Environmental behaviors of phoxim with two formulations in bamboo forest under soil surface mulching

Phoxim (emulsifiable concentrate (EC) and granules (G)) has been widely used in bamboo forests. The persistence and magnitude of phoxim residues in the crop and soil must be investigated to ensure human and environmental safety. The environmental behaviors of the two formulations were investigated in a bamboo forest under soil surface mulching conditions (CP) and non-covered cultivation conditions (NCP). The half-lives of phoxim in soil under the two conditions in soil were 4.1–6.2 days (EC) and 31.5–49.5 days (G), respectively. Phoxim in EC could be leached from the topsoil into the subsoil. A minimized leaching effect was observed for G under NCP. Inversely, an enhanced leaching effect was observed for G under CP. The G formulation resulted in more parent compound (in bamboo shoots) and metabolite (in soil) residues of phoxim than in the case of EC, especially under CP conditions. In addition, the intensity and duration of the formulation effect on soil pH adjustment from G were more obvious than that from EC. Results showed that the environmental behaviors (distribution, degradation, residue) of phoxim in the bamboo forest were significantly influenced by the type of formulation. The prolongation effect from phoxim G might cause persistence and long-term environmental risk. However, bamboo shoot consumption could be considered relatively safe after applying the recommended dose of the two phoxim formulations.     

土壤滤池+等离子除臭技术在污水处理厂的应用

随着区域规划的调整,苏州某污水处理厂周围环境变得较为敏感,原有除臭设施已无法满足新的环保要求,该污水处理厂的除臭工程需要进行升级改造.经综合比选后确定采用在现有除臭设施基础上增设土壤滤池+等离子除臭设施的方案.除臭工程实施后,主要臭气源得到有效控制,氨、硫化氢和二硫化碳等恶臭物质去除率均在85％以上,甚至达到99％,除臭设施处理效果良好,厂界处污染物排放满足GB 14554-93《恶臭污染物排放标准》一级标准要求.     

Importance of information on tillage practices in the modelling of environmental processes and in the use of environmental indicators

Tillage has been and will always be integral to crop production. Tillage can result in the degradation of soil, water, and air quality. Of all farm management practices, tillage may have the greatest impact on the environment. A wide variety of tillage equipment, practices and systems are available to farmers, providing opportunities to enhance environmental performance. These opportunities have made tillage a popular focus of environmental policies and programs such as environmental indicators for agriculture. This paper provides a very brief examination of the role of tillage in crop production, its effect on biophysical processes and, therefore, its impact on the environment. Models of biophysical processes are briefly examined to demonstrate the importance of tillage relative to other farm management practices and to demonstrate the detail of tillage data that these models can demand. The focus of this paper is an examination of the use of information on tillage in Canada's agri-environmental indicators initiative, National Agri-environmental Health Analysis and Reporting Program (NAHARP). Information on tillage is required for several of the indicators in NAHARP. The type of data used, its source, and its quality are discussed. Recommendations regarding the collection of tillage data and use of tillage information are presented.     

The integrated project AquaTerra of the EU sixth framework lays foundations for better understanding of river-sediment-soil-groundwater systems

The integrated project "AquaTerra" with the full title "integrated modeling of the river-sediment-soil-groundwater system; advanced tools for the management of catchment areas and river basins in the context of global change" is among the first environmental projects within the sixth Framework Program of the European Union. Commencing in June 2004, it brought together a multidisciplinary team of 45 partner organizations from 12 EU countries, Romania, Switzerland, Serbia and Montenegro. AquaTerra is an ambitious project with the primary objective of laying the foundations for a better understanding of the behavior of environmental pollutants and their fluxes in the soil-sediment-water system with respect to climate and land use changes. The project performs research as well as modeling on river-sediment-soil-groundwater systems through quantification of deposition, sorption and turnover rates and the development of numerical models to reveal fluxes and trends in soil and sediment functioning. Scales ranging from the laboratory to river basins are addressed with the potential to provide improved river basin management, enhanced soil and groundwater monitoring as well as the early identification and forecasting of impacts on water quantity and quality. Study areas are the catchments of the Ebro, Meuse, Elbe and Danube Rivers and the Brévilles Spring. Here we outline the general structure of the project and the activities conducted within eleven existing sub-projects of AquaTerra.     

The effects of sediment-laden waters on irrigated lands along the lower Yellow River in China

Expansion of irrigation in the Yellow River (Huang He in Chinese) Basin of China is a major accomplishment of the post-revolutionary period in China. Irrigation reliance on the Yellow River was anticipated to not only supply greater reliability of water for crops, but also to improve the productivity of aeolian, saline and alkali soils because of the high sediment loads in the river. Irrigation expansion also was a significant factor in affecting human modification of the landscape ecosystem in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Based on field investigation and sampling of the amount and distribution of used suspended sediment load in irrigated areas, this paper analyzes the impact of the suspended sediment on soil texture, fertility and salinity and the consequences to the landscape ecosystem. Results indicate that soil quality has indeed been improved through irrigation and related deposition of sediment, but some local problems created by long periods of irrigation should not be ignored in the future.     

Sampling and Mapping a Soil Erosion Cover Factor by Integrating Stratification,Model Updating and Cokriging with Images

Cost-efficient sample designs for collection of ground data and accurate mapping of variables are required to monitor natural resources and environmental and ecological systems. In this study, a sample design and mapping method was developed by integrating stratification, model updating, and cokriging with Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery. This method is based on the spatial autocorrelation of variables and the spatial cross-correlation among them. It can lead to sample designs with variable grid spacing, where sampling distances between plots vary depending on spatial variability of the variables from location to location. This has potential cost-efficiencies in terms of sample design and mapping. This method is also applicable for mapping in the case in which no ground data can be collected in some parts of a study area because of the high cost. The method was validated in a case study in which a ground and vegetation cover factor was sampled and mapped for monitoring soil erosion. The results showed that when the sample obtained with three strata using the developed method was used for sampling and mapping the cover factor, the sampling cost was greatly decreased, although the error of the map was slightly increased compared to that without stratification; that is, the sample cost-efficiency quantified by the product of cost and error was greatly increased. The increase of cost-efficiency was more obvious when the cover factor values of the plots within the no-significant-change stratum were updated by a model developed using the previous observations instead of remeasuring them in the field.     

Estimation of Landscape Potential for Construction of Surface-Flow Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment in Estonia

The main aim of this article is to demonstrate a method of complex landscape analysis in order to estimate the landscape suitability for the construction of surface-flow wetlands (SFW) for wastewater treatment. This is a multilevel suitability analysis from a more general regional (landscape) assessment based on a map of landscape types (1:100,000) toward a detailed analysis based on aerial orthophotos and detailed soil maps (1:10,000). The assessment scheme consists of landscape classification according to the physical-chemical properties of landscape factors (soil conditions, landforms, hydrogeology, expert decisions concerning landscape values, and suitability analysis). The partial suitability values of SFWs are derived by summarizing expert values for landscape factors (each ranging from -1 to +1). By multiplying the summarized partial suitability values with nature protection values (ranging from 0 to 1), we obtain the final suitability value for each landscape type. Any kind of nature protection area has been considered nonsuitable and excluded at regional-level analysis. The results of the regional analysis demonstrate that suitability is distributed relatively equally over the study area. The high suitability potential (classified as "very suitable") is relatively evenly distributed in lowland regions throughout the country. The share of "very suitable" and "suitable" areas in different counties varies from 5 to 23% and 7 to 49%, respectively. The detailed analysis based on aerial orthophotos showed that areas suitable for SFWs can also be found within the areas determined to be unsuitable based on the less detailed map of landscape types, whereas differences are much greater between settlements chosen for the detailed suitability analysis.     

An analysis of the likely success of policy actions under uncertainty: Recovery from acidification across Great Britain

In the context of wider debates about the role of uncertainty in environmental science and the development of environmental policy, we use a Generalised Likelihood Uncertainty Estimate (GLUE) approach to address the uncertainty in both acid deposition model predictions and in the sensitivity of the soils to assess the likely success of policy actions to reduce acid deposition damage across Great Britain. A subset of 11, 699 acid deposition model runs that adequately represented observed deposition data were used to provide acid deposition distributions for 2005 and 2020, following a substantial reduction in SO₂ and NO_x emissions. Uncertain critical loads data for soils were then combined with these deposition data to derive estimates of the accumulated exceedance (AE) of critical loads for 2005 and 2020. For the more sensitive soils, the differences in accumulated exceedance between 2005 and 2020 were such that we could be sure that they were significant and a meaningful environmental improvement would result. For the least sensitive soils, critical loads were largely met by 2020, hence uncertainties in the differences in accumulated exceedance were of little policy relevance. Our approach of combining estimates of uncertainty in both a pollution model and an effects model, shows that even taking these combined uncertainties into account, policy-makers can be sure that the substantial planned reduction in acidic emissions will reduce critical loads exceedances. The use of accumulated exceedance as a relative measure of environmental protection provides additional information to policy makers in tackling this ‘wicked problem’.     

Microbial biomass yield and turnover in soil biodegradation tests: carbon substrate effects

Most of the standardized biodegradation tests used to assess the ultimate biodegradation of environmentally degradable polymers are based solely on the determination of net evolved carbon dioxide. However, under aerobic conditions, it has to be considered that heterotrophic microbial consortia metabolize carbon substrates both to carbon dioxide and in the production of new cell biomass. It is generally accepted that in the relatively short term, 50% of the carbon content of most organic substrates is converted to CO₂, with the remaining carbon being assimilated as biomass or incorporated into humus. The latter is particularly important when the metabolism of the organic matter occurs in a soil environment. A straightforward relationship between the free-energy content of a carbon substrate (expressed as the standard free-energy of combustion) and its propensity for conversion to new microbial biomass rather than mineralization to CO₂ has been established. This can potentially lead to underestimation of biodegradation levels of test compounds, especially when they consist of carbon in a fairly low formal oxidation state and relatively high free-energy content. In the present work, the metabolism of different kind of carbon substrates, especially in soil, is reviewed and compared with our own experimental results from respirometric tests. The results show that conversion of highly oxidized materials, such as the commonly used reference materials, cellulose or starch, to CO₂ may be significantly overestimated. The addition of glucosidic material to soil leads to greatly increased respiration and is accompanied by a very low conversion to biomass or humic substances. In contrast, relatively less oxidized substrates metabolize more slowly to give both CO₂ and biomass to an extent which may be significantly underestimated if glucosidic materials are used as the reference. The need for an overall carbon balance taking into account both the carbon immobilized as biomass and that volatized as CO₂ must be considered in standard respirometric procedures for assessing the biodegradability of slowly degrading macromolecules.