高铁酸钾氧化降解新兴有机污染物的研究进展

新兴有机污染物在传统的污水处理厂处理过程中难以完全去除,如果进入到水环境中,不仅影响水质,而且对水生态系统和人类健康具有潜在的风险.高铁酸钾在水处理领域被称为环境友好型的多功能水处理剂,其氧化降解新兴有机污染物的研究备受关注.本文详细介绍了高铁酸钾的结构和性质,重点论述了高铁酸钾与新兴有机污染物的反应机制,如:化学反应动力学、线性自由能关系、反应副产物及其毒性变化,并对未来的研究方向与发展趋势进行了展望.     

我国环境中新兴污染物抗生素及其抗性基因的分布特征

抗生素及其抗性基因(ARGs)是环境中普遍存在的新兴污染物,其环境水平和分布特征等相关研究方兴未艾.本文在总结大量文献的基础上,着重阐述了我国环境多介质中抗生素及其ARGs分布特征的最新研究进展,介绍了抗生素的存在状况与环境水平,讨论了抗生素的浓度水平时空分布差异及其对水生环境的风险,进一步通过介绍ARGs在环境中的污染水平,评述了抗生素ARGs污染物分布特征、水平转移及相应的微生物群落结构变化,最后对这两类新兴污染物的环境分布研究进行了展望,并针对我国现状提出了今后的研究重点.     

微塑料吸附有机污染物的研究进展

微塑料作为一种新型环境污染物在全球环境介质中普遍存在,其存在可能会影响传统有机污染物的分布、迁移和环境归趋.微塑料本身具有强疏水特性和较大的比表面积,使其能够有效地吸附有机污染物并将其输送到生物体内,从而改变微塑料潜在的环境风险.微塑料与有机污染物之间的相互作用机制主要受二者自身的理化性质,及溶液pH、温度、盐度、溶解性有机质和老化作用等环境因素的影响.本文从微塑料的基本特性、与有机污染物的作用机制、环境影响因素,以及二者复合对有机污染物生物有效性的影响等方面进行了综述,并提出微塑料与有机污染物相互作用研究中亟需解决的问题和未来的研究方向.     

手性新污染物HBCDs在近海生态系统中的分布、毒性效应与作用机制研究

从对映体水平上精准阐明新污染物的近海生态效应与机制、评价其潜在的近海环境风险不仅是近海环境生态学的研究热点与难点,更是国家的战略需求。第三代溴代阻燃剂六溴环十二烷(hexabromocyclododecanes, HBCDs)为我国重点管控的新污染物之一,具有明显的手性特征。本文综述HBCDs在近海生态系统中的分布及对映异构体选择性富集和生物放大效应,分析其对近海生物的毒性效应,探讨可能的潜在毒性作用机制,并对其未来的研究热点与研究方向进行展望。研究可望为从对映异构体水平上精准阐明手性新污染物的近海生态学效应与机制提供依据,为近海新污染物控制与环境管理服务。     

锰氧化物对有机污染物的转化机制研究进展

以土壤/沉积物中普遍存在且具有较强氧化活性的锰氧化物为研究对象,探讨了水-锰氧化物体系对医药品和个人护理用品等典型环境污染物的转化行为,并从污染物的分子结构出发,分别综述了锰氧化物对酚类、胺类、氮杂环、氮杂环N-氧化物、酸类等典型环境污染物的分子转化机制.为该类污染物环境行为及其潜在风险的科学评价、有效控制奠定理论基础.     

环境样品中微塑料及其结合污染物鉴别分析研究进展

微塑料作为一种新型污染物,具有难以被彻底降解、在环境中分布广泛、易结合疏水性有机污染物和重金属等特性,已成为国内外学者研究的热点问题.近年来,微塑料在海水、淡水、沉积物、土壤和大气等环境介质中不断被报道,且数量不断增加,甚至在人口稀少的偏远地区均有微塑料的检出.微塑料尺寸较小极易被生物误食,微塑料及其结合的污染物对生态环境产生潜在风险.开展微塑料及其结合污染物鉴别分析技术是研究微塑料环境行为、生态毒理效应及风险防控的基础.本文梳理了微塑料的相关研究,总结和比较分析了不同介质(水体、土壤/沉积物、生物体、大气)中微塑料的采样、分离提取、定性(物理形态表征和化学组分鉴定)、定量(数量丰度和质量浓度)以及结合污染物的检测分析技术和方法,为相关领域的研究提供了方法学的参考.     

微塑料与污染物相互作用的研究进展

微塑料广泛存在于环境中,其比表面积大、吸附性强,可吸附环境中的重金属、有机物、微生物等污染物,并改变它们在环境中的归趋;同时,这些污染物也会影响微塑料的性质及其在环境中的吸附、迁移、降解等行为,进而对生态环境产生潜在风险.开展微塑料与污染物的相互作用研究是进行微塑料环境风险评价的基础.当前相关研究多集中于微塑料的分布及...     

珠江流域湖库型水源集水区酞酸酯(PAEs)类污染物环境健康风险评估

以饮用水源集水区为中心,沿支流采集水样,采用美国环境保护署(USEPA)暴露风险评价方法,结合该地区的参数计算环境健康风险。结果表明:(1)所有采样点均检出PAEs类污染物邻苯二甲酸正丁酯(DBP)、邻苯二甲酸二(2-乙基己基)酯(DOP)和邻苯二甲酸二乙酯(DEP),其中DOP高于DBP和DEP。(2)该饮用水源集水区3种PAEs污染物质量浓度均高于流域内其他乡镇饮用水源,在国内外同类地区也属于中上水平。DOP是集水区内需首要控制的PAEs类污染物。(3)在人类活动干扰少的地区河流污染物的环境健康风险水平较低,而在人口密集区和工业集中区风险水平较高。河流上游风险值低,中游高,下游和库区又逐渐回落。该水源集水区的PAEs类污染物环境健康风险值未超过USEPA规定,但与国内外其它地区相比属于中上水平,存在一定的潜在健康风险,需要根据PAEs的可能来源在水源地环境风险管理中加以防范。     

碳纳米管对污染物的吸附及其在土水环境中的迁移行为

碳纳米管具有独特的物理化学特性,对污染物具有优异的吸附性能,在环保领域具有巨大的应用潜力,因而吸引人们对碳纳米管吸附有毒污染物的行为和规律开展了大量研究.同时,碳纳米管特有的表面化学性质和结构特征,使得其自身的环境行为具有一定的风险性,对碳纳米管在水土环境中的迁移行为进行评价,是碳纳米管工程应用之前必须要解决的重要问题,相关研究也有一定程度的开展.本文从碳纳米管对环境污染物的吸附行为和相关机理以及碳纳米管在水土环境中的迁移行为方面进行了综述,阐述了这些研究对于评估碳纳米管的环境应用潜力、环境和生态风险所具有的意义.     

生物炭吸附有机污染物的研究进展

生物炭(biochar)是指生物质在缺氧条件下热裂解产生的一种产物.由于其精致的孔隙结构和独特的表面化学性质,对环境介质中的有机污染物有超强的吸附能力,进而影响污染物的迁移与归宿.近年来生物炭对有机污染物的吸附特性及机理研究已成为环境科学领域的研究热点之一.本文从生物炭的典型性状、吸附有机污染物的机理、影响因素以及对土壤中有机污染物生物可给性的影响等方面进行了综述,并提出生物炭吸附有机污染物未来的研究方向.     

Rapid,recurring, structured survey versus bioblitz for generating biodiversity data and analysis with a multispecies abundance model

A bioblitz inexpensively and quickly generates biodiversity data, but bioblitzes are often conducted with haphazard, unreplicated sampling. Results tend to be taxonomically, geographically, or temporally biased, lack metadata, and consist of lists of observed taxa that do not enable further analyses or correction for imperfect detection. A rapid, recurring, structured survey (RRSS) uses a structured sampling design and temporal and spatial replication to survey randomly selected sites on a conservation property. We participated in a loosely structured bioblitz and a subsequent RRSS at Big Canoe Creek Nature Preserve in Springville (St. Clair County), Alabama (USA) to compare observed richness derived from the 2 survey approaches. The RRSS data structure enabled us to fit models that accounted for imperfect detection to estimate abundances, occupancy probabilities, and habitat associations. The loosely structured bioblitz data could not be used in such models. We present a new integrated multispecies abundance model that we applied to avian RRSS data. Our model extension enables estimation for the community, employs data augmentation to estimate the number of undetected species, and incorporates covariates. The RRSS generated a more comprehensive and less biased list of observed taxonomic richness than the loosely structured bioblitz (e.g., 73 vs. 45 bird species and 104 vs. 63 insect families from the RRSS vs. loosely structured bioblitz, respectively). Models fit to the RRSS data identified seasonal patterns in avian community composition and allowed for estimation of habitat–occupancy relationships for insect taxa. The RRSS protocol has potential for broad transferability as a standardized, quick, and inexpensive way to inventory biodiversity and estimate ecological parameters while providing an outreach opportunity.     

Compliance with and ecosystem function of biodiversity offsets in North American and European freshwaters

Land-use change via human development is a major driver of biodiversity loss. To reduce these impacts, billions of dollars are spent on biodiversity offsets. However, studies evaluating offset project effectiveness that examine components such as the overall compliance and function of projects remain rare. We reviewed 577 offsetting projects in freshwater ecosystems that included the metrics project size, type of aquatic system (e.g., wetland and creek), offsetting measure (e.g., enhancement, restoration, and creation), and an assessment of the projects’ compliance and functional success. Project information was obtained from scientific and government databases and gray literature. Despite considerable investment in offsetting projects, crucial problems persisted. Although compliance and function were related to each other, a high level of compliance did not guarantee a high degree of function. However, large projects relative to area had better function than small projects. Function improved when projects targeted productivity or specific ecosystem features and when multiple complementary management targets were in place. Restorative measures were more likely to achieve targets than creating entirely new ecosystems. Altogether the relationships we found highlight specific ecological processes that may help improve offsetting outcomes.     

A palaeo-hydrogeological model for arsenic contamination in southern and south-east Asia

An argument is presented in which areas of natural arsenic contamination of modern groundwaters throughout Asia have a common origin. Arsenic originally accumulated in oceanic ferro-manganoan sediments of the eastern Palaeo-Tethys. This was further concentrated through oceanic crustal extinction in what later became the south-east Chinese accreted mineralised terrain. Proto-Himalayan uplift of this area created the palaeo-drainage systems of the Ganges – Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Mekong, and Red Rivers, with consequent headwater erosion of arsenic-rich sediments. Their downstream deposition as immature and easily redistributed Neogene sandstones, silts, and iron-rich clays has created secondary and tertiary reservoirs of adsorbed and authigenic arsenic, from which the current arsenic-rich groundwaters have evolved. Considering river basins within the above palaeo-hydrogeological framework provides a basis for assessing the risk of arsenic in groundwater basins of south and south-eastern Asia.     

Cost‐effective conservation of an endangered frog under uncertainty

How should managers choose among conservation options when resources are scarce and there is uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of actions? Well‐developed tools exist for prioritizing areas for one‐time and binary actions (e.g., protect vs. not protect), but methods for prioritizing incremental or ongoing actions (such as habitat creation and maintenance) remain uncommon. We devised an approach that combines metapopulation viability and cost‐effectiveness analyses to select among alternative conservation actions while accounting for uncertainty. In our study, cost‐effectiveness is the ratio between the benefit of an action and its economic cost, where benefit is the change in metapopulation viability. We applied the approach to the case of the endangered growling grass frog (Litoria raniformis), which is threatened by urban development. We extended a Bayesian model to predict metapopulation viability under 9 urbanization and management scenarios and incorporated the full probability distribution of possible outcomes for each scenario into the cost‐effectiveness analysis. This allowed us to discern between cost‐effective alternatives that were robust to uncertainty and those with a relatively high risk of failure. We found a relatively high risk of extinction following urbanization if the only action was reservation of core habitat; habitat creation actions performed better than enhancement actions; and cost‐effectiveness ranking changed depending on the consideration of uncertainty. Our results suggest that creation and maintenance of wetlands dedicated to L. raniformis is the only cost‐effective action likely to result in a sufficiently low risk of extinction. To our knowledge we are the first study to use Bayesian metapopulation viability analysis to explicitly incorporate parametric and demographic uncertainty into a cost‐effective evaluation of conservation actions. The approach offers guidance to decision makers aiming to achieve cost‐effective conservation under uncertainty.     

Threats to intact tropical peatlands and opportunities for their conservation

Large, intact areas of tropical peatland are highly threatened at a global scale by the expansion of commercial agriculture and other forms of economic development. Conserving peatlands on a landscape scale, with their hydrology intact, is of international conservation importance to preserve their distinctive biodiversity and ecosystem services and maintain their resilience to future environmental change. We explored threats to and opportunities for conserving remaining intact tropical peatlands; thus, we excluded peatlands of Indonesia and Malaysia, where extensive deforestation, drainage, and conversion to plantations means conservation in this region can protect only small fragments of the original ecosystem. We focused on a case study, the Pastaza‐Marañón Foreland Basin (PMFB) in Peru, which is among the largest known intact tropical peatland landscapes in the world and is representative of peatland vulnerability. Maintenance of the hydrological conditions critical for carbon storage and ecosystem function of peatlands is, in the PMFB, primarily threatened by expansion of commercial agriculture linked to new transport infrastructure that is facilitating access to remote areas. There remain opportunities in the PMFB and elsewhere to develop alternative, more sustainable land‐use practices. Although some of the peatlands in the PMFB fall within existing legally protected areas, this protection does not include the most carbon‐dense (domed pole forest) areas. New carbon‐based conservation instruments (e.g., REDD+, Green Climate Fund), developing markets for sustainable peatland products, transferring land title to local communities, and expanding protected areas offer pathways to increased protection for intact tropical peatlands in Amazonia and elsewhere, such as those in New Guinea and Central Africa which remain, for the moment, broadly beyond the frontier of commercial development.     

Parasitic wasps orient to green leaf volatiles

Summary Undamaged plants emit low levels of green leaf volatiles (GLVs), while caterpillar-damaged and artificially damaged plants emit relatively higher levels of certain GLVs. Female braconid parasitoids,Microplitis croceipes, oriented to both damaged plants and to individual GLVs in no-choice tests in a wind tunnel, but seldom oriented to undamaged plants. Female ichneumonid parasitoids,Netelia heroica, also oriented to individual GLVs in a wind tunnel. Males of both wasp species failed to orient to the GLVs. These data show that leaf-feeding caterpillars can cause the release of GLVs, and that parasitic wasps can respond to these odors by flying upwind (chemoanemotactic response), which brings the wasps to their caterpillar hosts. This supports the hypothesis that plants communicate with members of the third trophic level,i.e., plants under herbivore attack emit chemical signals that guide natural enemies of herbivores to sites of plant damage. In this interaction, the GLVs serve as tritrophic plant-to-parasitoid synomones. That parasitoids from two different wasp families oriented to GLVs suggests that the response may be widespread among the Hymenoptera.Mention of a commercial or proprietary product does not constitute an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture     

Human Influence and Classical Biogeographic Predictors of Rare Species Occurrence

Biogeographic theory predicts that rare species occur more often in larger, less‐isolated habitat patches and suggests that patch size and connectivity are positive predictors of patch quality for conservation. However, in areas substantially modified by humans, rare species may be relegated to the most isolated patches. We used data from plant surveys of 81 meadow patches in the Georgia Basin of Canada and the United States to show that presence of threatened and endangered plants was positively predicted for patches that were isolated on small islands surrounded by ocean and for patches that were isolated by surrounding forest. Neither patch size nor connectivity were positive predictors of rare species occurrence. Thus, in our study area, human influence, presumably due to disturbance or introduction of competitive non‐native species, appears to have overwhelmed classical predictors of rare species distribution, such that greater patch isolation appeared to favor presence of rare species. We suggest conservation planners consider the potential advantages of protecting geographically isolated patches in human‐modified landscapes because such patches may represent the only habitats in which rare species are likely to persist. Influencia Humana y Predictores Biogeográficos Clásicos de la Ocurrencia de Especies Raras     

Seasonal dynamics of macro-algae in the South Lake of Tunis

The macro-algae communities observed in the south lake of Tunis are characterized by the predominance of nitrophilous algae which are in the order of biomass importance:Ulva, Cladophora andEnteromorpha. We have noted seasonal changes of alga distribution. The wind appears to be one of the most important factors influencing this distribution. The total biomass reaches a maximum in the spring. Rapid decomposition of the biomass leads to a severe ecological imbalance, resulting in crises of anoxia and fish death. A restoration project has already started. It aims at removal of contaminated muds and the introduction of a new circulation system. The main objectives of this work were to collect information on the distribution and biomass of the phytobenthic communities as a first step in the constitution of a database for further comparison.     

Patterns and biases of climate change threats in the IUCN Red List

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments rely on published data and expert inputs, and biases can be introduced where underlying definitions and concepts are ambiguous. Consideration of climate change threat is no exception, and recently numerous approaches to assessing the threat of climate change to species have been developed. We explored IUCN Red List assessments of amphibians and birds to determine whether species listed as threatened by climate change display distinct patterns in terms of habitat occupied and additional nonclimatic threats faced. We compared IUCN Red List data with a published data set of species’ biological and ecological traits believed to infer high vulnerability to climate change and determined whether distributions of climate change‐threatened species on the IUCN Red List concur with those of climate change‐threatened species identified with the trait‐based approach and whether species possessing these traits are more likely to have climate change listed as a threat on the IUCN Red List. Species in some ecosystems (e.g., grassland, shrubland) and subject to particular threats (e.g., invasive species) were more likely to have climate change as a listed threat. Geographical patterns of climate change‐threatened amphibians and birds on the IUCN Red List were incongruent with patterns of global species richness and patterns identified using trait‐based approaches. Certain traits were linked to increases or decreases in the likelihood of a species being threatened by climate change. Broad temperature tolerance of a species was consistently related to an increased likelihood of climate change threat, indicating counterintuitive relationships in IUCN assessments. To improve the robustness of species assessments of the vulnerability or extinction risk associated with climate change, we suggest IUCN adopt a more cohesive approach whereby specific traits highlighted by our results are considered in Red List assessments. To achieve this and to strengthen the climate change‐vulnerability assessments approach, it is necessary to identify and implement logical avenues for further research into traits that make species vulnerable to climate change (including population‐level threats).