Barriers and bridges to implement policies about sustainable development and sustainability commonly depend on the past development of social-ecological systems. Production of metals required integration of use of ore, streams for energy, and wood for bioenergy and construction, as well as of multiple societal actors. Focusing on the Swedish Bergslagen region as a case study we (1) describe the phases of natural resource use triggered by metallurgy, (2) the location and spatial extent of 22 definitions of Bergslagen divided into four zones as a proxy of cumulative pressure on landscapes, and (3) analyze the consequences for natural capital and society. We found clear gradients in industrial activity, stream alteration, and amount of natural forest from the core to the periphery of Bergslagen. Additionally, the legacy of top-down governance is linked to today's poorly diversified business sector and thus municipal vulnerability. Comparing the Bergslagen case study with other similar regions in Russia and Germany, we discuss the usefulness of multiple case studies.
The maintenance of biodiversity by securing representative and well-connected habitat networks in managed landscapes requires a wise combination of protection, management, and restoration of habitats at several scales. We suggest that the integration of natural and social sciences in the form of "Two-dimensional gap analysis" is an efficient tool for the implementation of biodiversity policies. The tool links biologically relevant "horizontal" ecological issues with "vertical" issues related to institutions and other societal issues. Using forest biodiversity as an example, we illustrate how one can combine ecological and institutional aspects of biodiversity conservation, thus facilitating environmentally sustainable regional development. In particular, we use regional gap analysis for identification of focal forest types, habitat modelling for ascertaining the functional connectivity of "green infrastructures", as tools for the horizontal gap analysis. For the vertical dimension we suggest how the social sciences can be used for assessing the success in the implementation of biodiversity policies in real landscapes by identifying institutional obstacles while implementing policies. We argue that this interdisciplinary approach could be applied in a whole range of other environments including other terrestrial biota and aquatic ecosystems where functional habitat connectivity, nonlinear response to habitat loss and a multitude of economic and social interests co-occur in the same landscape.
Inputs of anthropogenic mercury (Hg) to the environment have led to accumulation of Hg in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, contributing to fish Hg concentrations well above the European Union standards in large parts of Fennoscandia. Forestry operations have been reported to increase the concentrations and loads of Hg to surface waters by mobilizing Hg from the soil. This summary of available forestry effect studies reveals considerable variation in treatment effects on total Hg (THg) and methylmercury (MeHg) at different sites, varying from no effect up to manifold concentration increases, especially for the bioavailable MeHg fraction. Since Hg biomagnification depends on trophic structures, forestry impacts on nutrient flows will also influence the Hg in fish. From this, we conclude that recommendations for best management practices in Swedish forestry operations are appropriate from the perspective of mercury contamination. However, the complexity of defining effective policies needs to be recognized.
A sensitive bioassay, based on EROD induction in cultured chicken embryo livers, was used together with chemical analysis to determine levels of dioxin-like contaminants in particulate matter in Eman. Extracts of sediment and settling particulate matter (SPM) collected in the river system before, during, and after dredging of a PCB contaminated lake, Lake Jarnsjon, were separated into three fractions containing a) monoaromatic/aliphatic; b) diaromatic (e.g., PCBs and polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans); and c) polyaromatic compounds (e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). The samples from Lake Jarnsjon contained the highest PCB concentrations and the diaromatic extracts from Lake Jarnsjon samples showed the highest activities of EROD-inducing diaromatic compounds. The dioxin-like activity of the diaromatic fraction in sediment collected after the dredging of Jarnsjon had only around 1% of the activity of the pre-dredging sediment, showing that the remediation was successful in terms of removal of the PCB-contaminated sediment from the lake. In SPM collected immediately downstream from Jarnsjon, levels of diaromatic dioxin-like compounds were elevated during the dredging, and decreased after that. The post-dredging concentrations were however higher than in SPM from lakes upstream of Jarnsjon, showing that elevated levels of dioxin-like diaromatic compounds were still present in the water System downstream of Jarnsjon a couple of years after the dredging.
Environmental problems that cross national borders are attracting increasing public and political attention; regulating them involves coordinating the goals and activities of various governments, which often presupposes simplifying and standardizing complex knowledge, and finding ways to manage uncertainty. This article explores how transboundary environmental problems are dealt with to render complex issues governable. By discussing oil pollution in the Baltic Sea and the gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, we elucidate how boundaries are negotiated to make issues governable. Three processes are found to be particularly relevant to how involved actors render complex issues governable: complexity reduction, construction of a spatial identity for an issue, and ascription of capabilities to new or old actor constellations. We conclude that such regulation is always provisional, implying that existing regulation is always open for negotiation and criticism.