Application of Neomysis awatschensis as a standard marine toxicity test organism in China

The small mysid crustacean Neomysis awatschensis was collected in the west coast of Jiaozhou Bay, Qingdao, China in 1992 and acclimated and cultured in laboratory conditions since then. Standard acute toxicity tests using 4--6 d juvenile mysids of this species were conducted and the results were compared with Mysidopsis bahia, a standard toxicity test organism used in the US in terms of their sensitivities to reference toxins, as well as their taxonomy, morphology and geographic distributions. Because of its wide distribution along the Chinese coast, similar sensitivity to pollutants as M. bahia, short life history, small size and the ease of handling, this study intended to use N-awatschensis as one of the standard marine organisms for toxicity testing in China. The species were applied to acute toxicity evaluations of drilling fluid and its additives, organotin TPT and toxic algae, and to chronic (life cycle) toxicity assays of organotin TPT and a toxic dinofalgellate Alexandrium tamarense, respectively. Using N. awatschensis as a standard toxicity testing organism in marine pollution assment in China is suegested.     

中国海洋生态毒理学研究中的毒性测试生物

自20世纪70年代末,中国海洋生态毒理学萌芽发展,基于生态毒理学的剂量-反应原理开始利用海洋生物开展污染物毒性测试,以评估污染物对于海洋生物及海洋生态系统的影响.21世纪以来,应用于毒性测试的海洋生物物种变得更为广泛且多样,常用的海洋生物包括海洋藻类、原生动物、轮虫动物、环节动物、软体动物、棘皮动物、节肢动物、头索动物和海洋鱼类等.这些受试生物已用在多种海洋污染物的毒理学研究上,为海洋污染物的生态风险评估及海水水质基准的制定提供科学基础.浅述近年来中国海洋生态毒理学研究中毒性测试生物的应用情况,特别对其中常用的6种（类）海洋模式生物,包括中肋骨条藻、扇形游仆虫、牡蛎（多种）、海胆（多种）、日本虎斑猛水蚤和海洋青鳉鱼在毒性测试上的应用展开较为具体的介绍.     

Development and applications of functional gene microarrays in the analysis of the functional diversity, composition, and structure of microbial communities

Functional gene arrays (FGAs) are a special type of microarrays containing probes for key genes involved in microbial functional processes, such as biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, and metals, biodegradation of environmental contaminants, energy processing, and stress responses. GeoChips are considered as the most comprehensive FGAs. Experimentally established probe design criteria and a computational pipeline integrating sequence retrieval, probe design and verification, array construction, data analysis, and automatic update are used to develop the GeoChip technology. GeoChip has been systematically evaluated and demonstrated to be a powerful tool for rapid, specific, sensitive, and quantitative analysis of microbial communities in a high-throughput manner. Several generations of GeoChip have been developed and applied to investigate the functional diversity, composition, structure, function, and dynamics of a variety of microbial communities from different habitats, such as water, soil, marine, bioreactor, human microbiome, and extreme ecosystems. GeoChip is able to address fundamental questions related to global change, bioenergy, bioremediation, agricultural operation, land use, human health, environmental restoration, and ecological theories and to link the microbial community structure to environmental factors and ecosystem functioning.     

海水入侵区含水层中原核微生物多样性和群落结构特征及其意义

海水入侵引起的地下水咸化是沿海地区面临的主要自然灾害之一,并由此产生了强烈的物理化学梯度变化,严重影响了原生态环境. 为研究海水入侵影响下含水层微生物的多样性和群落结构,揭示海水入侵对原位微生物群落的环境影响,采用基于高通量测序的微生物群落分析方法,对珠江三角洲含水层中微生物群落多样性和结构组成进行表征和比较,并探讨微生物群落对环境变化的响应. 结果表明:研究区地下水中微生物群落主要分属于47个原核微生物门类,其中最丰富的门是变形菌门(Proteobacteria),其次是厚壁菌门(Firmicutes)、放线菌门(Actinobacteria)和拟杆菌门(Bacteroidetes),而古菌的群落结构以奇古菌(Thaumarchaeota)和广古菌(Euryarchaeota)为主,且Thaumarchaeota和Euryarchaeota在高浓度咸水中丰富度更高. 不同盐度梯度下微生物群落之间共有的OTUs占比为59%,在一些高浓度咸水样品中存在大量的脱硫弧菌属和甲烷球菌厌氧微生物. 虽然微生物群落的多样性并不完全与盐度梯度一致,但在溶解性总固体(TDS)浓度大于1 g/L的含盐地下水中,微生物群落的多样性随盐度的增加而增加. 典范对应分析(CCA)表明,TDS和总氮(TN)是影响微生物群落分布最显著的环境因子. 研究结果为进一步揭示海水侵蚀下的地下水中微生物群落的结构及其环境相互作用奠定了基础.      

Ecosystem mapping for the implementation of the European Biodiversity Strategy at the national level: The case of Italy

Several international initiatives, including the European Biodiversity Strategy to 2020, promote the identification and mapping of ecosystems as basic tools for the conservation of biodiversity and related services. On coarse scales, the spatial representation of ecosystems is usually based on broad land cover categories that largely overlook important ecological and biogeographic features of the biotic communities they are meant to exemplify. This paper presents a nationwide ecosystem mapping approach that promotes a degree of thematic detail, which is more suited than that found in the continental maps to meeting biodiversity conservation targets in Italy. The approach is based on the rationale that current and potential vegetation cover are valuable proxies for outlining ecosystems. The resulting Ecosystem Map of Italy includes 43 types of forest ecosystems instead of the 5 woodland, forest and other wooded land types recognized at the European level. We outline the expected advantages of this enhanced thematic detail for a number of conservation purposes and highlight how the resulting maps may help to meet biodiversity conservation targets at the national level. In particular, we refer to the assessment of conservation status, the definition of restoration priorities, the planning of green infrastructure and the identification of collapse risks for the ecosystems identified. Comprehensively, the definition, characterization and assessment of ecosystem types represent the carrying structure of the recently launched national system of natural capital accounting.     

Ecotoxicological assessment of di use pollution using biomonitoring tool for sustainable land use in Thailand

As a developing country, Thailand has a significant issue with di use pollution of the soil ecosystem due to an indiscriminate use of agrichemicals and poorly regulated disposal of a wide variety of hazardous wastes. Practical risk assessment tools based on locallyoccurring species are needed to assess the e ects of di use pollutants on the soil ecosystem in Thailand because reliance on soil criteria developed for overseas conditions may provide inadequate protection. Native soil organisms in Thailand may be more or less sensitive to contaminants compared to overseas test species. This article described a biological indicator approach for ecological risk assessment of di use pollution in the soil ecosystem of Thailand from pesticide application with the aim of developing standardized protocols using native species and locally generated data to better evaluate the ecological risks of non-point source soil pollution. It was found that ecotoxicological assessment provided a better understanding of the ecological impacts that di use pollution induced on Thai environmental conditions. Thai soil biota species were more sensitive to soil contaminants than similar species overseas. Soil series also had an influence on the ecotoxicology of contaminants to soil biota. Collembolan, Cyphoderus sp., was demonstrated as a useful alternative test species to Folsomia candida (international test species) for terrestrial ecotoxicological testing of Thai soils. In addition, the soil biota activities such as soil respiration and earthworm avoidance including soil biodiversity and the litter bag decomposition technique are also good tools to assess the e ects of di use pollution by pesticides on the soil ecosystem of Thailand.     

Predicting the aquatic risk of realistic pesticide mixtures to species assemblages in Portuguese river basins

Although pesticide regulatory tools are mainly based on individual substances, aquatic ecosystems are usually exposed to multiple pesticides from their use on the variety of crops within the catchment of a river. This study estimated the impact of measured pesticide mixtures in surface waters from 2002 and 2008 within three important Portuguese river basins(‘Mondego', ‘Sado' and ‘Tejo') on primary producers, arthropods and fish by toxic pressure calculation. Species sensitivity distributions(SSDs), in combination with mixture toxicity models, were applied. Considering the differences in the responses of the taxonomic groups as well as in the pesticide exposures that these organisms experience, variable acute multi-substance potentially affected fractions(ms PAFs) were obtained. The median msP AF for primary producers and arthropods in surface waters of all river basins exceeded 5%, the cut-off value used in the prospective SSD approach for deriving individual environmental quality standards. A ranking procedure identified various photosystem II inhibiting herbicides, with oxadiazon having the relatively largest toxic effects on primary producers, while the organophosphorus insecticides, chlorfenvinphos and chlorpyrifos, and the organochloride endosulfan had the largest effects on arthropods and fish, respectively. These results ensure compliance with European legislation with regard to ecological risk assessment and management of pesticides in surface waters.     

Predicting the aquatic risk of realistic pesticide mixtures to species assemblages in Portuguese river basins

Although pesticide regulatory tools are mainly based on individual substances, aquatic ecosystems are usually exposed to multiple pesticides from their use on the variety of crops within the catchment of a river. This study estimated the impact of measured pesticide mixtures in surface waters from 2002 and 2008 within three important Portuguese river basins (‘Mondego’, ‘Sado’ and ‘Tejo’) on primary producers, arthropods and fish by toxic pressure calculation. Species sensitivity distributions (SSDs), in combination with mixture toxicity models, were applied. Considering the differences in the responses of the taxonomic groups as well as in the pesticide exposures that these organisms experience, variable acute multi-substance potentially affected fractions (msPAFs) were obtained. The median msPAF for primary producers and arthropods in surface waters of all river basins exceeded 5%, the cut-off value used in the prospective SSD approach for deriving individual environmental quality standards. A ranking procedure identified various photosystem II inhibiting herbicides, with oxadiazon having the relatively largest toxic effects on primary producers, while the organophosphorus insecticides, chlorfenvinphos and chlorpyrifos, and the organochloride endosulfan had the largest effects on arthropods and fish, respectively. These results ensure compliance with European legislation with regard to ecological risk assessment and management of pesticides in surface waters.     

基于模糊聚类与神经网络的风蚀危险性评估研究——以内蒙古自治区为例

土地沙化和沙尘暴是中国北方农牧交错带严重的生态环境问题。在地理信息系统的支持下,论文建立风蚀自然因子栅格数据库;选取二连浩特-张家口为典型样带,综合运用模糊聚类技术、 专家知识以及神经网络技术,构建区域风蚀危险度评估模型,分析内蒙古自治区风蚀危险性空间分布格局。结果显示:综合应用模糊聚类以及神经网络技术可以有效地对风蚀危险度进行评价,内蒙古自治区风蚀危险性呈现"西高东低、 中间过渡"的总体趋势,这与该区域的自然、 气候与土地利用背景较吻合,其中,风蚀极险型区域主要分布在阿拉善高原的西北部,面积6.9×10⁴ km²;强险型土壤风蚀地区主要位于阴山山脉周围、 穿越巴丹吉林沙漠、 浑善达克沙地与锡林郭勒盟高原西北部,面积4.3×10⁴ km²;危险型风蚀区域大致位于极险和强险之间,面积是1.5×10⁵ km²;轻险型土壤风蚀区域主要位于内蒙古的中部,面积为7.5×10⁵ km²;风蚀无险型区域主要位于大兴安岭周围,面积1.4×10⁵ km²。     

Effects of multiple but low pesticide loads on aquatic fungal communities colonizing leaf litter

In the first tier risk assessment (RA) of pesticides, risk for aquatic communities is estimated by using results from standard laboratory tests with algae, daphnids and fish for single pesticides such as herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides. However, fungi as key organisms for nutrient cycling in ecosystems as well as multiple pesticide applications are not considered in the RA. In this study, the effects of multiple low pesticide pulses using regulatory acceptable concentrations (RACs) on the dynamics of non-target aquatic fungi were investigated in a study using pond mesocosm. For that, fungi colonizing black alder (Alnus glutinosa) leaves were exposed to multiple, low pulses of 11 different pesticides over a period of 60 days using a real farmer''s pesticide application protocol for apple cropping. Four pond mesocosms served as treatments and 4 as controls. The composition of fungal communities colonizing the litter material was analyzed using a molecular fingerprinting approach based on the terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (t-RFLP) of the fungal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) gene(s). Our data indicated a clear fluctuation of fungal communities based on the degree of leaf litter degradation. However significant effects of the applied spraying sequence were not observed. Consequently also degradation rates of the litter material were not affected by the treatments. Our results indicate that the nutrient rich environment of the leaf litter material gave fungal communities the possibility to express genes that induce tolerance against the applied pesticides. Thus our data may not be transferred to other fresh water habitats with lower nutrient availability.     

钢铁企业环境风险重大危险源辨识

钢铁企业生产工序复杂,使用的原燃料及各工序产生的副产品也较多,钢铁企业重大危险源辨识,对企业内部降低风险事故发生,减少事故对场界外人群伤害、环境质量恶化及对生态系统影响等具有重要意义。在了解钢铁企业涉及的主要环境风险源的基础上,依据《危险化学品重大危险源辨识》(GB18218-2009),以某钢铁企业为例,根据其风险物质特性及其数量,确定其涉及的环境风险源是否属重大危险源,为环境风险评价等级判断提供依据。     

生物毒性检测在水质安全评价中的应用

水质安全不仅关乎生态系统的健康,更关乎人类的生存与发展.借助水质标准浓度限值的传统方法评价水质安全存在一定不足,生物毒性测试能直观反映水体中所有共存污染物的综合毒性特征,已逐渐发展成为水质安全评价的重要补充.在大量文献资料调研、整理的基础上,首先从污染物的生物效应出发,总结了常用的致死毒性、遗传毒性、内分泌干扰性等效应的生物毒性测试方法;其次,讨论了水质毒性评价中常用的生物毒性测试方法和相应的毒性评价指标;最后,归纳总结了基于生物毒性测试的水质安全评价方法,包括潜在毒性法、毒性单位分级评价法、潜在生态毒性效应指数法、基于成组生物毒性测试的水质安全评价等,并讨论了各种方法的优缺点.本文既系统梳理了毒性测试在水质安全评价领域的研究进展,也为该领域后续的发展奠定了基础.     

The vulnerability of Australian rural communities to climate variability and change: Part I—Conceptualising and measuring vulnerability

Vulnerability is a term frequently used to describe the potential threat to rural communities posed by climate variability and change. Despite growing use of the term, analytical measures of vulnerability that are useful for prioritising and evaluating policy responses are yet to evolve. Demand for research capable of prioritising adaptation responses has evolved rapidly with an increasing awareness of climate change and its potential impacts on rural communities. Research into the climate-related vulnerability of Australian rural communities is only just beginning to emerge. Current research is dominated by hazard/impact modelling, drawing on a heritage of managing the risks posed by seasonal climate variability. There is a natural tendency to use the same risk management approach to understand the emergent nature of vulnerability. In this paper, we explore the consequences for policy advice of imperfectly examining vulnerability through the lens of an impact/hazard modelling approach to risk management. In a second paper in this series, we show how hazard/impact modelling can be complemented with more holistic measures of adaptive capacity to provide quantitative insights into the vulnerability of Australian rural communities to climate variability and change.     

排水综合评价中的生物毒性测试技术

随着工业化和城市化的发展,工业废水和城市污水成为环境水体的主要污染源. 发达国家在实施基于BAT(the best applicable technology,最佳可行技术)的排放政策后,针对成分复杂的有毒排放废水,以排水生物毒性测试为基础,分别建立了WET(whole effluent toxicity,排水综合毒性)评价技术体系,将生态毒理学测试和毒性指标应用于排放废水的管理. 各国和区域组织选用的排放废水生物毒性测试方法存在较大差异: 美国、加拿大和澳大利亚国土面积大、气候类型复杂、生物物种差异大,开发了许多本土生物的毒性测试方法;德国、OSPAR(欧洲大陆国家组织《保护东北大西洋海洋环境公约》15国)和COHIBA(波罗的海有害物质控制项目8国)则重视开发标准受试生物的测试方法,并且开发了遗传毒性和内分泌干扰性等新型测试方法,便于不同国家采用统一测试方法和排放限值;英国和新西兰是岛国,河流较短,更加关注海岸带生态系统. 我国从20世纪80年代开始开展排水生物毒性测试技术研究,相关测试标准门类和数量不足,应充分借鉴发达国家的经验,分步、分区建立排水综合毒性测试标准体系.      

Evaluation of multi-metric bioassessment as an approach for assessing impacts of entrainment and impingement under Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act

Over the past two decades, biological assessment has been widely adopted as a tool for comprehensive monitoring of ambient water quality, and increasingly it is used for management and regulation. Presently, biocriteria are central to the pre-decisional draft regulatory framework the US Environmental Protection Agency is developing under a consent decree to implement Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act. With the increasing integration of multi-metric bioassessment and biocriteria into environmental regulation, it becomes important to critically review the performance of the methods to ensure they are robust and reliable tools for determining water body impairment. This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches to bioassessment, focusing on issues that derive from recent advances in theoretical and applied ecology. Two critically important insights into the structure and function of ecosystems are: (1) the dynamic character of ecosystems; and (2) the significance of context and scale. Ecological dynamics produce spatio-temporal variability, which presents significant challenges to the development of biological criteria. This challenge is highlighted by the large percentage of sites potentially affected by arbitrary decisions sometimes made in setting biocriteria thresholds. Multi-metric bioassessment has not taken adequate account of the multi-scaled nature of ecological systems. Consideration of spatial scale will be especially important as multi-metric bioassessment methods originally developed in streams are adapted to larger, more open systems such as large rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters, and for regulation of cooling water intake structures.     

Ecotoxicological assessment of diffuse pollution using biomonitoring tool for sustainable land use in Thailand

As a developing country, Thailand has a significant issue with diffuse pollution of the soil ecosystem due to an indiscriminate use of agrichemicals and poorly regulated disposal of a wide variety of hazardous wastes. Practical risk assessment tools based on locally-occurring species are needed to assess the effects of diffuse pollutants on the soil ecosystem in Thailand because reliance on soil criteria developed for overseas conditions may provide inadequate protection. Native soil organisms in Thailand may be more or less sensitive to contaminants compared to overseas test species. This article described a biological indicator approach for ecological risk assessment of diffuse pollution in the soil ecosystem of Thailand from pesticide application with the aim of developing standardized protocols using native species and locally generated data to better evaluate the ecological risks of non-point source soil pollution. It was found that ecotoxicological assessment provided a better understanding of the ecological impacts that diffuse pollution induced on Thai environmental conditions. Thai soil biota species were more sensitive to soil contaminants than similar species overseas. Soil series also had an influence on the ecotoxicology of contaminants to soil biota. Collembolan, Cyphoderus sp., was demonstrated as a useful alternative test species to Folsomia Candida (international test species) for terrestrial ecotoxicological testing of Thai soils. In addition, the soil biota activities such as soil respiration and earthworm avoidance including soil biodiversity and the litter bag decomposition technique are also good tools to assess the effects of diffuse pollution by pesticides on the soil ecosystem of Thailand.     

典型集雨人饮地区窖水微生物群落多样性及差异解析

为阐释我国典型集雨饮水地区窖水水质自然变化机制,应用16S rRNA基因-Illumina Mi Seq高通量测序技术,对以庭院为组织单元、不同类型集流面和水窖组合模式构建的集雨水源地水体中微生物群落及功能多样性差异进行了研究,表明窖水微生物群落结构及其功能存在显著的差异,造成这种差异的主要因素是窖水内部环境因子、外部环境因子等的异质性.窖水微生物群落结构多样性差异呈现大量的稀有种和少数常见优势种的分布模式,不同类型集流面和水窖组合模式构建的集雨水源地水体中含有不同的显著差异性微生物类群;微生物群落功能多样性差异体现在:编码新陈代谢功能的基因序列与其他功能基因序列相比具有显著的优势性,氨基酸、碳水化物、能量、脂类、辅助因子和维生素、萜类和酮类化合物、核苷酸、多糖的合成与代谢、外来物质的降解与代谢是构成新陈代谢功能的主要基因序列类群,表明窖水中存在大量、具有相对特定生态功能的微生物进行着诸多活跃的与新陈代谢相关活动.研究认为混凝土集流面与混凝土水窖组合模式用于收集和贮存雨水,水质更好、更安全.研究结果加深了对窖水微生物群落结构和多样性的认识,为开展集雨窖水水源地优选及改善窖水水质提供了借鉴.     

Mapping knowledge investments in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: a new approach for assessing regulatory agency responses to environmental disaster

In the aftermath of large-scale disasters, the public's dependency on federal and state agencies for information about public safety and environmental risk is acute. While formal rules and procedures are in place to guide policy decisions in environmental risk assessment of spatially concentrated hazards such as regulated waste sites or vacant city lots, standard procedures for risk assessment seem potentially less well-suited for urban-scale disaster zones where environmental hazards may be widely dispersed and widely varying. In this paper we offer a new approach for the social assessment of regulatory science in response to large-scale disaster, illustrating our methodology through a socio-spatial analysis of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) hazard assessment in New Orleans, Louisiana, following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We find that the agency's commitment of epistemic resources or “knowledge investments” varied considerably across the flood-impacted portion of the city, concentrating in poorer and disproportionately African American neighborhoods previously known to be heavily contaminated. We address some of the study's social and policy implications, noting the multidimensionality and interactive nature of knowledge investments and the prospects for deepening and extending this approach through comparative research.     

DGGE/TGGE方法在土壤微生物群落研究中的应用

变性梯度凝胶电泳(DGGE)或温度梯度凝胶电泳(TGGE)已成为环境微生物学领城比较微生物群落多样性和检测种群动力学的重要分子手段,本文介绍了DGGE/TGGE方法在土壤微生物群落研究中的应用进展及存在的缺陷,并提出了改进建议.