33 research outputs found
The importance of sedimenting organic matter, relative to oxygen and temperature, in structuring lake profundal macroinvertebrate assemblages
We quantified the role of a main food
resource, sedimenting organic matter (SOM), relative
to oxygen (DO) and temperature (TEMP) in structuring
profundal macroinvertebrate assemblages in
boreal lakes. SOM from 26 basins of 11 Finnish lakes
was analysed for quantity (sedimentation rates),
quality (C:N:P stoichiometry) and origin (carbon
stable isotopes, d13C). Hypolimnetic oxygen and
temperature were measured from each site during
summer stratification. Partial canonical correspondence
analysis (CCA) and partial regression analyses
were used to quantify contributions of SOM, DO and
TEMP to community composition and three macroinvertebrate
metrics. The results suggested a major
contribution of SOM in regulating the community
composition and total biomass. Oxygen best explained
the Shannon diversity, whereas TEMP had largest
contribution to the variation of Benthic Quality Index.
Community composition was most strongly related to d13C of SOM. Based on additional d13C and stoichiometric
analyses of chironomid taxa, marked differences
were apparent in their utilization of SOM and
body stoichiometry; taxa characteristic of oligotrophic
conditions exhibited higher C:N ratios and lower C:P
and N:P ratios compared to the species typical of
eutrophic lakes. The results highlight the role of SOM
in regulating benthic communities and the distributions
of individual species, particularly in oligotrophic
systems
Factors associated with the designation of a health care proxy and writing advance directives for patients suffering from haematological malignancies
Employment generation by small firms in Spain
Despite the relevance in terms of policy, we still know little in Spain about where and by whom jobs are created, and how that is affecting the size distribution of firms. The main innovation of this paper is to use a rich database that overcomes the problems encountered by other firm-level studies to shed some light on the employment generation of small firms in Spain. We find that small firms contribute to employment disproportionately across all sectors of the economy although the difference between their employment and job creation share is largest in the manufacturing sector. The job creators in that sector are both new and established firms whereas only new small firms outperform their larger counterparts in the service sector. The large annual job creation of the small firm size class is shifting the firm size distribution towards the very small production units, although not uniformly across industries of different technology intensit
Evaluating the integration of chronic disease prevention and management services into primary health care
The challenges of upward regulatory harmonization: The case of sustainability reporting in the European Union
The Constitutionality of Competition - EC Internal Market Law and the Fine Line between Markets, Public Interests and (Self-)Regulation in a Changing Constitutional Setting
Effects of humic substances on the migration of radionuclides: Complexation of actinides with humic substances. (6th progress report, project summary) Period covered: January 1994 - July 1994
The goal of the research project is to examine the complexation behaviour of actinide ions with humic substances and thermodynamically describe the binding based upon a simple complexation model. This program is a continuation of the activities of the colloid and complexation group (COCO) in the second phase of the EC-MIRAGE project. A number of different experimental methods are used to determine speciation. The metal ions examined are the trivalent lanthanides, UO_2"2"+, NpO_2"+, Am"3"+, and Cm"3"+. The project is divided into three tasks: Task 1: complexation reactions of actinide ions with well characterized reference and site-specific humic and fulvic acids, Task 2: complexation reactions with major cations in natural groundwaters; Task 3: validation of the complexation data in natural aquatic systems by comparison of calculation with spectroscopic experiment. Five European community laboratories participated in the program: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique Fontenay-Aux-Roses and Saclay, Universitaet Mainz, Katolieke Universiteit Leuven, and Joint Research Centre, Ispra. The evaluated stability constants are similar for all laboratories when the same humic substance complexation model is applied. Humic acid is shown to reduce NpO_2"+ to Np"4"+, while no reduction of UO_2"2"+ is observed. Temperature effects are seen on the Np humate complex. Competition is observed between NpO_2"+ and Ca"2"+, but not between the trivalent lanthanides and Ca"2"+. No influence of humic acid purification on the evaluated stability constants is seen. Using the evaluated constants, calculations are conducted for natural water systems which indicate the trivalent actinide humate complex to be an important species. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RO 9945(01394) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekCommission of the European Communities (CEC), Brussels (Belgium)DEGerman