The Growing Need for Sustainable Ecological Management of Marine Communities of the Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf is a semi-enclosed marine system surrounded by eight countries, many of which are experiencing substantial development. It is also a major center for the oil industry. The increasing array of anthropogenic disturbances may have substantial negative impacts on marine ecosystems, but this has received little attention until recently. We review the available literature on the Gulfs marine environment and detail our recent experience in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) to evaluate the role of anthropogenic disturbance in this marine ecosystem. Extensive coastal development may now be the single most important anthropogenic stressor. We offer suggestions for how to build awareness of environmental risks of current practices, enhance regional capacity for coastal management, and build cooperative management of this important, shared marine system. An excellent opportunity exists for one or more of the bordering countries to initiate a bold and effective, long-term, international collaboration in environmental management for the Gulf.     

Effects of Forest Composition and Spatial Patterns on Storm Flows of a Small Watershed1

Abstract: The PRMS_Storm model was built as a storm event, distributed hydrological model for studying the hydrological effects of forest composition and spatial distribution on storm‐flow volume and peakflow rates in the Xiangshuixi Watershed in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, in the Yangtze River Basin in southwestern China. We developed three simulation scenarios based on forest composition and their spatial arrangements across the watershed, including all mixed conifer‐evergreen broadleaf forests (Scenario 1), all mixed evergreen broadleaf forests (Scenario 2), and mixed conifer + evergreen broadleaf + shrub forests (Scenario 3). We examined 11 storm events observed during 2002‐2005. Compared with the existing forest covers, modeling results suggested that the amount of overland flow was reduced by 21, 23, and 22%, and the interflow increased by 16, 88, and 30%, for Scenarios 1, 2, and 3, respectively. During the same time, peakflow rates were reduced by 20.8, 9.6, and 18.9%, respectively. The reduction of peakflow rates was most significant when rainfall intensity exceeded 0.8 mm/min and events with a short duration and effect was minor when rainfall intensity was below 0.5 mm/min. In general, we found that Scenarios 1 and 3 were preferred for reducing storm‐flow volume and peakflow rates due to their higher interception rates, large soil water holding capacity, and higher soil infiltration capacity. The modeled results suggested soil properties are important in affecting the flow processes and thus forest composition and forest spatial distributions will affect storm‐flow volume and peakflow rates at the watershed scale. To maximize flood reduction functions of a watershed, high priority should be given to those forest types (Scenarios 1 and 3) in reforestation practices in the study region. This study suggests both forest composition and spatial pattern are important reforestation designs for flood reduction in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area.     

Long‐Term Streamflow Response to Climatic Variability in the Loess Plateau,China1

Abstract: The Loess Plateau region in northwestern China has experienced severe water resource shortages due to the combined impacts of climate and land use changes and water resource exploitation during the past decades. This study was designed to examine the impacts of climatic variability on streamflow characteristics of a 12‐km² watershed near Tianshui City, Gansu Province in northwestern China. Statistic analytical methods including Kendall’s trend test and stepwise regression were used to detect trends in relationship between observed streamflow and climatic variables. Sensitivity analysis based on an evapotranspiration model was used to detect quantitative hydrologic sensitivity to climatic variability. We found that precipitation (P), potential evapotranspiration (PET) and streamflow (Q) were not statistically significantly different (p > 0.05) over the study period between 1982 and 2003. Stepwise regression and sensitivity analysis all indicated that P was more influential than PET in affecting annual streamflow, but the similar relationship existed at the monthly scale. The sensitivity of streamflow response to variations of P and PET increased slightly with the increase in watershed dryness (PET/P) as well as the increase in runoff ratio (Q/P). This study concluded that future changes in climate, precipitation in particular, will significantly impact water resources in the Loess Plateau region an area that is already experiencing a decreasing trend in water yield.     

Electrochemical analysis of trifluralin using a nanostructuring electrode with multi-walled carbon nanotubes

The electroanalytical behaviors of the endocrine-disrupting chemical trifluralin have been studied at a nanostructuring electrode. The nanostructuring electrode was fabricated by coating a uniform multi-wall carbon nanotubes/dihexadecyl hydrogen phosphate (MWNTs/DHP) film on glassy carbon electrode (GCE). The reduction peak currents of trifluralin increased remarkably and the reduction peak potential shifted positively at the nanostructuring electrode, compared with that at a bare GCE. The results showed that this nanostructuring electrode exhibited excellent enhancement effects on the electrochemical reduction of trifluralin. Consequently, a simple and sensitive electroanalytical method was developed for the determination of trifluralin. Under optimal conditions, a linear response of trifluralin was obtained in the range from 5.0 × 10⁻⁹ to 6.0 × 10⁻⁶ mol L⁻¹ (r = 0.998) and with a limit of detect (LOD) of 2.0 × 10⁻⁹ mol L⁻¹. The proposed procedure was successfully applied to determine trifluralin in soil samples with satisfactory results.     

钛修饰电极的制备及电化学性能比较

通过电沉积法在钛网(Ti)上负载钯、钯镍双金属及聚吡咯(PPy)双金属,对比研究不同修饰对电极电化学催化活性的影响。循环伏安测试(CV)表明,在最佳制备条件下,Pd/Ti电极在-500 mV(以Hg/Hg₂SO₄为参比电极)左右获得氢吸附峰值为-59.47 mA;引入Ni制备双金属修饰电极(PdNi/Ti电极)获得氢吸附峰值为-64.40 mA,双金属修饰电极表现出较好的电催化性能;吡咯修饰后制得的Pd-Ni/PPy/Ti电极获得的氢吸附峰值最大,峰值为-80.14 mA,电催化性能更优。扫描电镜(SEM)分析了Ni和PPy的引入对电极表面形态的改变。利用原子发射光谱(AES)分析了电极表面Pd、Ni金属的负载量。实验表明,Ni与PPy的引入使Pd-Ni/PPy/Ti电极在大大减少钯负载量的情况下,仍具有很好的电催化性能,电化学脱氯潜能也很大。     

超细冷气溶胶抑制油气预混爆炸实验研究

大型油罐区火灾事故往往伴随着油气爆炸,对应急救援消防官兵生命安全带来威胁.具有可压缩性、流动性和弥散性特征的超细干粉冷气溶胶对泄漏可燃油气爆燃爆轰有抑制作用.采用三路进气20L球试验装置模拟油气-空气与超细干粉冷气溶胶预混点火燃爆过程,实验结果表明:超细干粉冷气溶胶具有物理和化学双重抑爆作用,随着抑爆剂用量的增大其最大爆炸压力和最大爆炸压力上升速率呈下降趋势,且爆炸感应期明显被滞后;抑爆过程油气爆炸指数快速下降后趋于稳定,抑爆效果与超细粉体本身特性、抑爆剂用量及油气点火时刻有关.该研究有助于优化油气环境的最佳抑爆条件,对大型储油罐区油气防火防爆防护和抑爆技术的应用具有积极意义.     

高Ca~(2+)浓度CO_2沉淀法由电石渣制备纳米CaCO_3

以NH4Cl溶液为浸取剂、CO2为碳化剂、多聚磷酸钠(STP)为添加剂,由电石渣制备纳米Ca CO3。实验结果表明:电石渣浸取液Ca2+浓度为1.0 mol/L、STP加入量为3.00%时,可制备出粒径为30~60 nm的纳米Ca CO3;STP可有效控制纳米Ca CO3的粒度和形貌;在最佳工艺条件下,由电石渣制备纳米Ca CO3的产率为80%,处理1 t电石渣产生的经济效益约为2 670元。     

Analysis of the metabolic utilization of carbon sources and potential functional diversity of the bacterial community in lab-scale horizontal subsurface-flow constructed wetlands

Microorganisms are an integral part of the biogeochemical processes in wetlands. To improve the performance of constructed wetlands, it is very important to know the metabolic properties and functional diversity of the microbial communities. The purpose of this study is to analyze the metabolic properties and functional diversity of the microbial community in a horizontal subsurface-flow constructed wetland (CW) in a laboratory study through the sole-carbon-source utilization profiles using Biolog-ECO microplates. The technique has advantages over traditional cell culture techniques, such as molecular-level techniques-RNA amplification, which are time-consuming, expensive, and only applicable to the small number of species that may be cultured. This CW was designed to treat rural eutrophic water in China, using the plant L. This study showed that the metabolic activities of upper front substrate microorganisms (UF) were greater than those of the lower back substrate microorganisms (LB) in the CW. Integrated areas under average well color development (AWCD) curves of substrate microorganisms in the UF were 131.9, 4.8, and 99.3% higher than in the lower front part (LF), the upper back part (UB), and the LB part of the CW, respectively. Principal components analysis showed significant differences in both community structure and metabolic utilization of carbon sources between substrate microorganisms from different sampling sites. Carbon source utilization of polymers, carbohydrates, carboxylic acids, and amino acids was higher in UF than in LF, but that of amines and phenolic compounds was very similar in UF and LF. The richness, evenness, and diversity of upper substrate microbial communities were significantly higher than those of lower substrate. The LF substrate microbial communities had lower evenness than the other sampling plots, and the lowest richness of substrate microbial community was found in the LB part of the CW.     

Binary competitive adsorption of naphthalene compounds onto an aminated hypercrosslinked macroporous polymeric adsorbent

An aminated hypercrosslinked macroporous polymeric adsorbent was synthesized and characterized.Adsorption isotherms for 1-amino-2-naphthol-4-sulfonic acid(1, 2, 4-acid) and 2-naphthol obtained from various binary adsorption environments can be well fitted by Freundlich equation, which indicated a favorable adsorption process in the studied range. Adsorption for !, 2, 4-acid was an endothermic process in comparison with that for 2-naphthol of an exothermic process. 2-naphthol molecules put a little influence on the adsorption capacity for 1, 2, 4-acid. However, the adsorption to 1, 2, 4-acid depressed that to 2-naphthol in a large extent for the stronger electrostatic interaction between 1, 2, 4-acid and adsorbent. The predominant mechanism can be contributed to the competition for adsorption sites. And the simultaneous environment was confirmed to be helpful to the selective adsorption towards 1,2,4-acid based on the larqer selectivity index.