Emission Factors for Aqueous Industrial Cadmium Discharges to the Rhine Basin. A Historical Reconstruction of the Period 1970-1988

The report, by reviewing the relevant literature and synthesizing data on economic technologies, trade, and environmental monitoring, provides an analysis of the aqueous emissions of cadmium from industrial point sources in the Rhine Basin from 1970-1988. The report not only provides valuable input to our study of the Basin, but also demonstrates a methodology by which historical reconstructions of aqueous pollution can be attained and utilized in assessing long-term environmental trends. This historical Rhine Basin study provides a much needed database for further understanding of the institutional, political, and social factors that shaped the pollution landscape in previous decades and led to the remarkable cleanup that has occurred more recently. Such information is urgently needed for guiding policies, particularly in the newly industrialized regions of the world, such as southeast China, and in highly polluted river basins, such as in Eastern Europe

Aqueous Emission Factors for the Industrial Discharges of Cadmium in the Rhine River Basin in the Period 1970-1990: An Inventory

This report contains an overview of the development of aqueous point source emission factors for cadmium in the Rhine River basin in the period 1970-1988. Based on these emission factors the aqueous emissions of cadmium for different industrial activities in the basin are calculated. For some activities defining emission factors does not make sense, since their cadmium emission is determined by e.g. ore or scrap purchase policy and not by the applied process technology. The overall cadmium emission to the Rhine and to its tributaries is compared with the point source component of in-basin cadmium monitoring data. The results show reasonable agreement. Further study is required to include hydrological characteristics in a tributary-Rhine model, in order to justify the comparison of monitoring data and emission estimates. In the table below, a summary of all the calculated point source emissions in time and per branch is given. A second table provides an overview of the development of emission factors for point source emissions in the Rhine River basin in time

Do Grass and Legume Vitamin Contents Change During Extended Growth in Spring?

Herbage vitamins affect performance of grazing and grass-fed cattle. In silages, knowledge of vitamin contents in herbage is desired to balance supplements in indoor feeding rations. This is of particular interest in organic farming systems. Information on companion species effects in grass-legume mixtures on changes during prolonged growth is scarce, while this is relevant in view of delayed harvests that frequently occur in practice. Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) was sown with either red clover (Trifolium repens), white clover (Trifolium pratense), lucerne (Medicago sativa) or birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), and white clover with hybrid ryegrass (Lolium x boucheanum), meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis) or timothy (Phleum pratense). Yield and concentrations of alpha-tocopherol, betacarotene and lutein were studied during two years in Denmark under a silage cutting regime. Data were collected during two harvest years in May in replicated plots. The dynamic development of compounds was investigated during two-week intervals. Herbage samples were hand-separated and individual species were analysed. The contents of alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene and lutein differed among species, as did rates of decline during 2-week growth intervals. Outcomes are discussed in relation options for designing grassland mixtures for sustainable agricultural systems

Effect of Perennial Ryegrass Cultivars on the Fatty Acid Composition in Milk of Stall-Fed Cows

Herbage provides bulk feed for ruminants and plant lipids, especially C18:3, are a major source of benefical fatty acids (FA) in milk. There are very few direct comparisons allowing a precise evaluation of the effects of the basal forage diet on milk FA composition. Grass quality differences can affect rumen metabolism and there could be opportunities to change the composition of ruminant products through choice of grass cultivar. To test this hypothesis, six cultivars were fed to dairy cows in a stall-feeding trial with fresh grass to evaluate the effect of grass cultivar on rumen VFA and milk FA composition during the growing season

Effectiveness of cattail (Typha spp.) management techniques depends on exogenous nitrogen inputs

Wetlands occupy a position in the landscape that makes them vulnerable to the effects of current land use and the legacies of past land use. Many wetlands in agricultural regions like the North American Midwest are strongly affected by elevated nutrient inputs as well as high rates of invasion by the hybrid cattail Typha × glauca. These two stressors also exacerbate each other: increased nutrients increase invasion success, and invasions increase nutrient retention and nutrient loads in the wetland. This interaction could create a positive feedback that would inhibit efforts to manage and control invasions, but little is known about the effects of past or present nutrient inputs on wetland invasive plant management. We augmented a previously-published community-ecosystem model (MONDRIAN) to simulate the most common invasive plant management tools: burning, mowing, and herbicide application. We then simulated different management strategies and 3 different durations in low and high nutrient input conditions, and found that the most effective management strategy and duration depends strongly on the amount of nutrients entering the wetland. In high-nutrient wetlands where invasions were most successful, a combination of herbicide and fire was most effective at reducing invasion. However, in low-nutrient wetlands this approach did little to reduce invasion. A longer treatment duration (6 years) was generally better than a 1-year treatment in high-nutrient wetlands, but was generally worse than the 1-year treatment in low-nutrient wetlands. At the ecosystem level, we found that management effects were relatively modest: there was little effect of management on ecosystem C storage, and while some management strategies decreased wetland nitrogen retention, this effect was transient and disappeared shortly after management ceased. Our results suggest that considering nutrient inputs in invaded wetlands can inform and improve management, and reducing nutrient inputs is an important component of an effective management strateg

Plant Size and Competitive Dynamics along Nutrient Gradients

Resource competition theory in plants has focused largely on resource acquisition traits that are independent of size, such as traits of individual leaves or roots or proportional allocation to different functions. However, plants also differ in maximum potential size, which could outweigh differences in module-level traits. We used a community ecosystem model called mondrian to investigate whether larger size inevitably increases competitive ability and how size interacts with nitrogen supply. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that bigger is better, we found that invader success and competitive ability are unimodal functions of maximum potential size, such that plants that are too large (or too small) are disproportionately suppressed by competition. Optimal size increases with nitrogen supply, even when plants compete for nitrogen only in a size-symmetric manner, although adding size-asymmetric competition for light does substantially increase the advantage of larger size at high nitrogen. These complex interactions of plant size and nitrogen supply lead to strong nonlinearities such that small differences in nitrogen can result in large differences in plant invasion success and the influence of competition along productivity gradients

Fibre Degradation Rate of Perennial Ryegrass Varieties Measured Using Three Techniques: \u3cem\u3eIn Situ\u3c/em\u3e Nylon Bag, \u3cem\u3ein Vivo\u3c/em\u3e Rumen Evacuation and \u3cem\u3ein Vitro\u3c/em\u3e Gas Production

In Western Europe, perennial ryegrass is the most widely used grass species for grazing cattle, because of its high productivity, palatability and nutritive value. However, the low dry matter intake (DMI) of perennial ryegrass pasture has been identified as a major factor limiting milk production of high producing dairy cows. Altering the chemical, physical and mechanical characteristics that contribute to its low DMI through grass breeding and the choice of variety may be a way forward in trying to maximise its DMI. This study aimed to examine whether perennial ryegrass varieties differ in their NDF degradation rates (kdNDF)

AKK-Witte Motor op Groene Brandstof

CONO Kaasmakers (zuivelproducent), De Heus Brokking Koudijs (diervoederproducent) en Barenbrug Holland BV (grassenveredelingsbedrijf) willen gezamenlijk duurzame melk met een betere vetzuursamenstelling produceren om gezondere kaas te ontwikkelen en in de markt te introduceren. Dit doen zij vanuit een eigen duurzaamheidsvisie en een marktgerichte oriëntatie. Er vindt wetenschappelijk onderzoek plaats naar een optimale samenstelling van voer om jaarrond melk te produceren met voldoende en de juiste onverzadigde vetzuren. Op het onderzoek volgt het selecteren en beproeven van maatregelen om de optimale kwaliteit te realiseren. Tenslotte wordt een marktconcept ontwikkeld om de verbeterde producten in de markt te positioneren. Een belangrijk resultaat is verbetering van de kwaliteit en het imago van melkvet wat gunstig kan uitwerken voor de melkveehouderij en de zuivelindustrie. Verbetering van de kaaskwaliteit (smaak, gezondheid, duurzame productie) is relevant voor de internationale concurrentiepositi

Evaluation of semiautomated internal carotid artery stenosis quantification from 3-dimensional contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiograms

Rationale and Objectives: The performance of a semiautomatic technique for internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis quantification of the internal carotid artery in contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography was evaluated. Materials and Methods: The degree of stenosis of 52 ICAs was quantified by measuring the cross-sectional area along the center lumen line. This was performed both by 3 independent observers and the semiautomated method. The degree of stenosis was defined as the amount of cross-sectional lumen reduction. Results: Agreement between the method and observers was good (weighted-kappa, kappa(w) = 0.89). Reproducibility of measurements of the semiautomated technique was better (kappa(w) = 0.97) than that of the observers (kappa(w) = 0.76), and the evaluated technique was considerably less time-consuming. Conclusions: Because the user interaction is limited, this technique can be used to replace an expert observer in 3-dimensional stenosis quantification of the ICA at CE-MRA in clinical practice