Incorporating Habitat Mapping into Practical Koala Conservation on Private Lands

Abstract: Identifying and conserving faunal habitat on private lands has been conducted largely on a site-by-site basis as development proposals arise. We sought to map koala habitat at a scale suitable for use by a local planning authority so that habitat remnants could be protected and managed while remaining in private ownership. At this scale, the level of detail and accuracy needed by local planners required a new approach to mapping koala habitat. Two independent techniques, community and field surveys, were employed. We mailed a survey to every household in Coffs Harbour shire. Respondents told of 3309 koala sightings. We conducted a field survey, a plot-based scat (  fecal pellet) search, to determine which vegetation types and tree species were preferred by koalas. We surveyed 119 sites, which contained 42 different vegetation types. Of these, 37 (31%) had been used by koalas. The outcomes of the community and field surveys were combined to produce a distribution map of koala habitat. The most striking outcome has been the use of our results by the local government authority, Coffs Harbour City Council: planners have incorporated the koala habitat map into their local environmental plan. Our procedure offers a rigorous, repeatable, and publicly accessible method for identifying and mapping important habitat for the purposes of land-use planning, an essential procedure for conserving habitat outside the reserve system.     

Temperature and salinity adaptation in the purple shore crab Hemigrapsus nudus: An in vitro physiological study with excised gills

The alkali-soluble polysaccharides of the cell wall from 7 different marine diatoms were shown to contain the monosaccharides rhamnose, fucose, galactose, mannose and xylose. The relative amounts of rhamnose and fucose varied widely from one species to another, from the very rhamnose-rich Chaetoceros affinis to Thalassiosira gravida, where no rhamnose was found. All Chaetoceros species were found to have a high content of rhamnose. Also the proportion of mannose to galactose varied widely from species to species. The observed change in monomer composition from the logarithmic to the stationary growth phase is explained by assuming the alkali-soluble fraction to be a mixture of polysaccharides. The soluble, extracellular polysaccharides from 4 of the diatoms were also investigated. The products from C. affinis and C. curvisetus were homogeneous and composed of only 3 monomers: rhamnose, fucose and galactose. The extracellular polysaccharide composition in all species investigated was quite different from the composition of the cellular alkali-soluble fraction. The ecological aspects of these soluble polysaccharides may prove of considerable interest.     

Studies on hexavalent chromium biosorption by chemically-treated biomass of Ecklonia sp

The biomass of the brown seaweed, Ecklonia sp., is capable of reducing Cr(VI) to Cr(III). However, very little is known about the mechanism of Cr(VI) reduction by the biomass. The aims of the present investigation were to enhance the Cr(VI)-reducing capacity of the biomass using various chemical treatments and to elucidate the mechanisms governing Cr(VI) reduction. Among the various chemical treatments, acid-treatment showed the best performance with regards the improvement of Cr(VI) removal from the aqueous phase, while organic solvent-treatment significantly improved the removal efficiency of total Cr in the equilibrium state. Based on FTIR study, the biomass was subjected to chemical modification of its amino and carboxyl groups, to examine their roles in the Cr(VI) removal from the aqueous phase. Methylation of the amino group significantly decreased the Cr(VI) removal rate, but amination of the carboxyl group significantly increased the Cr(VI) removal rate. Meanwhile, esterification of the carboxyl group and carboxylation of the amino group decreased the Cr(VI) removal rate, but the former showed a more negative effect than the latter. These findings indicated that the amino and carboxyl groups take part in the Cr(VI) removal from the aqueous phase. In conclusion, mechanisms for direct and indirect Cr(VI) removal are proposed, and some aspects for the application of this biomass to Cr(VI) detoxification are discussed.     

Compressibility of municipal solid waste codisposed with fly ash

If a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill is used as the foundation for a construction site, the change in the loading conditions may cause considerable compression of the landfill. Therefore, reinforcement to compensate for the loose compression nature of a MSW landfill is a very important design factor for geotechnical engineers when considering the end-use of the landfill. In this study, we discuss a possible technique for stabilizing MSW landfills through the codisposal of municipal solid waste and fly ash. To estimate the stabilization based on the compression characteristics of the codisposed landfill, we performed tests using a large compression set and experimental cells. According to the test results, if the proportion of fly ash is increased, initial and long-term compression could be reduced.     

Recovery of uranium phosphate by a stepwise thermal treatment of uranium-bearing spent TBP

A stepwise thermal treatment process for the recovery of uranium phosphate from uranium-dissolved spent TBP was demonstrated. The pathway of the reactions involved in the thermal decomposition and oxidation processes of uranium-bearing spent TBP was established based on the results of thermogravimetric analyses. Relatively low-temperature pyrolysis is required to avoid the condensation of corrosive phosphoric acid via vaporization. Low-temperature pyrolysis residue was analyzed and found to be composed of pyrocarbon, phosphorus oxide (P₂O₅) and two types of uranium phosphate (UP₂O₇ and UP₄O₁₂). Uranium pyrophosphate (UP₂O₇) was recovered from the burning out of pyrocarbon in the pyrolysis residue after the dissolution removal of phosphorus oxide in water. A substantial recovery of uranium by the proposed stepwise thermal treatment method was successfully demonstrated by a treatment of pyrolysis residue from a bench-scale low-temperature pyrolysis process.     

Stabilization of Cu-contaminated army firing range soils using waste oyster shells

A stabilization/solidification (S/S) process was used to immobilize Cu in contaminated soils obtained from two army firing ranges sites (A and B) with total Cu concentrations of 520 and 380 mg/kg, respectively. Both waste oyster shells (WOS) and pretreated oyster shells (POS) were used to immobilize Cu in the contaminated soils. Waste oyster shells passing the #10 mesh and #20 mesh were used for the Sites A and B, respectively. WOS- and POS-treated soil samples cured for 28 days were evaluated for Cu leaching by the Korean Standard Leaching Test (KSLT) method. Slurry suspensions were prepared to investigate the Cu immobilization mechanism using X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analyses. The treatment results showed that the POS treatment was more effective than the WOS treatment of 28 days. For Site A, 10 wt% WOS and 3 wt% POS dosages were required to pass the Korean warning standard of 50 mg/kg, while 10 wt% WOS and 5 wt% POS dosages were required for the Site B treatment. The XRPD and SEM-EDX results showed that Cu immobilization was strongly linked to both CSH/CAH and ettringite. Overall, the POS treatment was effective at immobilizing the Cu in the contaminated soils, very likely due to its CaO content.     

A simultaneous optimization approach for the design of wastewater and heat exchange networks based on cost estimation

A new systematic methodology for designing wastewater and heat exchange networks for process industries involving effluent streams containing multiple contaminants is proposed. A simultaneous optimization approach mathematically combines the problems of wastewater and heat exchanger network optimization into a single step. This process includes two global iterations of a similar two-stage approach and optimizes networks for water and heat exchange simultaneously based on cost estimation. The objective function is to minimize the total annual cost of the wastewater and heat exchange network design which is subject to the mass and energy balance constraints on all the pertinent flows and to constraints related to the concentrations of contaminants. The proposed method employs a strategy to address a mixed integer non-linear programming (MINLP) formulation. Cost estimates for optimized wastewater and heat exchange networks for an oil refinery process are generated, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.     

Experimental study of the characteristics of solid fuel from fry-dried swine excreta

Swine excreta were dried by boiling via immersion in hot oil. In this method, moisture in the excreta is replaced with oil or evaporated by turbulent heat transfer in high-temperature oil. The dried excreta can be used in an incinerator like low-rank coal or solid fuel. Refined waste oil and B–C heavy oil were used for drying. Drying for 8 min at 150 °C reduced the water content of raw excreta from 78.90 wt.% to 1.56 wt.% (refined waste oil) or 1.62 wt.% (B–C heavy oil) and that of digested excreta from 79.58 wt.% to 3.40 wt.% (refined waste oil) or 3.48 wt.% (B–C heavy oil). The low heating values of the raw and digested excreta were 422 kJ/kg and ?2,713 kJ/kg, respectively, before drying and 27,842–28,169 kJ/kg and 14,394–14,905 kJ/kg, respectively, after drying. A heavy metal analysis did not detect Hg, Pb, Cd, As, and Cr in the dried excreta, but Al, Cu, and Zn, which occur in the feed formula, were detected. Thermogravimetric analysis before and after drying revealed that emission of volatiles and combustion of volatiles and fixed carbon occurred at temperatures of 250–500 °C when air was used as the transfer gas.     

Agricultural solid waste for the removal of organics: adsorption of phenol from water and wastewater by palm seed coat activated carbon

Adsorption studies for phenol removal from aqueous solution on activated palm seed coat carbon (PSCC) were carried out under varying experimental conditions of contact time, phenol concentration, adsorbent dose and pH. Adsorption equilibrium was reached within 3 h for phenolic concentrations 10-60 mg l(-1). Kinetics of adsorption obeyed a first order rate equation. The percent removal remained constant over the pH range 4-9 for a phenolic concentration of 25 mg (l-1). The equilibrium data could be described well by the Freundlich isotherm equation. The adsorption of phenol on PSCC follows the film diffusion process. A comparative study with a commercial activated carbon showed that PSCC is two times more effective than commercial activated carbon. The studies showed that the palm seed coat carbon can be used as an efficient adsorbent material for the removal of phenolics from water and wastewater.