Quantifying progress toward a conservation assessment for all plants

The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) set an ambitious target to achieve a conservation assessment for all known plant species by 2020. We consolidated digitally available plant conservation assessments and reconciled their scientific names and assessment status to predefined standards to provide a quantitative measure of progress toward this target. The 241,919 plant conservation assessments generated represent 111,824 accepted land plant species (vascular plants and bryophytes, not algae). At least 73,081 and up to 90,321 species have been assessed at the global scale, representing 21–26% of known plant species. Of these plant species, at least 27,148 and up to 32,542 are threatened. Eighty plant families, including some of the largest, such as Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, and Rubiaceae, are underassessed and should be the focus of assessment effort if the GSPC target is to be met by 2020. Our data set is accessible online (ThreatSearch) and is a baseline that can be used to directly support other GSPC targets and plant conservation action. Although around one‐quarter of a million plant assessments have been compiled, the majority of plants are still unassessed. The challenge now is to build on this progress and redouble efforts to document conservation status of unassessed plants to better inform conservation decisions and conserve the most threatened species.     

Mitigating Impact of Devils Lake Flooding on the Sheyenne River Sulfate Concentration

Devils Lake is a terminal lake located in northeast North Dakota. Because of its glacial origin and accumulated salts from evaporation, the lake has a high concentration of sulfate compared to the surrounding water bodies. From 1993 to 2011, Devils Lake water levels rose by ~10 m, which flooded surrounding communities and increased the chance of an overspill to the Sheyenne River. To control the flooding, the State of North Dakota constructed two outlets to pump the lake water to the river. However, the pumped water has raised concerns about of water quality degradation and potential flooding risk of the Sheyenne River. To investigate these perceived impacts, a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was developed for the Sheyenne River and it was linked to a coupled SWAT and CE‐QUAL‐W2 model that was developed for Devils Lake in a previous study. While the current outlet schedule has attempted to maintain the total river discharge within the confines of a two‐year flood (36 m³/s), our simulation from 2012 to 2018 revealed that the diversion increased the Sheyenne River sulfate concentration from an average of 125 to >750 mg/L. Furthermore, a conceptual optimization model was developed with a goal of better preserving the water quality of the Sheyenne River while effectively mitigating the flooding of Devils Lake. The optimal solution provides a “win–win” outlet management that maintains the efficiency of the outlets while reducing the Sheyenne River sulfate concentration to ≤600 mg/L.     

Sources of underground CO: Crushing and ambient temperature oxidation of coal

As a harmful gas in underground coal mine, CO seriously threatened the safety of miners. Currently, the spontaneous combustion of residual coal in goaf is generally considered as the main source of underground CO. CO gas is also widely used as an indicator gas in fire prediction in mines. However, high concentrations of CO are also detected in some mines without spontaneous combustion of coal. Therefore, in the paper, with four ranks of coal, we studied other two potential CO sources: crushing and oxidation at ambient temperature. The more completely crushed coal produces more CO. The concentration of generated CO is inversely proportional to moisture content in coal. Therefore, the addition of water can inhibit the generation process of CO during the crushing process of coal. Lignite with low metamorphic grade can be oxidized to produce CO at ambient temperature (25 °C), and anthracite with high coal rank can be only oxidized to produce CO at 60 °C. Infrared spectra indicated that the coal with rich aliphatic hydrocarbons and oxygen-containing functional groups are more susceptible to oxidation at room temperature. Moreover, the smaller particle size of coal is more beneficial to the oxidation at ambient temperature to generate CO. CO generation during coal oxidation is also closely related to the ventilation rate.     

层状氧化物NaCo_2O_4热催化H_2O_2降解亚甲基蓝

采用固相烧结法制备了NaCo_2O_4催化剂,构建了NaCo_2O_4-H_2O_2热催化体系降解亚甲基蓝(MB)。XRD和SEM表征结果显示,合成的NaCo_2O_4催化剂具有良好的稳定性。NaCo_2O_4对H_2O_2具有良好的热催化性能,反应温度越高,反应速率常数k越大,该催化反应符合一级动力学方程。NaCo_2O_4-H_2O_2体系对MB具有较好的降解效果,在反应温度为50℃、NaCo_2O_4加入量为50 mg、MB溶液加入量为100 mL、MB初始质量浓度为30 mg/L、H_2O_2加入量为1.00 mL的最优条件下,反应340 min时,MB降解率达87.00%;催化剂重复使用三次,MB降解率仍可达85%以上;经捕获剂效果对比实验发现,催化反应体系中存在h~+、·OH等催化活性物种。     

石墨相氮化碳协同UV-H_2O_2光催化降解亚甲基蓝

以三聚氰胺为前驱体,经热解—回流法制备了石墨相氮化碳(g-C3N4),采用XRD、FTIR、SEM、EDS、PL等技术对g-C_3N_4进行了表征。研究了g-C_3N_4在UV-H_2O_2体系中对废水中亚甲基蓝(MB)的光降解效果。实验结果表明,UV+g-C_3N_4催化剂+H_2O_2体系能协同降解MB,在初始MB质量浓度为20 mg/L、初始废水p H为5、废水体积为250 mL、g-C_3N_4加入量为0.10 g、H_2O_2浓度为0.4 mmol/L、反应温度为25℃的优化工艺条件下,紫外光照射70 min时MB脱色率达98.32%。g-C_3N_4催化剂具有较好的重复使用性能,使用5次后MB脱色率仍保持在95.10%。     

Photosynthesis and related metabolic mechanism of promoted rice (Oryza sativa L.) growth by TiO2 nanoparticles

• The rice growth was promoted by nano-TiO₂ of 0.1–100 mg/L. • Nano-TiO₂ enhanced the energy storage in photosynthesis. • Nano-TiO₂ reduced energy consumption in carbohydrate metabolism and TCA cycle. Titanium dioxide nanoparticle (nano-TiO₂), as an excellent UV absorbent and photo-catalyst, has been widely applied in modern industry, thus inevitably discharged into environment. We proposed that nano-TiO₂ in soil can promote crop yield through photosynthetic and metabolic disturbance, therefore, we investigated the effects of nano-TiO₂ exposure on related physiologic-biochemical properties of rice (Oryza sativa L.). Results showed that rice biomass was increased >30% at every applied dosage (0.1–100 mg/L) of nano-TiO₂. The actual photosynthetic rate (Y(II)) significantly increased by 10.0% and 17.2% in the treatments of 10 and 100 mg/L respectively, indicating an increased energy production from photosynthesis. Besides, non-photochemical quenching (Y(NPQ)) significantly decreased by 19.8%–26.0% of the control in all treatments respectively, representing a decline in heat dissipation. Detailed metabolism fingerprinting further revealed that a fortified transformation of monosaccharides (D-fructose, D-galactose, and D-talose) to disaccharides (D-cellobiose, and D-lactose) was accompanied with a weakened citric acid cycle, confirming the decrease of energy consumption in metabolism. All these results elucidated that nano-TiO₂ promoted rice growth through the upregulation of energy storage in photosynthesis and the downregulation of energy consumption in metabolism. This study provides a mechanistic understanding of the stress-response hormesis of rice after exposure to nano-TiO₂, and provides worthy information on the potential application and risk of nanomaterials in agricultural production.     

基于TiO2载体的锰铈系低温SCR脱硝催化剂研究进展

开发低温、高活性、高抗硫抗水性能的选择性催化还原(SCR)脱硝催化剂已成为国内外的研究热点。综述了基于TiO2载体的锰铈系低温脱硝催化剂的脱硝性能,探讨了助剂掺杂改性、制备方法、反应条件等对催化剂脱硝性能的影响,总结了现有低温脱硝催化剂的技术难点,指出SCR催化剂的研究需要着重考虑以下几方面:深入研究催化剂的反应机理和中毒机理;研究催化剂的循环再生;探究拓宽催化剂温度窗口,使其适应不同的温度条件。     

二氧化碳资源化技术研究进展

过量的二氧化碳(CO2)排放可导致温室效应的不断加剧,因此CO2减排受到越来越多的关注,其中将CO2转化为附加值较高的化工产品,即CO2资源化利用技术不仅可实现CO2减排,同时具有一定的经济效益。CO2资源化利用技术主要包括光化学还原法、电化学还原法和催化转移氢化法等。重点介绍并总结了以上3种方法的特点、优势和不足,指出未来需研究解决的关键问题和研究方向,为实现高效的CO2资源化利用提供借鉴和参考。     

高含CO2天然气运输管道缓蚀剂的筛选

大多数天然气藏CO2含量为10%~98%,CO2在不同的温度、压力条件下腐蚀极其严重。文章主要针对高含CO2天然气运输管道腐蚀的问题,开展缓蚀剂的筛选,重点开展CO2腐蚀规律研究与实验,评价环境温度、CO2分压、流动速度对腐蚀规律的影响,明确缓蚀剂的影响因素,结合管材的材质,优选评价不同类型的缓蚀剂,缓蚀效率分别为90.53%和92.64%,在管道凝液介质的气相及液相中都有较高的缓蚀效率。通过设计现场加药工艺及制度,监测评价缓蚀剂缓释效果和腐蚀情况,可防止管道运输过程中CO2腐蚀的侵害,长输管线内腐蚀控制良好。     

2014年北京市CO浓度水平和时空分布

对北京市地面监测站点的CO浓度进行分析，探讨其浓度水平、变化趋势和时空分布特征。2014年春、夏、秋、冬四季北京市CO平均浓度分别为1.06、0.87、1.34、2.17 mg/m³。CO浓度均呈双峰型变化，第一个峰值出现在07：00-09：00，主要由交通早高峰的排放引起；第二个峰值出现在23：00左右，主要受交通晚高峰排放和夜间边界层高度降低的挤压效应的共同影响。从空间分布来看，全年整体呈现南高北低的分布特征，尤其是秋、冬季较为明显，体现了工业布局和区域传输对CO的影响。从全年来看，湿度对CO浓度的影响最大。对2014年冬季北京市的一次高CO浓度分析结果表明，此次过程是由本地排放和区域传输共同造成的，气象要素中地面气压对CO浓度影响最大。