Environmental Sciences
Year:2015 | Volume:13 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:13

Fluctuation of diversity and population composition of birds are tow bio-indicators of environmental health. For this reason diversity and population composition of birds of Shady island in Karon River in Ahwaz implemented in winter and spring 2014.Area of the park is 17 hectare and adjoin by a bridge to the west of Karon river coast. During winter and autumn we recognized 37 species of birds by telescope and binocular (10 X 40) which belonged to eighteen family. In winter 1414 individuals belong to 23 species and in spring 1036 individuals belong to 29 species counted by total count method. Average density of birds was 83 individuals in winter and 61 in spring in per hectare. Population compound of birds were Ciconiformes and Passeriformes. Most number of birds counted in January and (688 individuals belong to 27 species) lowest was in April. Ardeidae family with 5 species had highest diversity and 10 Family with one species had lowest diversity. TheEgretta garzetta with 437 and Larus ridibundus with 576 individuals were dominant in the Shady island.

Efficient management of inputs used in agricultural production plays a key role in the process of sustainable development. In this regard, present research aims to determine the economic optimal use of water and environment-polluting inputs for wheat production in Seydan-Farough Plain, Marvdasht Township. Required data is cross-sectional and related to the crop year 2010-2011 collected through questionnaires using two-stage cluster sampling method. The research findings show that farmers have used water and the polluting input of urea fertilizer more than economic optimal amount. The main reason for water overuseshould be attributed to the dominant irrigation method in the region. It is therefore recommended to use modern irrigation systems with higher performance than mere relying on price instruments of water management which have largely been inefficient based on experience in this area.In the case ofurea fertilizer, targeted subsidies plan for inputs has had beneficial effects in order to optimize the use of input, however, following the conventional system of input consumption by the farmers andprevalence of incorrect consumption pattern are still causing overuse of this environment-polluting input.Accordingly, it is suggested to continue the trend of getting real input prices considering a reasonable profit margin for farmers, pursue extension efforts such as preparing fertilizer plans or other strategies, and replace organic fertilizers in order to reduce the consumption of environment-polluting inputs. Moreover, phosphate fertilizer andpoison inputs are used in optimal level.

Climate change is likely to create considerable and often unfavorable impacts in Iran. Investigating and analyzing of the impacts of this phenomenon on the environment and on hydrological factors, including river flows as the basic factor in the provision of water resources, is a serious need. This study is in line with this objective and has conducted the production of long term scenarios of discharge and evaporation under the influence of climate change in Karun4 basin. In this study, long-term scenarios for predicting the future discharge under the effect of climate change have been established for the next 90 years. At first, 28 scenarios for monthly temperature and rainfall were generated using 11 AOGCM models under AR4 for different years were created. Discharges were estimated by an empirical multi-variable regression model which was obtained, calibrated and finalized by using historical data. Future discharge was then obtained and its behaviour and trend were analyzed for average, optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. The results show changes of rainfall (about 17% decrease) and temperature (22.6% increase) over the next 90 years will cause a significant change in river discharge from between 32% (the pessimistic condition) to 7.4% (the optimistic condition) and, under average conditions, a reduction of 18.6%.Bases on these results, climate change along with the increase of evapotranspiration and decrease in discharge will cause significant impacts on water resources. As a result it is shown that a reduction of about 20% will probably occur in hydropower plant production.

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L., Lamiaceae) is a perennial medicinal plant used in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food, and beverage industries. In order to study growth and yield of this plant in symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under Pb and Cd stress, a twofactored pot experiment was carried out based on a randomized complete block design with 4 replications in greenhouse of Department of Horticultural Sciences, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran in 2011-2012. The first factor was arbuscular mycorrhiza (inoculation and noninoculation), and the second factor was heavy metal contamination as listed here per mg/kg of soil: Without contamination, Pb 150, Pb 300, Cd 40, and Cd 80. The parameters plant height, number of lateral branches per plant, length of lateral stem, number of leaves, leaf area, crown diameter, shoot fresh and dry weights, leaf dry weight, leaf dry weight/shoot dry weight ratio, and essential oil content and yield were measured. The results showed that growth and yield of rosemary diminished with increasing concentration of the heavy metals in the medium; however, mycorrhizal inoculation donated a tolerance to the heavy metal stress, thereby improving growth and yield of rosemary in such a stressful situation. The highest fresh and dry weights were observed in mycorrhizal plants grown in non-pollution medium, whereas non-mycorrhizal plants grown under Cd 80 had the worst values, which were decreased respectively by 57.6% and 79.5% as compared to those of mycorrhizal plants grown on non-polluted medium. Moreover, the highest content of essential oil was recorded in non-mycorrhizal plants grown under Pb 300; nevertheless, the highest essential oil yield was found in mycorrhizal plants grown on noncontaminated medium.

The pollution of aquatic ecosystems with heavy metals has always been a major concern for the aquatic organisms and human health.Measuring the levels of contaminants such as heavy metal (Pb) accumulated along the food chain (fish) and then transmitted to the human body is of particular interest. Concentrations of heavy metal (Pb) were measured in the water, sediment and fish species (Liza aurata) from the Gomishan Wetland, Iran. Samples of water, sediment and fish were collected during two periods: summer (2013) and winter (2014). The result revealed thatPb concentration was varied significantly among sediment, water and fish body, the average Pb concentrations in sediment, water and fish in both seasons was in the order sediment>fish>water, Pb concentration was varied significantly among gills, liver and muscle tissues of fish samples in any station and in both seasons was in the order gill> muscle>liver. These values were lower than the established standard for aquatic environment by W.H.O and F.A.O. The results indicated that the consumer of fish and water from the stream is not at risk of being poison by this metal.

In many cases environmental contamination with hazardous and harmful wastes is irreversible. Expired pesticides stockpiles in worldwide warehouses are considered as one of these types of wastes. Lack of attention to these warehouses makes the horrible effects to human’s health and environment.This study investigated the possibility of recycling the expired pesticide stockpiles of agricultural supportive services company. Quality control tests were performed according to the FAO, CIPAC and pesticide manufacturers' guidelines.The results were classified based on the date of production, type of formulation, quality control parameters and EC formulations manufacturers. Data were analyzed by Chi-Square test, in case of significance; the risk test was performed to determine the relative risk for the variables. Result showed a no-significant correlation between the time lagged after production of pesticides and percentage degradation of pesticides. The percent degradation of EC, SC, WP and SL formulation were 62%, 60%, 32% and 38 % respectively. Active ingredient in three formulations included EC, SL, WP and pH in SC formulation were unacceptable changes more than other the quality control parameters.Also, theresults showed that pesticides with EC formulations were produced in the country have more durability than Indian/Chinese.

In this study for purpose of environmental risk assessment for gas transportation pipelines, combined the indexing system method and AHP. Indexing System is a compulsive and applicable method that was based at the basis of characterizing index effect and ranking. For the purpose of weighting the criteria’s, the AHP was used and for the purpose of weighting the digital layers of information’s related to the criteria’s, Ordered Weight Analysis method was used. Via usage of GIS abilities, the identified risks and risk zonation in the path of pipelines. Results showed that 46% of gas pipeline, has a high risk (5467- 6054 grade), 48% of it, has a medium risk (6055- 6641 grade), 2% of it, has a low risk (6642-7228 grade) and 4% of it, has a little risk (7228<grade).Adjacency of southern zone of pipelines path with Orumieh lake national park, is an important ecological sensitivity that is under investigation.15 kilometer of pipeline path (kilometer 18+220 to 33+220) is aligned with 5 kilometer of biosphere reserved.

Soil contamination is one of the most recent and important environmental challenges worldwide. The so-called phytoremediation is one of the reclamation technologies used to decontaminate polluted soils. Application of some chelate agents can increase the efficiency of phytoremediation. However, this technology has not been evaluated for decontamination of heavy metals under multicropping system. The objective of this study was to evaluate the phytoremediation capability of cress and radish, as a mixed-culture by using some natural and synthetic chelates in Cd-contaminated soils. Consequently, a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with 20 treatments and three replications was conducted. The experimental factors were consisted of five levels of cadmium (0, 3, 10, 25, 50 mg Cd kg-1 soil, added as Cd (NO3) 2, EDTA and NTA chelates, and chelate concentrations of 1 and 2.5 mmol kg-1 soil. Results indicated that the Cd phytoextraction potential in multicropping culture is higher than the single-cropping system. Phytoextraction of cadmium from contaminated soils for both cress and radish plants, in EDTA2.5 and Cd50 treatments was 7.7 and 5.7 kg Cd ha-1 in multicropping system and was 4 and 5.4 kg Cd ha-1 in the single-cropping system. Furthermore, radish could phytoextract more cadmium than cress from the contaminated soils. The results further indicated that EDTA could enhance more Cd phytoextraction than NTA and can better assist to transfer cadmium from roots to shoots.

Urmia Lake is the second largest salt lake in the World. This Lake's ecosystem for socio - economic reasons and ecological criteria plays an important role in the North West of Iran. In recent decades, unsustainable regional development and climate change has provided the emergence and spread of environmental crisis in Urmia Lake.This research uses the capacity of integrated environmental planning approach as a holistic and interconnected approach for planning and management of environmental system of Lake Urmia with a strategic and goal oriented process in order to improve the environmental conditions of the lake basin.Methods in this research are based on documentary and field studies with the study of literature in relation to the environmental planning and sustainable development and documentation related to the Urmia Lake and interviews with local and national experts.In this regard, environmental changes and Lake's Ecosystem interactions have been studied and with using of planning and environmental experts and based on the results of the Delphi method and Analytical Hierarchy Process, decision-makers policy has priority to improve the conditions of the Lake's ecosystem.Under these policies, the decision-makers in this basin as the most influential part, should try to gain fully understanding of interactions and impact of human activities on the ecosystem of the lake and to raise awareness of effective and priority groups and to confront seriously with this crisis.

The aim of this paper is to eliminate, reduce, and control the existing environmental risks developed in Poly Carbonate unite and Epoxy Resin of Khuzestan Petrochemical company by using PHA and EFMEA methods. For this purpose, first, information were collected with library method, then elements producing risk to each of these unites were identified by questionnaire and Likert scale and the degree of their importance were determined. Then, after collecting environmental effects and aspects, the PHA table was completed for both unites separately and according to that method, and the possibility of each risky situation became finalized in terms of brainstorming and with the help of some scoring experts, and finally, risks were categorized into three levels; high, medium, low. In continuation of this assessment, high risks were screened from medium risks of total risks to be assessed in next step by EFMEA method. After conducting statistical calculations in Poly Carbonate unite, it revealed that environmental aspects with priority number higher than 125 have high level of risk that the most risky aspect of this unite is related to releasing Methylene Chloride steam because of leading off-gas to feller in tower, and it results in air pollution. Also, results obtained in Epoxy Resin revealed that environmental aspects with priority number higher than 184 have high level of risk that the most risky aspect of this unite is related to releasing because of Caustic steam because of failing to breaking the sight glass, and it results in air pollution. Second assessment results show environmental aspects and calculated PRN difference and obtained risk level for performances in this Petrochemical company, that using modern methods in identifying and assessing the risk and developing some controlling and mediating actions can reduce the severity of emerging risks and as a result damages into environment significantly. These actions include: visual control by a beneficiary, PM control by a beneficiary, supervising on correct setting of spool, using standard sight glass, examining through laboratory samples and comparing percents with pointer’s status, etc.

Timely and accurate detection of changes in surface features, to better understand the relationships and interactions between human and natural phenomena, the right decision is very important in urban management. To Detection these changes widely in recent decades, satellite data have been used as primary sources.This study examines the use of vegetation changes and their impact on temperature patterns in a time period of 25 years within the city of Shiraz one area is made. LANDSAT satellite TM sensor data for the two series on 1986/10/7 and 2011/10/7 ERDAS IMAGINE 9.2 software selection and use land surface temperature (LST) And vegetation indices as a supervised classification algorithm with the maximum likelihood was obtained for urban.The findings showed that over the period of 4 and 63/8 km2 for the loss of vegetation and barren land and 17.13 km2 from the city for the area has been increased. Most lowly the level of the class is very strong vegetation and the greatest increase in of the level is barren. The findings also reveal for changes occurring with temperature patterns and changed most of the distribution is temperature ranges.

Nowadays, climate change, drought and habitat fragmentation threaten biodiversity throughout the world. Beside of natural incidents, anthropogenic factors are the most important reasons for disconnecting genetic flow between habitat patches. Hence establishing suitable habitat corridors is very vital for migratory species or wide-ranging animals. Such animals need to migrate repeatedly to their recognized home ranges, but are often faced with many natural physical barriers or man-made obstacles in their habitats which resulted stress and forced dispersion of animal groups. If a suitable habitat is not provided, wildlife groups will inevitably become scattered and we will be faced with isolated meta-populations and biodiversity degradation over the long-term and this event may lead to species extinction in the future. In this research, at first four factors including topographic position, digital elevation model (DEM), distance to road and land cover layers were selected to assign habitat suitability. At the next step, habitat patches were extracted through weighting these factors and their characteristics into the GIS environment. Then, the suitability and ecological resistance maps were used to calculate the cost-distance factor to extract potential habitat corridors with considering the least distant-cost path criterion. These alternative corridors were then corrected for accuracy by field visits and consideration of probable land-use conflicts and desired corridors were finally selected. In the end, the selected corridors were ranked Considering annual allocated budget for installing and priority of corridors.

Zarinehroud River in Basin of the Urmia Lake is one the major lake's water provider that recently its water controlled to use in agriculture, industrial and domestic sectors. Development projects on the river basin didn' t consider sustainability and consequently caused environmental changes like species extinction, direct habitat destruction and reducing environmental quality in the region. These also accelerate lake drying. Due the important functions of Zarinehroud, in this article using choice experiment technique we tried to estimate individual's willingness to pay to improve environmental attributes of the river. Result shows that people are willing to pay for environmental services. They choose diversity of species in first rank and willing to pay 6200 Iranian Rials in average to improve this attribute. Environmental amenities improvement with 6040 Rials, Environmental perspectives improvement with 4310 Rials, Improving recreational potentials with 2770 Rials and saving resource's water for other environmental uses with 2400 Rials were ranked in respect after diversity of species.