The Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program is now in its sixth year of demonstrating technologies applicable to Superfund sites. The SITE Program, conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory, is intended to accelerate the use of new and innovative treatment processes as well as evaluate innovative measurement and monitoring techniques. Within the SITE Program, the Demonstration Program and the Emerging Technologies Program are responsible for innovative/alternative waste treatment technology development. Separate and parallel activities are progressing for development and evaluation of measuring and monitoring technologies as well as technology transfer operations. 相似文献
This research investigated the extent to which various common hydrocarbon measures can be used to predict toxicity to freshwater aquatic organisms due to fouling by oil. Actual toxicity results, on laboratory freshwater marsh microcosms using two water-column species and a benthic species, were described earlier. The hydrocarbon measures used were TPH(g), TPH(FID), TPH(MS), TTAH (sum of 41 target aromatic hydrocarbons), principal components of 41 TAHs, and each individual TAH. In general, toxicity was more closely related to TPH(MS) levels than to TPH(FID) and (especially) TPH(g) levels. The strongest relationships were found for TTAH levels and for the principal components of the TAHs. Regressions of toxicity on many individual TAHs were also strong, with a single group of compounds explaining as much as 59% of the variation in survival. While the various regressions were highly significant statistically and at times able to accurately predict broad differences in toxicity, the high variation in survival at a specific hydrocarbon concentration indicates that these hydrocarbon measures can not substitute for actual toxicity determinations in accurately ranking the toxicity of samples from oiled freshwater marshes. 相似文献
A mixed culture capable of supplying its energy requirements by the oxidation of zero-valent iron (Fe0) and concomitant reduction of chlorinated ethenes was established. The culture contained Dehalococcoides species as determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with genus specific primers. The use of a newly designed ARDRA procedure and subsequent sequencing revealed the presence of two Dehalococcoides strains, one closely related to Dehalococcoides ethenogenes strain 195, a bacterium respiring with chlorinated ethenes, and one closely related to strain CBDB1 a chlorobenzene and dioxin dehalogenating anaerobe. The mixed culture was used to study dechlorination of tetrachloroethene (PCE) to ethene in the presence of Fe0. Whereas abiotic transformation of PCE by Fe0 led to incomplete dechlorination, the mixed culture mediated fast and complete dechlorination of PCE to ethene with Fe0 as electron donor. Compared to cultures with hydrogen added as electron donor, cultures with Fe0 as electron donor showed the same or higher rates of PCE dechlorination. Growth of the Dehalococcoides strains in the mixed culture is linked to the presence of Fe0 as electron donor and PCE as electron acceptor demonstrating that Dehalococcoides spp. play a pivotal role in the dechlorination of chlorinated ethenes in Fe0 systems. 相似文献
Distribution coefficients (K(d)) between water and activated sludge particles (f(oc)=27.7+/-0.1%) were measured for the steroid estrogens (SE), estrone (E1), 17beta-estradiol (E2) and 17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) in batch experiments. Experimental concentration levels ranged from environmentally realistic low ng/l to the high microg/l. In this range K(d)s were independent of their water concentration. The experimentally obtained K(d)s (with 95% confidence intervals) were 402+/-126 l/kg, 476+/-192 l/kg and 584+/-136 l/kg for E1, E2 and EE2, respectively. K(d)s were used to estimate the fraction of the total SE concentration that is expected to be sorbed in the activated sludge treatment tanks of a typical STP assuming equilibrium conditions. Assuming a suspended solids concentration of 4 g/l dissolved solids (ds), it was estimated that 61+/-9%, 66+/-13% and 70+/-6% of the total concentration of E1, E2 and EE2, respectively, would be sorbed during activated sludge treatment. The fraction of the SEs that was expected to be sorbed to suspended sludge particles in the effluents from a typical Danish STP was estimated to be only 0.20+/-0.06%, 0.24+/-0.10% and 0.29+/-0.07% of the total concentration of E1, E2 and EE2, respectively, at a suspended solids concentration of 5 mg/lds. For a typical STP the removal of steroid estrogens with excess sludge was estimated to be only 1.5-1.8% of the total loading if equilibrium conditions exists. Sorption is therefore not important for the fate of SEs in STPs compared to biodegradation. 相似文献
Stable isotope analysis of15N/14N and18O/16O - nitrate was used to investigate the nitrate dynamics and potential groundwater pollution in an Alpine forest stand in Tyrol/Austria. The dynamics of δ15−Nnitrate values were followed in a forest ecosystem. The stable isotopic values of the throughfall are comparable with other studies. The completely decoupled dynamics of the δ15−Nnitrate of the precipitation and the surface water was observed. High variations in δ15-N - nitrate values in rainfall indicate that nitrate of different sources is deposited at that site. A significant correlation between the δ15Nnitrate values of the surface water and soil water was obtained, while no significant correlation between the δ15Nnitrate values of any precipitation sample with the surface water could be found. This suggests that the main source of nitrate in soil water originates from microbiological activity such as nitrification reactions and less from nitrate input by deposition. The results of δ18Onitrate measurements strongly supported the microbiological origin of nitrate in the surface and soil water. In an additional lysimeter experiment,15N - labelled nitrate was applied to study nitrate transport in soil. After 130 days and the collection of 300 L leachate, a total of 52% of the applied nitrate was detected in seepage water.
Pelvicachromis pulcher is a small African cichlid which breeds in holes. Males may either reproduce monogamously (pair males), polygynously (harem
males), or be tolerated as helpers in a harem territory (satellite males). These helpers share in defence of the territory
against conspecifics, heterospecific competitors and predators. There are two male colour morphs that are fixed for life and
are apparently genetically determined. These differ in their potential mating strategy. Red morph males may become harem owners,
while yellow morph males may become satellite males, and males of both morphs may alternatively pair up monogamously. We compared
the reproductive effort and success of these three male reproductive strategies. Effort was measured as attack rates, time
expenditure and the risk of being injured or killed when attacking competitors or predators of three sympatric fish species.
Reproductive success was measured by observing how many eggs were fertilized by each male when this was possible, and by using
genetic markers. The number of fry surviving to independence of parental care was used as a criterion of success. The reproductive
success of harem males was 3.3 times higher than that of pair males and 7 times higher than that of the average satellite
male. Dominant satellite males, however, were as successful as monogamous pair males, using the measure of fertilized eggs.
To our knowledge, this has not been found previously in any fish species. Both harem and pair males had lower parental defence
costs per sired offspring, however, than males using the alternative satellite tactic. Defence effort was significantly related
to the risk of injury.
Received: 17 January 1996 / Accepted after revision: 9 June 1997 相似文献
Summary. Many animals acquire substances on their integument from heterospecifics
through anointing. In active or self-anointing, animals rub against scent
sources or they apply them by appendage or mouth. In passive anointing, animals
adsorb emitted chemicals. Most investigators suggest that chemicals appropriated
via anointing deter predators, ectoparasites, and/or microbial pathogens. Similarly,
nesting birds and brood parasites of social insects acquire chemicals from and reside
unmolested near or within insect colonies. The acquisition through anointing of
chemicals that deter predators, ectoparasites, microbial pathogens, and other
offenders, i.e. defensive anointing, constitutes an extended phenotype: the
genetic machinery by which defensive compounds are synthesized does not reside with
the anointing organisms, but the sensory mechanisms and/or behavioral tendencies by
which chemicals are appropriated from heterospecifics do. The ecological
relationships between anointing organisms and chemical donors, and between
chemical donors and those responding to chemicals appropriated via anointing, may
be unorthodox. Interactions between anointing organisms and chemical donors typically
entail abrasive contact with or other damage to the latter. These encounters sometimes
are evidenced by telltale marks on chemical donors or by chemicals deposited on the
integument of anointing organisms. The organisms furnishing chemicals and those
affected by them may not interact, and they may even occupy different habitats, because
mobile anointing organisms are the medium by which chemicals are disseminated. Thus,
in allelochemical studies where anointing is involved, species can be tested, with
ecological legitimacy, using chemicals from organisms they might fail to interact with
in nature. Practical implications of anointing stem from its potential importance in
conservation and captive management, where consideration is given to the protection
that animals derive by accessing topically acquired chemicals from heterospecifics. 相似文献