The Biotech dispute at WTO received a great deal of attention, and reopened a wide-ranging debate over the benefits of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their effects on human health and the environment. The dispute was complex and involved a high level of political sensitivity. It brought attention to procedural and substantive issues in which the roles of science and precaution, and the interrelationship between trade law and international law took centre stage. It raised questions as to the degree of risk acceptable to society, as well as questions regarding the regulation of GMOs in the face of continuing uncertainty about the risks they may pose to human health and the environment. This thesis explores both the conceptual foundations and the legal aspects of this debate. It argues that extending the scope of the SPS Agreement in the manner the Biotech decision did is problematic, and overburdens the EU with demonstrating that its GMO authorisation framework is based on scientific risk assessments and not otherwise disguised restrictions on trade. This thesis also highlights that the conflict surrounding GMOs is not limited to the World Trade Organization. By leaving little room for the application of precautionary approaches and non-scientific factors, the Panel largely failed to recognise the institutional and discursive complexity in which the conflict about GMOs is embedded. The thesis concludes that increased sensitivity of WTO law to environmental and non-scientific factors will reduce the existing tension allowing it to coexist with other international treaties.

The objective of this thesis is the development of a unifying framework for the integration and upscaling of the fluid mechanical, ecological and biomechanical processes occurring in aquatic flows. Particular focus is on the interactions of the fluid motion with aquatic plants and sediments in aquatic systems. Appropriately formulated coupled conservation equations are developed for fluid, sediment, and plant motions. The starting points for their derivation are the continuity and momentum equations written for instantaneous local field variables, for fluid, sediment and aquatic plants. The equations of motion for fluid, sediment and plants (at the stem scale) are averaged over time and space to cope with the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of the flow field near the interfacial boundary and couple the fluid and non-fluid equations of motion. To deal with the possible discontinuity of the time-averaged fields within the averaging time, appropriate definitions and theorems for time-averaging are proposed. Time-averaging is then applied on the equations of motion for each phase to obtain the respective time-averaged equations. Time-averaged equations for the second-order velocity moments are also proposed for mobile-boundary flows. The application of consecutive time-space averaging on the continuum equations led to the development of the double-averaged equations of motion for each phase. Double-averaged continuity and momentum equations have been recently proposed for mobile-boundary flows. In this thesis, the coupled double-averaged continuity and momentum equations are proposed for the sediment material and aquatic plants at the reach scale. Double-averaged equations for the second-order velocity moments have been derived for the case of fluid and sediments. By applying the double-averaging methodology (i) the governing equations are upscaled to the scales relevant to applications, (ii) the fluid motion is rigorously coupled with the non-fluid (plants or sediments) motions, and (iii) the effect of the moving interfacial boundary is introduced explicitly in the governing averaged equations. The derived second-order hydrodynamic double-averaged equations are applied to the analysis of extensive data from Direct Numerical Simulations of turbulent open-channel flows over mobile granular beds (the simulations were performed in the Dresden Technical University by Professor J. Fröhlich's Group). The use of the double-averaged equations provides significant data reduction and assists in the data interpretation. The key physical mechanisms involved in the energy transfers between the fluid mean, form-induced and turbulent fields as well as sediment motions are identified based on the assessment of the terms in the double-averaged balances of kinetic energy.

No description available.

The dark-green pigmented marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas tunicata produces several extracellular compounds against a range of common fouling organisms including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, diatoms, invertebrate larvae and algal spores. The regulator WmpR, which has N-terminal similarity to ToxR from Vibrio cholerae and CadC from Escherichia coli, controls all of the pigment and antifouling phenotypes. These compounds appear at the onset of stationary phase. The role of WmpR as a stationary phase regulator in P. tunicata was investigated in this thesis. Starvation and stress studies demonstrated that WmpR does not appear to control genes necessary for survival during carbon, phosphate or nitrogen starvation and UV/hydrogen peroxide stress. Intriguingly, phosphate starvation caused pigmentation of wmpR mutant (D2W2) logarithmic phase cells, suggesting a second regulation of the pigments (and thus antifouling compounds) that could be mediated by the PhoR/B twocomponent regulatory system. Proteomic analysis using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) found that 11 proteins were differentially regulated by WmpR, and the identities of some of these proteins suggested a role for WmpR as a general stationary phase regulator rather than a specific starvation or stress regulator. Gene expression studies using RNA-arbitrarily primed PCR introduced a new role for WmpR as a regulator of iron acquisition; a TonB-dependant outer membrane receptor gene and a non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene were up-regulated in the stationary phase Wt strain compared to the D2W2 strain. An assay for iron-binding activity supported the proposal that the NRPS may be making a siderophore. Further studies demonstrated that WmpR is required for survival under long-term low-iron conditions and that the pigments and antifouling genes are down-regulated during low-iron, while biofilm formation is up-regulated. WmpR also appears to constitutively regulate the production of iron-binding compounds, a novel regulation of iron acquisition that has not been seen in other organisms studied so far. A model is proposed that describes WmpR as responding to environmental signals, including iron, and co-ordinating the expression of a complex regulon including a number of genes involved in iron acquisition, general stationary phase physiology and bioactive secondary metabolite production.

The purpose of this study is to establish the background metal concentrations of several demersal aquatic organisms in the coastal waters off Yunlin county before the development of petroleum industries camp at Tai-shi area, S. W. Taiwan. In addition to, the proper bioindicators are also investigated for future monitoring purpose. Twenty-seven species of sedimentary organisms, including 11 species of fishes, 3 species of crabs, 9 species of shrimps, 2 species of mollusca, and 2 species of cephalopods were collected in 5 seasons from September 1998 to November 1999. Metal concentrations of Ag, As, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Hg, Mn, Se and Zn were analyzed in the muscles and internal organs. The results showed that metal concentrations were significantly different according to species and tissues. Muscle concentrations of As, Fe and Zn were higher in fish, shrimp and cephalopod, whereas Zn, Cu and As were in crab, and Fe and Zn in mollusca. In the internal organs, Fe concentrations were the highest metal contents of fish and mollusca, but Cu were the highest for crab and shrimp. Nevertheless, Fe and Cu concentrations were respectively the highest elemental contents in two species of cephalopods, Octopus ocellatus and Sepiotenthis lessoniana. In gonads, Zn was the highest metal concentration in both gender of fish. However, in crab, Cu and Zn were respectively the highest metal concentrations of Portunus pelagicus and Charybdis hellerii. Among the all, Ag, Co, Cd and Hg showed the lowest concentrations in the species. In most cases, the metal concentrations of internal organs were higher than those of muscles, except Ag and Hg turned out to be reverse. The mean metal concentrations found in this study were similar to those measured in uncontaminated waters worldwide, so that it represents the background values of the aquatic demersal organisms in Yin-lin waters. The metal concentrations in the editable parts of the organisms were all below the food safety standard worldwide. Among the 10 metals analyzed, only As, Se and Zn concentrations of gonad showed the gender-differences. A positive correlation between a metal concentration and the body size were found in several cases, e. g. Ag in internal organs of Neverita lineata, As in muscles of Penaeus cornutus, Hg in muscles of Sillago sihama, Penaeus cornutus, Penaeus hardwickii and Neverita didyma, and Zn in hepatopancrea of Portunus pelagicus. However, Zn in viscera of Neverita didyma revealed a negative correlation to the size. Seasonal variations of metal concentrations were also found in the internal organs of most species. The concentrations of Cu, Fe, Mn, Se, Zn and As of internal organs showed a peak in both February and April, which may relate to the seasonal in put of anthropogenic pollutants in the area. Based on the metal concentrations of internal organs, the ratio of internal organ to muscle and the relative deviations, we suggest Octopus ocellatus, Portunus sanguinolentus (great for Ag, Cd, Co, Cu, Se and Zn), Penaeus cornutus (great for As and Cd), Neverita didyma(great for Co, Hg and Zn) and Arius maculatus(great for Fe, Se and Zn), which potentially concentrated high levels of metals, could be the good bioindicators in future.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-164).

The marine environment is likely to experience profound climate change in the coming 100 years and beyond. Ocean acidification (OA) is one of the climate change issues attracting the attention of researchers all over the world. The decreasing pH of the oceans might threaten marine biofouling organisms. However, climate change is not only involved with ocean acidification (OA) but the change of other environmental variables, such as temperature and salinity. These environmental factors act as multiple stressors and synergistically affect shell-forming biofoulers, in which, the calcium carbonate skeleton structure plays an important role of protection. Previous studies regarding the response of marine biofoulers to the environmental stressors were generally summarized in this article. Then a calcifying biofouling tube worm, Hydroides elegans, were reared from larval stage to early juvenile stage under control and treatment conditions to examine the combined effects of temperature (24, 30°C), pH (8.1, 7.7) and salinity (34, 27ppt). Juvenile growth and chemical composition (Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca) of their calcareous tubes were tested and used as assessment of effects of the three environmental stressors. The experiment revealed that H. elegans was robust to the environmental change because juvenile development positively responded to temperature and the interaction between temperature and salinity. Other combinations did not exert significant effect. The results suggest the need of further study of proteomics and transcriptomics to reveal the mechanisms of calcification as well as long-term studies to examine the energy costs of adaptation. In addition, the non-significant chemical composition (Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca) of the tube of this organism suggest a need of further exploration of the same animal but not only focus on three factors but the seawater chemical composition as well. / published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

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Typescript (photocopy) / xii, 149 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dept. of Soil Science, University of Adelaide, 1982