Soil microbial community structure and function responses to successive planting of Eucalyptus

Many studies have shown soil degradation after the conversion of native forests to exotic Eucalyptus plantations. However, few studies have investigated the long-term impacts of short-rotation forestry practices on soil microorganisms. The impacts of Eucalyptus successive rotations on soil microbial communities were evaluated by comparing phospholipid fatty acid （PLFA） abundances, compositions, and enzyme activities of native Pinus massoniana plantations and adjacent 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation Eucalyptus plantations. The conversion from P. massoniana to Eucalyptus plantations significantly decreased soil microbial community size and enzyme activities, and increased microbial physiological stress. However, the PLFA abundances formed ＂U＂ shaped quadratic functions with Eucalyptus plantation age. Alternatively, physiological stress biomarkers, the ratios of monounsaturated to saturated fatty acid and Gram＋ to Gram- bacteria, formed ＂∩＂ shaped quadratic functions, and the ratio of cy17：0 to 16： 1ω7c decreased with plantation age. The activities of phenol oxidase, peroxidase, and acid phosphatase increased with Eucalyptus plantation age, while the cellobiobydrolase activity formed ＂U＂ shaped quadratic functions. Soil N：P, alkaline hydrolytic nitrogen, soil organic carbon, and understory cover largely explained the variation in PLFA profiles while soil N：P, alkaline hydrolytic nitrogen, and understory cover explained most of the variability in enzyme activity. In conclusion, soil microbial structure and function under Eucalyptus plantations were strongly impacted by plantation age. Most of the changes could be explained by altered soil resource availability and understory cover associated with successive planting of Eucalyptus. Our results highlight the importance of plantation age for assessing the impacts of plantation conversion as well as the importance of reducing disturbance for plantation management.     

Waste oyster shell as a kind of active filler to treat the combined wastewater at an estuary

Estuaries have been described as one of the most difficult environments on Earth. It is difficult to know how to treat the combined wastewater in tidal rivers at the estuary, where the situation is very different from ordinary fresh water rivers. Waste oyster shell was used as the active filler in this study in a bio-contact oxidation tank to treat the combined wastewater at the Fengtang Tidal River. With a middle-experimental scale of 360 ma/day, the average removal efficiency of COD, BOD, NH3-N, TP and TSS was 80.05%, 85.02%, 86.59%, 50.58% and 85.32%, respectively, in this bio-contact oxidation process. The living microbes in the biofilms on the waste oyster shell in this bio-contact oxidation tank, which were mainly composed of zoogloea, protozoa and micro-metazoa species, revealed that waste oyster shell as the filler was suitable material for combined wastewater degradation. This treatment method using waste oyster shell as active filler was then applied in a mangrove demonstration area for water quality improvement near the experiment area, with a treatment volume of 5 × 10^3 m^3/day. Another project was also successfully applied in a constructed wetland, with a wastewater treatment volume of 1 ×10^3 m^3/day. This technology is therefore feasible and can easily be applied on a larger scale,     

Formation of THMs and HANs during bromination of Microcystis aeruginosa

Bromine-contained disinfectants and biocides are widely used in swimming pools, recreational waters and cooling towers. The objective of this study was to evaluate the formation of thrihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetonitriles (HANs) and their cytotoxicity in algae solutions during free bromine disinfection. Disinfection by-products formation potential experiments were conducted using model solutions containing 7 mg/L (as total organic carbon) Microcystis aeruginosa cells. Effects of free bromine dosage, pH and ammonia were investigated. The results showed that brominated disinfection by-products were the major products when free bromine was applied. The total THMs formed during bromination was much as that formed during chlorination, whereas HANs were elevated by using bromination instead of chlorination. Dibromoacetonitrice (C2H2NBr2 ) and bromoform (CHBr3 ) were the only detected species during free bromine disinfection. The production of C2H2NBr2 and CHBr 3 increased with disinfectant dosage but decreased with dosing ammonia. CHBr3 increased with the pH changing from 5 to 9. However, C2H2NBr2 achieved the highest production at neutral pH, which was due to a joint effect of variation in hydrolysis rate and free bromine reactivity. The hydrolysis of C2H2NBr2 was base-catalytic and nearly unaffected by disinfectant. Finally, estimation of cytotoxicity of the disinfected algae solutions showed that HANs formation was responsible for the majority of toxicity. Considering its highest toxicity among the measured disinfection by-products, the elevated C2H2NBr2 should be considered when using bromine-related algaecide.     

Eutrophication development and its key regulating factors in a water-supply reservoir in North China

Yanghe Reservoir is an important source of drinking water for Qinhuangdao City,North China;however,in recent decades this water source has been eutrophic with recurrent summer cyanobacterial blooms.The trophic grade of the system in summer was mesotrophiceutrophic in 1990 and became hypertrophic in 2011.The nutrient availability is extremely high during the entire year,and the water temperature should be the primary driver of the summer blooms.In May-October of 2010 and 2011,abrupt variations were observed in the Secchi depth(SD) and chlorophyll a(Chl-a),and both the correlated analysis of Chl-a-SD and trophic status indices(TSI) deviation(TSI Chl-a-TSI SD) showed that algal cell density dominated light attenuation.During the algal bloom outbreak,the microcystin concentration was found to vary between 0.35-2.12 μg/L in 2010 and 0.11-1.86 μg/L in 2011.The maximum microcystin content was more than two times the safety limit required for drinking water.Inflow discharges were most concentrated in the summer,with periods of lower residence time and the largest water level fluctuation over the entire year.When a high availability of nutrients promoted a high Chl-a concentration in the whole system,it appeared that the instability caused by the decrease in residence time could not produce effective changes in the cyanobacterial abundance.The results indicated that nutrient enrichment in the aquatic systems of Yanghe Reservoir is the most serious problem and that the status would not been modified effectively by increasing hydrological fluctuations(e.g.,decreasing the residence time).Therefore,decreasing the nutrient concentrations is the only route to improve the water quality of this reservoir.     

Speciation of organic phosphorus in a sediment profile of Lake Taihu II. Molecular species and their depth attenuation

The understanding of organic phosphorus(P) dynamics in sediments requires information on their species at the molecular level,but such information in sediment profiles is scarce.A sediment profile was selected from a large eutrophic lake,Lake Taihu(China),and organic P species in the sediments were detected using solution phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy(31 P NMR) following extraction of the sediments with a mixture of 0.25 mol/L NaOH and 50 mmol/L EDTA(NaOH-EDTA) solution.The results showed that P in the NaOH-EDTA extracts was mainly composed of orthophosphate,orthophosphate monoesters,phospholipids,DNA,and pyrophosphate.Concentrations of the major organic P compound groups and pyrophosphate showed a decreasing trend with the increase of depth.Their half-life times varied from 3 to 27 years,following the order of orthophosphate monoesters > phospholipids DNA > pyrophosphate.Principal component analysis revealed that the detected organic P species had binding phases similar to those of humic acid-associated organic P(NaOH-NRP HA),a labile organic P pool that tends to transform to recalcitrant organic P pools as the early diagenetic processes proceed.This demonstrated that the depth attenuation of the organic P species could be partly attributed to their increasing immobilization by the sediment solids,while their degradation rates should be significantly lower than what were suggested in previous studies.     

呼和浩特地区污水厂能耗评价与碳排放分析

污水处理过程的能耗和温室气体排放方面的研究对于应对能源危机和气候危机具有重要作用。文章利用层次分析法,建立了具有4层15项指标的能耗评价体系。结合城镇污水处理系统的绿色指标体系,选取呼和浩特地区具有代表性、处理规模相近的2座中小型污水厂进行能耗评价。结果表明:处理能力利用率、处理工艺系统稳定性和污水厂高程布置所对应的3项评价指标在所选择的能耗影响因素中所占权重较大,分别为:0.143 0,0.302 4和0.145 6。进一步运用IPCC计算方法对污水处理厂进行碳排放概算,得出A、B污水处理厂的碳排放量分别为:19.401 t CO2/104t、18.378 t CO2/104t。A、B污水处理厂的实际比能耗分别为0.293 kW.h/m3、0.195 kW.h/m3。将碳排放数据与实际能耗情况对比得出:污水处理厂的能耗水平越高,单位碳排放量也越大。     

2种生物反硝化法去除地下水中硝酸盐的研究

采用砂柱装置,在实验室研究了自养微生物和异养微生物2种生物反硝化方法对地下水中硝酸盐的去除效果。自养反硝化反应在以硫作为电子供体的硫/石灰石/细沙反应柱中进行,异养反硝化反应在石灰石/细沙反应柱中进行,进水增加乙醇作为外加碳源。实验结果用以比较2种反硝化方法在硝酸盐去除率、微生物反应动力学和反应产物三者的异同。结果表明,自养反硝化反应中NO3--N去除率达95.4%,异养反硝化反应去除率可达99.3%;分别与Monod微生物0级、1/2级和1级反应动力学方程进行拟合,2种反硝化反应均符合1/2级微生物反应动力学,适合用1/2级微生物反应方程描述;在反应结束阶段,自养反硝化主要反应产物SO42-出水浓度低于250mg/L,异养反硝化副产物CH3OO-易成为二次污染源,异养反硝化的反硝化速率明显高于自养反硝化反应。     

某铀尾矿库下游水体及表层沉积物中铀污染特征

沿粤北某铀尾矿库下游水体采集14个水样和11个表层水系沉积物样品,利用电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法(ICP-OES)和低本底HPGe-γ能谱仪分别测量了水样和沉积物中铀含量。结果表明,沿着水流方向,水体中铀浓度由2.091 mg/L降到当地环境本底水平0.002 mg/L。流入水库前,水体中铀含量均超过0.05 mg/L。排水口附近以及下游水库中表层沉积物样品的铀含量比溪流中段的高,特别是水库沉积物中含铀703.1 mg/kg,可能会对水质造成长期影响。     

胶东半岛农村地区地下水重金属健康风险评价——以山东省莱阳市为例

重金属健康风险评价对居民身体健康具有重要意义。使用电感耦合等离子体发射光谱仪(ICP-OES)测定了莱阳市农村的31个地下水体中重金属Cu、Fe、Zn、Mn、Cd和Cr的含量水平,阐明了该地区重金属的空间分布特征、来源及其迁移规律,并运用美国环保局推荐的健康风险评价模型对其引起的健康风险进行了评价。结果表明,该地区地下水中Cr未检出,Cu、Fe、Zn、Mn和Cd的浓度范围分别是0～59、23～905、29～50 700、3～2 999、0～1μg/L。根据我国饮用水质量标准,所有样点中Cu和Cd的浓度未超标,Zn、Mn和Fe的超标率分别为22.58%、16.13%和6.45%,个别样点超标倍数甚高。健康风险评价结果表明,Cu、Fe、Zn、Mn通过饮用水途径产生的健康风险平均值分别为3.49×10-10、1.91×10-10、100.50×10-10、37.40×10-10a-1,均远低于ICRP(5×10-5a-1)和USEPA(1×10-4a-1)的最大可接受风险水平。但是Zn和Mn对人体健康危害的平均个人年风险明显高于其他地区,因此,该研究区非致癌物Zn和Mn的污染来源及其环境行为应该引起重视。该研究为该区域水质污染状况研究及治理监管工作提供理论依据,为其他地区重金属的监测和质量控制提供参考。     

渭南市大气环境容量计算及控制对策研究

以修正A值法估算渭南市大气环境容量,为渭南市大气总量控制提供科学依据。以箱模型为基本模型,利用陕西省气象台整编的1961-2008年气象资料,推导出宏观总量控制修正A值法,除韩城市、潼关县、浦城县、白水县和富平县A值大于国标A值,其余渭南各市县A值小于国标A值。在新空气质量标准标准的要求下,渭南市SO2、NOx、PM10环境容量分别为19.55×104t/a、10.50×104t/a和18.97×104t/a。为了保证各分区的环境质量,中架点源排放量与低源排放量之和应小于各分区容量,韩城市应注意改善中、低源NO x排放,其它区县NO x剩余容量有限,在严格的新空气质量标准的要求下,应加强对各区县中架点源与低架源的NO x控制,重点控制水泥行业、炼焦业和机动车的NO x排放。从整个城市考虑,从整个渭南市污染源排放来看,SO2总体排放量超过环境容量12.917×104t/a,NO x总体排放量超过环境容量8.016×104t/a,为了减少其对周边城市的影响,应提高火电厂脱硫效率,重点加快电厂脱硝设施建设。