Key Elements in a Framework for Land Use Impact Assessment Within LCA (11 pp)

Background, Aim and Scope Land use by agriculture, forestry, mining, house-building or industry leads to substantial impacts, particularly on biodiversity and on soil quality as a supplier of life support functions. Unfortunately there is no widely accepted assessment method so far for land use impacts. This paper presents an attempt, within the UNEP-SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, to provide a framework for the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) of land use. Materials and Methods: This framework builds from previous documents, particularly the SETAC book on LCIA (Lindeijer et al. 2002), developing essential issues such as the reference for occupation impacts; the impact pathways to be included in the analysis; the units of measure in the impact mechanism (land use interventions to impacts); the ways to deal with impacts in the future; and bio-geographical differentiation. Results: The paper describes the selected impact pathways, linking the land use elementary flows (occupation; transformation) and parameters (intensity) registered in the inventory (LCI) to the midpoint impact indicators and to the relevant damage categories (natural environment and natural resources). An impact occurs when the land properties are modified (transformation) and also when the current man-made properties are maintained (occupation). Discussion: The size of impact is the difference between the effect on land quality from the studied case of land use and a suitable reference land use on the same area (dynamic reference situation). The impact depends not only on the type of land use (including coverage and intensity) but is also heavily influenced by the bio-geographical conditions of the area. The time lag between the land use intervention and the impact may be large; thus land use impacts should be calculated over a reasonable time period after the actual land use finishes, at least until a new steady state in land quality is reached. Conclusions: Guidance is provided on the definition of the dynamic reference situation and on methods and time frame to assess the impacts occurring after the actual land use. Including the occupation impacts acknowledges that humans are not the sole users of land. Recommendations and Perspectives: The main damages affected by land use that should be considered by any method to assess land use impacts in LCIA are: biodiversity (existence value); biotic production potential (including soil fertility and use value of biodiversity); ecological soil quality (including life support functions of soil other than biotic production potential). Bio-geographical differentiation is required for land use impacts, because the same intervention may have different consequences depending on the sensitivity and inherent land quality of the environment where it occurs. For the moment, an indication of how such task could be done and likely bio-geographical parameters to be considered are suggested. The recommendation of indicators for the suggested impact categories is a matter of future research.     

Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation and plant regeneration of four Gentiana species

Shoots of micropropagated Gentiana acaulis, G. cruciata, G. lutea, and G. purpurea were inoculated with suspensions of Agrobacterium rhizogenes cells, strains ATCC 15834 or A4M70GUS. Adventitious roots appeared at the sites of inoculation in all 4 species. Root tips were excised and cultured on growth regulator-free media for 2-6 years. They exhibited very high branching and plagiotropism. Spontaneous bud initiation occurred in roots of G. cruciata. Roots of G. lutea, G. acaulis and G. purpurea were cultured on media with high kinetin concentration, which induced the formation of friable callus tissues. Only in G. purpurea were these calluses organogenic. Regenerated shoots of G. cruciata and G. purpurea gave rise to plants, that displayed the typical phenotypes of A. rhizogenes-transformed plants: short internodes and rolled leaves. In the roots of G. acaulis and G. cruciata, transformed with A. rhizogenes A4M70GUS, a positive reaction with X-gluc indicated the activity of β-glucuronidase. The DNA extracted from hairy roots and from the roots of transgenic plants hybridized with the appropriate genomic probes in Southern blotting. This is taken as evidence of the stable genetic transformation in the 4 Gentiana species. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Vitalfärbungsversuche mit reduziertem Neutralrot an „vollen“ Zellsäften einiger höherer Pflanzen

Ohne ZusammenfassungDie vorliegenden Versuehe wurden während meines kurzen Aufenthalts im Pflanzenphysiologisehen Institut der Universität Wien ausgeführt. Herrn Prof. Dr. Karl Höfler und Herrn Dr. H. Kinzel danke ich sehönstens auch an dieser Stelle für die Untersfützung während der Arbeit.     

The Perils of Adapting to Dose Errors in Radiation Therapy

We consider adaptive robust methods for lung cancer that are also dose-reactive, wherein the treatment is modified after each treatment session to account for the dose delivered in prior treatment sessions. Such methods are of interest because they potentially allow for errors in the delivered dose to be corrected as the treatment progresses, thereby ensuring that the tumor receives a sufficient dose at the end of the treatment. We show through a computational study with real lung cancer patient data that while dose reaction is beneficial with respect to the final dose distribution, it may lead to exaggerated daily underdose and overdose relative to non-reactive methods that grows as the treatment progresses. However, by combining dose reaction with a mechanism for updating an estimate of the uncertainty, the magnitude of this growth can be mitigated substantially. The key finding of this paper is that reacting to dose errors – an adaptation strategy that is both simple and intuitively appealing – may backfire and lead to treatments that are clinically unacceptable.     

p-aminohippuric acid transport at renal apical membrane mediated by human inorganic phosphate transporter NPT1

Organic anions are secreted into urine via organic anion transporters across the renal basolateral and apical membranes. However, no apical membrane transporter for organic anions such as p-aminohippuric acid (PAH) has yet been identified. In the present study, we showed that human NPT1, which is present in renal apical membrane, mediates the transport of PAH. The K(m) value for PAH uptake was 2.66 mM and the uptake was chloride ion sensitive. These results are compatible with those reported for the classical organic anion transport system at the renal apical membrane. PAH transport was inhibited by various anionic compounds. Human NPT1 also accepted uric acid, benzylpenicillin, faropenem, and estradiol-17beta-glucuronide as substrates. Considering its chloride ion sensitivity, Npt1 is expected to function for secretion of PAH from renal proximal tubular cells. This is the first molecular demonstration of an organic anion transport function for PAH at the renal apical membrane.     

High throughput method for the determination of organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls in human serum

An improved method for the determination of selected organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in human serum was developed. The method requires low volume of serum (500 microl) and 48-96 samples per day can be prepared by one analyst without special automatic equipment. Initial extraction was performed using 96-well solid-phase extraction disk plates and was followed by a clean-up with silica gel/sulfuric acid. Different denaturation, elution and clean-up conditions were tested. Quantification was carried out by gas chromatography equipped with electron capture detector (GC-ECD) or mass spectrometer (GC-MS). Recoveries of PCB congeners 28, 52, 101, 118, 138, 153 and 180 and OCPs HCB, beta-HCH, p,p'-DDE and p,p'-DDT at two spiking levels (n=8) varied from 57 to 120%, and intra-day relative standard deviation from 1 to 11%, both depending on spiking level and compound. Inter-day relative standard deviation was <15% in all cases. Limit of quantification (LOQ) for these PCBs ranged from 0.08 to 0.13 ng/ml and for these OCPs from 0.16 to 0.40 ng/ml. The optimized method was applied to the analysis of 1000 serum samples from different places of Spain.     

Coastal wetland restoration through the lens of Odum's theory of ecosystem development

Advancing ecological restoration assessments requires a more detailed consideration of species interactions and ecosystem processes. Most restoration projects rely on a few metrics not always directly linked with ecological theory. Here, we used Odum's theory of ecosystem development to assess and compare the ecosystem structure and services of created marshes (4–6 years old) with preexisting, reference marshes in a brackish water region of the Mississippi River Delta. We built ecosystem models for created and reference marshes that integrated large datasets of stomach contents, stable isotopes, and taxa abundances. Despite strong resemblance in community structure, created marshes were at an earlier succession stage compared to the reference marshes, having lower biomass (including exploited species), higher biomass turnover and production, less dependence on detritus, lower material cycling, and less energy flowing through specialist pathways. Although preserving preexisting marshes should be a priority, created marshes may still be an important tool for the restoration of coastal areas and their ecosystem services. In addition, our results show that comparisons of species biodiversity alone may fail to capture essential differences in ecosystem processes between habitats, which reinforces the importance of ecosystem modeling approaches to assess restoration projects.