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Abstract This study developed a geographical information system-based methodology to maximize the environmental and economic efficiency of large-scale energy plants using different types of biomass. As a precursor to the optimization modelling, multi-criteria spatial analyses and then transport cost optimization are applied taking into account spatial biomass availability and existing road networks, in order to identify optimal biomass energy plant sites for different combinations of biomass types. A geographical information system integrated with a capacitated maximal covering location problem model was employed to assign biomass supply points to biomass energy plants. Capacity limits of the plants and a defined maximum transportation distance were taken into consideration. The resulting information was used to examine major challenges in establishing a large-scale biomass energy plant, biomass supply logistics, environment cost and anticipated traffic congestion. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to review the influence of plant capacity and maximum transportation distance on economic and environmental sustainability. The proposed methodology was employed utilizing agricultural and forest residues for bioelectricity generation in Queensland, Australia. It was found that 100% bagasse had the highest eco-efficiency for bioelectricity generation from multiple biomass combinations. In contrast, the combination of 70% sawmill residues and 30% forest harvest residues showed the lowest level of traffic congestion (2 trucks per hour). In addition, the impact of traffic congestion of bulky sugarcane residues can be reduced by adding forest residues to the biomass supply. The advantages of the resulting solution are further enhanced when social impacts such as energy security, new income opportunities and job creation are taken into account in addition to the sustainability aspects.

In Bangladesh, prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) farming remains dependent on the capture of wild postlarvae as hatchery production is still inadequate. However, prawn postlarvae fishing has been accompanied by concerns over recent climate change. Different climatic variables including cyclone, salinity, sea level rise, water temperature, flood, rainfall, and drought have had adverse effects on coastal ecosystem, thus determining a decline in the availability of prawn postlarvae and thereby catch. The households of postlarvae fishers also face a variety of socioeconomic constraints due to climate change. Considering extreme vulnerability to the effects of climate change, an integrated approach needs to be introduced to cope with the challenges.

Estuaries are among the most valuable aquatic systems by their services to human welfare. However, increasing human activities at the watershed along with the pressure of climate change are fostering the co-occurrence of multiple environmental drivers, and warn of potential negative impacts on estuaries resources. At present, no clear understanding of how coastal ecosystems will respond to the non-stationary effect of multiple drivers. Here we analysed the temporal interaction among multiple environmental drivers and their changing priority on shaping phytoplankton response in the Bahía Blanca Estuary, SW Atlantic Ocean. The interaction among environmental drivers and the number of significant direct and indirect effects on chlorophyll concentration increased over time in concurrence with enhanced anthropogenic stress, changing winter climate and wind patterns. Over the period 1978-1993, proximal variables such as nutrients, water temperature and salinity, showed a dominant effect on chlorophyll, whereas in more recent years (1993-2009) climate signals (SAM and ENSO) boosted indirect effects through its influence on precipitation, wind, water temperature and turbidity. Turbidity emerged as the dominant driver of chlorophyll while in recent years acted synergistically with the concentration of dissolved nitrogen. As a result, chlorophyll concentration showed a significant negative trend and a loss of seasonal peaks reflecting a pronounced reorganisation of the phytoplankton community. We stress the need to account for the changing priority of drivers to understand, and eventually forecast, biological responses under projected scenarios of global anthropogenic change.

Available methods for measuring the impact of ocean acidification (OA) and leakage from carbon capture and storage (CCS) on marine sedimentary pH profiles are unsuitable for replicated experimental setups. To overcome this issue, a novel optical sensor application is presented, using off-the-shelf optode technology (MOPP). The application is validated using microprofiling, during a CCS leakage experiment, where the impact and recovery from a high CO2 plume was investigated in two types of natural marine sediment. MOPP offered user-friendliness, speed of data acquisition, robustness to sediment type, and large sediment depth range. This ensemble of characteristics overcomes many of the challenges found with other pH measuring methods, in OA and CCS research. The impact varied greatly between sediment types, depending on baseline pH variability and sediment permeability. Sedimentary pH profile recovery was quick, with profiles close to control conditions 24 h after the cessation of the leak. However, variability of pH within the finer sediment was still apparent 4 days into the recovery phase. Habitat characteristics need therefore to be considered, to truly disentangle high CO2 perturbation impacts on benthic systems. Impacts on natural communities depend not only on the pH gradient caused by perturbation, but also on other processes that outlive the perturbation, adding complexity to recovery.

AbstractResting egg production is considered the most common form of dormancy in aquatic invertebrates. Given that many taxa at least partially terminate resting egg state using environmental cues, knowledge on environmental drivers of hatching success is important, particularly within the context of climate change and environmental degradation. Fairy shrimp (anostracans) are temporary wetland specialists that are reliant on resting egg production for population persistence. Temporary wetlands are common in many arid regions projected to experience increases in temperature, and in areas often compromised by human‐mediated activities. In this study, we assessed the combined effects of light and temperature on the hatching success of Streptocephalus cafer (Anostraca) dormant eggs from temporary wetlands in an arid environment. Both temperature and light altered hatching success, with emergent effects evident. Light caused a significant threefold increase in hatching success overall, while temperature effects were non‐linear, with hatching optimised at 27°C, and especially under light conditions. These results are discussed within the context of shifting climates and disturbances to temporary wetland ecosystems.

AbstractClimate change will not only shift environmental means but will also increase the intensity of extreme events, exerting additional stress on ecosystems. While field observations on the ecological consequences of heat waves are emerging, experimental evidence is rare, and lacking at the community level. Using a novel “near‐natural” outdoor mesocosms approach, this study tested whether marine summer heat waves have detrimental consequences for macrofauna of a temperate coastal community, and whether sequential heat waves provoke an increase or decrease of sensitivity to thermal stress. Three treatments were applied, defined and characterized through a statistical analysis of 15 years of temperature records from the experimental site: (1) no heat wave, (2) two heat waves in June and July followed by a summer heat wave in August and (3) the summer heat wave only. Overall, 50% of the species showed positive, negative or positive/negative responses in either abundance and/or biomass. We highlight four possible ways in which single species responded to either three subsequent heat waves or one summer heat wave: (1) absence of a response (tolerance, 50% of species), (2) negative accumulative effects by three subsequent heat waves (tellinid bivalve), (3) buffering by proceeding heat waves due to acclimation and/or shifts in phenology (spionid polychaete) and (4) an accumulative positive effect by subsequent heat waves (amphipod). The differential responses to single or sequential heat waves at the species level entailed shifts at the community level. Community‐level differences between single and triple heat waves were more pronounced than those between regimes with vs. without heat waves. Detritivory was reduced by the single heat wave while suspension feeding was less common in the triple heat wave regime. Critical extreme events occur already today and will occur more frequently in a changing climate, thus, leading to detrimental impacts on coastal marine systems.

Abstract Marine policymakers are facing increasing calls to consider the resilience of communities that rely on coastal and marine ecosystem goods and services, and the resilience of natural systems themselves. These calls are in response to increasing threats to coastal communities from external factors such as coastal hazards, possibly associated with climate change, reductions in natural capital often caused by over-fishing and invasive species, and drivers that act to change local and regional economic conditions leading to changes in employment and inequality. However, most communities have had little experience in explicitly managing for resilience. Similarly, our understanding of the factors that make a natural or social system resilient is also somewhat limited. Furthermore, there is a lack of consensus-based definitions and performance measures for assessing resilience. These factors, along with other barriers, will need to be overcome before effective resilience-based management can be implemented.

Many cities in the United States are facing challenges associated with antiquated urban arterials, whose purpose has changed greatly since their development. Once considered the main streets of the city, with thriving businesses and attractive residential development, many have deteriorated over the decades for a number of reasons, including shifting demand for housing and retail development and the construction of parallel high-speed urban expressways. Because of the complexity of the problems associated with these arterials, a great challenge of transportation and land use planners is to develop a systems-level approach to revitalize and reinvent these arterials in a manner that encourages environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Presented is a methodology to revitalize multimodal urban arterials that includes land use planning, traffic and transit operations management, street redesign, and community participation to improve the conditions of such arterials. Analysis is carried out by using these principles on San Pablo Avenue, a major arterial in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. By using these analysis techniques, land use and transportation recommendations are made that will facilitate sustainable development along this corridor.