Biodegradability of a polyacrylate superabsorbent in agricultural soil

Superabsorbent polymers (SAP) are used, inter alia, as soil amendment to increase the water holding capacity of soils. Biodegradability of soil conditioners has become a desired key characteristic to protect soil and groundwater resources. The present study characterized the biodegradability of one acrylate based SAP in four agricultural soils and at three temperatures. Mineralisation was measured as the ¹³CO₂ efflux from ¹³C-labelled SAP in soil incubations. The SAP was either single-labelled in the carboxyl C-atom or triple-labelled including additionally the two C-atoms interlinked in the SAP backbone. The dual labelling allowed estimating the degradation of the polyacrylate main chain. The ¹³CO₂ efflux from samples was measured using an automated system including wavelength-scanned cavity ring-down spectroscopy. Based on single-labelled SAP, the mean degradation after 24 weeks varied between 0.45 % in loamy sand and 0.82 % in loam. However, the differences between degradation rates in different soils were not significant due to a large intra-replicate variability. Similarly, mean degradation did not differ significantly between effective temperature regimes of 20° and 30 °C after 12 weeks. Results from the triple-labelled SAP were lower as compared to their single-labelled variant. Detailed results suggest that the polyacrylate main chain degraded in the soils, if at all, at rates of 0.12–0.24 % per 6 months.     

On the translation of uncertainty from toxicokinetic to toxicodynamic models--the TCDD example

When estimating human health risks from exposure to TCDD using toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic models, it is important to understand how model choice and assumptions necessary for modeling add to the uncertainty of risk estimates. Several toxicokinetic models have been proposed for the risk assessment of dioxins, in particular the elimination kinetics in humans has been a matter of constant debate. For a long time, a simple linear elimination kinetics has been common choice. Thus, it was used for the statistical analysis of the largest occupationally exposed cohort, the German Boehringer cohort. We challenge this assumption by considering, amongst others, a nonlinear modified Michaelis-Menten-type elimination kinetics, the so-called Carrier kinetics. Using the area under the lipid TCDD concentration time curve as dose metrics, we model the time to cancer-related death using the Cox proportional hazards model as toxicodynamic model. This risk assessment set-up was simulated in order to quantify uncertainty of both the dose (TCDD body burden) and the risk estimates, depending on the use of the kinetic model, variations of carcinogenic effect of TCDD and variations of latency period (lag time). If past exposure is estimated assuming a linear elimination kinetics although a Carrier kinetics actually holds, then high exposures in reality will be underestimated through statistical analysis and low exposures will be overestimated, respectively. This bias will carry over on the estimated individual concentration-time curves and the therefrom derived TCDD dose metric values. Using biased dose values when estimating a dose-response relationship will finally lead to biased risk estimates. The extent of bias and the decrease of precision are quantified in selected scenarios through this simulation approach. Our findings are in concordance with recent results in the field of dioxin risk assessment. They also reinforce the general demand for the scheduled uncertainty assessments in risk analyses.     

Land use effects on phosphorus sequestration in soil aggregates in western Iran

Cultivating native lands may alter soil phosphorus (P) distribution and availability. The present study aimed to determine the distribution of P in soil aggregates for different long-term land management practices. The partitioned P in labile (L), Fe/Al-bound, Ca-bound, organic pools, and total P in four aggregate size fractions were determined for five land uses (forest, vineyard after 30 years, wetland, alfalfa, and wheat cultivated soil after 20 years). Both native land uses (forest and wetland) were distinguished by high and low amounts of large macro- and micro-aggregates, respectively, compared with disturbed soils (vineyard, alfalfa, and wheat soils). Labile P in large macro-aggregates were higher in native land use when compared with the other land uses, which led to increasing lability of P and accelerated water pollution. Soils under native conditions sequestered more Ca-bound P in large macro-aggregates than the soils in disturbed conditions. Conversion of native lands to agricultural land caused enhanced organic P storage in aggregates smaller than the 2 mm from 31.0 to 54.3 %. Soils under forest had 30 % total P more than the vineyard for the aggregates >2 mm after 30 years land use change. However, the amount of P in smaller (<2 mm) sized aggregates was increased by 29 % for the vineyard when compared with the forest. The P storage as bound Ca particles for the large macro-aggregates had negative correlation with the micro-aggregates.     

Environmental signals: synthetic humic substances act as xeno-estrogen and affect the thyroid system of Xenopus laevis

According to outdated paradigms humic substances (HS) are considered to be refractory or inert that do not directly interact with aquatic organisms. However, they are taken up and induce biotransformation activities and may act as hormone-like substances. In the present study, we tested whether HS can interfere with endocrine regulation in the amphibian Xenopus laevis. In order to exclude contamination with phyto-hormones, which may occur in environmental isolates, the artificial HS1500 was applied. The in vivo results showed that HS1500 causes significant estrogenic effects on X. laevis during its larval development and results of semi-quantitative RT-PCR revealed a marked increase of the estrogenic biomarker estrogen receptor mRNA (ER-mRNA). Furthermore, preliminary RT-PCR results showed that the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSHbeta-mRNA) is enhanced after exposure to HS1500, indicating a weak adverse effect on T3/T4 availability. Hence, HS may have estrogenic and anti-thyroidal effects on aquatic animals, and therefore may influence the structure of aquatic communities and they may be considered environmental signaling chemicals.     

Two neighborhood-free plot designs for adaptive sampling of forests

Adaptive cluster sampling (ACS) has the potential of being superior for sampling rare and geographically clustered populations. However, setting up an efficient ACS design is challenging. In this study, two adaptive plot designs are proposed as alternatives: one for fixed-area plot sampling and the other for relascope sampling (also known as variable radius plot sampling). Neither includes a neighborhood search which makes them much easier to execute. They do, however, include a conditional plot expansion: at a sample point where a predefined condition is satisfied, sampling is extended to a predefined larger cluster-plot or a larger relascope plot. Design-unbiased estimators of population total and its variance are derived for each proposed design, and they are applied to ten artificial and one real tree position maps to estimate density (number of trees per ha) and basal area (the cross-sectional area of a tree stem at breast height) per hectare. The performances—in terms of relative standard error (SE%)—of the proposed designs and their non-adaptive alternatives are compared. The adaptive plot designs were superior for the clustered populations in all cases of equal sample sizes and in some cases of equal area of sample plots. However, the improvement depends on: (1) the plot size factor; (2) the critical value (the minimum number of trees triggering an expansion); (3) the subplot distance for the adapted cluster-plots, and (4) the spatial arrangement of the sampled population. For some spatial arrangements, the improvement is relatively small. The adaptive designs may be particularly attractive for sampling in rare and compactly clustered populations with critical value of 1, subplot distance equal to the diameter of initial circular plots, or plot size factor of 2.5 for an initial basal area factor of 2.     

Potential site productivity influences the rate of forest structural development

Development and maintenance of structurally complex forests in landscapes formerly managed for timber production is an increasingly common management objective. It has been postulated that the rate of forest structural development increases with site productivity. We tested this hypothesis for Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) forests using a network of permanent study plots established following complete timber harvest of the original old-growth forests. Forest structural development was assessed by comparing empirical measures of live tree structure to published values for Douglas-fir forests spanning a range of ages and structural conditions. The rate of forest structural development--resilience--exhibited a positive relationship with site index, a measure of potential site productivity. Density of shade-intolerant conifers declined in all study stands from an initial range of 336-4068 trees/ha to a range of 168-642 trees/ha at the most recent measurement. Angiosperm tree species declined from an initial range of 40-371 trees/ha to zero in seven of the nine plots in which they were present. Trends in shade-tolerant tree density were complex: density ranged from 0 to 575 trees/ha at the first measurement and was still highly variable (25-389 trees/ha) at the most recent measurement. Multivariate analysis identified the abundance of hardwood tree species as the strongest compositional trend apparent over the study period. However, structural variables showed a strong positive association with increasing shade-tolerant basal area and little or no association with abundance of hardwood species. Thus, while tree species succession and forest structural development occur contemporaneously, they are not equivalent processes, and their respective rates are not necessarily linearly related. The results of this study support the idea that silvicultural treatments to accelerate forest structural development should be concentrated on lower productivity sites when the management objective is reserve-wide coverage of structurally complex forests. Alternatively, high-productivity sites should be prioritized for restoration treatments when the management objective is to develop structurally complex forests on a portion of the landscape.     

Polyfluoroalkyl compounds in the aquatic environment: a review of their occurrence and fate

The occurrence and fate of polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) in the aquatic environment has been recognized as one of the emerging issues in environmental chemistry. PFCs comprise a diverse group of chemicals that are widely used as processing additives during fluoropolymer production and as surfactants in consumer applications for over 50 years. PFCs are known to be persistent, bioaccumulative and have possible adverse effects on humans and wildlife. As a result, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) has been added to the persistent organic pollutants (POPs) list of the Stockholm Convention in May 2009. However, their homologues, neutral precursor compounds and new PFCs classes continue to be produced. In general, several PFCs from different classes have been detected ubiquitously in the aqueous environment while the concentrations usually range between pg and ng per litre for individual compounds. Sources of PFCs into the aqueous environment are both point sources (e.g., wastewater treatment plant effluents) and nonpoint sources (e.g., surface runoff). The detected congener composition in environmental samples depends on their physicochemical characteristics and may provide information to their sources and transport pathways. However, the dominant transport pathways of individual PFCs to remote regions have not been conclusively characterised to date. The objective of this article is to give an overview on existing knowledge of the occurrence, fate and processes of PFCs in the aquatic environment. Finally, this article identifies knowledge gaps, presents conclusions and recommendations for future work.     

New Fabrics and their Potential Application

Considering fabric filtration, particularly the fabrics and their ability to handle submicron particulate and fumes, it is noted that the value of new developments are measured in terms of both improved operational and economic efficiency. The types of available fibers dictate fabric production characteristics as well as the limits of application for the manufactured fabric.