Global fallout Pu recorded in lacustrine sediments in Lake Hongfeng, SW China

Studies on the distribution and isotope compositions of fallout Pu are important for source characterization of possible future non-fallout Pu contamination in aquatic environments, and useful for dating of recent sediments to understand the pollution history of environmental contaminants. We present the historical record of atmospheric Pu fallout reconstructed from a sediment core from Lake Hongfeng, China. The Pu activity profile was in agreement with the 137Cs profile. Inventories were 50.7 Bq m(-2) for 239+240Pu and 1586 Bq m(-2) for 137Cs. The average 240Pu/239Pu atom ratio was 0.185+/-0.009, indicating that Pu originated from global stratospheric fallout rather than from direct tropospheric or close-in fallout from the Chinese nuclear testing conducted in the 1970s. Our data suggested that Lake Hongfeng would be an ideal setting for monitoring atmospheric fallout and environmental changes in this region.     

Cadmium stress alters gene expression of DNA mismatch repair related genes in Arabidopsis seedlings

Cadmium (Cd) is a non essential element, and is a widespread environmental pollutant. Exposure to Cd can result in a variety of adverse health effects in plant and humans. In the current study, Arabidopsis seedlings were used as a bio-indicator of Cd pollution. Seedlings were grown on MS media containing 0-6.0 mg L(-1) Cd for 18 days, and the gene expression patterns were used to link increased Cd exposure with progressive biological effects. Reduction of total soluble protein content in shoots of the Arabidopsis seedlings occurred with increase in Cd concentrations. For the gene expression patterns, seven genes known to be involved in cell division and DNA mismatch repair (MMR) system were investigated by semi-quantitative RT-PCR, and normalized using 18S rRNA gene expression. Expression of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen 2 (atPCNA 2), MutS 3 homolog (atMSH 3) and MutL1 homolog (atMLH1) genes in shoots of Arabidopsis was strongly induced by exposure to 0.75 mg L(-1) Cd, but were repressed by other Cd concentrations whereas exposure to 0.75-6 mg L(-1) of Cd resulted in a decreased expression of atPCNA1, atMSH 2, 6 and 7 genes independently of any observable biological effects, including survival, fresh weight and chlorophyll level of shoots. This work demonstrated that specific gene expression changes could serve as useful molecular biomarkers indicative of Cd exposure and related biological effects.     

类芦对铅的耐性及富集能力探讨

通过野外调查和盆栽试验,研究了类芦(Neyraudia reynaudiana)对Pb的耐性和富集能力.研究结果表明,类芦对Pb耐受的临界浓度为800 mg/kg,在此浓度以下Pb对类芦的生长基本无抑制作用.随着处理浓度的增加,类芦生长变缓慢、出现中毒症状,但仍能存活.从富集能力来看,土壤Pb为中低浓度时,类芦的富集能力较强,但Pb浓度超过1 000 mg/kg后地上部富集量增加缓慢,而根部的含量则降低.在各种Pb处理浓度下,类芦地上部Pb含量均大于根部,说明这种植物对Pb有较好的迁移能力.研究发现,类芦具有较高的生物量,因此其地上部Pb迁移总量较高,在土壤Pb浓度为800 mg/kg时类芦地上部的迁移总量可达到221.77 mg/m2.综合分析可知,类芦对中度Pb污染土壤的植物修复具有较大的潜力.     

A novel approach to rapid detection of acute water toxicity and its policy implications for grassroots sustainable environmental monitoring

Unknown chemicals, emerging contaminants, and the resulting reactions among them make early detection and warning of acute water toxicity extremely challenging. The conventional approach using small fish for toxicity monitoring normally requires a designated species of fish and over a week's time to complete, including dilution of the wastewater, a pre-test, and a full test. It often increases chances for error and delays emergency management. This paper reports a novel approach, based on grassroots knowledge and field and lab experience in Jilin, China. This approach uses a combination of different species of aquarium fish to achieve fast and reliable monitoring. It tests the original source water directly without going through the dilution procedure, while paying attention to the time factor. The approach does not require a pre-test and may shorten the time needed for detecting acute toxicity to a few minutes, using a new classification of aquatic toxicity levels. It is inexpensive to use and may be easily adopted by grassroots organizations. The approach is "greener" and more financially and socially sustainable than traditional approaches. The wide use of the approach has the potential to encourage policy innovations for making toxicity monitoring grassroots based and more effective in reducing acute contamination emergencies.     

Mapping afforestation and deforestation from 1974 to 2012 using Landsat time-series stacks in Yulin District, a key region of the Three-North Shelter region, China

The Three-North Shelter Forest Program is the largest afforestation reconstruction project in the world. Remote sensing is a crucial tool to map land use and land cover change, but it is still challenging to accurately quantify the change in forest extent from time-series satellite images. In this paper, 30 Landsat MSS/TM/ETM+ epochs from 1974 to 2012 were collected, and the high-quality ground surface reflectance (GSR) time-series images were processed by integrating the 6S atmosphere transfer model and a relative reflectance normalization algorithm. Subsequently, we developed a vegetation change tracking method to reconstruct the forest change history (afforestation and deforestation) from the time-series Landsat GSR images based on the integrated forest z-score (IFZ) model by Huang et al. (2009a), which was improved by multi-phenological IFZ models and the smoothing processing of IFZ data for afforestation mapping. The mapping result showed a large increase in the extent of forest, from 380,394 ha (14.8 % of total district area) in 1974 to 1,128,380 ha (43.9 %) in 2010. Finally, the land cover and forest change map was validated with an overall accuracy of 89.1 % and a kappa coefficient of 0.858. The forest change time was also successfully retrieved, with 22.2 % and 86.5 % of the change pixels attributed to the correct epoch and within three epochs, respectively. The results confirmed a great achievement of the ecological revegetation projects in Yulin district over the last 40 years and also illustrated the potential of the time-series of Landsat images for detecting forest changes and estimating tree age for the artificial forest in a semi-arid zone strongly influenced by human activities.     

Environmental Factors and Risk Areas of West Nile Virus in Southern California, 2007–2009

The West Nile virus (WNV) may post a significant health risk for mammals, including humans and insects. This study examines the spatial–temporal effects of environmental factors on WNV dissemination with a case study of ten counties in the southern California, where the epidemic was recently most prevalent within the USA. WNV surveillance data were obtained from the California Vectorborne Disease Surveillance System and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques were combined to derive environmental variables. Principal component analysis was performed to select the most relevant environmental variables. Two ecological zones were identified based on the selected variables. Identification of risk areas for WNV was limited to a zone with 95% mosquitoes surveillance records. Three time windows, the epidemiological weeks?18–26, 27–35, and 36–44 in each year of 2007–2009, were examined in details with risk area mapping. It is found that the southern part of San Joaquin Valley in Kern County and Los Angeles County (especially its southern part) were the most vulnerable locations for WNV outbreak. Main factors contributing to the WNV propagation included summer mean temperature, annual mean deviation from the mean temperature, land surface temperature, elevation, landscape complexity, landscape diversity, and vegetation water content. The result of this study improves understanding of WNV ecology and provides tools for detecting, tracking, and predicting the epidemic. The holistic approach developed for this study, which integrated remotely sensed, GIS-based, and in situ-measured environmental data with landscape metrics, may be applied to studies of other vector-borne diseases.     

Distribution and source analysis of aluminum in rivers near Xi’an City, China

To study the status and source of aluminum (Al) contamination, a total of 21 sampling sites along six rivers near Xi’an City (Shaanxi province, China) were investigated during 2008–2010. The results indicated that the average concentration of total Al (Al_t) in the six rivers increased by 1.6 times from 2008 to 2010. The spatial distribution of Al_t concentrations in the rivers near Xi’an City was significantly different, ranged from 367 μg/L (Bahe River) to 1,978 μg/L (Taiping River). The Al_t concentration was highest near an industrial area for pulp and paper-making (2,773 μg/L), where the Al level greatly exceeded the water quality criteria of both the USA (Criterion Continuous Concentration, 87 μg/L) and Canada (100 μg/L). The average concentration of inorganic monometric aluminum (Al_im) was 72 μg/L which would pose threats to fishes and other aquatic lives in the rivers. The concentrations of exchangeable Al (Al_ex) in the sediment of the Taiping River sampled were relatively high, making it to be an alternative explanation of increasing Al concentrations in the rivers near Xi’an City. Furthermore, an increasing Al level has been detected in the upstream watershed near Xi’an City in recent years, which might indicate another notable pollution source of Al.