Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Overview: Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition
Overview: Measures of Environmental Performance and Ecosystem Condition
Pages 1-12
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Likewise, any casual observer would realize that something is wrong with the Aral Sea, where commercial fishing vessels lie stranded in their ports dozens of kilometers inland. In both cases, shortsighted human behavior led to dire, readily detectable environmental consequences.
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Meanwhile, those who measure the condition of impacted ecosystems often lack information on the particular human activities that are responsible for changes in ecosystem conditions. As attention turns to more obscure and complex environmental impacts, the lack of communication between these two groups could substantially impede progress.
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Clearly, there is ample room for better coordination and collaboration between students of environmental performance and students of ecosystem condition. Although it is probably too much to expect a comprehensive ability to predict how each particular human activity affects ecosystems, existing evidence suggests that collaboration between ecologists and engineers can be a powerful means of simultaneously achieving engineering objectives and environmental goals.
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Studies of that river by the Academy of Natural Sciences have shown no differences between the ecosystem conditions upstream and downstream from the Eastman plant. The close relationship between the properties of liquid effluents and the condition of receiving waters undoubtedly facilitated the success of the collaboration between Eastman Chemical Company and the Academy of Natural Sciences.
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about the environmental consequences of releasing different wastes. Even if it will never be possible to predict precisely how different design options will affect the environment, it seems self-evident that life-cycle analysts would benefit from the insights of ecosystem experts and that ecosystem experts would profit from an understanding of design options and production processes.
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A kilogram of nontoxic waste has the same effect on the waste ratio as a kilogram of highly toxic waste. Nevertheless, initial results suggest that the waste ratio can be a valuable tool for improving environmental performance.
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For example, like most biologically based measures of ecosystem condition, the test organisms respond to the complete suite of effluent components. Thus, with the use of effluent bioassays, humans need not make assumptions about the relative toxicity of different effluent components.
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Using natural resource accounting methods, they estimate productivity growth in the electric power industry to be two to three times as high as conventional estimates of productivity growth during the same period. National Materials Use and Waste Production Ayres and Ayres (this volume)
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. As a result of these limitations, there is a trend toward reliance on a more balanced combination of physical and chemical measures plus direct biological criteria for assessing ecosystem condition.
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In ambient bioassays, the stimulus is usually water from a polluted or potentially polluted source, such as a river. Like effluent bioassays, ambient bioassays measure the survival, growth, or reproduction of test organisms.
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The first should be to minimize the undesirable environmental impact per unit of human activity. The second should be to ensure that the cumulative impact of all human activities is compatible with the persistence of all critical ecosystem conditions and processes.
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Net primary production is gross primary production (the total amount of carbon fixation by photosynthesis) minus res piration (the consumption of the products of photosynthesis)
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