| 1. |
- Abeysinghe, Kasun S., et al.
(författare)
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Total mercury and methylmercury concentrations over a gradient of contamination in earthworms living in rice paddy soil
- 2017
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Ingår i: Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. - : Wiley. - 0730-7268 .- 1552-8618. ; 36:5, s. 1202-1210
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mercury (Hg) deposited from emissions or from local contamination, can have serious health effects on humans and wildlife. Traditionally, Hg has been seen as a threat to aquatic wildlife, because of its conversion in suboxic conditions into bioavailable methylmercury (MeHg), but it can also threaten contaminated terrestrial ecosystems. In Asia, rice paddies in particular may be sensitive ecosystems. Earthworms are soil-dwelling organisms that have been used as indicators of Hg bioavailability; however, the MeHg concentrations they accumulate in rice paddy environments are not well known. Earthworm and soil samples were collected from rice paddies at progressive distances from abandoned mercury mines in Guizhou, China, and at control sites without a history of Hg mining. Total Hg (THg) and MeHg concentrations declined in soil and earthworms as distance increased from the mines, but the percentage of THg that was MeHg, and the bioaccumulation factors in earthworms, increased over this gradient. This escalation in methylation and the incursion of MeHg into earthworms may be influenced by more acidic soil conditions and higher organic content further from the mines. In areas where the source of Hg is deposition, especially in water-logged and acidic rice paddy soil, earthworms may biomagnify MeHg more than was previously reported. It is emphasized that rice paddy environments affected by acidifying deposition may be widely dispersed throughout Asia.
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| 2. |
- Ameli, A. A., et al.
(författare)
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Hillslope permeability architecture controls on subsurface transit time distribution and flow paths
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Hydrology. - : Elsevier B.V.. - 0022-1694 .- 1879-2707. ; 543, s. 17-30
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Defining the catchment transit time distribution remains a challenge. Here, we used a new semi-analytical physically-based integrated subsurface flow and advective–dispersive particle movement model to assess the subsurface controls on subsurface water flow paths and transit time distributions. First, we tested the efficacy of the new model for simulation of the observed groundwater dynamics at the well-studied S-transect hillslope (Västrabäcken sub-catchment, Sweden). This system, like many others, is characterized by exponential decline in saturated hydraulic conductivity and porosity with soil depth. The model performed well relative to a tracer-based estimate of transit time distribution as well as observed groundwater depth–discharge relationship within 30 m of the stream. Second, we used the model to assess the effect of changes in the subsurface permeability architecture on flow pathlines and transit time distribution in a set of virtual experiments. Vertical patterns of saturated hydraulic conductivity and porosity with soil depth significantly influenced hillslope transit time distribution. Increasing infiltration rates significantly decreased mean groundwater age, but not the distribution of transit times relative to mean groundwater age. The location of hillslope hydrologic boundaries, including the groundwater divide and no-flow boundary underlying the hillslope, changed the transit time distribution less markedly. These results can guide future decisions on the degree of complexity that is warranted in a physically-based rainfall–runoff model to efficiently and explicitly estimate time invariant subsurface pathlines and transit time distribution.
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| 3. |
- Bishop, Kevin, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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Forest Cover and Stream Flow in a Headwater of the Blue Nile : Complementing Observational Data Analysis with Community Perception
- 2010
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Ingår i: Ambio. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0044-7447 .- 1654-7209. ; 39:4, s. 284-294
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study analyses the relation of forest cover and stream flow on the 266 km2 Koga watershed in the headwaters of Blue Nile Basin using both observed hydrological data and community perception. The watershed went from 16% forest cover in 1957 to 1% by 1986. The hydrological record did not reveal changes in the flow regime between 1960 and 2002 despite the reduction in forest area. This agrees with the perception of the downstream community living near the gauging station. The upstream community, however, reported both decreases in low flows and increases in high flows shortly after the forest cover was reduced. The upstream deforestation effect appeared to have been buffered by a wetland lower in the watershed. This study concludes that community perception can be a complement to observational data for better understanding how forest cover influences the flow regime.
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| 4. |
- Bishop, Kevin, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
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The Relationship Between Land Use and Water
- 2012
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Ingår i: EOS. - 0096-3941 .- 2324-9250. ; 93, s. 259-
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The question posed in the title of this workshop formed its focus as an international group of more than 50 researchers and managers gathered to discuss our current level of understanding of land-water interactions and the potential impacts this has for resource management. Special emphasis was placed on the Ethiopian highlands, which deliver more than 85% of the flow in the Nile in Egypt. The 2-day workshop, held at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, was cosponsored by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs as part of its special allocation for global food security and by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations' Unit 3.05, Forest Operations Ecology.
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| 5. |
- Campeau, Audrey
(författare)
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Carbon in Boreal Streams : Isotopic Tracing of Terrestrial Sources
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The boreal biome comprises vast areas of coniferous forests, dotted with millions of peatlands. Plants harbouring these ecosystems fix CO2 from the atmosphere, which is later incorporated into the vegetation biomass and subsequently buried in soils. Over the course of millennia, this process has led to the formation of a large repository of organic C, currently stored in boreal soils. Streams draining this landscape are typically enriched with carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). As a consequence, streams tend to emit CO2 and CH4 to the atmosphere, two potent greenhouse gases, and thus contribute positively to radiative climate forcing. The sources fuelling C to boreal streams are not well understood. This thesis aims to unravel these sources, and promote a better consolidation of terrestrial and aquatic C biogeochemical processes. The work is largely based on stable and radiogenic C isotope characterization of various dissolved C forms in stream and groundwater, within contrasting ecosystem types across Sweden.This thesis identifies boreal soils as the main source of CO2 in streams. Soil respiration (i.e. biogenic sources) overwhelmingly supply CO2 to streams, leaving only a few exceptions where geogenic CO2 sources were present. An array of biological processes also transform CO2 during its transport from soils to streams. These include; methanogenesis, aquatic DOC mineralization and primary production. The majority of C in boreal streams is sustained by the decomposition of recent photosynthates, with ancient C substrates holding a negligible share of the total C export. While these results suggest that the repository of ancient soil organic C is currently stable, within boreal forests and peatlands, the close connection with recently occurring photosynthesis suggest that forecasted alterations in plant C allocation patterns, driven by climate and land-use changes, will produce a rapid response in stream CO2 emissions. Isotopic characterization of C in stream and groundwater can help reveal these sources and transformation processes, but its interpretation must be made with care.
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| 6. |
- Campeau, Audrey, et al.
(författare)
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Multiple sources and sinks of dissolved inorganic carbon across Swedish streams, refocusing the lens of stable C isotopes
- 2017
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is well established that stream dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) fluxes play a central role in the global C cycle, yet the sources of stream DIC remain to a large extent unresolved. Here, we explore large-scale patterns in delta C-13-DIC from streams across Sweden to separate and further quantify the sources and sinks of stream DIC. We found that stream DIC is governed by a variety of sources and sinks including biogenic and geogenic sources, CO2 evasion, as well as in-stream processes. Although soil respiration was the main source of DIC across all streams, a geogenic DIC influence was identified in the northernmost region. All streams were affected by various degrees of atmospheric CO2 evasion, but residual variance in delta C-13-DIC also indicated a significant influence of in-stream metabolism and anaerobic processes. Due to those multiple sources and sinks, we emphasize that simply quantifying aquatic DIC fluxes will not be sufficient to characterise their role in the global C cycle.
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| 7. |
- Gebrehiwot, Solomon Gebreyohannis, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Community perceptions of forest–water relationships in the Blue Nile Basin of Ethiopia
- 2014
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Ingår i: GeoJournal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0343-2521 .- 1572-9893. ; 79:5, s. 605-618
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Community perception of forest–water relationship was gathered using participatory rural appraisal tools in four watersheds of the Blue Nile River Basin in Ethiopia. These were compared and contrasted with the observational records of forest cover and water flow. Upstream and downstream communities were assessed separately to check for differences in perception based on location within a watershed. The key result of the study was that people in the study watersheds had a range of perceptions about the forest–water relationship which were watershed specific. The perceptions were generally consistent with observational evidence from the same watersheds. This study highlighted the need for locale-specific approaches to land and water management in the Basin, as well as the potential value of using community perceptions to complement the observational records which can have spatial and temporal limitations.
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| 8. |
- Jingying, Xu, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Mercury methylating microbial communities of boreal forest soils
- 2019
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The formation of the potent neurotoxic methylmercury (MeHg) is a microbially mediated process that has raised much concern because MeHg poses threats to wildlife and human health. Since boreal forest soils can be a source of MeHg in aquatic networks, it is crucial to understand the biogeochemical processes involved in the formation of this pollutant. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA and the mercury methyltransferase, hgcA, combined with geochemical characterisation of soils, were used to determine the microbial populations contributing to MeHg formation in forest soils across Sweden. The hgcA sequences obtained were distributed among diverse clades, including Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Methanomicrobia, with Deltaproteobacteria, particularly Geobacteraceae, dominating the libraries across all soils examined. Our results also suggest that MeHg formation is linked to the composition of also non-mercury methylating bacterial communities, likely providing growth substrate (e.g. acetate) for the hgcA-carrying microorganisms responsible for the actual methylation process. While previous research focused on mercury methylating microbial communities of wetlands, this study provides some first insights into the diversity of mercury methylating microorganisms in boreal forest soils.
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| 9. |
- Karlsen, Reinert, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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The role of landscape properties, storage and evapotranspiration on variability in streamflow recessions in a boreal catchment
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Hydrology. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 0022-1694 .- 1879-2707. ; 570, s. 315-328
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Streamflow recession analysis provides valuable insights into catchment functioning that can be related to runoff generation, storage retention and baseflow dynamics. As an integrated characteristic, recession analysis is particularly useful in catchment comparison studies to help explain drivers of spatial and temporal variability in hydrological behavior. Here, five years of hourly streamflow data from 14, partly nested, catchments within a 68 km(2) boreal forest landscape in Northern Sweden were used to explore spatiotemporal variation in hydrological processes through recession analysis. The aim of this study was to better understand spatial variation in runoff generation and storage-discharge dynamics across the landscape, as well as the relation to landscape properties. Due to high collinearity between variables, partial least square regression was used to quantify the associations between recession characteristics and catchment properties, as well as to identify key variables controlling recession behavior. We analyzed recession characteristics using both an aggregated approach including all recession data and individual recession events. The analyses based on individual recession events, indicated that catchment topography, quantified by indices such as mean slope or elevation above the stream network, is a primary control on the recession behavior during relatively high flows, whereas catchment area gains importance when flows are relatively low. The proportion of sediment and deep soils also controlled recession behavior. Furthermore, we found that recession characteristics are influenced by both evapotranspiration (ET) and proxies of antecedent catchment storage, but that the patterns were different depending on catchment properties. ET was less influential in catchments with deeper soils and larger catchment area. Shifts in recession rates were primarily related to variation in storage, with faster streamflow recessions occurring during periods with low storage. The results demonstrate the influence of catchment properties on recession behavior, and we found great value in analyzing individual recession events for an increased understanding of spatial and temporal recession characteristics. When recession properties were lumped together, the relationships to catchment characteristics were obscured. This indicates the value of more detailed analyses, at least under the strongly seasonal hydroclimatic conditions of this site.
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| 10. |
- Mayotte, Jean-Marc, et al.
(författare)
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The effects of ionic strength and organic matter on virus inactivation at low temperatures : general likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) as an alternative to least-squares parameter optimization for the fitting of virus inactivation models
- 2017
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Ingår i: Hydrogeology Journal. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1431-2174 .- 1435-0157. ; 25:4, s. 1063-1076
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examined how the inactivation of bacteriophage MS2 in water was affected by ionic strength (IS) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) using static batch inactivation experiments at 4 A degrees C conducted over a period of 2 months. Experimental conditions were characteristic of an operational managed aquifer recharge (MAR) scheme in Uppsala, Sweden. Experimental data were fit with constant and time-dependent inactivation models using two methods: (1) traditional linear and nonlinear least-squares techniques; and (2) a Monte-Carlo based parameter estimation technique called generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE). The least-squares and GLUE methodologies gave very similar estimates of the model parameters and their uncertainty. This demonstrates that GLUE can be used as a viable alternative to traditional least-squares parameter estimation techniques for fitting of virus inactivation models. Results showed a slight increase in constant inactivation rates following an increase in the DOC concentrations, suggesting that the presence of organic carbon enhanced the inactivation of MS2. The experiment with a high IS and a low DOC was the only experiment which showed that MS2 inactivation may have been time-dependent. However, results from the GLUE methodology indicated that models of constant inactivation were able to describe all of the experiments. This suggested that inactivation time-series longer than 2 months were needed in order to provide concrete conclusions regarding the time-dependency of MS2 inactivation at 4 A degrees C under these experimental conditions.
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| 11. |
- Osterwalder, Stefan, et al.
(författare)
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Mercury evasion from a boreal peatland shortens the timeline for recovery from legacy pollution
- 2017
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Peatlands are a major source of methylmercury that contaminates downstream aquatic food webs. The large store of mercury (Hg) in peatlands could be a source of Hg for over a century even if deposition is dramatically reduced. However, the reliability of Hg mass balances can be questioned due to missing long-term land-atmosphere flux measurements. We used a novel micrometeorological system for continuous measurement of Hg peatland-atmosphere exchange to derive the first annual Hg budget for a peatland. The evasion of Hg (9.4 mu g m(-2) yr(-1)) over the course of a year was seven times greater than stream Hg export, and over two times greater than wet bulk deposition to the boreal peatland. Measurements of dissolved gaseous Hg in the peat pore water also indicate Hg evasion. The net efflux may result from recent declines in atmospheric Hg concentrations that have turned the peatland from a net sink into a source of atmospheric Hg. This net Hg loss suggests that open boreal peatlands and downstream ecosystems can recover more rapidly from past atmospheric Hg deposition than previously assumed. This has important implications for future levels of methylmercury in boreal freshwater fish and the estimation of historical Hg accumulation rates from peat profiles.
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| 12. |
- Rosen, P., et al.
(författare)
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The complementary power of pH and lake-water organic carbon reconstructions for discerning the influences on surface waters across decadal to millennial time scales
- 2011
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Ingår i: Biogeosciences. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1726-4170 .- 1726-4189. ; 8, s. 2439-2466
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lysevatten, a lake in southwest Sweden, has experienced both acidification and recent changes in the amount of lake-water organic carbon (TOC), both causing concern across Europe and North America. A range of paleolimnological tools - diatom-inferred pH, inferred lake-water TOC from visible-near-infrared spectroscopy (VNIRS), multi-element geochemistry and pollen analysis, combined with geochemical modeling were used to reconstruct the lake's chemistry and surroundings back to the most recent deglaciation 12 500 years ago. The results reveal that the recent anthropogenic impacts are similar in magnitude to the long-term variation driven by natural catchment changes and early agricultural land use occurring over centuries and millennia. The combined reconstruction of both lake-water TOC and lithogenic element delivery can explain the major changes in lake-water pH and modeled acid neutralizing capacity during the past 12 500 years. The results raise important questions regarding what precisely comprises "reference" conditions (i.e., free from human impacts) as defined in the European Water Framework Directive.
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| 13. |
- Shanley, J.B., et al.
(författare)
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Mercury Cycling in Terrestrial Watersheds
- 2012
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Ingår i: Mercury in the Environment: Pattern and Process. - : University of California Press. - 0520951395 - 9780520271630 ; , s. 119-141
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mercury pollution and contamination are widespread, well documented, and continue to pose a public health concern in both developed and developing countries. In response to a growing need for understanding the cycling of this ubiquitous pollutant, the science of mercury has grown rapidly to include the fields of biogeochemistry, economics, sociology, public health, decision sciences, physics, global change, and mathematics. Only recently have scientists begun to establish a holistic approach to studying mercury pollution that integrates chemistry, biology, and human health sciences. Mercury in the Environment follows the process of mercury cycling through the atmosphere, through terrestrial and aquatic food webs, and through human populations to develop a comprehensive perspective on this important environmental problem. This timely reference also provides recommendations on mercury remediation, risk communication, education, and monitoring.
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| 14. |
- Teutschbein, Claudia, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Future Riverine Inorganic Nitrogen Load to the Baltic Sea From Sweden : An Ensemble Approach to Assessing Climate Change Effects
- 2017
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Ingår i: Global Biogeochemical Cycles. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 0886-6236 .- 1944-9224. ; 31:11, s. 1674-1701
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The dramatic increase of bioreactive nitrogen entering the Earth’s ecosystems continues toattract growing attention. Increasingly large quantities of inorganic nitrogen are flushed from land towater, accelerating freshwater, and marine eutrophication. Multiple, interacting, and potentiallycountervailing drivers control the future hydrologic export of inorganic nitrogen. In this paper, we attempt toresolve these land-water interactions across boreal/hemiboreal Sweden in the face of a changing climatewith help of a versatile modeling framework to maximize the information value of existing measurementtime series. We combined 6,962 spatially distributed water chemistry observations spread over 31 years withdaily streamflow and air temperature records. An ensemble of climate model projections, hydrologicalsimulations, and several parameter parsimonious regression models was employed to project future riverineinorganic nitrogen dynamics across Sweden. The median predicted increase in total inorganic nitrogenexport from Sweden (2061–2090) due to climate change was 14% (interquartile range 0–29%), based on theensemble of 7,500 different predictions for each study site. The overall export as well as the seasonal patternof inorganic nitrogen loads in a future climate are mostly influenced by longer growing seasons and morewinter flow, which offset the expected decline in spring flood. The predicted increase in inorganic nitrogenloading due to climate change means that the political efforts for reducing anthropogenic nitrogen inputsneed to be increased if ambitions for reducing the eutrophication of the Baltic Sea are to be achieved.
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| 15. |
- Teutschbein, Claudia, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Simulating streamflow in ungauged basins under a changing climate : The importance of landscape characteristics
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Hydrology. - : Elsevier. - 0022-1694 .- 1879-2707. ; 561, s. 160-178
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we explored how landscape characteristics such as topography, geology, soils and land cover influence the way catchments respond to changing climate conditions. Based on an ensemble of 15 regional climate models bias-corrected with a distribution-mapping approach, present and future streamflow in 14 neighboring and rather similar catchments in Northern Sweden was simulated with the HBV model. We established functional relationships between a range of landscape characteristics and projected changes in streamflow signatures. These were then used to analyze hydrological consequences of physical perturbations in a hypothetically ungauged basin in a climate change context. Our analysis showed a strong connection between the forest cover extent and the sensitivity of different components of a catchment's hydrological regime to changing climate conditions. This emphasizes the need to redefine forestry goals and practices in advance of climate change-related risks and uncertainties.
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| 16. |
- Winterdahl, Mattias, et al.
(författare)
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Acidification, DOC and Climate Change
- 2012
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Ingår i: <em>Handbook of Global Environmental Pollution</em>. - : Springer Publishing Company.
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)
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| 17. |
- Wu, Pianpian, et al.
(författare)
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Does forest harvest increase the mercury concentrations in fish? : Evidence from Swedish lakes
- 2018
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Ingår i: Science of the Total Environment. - : ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV. - 0048-9697 .- 1879-1026. ; 622-623, s. 1353-1362
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A number of studies have evaluated the effects of forest harvest on mercury (Hg) concentrations and exports in surface waters, but few studies have tested the effect from forest harvest on the change in fish Hg concentrations over the course of several years after harvest. To address this question, mercury (Hg) concentrations in perch (Perca fluviatilis) muscle tissue from five lakes were analyzed for two years before (2010-2011) and three years after (2013-2015) forest harvest conducted in 2012. Fish Hg concentrations in the clear-cut catchments (n = 1373 fish specimens) were related to temporal changes of fish Hg in reference lakes (n = 1099 fish specimen) from 19 lakes in the Swedish National Environmental Monitoring Programme. Small (length < 100 mm) and large perch (length >= 100 mm) were analyzed separately, due to changing feeding habitats of fish over growing size. There was considerable year-to-year and lake-to-lake variation in fish Hg concentrations (-14%-121%) after forest harvest in the clearcut lakes, according to our first statistical model that count for fish Hg changes. While the effect ascribed to forest harvest varied between years, after three years (in 2015), a significant increase of 26% (p < 0.0001) in Hg concentrations of large fish was identified in our second statistical model that pooled all 5 clearcut lakes. The large fish Hg concentrations in the 19 reference lakes also varied, and in 2015 had decreased by 7% (p = 0.03) relative to the concentrations in 2010-2011. The majority of the annual changes in fish Hg concentrations in the clearcut lakes after harvest were in the lower range of earlier predictions for high-latitude lakes extrapolated primarily from the effects of forest harvest operations on Hg concentrations in water. Since the risk of forest harvest impacts on Hg extends to fish and not just surface water concentrations, there is even more reason to consider Hg effects in forestry planning, alongside other ecosystem effects.
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| 18. |
- Xu, Xiaohang, et al.
(författare)
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The local impact of a coal-fired power plant on inorganic mercury and methyl-mercury distribution in rice (Oryza sativa L.)
- 2017
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Ingår i: Environmental Pollution. - : Elsevier BV. - 0269-7491 .- 1873-6424. ; 223, s. 11-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Emission from coal-fired power plants is one of the major anthropogenic sources of mercury (Hg) in the environment, because emitted Hg can be quickly deposited nearby the source, attention is paid to the effects of coal-burning facilities on levels of toxic methyl-mercury (MeHg) in biota near such sources. Since rice is an agricultural crop that can bio-accumulate MeHg, the potential effects of a large Hg emitting coal-fired power plant in Hunan Province, China on both inorganic Hg (Hg(II)) and MeHg distributions in rice was investigated. Relatively high MeHg (up to 3.8 mu g kg(-1)) and Hg(II) (up to 22 mu g kg(-1)) concentrations were observed in rice samples collected adjacent to the plant, suggesting a potential impact of Hg emission from the coal fired power plant on the accumulation of Hg in rice in the area. Concentrations of MeHg in rice were positively correlated with soil MeHg, soil S, and gaseous elemental Hg (GEM) in ambient air. Soil MeHg was the most important factor controlling MeHg concentrations in rice. The methylation of Hg in soils may be controlled by factors such as the chemical speciation of inorganic Hg, soil S, and ambient GEM.
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| 19. |
- Åkerblom, Staffan, et al.
(författare)
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Significant interaction effects from sulfate deposition and climate on sulfur concentrations constitute major controls on methylmercury production in peatlands
- 2013
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Ingår i: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7037 .- 1872-9533 .- 0046-564X. ; 102, s. 1-11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Transformation of inorganic mercury (Hg) to methyl mercury (MeHg) in peatlands is a key process in making boreal catchments a source of MeHg to freshwater ecosystems. Due to the importance of sulfur-reducing bacteria (SRB) for this process, past atmospheric deposition of sulfate (SO42−) may have increased net terrestrial Hg methylation. A long-term (14-year) factorial design field experiment was used to investigate the effect of enhanced SO42− deposition and raised temperature using a greenhouse (GH) treatment (air temperature∼+4 °C; soil temperature 20 cm below mire surface ∼+2 °C) on sulfur (S) turnover, net Hg methylation, MeHg and total Hg concentrations in a boreal mire in northern Sweden. Of the SO42−–S added during 14 years, 50% was retained in the plots without GH treatment while the combination of SO42− addition and GH treatment resulted in 15% S retention. The addition of SO42− (7-fold ambient SO42−-deposition) increased (p < 0.05) the net Hg methylation (200%) as well as the store of S (150%) and MeHg (120%) in the peat. A combination of enhanced SO42− deposition and GH treatment decreased both the net Hg methylation rate constant (0.018 ± 0.006 d−1) and MeHg content (1.2 ± 0.2 ng g−1 dry weight (dw)) relative to the sites with enhanced SO42− deposition without GH treatment (0.065 ± 0.013 d−1 and 3.7 ± 0.6 ng g−1 dw, respectively). The concentration of Hg in the peat declined (p < 0.05) in response to experimental addition of SO42−. Despite the decrease in Hg in response to SO42− deposition, these plots had the highest amounts of MeHg as well as the highest Hg methylation rate constants. This indicates that the concentration of S is more important than the concentration of Hg for the production of MeHg in this boreal landscape. These results also show that long-term chronic SO42− deposition at rates similar to those found in polluted areas of Europe and North America increase the capacity of wetlands to methylate Hg and store MeHg, which can ultimately be released to streams and lakes. This study also, for the first time, indicates that the enhancing effect of SO42− on the production of MeHg might be counteracted by increased temperature.
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