GMOs and their contexts: A comparison of potential and actual performance of GM crops in a local agricultural setting     

A. Wendy Russell 《Geoforum》2008,39(1):213-222

In this paper, I argue that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have inherent potential to contribute to socially and environmentally sustainable agriculture by virtue of their ‘biological embeddedness’. Their actual ‘performance’ and how this contributes to sustainability depends on the ‘mutual shaping’ of technology and context. While much attention has been given to the design context of GMOs, this paper considers the influence of the application context and of users. A case study investigating the use of insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant GM cotton in the cotton-growing region of New South Wales in Australia is presented. The study was based on focus groups with farmers and other stakeholders in a cotton-growing community. It demonstrated a range of direct and indirect effects of GM cotton use, both positive and negative for sustainability, and the ways in which these effects were influenced by the local social context. The influences of the biotechnology industry context, in limiting the contributions that gene technologies can make to sustainability, were also considered, and remedies suggested. I argue that the polarity of the GM debate is hindering progress on these issues, and that a more balanced approach to our analysis of GMOs is necessary in order to fully understand, and to influence, their role in the future of rural spaces.  相似文献   

Functional responses for zooplankton feeding on multiple resources: a review of assumptions and biological dynamics     

Wendy Gentleman  Andrew Leising  Bruce Frost  Suzanne Strom  James Murray 《Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography》2003,50(22-26):2847

Modelers often need to quantify the rates at which zooplankton consume a variety of species, size classes and trophic types. Implicit in the equations used to describe the multiple resource functional response (i.e. how nutritional intake varies with resource densities) are assumptions that are not often stated, let alone tested. This is problematic because models are sensitive to the details of these formulations. Here, we enable modelers to make more informed decisions by providing them with a new framework for considering zooplankton feeding on multiple resources. We define a new classification of multiple resource responses that is based on preference, selection and switching, and we develop a set of mathematical diagnostics that elucidate model assumptions. We use these tools to evaluate the assumptions and biological dynamics inherent in published multiple resource responses. These models are shown to simulate different resource preferences, implied single resource responses, changes in intake with changing resource densities, nutritional benefits of generalism, and nutritional costs of selection. Certain formulations are further shown to exhibit anomalous dynamics such as negative switching and sub-optimal feeding. Such varied responses can have vastly different ecological consequences for both zooplankton and their resources; inappropriate choices may incorrectly quantify biologically-mediated fluxes and predict spurious dynamics. We discuss how our classes and diagnostics can help constrain parameters, interpret behaviors, and identify limitations to a formulation's applicability for both regional (e.g. High-Nitrate-Low-Chlorophyll regions comprising large areas of the Pacific) and large-scale applications (e.g. global biogeochemical or climate change models). Strategies for assessing uncertainty and for using the mathematics to guide future experimental investigations are also discussed.  相似文献   

Phytoplankton biomass and size fractions in surface waters of the Australian sector of the southern ocean     

Wendy Ehnert  C. Peter McRoy 《Journal of Oceanography》2007,63(2):179-187

We collected surface water along the 142nd E meridian from Tasmania to Antarctica in December 1999. We measured temperature, salinity and total chlorophyll a; additionally, we collected suspended particle size fractions and used fluorometric analysis to determine the quantity of chlorophyll a in each of four cell size classes: picoplankton (<3 μm), two nanoplankton fractions (3–10 μm and 10–20 μm) and microplankton (> 20 μm). Changes in temperature and salinity show that we crossed 6 water masses separated by 5 fronts. We found low abundance (<0.2 mg m⁻³) of chlorophyll in all size classes, with the exception of higher values near the continent (0.2 to 0.4 mg m⁻³). Lowest chlorophyll values (<0.1 mg m⁻³) were found in the Polar Frontal Zone (51° to 54°S). Microplankton made up the largest portion of total chlorophyll throughout most of the region. We conclude that biomass of all phytoplankton fractions, especially pico-and nanoplankton, was constrained by limiting factors, most probably iron, throughout the region and that ecosystem dynamics within a zone are not circumpolar but are regionalized within sectors.  相似文献   

Diffusion gradients in an eclogite xenolith from the Roberts Victor kimberlite pipe: (2) kinetics and implications for petrogenesis     

Violaine Sautter  Ben Harte 《Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology》1990,105(6):637-649

In a bimineralic eclogite xenolith (sample JJG41) from the Roberts Victor kimberlite, compositional gradients in clinopyroxene are related to garnet exsolution. Two principal reactions involving clinopyroxene and garnet occur: (i) The net-transfer Al₂Si^-1Mg^-1 which is responsible for garnet growth according to the equation 2Di+Al₂Si^-1Mg^-1=Grossular+MgCa^-1 (reaction 1). This has created substantial compositional gradients in Al, Si and Mg within clinopyroxene. (ii) The exchange of Fe–Mg between garnet and clinopyroxene (reaction 2). During the stage of garnet growth (reaction 1) the lamellae crystallized sequentially as a result of a temperature decrease from around 1400 to 1200° C. This exsolution growth-stage was under the control of Al diffusion in clinopyroxene and at around 1200° C further growth of garnet lamellae became impeded by the sluggishness of Al diffusion in the clinopyroxene host. However, reaction 2 continued during further cooling down to about 1000° C; this temperature being inferred from the constant Fe–Mg partitioning at clinopyroxene-garnet interfaces for the whole set of lamellae. The initial clinopyroxene in JJG41 was probably formed by crystallization from a melt in Archaean time. The cessation of Fe–Mg exchange between garnet and clinopyroxene at about 1000° C may well predate the eruption of the eclogite in kimberlite at around 100 Ma. Kinetic models of reaction are examined for both reactions. Modelling of reaction 1, involving both diffusion and interface migration, allows several means of estimating the diffusion coefficient of Al in clinopyroxene; the estimates are in the range 10^-16-10^-20 cm²/s at 1200° C. These estimates bracket the experimentally determined data for Al diffusion in clinopyroxene, and from these experimental data a preferred cooling rate of about 300° C/Ma is obtained for the period of growth of garnet exsolution lamellae. A geospeedometry approach (Lasaga 1983) suitable for a pure-exchange process (reaction 2) is used to estimate the cooling rate in the later stages of the thermal history (after garnet growth); values 4–40° C/Ma are consistent with the shape of the Fe-diffusion gradients in the clinopyroxene. The extensive thermal history recorded by JJG41, including probable melt involvement at ca. 1400° C, demonstrates the complex evolution of rocks within the mantle. Whilst the notion of formation of mantle eclogites from subducted oceanic crust has become fashionable, it is clear that tracing eclogite geochemical and P-T characteristics backwards from their nature at the time of xenolith eruption, through high-temperature mantle events to the characteristics of the original subducted oceanic crust, will be very complex.  相似文献   

Directional chemical variations in diamonds showing octahedral following cuboid growth     

D. A. Zedgenizov  B. Harte  V. S. Shatsky  A. A. Politov  G. M. Rylov  N. V. Sobolev 《Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology》2006,151(2):243-244

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The expansion rate of the universe     

Wendy Freedman 《Astronomy& Geophysics》2002,43(1):1.10-1.13

Wendy Freedman presents the 2001 George Darwin Lecture on present and future advances in cosmology.
Modern cosmology is undergoing an explosion of observational and experimental results that is in turn driving significant theoretical advances and a dynamic interface between theory and experiment. As a consequence, cosmological parameters are becoming much more precisely constrained. In this, the George Darwin lecture for 2001, I look back at the some of the advances made since Edwin Hubble presented his George Darwin lecture in 1953, and look ahead to the resolution of significant cosmological uncertainties.  相似文献   

The making of Stars 'R' Us!     

Serena Viti  Wendy Brown  Martin McCoustra  Helen Fraser  Nigel Mason  Robert Massey 《Astronomy& Geophysics》2004,45(6):6.22-6.24

The team behind a successful project to broaden the understanding of astrochemistry – Serena Viti, Wendy Brown, Martin McCoustra, Helen Fraser, Nigel Mason and Robert Massey – recount how they went about it and what benefits resulted.  相似文献   

Mapping the hydraulic connection between a coalbed and adjacent aquifer: example of the coal-seam gas resource area,north Galilee Basin,Australia     

Zhenjiao Jiang  Gregoire Mariethoz  Christoph Schrank  Malcolm Cox  Wendy Timms 《Hydrogeology Journal》2016,24(8):2143-2155

Coal-seam gas production requires groundwater extraction from coal-bearing formations to reduce the hydraulic pressure and improve gas recovery. In layered sedimentary basins, the coalbeds are often separated from freshwater aquifers by low-permeability aquitards. However, hydraulic connection between the coalbed and aquifers is possible due to the heterogeneity in the aquitard such as the existence of conductive faults or sandy channel deposits. For coal-seam gas extraction operations, it is desirable to identify areas in a basin where the probability of hydraulic connection between the coalbed and aquifers is low in order to avoid unnecessary loss of groundwater from aquifers and gas production problems. A connection indicator, the groundwater age indictor (GAI), is proposed, to quantify the degree of hydraulic connection. The spatial distribution of GAI can indicate the optimum positions for gas/water extraction in the coalbed. Depressurizing the coalbed at locations with a low GAI would result in little or no interaction with the aquifer when compared to the other positions. The concept of GAI is validated on synthetic cases and is then applied to the north Galilee Basin, Australia, to assess the degree of hydraulic connection between the Aramac Coal Measure and the water-bearing formations in the Great Artesian Basin, which are separated by an aquitard, the Betts Creek Beds. It is found that the GAI is higher in the western part of the basin, indicating a higher risk to depressurization of the coalbed in this region due to the strong hydraulic connection between the coalbed and the overlying aquifer.  相似文献   

GIS-based nitrogen removal model for assessing Florida’s surficial aquifer vulnerability     

Celena Cui  Wendy Zhou  Mengistu Geza 《Environmental Earth Sciences》2016,75(6):526

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A method of alternating characteristics with application to advection-dominated environmental systems     

Katerina Georgiou  John Harte  Ali Mesbah  William J. Riley 《Computational Geosciences》2018,22(3):851-865

We present a numerical method for solving a class of systems of partial differential equations (PDEs) that arises in modeling environmental processes undergoing advection and biogeochemical reactions. The salient feature of these PDEs is that all partial derivatives appear in linear expressions. As a result, the system can be viewed as a set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), albeit each one along a different characteristic. The method then consists of alternating between equations and integrating each one step-wise along its own characteristic, thus creating a customized grid on which solutions are computed. Since the solutions of such PDEs are generally smoother along their characteristics, the method offers the potential of using larger time steps while maintaining accuracy and reducing numerical dispersion. The advantages in efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method are demonstrated in two illustrative examples that simulate depth-resolved reactive transport and soil carbon cycling.  相似文献