Characterizing Sulfur in Foster Creek Bitumen Using Rock-Eval Sulfur, for Assessing H2S Production Risk in SAGD Operations

The forest-game conflict – how can forest economics contribute to solve it? (Essay) Core parameters of forest economics such as land expectation value or highest revenue show that damage caused by wild ungulates can critically influence the economic success of forest enterprises. When assessing and evaluating the damage in order to calculate damage compensation, methods are applied in Germany that look either into the past (“cost value methods”) or into the future (“expected value methods”). The manifold uncertainties related to this evaluation over long-term production periods are taken into account within a framework of conventions through strongly simplifying assumptions. Only lately, the increased production risk due to game-induced loss of species diversity is also considered. Additional aspects that should be taken into account in the future are the loss of climate-adapted species, the change of the insurance values of forest ecosystems and the impossibility of specific management systems such as single-tree selection forestry due to the influence of game. Because of high transaction costs when assessing the damage, financial compensation should only be the “ultimate measure” and a meditation between stakeholder groups with the goal to find a cooperative solution before the damage occurs should be preferred.

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Composition of Sedimentary Organic Matter across the Laptev Sea Shelf: Evidences from Rock-Eval Parameters and Molecular Indicators

Water ◽

10.3390/w12123511 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (12) ◽

pp. 3511

Author(s):

Elena Gershelis ◽

Andrey Grinko ◽

Irina Oberemok ◽

Elizaveta Klevantseva ◽

Natalina Poltavskaya ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Surface Sediments ◽

Continental Margins ◽

Laptev Sea ◽

Lena River ◽

Nearshore Sediments ◽

Rock Eval ◽

Molecular Indicators ◽

Sedimentation Regime ◽

The Laptev Sea

Global warming in high latitudes causes destabilization of vulnerable permafrost deposits followed by massive thaw-release of organic carbon. Permafrost-derived carbon may be buried in the nearshore sediments, transported towards the deeper basins or degraded into the greenhouse gases, potentially initiating a positive feedback to climate change. In the present study, we aim to identify the sources, distribution and degradation state of organic matter (OM) stored in the surface sediments of the Laptev Sea (LS), which receives a large input of terrestrial carbon from both Lena River discharge and intense coastal erosion. We applied a suite of geochemical indicators including the Rock Eval parameters, traditionally used for the matured OM characterization, and terrestrial lipid biomarkers. In addition, we analyzed a comprehensive grain size data in order to assess hydrodynamic sedimentation regime across the LS shelf. Rock-Eval (RE) data characterize LS sedimentary OM with generally low hydrogen index (100–200 mg HC/g TOC) and oxygen index (200 and 300 CO2/g TOC) both increasing off to the continental slope. According to Tpeak values, there is a clear regional distinction between two groups (369–401 °C for the inner and mid shelf; 451–464 °C for the outer shelf). We suggest that permafrost-derived OM is traced across the shallow and mid depths with high Tpeak and slightly elevated HI values if compared to other Arctic continental margins. Molecular-based degradation indicators show a trend to more degraded terrestrial OC with increasing distance from the coast corroborating with RE results. However, we observed much less variation of the degradation markers down to the deeper sampling horizons, which supports the notion that the most active OM degradation in LS land-shelf system takes part during the cross-shelf transport, not while getting buried deeper.

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Geochemical Considerations from the Carboniferous Unconventional Petroleum System of SW Iberia

Minerals ◽

10.3390/min11080811 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (8) ◽

pp. 811

Author(s):

Gabriel A. Barberes ◽

Rui Pena dos Reis ◽

Nuno L. Pimentel ◽

André L. D. Spigolon ◽

Paulo E. Fonseca ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Random Distribution ◽

Thermal Evolution ◽

Organic Geochemistry ◽

Black Shales ◽

Petroleum System ◽

Point Of View ◽

Gas Reservoir ◽

Thermal Maturation ◽

Petrographic Analyses ◽

Rock Eval

The Baixo Alentejo Flysch Group (BAFG) is an important stratigraphic unit that covers over half of the South Portuguese Zone (SPZ) depositional area, and it is composed by three main tectono-stratigraphic units: the Mértola, Mira, and Brejeira formations. All of these formations contain significant thicknesses of black shales and have several wide areas with 0.81 wt.%, 0.91 wt.%, and 0.72 wt.% average total organic carbon (TOC) (respectively) and thermal maturation values within gas zones (overmature). This paper is considering new data from classical methods of organic geochemistry characterization, such as TOC, Rock–Eval pyrolysis, and organic petrography, to evaluate the unconventional petroleum system from the SPZ. A total of 53 samples were collected. From the stratigraphical point of view, TOC values seem to have a random distribution. The Rock–Eval parameters point out high thermal maturation compatible with gas window (overmature zone). The samples are dominated by gas-prone extremely hydrogen-depleted type III/IV kerogen, which no longer has the potential to generate and expel hydrocarbons. The petrographic analyses positioned the thermal evolution of these samples into the end of catagenesis to metagenesis (wet to dry gas zone), with values predominantly higher than 2 %Ro (dry gas zone). The presence of thermogenic hydrocarbon fluids characterized by previous papers indicate that the BAFG from SPZ represents a senile unconventional petroleum system, working nowadays basically as a gas reservoir.

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Farmers’ Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for Reducing the Risk of Rice Production: Evidence from Rajshahi District in Bangladesh

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11030600 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 600

Author(s):

Shahjahan Ali ◽

Bikash Chandra Ghosh ◽

Ataul Gani Osmani ◽

Elias Hossain ◽

Csaba Fogarassy

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Rice Production ◽

Adaptation Strategies ◽

Production Risk ◽

Substantial Impact ◽

Rice Farmers ◽

Agronomic Practices ◽

Rice Yields ◽

Climate Change Adaptation Strategies

A lack of adaptive capacities for climate change prevents poor farmers from diversifying agricultural production in Bangladesh’s drought-resilient areas. Climate change adaptation strategies can reduce the production risk relating to unforeseen climatic shocks and increase farmers’ food, income, and livelihood security. This paper investigates rice farmers’ adaptive capacities to adapt climate change strategies to reduce the rice production risk. The study collected 400 farm-level micro-data of rice farmers with the direct cooperation of Rajshahi District. The survey was conducted during periods between June and July of 2020. Rice farmers’ adaptive capacities were estimated quantitatively by categorizing the farmers as high, moderate, and low level adapters to climate change adaptation strategies. In this study, a Cobb–Douglas production function was used to measure the effects of farmers’ adaptive capacities on rice production. The obtained results show that farmers are moderately adaptive in terms of adaptation strategies on climate change and the degree of adaptation capacities. Agronomic practices such as the quantity of fertilizer used, the amount of labor, the farm’s size, and extension contacts have a substantial impact on rice production. This study recommends that a farmer more significantly adjusts to adaptation strategies on climate change to reduce rice production. These strategies will help farmers to reduce the risk and produce higher quality rice. Consequently, rice farmers should facilitate better extension services and change the present agronomic practice to attain a higher adaptation status. It can be very clearly seen that low adaptability results in lower rice yields.

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Production risk, technical efficiency, and input use nexus: Lessons from Bangladesh aquaculture

Journal of the World Aquaculture Society ◽

10.1111/jwas.12767 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

pp. 57-72

Author(s):

Md. Akhtaruzzaman Khan ◽

Ratna Begum ◽

Rasmus Nielsen ◽

Ayoe Hoff

Keyword(s):

Technical Efficiency ◽

Production Risk ◽

Input Use

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Oenological Potential of Autochthonous Saccharomyces cerevisiae Yeast Strains from the Greek Varieties of Agiorgitiko and Moschofilero

Beverages ◽

10.3390/beverages7020027 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 27

Author(s):

Dimitrios Kontogiannatos ◽

Vicky Troianou ◽

Maria Dimopoulou ◽

Polydefkis Hatzopoulos ◽

Yorgos Kotseridis

Keyword(s):

Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽

Alcoholic Fermentation ◽

Ethanol Tolerance ◽

Random Amplified Polymorphic Dna ◽

Yeast Strains ◽

Rapd Pcr ◽

Autochthonous Yeast ◽

Polymerase Chain ◽

Grape Varieties ◽

H2s Production

Nemea and Mantinia are famous wine regions in Greece known for two indigenous grape varieties, Agiorgitiko and Moschofilero, which produce high quality PDO wines. In the present study, indigenous Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast strains were isolated and identified from spontaneous alcoholic fermentation of Agiorgitiko and Moschofilero musts in order to evaluate their oenological potential. Random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) recovered the presence of five distinct profiles from a total of 430 yeast isolates. The five obtained strains were evaluated at microvinifications trials and tested for basic oenological and biochemical parameters including sulphur dioxide and ethanol tolerance as well as H2S production in sterile grape must. The selected autochthonous yeast strains named, Soi2 (Agiorgitiko wine) and L2M (Moschofilero wine), were evaluated also in industrial (4000L) fermentations to assess their sensorial and oenological characteristics. The volatile compounds of the produced wines were determined by GC-FID. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of using Soi2 and L2M strains in industrial fermentations for Agiorgitiko and Moschofilero grape musts, respectively.

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