Crossegholm6287

The Ministry of Environmental Protection released a Joint Action Plan for Control of Air Pollution (Hereafter, Joint Action Plan, JAP), to reduce PM2.5 concentrations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH) during the winter of 2017. To investigate the effectiveness of the controls, we deployed an aerosol chemical speciation monitor and collected filter samples at Xianghe, a representative site for the BTH, to characterize the aerosol composition during the implementation of the JAP. Those results were compared with earlier data obtained from a literature survey and reanalysis of studies in the BTH. During several pollution episodes in the control period, the major aerosol types changed relative to the earlier studies from sulfate, oxygenated organic aerosol, and coal combustion organic aerosol to nitrate and biomass burning organic aerosol. The dominant secondary inorganic aerosol species during the JAP changed from sulfate to nitrate, and the main source for primary organic aerosol switched from coal combustion to biomass burning. These changes can be explained by the fact that the JAP controls targeted coal combustion and SO2 but not biomass burning or NOx emissions. Our evaluation of the control measures provides a scientific basis for developing new policies in the future. V.China's carbon-embedded growth trajectory is gradually becoming a burden to environmental sustainability, hence, requires much attention. The complexity of human capital attributed emissions coupled with fossil fuel inclined energy utilization for industrialization underscores the failure of China to meet its mitigation target. We developed a policy-driven conceptual tool based on disaggregate energy utilization, human capital, trade, income level and natural resource exploitation in a carbon and environmental degradation function. Using a battery of statistics and econometric techniques such as neural network, SIMPLS, U test, dynamic ARDL Simulations, and Prais-Winsten first-order autoregressive [AR(1)] regression with robust standard errors, we examined the theme based on a data spanning 1961-2016. The study demonstrates that fossil fuel energy consumption and human capital are conducive catalysts for climate change. The instantaneous increase in renewable energy, environmental sustainability and income level has a diminishing effect on emissions and environmental degradation. The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is validated in both emissions and degradation function - at a turning point of US$ 5469.79 and US$ 5863.70, respectively. The study highlights that the over-dependence on fossil fuel energy and natural resources for economic development, carbon-intensive trade and carbon-embedded human capital, thwart efforts to mitigating climate change and its impacts. Thus, the onus of responsibility for achieving a cleaner environment in China depends majorly on governmental policies that favour or dampens environmental sustainability. Macroalgae are being consumed by a growing number of people as functional food. Therefore, they are intensively cultivated to meet the rising demand. Mariculture is a potential source of microplastics (MPs). However, as a potential source of microplastics, little is known regarding the MPs pollution in macroalgae of open sea macriculture. Here we investigated the MPs characteristics in macroalgae in three sections of Haizhou Bay, an important mariculture area in China, during Pyropia culture (Pyropia yezoensis) and non-culture periods (Ulva prolifera, Sargassum horneri, Cladophora sp., Undaria pinnatifida, Ulva pertusa). It was found that P. yezoensis during the culture period had higher MPs abundance (0.17 ± 0.08 particles g-1fresh weight) than other macroalgae (0.12 ± 0.09 particles g-1 fresh weight) during the non-culture period, particularly for the nearshore sections. There were more fiber MPs in P. yezoensis (90.43%) in culture period compared to macroalgae (84.46%) in non-culture period. Highly similar spectrum of plastics in culture gears and macroalgae was verified. Pyropia culture gears released about 1, 037 tons plastics into the environment annually and the MPs abundances in seawater during the culture and non-culture periods were 1.04 ± 0.32 and 1.86 ± 0.49 particles L-1, respectively. The gap of MPs abundance between the two periods can be attributed to the tremendous trapping by massive biomass of P. yezoensis during the culture period and the continuous plastic release during the non-culture period. This study indicates that culture gears of macroalgae could be an important MPs source and the MPs can be transferred to human by edible macroalgae, and meanwhile macroalgae may be ideal biomonitors for MPs pollution in seawater due to their unbiased trapping and immovability. Water companies are responsible for supplying water to customers 24 h per day. However, due to extreme natural events and/or anthropogenic actions, water companies suffer from unplanned water supply interruptions, which directly impact customers and incur expenses by the companies. In this study, for the first time, we estimated the shadow price (or implicit cost) of unplanned water supply interruptions using stochastic frontier techniques for a sample of 21 Chilean water companies over the period of 2007-2017. The results indicate that, on average, the Chilean water company needed to spend an extra 2.547€ in operating expenditures to avoid 1 h of interruption. 5-(N-Ethyl-N-isopropyl)-Amiloride Average shadow price of unplanned water supply interruptions was higher for concessionary and full private companies than public ones. These findings demonstrate that the regulatory agency may need to promote effective policies and incentives to ensure and improve the continuity of the water supply. This is very relevant to the Chilean water industry, where there is an ongoing policy debate regarding the use of penalties and compensations as an incentive to avoid unplanned water supply interruptions. The study of intermittent rivers is a critical and timely issue due to their worldwide increase, triggered by several causes including climate change. The need to understand the response of intermittent river biota to water intermittency led us to conduct this study using benthic diatoms collected in southern Portugal. Benthic diatoms were explored in terms of assemblages, diversity indices, the Specific Pollution Sensitivity (SPI) Index, functional metrics (i.e. ecological guilds and life-forms) and conservation status. We verified that changes in water physico-chemical characteristics were highly controlled by flow intermittency, which in turn is directly linked to meteorological variables (air temperature and precipitation). Changes in diatom assemblages reflect the aquatic regime of sites, changes in aquatic states through time and mesohabitats (dry biofilm, samples collected in pools or under flowing conditions). Species richness, on the other hand, did not reflect these differences, whilst Shannon diversity and Pielou's Evenness indices only reflected mesohabitat differences.