Carbonaceous aerosols in PM10 and pollution gases in winter in Beijing

An intensive observation of organic carbon (OC) and element carbon (EC) in PM10 and gaseous materials (SO2, CO, and O3,) was conducted continuously to assess the characteristics of wintertime carbonaceous aerosols in an urban area of Beijing, China. Results showed that the averaged total carbon (TC) and PM10 concentrations in observation period are 30.2±120.4 and 172.6±198.3 μ/m3, respectively. Average OC concentration in nighttime (24.9±19.6 μ/m3) was 40% higher than that in daytime (17.7±10.9 μ/m3). Average EC concentrations in daytime (8.8±15.2 μ/m3) was close to that in nighttime (8.9±15.1 μ/m3). The OC/EC ratios in nighttime ranging from 2.4 to 2.7 are higher than that in daytime ranging from 1.9 to 2.0. The concentrations of OC, EC, PM10 were low with strong winds and high with weak winds. The OC and EC were well correlated with PM10, CO and SO2, which implies they have similar sources. OC and EC were not well correlated with O3. By considering variation of OC/EC ratios in daytime and night time, correlations between OC and O3, and meteorological condition, we speculated that OC and EC in Beijing PM10 were emitted as the primary particulate form. Emission of motor vehicle with low OC/EC ratio and coal combustion sources with high OC/EC ratio are probably the dominant sources for carbonaceous aerosols in Beijing in winter. A simple method was used to estimate the relative contribution of sources to carbonaceous aerosols in Beijing PM10. Motor vehicle source accounts for 80% and 68%, while coal combustion accounts for 20% and 32% in daytime and nighttime, respectively in Beijing. Averagely, the motor vehicle and coal combustion accounted for 74% and 26%, respectively, for carbonaceous aerosols during the observation period. It points to the motor vehicle is dominant emission for carbonaceous aerosols in Beijing PM10 in winter period, which should be paid attention to control high level of PM10 in Beijing effectively.     

生物炭在农业增产和污染治理中的应用

生物炭(biochar)作为重要的碳汇、土壤重要的改良剂以及污染物有效地吸附剂受到了国内外研究人员的普遍关注。在阅读近几年国内外关于生物炭在农业增产和污染方面文献的基础上,作者总结了生物炭应用规律并提出一些未来研究的展望。表述如下:生物炭具有多孔性和巨大的表面积,它能够增加土壤的持水量、增加对营养元素的吸附以减少其流失并改善土壤的结构,此外生物炭本身含有丰富的营养元素并能够缓慢释放以供作物吸收,因此生物炭能改善土壤肥力并增加农作物产量。同时,生物炭巨大的吸附功能可以降低重金属和有机污染物在土壤及污水中的活性,起到降低污染物浓度的作用。因此生物炭在农业增产和减少污染方面有巨大的潜力。但是,到目前为止,对于生物炭很多的作用机制还未搞清楚,对不同种类生物炭性状、生物质在高温热解过程中内部化学成分和结构的变化、长期定位实验以及危害方面还应加强研究。对此,研究人员应该结合当地情况,尽多的用当地主要的动植物废料来生产生物炭以达到当地农业增产和治理污染的目的;其次,增加长期定位试验,找到适合当地的生物炭种类及其生产条件;另外还应增加对我国新疆、西藏等土壤贫瘠的偏远地区的研究,使当地的土壤更大程度的被利用以改善当地人民的生活;最后,当地政府及相关部门应该加大对生物炭研究的支持,使生物炭早日被普遍运用,造福百姓。     

EDTA-nSiO2纳米颗粒对Cd2+的吸附

nSiO_2纳米颗粒是一种广泛应用的工程纳米材料,为增加其对水溶液中Cd~(2+)的吸附性能,采用接枝改性的方法制备出乙二胺四乙酸(EDTA)改性nSiO_2纳米颗粒(EDTA-nSiO_2),并用透射电镜、氮气吸附-解吸、红外光谱和差热分析等手段对其进行了结构表征,同时以其为吸附剂,通过批处理实验法探讨了体系pH、吸附时间、温度、离子强度等因素对Cd~(2+)吸附的影响,并结合X射线能谱(XPS)分析对其吸附机制进行了分析.结果表明,以EDTA为改性剂,可以成功制备出稳定性良好的EDTA-nSiO_2纳米颗粒,其对Cd~(2+)的吸附受体系p H控制;nSiO_2对Cd~(2+)的吸附量较小,EDTA改性可增加nSiO_2对Cd~(2+)的吸附作用,随着p H的升高,Cd~(2+)的吸附效果逐渐增强,在p H大于4.0后逐渐趋于稳定.EDTA-nSiO_2对Cd~(2+)的吸附速率较快,可在1 h内达到吸附平衡.EDTA-nSiO_2对Cd~(2+)的吸附为吸热的自发过程,吸附等温线可用Langmuir模型描述.NaCl浓度增加会导致Cd~(2+)的吸附量下降,当体系Na Cl浓度从0增加到100 mmol·L~(-1),Cd~(2+)的最大吸附量从0.433 mmol·g-1降低至0.294mmol·g-1.0.1 mol·L~(-1)HCl是较为合适的吸附剂再生液,Cd~(2+)洗脱率约94.36%.结合pH、温度、离子强度、再生和XPS分析结果,可以推测出EDTA-nSiO_2对Cd~(2+)的吸附是包含有简单的物理吸附和离子交换过程,并以化学络合为主的吸附过程.EDTA-nSiO_2是一种对水体Cd~(2+)具有较好吸附能力的工程纳米材料吸附剂.     

A Global Conservation System for Climate-Change Adaptation

Abstract:  Climate change has created the need for a new strategic framework for conservation. This framework needs to include new protected areas that account for species range shifts and management that addresses large-scale change across international borders. Actions within the framework must be effective in international waters and across political frontiers and have the ability to accommodate large income and ability-to-pay discrepancies between countries. A global protected-area system responds to these needs. A fully implemented global system of protected areas will help in the transition to a new conservation paradigm robust to climate change and will ensure the integrity of the climate services provided by carbon sequestration from the world's natural habitats. The internationally coordinated response to climate change afforded by such a system could have significant cost savings relative to a system of climate adaptation that unfolds solely at a country level. Implementation of a global system is needed very soon because the effects of climate change on species and ecosystems are already well underway .     

Risk Assessment of Inbreeding and Outbreeding Depression in a Captive‐Breeding Program

Captive‐breeding programs can be implemented to preserve the genetic diversity of endangered populations such that the controlled release of captive‐bred individuals into the wild may promote recovery. A common difficulty, however, is that programs are founded with limited wild broodstock, and inbreeding can become increasingly difficult to avoid with successive generations in captivity. Program managers must choose between maintaining the genetic purity of populations, at the risk of inbreeding depression, or interbreeding populations, at the risk of outbreeding depression. We evaluate these relative risks in a captive‐breeding program for 3 endangered populations of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). In each of 2 years, we released juvenile F₁ and F₂ interpopulation hybrids, backcrosses, as well as inbred and noninbred within‐population crosstypes into 9 wild streams. Juvenile size and survival was quantified in each year. Few crosstype effects were observed, but interestingly, the relative fitness consequences of inbreeding and outbreeding varied from year to year. Temporal variation in environmental quality might have driven some of these annual differences, by exacerbating the importance of maternal effects on juvenile fitness in a year of low environmental quality and by affecting the severity of inbreeding depression differently in different years. Nonetheless, inbreeding was more consistently associated with a negative effect on fitness, whereas the consequences of outbreeding were less predictable. Considering the challenges associated with a sound risk assessment in the wild and given that the effect of inbreeding on fitness is relatively predictable, we suggest that risk can be weighted more strongly in terms of the probable outcome of outbreeding. Factors such as genetic similarities between populations and the number of generations in isolation can sometimes be used to assess outbreeding risk, in lieu of experimentation. Evaluación del Riesgo de Depresión por Endogamia y Exogamia en un Programa de Reproducción en Cautiverio     

Postfire Logging in Riparian Areas

Abstract:  We reviewed the behavior of wildfire in riparian zones, primarily in the western United States, and the potential ecological consequences of postfire logging. Fire behavior in riparian zones is complex, but many aquatic and riparian organisms exhibit a suite of adaptations that allow relatively rapid recovery after fire. Unless constrained by other factors, fish tend to rebound relatively quickly, usually within a decade after a wildfire. Additionally, fire and subsequent erosion events contribute wood and coarse sediment that can create and maintain productive aquatic habitats over time. The potential effects of postfire logging in riparian areas depend on the landscape context and disturbance history of a site; however, available evidence suggests two key management implications: (1) fire in riparian areas creates conditions that may not require intervention to sustain the long-term productivity of the aquatic network and (2) protection of burned riparian areas gives priority to what is left rather than what is removed. Research is needed to determine how postfire logging in riparian areas has affected the spread of invasive species and the vulnerability of upland forests to insect and disease outbreaks and how postfire logging will affect the frequency and behavior of future fires. The effectiveness of using postfire logging to restore desired riparian structure and function is therefore unproven, but such projects are gaining interest with the departure of forest conditions from those that existed prior to timber harvest, fire suppression, and climate change. In the absence of reliable information about the potential consequence of postfire timber harvest, we conclude that providing postfire riparian zones with the same environmental protections they received before they burned is justified ecologically. Without a commitment to monitor management experiments, the effects of postfire riparian logging will remain unknown and highly contentious.     

A reactor system combining reductive dechlorination with cometabolic oxidation for complete degradation of tetrachloroentylene

A laboratory sequential anaerobic-aerobic bioreactor system, which consisted of an anaerobic fixed film reactor and two aerobic chemostats, was set up to degrade tetrachloroethylene (PCE) without accumulating highly toxic degradation intermediates. A soil enrichment culture, which could reductively dechlorinate 900/zM ( ca. 150 mg/L) of PCE stoichiometrically into cis-l, 2-dichloroethylene ( cis-DCE), was attached to ceramic media in the anaerobic fixed film reactor. A phenol degrading strain, Alcaligenes sp. 115, which can efficiently degrade cis-DCE by co-metabolic oxidation, was used as inocuhim for the aerobic chemostats consisted of a transformation reactor and a growth reactor.The anaerobic fixed film bioreactor showed more than 99 % of PCE transformation into cis-DCE in the range of influent PCE concentration from 5μM to 35μM at hydraulic retention time of 48h. On the other hand, efficient degradation of the resultant cis-DCE by strain R5 in the following aerobic system could not be achieved due to oxygen limitation. However, 54% of the maximum cis-DCE degradation was obtained when 10μmol of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2 ) was supplemented to the transformation reactor as an additional oxygen source. Further studies are needed to achieve more efficient co-metabolic degradation of cis-DCE in the aerobic reactor.     

MOVEMENT BEHAVIOUR OF MEDAKA (Oryzias latipes) IN RESPONSE TO SUBLETHAL TREATMENTS OF DIAZINON AND CHOLINESTERASE ACTIVITY IN SEMI-NATURAL CONDITIONS

Behavioural changes of medaka (Oryzias latipes) treated with an anticholinesterase insecticide, diazinon (0.1 mg L^{- 1}), were continuously observed for 4 days in semi-natural conditions. Although variations occurred in individual specimens, the movement tracks appeared differently with typical short-range movement with irregular turns and shaking after the treatments. Eight movement patterns frequently observed before and after the treatments were selected, and the variables characterising the movement patterns were compared quantitatively. The variables were clearly differentiated when the movement patterns were correspondingly matched before and after the treatments (e.g., vertical movements, horizontal movements, etc). Meander and stop duration were highly different among the selected movement patterns. Additionally, different degree of toxic response behaviours could also be detected by quantitative characterisation of the variables. Response behaviour was confirmed with toxicological experiments that show the decrease in the acetylcholine esterase activity in the head and body of specimens. Quantitative investigations on the variables of the movement tracks suggested the usefulness of response behaviour as a monitoring tool for environmental assessment.     

裂解温度对新疆棉秆生物炭物理化学性质的影响

生物质的裂解温度影响其所生产的生物炭炭的物理和化学性质,进而影响其田间应用效果。棉花秸秆是干旱区特别是新疆地区的主要农业生物质资源,其生物炭利用途径有望克服现有秸秆利用途径的不足,但对棉秆生物炭理化性质及其变化的认识还很缺乏。本文在不同的裂解温度下对新疆棉秆生物炭物理和化学性质进行研究,发现随着裂解温度的升高,生物炭的产率、阳离子交换量、O/C和H/C值降低,p H、电导和持水性能提高,Na+、K+趋势不明显,Cl-和SO2-4等盐碱化离子以及Ca~(2+)、Mg~(2+)营养元素含量随温度的升高降低;C、N、S、C/N和灰分等均提高,NH+4-N在550℃碳化条件下含量最高。因此在田间应用中,应针对土壤特点和解决的问题,调控碳化温度,从而达到趋利避害的目的。