Transferral of HMs pollution from road-deposited sediments to stormwater runoff during transport processes

Ratio of turbidity and TSS (Tur/TSS) was used to characterize PSD of stormwater particles. Pb and Zn preferred to accumulate in finer RDS, while Cu, Cr and Ni in coarser RDS. HMs pollution in stormwater particles increased linearly with Tur/TSS. Dissolvability of HMs and PSD variations contribute to the differences between RDS and stormwater. Stormwater runoff, derived from the wash-off of road-deposited sediments (RDS), contains elevated heavy metal (HM) concentrations and, thus, imposes an increasing threat to urban aquatic ecosystems. In-depth understanding of the variations of HMs pollution from RDS to stormwater during transport processes facilitates the development of effective RDS and stormwater control strategies. Toward this end, the distribution of HMs (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, and Ni) in RDS and stormwater were investigated simultaneously. The results show a preferential accumulation of Pb and Zn in the finer (<38.5 μm) RDS, and Cu, Cr and Ni in the coarser (38.5–150 μm) RDS. For stormwater, n.d.~48.6% of HMs fractionated into the dissolved phase, and stormwater particles constitute the primary carriers of HMs. Furthermore, the accumulation of HMs in stormwater particles increased linearly with finer particle size distributions (PSD). Geoaccumulation index (I_geo) highlighted the predominant pollution of both RDS and stormwater particles by Cu, Pb and Zn. Nonetheless, Cu, Pb, and Ni mostly contributed the potential ecological risk of RDS, whereas Cu, Pb, and Zn mainly contributed that of stormwater particles. Moreover, contamination by Cu, Pb and Zn was significantly higher in stormwater particles than that in RDS. These differences are attributable to the solubility and size-dependent accumulation of HMs in RDS, as well as the PSD variations during transport processes. The study outcomes highlight the importance of very fine (nano- and submicron- scale) RDS in stormwater pollution and the necessity of control.     

Abundance,spatial distribution,and physical characteristics of microplastics in stormwater detention ponds

Despite extensive research on microplastics (MP) in marine environments, little is known about MP abundance and transport in terrestrial systems. There is, therefore, still little understanding of the main mechanisms driving the substantial transport of MP across different environmental compartments. Storm events can transport MP beyond boundaries, such as from the land to groundwater or the ocean, as has already been discovered for organic carbon transport. Urban stormwater detention ponds are suitable environments to study the impact of stormwater on the environmental fate and transport of MP. Herein, we investigate the longitudinal and vertical distribution of MP within two detention ponds with different physical characteristics. Soil samples were collected at various locations and from multiple depths (surface and subsurface layers) for measuring MP concentrations using fluorescence microscopy. Our findings show that MP are retained more near the inlet of the ponds, and MP of larger sizes were found more abundantly near inlets than outlets. We also found that MP mass and sizes decrease from surface soil to subsurface soil. In the pond, where vegetation (grass root network) was more considerable, MP were found more evenly distributed along the depth. In terms of shape, the fragments were the most abundant MP shape.     

城市小集水区降雨径流污染来源解析

利用深圳市王家庄集水区的降雨径流水质监测数据,运用正定矩阵因子分解法（PMF）定量解析了单个城市小集水区降雨径流污染的主要来源。结果表明：研究区降雨径流的主要污染源为城市污水、管内沉积物和地表径流。其中城市污水以输出氨氮（NH3-N）和总氮（TN）为主,管内沉积物是化学需氧量（CODCr）、总磷（TP）和生化需氧量（BOD5）的主要来源,地表径流为固体悬浮物（SS）的主要来源。PMF模型可作为土地利用方式均一的单个城市小集水区降雨径流污染源解析的有效方法之一,主要污染源的廓线能否保持相对稳定是该模型在降雨径流污染源解析时的主要约束条件。     

雨水径流对景观水体中多环芳烃污染特征的影响

以北京市长河湾流域某排污口附近景观水体为研究对象,通过对水体中PAHs的连续检测,研究了雨水径流对景观水体中PAHs污染特征的影响,以期为景观水体中PAHs的控制和管理提供科学依据.结果表明,长河湾景观水体中∑16PAHs在降雨时的浓度变化与降雨强度及降雨量有关,长河湾水体中溶解态PAHs组分以3环和4环为主,2环组分所占的比例最少.水体底部沉积物中PAHs含量明显高于岸边,沉积物中∑16PAHs含量约为229.2μg.kg-1,岸边土壤中∑16PAHs含量约为185.6μg.kg-1,低于国内外一些水域沉积物中PAHs污染浓度.     

Occurrence,distribution and risk assessment of abused drugs and their metabolites in a typical urban river in north China

We developed a method for determining 11 abused drugs in water and sediment. METH and EPH were the dominant drugs in water and sediment in Beiyunhe River. Abuse drugs in Beiyunhe River were mainly from hospitals and sewage effluents. Abused drugs in the water would not impair the aquatic ecosystem biologically. This study investigated the presence of 11 abused drugs and their metabolites, including amphetamine, methamphetamine (METH), ketamine, ephedrine (EPH), cocaine, benzoylecgonine, methadone, morphine, heroin, codeine, and methcathinone in the surface water and sediment samples of Beiyunhe River, a typical urban river flowing through Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei provinces in North China. An analytical method of determining these abused drugs and their metabolites in water and sediment was developed and validated prior to sample collection in the study area. Results showed that METH and EPH were predominant in water and sediment samples. The total drug concentrations ranged from 26.6 to 183.0 ng/L in water and from 2.6 to 32.4 ng/g dry weight in sediment, and the drugs mainly originated from hospitals and sewage treatment plants. The average field-based sediment water distribution coefficients of abused drugs were calculated between 149.3 and 1214.0 L/kg and corrected by organic carbon. Quotient method was used to assess the risks. The findings revealed that these drugs and their metabolites at determined concentrations in water samples will not impair the aquatic ecosystem biologically, but their potential harmful effect on the function of the ecosystem and human health should not be overlooked.     

Application of permanganate in the oxidation of micropollutants: a mini review

As a green oxidant, permanganate has received considerable attention for the removal of micropollutants in drinking water treatment. To provide a better understanding of the oxidation of organic micropollutants with permanganate, the oxidation kinetics of 32 micropollutants were compiled. The pollutants include algal toxins, endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and pharmaceuticals. The oxidation kinetics of micropollutants by permanganate were found to be first order with respect to both contaminant and permanganate concentrations from which second-order rate constants (k″) were obtained. Permanganate oxidized the heterocyclic aromatics with vinyl moiety (i.e., microcystins, carbamazepine, and dichlorvos) by the addition of double bonds. For the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with alkyl groups, permanganate attacked the benzylic C-H through abstraction of hydrogen. The mechanism for the oxidation of phenolic EDCs by permanganate was a single electron transfer and aromatic ring cleavage. The presence of background matrices could enhance the oxidation of some phenolic EDCs by permanganate, including phenol, chlorinated phenols, bisphenol A, and trichlosan. The toxicity of dichlorvos solution increased after permanganate oxidation, and the estrogenic activity of bisphnol A/estrone increased significantly at the beginning of permanganate oxidation. Therefore, the toxicity of degradation products or intermediates should be determined in the permanganate oxidation processes to better evaluate the applicability of permanganate. The influence of background ions on the permanganate oxidation process is far from clear and should be elucidated in the future studies to better predict the performance of permanganate oxidation of micropollutants. Moreover, methods should be employed to catalyze the permanganate oxidation process to achieve better removal of micropollutants.     

农业磷素流失途径及控制方法研究进展

综合评述了农业磷素面源污染产生的原因及其控制方法方面的国内外研究进展。在控制磷污染源方面要注意磷肥用量和磷肥有效性的提高,减少磷素在土壤中的积累;在控制磷素流失方面要针对磷素地表和土体内迁移流失采取有效措施,减少磷素对地表水和地下水污染。磷素污染的治理关键是切断磷源和流失途径的联系,根据磷污染源的等级划分因地制宜地采取治理措施;要将磷和氮综合治理,制定适合我国国情的BMP管理模式。     

A CFD study of the transport and fate of airborne droplets in a ventilated office: The role of droplet−droplet interactions

• Coulomb and Lennard−Jones forces were considered for droplet interactions. • The net droplet interactions were repulsive. • Repulsive droplet interactions increased the transport of droplets. • Repulsive droplet interactions significantly modified the fate of droplets. Previous studies reported that specially designed ventilation systems provide good air quality and safe environment by removing airborne droplets that contain viruses expelled by infected people. These water droplets can be stable in the environment and remain suspended in air for prolonged periods. Encounters between droplets may occur and droplet interactions should be considered. However, the previous studies focused on other physical phenomena (air flow, drag force, evaporation) for droplet transport and neglected droplet interactions. In this work, we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate the transport and fate of airborne droplets expelled by an asymptomatic person and considered droplet interactions. Droplet drag with turbulence for prediction of transport and fate of droplets indicated that the turbulence increased the transport of 1 μm droplets, whereas it decreased the transport of 50 μm droplets. In contrast to only considering drag and turbulence, consideration of droplet interactions tended to increase both the transport and fate. Although the length scale of the office is much larger than the droplet sizes, the droplet interactions, which occurred at the initial stages of release when droplet separation distances were shorter, had a significant effect in droplet fate by considerably manipulating the final locations on surfaces where droplets adhered. Therefore, it is proposed that when an exact prediction of transport and fate is required, especially for high droplet concentrations, the effects of droplet interactions should not be ignored.     

Elimination of antibiotic resistance genes and control of horizontal transfer risk by UV-based treatment of drinking water: A mini review

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes are in water bodies. UV/chlorination method is better to remove ARGs than UV or chlorination alone. Research on UV/hydrogen peroxide to eliminate ARGs is forthcoming. UV-based photocatalytic processes are effective to degrade ARGs. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have been recognized as one of the biggest public health issues of the 21st century. Both ARB and ARGs have been determined in water after treatment with conventional disinfectants. Ultraviolet (UV) technology has been seen growth in application to disinfect the water. However, UV method alone is not adequate to degrade ARGs in water. Researchers are investigating the combination of UV with other oxidants (chlorine, hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), peroxymonosulfate (PMS), and photocatalysts) to harness the high reactivity of produced reactive species (Clž·, ClOž·ž, Clž₂·ž⁻, žž·OH, and SOž₄ž·⁻€) in such processes with constituents of cell (e.g., deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and its components) in order to increase the degradation efficiency of ARGs. This paper briefly reviews the current status of different UV-based treatments (UV/chlorination, UV/H₂O₂, UV/PMS, and UV-photocatalysis) to degrade ARGs and to control horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in water. The review also provides discussion on the mechanism of degradation of ARGs and application of q-PCR and gel electrophoresis to obtain insights of the fate of ARGs during UV-based treatment processes.     

Urban ecosystem health assessment based on emergy and set pair analysis—A comparative study of typical Chinese cities

Regarding various energy and materials flowing in the urban ecosystem and the merit of emergy as an embodied energetic equivalent for integrated ecological economic evaluation, an evaluation framework of emergy-based urban ecosystem health indicators (UEHI_em) was established in view of five aspects including vigor, structure, resilience, ecosystem service function maintenance and environmental impact to depict the urban ecosystem health states. Further, set pair analysis (SPA) was employed to assess the urban ecosystem health level based on the UEHI_em, by which the approximate degree of real index set to the optimal one was defined and evaluated to describe the relative health state of the concerned urban ecosystems. Choosing twenty typical Chinese cities in 2005 as cases, we evaluated and compared their urban ecosystem health levels based on UEHI_em and SPA. The results showed that health levels of Xiamen, Qingdao, Shenzhen and Shanghai are pretty well, while those of Wuhan, Harbin, Yinchuan, Beijing and Urumchi are relatively weak. Moreover, the relative health levels were analyzed by SPA to discern the influences of the mentioned five aspects on the UEHI_em. It is concluded that emergy synthesis combined with SPA can serve as an effective relative-measure to compare different ecosystem health levels of urban ecosystems.     

Presence,dissemination and removal of antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in urban drinking water system: A review

Reviewed the change of ARGs and ARB in full-scale urban drinking water systems. Conventional processes are more promising than BAC process in ARGs removal. Mechanisms of ARGs enrichment and spread in BAC filter and DWDSs are discussed. Raise the need of future research on ARGs and ARB change in building plumbing systems. Antibiotic resistance in aquatic environment has become an important pollution problem worldwide. In recent years, much attention was paid to antibiotic resistance in urban drinking water systems due to its close relationship with the biosafety of drinking water. This review was focused on the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, as well as the presence, dissemination and removal of antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the urban drinking water system. First, the presence of ARB and ARGs in the drinking water source was discussed. The variation of concentration of ARGs and ARB during coagulation, sedimentation and filtration process were provided subsequently, in which filtration was proved to be a promising technology to remove ARGs. However, biological activated carbon (BAC) process and drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs) could be incubators which promote the antibiotic resistance, due to the enrichment of ARGs and ARB in the biofilms attached to the active carbon and pipe wall. Besides, as for disinfection process, mechanisms of the inactivation of ARB and the promotion of conjugative transfer of ARGs under chlorine, ozone and UV disinfection were described in detail. Here we provide some theoretical support for future researches which aim at antibiotic resistance controlling in drinking water.     

A review of: “Lead in Soil: Recommended Guidelines”

1993 (Ed). B.G. Wixson and B. E. Davies, Publ. Society for Enivronmental Geochemistry and Health, Science and Technology Letters Ltd., Northwood, Uk, 132pp., Isbn 0-905927-39-7, £ 30. Hardback.     

A model of rainfall redistribution in terraced sandy grassland landscapes

A simple model of rainfall redistribution within a terraced sandy grassland landscape has been developed. The model assumes that rainfall redistribution is driven by rainfall impulses and is controlled by characteristic field capacity of soils. When the rainfall intensity is large enough to render soil water content greater than its characteristic field capacity, the excessive soil water can drain very quickly by means of large amounts of non-capillary pores of sandy soils or by means of surface runoff. Exponential distribution of rainfall impulses was assumed and tested with measured daily rainfall at two meteorological stations in the sandy grassland area of north China. The model was solved to give the equivalent rainfall at each terrace in the landscape.     

A review of arsenicals in biology

The most toxic form of arsenic is arsine gas. Arsenite is also highly toxic and arsenate is moderately toxic. Arsine gas will lyse red blood cells, arsenite inactivates particular enzymes and arsenate uncouples oxidative phosphorylation. Arsenic does not appear to be a significant mutagen. Epidemiological studies have implicated arsenic as a cause of lung cancer and skin cancer, but arsenic generally does not induce cancer in laboratory animals. Arsenic may bioaccumulate in some plants and marine organisms. Bacteria can be resistant to arsenic by preventing arsenate from entering the cell (chromosomal resistance) or pumping arsenic out of the cell (plasmid resistance). Many different organisms, including mammals, have the ability to methylate inorganic arsenic. Biomethylation seems to be a mechanism of arsenic detoxification.     

我国化肥和农药非点源污染状况综述

从农田排水与径流对地表水体的污染，渗漏对地下水体的污染和生态系统内部结构破坏加剧污染物流失等３个方面综述了我国近年来在化肥、农药非点源污染调查与研究方面取得的成果。     

湿地碳循环研究综述

湿地由于其巨大的碳库储存能力而成为碳循环研究的热点之一.从湿地CO_2/CH_4释放时空格局,CO_2/CH_4释放影响因子,碳"源""汇"评估及人类活动影响四个方而综述了国内外湿地碳循环方面的研究工作.认为当前对湿地碳排放过程各种潜在的影响因素比较清楚,但碳排放过程各种影响因子之间存在的交互作用有待于进一步深入研究.在进行不同湿地类型碳循环研究的同时,应加强包括微生物、植物根系等地下碳动态研究,加强碳、氮耦合研究.在评估人类活动对湿地碳循环的影响过程中,要综合考虑植被碳库、土壤碳库及土壤碳排的变化.另外,无论从认识不同湿地类型碳过程特征及机理的角度,还是从减少全球或区域碳收支估测不确定性的角度来看,加强数据缺乏地区的湿地类型的碳平衡及相关碳过程的研究都具有重要意义.     

Evaluating the environmental impacts of an urban wetland park based on emergy accounting and life cycle assessment: A case study in Beijing

In this paper, emergy accounting (EA) and life cycle assessment (LCA) methods are employed to investigate a typical urban wetland park, the Green Lake Urban Wetland Park (GLUWP) of Beijing, in terms of its environmental and capital inputs, ecosystem services and organic matter yields, environmental support, and sustainability. The LCA method is also used to obtain a quantitative estimation of the environmental impact of discharges during the entire life cycle of the GLUWP. Various emergy-based indices, such as emergy yield ratio (EYR), environmental load ratio (ELR), emergy sustainability index (ESI), net economic benefit (Np), and environmental impacts of process-based LCA, including global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication (EU), nonrenewable resource depletion (RU), energy consumption (EN), acidification potential (AP), photochemical oxidant creation potential (POCP), particulate matter (PM) and wastes (W), are calculated. The results show that the GLUWP has higher proportions of renewable resource input, less pressure on the environment, more environmental support and better ecological and economic benefits, which can be considered as an environment-friendly and long-term sustainable ecological practice, compared with another constructed wetland in Beijing. Meanwhile, the dominant environmental impact is induced by POCP with the construction phase contributing the most on the entire life cycle. It is expected that increasing green area, extensively using environment-friendly materials, optimizing construction techniques and reducing power consumption can promote the sustainability of the GLUWP.     

A review of selection‐based tests of abiotic surrogates for species representation

Because conservation planners typically lack data on where species occur, environmental surrogates—including geophysical settings and climate types—have been used to prioritize sites within a planning area. We reviewed 622 evaluations of the effectiveness of abiotic surrogates in representing species in 19 study areas. Sites selected using abiotic surrogates represented more species than an equal number of randomly selected sites in 43% of tests (55% for plants) and on average improved on random selection of sites by about 8% (21% for plants). Environmental diversity (ED) (42% median improvement on random selection) and biotically informed clusters showed promising results and merit additional testing. We suggest 4 ways to improve performance of abiotic surrogates. First, analysts should consider a broad spectrum of candidate variables to define surrogates, including rarely used variables related to geographic separation, distance from coast, hydrology, and within‐site abiotic diversity. Second, abiotic surrogates should be defined at fine thematic resolution. Third, sites (the landscape units prioritized within a planning area) should be small enough to ensure that surrogates reflect species’ environments and to produce prioritizations that match the spatial resolution of conservation decisions. Fourth, if species inventories are available for some planning units, planners should define surrogates based on the abiotic variables that most influence species turnover in the planning area. Although species inventories increase the cost of using abiotic surrogates, a modest number of inventories could provide the data needed to select variables and evaluate surrogates. Additional tests of nonclimate abiotic surrogates are needed to evaluate the utility of conserving nature's stage as a strategy for conservation planning in the face of climate change.     

A review of: “Agricultural Chemicals and the Environment Issues in Environmental Science and Technology”

5, 1996 Ed. Hester, R. E. and Harrison, R. M., Royal Society of Chemistry, Isbn 0 85404 220 2, Pp Xii + 128, $ 17-50.