This perspective provides an overview of wood pellet markets in a number of countries of high signifi cance, together with an inventory of market factors and relevant past or existing policies. In 2010, the estimated global wood pellet production and consumption were close to 14.3 Mt (million metric tonnes) and 13.5 Mt, respectively, while the global installed production capacity had reached over 28 Mt. Two types of pellets are mainly traded (i) for residential heating and (ii) for large-scale district heating or co-fi ring installations. The EU was the primary market, responsible for nearly 61% and 85% of global production and consumption, respectively in 2010. EU markets were divided according to end use: (i) residential and district heating, (ii) power plants driven market, (iii) mixed market, and (iv) export-driven countries. North America basically serves as an exporter, but also with signifi cant domestic consumption in USA. East Asia is predicted to become the second-largest consumer after the EU in the near future. The development perspective in Latin America remains unclear. Five factors that determine the market characteristics are: (i) the existence of coal-based power plants, (ii) the development of heating systems, (iii) feedstock availability, (iv) interactions with wood industry, and (v) logistics factor. Furthermore, intervention policies play a pivotal role in market development. The perspective of wood pellets industry was also analyzed from four major aspects: (i) supply potential, (ii) logistics issues, (iii) sustainability considerations, and (iv) technology development.Perspective: Wood pellet market and trade: a global perspective CS Goh et al.
a b s t r a c tIn rivers, lakes, and other aquatic systems throughout the world, intake pipes withdraw huge volumes of water for industrial purposes, including power plant cooling. During this process, large numbers of small-bodied, early life-stages of fish are pulled into pipes (i.e., entrained) and may be subjected to physical, thermal and chemical stress. As a result of such entrainment, these organisms can suffer direct or indirect mortality. However, given that the vast majority of larval fish are likely to die during early life due to natural processes, it is not obvious that entrainment-related mortality will have a strong influence on subsequent adult population sizes. The ability to evaluate if larval fish are dead on arrival, moribund, or in poor condition (i.e., likely to die through natural processes) at the time of entrainment could shed light on likely population-level impacts. To this end, we review the potential use of RNA:DNA ratios to index condition of entrained larval fish. Through a meta-analysis of published research studies, we demonstrate that RNA:DNA ratios of larval fish are responsive to starvation stress, with effect size increasing with duration of starvation. We relate these results to a surrogate measure of irreversible long-term negative impacts to fish populations, and demonstrate that the timescale over which RNA:DNA ratios respond to stress may not be long enough to reflect before-and-after entrainment stress. We also highlight the diverse factors contributing to variation of RNA:DNA ratios, including methodological, ontogenetic, and thermal influences. We believe that the need to account for these influences when comparing among RNA:DNA values limits the utility of broadly using RNA:DNA ratios to evaluate entrainment effects. However, the method shows promise as a quick and efficient means of determining fish condition and, used in proper context (e.g., specific to a given set of environmental conditions; in conjunction with other assessment techniques), may provide a powerful tool in assessing the effects of entrainment on fish populations. Assuming that researchers can account for sources of background variation, RNA:DNA analyses may be most useful for assessing the condition of fish larvae susceptible to entrainment (i.e., physically in the vicinity of the water intake) and/or evaluating whether fish larvae are likely to die from natural processes independent of entrainment.
Waters in urban areas often experience hypoxic events due to combined sewer overflows, which have the potential to negatively affect aquatic biota. Despite these hypoxic events, many urban areas have diverse fish assemblages, suggesting hypoxia has a minimal impact. Data to quantify the impacts of aquatic hypoxia in urban systems are currently lacking. The current study sought to define how rain‐induced hypoxia affected the movement, distribution, and physiology of individual Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides residing in the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS), an urban area prone to episodes of hypoxia. Following the onset of hypoxic events, the likelihood of Largemouth Bass remaining in hypoxic water was reduced, but fish did not completely avoid hypoxic areas. This suggests that hypoxia exerts only a moderate influence on the movement of Largemouth Bass. Field sampling showed that Largemouth Bass from the site prone to hypoxia were not in poor nutritional condition and were not suffering from chronic stress, relative to compared with those from reference sites. Field sampling also showed that fish from the CAWS displayed an improved capability to transport oxygen in the blood compared with individuals from control sites. Following a low‐oxygen challenge in the laboratory, fish from the CAWS also displayed elevated levels of oxygen transport capabilities compared with fish from some control sites. Together, results suggest that hypoxic events have limited behavioral consequences for Largemouth Bass, and in fact, Largemouth Bass in our study may have developed an improved ability to tolerate hypoxia, which would allow them to persist in hypoxia‐prone areas.
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