Hyporheic exchange is known to provide an important control on nutrient and contaminant fluxes across the stream-subsurface
interface. Similar processes also mediate interfacial transport in other permeable sediments. Recent research has focused
on understanding the mechanics of these exchange processes and improving estimation of exchange rates in natural systems.
While the structure of sediment beds obviously influences pore water flow rates and patterns, little is known about the interplay
of typical sedimentary structures, hyporheic exchange, and other transport processes in fluvial/alluvial sediments. Here we
discuss several processes that contribute to local-scale sediment heterogeneity and present results that illustrate the interaction
of overlying flow conditions, the development of sediment structure, pore water transport, and stream-subsurface exchange.
Layered structures are shown to develop at several scales within sediment beds. Surface sampling is used to analyze the development
of an armor layer in a sand-and-gravel bed, while innovative synchrotron-based X-ray microtomography is used to observe patterns
of grain sorting within sand bedforms. We show that layered bed structures involving coarsening of the bed surface increase
interfacial solute flux but produce an effective anisotropy that favors horizontal pore water transport while limiting vertical
penetration. 相似文献
Ammonia emissions from two contrasting seabird colonies in Scotland were measured, based on the determination of atmospheric concentrations downwind of the colonies. Atmospheric concentrations of ammonia (NH3) across the downwind plume were compared with the inverse application of a Gaussian dispersion model (ID) to calculate the modelled NH3 emission that would generate the measured cross-wind-integrated plume concentration. In parallel, a tracer gas (sulphur hexafluoride, SF6) was released from the colonies with air samples taken to allow determination of SF6 concentrations. On the basis of the known emission rate of SF6, the magnitude of ammonia emissions was estimated by the cross-wind-integrated tracer ratio (TR) of NH3/SF6 concentrations. Coupled with data on annual bird attendance, the measurements indicate annual emissions from the Isle of May and the Bass Rock of 18 and 132 tonnes NH3-N year–1, respectively. The measured NH3 emissions were compared with estimates of seabird nitrogen excretion to estimate the proportion of excreted N that is volatilised as NH3 (FNr). The emission estimates of the two methods compared favourably, giving 4 and 6 kg NH3-N h–1 (FNr = 15%) for the Isle of May for the ID and TR methods, respectively, and 21 and 25 kg NH3-N h–1 (FNr = 50%) for the Bass Rock for the ID and TR methods, respectively. The results provide the first measurement-based estimates to allow regional up scaling of ammonia emissions from seabirds. 相似文献
Although it has been hypothesized that soluble organic nitrogen (SON) plays a central role in regulating productivity in some terrestrial ecosystems, the factors controlling the size of the SON pool in soil remain poorly understood. Therefore our principal aim in this work was to assess the impact of seven different land use systems (rough and managed grassland, deciduous and coniferous woodland, heathland, wetland and tilled land) on the size of the SON and inorganic N (NO
3–
, NH
4+
) pools in the surface soil layer (0–15 cm). After extraction with deionised water, we found that in most cases the size of the water extractable organic N (WEON) pool was similar in size to the inorganic N pool. In contrast, the KCl extractable organic N (KClEON) pool constituted the dominant form of soluble N in soils under all land uses, perhaps indicating that significant amounts were held on the soil exchange phase. In contrast to inorganic N, which varied significantly with land use, the size of the KClEON and WEON pool was similar for all land uses with the exception of KClEON in tilled land, where significantly lower amounts were observed. We conclude that SON constitutes an important soil N pool in a broad range of land uses, and that its role in microbial N assimilation, plant nutrition and ecosystem responses to atmospheric N deposition warrants further attention.
SAFRD, University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 7RU, U.K.相似文献
A 50 ha known contaminated site in Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S.A. is permitted to receive up to 3 × 106 m3 of sediment dredged from navigation channels in the New York/New Jersey Harbor. Much of the sediment is expected to contain low to moderate concentrations of industrial and agricultural chemicals, including Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). The dredged material brought to the site is stabilized with cement and then placed as a capping and grading layer. The flux of PCBs from drying stabilized dredged material has been estimated from measurements of PCB air concentrations at two heights above the ground along with micrometeorological observations. A statistically significant gradient in PCB concentrations has been consistently measured in the first 3 m above the ground. Observed PCB fluxes were highest over freshly placed stabilized dredged sediment and decreased as it cured. The highest flux observed in this study was 7214 ng/m2/h, but during subsequent sampling intervals at the same site, the flux estimates decreased by an order of magnitude over a 5-day interval. 相似文献
Forest resources play a key role and provide many basic needs to communities in developing economies. To assess the patterns of vegetation cover change, as a corollary of resource utilization, satellite imagery, ground truth data, and image processing techniques can be useful. This article is concerned with identifying change in major vegetation types in East Timor between 1989 and 1999, using Landsat Thematic Mapper data. The results highlight a significant level of deforestation and decline in foliage cover. All major vegetation cover types declined from 1989 to 1999, and there was a sizeable increase in degraded woodlands. This decline has had considerable impact on the livelihoods of rural and urban communities. Causes for these changes include: economic exploitation of abundant resources; and implications of transmigration policies implemented during Indonesian rule, resulting in increased competition for land and woodland resources. As the new nation of Timor‐Leste establishes itself, it must consider its current stock and distribution of natural capital to ensure that development efforts are geared towards sustainable outcomes. Without the knowledge of historical patterns of resource consumption, development efforts may, unwittingly, lead to continuing decline in forest resources.相似文献
The Bhopal tragedy was a defining moment in the history of the chemical industry. On December 3, 1984, a runaway reaction within a methyl isocyanate storage tank at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant released a toxic gas cloud that killed thousands and injured hundreds of thousands. After Bhopal, industrial chemical plants became a major public concern. Both the public and the chemical industry realized the necessity of improving chemical process safety.
Bhopal served as a wake-up call. To prevent the same event from occurring in the United States, many legislative and industrial changes were invoked—one of which was formation of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). The ultimate goal of CSB is to use the lessons learned and recommendations from its investigations to achieve positive change within the chemical industry—preventing incidents and saving lives.
Although it seems clear that the lessons learned at Bhopal have improved chemical plant safety, CSB investigations indicate that the systemic problems identified at Bhopal remain the underlying causes of many incidents. These include:
• Lack of awareness of reactive hazards.
• Lack of management of change.
• Inadequate plant design and maintenance.
• Ineffective employee training.
• Ineffective emergency preparedness and community notification.
• Lack of root cause incident investigations and communication of lessons learned.
The aim of this paper is to present common themes from recent cases investigated by CSB and to discuss how these issues might be best addressed in the future.
This paper has not been independently approved by the Board and is published for general informational purposes only. Any material in the paper that did not originate in a Board-approved report is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent an official finding, conclusion, or position of the Board. 相似文献
Zerovalent iron (ZVI) has been widely used in the removal of environmental contaminants from water. In this study, ZVI was used to remove selenate [Se(VI)] at a level of 1000 microg L(-1) in the presence of varying concentrations of Cl-, SO(2-)4, NO(-)3, HCO(-)3, and PO(3-)4. Results showed that Se(VI) was rapidly removed during the corrosion of ZVI to iron oxyhydroxides (Fe(OH)). During the 16 h of the experiments, 100 and 56% of the added Se(VI) was removed in 10 mM Cl- and SO(2-)4 solutions under a closed contained system, respectively. Under an open condition, 100 and 93% of the added Se(VI) were removed in the Cl- and SO(2-)4 solutions, respectively. Analysis of Se species in ZVI-Fe(OH) revealed that selenite [Se(IV)] and nonextractable Se increased during the first 2 to 4 h of reaction, with a decrease of Se(VI) in the Cl- experiment and no detection of Se(VI) in the SO(2-)4 experiment. Two mechanisms can be attributed to the rapid removal of Se(VI) from the solutions. One is the reduction of Se(VI) to Se(IV), followed by rapid adsorption of Se(IV) to Fe(OH). The other is the adsorption of Se(VI) directly to Fe(OH), followed by its reduction to Se(IV). The results also show that there was little effect on Se(VI) removal in the presence of Cl- (5, 50, and 100 mM), NO(-)3 (1, 5, and 10 mM), SO(2-)4 (5 mM), HCO(-)3 (1 and 5 mM), or PO(3-)4 (1 mM) and only a slight effect in the presence of SO(2-)4 (50 and 100 mM), HCO(-)3 (10 mM), and PO(3-)4 (5 mM) during a 2-d experiment, whereas 10 mM PO(3-)4 significantly inhibited Se(VI) removal. This work suggests that ZVI may be an effective agent to remove Se from Se-contaminated agricultural drainage water. 相似文献