ALBERT

Notes: Most current writers on strategic control, whether from the rational planning or processual schools, agree on the importance of dialogue and debate between the interested parties to the control process. This is particularly so when strategic control is regarded in a ‘warning bell’ sense, responding to a signal that all is not going according to plan, rather than as a behavioural constraint or as an element of agency theory practice. This paper advances a normative framework for ensuring the effectiveness of such discussions based on Bird's notion of a ‘good conversation’. Bird argued that the discussion of business ethical problems should be vocal, reciprocating, issues-oriented, rational, imaginative, and honest. It is argued here that these characteristics should also apply to the discussions within the strategic control process if the process is not to be dysfunctional.

Notes: Planning for the development of regional water resources is often complicated by severe disputes. For example, in the Greater Ganges River basin, there are disagreements between India and Bangladesh over sharing the low river flows during the dry season and over controlling the potentially destructive large river flows during the monsoon. This paper illustrates an approach for providing the two riparian nations with distinct water resources plans to help solve their regional water conflicts. More specifically, a linear programming (LP) model representing a multipurpose river basin system is presented. The concept of near optimality is employed to generate a variety of solutions in contrast to searching only for a global optimum. These solutions are grouped into similar project designs by applying a cluster analysis, which is a multivariate technique. Several project designs are graphically displayed, and their implications for national and international agreements are discussed. The range of regional alternatives available to India and Bangladesh could aid in their negotiations.

Notes: 1. Hydraulic conditions, periphyton biomass and invertebrate communities were compared on artificial substrates exposed to a range of upstream roughness conditions across an area of uniform current velocity and depth in a gravel-bedded river. The effect of river bed roughness was simulated by installing roughness elements upstream of artificial substrates.2. Increasing upstream roughness reduced the average near-bed velocity above the substrates and increased short-term variability in velocity (i.e. turbulence).3. Periphyton chlorophyll a density showed a general decline with near-bed velocity and was significantly lower on the substrates exposed to the river bed reference and 0 mm roughness treatments than the 110 mm roughness elements. Chlorophyll a was also negatively correlated with the abundance of larger collector-browsing invertebrates. This indicates that effects of the changes in hydraulic conditions on invertebrates may have contributed to the observed treatment effects on periphyton.4. Invertebrate abundance and diversity declined with increasing upstream roughness. Filter-feeders, collector-browsers and predatory invertebrates all declined in abundance with increasing upstream roughness, but the effect was strongest for filter-feeders. Eight of the nine most common taxa showed significant treatment effects. The orthoclad chironomid, Eukiefferiella sp., was not influenced strongly by upstream roughness, but its abundance was correlated significantly with periphyton biomass.

Notes: : Riparian zones perform a variety of biophysical functions that can be managed to reduce the effects of land use on instream habitat and water quality. However, the functions and human uses of riparian zones vary with biophysical factors such as landform, vegetation, and position along the stream continuum. These variations mean that “one size fits all” approaches to riparian management can be ineffective for reducing land use impacts. Thus riparian management planning at the watershed scale requires a framework that can consider spatial differences in riparian functions and human uses We describe a pilot riparian zone classification developed to provide such a framework for riparian management in two diverse river systems in the Waikato region of New Zealand. Ten classes of riparian zones were identified that differed sufficiently in their biophysical features to require different management. Generic “first steps” and “best practical” riparian management recommendations and associated costs were developed for each riparian class. The classification aims to not only improve our understanding of the effectiveness of riparian zone management as a watershed management tool among water managers and land owners, but to also provide a basis for deciding on management actions.

Notes: 1. We tested the hypothesis that interactions between disturbance types can influence invertebrate community response and recovery in two streams draining pasture (press-pulse disturbance) and native forest (pulse disturbance) catchments before and after a one-in-28-year flood. We also sampled drift and adult insects to gain insights into the relative importance of these two postdisturbance recolonisation pathways.2. Taxa numbers and total density declined markedly at the forested site after the flood, but there was a delayed response at the pasture site, reflecting greater initial resistance to this pulse disturbance among taxa adapted to the underlying press disturbance.3. Community composition was less stable at the pasture site where per cent abundance of taxa was highly variable prior to the flood and over the 2-year postflood sampling period. After the flood, the pasture stream fauna was more heavily dominated by vagile taxa, including several chironomid species and hydroptilid caddisflies.4. Taxa numbers and densities recovered to preflood levels within 5–7 months at both sites, but a range of taxa-specific responses was observed that took up to 18 months to recover to preflood densities. Community stability at the pasture site had not returned to preflood composition by 2 years postflood.5. Changes in drift densities of several common stream invertebrates at the pasture site reflected postflood changes in benthic densities and seasonally low drift in winter. Terrestrial invertebrates dominated drift at the pasture site for 3 months postflood whereas Ephemeroptera were most common at the native forest site.6. Flight patterns of selected adult aquatic insects showed a strongly seasonal pattern. Abundance of adults at the pasture site in the second year following the flood increased in line with the recovery of the non-Dipteran benthic fauna. Significant upstream flight occurred for several caddisfly species at the native forest site, and weakly directional or downstream flight was evident for most common Plecoptera and Ephemeroptera.7. This study indicates that the magnitude and duration of responses to major pulse disturbances can depend on the presence or absence of an underlying press disturbance. This finding has implications for monitoring, and suggests that a knowledge of disturbance history beyond 2 years may be required to interpret mechanisms contributing to observed land-use impacts.

Notes: Abstract An environmental bacterial isolate, Pseudomonas sp. 4ASW, was shown to metabolize the organophosphonate herbicide glyphosate as sole phosphorus source, through an initial cleavage of the carbon-phosphorus bond to yield sarcosine. Glyphosate metabolism was repressed in the presence of inorganic phosphate; levels of uptake of the herbicide in cells subjected to prolonged phosphorus starvation were up to 20-fold higher than those in cells actively growing on glyphosate. In contrast, alkaline phosphatase activity was only two-fold higher in P-starved cells. This suggests that there may be significant differences in the regulation of these two phosphate-starvation-inducible functions.