What's the Beef in South Korea Protests?: The Technical,Psychometric, and Sociocultural Dimensions of News Coverage of Risk

Millions of South Koreans took to the streets for more than 2 months in 2008 ostensibly in protest over their government's handling of beef imports from the United States. This study examines the technical, psychometric, and sociocultural dimensions of these public protests by conducting a content analysis of the coverage of the English language daily newspaper The Korea Herald. The results suggest that the scarcity of technical risk assessment information and the preponderance of normative or outrage factors in the newspaper's coverage (lack of trust in government, perceptions of inequity, and unequal benefits accruing to both nations) may have fueled public anxiety and anger. The findings also point to social, cultural, and historical factors that may explain why allowing U.S. beef into the Korean market elicited strong public reactions.     

Is Cadmium Loss in Surface Runoff Significant for Soil and Surface Water Quality: A Study of Flood-Irrigated Pastures?

Cadmium (Cd), a naturally occurring element, is a potentially biotoxic metal in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Whether it is biotoxic or not will depend upon the concentration in the soil, its bioavailability and its potential transfer through the ecosystem. However, little data are available for losses to waterways, especially via surface runoff. A study was conducted on two long-term trials under pasture to determine how the concentration of Cd in the soil was affected by different irrigation and fertiliser regimes and in turn how this affected the potential for transfer in surface runoff and outwash of flood irrigation. Concentrations of total Cd in the soil varied from 0.06 to 0.58 mg kg^?1 and reflected different rates of P fertiliser applied (from 0 to 376 kg superphosphate ha^?1?year^?1), but was also less (20–25% compared to dryland) in treatments receiving more frequent irrigation when the same rate of P was applied. This indicated that there was potential for transfer. An experiment using simulated rainfall to generate surface runoff indicated that the major form of Cd lost was dissolved (on average 65% <0.45 μm) and could be predicted by water extraction of the soil. Loads of Cd in outwash were significant (0.17 to 0.92 g ha^?1?year^?1) and at least as great as the measured leaching losses in other studies. Loads confirmed the loss of Cd from each trial was largely dissolved, and related to soil water-extractable Cd and the frequency of irrigation. While Cd concentrations in sediment from ditches receiving outwash were enriched, indicating potential transfer to waterways, the effect will likely be small due to dilution and sorption by sediment and thereby localised to areas closer to the farm. However, to minimise any potential impact, management should be directed to minimising the occurrence of outwash (e.g. by better irrigation timing) or Cd transfer by using less Cd-rich P fertiliser or minimising P fertiliser use in areas susceptible to surface runoff.     

Is soil water repellency a function of soil order and proneness to drought? A survey of soils under pasture in the North Island of New Zealand

We conducted a survey of the occurrence of soil water repellency (SWR) in the top 40 mm of soils across 50 sites under pastoral land use in the North Island of New Zealand. The sites represented ten soil orders and covered five classes of proneness to drought. We found at least a moderate persistence of SWR in 35 out of 50 sites (70%) in summer 2009/2010 and a moderate potential persistence of SWR in 49 out of 50 sites (98%) after drying the soils. The soil orders had an influence on the degree and persistence of SWR. Both the degree and persistence of SWR were greatest for the soil orders Podzol, Organic and Recent, and least for the soil order Allophanic. On average, all soil orders had contact angles larger than 94°, with the exception of the soil order Allophanic. We found no relationship between SWR and drought‐proneness. The degree of SWR and its persistence for air‐dried samples were positively correlated with soil carbon and nitrogen contents and negatively with soil bulk density. The persistence of SWR for field‐fresh samples was additionally negatively correlated with the soil water content. We identified a close relationship (R² = 0.84) between the degree and persistence of SWR. The survey results indicate that SWR is at least moderately persistent in a soil with a contact angle larger than 93.8°. Using a water‐drop penetration time of 60 s as the threshold for SWR being moderately persistent, we found that moderately persistent SWR occurred only for volumetric water contents below 45% or a relative saturation of 60%. The latter can be considered to be a generic value of the critical water content for the onset of SWR at the scale of the North Island of New Zealand.     

Interactions among Scientists, Managers and the Public in Defining Research Priorities and Management Strategies for Marine and Coastal Resources: Is the Red Sea Marine Peace Park a New Paradigm?

It has been assumed that marine habitats and resources, especially, are almost unlimited, and that if one habitat became degraded or a particular fisheries resource depleted, there always would be another to replace it. Therefore, natural resource management principals are beginning to include human motivation and responses as part of the marine and coastal systems that are being studied and managed. Managers of marine resources face the challenge of balancing conservation and development objectives in the context of the inherent uncertainty of natural systems and the political and social pressures of human systems. Natural resource managers, scientists and the general public seem to share a vision for the future as a world in which societal and economic decisions will be strongly coupled with an increasingly comprehensive understanding of the environment. This in turn will lead to both socio-economic health and ecosystem health. A paradigm shift is being seen in the evolution of the role of scientists in society from simply observers of the natural world with tenuous linkages to resource managers and the public, to partners in modern society's quest for answers to pressing questions related to sustainable use and conservation of natural resources. A US Agency for International Development supported, joint effort between the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Government of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to conduct a comprehensive research and monitoring program directed at the new Binational Red Sea Marine Pearce Park will be a pioneering effort to employ and test this new paradigm.     

Comparison of soil properties of native forests,Pinus patula plantations and adjacent pastures in the Andean highlands of southern Ecuador: land use history or recent vegetation effects?

In the high Andes of Ecuador scarcity of farmland has led to accelerated deforestation, in particular over the last 40 years. Soil mis‐management has caused the rapid decline of soil fertility and most farmland has been irreversibly transformed into grassland or tree plantations. The present study assessed whether pastures and particularly pine plantations were associated with less soil nutrients. The soils from six sites each of native forests and Pinus patula plantations, and their adjacent pastures were sampled in a geographically large area in the Paute watershed, south Ecuador. Soil analyses showed statistically significant differences for soil cations and effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) only. ECEC was highest in soils from native forests and their adjacent pastures (6.4 cmol/kg) compared to pine plantations and their pastures (4.2 cmol/kg). Mean soil organic matter and pH were similar in native forests/pastures (39% SOM; pH 5.4) and in plantations/pastures (40% SOM; pH 5). As pasture soils had ECEC concentrations statistically similar to those of their adjacent forest or plantation, they do not form a single homogeneous land use type based on soil nutrients. Therefore, this study cannot conclude that the presence of pines alone has caused soil degradation, but instead that the soil at the site was already degraded before pines were planted. This study proposes the scenario that pine plantations are established in pastures as a last resort, when the soils are already strongly degraded, and more profitable land uses are not available. Farmers are reluctant to use fertile land for tree plantations, and only the planting of well‐known species, such as pines, is officially encouraged.     

Comparison of the efficiency of A–PAGE and SDS–PAGE,ISSRs and RAPDs in resolving genetic relationships among <Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Aegilops</Emphasis> species

Species that belong to the genus Triticum L. and the genetically related Aegilops L. genus are important genetic and economic resources because they have an evolutionary relationship with the two main agricultural crops T. aestivum (bread wheat) and T. durum (durum wheat). Therefore, it is important to understand the genetic relationships among the cultivated wheat species and their wild relatives. The latter have a great role in the improvement of cultivated wheat. Molecular markers are the best choice and most reliable means to study these relationships accurately. In this study, we compared the efficiency of the biochemical methods A–PAGE and SDS–PAGE on seed storage proteins and the molecular methods RAPDs and ISSRs to explore the genetic relationships among seven species of Triticum and 20 Aegilops species. Three phylogenetic trees obtained in this study were compared with available classifications and phylogenetic trees constructed earlier for these species. It was noted that the tree based on ISSRs data was the most congruent with those classification and trees. This may be attributed to the fact that ISSRs is more specific, and therefore more reliable. This study is the first to study genetic relationships among all species studied here using biochemical and molecular techniques.