A review of factors affecting the release and bioavailability of contaminants during sediment disturbance events

The factors affecting the release and bioavailability of contaminants present in sediments during natural and anthropogenic disturbance events are discussed and our current state of understanding of these processes reviewed. Published data are focused on the distribution of contaminants within undisturbed sediment, their affinities to the various solid-phase fractions of sediment and the interaction of contaminants between sediment and pore water. Sediment disturbance can lead to changes in the chemical properties of sediment that stimulate the mobilisation of contaminants. Research shows that changes in both redox potential (Eh) and pH can accelerate desorption, partitioning, bacterial degradation and the oxidation of organic contaminants. However, these processes are both sediment- and compound-specific. By affecting the affinity of contaminants to sediments, disturbance events in turn can have a significant effect on their bioavailability. Few studies have examined this phenomenon, and it is clear from the data available that there are gaps in our understanding in a number of key areas when assessing the release of contaminants from sediments: the fate of contaminants in undisturbed sediments and those that are not subjected to major disturbances, the kinetic processes that regulate metal release during changes in redox potential, the release of organometallic compounds from sediments during resuspension, the bioavailability of organic and organometallic compounds and the processes affecting contaminant release.     

EFFECTS OF PLACER GOLD MINING ON PRIMARY PRODUCTION IN SUBARCTIC STREAMS OF ALASKA1

ABSTRACT: Turbidity, total residues, settleable solids, vertical light extinction, and primary production were measured in mined and unmined streams located in the interior highlands of Alaska. Undisturbed streams had low turbidities (< 1 NTU), total residue concentrations averaging 120 mg 1^?1, and undetectable settleable solids. During active mining, turbidity, total residues, and settleable solids levels in a moderately mined stream averaged 170 NTU, 201 mg 1^?1, and < 0.1 ml 1^?1, respectively. In a heavily mined stream, turbidity and total residues were two orders of magnitude higher than in unmined streams and settleable solids nearly always exceeded 0.2 ml 1^?1. Vertical extinction coefficients and turbidity were positively correlated. In undisturbed streams gross primary productivity (g-O₂m^?2d^?1) ranged from 0.20 shortly after spring breakup to a maximum of 1.20 in early fall. Productivity in the moderately mined stream was reduced by 50 percent while photosynthetic efficiency doubled. Primary production was undetectable in a heavily mined stream. Maximum standing crops of periphyton measured as chlorophyll a occurred in fall in an undisturbed stream after 13 weeks of exposure and ranged from 4.5 to 11.8 mg-chl a m^?2. The highest chlorophyll a densities recorded in the moderately mined stream was 3.8 mg m^?2, and no chlorophyl a was detected in the heavily mined stream.     

Prenatal diagnosis of Crigler–Najjar syndrome type I by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP)

Crigler–Najjar syndrome type I (CN-I) is a rare and severe inherited disorder of bilirubin metabolism, caused by the total deficiency of bilirubin-UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) activity. Enzymatic diagnosis cannot be performed in chorionic villi or amniocytes as UGT is not active in these tissues. The cloning of the UGT1 gene and the identification of disease-causing mutations have led to the possibility of performing DNA-based diagnosis. Here we report DNA-based prenatal diagnosis of CN-I in two Tunisian families in whom CN-I patients were diagnosed. As we had previously shown that CN-I was, in Tunisia, associated with homozygosity for the Q357R mutation within the UGT1 gene, we were able to detect this mutation in both families and to show that it was easily recognized by single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis. In both cases, SSCP analysis of fetal DNA showed that the fetus was heterozygous for the Q357R mutation. In one family, the pregnancy was carried to term and a healthy baby was born, whereas, in the other family, the pregnancy is still continuing. Thus the prenatal diagnosis of CN-I is possible, provided disease-causing mutations have been identified. SSCP analysis of DNA prepared either from amniocytes or from chorionic villi is a simple, reliable and fast method for prenatal diagnosis. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fetal sexing in possible carriers for duchenne muscular dystrophy

Over a five-year period in the West Midlands there were 34 pregnancies to women who were possible carriers for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and who were known to the Department of Clinical Genetics. Fetal sexing was performed in only ten of 26 pregnancies to women of high or moderate risk, and of the five male fetuses discovered, only two were aborted. Overall, the 34 pregnancies resulted in one miscarriage, 14 males (of whom two were aborted and two were affected) and 19 females. Information was also obtained on five further possible carriers who were ascertained solely because they had an amniocentesis. These five pregnancies led to the birth of one affected male and to the termination of one male fetus.     

GOLD-MINING EFFECTS ON HEAVY METALS IN STREAMS,CIRCLE QUADRANGLE,ALASKA1

Placer gold mining, which extracts gold from buried or exposed alluvia, is often conducted on or near streams. Such mining has the potential to adversely affect water quality. Other heavy metals associated with the gold (such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, zinc, and copper) may be freed to enter streams. Mercury may also enter streams if miners are using it to recover fine particles of gold. These heavy metals are toxic and thus may be harmful to the aquatic life of the streams receiving effluent or runoff from placer mines. In 1982 we sampled two streams intensively - one heavily mined and one unmined - for total recoverable arsenic, mercury, lead, zinc, and copper. Only mercury was not significantly higher in concentration in the mined streams. In 1983 we sampled two stream pairs three times, and 10 other sites at least once, for total and dissolved arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, zinc, and copper. Mercury and cadmium were not significantly elevated in mined streams, but the concentrations of total arsenic, lead, zinc, and copper, and dissolved arsenic and zinc were significantly higher in streams below active placer mining sites than in these that were not being mined or those that had never been mined. Additionally, total arsenic, lead, zinc, and copper and dissolved arsenic and copper became elevated after mining began in 1983 on a previously unmined stream.     

ANALYSIS OF FIRM WATER SUPPLY UNDER COMPLEX INSTITUTIONAL CONSTRAINTS1

River basin computer simulation studies often do not properly include the complex legal and institutional factors governing water allocation. These factors include formal water rights and informal borrowing agreements among the basin water users. An attempt has been made in this study to show that such factors can be included. We also show that an optimal, integrated approach to reservoir operations in a river basin can do much to alleviate the burden of new demands placed on available water resources. The procurement of a firm water supply for a proposed coal fired power plant is analyzed as a case study. An efficient river basin simulation model is used to determine the viability of a scheme for providing an annual firm water supply to the plant, with consideration of the existing water storage and demands within the basin. Given the hydrologic sequence considered, the model results show that the proposed strategy is viable in that the required firm water supply can be realized without causing harm to decreed water users in the basin. However, integrated diversion and reservoir operations are required to assure a desirable uniform rate of delivery of reusable effluent to the power plant.     

Zoobenthic variability associated with a flood and drought in the Hawkesbury estuary,New South Wales: Some consequences for environmental monitoring

Changes in the Hawkesbury zoobenthos associated with a major flood and drought are described and comparisons made in the patterns of change among estuarine reaches and among sites within reaches. The consequences for environmental monitoring and management are discussed. Replicate grab samples were taken from four sites in each of the lower, middle and upper reaches. Reductions in the mean number of species per grab (S) following the flood were significant only in the lower reaches and at one site in the middle reaches. Increases in S accompanied the drought in all reaches but intra-reach variation in temporal patterns occurred in both S and in the most abundant species found. Thus, major weather events are associated with temporal changes whose patterns differ on both small and large spatial scales. Consequently, the results from fixed-factor sampling designs, which are widely used, may be unrepresentative of other areas. Unfortunately, the alternative approach of stratified random sampling will probably be both prohibitively expensive and difficult to implement in the complex estuarine benthic habitat. Further, short-term studies will probably be grossly unrepresentative of natural temporal variation. Attempts to reduce expenses by using only one or two abundant species as characterising communities or as indicators of physicochemical conditions may be unreliable because of variation in both time and space in dominant species and the lack of pollution-response knowledge for local species.     

The effect of heavy metals on dinitrogen fixation by Rhizobium-white clover in a range of long-term sewage sludge amended and metal-contaminated soils

An investigation was conducted to determine whether effective strains of Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar. trifolii capable of symbiotic N2 fixation with white clover (Trifolium repens) were present in a range of metal-contaminated soils. A number of historically sewage-amended sites (including experimental, pasture grassland and arable sites) were selected and compared with highly contaminated samples from abandoned heavy metal mines. Many sites had metal concentrations above the limits established by the UK Government, based on those developed by the European Commission (EC) for sludge-amended soils. Acetylene reduction activity (ARA) was used to screen the samples for effective N2 fixation. When the host plant was indigenous to the sward, rhizobia were found in the nodules and in the soil rhizosphere at all the sites tested. They were shown to be capable of effective symbiosis and N2 fixation, even though metal concentrations greatly exceeded the soil metal limits in some cases. However, nodulation failed to occur in some cases where T. repens was not indigenous to metal-contaminated soils. This indicated either that an ineffective rhizobial population was present, or that effective cells were absent from the soil. The influence of individual metals on ARA could not be determined conclusively because of the confounding effects of soil physicochemical variability and the presence of different metals at high concentrations together in the soil. However, Cd concentrations appeared to be particularly important in determining the presence of effective ARA in soils with no indigenous clover. In contrast to previous studies, the results presented here suggest that heavy metals may have had a quantitative effect on the free-living population of rhizobia, rather than a genetic effect.