Search results for "environmental"

Analytical Process

2016

Exposure to mercury among 9-year-old Spanish children: Associated factors and trend throughout childhood

2019

Mercury is considered a neurotoxicant and human exposure occurs mainly from the consumption of marine species. We aimed to describe total mercury concentrations (THg) and associated factors in 9-year old children, as well as to explore the trend in THg from 4 to 9 years of age. The study population consisted of 9-year-old children participating in the INMA (Environment and Childhood) birth cohort study in Valencia, Spain (n = 405, 2013–2014). THg in hair samples was measured by atomic absorption spectrometry at the age of 4 and 9 years. Sociodemographic and dietary data was obtained through questionnaires. Multiple linear regression was used to explore the association between THg and covari…

Application of entropic approach to estimate the mean flow velocity and Manning roughness coefficient in a high-curvature flume

2016

The entropy-based approach allows the estimation of the mean flow velocity in open channel flow by using the maximum flow velocity. The linear relationship between the mean velocity, umax, and the mean flow velocity, um, through the dimensionless parameter Φ(M), has been verified both in natural rivers and in laboratory channels. Recently, the authors of this study investigated the reliability of the entropy-based formula in a straight channel and under different bed and side-walls' roughness conditions. The present study aims to further validate the entropy-based approach and to explore the effectiveness of entropy-based formula in high curvature channels. Results show that as the effect o…

Spatio-temporal patterns of thermal anomalies and drought over tropical forests driven by recent extreme climatic anomalies

2018

The recent 2015–2016 El Niño (EN) event was considered as strong as the EN in 1997–1998. Given such magnitude, it was expected to result in extreme warming and moisture anomalies in tropical areas. Here we characterize the spatial patterns of temperature anomalies and drought over tropical forests, including tropical South America (Amazonia), Africa and Asia/Indonesia during the 2015–2016 EN event. These spatial patterns of warming and drought are compared with those observed in previous strong EN events (1982–1983 and 1997–1998) and other moderate to strong EN events (e.g. 2004–2005 and 2009–2010). The link between the spatial patterns of drought and sea surface temperature anomalies in th…

Potential impacts of a future Nordic bioeconomy on surface water quality

2020

AbstractNordic water bodies face multiple stressors due to human activities, generating diffuse loading and climate change. The ‘green shift’ towards a bio-based economy poses new demands and increased pressure on the environment. Bioeconomy-related pressures consist primarily of more intensive land management to maximise production of biomass. These activities can add considerable nutrient and sediment loads to receiving waters, posing a threat to ecosystem services and good ecological status of surface waters. The potential threats of climate change and the ‘green shift’ highlight the need for improved understanding of catchment-scale water and element fluxes. Here, we assess possible bio…

Spectral biases in tree-ring climate proxies

2013

Seamless quantification of past and present climate variability is needed to understand the Earth’s climate well enough to make accurate predictions for the future. This study addresses whether tree-ring-dominated proxy data properly represent the frequency spectrum of true climate variability. The results challenge the validity of detection and attribution investigations based on these data. External forcing and internal dynamics result in climate system variability ranging from sub-daily weather to multi-centennial trends and beyond1,2. State-of-the-art palaeoclimatic methods routinely use hydroclimatic proxies to reconstruct temperature (for example, refs 3, 4), possibly blurring differe…

Vegetation vulnerability to drought in Spain

2014

[EN] Frequency of climatic extremes like long duration droughts has increased in Spain over the last century.The use of remote sensing observations for monitoring and detecting drought is justified on the basis that vegetation vigor is closely related to moisture condition. We derive satellite estimates of bio-physical variables such as fractional vegetation cover (FVC) from MODIS/EOS and SEVIRI/MSG time series. The study evaluates the strength of temporal relationships between precipitation and vegetation condition at time-lag and cumulative rainfall intervals. From this analysis, it was observed that the climatic disturbances affected both the growing season and the total amount of vegeta…

A review of environmental impacts of winter road maintenance

2019

Abstract The need for winter road maintenance (WRM) is changing in cold regions due to climate change. How the different modes of WRM will contribute to future overall emissions from infrastructure is therefore of great interest to road owners with a view to a more sustainable, low-carbon future. In the quest for near-zero-emissions transport, all aspects of the transport sector need to be accounted for in the search for possible mitigation of emissions. This study used 35 peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2018 to map available information on the environmental impacts and effect of WRM and reveal any research gaps. The articles were categorized according to their research th…

Quantifying and easing conflicting goals between interest groups in natural resource planning

2019

Management of natural resources at the regional level is a compromise between a variety of objectives and interests. At the local level, management of the forests depends upon the ownership structure, with forest owners using their forests as they see fit. A potential conflict occurs if the forest owners’ management decisions are counter to the interests of society in general or the industry that relies on the forest resource as their raw material. We explore the intensity of this conflict at the regional level in several large boreal forest production landscapes. To explore the conflict, we investigate three main interest groups: (i) economically oriented forest owners; (ii) industry grou…

Turbulent jet through porous obstructions under Coriolis effect: an experimental investigation

2021

AbstractThe present study has the main purpose to experimentally investigate a turbulent momentum jet issued in a basin affected by rotation and in presence of porous obstructions. The experiments were carried out at the Coriolis Platform at LEGI Grenoble (FR). A large and unique set of velocity data was obtained by means of a Particle Image Velocimetry measurement technique while varying the rotation rate of the tank and the density of the canopy. The main differences in jet behavior in various flow configurations were assessed in terms of mean flow, turbulent kinetic energy and jet spreading. The jet trajectory was also detected. The results prove that obstructions with increasing density…