Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

Freshwater biodiversity is the over-riding conservation priority during the International Decade for Action - 'Water for Life' - 2005 to 2015. Fresh water makes up only 0.01% of the World's water and approximately 0.8% of the Earth's surface, yet this tiny fraction of global water supports at least 100000 species out of approximately 1.8 million - almost 6% of all described species. Inland waters and freshwater biodiversity constitute a valuable natural resource, in economic, cultural, aesthetic, scientific and educational terms. Their conservation and management are critical to the interests of all humans, nations and governments. Yet this precious heritage is in crisis. Fresh waters are experiencing declines in biodiversity far greater than those in the most affected terrestrial ecosystems, and if trends in human demands for water remain unaltered and species losses continue at current rates, the opportunity to conserve much of the remaining biodiversity in fresh water will vanish before the 'Water for Life' decade ends in 2015. Why is this so, and what is being done about it? This article explores the special features of freshwater habitats and the biodiversity they support that makes them especially vulnerable to human activities. We document threats to global freshwater biodiversity under five headings: overexploitation; water pollution; flow modification; destruction or degradation of habitat; and invasion by exotic species. Their combined and interacting influences have resulted in population declines and range reduction of freshwater biodiversity worldwide. Conservation of biodiversity is complicated by the landscape position of rivers and wetlands as 'receivers' of land-use effluents, and the problems posed by endemism and thus non-substitutability. In addition, in many parts of the world, fresh water is subject to severe competition among multiple human stakeholders. Protection of freshwater biodiversity is perhaps the ultimate conservation challenge because it is influenced by the upstream drainage network, the surrounding land, the riparian zone, and - in the case of migrating aquatic fauna - downstream reaches. Such prerequisites are hardly ever met. Immediate action is needed where opportunities exist to set aside intact lake and river ecosystems within large protected areas. For most of the global land surface, trade-offs between conservation of freshwater biodiversity and human use of ecosystem goods and services are necessary. We advocate continuing attempts to check species loss but, in many situations, urge adoption of a compromise position of management for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem functioning and resilience, and human livelihoods in order to provide a viable long-term basis for freshwater conservation. Recognition of this need will require adoption of a new paradigm for biodiversity protection and freshwater ecosystem management - one that has been appropriately termed 'reconciliation ecology'.

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVViewpointNEXTIdentifying Small Molecules via High Resolution Mass Spectrometry: Communicating ConfidenceEmma L. Schymanski*†, Junho Jeon†, Rebekka Gulde†‡, Kathrin Fenner†‡, Matthias Ruff†, Heinz P. Singer†, and Juliane Hollender*†‡View Author Information† Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland‡ Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zurich, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland*E-mail: [email protected]*E-mail: [email protected]Cite this: Environ. Sci. Technol. 2014, 48, 4, 2097–2098Publication Date (Web):January 29, 2014Publication History Received14 January 2014Accepted17 January 2014Published online29 January 2014Published inissue 18 February 2014https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/es5002105https://doi.org/10.1021/es5002105newsACS PublicationsCopyright © 2014 American Chemical Society. This publication is available under these Terms of Use. Request reuse permissions This publication is free to access through this site. Learn MoreArticle Views51321Altmetric-Citations2270LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail PDF (1 MB) Get e-AlertscloseSUBJECTS:Chemical structure,Mass spectrometry,Mathematical methods,Metabolomics,Molecular structure Get e-Alerts

The increasing worldwide contamination of freshwater systems with thousands of industrial and natural chemical compounds is one of the key environmental problems facing humanity. Although most of these compounds are present at low concentrations, many of them raise considerable toxicological concerns, particularly when present as components of complex mixtures. Here we review three scientific challenges in addressing water-quality problems caused by such micropollutants. First, tools to assess the impact of these pollutants on aquatic life and human health must be further developed and refined. Second, cost-effective and appropriate remediation and water-treatment technologies must be explored and implemented. Third, usage and disposal strategies, coupled with the search for environmentally more benign products and processes, should aim to minimize introduction of critical pollutants into the aquatic environment.

Reports that promote persulfate-based advanced oxidation process (AOP) as a viable alternative to hydrogen peroxide-based processes have been rapidly accumulating in recent water treatment literature. Various strategies to activate peroxide bonds in persulfate precursors have been proposed and the capacity to degrade a wide range of organic pollutants has been demonstrated. Compared to traditional AOPs in which hydroxyl radical serves as the main oxidant, persulfate-based AOPs have been claimed to involve different in situ generated oxidants such as sulfate radical and singlet oxygen as well as nonradical oxidation pathways. However, there exist controversial observations and interpretations around some of these claims, challenging robust scientific progress of this technology toward practical use. This Critical Review comparatively examines the activation mechanisms of peroxymonosulfate and peroxydisulfate and the formation pathways of oxidizing species. Properties of the main oxidizing species are scrutinized and the role of singlet oxygen is debated. In addition, the impacts of water parameters and constituents such as pH, background organic matter, halide, phosphate, and carbonate on persulfate-driven chemistry are discussed. The opportunity for niche applications is also presented, emphasizing the need for parallel efforts to remove currently prevalent knowledge roadblocks.

SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) is a comprehensive, semi-distributed river basin model that requires a large number of input parameters, which complicates model parameterization and calibration. Several calibration techniques have been developed for SWAT, including manual calibration procedures and automated procedures using the shuffled complex evolution method and other common methods. In addition, SWAT-CUP was recently developed and provides a decision-making framework that incorporates a semi-automated approach (SUFI2) using both manual and automated calibration and incorporating sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. In SWAT-CUP, users can manually adjust parameters and ranges iteratively between autocalibration runs. Parameter sensitivity analysis helps focus the calibration and uncertainty analysis and is used to provide statistics for goodness-of-fit. The user interaction or manual component of the SWAT-CUP calibration forces the user to obtain a better understanding of the overall hydrologic processes (e.g., baseflow ratios, ET, sediment sources and sinks, crop yields, and nutrient balances) and of parameter sensitivity. It is important for future calibration developments to spatially account for hydrologic processes; improve model run time efficiency; include the impact of uncertainty in the conceptual model, model parameters, and measured variables used in calibration; and assist users in checking for model errors. When calibrating a physically based model like SWAT, it is important to remember that all model input parameters must be kept within a realistic uncertainty range and that no automatic procedure can substitute for actual physical knowledge of the watershed.

We explore the role of lakes in carbon cycling and global climate, examine the mechanisms influencing carbon pools and transformations in lakes, and discuss how the metabolism of carbon in the inland waters is likely to change in response to climate. Furthermore, we project changes as global climate change in the abundance and spatial distribution of lakes in the biosphere, and we revise the estimate for the global extent of carbon transformation in inland waters. This synthesis demonstrates that the global annual emissions of carbon dioxide from inland waters to the atmosphere are similar in magnitude to the carbon dioxide uptake by the oceans and that the global burial of organic carbon in inland water sediments exceeds organic carbon sequestration on the ocean floor. The role of inland waters in global carbon cycling and climate forcing may be changed by human activities, including construction of impoundments, which accumulate large amounts of carbon in sediments and emit large amounts of methane to the atmosphere. Methane emissions are also expected from lakes on melting permafrost. The synthesis presented here indicates that (1) inland waters constitute a significant component of the global carbon cycle, (2) their contribution to this cycle has significantly changed as a result of human activities, and (3) they will continue to change in response to future climate change causing decreased as well as increased abundance of lakes as well as increases in the number of aquatic impoundments.

Here we present the results from an intercomparison of multiple global gridded crop models (GGCMs) within the framework of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project and the Inter-Sectoral Impacts Model Intercomparison Project. Results indicate strong negative effects of climate change, especially at higher levels of warming and at low latitudes; models that include explicit nitrogen stress project more severe impacts. Across seven GGCMs, five global climate models, and four representative concentration pathways, model agreement on direction of yield changes is found in many major agricultural regions at both low and high latitudes; however, reducing uncertainty in sign of response in mid-latitude regions remains a challenge. Uncertainties related to the representation of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and high temperature effects demonstrated here show that further research is urgently needed to better understand effects of climate change on agricultural production and to devise targeted adaptation strategies.

Hybridization has many and varied impacts on the process of speciation. Hybridization may slow or reverse differentiation by allowing gene flow and recombination. It may accelerate speciation via adaptive introgression or cause near-instantaneous speciation by allopolyploidization. It may have multiple effects at different stages and in different spatial contexts within a single speciation event. We offer a perspective on the context and evolutionary significance of hybridization during speciation, highlighting issues of current interest and debate. In secondary contact zones, it is uncertain if barriers to gene flow will be strengthened or broken down due to recombination and gene flow. Theory and empirical evidence suggest the latter is more likely, except within and around strongly selected genomic regions. Hybridization may contribute to speciation through the formation of new hybrid taxa, whereas introgression of a few loci may promote adaptive divergence and so facilitate speciation. Gene regulatory networks, epigenetic effects and the evolution of selfish genetic material in the genome suggest that the Dobzhansky-Muller model of hybrid incompatibilities requires a broader interpretation. Finally, although the incidence of reinforcement remains uncertain, this and other interactions in areas of sympatry may have knock-on effects on speciation both within and outside regions of hybridization.

Natural flood plains are among the most biologically productive and diverse ecosystems on earth. Globally, riverine flood plains cover > 2 × 10 6 km 2 , however, they are among the most threatened ecosystems. Floodplain degradation is closely linked to the rapid decline in freshwater biodiversity; the main reasons for the latter being habitat alteration, flow and flood control, species invasion and pollution. In Europe and North America, up to 90% of flood plains are already ‘cultivated’ and therefore functionally extinct. In the developing world, the remaining natural flood plains are disappearing at an accelerating rate, primarily as a result of changing hydrology. Up to the 2025 time horizon, the future increase of human population will lead to further degradation of riparian areas, intensification of the hydrological cycle, increase in the discharge of pollutants, and further proliferation of species invasions. In the near future, the most threatened flood plains will be those in south-east Asia, Sahelian Africa and North America. There is an urgent need to preserve existing, intact flood plain rivers as strategic global resources and to begin to restore hydrologic dynamics, sediment transport and riparian vegetation to those rivers that retain some level of ecological integrity. Otherwise, dramatic extinctions of aquatic and riparian species and of ecosystem services are faced within the next few decades.

This compilation contains critically evaluated kinetic data on elementary homogeneous gas phase for use in modelling processes. Data sheets are presented for some 196 Each data sheet sets out relevant data, rate coefficient measurements, an assessment of the reliability of the data, references, and recommended rate parameters. Tables summarizing the preferred rate data are also given. The considered are limited largely to those involved in the of and ethane in air but a few relevant to the chemistry of exhaust gases and to the of aromatic compounds are also included.

Water quality issues are a major challenge that humanity is facing in the twenty-first century. Here, we review the main groups of aquatic contaminants, their effects on human health, and approaches to mitigate pollution of freshwater resources. Emphasis is placed on chemical pollution, particularly on inorganic and organic micropollutants including toxic metals and metalloids as well as a large variety of synthetic organic chemicals. Some aspects of waterborne diseases and the urgent need for improved sanitation in developing countries are also discussed. The review addresses current scientific advances to cope with the great diversity of pollutants. It is organized along the different temporal and spatial scales of global water pollution. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) have affected water systems on a global scale for more than five decades; during that time geogenic pollutants, mining operations, and hazardous waste sites have been the most relevant sources of long-term regional and local water pollution. Agricultural chemicals and waste-water sources exert shorter-term effects on regional to local scales.

The genomic revolution has fundamentally changed how we survey biodiversity on earth. High-throughput sequencing ("HTS") platforms now enable the rapid sequencing of DNA from diverse kinds of environmental samples (termed "environmental DNA" or "eDNA"). Coupling HTS with our ability to associate sequences from eDNA with a taxonomic name is called "eDNA metabarcoding" and offers a powerful molecular tool capable of noninvasively surveying species richness from many ecosystems. Here, we review the use of eDNA metabarcoding for surveying animal and plant richness, and the challenges in using eDNA approaches to estimate relative abundance. We highlight eDNA applications in freshwater, marine and terrestrial environments, and in this broad context, we distill what is known about the ability of different eDNA sample types to approximate richness in space and across time. We provide guiding questions for study design and discuss the eDNA metabarcoding workflow with a focus on primers and library preparation methods. We additionally discuss important criteria for consideration of bioinformatic filtering of data sets, with recommendations for increasing transparency. Finally, looking to the future, we discuss emerging applications of eDNA metabarcoding in ecology, conservation, invasion biology, biomonitoring, and how eDNA metabarcoding can empower citizen science and biodiversity education.

While there is a general sense that lakes can act as sentinels of climate change, their efficacy has not been thoroughly analyzed. We identified the key response variables within a lake that act as indicators of the effects of climate change on both the lake and the catchment. These variables reflect a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological responses to climate. However, the efficacy of the different indicators is affected by regional response to climate change, characteristics of the catchment, and lake mixing regimes. Thus, particular indicators or combinations of indicators are more effective for different lake types and geographic regions. The extraction of climate signals can be further complicated by the influence of other environmental changes, such as eutrophication or acidification, and the equivalent reverse phenomena, in addition to other land-use influences. In many cases, however, confounding factors can be addressed through analytical tools such as detrending or filtering. Lakes are effective sentinels for climate change because they are sensitive to climate, respond rapidly to change, and integrate information about changes in the catchment.

The Activated Sludge Model No. 3 (ASM3) can predict oxygen consumption, sludge production, nitrification and denitrification of activated sludge systems. It relates to the Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) and corrects for some defects of ASM1. In addition to ASM1, ASM3 includes storage of organic substrates as a new process. The lysis (decay) process is exchanged for an endogenous respiration process. ASM3 is provided as a reference in a form which can be implemented in a computer code without further adjustments. Typical kinetic and stoichiometric parameters are provided for 10°C and 20°C together with the composition of a typical primary effluent in terms of the model components.

Partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) has been one of the most innovative developments in biological wastewater treatment in recent years. With its discovery in the 1990s a completely new way of ammonium removal from wastewater became available. Over the past decade many technologies have been developed and studied for their applicability to the PN/A concept and several have made it into full-scale. With the perspective of reaching 100 full-scale installations in operation worldwide by 2014 this work presents a summary of PN/A technologies that have been successfully developed, implemented and optimized for high-strength ammonium wastewaters with low C:N ratios and elevated temperatures. The data revealed that more than 50% of all PN/A installations are sequencing batch reactors, 88% of all plants being operated as single-stage systems, and 75% for sidestream treatment of municipal wastewater. Additionally an in-depth survey of 14 full-scale installations was conducted to evaluate practical experiences and report on operational control and troubleshooting. Incoming solids, aeration control and nitrate built up were revealed as the main operational difficulties. The information provided gives a unique/new perspective throughout all the major technologies and discusses the remaining obstacles.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. H. van Lente, Promising technology. The dynamics of expectations in technological developments, PhD Thesis, University of Twente, Enschede, 1993. 2. M. Michael, Futures of the present: from performativity to prehension, in: N. Brown, B. Rappert & A. Webster (Eds) Contested Futures: A Sociology of Prospective Techno-Science (Aldershot, UK, Ashgate, 2000). 3. M. Sturken, D. Thomas & S. J. Ball-Rokeach (Eds), Technological Visions. The Hopes and Fears that Shape New Technologies (Philadelphia, PA, Temple University Press, 2004). 4. N. Brown, B. Rappert & A. Webster (Eds), Contested Futures: A Sociology of Prospective Techno-Science (Aldershot, UK, Ashgate, 2000). 5. W. Bijker & J. Law (Eds), Shaping Technology/Building Society (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1992); A. Pickering (Ed.), Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 1992); B. Latour, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society (Milton Keynes, UK, Open University Press, 1987); J. Law (Ed.), A Sociology of Monsters—Essays on Power, Technology and Domination (London, Routledge, 1991). 6. H. van Lente & A. Rip, Expectations in technological developments: an example of prospective structures to be filled by agency, in: C. Disco & B. van der Meulen (Eds), Getting New Technologies Together. Studies in Making Sociotechnical Order (Berlin, De Gruyter, 1998). 7. J. Guice, Designing the future: the culture of new trends in science and technology, Research Policy, 28, 1999, pp. 81–98. 8. P. Martin, Great expectations: the construction of markets, products and user needs during the early development of gene therapy in the USA, in: R. Coombs, K. Green, A. Richards & V. Walsh (Eds), Technology and the Market: Demand, Users and Innovation (Cheltenham, UK, Edward Elgar, 2001); A. Hedgecoe & P. Martin, The drugs don't work: expectations and the shaping of pharmacogenetics, Social Studies of Science, 33, 2003, pp. 327–364. 9. C. Selin, Time matters: temporal harmony and dissonance in nanotechnology networks, Time & Society, 15, 2006, pp. 121–139. 10. H. Nowotny & U. Felt, After the Breakthrough—the Emergence of High-Temperature Superconductivity as a Research Field (Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 1997); M. Callon, Variety and irreversibility in networks of technique conception and adoption, in: D. Foray & C. Freeman (Eds), Technology and the Wealth of Nations—The Dynamics of Constructed Advantage (London, Pinter, 1993). 11. Van Lente, op. cit., Ref. 1; Van Lente & Rip, op. cit., Ref. 6; J. Deuten & A. Rip, Narrative infrastructure in product creation processes, Organization, 7, 2000, pp. 69–63; K. Konrad, Prägende Erwartungen—Szenarien als Schrittmacher der Technikentwicklung (Berlin, Edition Sigma, 2004). 12. N. Brown & M. Michael, A sociology of expectations: retrospecting prospects and prospecting retrospects, Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, 15, 2003, pp. 3–18. 13. M. Dierkes, U. Hoffman & L. Maez, Leitbild und Technik: Zur Entstehung und Steuerung technischer Innovationen (Berlin, Edition Sigma, 1992); W. Rammert, Die kulturelle Orientierung der technischen Entwicklung. Eine technikgenetische Perspektive, in: D. Siefkes, P. Eulenhöfer, H. Stach & K. Städtler, (Eds), Sozialgeschichte der Informatik. Soziale Praktiken und Orientierungen (Wiesbaden, Deutscher Universitäts Verlag, 1998); H. D. Hellige, Technikleitbilder auf dem Prüfstand: Leitbild-Assessment aus Sicht der Informatik- und Computergeschichte (Berlin, Edition Sigma, 1996). 14. For example, M. Akrich, The de-scription of technical objects, in: Bijker & Law, op. cit., Ref 5, pp. 205–224; W. B. Carlson, Artifacts and frames of meaning: Thomas A. Edison, his managers, and the cultural construction of motion pictures, in shaping technology/building society, in: Bijker & Law, op. cit., Ref 5; J. Jelsma, Innovating for sustainability: involving users, politics and technology, Innovation, 16, 2003, pp. 103–116; N. Oudshoorn & T. Pinch, How Users Matter: The Co-construction of Users and Technology (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2003). 15. B. De Laat, Scripts for the future: using innovation studies to design foresight tools, in: Brown et al., op. cit., Ref. 4; FORMAKIN, Final Report of the Formakin Project (Foresight as a Tool for the Management of Knowledge Flows and Innovation), York etc.: Science and Technology Studies Unit, University of York, 2001. An EU-TSERP project led by A.Webster, L. Sanz-Menéndez and B. van der Meulen. 16. C. Marvin, When Old Technologies were New (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990); M. Levin, When the Eiffel Tower was New: French Visions of Progress at the Centennial of the Revolution (Cambridge, MA, University of Massachusetts Press, 1989). 17. Ibid. 18. R. Kosellek, Futures Past—On the Semantics of Historical Time (Columbia, NY, Columbia University Press, 2004). 19. M. Weber, Politics as a vocation, in: H. Gerth & C. W. Mills (Eds), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958), pp. 77–128; G. H. Mead, The Philosophy of the Present (Chicago, IL, Chicago University Press, 1932); A. Schutz, On multiple realities, in: Collected Papers I, The Problem of Social Reality (The Hague, Alfred Schutz, 1962); A. Schutz, Tiresias, or our knowledge of future events, in: Collected Papers II, Studies in Social Theory (The Hague, Alfred Schutz, 1964); M. Emirbayer & A. Mische, What is agency?, American Journal of Sociology, 103(4), 1998, pp. 962–1023. 20. R. K. Merton, Socially expected durations: a case study of concept formation in sociology, in: W. Powell & R. Robbins (Eds), Conflict and Consensus: A Festschrift for L. Coser (New York, Free Press, 1984); B. Adam, Timescapes of Modernity: The Environment and Invisible Hazards (London, Routledge, 1998); B. Adam, Time and Social Theory (Cambridge, Polity, 1990); P. Virilio, The Information Bomb (London, Verso, 2000); P. Virilio, Speed and Politics (Columbia, NY, Columbia University Press, 1986). 21. F. Bartlett, Remembering. A study in Experiential and Social Psychology (Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 1995); P. Jedlowski, Memory and sociology: themes and issues, Time and Society, 10, 2001, pp. 29–44; M. Halbwacks, La Memoire Collective (Paris, Albin Michel, 1997). 22. J. M. Barbalet, Social emotions: confidence, trust and loyalty, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 16(9/10), 1996, pp. 75–96. 23. R. K. Merton, The self-fulfilling prophecy, The Antioch Review, 8, 1948, pp. 193–210. 24. N. Rosenberg, On technological expectations, The Economic Journal, 86, 1976, pp. 523–535; N. Rosenberg, On technological expectations, in: N. Rosenberg (Ed.), Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics (Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 104–119; C. Antonelli, The role of technological expectations in a mixed model of international diffusion of process innovations: the case of open-end spinning rotors, Research Policy, 18, 1989, pp. 273–288; F. Lissoni, Technological expectations and the diffusion of 'intermediate' technologies, CRIC (Manchester), Working Paper No. 8, August 1999; D. S. Boone, K. N. Lemon & R. Staelin, The impact of firm introductory strategies on consumers' perceptions of future product introductions and purchase decisions, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 18(2), 2001, pp. 96–109. 25. K. Froot, D. Scharfstein & J. Stein, Herd on the street: informational efficiencies in a market with short-term speculation, Journal of Finance, 47, 1992, pp. 1461–1484; S. Bikhchandani & S. Sharma, Herd behavior in financial markets, IMF Staff Papers, 47(3), 2001. 26. R. M. Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 2nd edn (Oxford, Blackwell, 1995). 27. G. Reger, Technology foresight in companies: from an indicator to a network and process perspective, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 13(4), 2001, pp. 533–553. 28. R. Koppl, Big Players and the Economic Theory of Expectations (London, Palgrave, 2002); J. Pixley, Finance organisations, decisions and emotions, British Journal of Sociology, 53(1), 2002, pp. 41–65. 29. De Laat, op. cit., Ref. 15; H.van Lente, From promises to requirement, in: Brown et al., op. cit., Ref. 4. 30. Konrad, op. cit., Ref. 11; Van Lente, op. cit., Ref. 29. 31. F. Geels & W. Smit, Lessons form failed technology futures: potholes in the road to the future', in Ref 4, pp. 881–882. 32. 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A combination of driving forces are increasing pressure on local, national, and regional water supplies needed for irrigation, energy production, industrial uses, domestic purposes, and the environment. In many parts of Europe groundwater quantity, and in particular quality, have come under sever degradation and water levels have decreased resulting in negative environmental impacts. Rapid improvements in the economy of the eastern European block of countries and uncertainties with regard to freshwater availability create challenges for water managers. At the same time, climate change adds a new level of uncertainty with regard to freshwater supplies. In this research we build and calibrate an integrated hydrological model of Europe using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) program. Different components of water resources are simulated and crop yield and water quality are considered at the Hydrological Response Unit (HRU) level. The water resources are quantified at subbasin level with monthly time intervals. Leaching of nitrate into groundwater is also simulated at a finer spatial level (HRU). The use of large-scale, high-resolution water resources models enables consistent and comprehensive examination of integrated system behavior through physically-based, data-driven simulation. In this article we discuss issues with data availability, calibration of large-scale distributed models, and outline procedures for model calibration and uncertainty analysis. The calibrated model and results provide information support to the European Water Framework Directive and lay the basis for further assessment of the impact of climate change on water availability and quality. The approach and methods developed are general and can be applied to any large region around the world.

Microbial communities are at the heart of all ecosystems, and yet microbial community behavior in disturbed environments remains difficult to measure and predict. Understanding the drivers of microbial community stability, including resistance (insensitivity to disturbance) and resilience (the rate of recovery after disturbance) is important for predicting community response to disturbance. Here, we provide an overview of the concepts of stability that are relevant for microbial communities. First, we highlight insights from ecology that are useful for defining and measuring stability. To determine whether general disturbance responses exist for microbial communities, we next examine representative studies from the literature that investigated community responses to press (long-term) and pulse (short-term) disturbances in a variety of habitats. Then we discuss the biological features of individual microorganisms, of microbial populations, and of microbial communities that may govern overall community stability. We conclude with thoughts about the unique insights that systems perspectives - informed by meta-omics data- may provide about microbial community stability.

This study investigates the oxidation of pharmaceuticals during conventional ozonation and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) applied in drinking water treatment. In a first step, second-order rate constants for the reactions of selected pharmaceuticals with ozone (k(O3)) and OH radicals (k(OH)) were determined in bench-scale experiments (in brackets apparent k(O3) at pH 7 and T = 20 degrees C): bezafibrate (590 +/- 50 M(-1) s(-1)), carbamazepine (approximately 3 x 10(5) M(-1) s(-1)), diazepam (0.75 +/- 0.15 M(-1) s(-1)), diclofenac (approximately 1 x 10(6) M(-1) s(-1)), 17alpha-ethinylestradiol (approximately 3 x 10(6) M(-1) s(-1)), ibuprofen (9.6 +/- 1.0 M(-1) s(-1)), iopromide (<0.8 M(-1) s(-1)), sulfamethoxazole (approximately 2.5 x 10(6) M(-1) s(-1)), and roxithromycin (approximately 7 x 10(4) M(-1) s(-1)). For five of the pharmaceuticals the apparent k(O3) at pH 7 was >5 x 10(4) M(-1) s(-1), indicating that these compounds are completely transformed during ozonation processes. Values for k(OH) ranged from 3.3 to 9.8 x 10(9) M(-1) s(-1). Compared to other important micropollutants such as MTBE and atrazine, the selected pharmaceuticals reacted about two to three times faster with OH radicals. In the second part of the study, oxidation kinetics of the selected pharmaceuticals were investigated in ozonation experiments performed in different natural waters. It could be shown that the second-order rate constants determined in pure aqueous solution could be applied to predict the behavior of pharmaceuticals dissolved in natural waters. Overall it can be concluded that ozonation and AOPs are promising processes for an efficient removal of pharmaceuticals in drinking waters.

This compilation updates and expands a previous evaluation of kinetic data on elementary, homogeneous, gas phase reactions of neutral species involved in combustion systems [J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 21, 411 (1992)]. The work has been carried out under the auspices of the European Community Energy Research and Development Program. Data sheets are presented for some 78 reactions and two tables in which preferred rate parameters are presented for reactions of ethyl, i-propyl, t-butyl, and allyl radicals are given. Each data sheet sets our relevant thermodynamic data, experimental kinetic data, references, and recommended rate parameters with their error limits. A table summarizing the recommended rate data is also given. The new reactions fall into two categories: first, to expand the previous compilation relating largely to the combustion in air of methane, ethane and aromatic compounds; and second, provide data for some of the key radicals involved in the combustion of higher alkanes.