Renewable energy in remote communities

This article is the result of a competitively tendered University-funded project, this brings together two major Government Policy areas: sustainable communities and use of carbon fuels, and is aimed at influencing the policy debate on the difficulties of linking remote communities to renewable energy production because of poor distribution networks. Linkage with the Sustainable Communities agenda is an essential ingredient, as the proposal is that the renewable energy technologies will be installed and maintained by the communities themselves

Macrophyte abundance in Waquoit Bay : effects of land-derived nitrogen loads on seasonal and multi-year biomass patterns

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Estuaries and Coasts 31 (2008): 532-541, doi:10.1007/s12237-008-9039-6.Anthropogenic inputs of nutrients to coastal waters have rapidly restructured coastal ecosystems. To examine the response of macrophyte communities to land-derived nitrogen loading, we measured macrophyte biomass monthly for six years in three estuaries subject to different nitrogen loads owing to different land uses on the watersheds. The set of estuaries sampled had nitrogen loads over the broad range of 12 to 601 kg N ha-1 y-1. Macrophyte biomass increased as nitrogen loads increased, but the response of individual taxa varied. Specifically, biomass of Cladophora vagabunda and Gracilaria tikvahiae increased significantly as nitrogen loads increased. The biomass of other macroalgal taxa tended to decrease with increasing load, and the relative proportion of these taxa to total macrophyte biomass also decreased. The seagrass, Zostera marina, disappeared from the higher loaded estuaries, but remained abundant in the estuary with the lowest load. Seasonal changes in macroalgal standing stock were also affected by nitrogen load, with larger fluctuations in biomass across the year and higher minimum biomass of macroalgae in the higher loaded estuaries. There were no significant changes in macrophyte biomass over the six years of this study, but there was a slight trend of increasing macroalgal biomass in the latter years. Macroalgal biomass was not related to irradiance or temperature, but Z. marina biomass was highest during the summer months when light and temperatures peak. Irradiance might, however, be a secondary limiting factor controlling macroalgal biomass in the higher loaded estuaries by restricting the depth of the macroalgal canopy. The relationship between the bloom-forming macroalgal species, C. vagabunda and G. tikvahiae, and nitrogen loads suggested a strong connection between development on watersheds and macroalgal blooms and loss of seagrasses. The influence of watershed land uses largely overwhelmed seasonal and inter-annual differences in standing stock of macrophytes in these temperate estuaries.This research was supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technologies (CICEET-UNH#99-304, NOAA NA87OR512), NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve Graduate Research Fellowship NERRS GRF, #NA77OR0228), and an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) STAR Fellowship for Graduate Environmental Study (U-915335-01-0) awarded to J. Hauxwell. S. Fox was supported by a NOAA NERRS GRF (#NA03NOS4200132) and an EPA STAR Graduate Research Fellowship. We also thank the Quebec-Labrador Foundation Atlantic Center for the Environment's Sounds Conservancy Program and the Boston University Ablon/Bay Committee for their awarding research funds

Smart homes and their users:a systematic analysis and key challenges

Published research on smart homes and their users is growing exponentially, yet a clear understanding of who these users are and how they might use smart home technologies is missing from a field being overwhelmingly pushed by technology developers. Through a systematic analysis of peer-reviewed literature on smart homes and their users, this paper takes stock of the dominant research themes and the linkages and disconnects between them. Key findings within each of nine themes are analysed, grouped into three: (1) views of the smart home-functional, instrumental, socio-technical; (2) users and the use of the smart home-prospective users, interactions and decisions, using technologies in the home; and (3) challenges for realising the smart home-hardware and software, design, domestication. These themes are integrated into an organising framework for future research that identifies the presence or absence of cross-cutting relationships between different understandings of smart homes and their users. The usefulness of the organising framework is illustrated in relation to two major concerns-privacy and control-that have been narrowly interpreted to date, precluding deeper insights and potential solutions. Future research on smart homes and their users can benefit by exploring and developing cross-cutting relationships between the research themes identified

Sources and sinks of nutrients and pollutants in Cullera Bay

[EN] Water quality plays a very important role in the ecological balance and economic development of coastal and estuarine areas. However, these areas have been progressively degraded in recent decades due to different factors, including an increase in nutrient and pollutant loads introduced into the system, which may cause eutrophication problems. This paper analyzes the water quality of one such area, Cullera Bay, located on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. This study focuses on the main sources and sinks of pollutant substances and the relationship between the distribution of these substances within the bay and local meteorological and oceanographic conditions. Two main sources of nutrients and pollutants were identified: the discharges of the Júcar River and the marine outfall, although other secondary sources are also present. The river discharge varies greatly depending on the season. The freshwater it carries is very rich in nutrients due to the presence of fertilizers and pesticides from its agricultural use. The domestic wastewater discharged through the marine outfall is occasionally untreated, particularly in the summer, when the tourist population increases and the capacity of the water treatment plant is exceeded. This study is based on data recorded during nine field campaigns carried out in the area in 2002 and 2003 and numerical simulations of hydrodynamics and pollutant dispersion. By analyzing the field data and the numerical simulation results, wind is identified as the main driving factor in the bay because the other possible driving factors either have negligible effects (tide), affect only a very localized area (waves, usual river discharges) or are infrequent (storm surges, river floods).The European Community funded this study as a part of the ECOSUD ‘‘Estuaries and Coastal Areas. Basis and Tools for a More Sustainable Development’’ (reference no. ICA4-CT-2001-10027) and AQUAS ‘‘Water quality and sustainable aquaculture. Links and implications’’ (reference no. INCOCT-2005-015105) projects. It was also funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, through the project ‘‘Desarrollo y optimizacio´n de te´cnicas para gestionar los vertidos de aguas residuales de emisarios submarinos (ARTEMISA)’’(Reference no. REN2003-07585-C02-01/MAR).Sierra, J.; Mösso, C.; González Del Rio Rams, J.; Mestres, M.; Cupul, L.; Sánchez-Arcilla, A.; Rodilla Alamá, M.... (2007). Sources and sinks of nutrients and pollutants in Cullera Bay. Journal of Coastal Research. SI47:31-39. doi:10.2112/1551-5036-47.sp1.31S3139SI4

Interaction between Ammonium Toxicity and Green Tide Development Over Seagrass Meadows:A Laboratory Study

Eutrophication affects seagrasses negatively by increasing light attenuation through stimulation of biomass of fast-growing, bloom-forming algae and because high concentrations of ammonium in the water can be toxic to higher plants. We hypothesized nevertheless, that moderate amounts of nitrophilic macroalgae that coexists with seagrasses under eutrophic conditions, can alleviate the harmful effects of eutrophication on seagrasses by reducing ammonium concentrations in the seawater to non-toxic levels because such algae have a very large capacity to take up inorganic nutrients. We studied therefore how combinations of different ammonium concentrations (0, 25 and 50 μM) and different standing stocks of macroalgae (i.e. 0, 1 and 6 layers of Ulva sp.) affected survival, growth and net production of the seagrass Zostera noltei. In the absence of Ulva sp., increasing ammonium concentrations had a negative influence on the performance of Z. noltei. The presence of Ulva sp. without ammonium supply had a similar, but slightly smaller, negative effect on seagrass fitness due to light attenuation. When ammonium enrichment was combined with presence of Ulva sp., Ulva sp. ameliorated some of negative effects caused by high ammonium availability although Ulva sp. lowered the availability of light. Benthic microalgae, which increased in biomass during the experiment, seemed to play a similar role as Ulva sp.--they contributed to remove ammonium from the water, and thus, aided to keep the ammonium concentrations experienced by Z. noltei at relatively non-toxic levels. Our findings show that moderate amounts of drift macroalgae, eventually combined with increasing stocks of benthic microalgae, may aid seagrasses to alleviate toxic effects of ammonium under eutrophic conditions, which highlights the importance of high functional diversity for ecosystem resistance to anthropogenic disturbance

Resistance or covert infection: baculovirus studies re-examined

Recently, Boots & Begon (1993) described the development of resistance to granulosis virus (GV) (Baculoviridae) infection in the moth Plodia interpunctella, following prolonged exposure to virus in laboratory cultures. Resistant insects exhibited reduced fitness in other respects, namely slower development and reduced egg viability, compared to control insects. These results were interpreted as pleiotropic effects of selection at the loci controlling resistance. Similar results have been described in a previous study: Fuxa & Richter (1989) used artificial selection to increase resistance to nuclear polyhedrasis virus (NPV) (Baculoviridae) infection in the moth Spodoptera frugiperda. The resulting gain in resistance they interpreted as the result of an increase in the frequency of alleles conferring resistance. Again, resistant insects exhibited maladaptive traits compared to controls, including a shorter adult life span, reduced number of eggs and reduced egg viability. In both studies the suggestion is made that selection against maladaptive traits will result in a decline in resistance, once selection for resistance is removed. Boots & Begon (1993) described a decrease in development time (towards that of control insects) within two generations of removing selection for resistance. Fuxa & Richter (1989) describe a decrease in resistance, so that within two generations of relaxing selection, previously resistant lines were not significantly more resistant than control insects. .

Parasitoids with potential for the control of Hypsipyla grandella in Latin America

Hypsipyla grandella (Zeller) is the most important insect pest of the Meliaceae in the Neotropics. This paper reviews the information on H. grandella parasitoids in Latin America and the Caribbean. Preliminary data on the parasitoid complex in Turrialba, Costa Rica, are presented, where apparent parasitisation of H. grandella during 1995–1996 reached 36%. The lowest level of parasitisation occurred during the dry season. The parasitoid Apanteles sp. (= Hypomicrogaster hypsipylae de Santis?) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) was the most abundant larval parasitoid with a mean of 22 parasitoids per parasitised larva and a sex ratio of 3:1 females to males. Brachymeria conica Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Chalcididae) was found parasitising pupae, but at low frequenc