Towards an ecologically meaningful classification of the flow biotope for river inventory, rehabilitation, design and appraisal purposes

Recent research into the physical and ecological status of rivers has focused upon rapid field-based assessments of mesoscale habitat features in order to satisfy international regulatory requirements for habitat inventory and appraisal. Despite the low cost and time efficient nature of rapid field surveys, the robustness of such techniques remains uncertain. This paper uses data from over 4000 surveyed UK river reaches in the UK River Habitat Survey (RHS) database in order to seek linkages between surface flow conditions (flow biotopes), local channel morphology (physical biotopes) and biologically distinct vegetative and minerogenic habitat units (functional habitats). Attempts to identify one-to-one connections between surface flow types, units of channel morphology and functional habitats oversimplify a complex and dynamic hydraulic environment. Instead, a nested hierarchy of reach-scale physical and ecological habitat structures exists, characterised by transferable assemblages of habitat units. Five flow biotopes show strong correlations with functional habitats, and differing combinations of three of these account for over 60% of the distribution for all functional habitats. On this basis, a classification of environments for ecological purposes is proposed. Principal components analysis and agglomerative hierarchical clustering analysis are employed to objectively validate the proposed classification. Flow biotope assemblages may also represent reach-scale channel morphologies (step-pool, riffle-pool and glide-pool), although functional habitats exhibit differing 'preferences' for rougher or more tranquil environments within these. While the data and analysis are specific to the UK RHS, the methods and findings have wider application in situations, where rapid field appraisal methods and associated databases are deployed in water resource inventory and river rehabilitation design.     

Erfassung von Untergrundkontaminationen durch Non-Aqueous Phase-Liquids (NAPLs) mit Hilfe der Bestimmung der Radonkonzentration der Bodenluft

Zusammenfassung  Der Zusammenhang zwischen der natürlichen Radonkonzentration der Bodenluft und Untergrundkontaminationen durch Non-Aqueous Phase-Liquids (NAPLs) wurde untersucht. Aufgrund der bekannterma?en guten L?slichkeit von Radon in NAPLs wurde eingangs postuliert, dass eine in der grundwasserunges?ttigten Bodenzone vorliegende NAPL-Kontamination, aufgrund der Akkumulation des Radons in der NAPL, eine lokale Verringerung der Radonkonzentration der Bodenluft in der Umgebung dieser Kontamination zur Folge hat. Als Ergebnis der Labor-und Felduntersuchungen zur Verifizierung dieser Arbeitsthese konnte festgestellt werden, dass NAPL-Kontaminationen des Bodens tats?chlich eine signifikante Verringerung der Radonkonzentration der Bodenluft hervorrufen und die Radonkonzentration der Bodenluft somit grunds?tzlich als Indikator zur Lokalisierung von NAPL-Kontaminationen geeignet ist. Siehe UWSF12 (6) 350(2000) Schlagw?er: NAPLs; Non-Aqueous Phase-Liquids (NAPLs); Radonkorizentrationen, Bodenluft; Untergrundkontaminationen     

镇江市古运河和金山湖河湖上覆水体和沉积物氮及有机质分布特征及污染评价

镇江市位于长江和京杭大运河"十字黄金水道"的交汇处,是我国历史上最为重要的水上交通枢纽之一,区域内水量充沛、河网密布.近年来,该区域水环境存在不同程度的退化,故调查镇江市主要河湖水体及沉积物污染现状,将为当地水环境质量的改善提供重要的基础数据.基于此,本研究选择镇江市典型河湖水体共21个点位（金山湖10个点位,古运河及其支流共11个点位）,在冬夏两季采集上覆水及沉积物样品测定其理化指标和氮素含量,并通过有机指数及有机氮对沉积物污染程度进行评价.结果表明：①上覆水总氮（TN）浓度在冬夏季节分别介于1.95~15.71 mg·L^-1和0.64~12.09 mg·L^-1之间,平均值为4.01 mg·L^-1和4.07 mg·L^-1,平均值浓度高于地表水Ⅴ类标准.上覆水氨氮（NH₄⁺-N）浓度在季节上均表现为冬季<夏季,空间上则表现为河流>湖泊;②沉积物TN含量在冬夏两季分别介于394.61~3288.09 mg·kg^-1和869.21~3598.04 mg·kg^-1之间,平均值为1928.58 mg·kg^-1和2068.40 mg·kg^-1.湖泊沉积物TN、NH₄⁺-N、硝态氮（NO₃^--N）和有机氮（Org-N）含量均表现为冬季>夏季,而河流沉积物TN平均含量为冬季<夏季,NH₄⁺-N和NO₃^--N则表现为冬季>夏季,表明河流沉积物在季节上的分布规律更为复杂;空间上,冬夏两季沉积物NO₃^--N表现为湖泊>河流,NH₄⁺-N含量则表现为湖泊<河流.C/N结果表明研究区域沉积物有机质主要来源于内源污染;③湖泊和河流沉积物超过60%点位属于有机氮污染Ⅳ水平,即存在有机氮污染,而超过70%和54.55%的湖泊和河流沉积物处于有机指数Ⅱ类水平,即较清洁水平,表明镇江市河湖沉积物主要为氮素污染.以上研究结果将为镇江市河流水体及沉积物氮素控制提供重要的基础数据.     

Evaluating risks associated with transport of the ghost shrimp <Emphasis Type="Italic">Neotrypaea californiensis</Emphasis> as live bait

The ghost shrimp Neotrypaea californiensis is imported into southern California from Oregon and Washington for use as live bait in recreational marine fisheries. We studied the population genetic structure of N. californiensis across much its range to assess the possibility that the transport of ghost shrimp across phylogeographic boundaries poses a risk of homogenizing existing genetic variation in the species. Analyses of two mitochondrial DNA markers showed little phylogeographic structure across the sampled range, suggesting that this risk is low. Unexpectedly, mitochondrial DNA analyses revealed that a second putative species of ghost shrimp frequently coexisted with N. californiensis in southern California intertidal habitats; almost all previous studies of soft-sediment communities in the region report the presence of N. californiensis only. We also assessed the possibility that the import of ghost shrimp might pose a risk of introduction of a parasitic castrator, the bopyrid isopod Ione cornuta, into southern California waters, where it does not appear to be native. Prevalence of living I. cornuta in samples purchased from bait shops was high (5.8%), suggesting that this is a real risk that merits further study.     

Rapid prenatal diagnosis of sickle cell diseases using oligonucleotide ligation assay coupled with laser-induced capillary fluorescence detection

Prenatal diagnosis of sickle cell diseases has been available for several years, and our laboratory has performed over 1000 prenatal diagnoses. However, currently available techniques are labor-intensive and time-consuming, and thus the diagnosis is delayed, making the mother's decision difficult. We describe a rapid, high-throughput technique based on the ligation assay coupled with automated capillary fluorescence detection. This new approach allows the diagnosis of both Hgb S and Hgb C to be available in a few hours. We have utilized this technique in 30 prenatal diagnoses and found it to be in complete agreement with the standard diagnoses. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.