The role of research in coastal westlands management: Salt Marshes of Santoña and Noja (Spain)

Coastal environments, such as marshes, dunes, or estuaries, are characterized by their high natural values that usually cause them to be subjected to high protection levels, affecting activities taking place within them. This is why the action in these spaces must be based on the use of proper techniques and approaches, which integrate ecology with practical engineering necessities. In this context, the Department of Sciences and Techniques of the Water and Environment of the University of Cantabria, through methods developed in the natural reserve of the Salt Marshes of Santoña and Noja, proposes the use of a working methodology based on the discipline of “ecosystem management” combined with the “adaptive management” methodologies; the application of mathematical, statistical, and specific predictive instruments; and the utilization of an “ecologic niche” as a union between the scientific knowledge of the littoral environments and the true actuation scale of the projects and activities carried out within them.     

Performance of photocatalytic reactors using immobilized TiO2 film for the degradation of phenol and methylene blue dye present in water stream

TiO2 thin film photocatalyst was successfully synthesized and immobilized on glass reactor tube using sol-gel method. The synthesized TiO2 coating was transparent, which enabled the penetration of ultra-violet (UV) light to the catalyst surface. Two photocatalytic reactors with different operating modes were tested: (a) tubular photocatalytic reactor with re-circulation mode and (b) batch photocatalytic reactor. A new proposed TiO2 synthesized film formulation of 1 titanium isopropoxide: 8 isopropanol: 3 acetyl acetone: 1.1 H2O: 0.05 acetic acid (in molar ratio) gave excellent photocatalytic activity for degradation of phenol and methylene blue dye present in the water. The half-life time, t1/2 of photocatalytic degradation of phenol was 56 min at the initial phenol concentration of 1000 microM in the batch reactor. In the tubular photocatalytic reactor, 5 re-circulation passes with residence time of 2.2 min (single pass) degraded 50% of 40-microM methylene blue dye. Initial phenol concentration, presence of hydrogen peroxide, presence of air bubbling and stirring speed as the process variables were studied in the batch reactor. Initial methylene blue concentration, pH value, light intensity and reaction temperature were studied as the process variables in the tubular reactor. The synthesized TiO2 thin film was characterized using SEM, XRD and EDX analysis. A comparative performance between the synthesized TiO2 thin film and commercial TiO2 particles (99% anatase) was evaluated under the same experimental conditions. The TiO2 film was equally active as the TiO2 powder catalyst.     

The temporal changes of the concentration level of typical toxic organics in the river sediments around Beijing

In this study, the current situation of five types of toxic organics and endocrine disrupters in the sediments of rivers around Beijing, i.e., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phthalic acid esters (PAEs), organic chlorinated pesticides (OCPs), estrogens (Es), and bisphenol A (BPA), which included 56 contaminants, was analyzed and compared with that registered by the historical literatures. The ecological risks were also assessed. The total concentration of PAHs, PAEs, OCPs, Es, and BPA ranged from 232.5 ng·g^–1 to 5429.7 ng·g^–1, 2047.2 ng·g^–1 to 18051.5 ng·g^–1, 4.5 ng·g^–1 to 11.7 ng·g^–1, 18.1 ng·g^–1 to 105.2 ng·g^–1, and 36.3 ng·g^–1 to 69.6 ng·g^–1, respectively. Among these five types of organic compounds, the concentration levels of PAHs and OCPs have decreased significantly in the last ten years, while those of PAEs and Es had an upward trend compared with the previous studies. BPA still remained at a moderately high level, as it was ten years ago. The risks of the PAEs in all of the sample sites, and fluoranthene, benzo[a]anthrene, and benzo[a]pyrene in the Wenyu River sediment, were relatively high. These results supplemented the database of toxic organics’ concentration levels in the sediments of Beijing rivers.

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基于二维和三维生态足迹的长三角城市群自然资本可持续性分析

城镇化和工业化进程的不断推进给城市群自然资本及其可持续利用带来较大的威胁。为明确城市群建设过程中自然资本可持续性变化特征,以长三角城市群为研究对象,采用二维和三维生态足迹评价模型,同时添加水资源账户对原模型进行改进以反映长三角地区水资源潜力与压力,研究分析了2005—2019年长三角城市群生态足迹、生态压力指数和生态协调指数变化、自然资本存量消耗和自然资本流量占用情况及其影响因素与作用机制。结果表明：1）研究期间,长三角城市群人均生态足迹和生态承载力分别为4.46和1.59 hm²/人,平均人均生态赤字为2.87 hm²/人,但万元GDP生态足迹不断下降,资源利用率不断上升;2）2005—2019年,长三角城市群生态压力指数由2.48升至3.25,生态协调指数由1.30变为1.25;3）基于改进三维生态足迹模型发现,长三角城市群资本存量利用程度越来越大,且对自然资本流量的更新起到较大抑制作用,2019年研究区自然资本存量的消耗量是资本流量占有量的2.26倍;4）影响因子分析表明,工业产值、能源消耗总量、建筑用地面积和城镇化率对生态足迹起到了正向促进作用,对自然资本的可持续性产生了较大压力。

     

Empirical likelihood confidence intervals for adaptive cluster sampling

Adaptive cluster sampling (ACS) is an efficient sampling design for estimating parameters of rare and clustered populations. It is widely used in ecological research. The modified Hansen-Hurwitz (HH) and Horvitz-Thompson (HT) estimators based on small samples under ACS have often highly skewed distributions. In such situations, confidence intervals based on traditional normal approximation can lead to unsatisfactory results, with poor coverage properties. Christman and Pontius (Biometrics 56:503–510, 2000) showed that bootstrap percentile methods are appropriate for constructing confidence intervals from the HH estimator. But Perez and Pontius (J Stat Comput Simul 76:755–764, 2006) showed that bootstrap confidence intervals from the HT estimator are even worse than the normal approximation confidence intervals. In this article, we consider two pseudo empirical likelihood functions under the ACS design. One leads to the HH estimator and the other leads to a HT type estimator known as the Hájek estimator. Based on these two empirical likelihood functions, we derive confidence intervals for the population mean. Using a simulation study, we show that the confidence intervals obtained from the first EL function perform as good as the bootstrap confidence intervals from the HH estimator but the confidence intervals obtained from the second EL function perform much better than the bootstrap confidence intervals from the HT estimator, in terms of coverage rate.     

官厅水库和永定河沉积物中多氯联苯和有机氯农药的污染

利用气相色谱-电子捕获检测(GC-ECD)方法对官厅水库-永定河流域沉积物中26种多氯联苯(PCBs)同系物和13种有机氯农药进行了分析测定,在4个采样点均检出多氯联苯和部分有机氯农药.其中PCBs和有机氯农药总量的最高点均出现在永定河下游的三家店,分别为9.7ng*g-1和26.7ng*g-1,按照国际关于沉积物质量的同类研究结果,判定为轻度污染水平.HCH最高仅为4.50ng*g-1,属轻度污染,DDT浓度以八号桥和三家店样点最高,分别为23.2ng*g-1和26.7ng*g-1,属中度污染.有机氯农药总量分布为三家店＞八号桥＞官厅大坝＞雁翅,表明永定河下游多氯联苯和有机氯农药不仅来自官厅上游,也来自下游地区.     

Zinc tolerance and accumulation in Pteris vittata L. and its potential for phytoremediation of Zn- and As-contaminated soil

A field investigation and pot experiments were conducted to determine the potential of arsenic (As) hyperaccumulator, Pteris vittata L., to remediate sites co-contaminated with zinc (Zn) and As. We found that P. vittata L. had a very high tolerance to Zn and grew normally at sites with high Zn concentrations. In addition, P. vittata L. could effectively take up Zn into its fronds, with a maximum of 737 mg kg(-1) under field conditions. In pot experiments, the accumulated Zn concentration increased significantly as the Zn treatment was raised from 0 to 2000 mg kg(-1), with a maximum Zn accumulation of 0.22 mg pot(-1). Although the concentration of As in P. vittata L. was reduced by the addition of Zn, total frond accumulation of As was elevated when the Zn treatment was increased from 0 to 1000 mg kg(-1), with a maximum As accumulation of 8.3 mg pot(-1) in the presence of 1000 mg kg(-1) Zn. The high Zn tolerance, relatively high ability to accumulate Zn, and great capacity to accumulate As under conditions of suppression by high Zn suggest that P. vittata L. could be useful for the remediation of sites co-contaminated with Zn and As.     

Living in an oasis: Rapid transformations,resilience, and resistance in the North Water Area societies and ecosystems

Based on lake sediment data, archaeological findings, and historical records, we describe rapid transformations, resilience and resistance in societies and ecosystems, and their interactions in the past in the North Water area related to changes in climate and historical events. Examples are the formation of the polynya itself and the early arrival of people, ca. 4500 years ago, and later major human immigrations (different societies, cultural encounters, or abandonment) from other regions in the Arctic. While the early immigrations had relatively modest and localised effect on the ecosystem, the later-incoming culture in the early thirteenth century was marked by extensive migrations into and out of the area and abrupt shifts in hunting technologies. This has had long-lasting consequences for the local lake ecosystems. Large natural transformations in the ecosystems have also occurred over relatively short time periods related to changes in the polynya. Finally, we discuss the future perspectives for the North Water area given the many threats, but also opportunities.