performs image-based queries within the domain of tree taxonomy. As such, it serves as an example relevant to many other potential applications within the field of biodiversity and photo-identification. Unsupervised matching results are produced through a chain of computer vision and image processing techniques,...

Mixed-species genomic microarray analysis of fecal samples reveals differential transcriptional responses of bifidobacteria in breast- And formula-fed infants

Although their exact function remains enigmatic, bifidobacteria are among the first colonizers of the newborn infant gut and further develop into abundant communities, notably in response to diet. Therefore, the transcriptional responses of bifidobacteria in rapidly processed fecal samples from young infants that were fed either breast milk or a...

Performance and population analysis of a non-sterile trickle bed reactor inoculated with caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus, a thermophilic hydrogen producer

Non-axenic operation of a 400 L trickle bed reactor inoculated with the thermophile Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus, yielded 2.8 molH 2mol hexose converted. The reactor was fed with a complex medium with sucrose as the main substrate, continuously flushed with nitrogen gas, and operated at 73°C. The volumetric productivity was 22 mmolH2(L...

Within-animal variation as an indication of the minimal magnitude of the critical effect size for continuous toxicological parameters applicable in the benchmark dose approach

In this study, the within-animal variation in routinely studied continuous toxicological parameters was estimated from temporal fluctuations in individual healthy nonexposed animals. Assuming that these fluctuations are nonadverse, this within-animal variation may be indicative of the minimal magnitude of the critical effect size (CES). The CES...

Remote non-invasive stereoscopic imaging of blood vessels: First in-vivo results of a new multispectral contrast enhancement technology

We describe a contactless optical technique selectively enhancing superficial blood vessels below variously pigmented intact human skin by combining images in different spectral bands. Two CMOS-cameras, with apochromatic lenses and dual-band LED-arrays, simultaneously streamed Left (L) and Right (R) image data to a dual-processor PC. Both...

Meta-analysis of intrinsic rates of increase and carrying capacity of populations affected by toxic and other stressors

Most of the thousands of substances and species that are of concern for environmental management will not be investigated empirically at ecologically relevant levels because of financial, practical, and ethical constraints. To allow risk assessment for these less well-known categories, we have developed a mechanistic model with classical...

Characterizing the change of land-use based on flora: Application for EIA and LCA

The environmental impact of land-use can be expressed in terms of a change in biodiversity of flora. We present two models that characterize the negative effects of land-use: a model on the basis of species richness; a model on the basis of the rarity of ecosystems and their vascular plants. Each of those models may serve in the EIA ...

A Two-Stage Method for Determining the Position and Corresponding Precision of Marine Mammal Sounds; 2004BU1-OT

Today there is a concern that man-made sounds, such as that from sonar experiments, seismic operations and oil rigs, affect marine mammals. Detection and localisation of marine mammals will definitely support measures to reduce the possible detrimental effects. This paper presents a two-stage localisation method, which is applied to data...