典型汞污染河流生物膜和沉积物中汞的分布特征

为弄清汞污染历史河流水体、生物膜和沉积物中汞污染现状和潜在风险,本研究选择贵州省清镇市东门桥河为研究对象,采集河流水体、生物膜和沉积物样品,并测定其汞的形态含量。结果表明,东门桥河水体总汞(THg)、溶解态汞(DHg)和颗粒态汞(PHg)的平均含量分别为66.46±51.87 ng/L、10.67±5.15 ng/L和55.79±50.26 ng/L,PHg含量高达72%。生物膜中THg和MeHg的平均含量分别为9.38±12.39 mg/kg、19.58±22.21μg/kg;沉积物中THg和MeHg的平均含量分别为30.89±24.64 mg/kg、21.50±7.20μg/kg。水体和生物膜中汞的季节分布特征为夏季秋季春季。受清淤情况和市政污水排放的影响,随着采样点逐渐远离总排污口,水体汞含量呈现逐渐升高的趋势,而沉积物和生物膜的汞含量呈现出逐渐下降的趋势。     

长期饲喂钬对鲤鱼非特异性免疫酶活性的影响

以鲤鱼为研究对象,进行为期60 d的饲喂试验,研究了硝酸钬对其非特异性免疫的影响。结果表明:与对照组相比,在实验剂量范围内,超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)、过氧化氢酶(CAT)、谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶(GSH-Px)在肝脏中呈先升高后降低的趋势,SOD、GSH-Px酶活性在20 mg·kg~(-1)时,升高显著(P0.05),三者在65 mg·kg~(-1)时都被显著抑制(P0.05);在肾中都被诱导,在65 mg·kg~(-1)升高显著(P0.05)。肝肾中丙二醛(MDA)含量都变化不显著(P0.05)。抗超氧阴离子自由基、抑制羟自由基能力和单胺氧化酶(MAO)活性都降低,且在65 mg·kg~(-1)时降低显著(P0.05或P0.01)。因此,在饲料中添加稀土元素钬20、42、65 mg·kg~(-1),能够影响非特异性免疫力,且鲤鱼肝组织比肾脏反应更敏感。     

陡河水库鱼体汞的生物积累初探

为了解陡河燃煤电厂大气汞释放对毗邻的陡河水库水生生态系统中鱼体汞含量、生物积累和放大等的影响,本研究采集陡河水库野生鱼、虾和螺蛳,分别测定了鱼样等生物样品中的总汞和甲基汞,并对部分代表性样品测定稳定碳氮同位素比值。鱼汞分布特征和δ13C‰和δ15N‰同位素比值分布特征显示:鱼体(鲜样)中总汞和甲基汞平均含量分别为56.4±26.7和15.5±8.4 ng·g-1,总汞含量最高的是杂食性的白条鱼为133 ng·g-1。不同食性的鱼体δ13C和δ15N稳定同位素值变化范围分别为-28.1‰~-24.4‰和12.0‰~16.1‰,Log10[Hg]与δ15N的线性相关斜率值为负值。以上结果表明:陡河水库鱼体汞总体偏低,没有发现高生物积累和生物放大,其主要原因在于陡河水库水环境中汞含量较低,且陡河水库靠近市区,过度捕捞使可以捕获的鱼样种类和数量偏少,且鱼龄较低。     

Soil C and N changes with afforestation of grasslands across gradients of precipitation and plantation age

Afforestation, the conversion of unforested lands to forests, is a tool for sequestering anthropogenic carbon dioxide into plant biomass. However, in addition to altering biomass, afforestation can have substantial effects on soil organic carbon (SOC) pools, some of which have much longer turnover times than plant biomass. An increasing body of evidence suggests that the effect of afforestation on SOC may depend on mean annual precipitation (MAP). The goal of this study was to test how labile and bulk pools of SOC and total soil nitrogen (TN) change with afforestation across a rainfall gradient of 600-1500 mm in the Rio de la Plata grasslands of Argentina and Uruguay. The sites were all former grasslands planted with Eucalyptus spp. Overall, we found that afforestation increased (up to 1012 kg C x ha(-1) x yr(-1)) or decreased (as much as 1294 kg C x ha(-1) x yr(-1)) SOC pools in this region and that these changes were significantly related to MAP. Drier sites gained, and wetter sites lost, SOC and TN (r2 = 0.59, P = 0.003; and r2 = 0.57, P = 0.004, respectively). Labile C and N in microbial biomass and extractable soil pools followed similar patterns to bulk SOC and TN. Interestingly, drier sites gained more SOC and TN as plantations aged, while losses reversed as plantations aged in wet sites, suggesting that plantation age in addition to precipitation is a critical driver of changes in soil organic matter with afforestation. This new evidence implies that longer intervals between harvests for plantations could improve SOC storage, ameliorating the negative trends found in humid sites. Our results suggest that the value of afforestation as a carbon sequestration tool should be considered in the context of precipitation and age of the forest stand.     

Removal of humic substances by biosorption

Fungal pellets of Aspergillus niger 405,Aspergillus ustus 326,and Stachybotrys sp.1103 were used for the removal of humic substances from aqueous solutions.Batchwise biosorption,carried out at pH 6 and 25°C,was monitored spectrophotometrically and the process described with Freundlich’s model.Calculated sorption coeffcients Kf and n showed that A.niger exhibited the highest effciency.A good match between the model and experimental data and a high correlation coeffcient(R2)pointed out to judicious choice of ...     

Twenty years of stream restoration in Finland: little response by benthic macroinvertebrate communities

The primary focus of many in-stream restoration projects is to enhance habitat diversity for salmonid fishes, yet the lack of properly designed monitoring studies, particularly ones with pre-restoration data, limits any attempts to assess whether restoration has succeeded in improving salmonid habitat. Even less is known about the impacts of fisheries-related restoration on other, non-target biota. We examined how restoration aiming at the enhancement of juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) affects benthic macroinvertebrates, using two separate data sets: (1) a before-after-control-impact (BACI) design with three years before and three after restoration in differently restored and control reaches of six streams; and (2) a space-time substitution design including channelized, restored, and near-natural streams with an almost 20-year perspective on the recovery of invertebrate communities. In the BACI design, total macroinvertebrate density differed significantly from before to after restoration. Following restoration, densities decreased in all treatments, but less so in the controls than in restored sections. Taxonomic richness also decreased from before to after restoration, but this happened similarly in all treatments. In the long-term comparative study, macroinvertebrate species richness showed no difference between the channel types. Community composition differed significantly between the restored and natural streams, but not between restored and channelized streams. Overall, the in-stream restoration measures used increased stream habitat diversity but did not enhance benthic biodiversity. While many macroinvertebrates may be dispersal limited, our study sites should not have been too distant to reach within almost two decades. A key explanation for the weak responses by macroinvertebrate communities may have been historical. When Fennoscandian streams were channelized for log floating, the loss of habitat heterogeneity was only partial. Therefore, habitat may not have been limiting the macroinvertebrate communities to begin with. Stream restoration to support trout fisheries has strong public acceptance in Finland and will likely continue to increase in the near future. Therefore, more effort should be placed on assessing restoration success from a biodiversity perspective using multiple organism groups in both stream and riparian ecosystems.     

Spatial factors affecting statistical power in testing marine fauna displacement

Impacts of offshore wind farms on marine fauna are largely unknown. Therefore, one commonly adheres to the precautionary principle, which states that one shall take action to avoid potentially damaging impacts on marine ecosystems, even when full scientific certainty is lacking. We implement this principle by means of a statistical power analysis including spatial factors. Implementation is based on geostatistical simulations, accommodating for zero-inflation in species data. We investigate scenarios in which an impact assessment still has to be carried out. Our results show that the environmental conditions at the time of the survey is the most influential factor on power. This is followed by survey effort and species abundance in the reference situation. Spatial dependence in species numbers at local scales affects power, but its effect is smaller for the scenarios investigated. Our findings can be used to improve effectiveness of the economical investment for monitoring surveys. In addition, unnecessary extra survey effort, and related costs, can be avoided when spatial dependence in species abundance is present and no improvement on power is achieved.     

Benthic diversity gradients and shifting baselines: implications for assessing environmental status

The increasing pressure on marine biodiversity emphasizes the importance of finding benchmarks against which to assess change. This is, however, a notoriously difficult task in estuarine ecosystems, where environmental gradients are steep, and where benthic biodiversity is highly variable in space and time. Although recent emphasis on diverse, healthy benthic communities in legislative frameworks has increased the number of indices developed for assessing benthic status, there is a lack of quantitative baselines in benthic diversity that would enable comparisons across broad spatial scales, encompassing different environmental settings and bioregions. By taking advantage of long-term monitoring data, spanning hundreds of stations over the past 40 years, we provide a comprehensive analysis of benthic a, beta, and gamma diversity, encompassing the entire' salinity gradient of the open sea areas of the large, brackish-water Baltic Sea. Using a relatively simple measure, average regional diversity, we define area-specific reference conditions and acceptable deviation against which to gauge current conditions in benthic macrofaunal diversity. Results show a severely impaired condition throughout large areas of the Baltic for the assessment period 2001-2006. All ecosystems are plagued by baselines that shift in time and space, and their definition is not trivial, but average regional diversity may offer a transparent way to deal with such changes in low-diversity systems. Identifying baselines will be of increasing importance given the potential of climatic drivers to interact with local anthropogenic stressors to affect patterns of biodiversity. Our analysis provides an evaluation of the current condition in a system that has been heavily influenced by anthropogenic impact and changing oceanographic conditions, and it provides a basis for future impact assessment and ecosystem-based management.     

Heart rate variability and motion sickness during forklift simulator driving

The goal of the study was to determine the effect of a 1-h hour long forklift truck virtual simulator driving on the mechanism of autonomic heart rate (HR) regulation in operators. The participants were divided into 2 subgroups: subjects with no definite inclination to motion sickness (group A) and subjects with a definite inclination to motion sickness (group B). Holter monitoring of electrocardiogram (ECG) signal was carried out in all subjects during the virtual simulator driving. For 12 consecutive epochs of ECG signal, HR variability analysis was conducted in time and frequency domains. In subjects with a definite inclination to motion sickness after ~30 min of the driving, changes in parameter values were found indicating an increase in sympathetic and parasympathetic activity with parasympathetic dominance.     

Evaluation of sound exposure and risk of hearing impairment in orchestral musicians

This study aimed to assess exposure to sound and the risk of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) in orchestral musicians. Sound pressure level was measured in 1 opera and 3 symphony orchestras; questionnaires were filled in. On the basis of that data, the risk of NIHL was assessed according to Standard No. ISO 1999:1990. Classical orchestral musicians are usually exposed to sound at equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure levels of 81?90 dB (10th?90th percentiles), for 20?45 h (10th?90th percentiles) per week. Occupational exposure to such sound levels over 40 years of employment might cause hearing loss (expressed as a mean hearing threshold level at 2, 3, 4 kHz exceeding 35 dB) of up to 26%. Playing the horn, trumpet, tuba and percussion carries the highest risk (over 20%).