Seasonal variation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil and air of Dalian areas, China: an assessment of soil-air exchange

The seasonal variations of concentrations of PAHs in the soil and the air were measured in urban and rural region of Dalian, China in 2007. In soil, mean concentrations of all PAHs in summer were larger than those in winter, whereas the concentrations of heavier weight PAHs in winter were larger than those in summer. Winter/summer concentration ratios for individual PAHs (R(W/S)) increased with the increase of molecular weight of PAHs in soil, indicating that PAHs with high molecular weight were more easily deposited to soil in winter than summer. In air, mean concentrations of all PAHs in winter were larger than those in summer. In comparison with the R(W/S) in soil, all the values of R(W/S) in air were larger than one indicating that the entire individual PAH concentrations in winter were larger than those in summer. The average concentration composition for each PAH compound in soil and air samples was determined and the seasonal change of PAH profile was very small. It was suggested that PAHs in soils and air had the same or similar sources both in winter and summer. The approach to the soil-air equilibrium was assessed by calculating fugacity quotients between soil and air using the soil and air concentrations. The calculated soil-air fugacity quotients indicated that soil acted as a secondary source to the atmosphere for all lighter weight PAHs (two-three rings) and it will continue to be a sink for heavier weight PAHs (five-six rings) in the Dalian environment, both in winter and summer. Medium weight PAHs (four-five rings) were close to the soil-air equilibrium and the tendency shifted between soil and air when season or function region changed. The fugacity quotients of PAHs in summer (mean temperature 298 K) were larger than those in winter (mean temperature 273 K), indicating a higher tendency in summer than winter for PAHs to move from soil to air. The variation of ambient conditions such as temperature, rainfall, etc. can influence the movement of PAHs between soil and air. Most of the fugacity quotients of PAHs for the urban sites were larger than that for the rural site both in winter and summer. This phenomenon may be related with that the temperatures in urban sites were higher than those in the rural site because of the urban heat island effect.     

Comparative studies on seasonal variations of metazooplankton in waters with different eutrophic states in Lake Taihu

A comparative study on the metazooplankton community was conducted in three different eutrophic areas, including Lake Wulihu, Meiliang Bay and the central open water area, in Lake Taihu from Oct. 2003 to Sep. 2004. Forty metazooplankton species were identified in Lake Wulihu, 37 in Meiliang Bay, and 34 in the central open water area. The annual average abundance of metazooplankton was 218 ind. l(-1) in the central open water area, 309 ind. l(-1) in Meiliang Bay, and 384 ind. l(-1) in Lake Wulihu. In Lake Wulihu, rotifers, Brachionus calyciflorus and Brachionus angularis, were the dominant species, which contributed 20.9% and 17.2% to the total metazooplankton abundance. Bosmina coregoni and Ceriodaphnia cornuta were the dominant species, contributing 20.4% and 11.3% of the total in Meiliang Bay, and contributing 21.6% and 16.2% of the total in the central open water area. There was a significant positive relationship between rotifers abundance and Secchi transparency. Cladoceran and copepod abundance were positively correlated with total phosphorus and water temperature. Our results show that structures of metazooplankton community differ between the three lake areas with different eutrophic states in Lake Taihu.     

Risk assessment and distribution of soil Pb in Guangdong, China

In this study, the spatial distributions of soil lead (Pb) concentration in three horizontal soils in Guangdong, China, were surveyed and analyzed using geostatistics and geography information systems (GIS). Findings indicated that the Pb geometric mean concentration of 23.3 mg/kg in surface soils was found to be higher than those in global soils, which ranged from 2.3–235 mg/kg. In addition, the Pb geometric mean concentrations from A- to C-horizon were found to be 23.3, 27.2, and 28.6 mg/kg, respectively. The classification of a soil Pb environmental risk in an area was likewise presented based on the different levels of environmental quality of Pb and was done by GIS technology. Accordingly, there is a higher local concentration of Pb in the surrounding areas of Guangzhou where there is higher population density and in the north of Guangdong, which is a historic mining area. The results obtained by the environmental risk assessment reveal that about 46% of total surveyed area was above the background value, that is, 2.7% of the total area was at risk of pollution.     

重金属光谱分析仪与原子吸收光谱测定土壤中的重金属

采用重金属光谱分析仪与原子吸收光谱测定土壤中的Cr、Cu、Ni、Pb、Zn和As六种金属,结果发现,重金属光谱分析仪对Cu、Pb、Zn和As四种金属的检测结果较为理想,与原子吸收光谱的检测数据接近,误差可满足现场检测的要求.重金属光谱分析仪测定方法简便,操作简单,省时省力,可满足大部分重金属检测的要求.     

Spatial and temporal distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments of the Nansi Lake, China

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were measured in surface sediments and dated core sediments from the Nansi Lake of China to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics. The concentrations of 16 kinds priority PAH compounds were determined by GC-MS method. And ²¹⁰Pb isotope dating method was used to determine the chronological age of the sediment as well as the deposition rate. The results indicated that the total PAHs concentration ranges in surface and core sediment samples were 160 ~32,600 and 137 ~ 693 ng/g (dry wt.), respectively. The sediment rate and the average mass sedimentation were calculated to be 0.330 cm·year^???1 and 0.237 g·cm^???2·yr^???1 and the sediment time of the collected core sample ranged from 1899 to 2000. The peak of PAH concentrations came at recent years. The source analysis showed PAHs mainly came from the contamination of low temperature pyrogenic processes, such as coal combustion. The PAHs concentrations were lower than ERL and LEL values for most collected samples. However, in several surface sediment samples especially in estuary sites, the PAHs concentrations were not only higher than ERL and LEL values, but also higher than ERM values.     

IFTCIP: An Integrated Optimization Model for Environmental Management under Uncertainty

In this study, an interval-fuzzy two-stage chance-constrained integer programming (IFTCIP) method is developed for supporting environmental management under uncertainty. The IFTCIP improves upon the existing interval, fuzzy, and two-stage programming approaches by allowing uncertainties expressed as probability distributions, fuzzy sets, and discrete intervals to be directly incorporated within a general mixed integer linear programming framework. It has advantages in uncertainty reflection, policy investigation, risk assessment, and capacity-expansion analysis in comparison to the other optimization methods. Moreover, it can help examine the risk of violating system constraints and the associated consequences. The developed method is applied to the planning for facility expansion and waste-flow allocation within a municipal solid waste management system. Violations of capacity constraints are allowed under a range of significance levels, which reflects tradeoffs between the system cost and the constraint-violation risk. The results indicate that reasonable solutions for both binary and continuous variables have been generated under different risk levels. They are useful for generating desired decision alternatives with minimized system cost and constraint-violation risk under various environmental, economic, and system-reliability conditions. Generally, willingness to take a higher risk of constraint violation will guarantee a lower system cost; a strong desire to acquire a lower risk will run into a higher system cost.     

Effects of crude oil residuals on soil chemical properties in oil sites, Momoge Wetland, China

Crude oil exploration and production has been the largest anthropogenic factor contributing to the degradation of Momoge Wetland, China. To study the effects of crude oil on wetland soils, we examined the total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH), total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP), as well as pH and electricity conductivity (EC) from oil sites and uncontaminated areas in the Momoge Wetland. All contaminated areas had significantly higher (p < 0.05) contents of TPH and TOC, but significantly lower (p < 0.05) TN contents than those of the uncontaminated areas. Contaminated sites also exhibited significantly higher (p < 0.05) pH values, C/N and C/P ratios. For TP contents and EC, no significant changes were detected. The level of soil contamination and impact of oil residuals on soil quality greatly depended on the length of time the oil well was in production. Oil residuals had caused some major changes in the soils’ chemical properties in the Momoge Wetland.     

Behaviour of selected endocrine-disrupting chemicals in three sewage treatment plants of Beijing, China

Occurrence and fate of eight kinds of selected endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) in three sewage treatment plants (STPs) of Beijing, China was investigated. These EDCs, composed of 4-octylphenol (4-OP), 4-n-nonylphenol (4-n-NP), bisphenol A (BPA), estrone (E1), 17α-estradiol (17α-E2), 17β-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), in every step of STPs, were simultaneously analysed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry after derivatisation. All the EDCs were detected in the influents of three STPs, and BPA was the most abundant compound. The concentrations of EDCs ranged from 36.6 ng/l of 17α-E2 (STP C) to 1342.3 ng/l of BPA (STP B) in the influent sewages and from below limits of detection of E2 and E3 (STP C) to 142.5 ng/l of E1 (STP B) in the effluent sewages. The STPs could not remove alkylphenols effectively from the aqueous phase with less than 40% reduction. BPA decreased over 90%, and steroid estrogens achieved considerable reductions from 64.8% of E2 to 94.9% of E3. Generally, biological treatment was more effective in removing alkylphenols, BPA and natural estrogens from the aqueous phase than primary treatment. However, the synthetic estrogen, EE2, was mostly removed by the primary treatment with about 63.5% reduction. It is the first time that the concentration of 17α-E2 in the sewage of China was reported in this paper. The compound might have a bearing with the waste effluents of dairy farms around urban area of Beijing.     

Investigations on boron levels in drinking water sources in China

To evaluate boron contamination of public drinking water in China, both dissolved and total boron contents in 98 public drinking water sources from 49 cities, 42 brands of bottled water samples from supermarkets in several cities, and 58 water samples from boron industrial area were measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Our experimental results showed that boron existed in public drinking water sources mainly in dissolved status with total concentrations ranging from 0.003 to 0.337 mg/L (mean = 0.046 mg/L). The mean boron concentrations in mineral and pure bottled water were 0.052 and 0.028 mg/L, respectively. The results obtained in this work showed that there was no health risk on view of boron in public drinking water sources and bottled water. In boron industrial area, boron concentrations in surface water and ground water were 1.28 mg/L (range = 0.007–3.8 mg/L) and 18.3 mg/L (range = 0.015–140 mg/L), respectively, which indicated that boron industry caused boron pollution in local water system.     

Investigation of heavy metals in sediments and Manila clams Ruditapes philippinarum from Jiaozhou Bay, China

Manila clams (Ruditapes philippinarum) and sediments were collected bimonthly during 2007 at five locations in Jiaozhou Bay near Qingdao, China, to determine heavy metal concentrations and to assess the validation of R. philippinarum as a metal biomonitor. Concentrations of heavy metals in clam soft tissues ranged between 0.75 and 3.31, 0.89 and 15.20, 5.70 and 26.03, 52.12 and 110.33, 10.30 and 72.34, 9.64 and 28.60, and 3.15 and 52.75 μg g^???1 dry weight for Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Mn, Cr, and Ni, respectively. Most of the highest values occurred at the northeast bay and the lowest values occurred at the western part. Regarding seasonal variation, relatively high tissue metal concentrations were observed during October or December. A similar pattern was also found in habitat sediments. There was a strong correlation between the concentrations of Cd, Pb, Zn, Mn, Cr, and Ni in soft tissues and surrounding sediments. It is indicated that R. philippinarum could be used as a biomonitor for heavy metal contamination in Jiaozhou Bay.