EXPANSION OF SALT-WATER ZONE DUE TO WELL DISCHARGE1

ABSTRACT: In coastal confined aquifers, the extent of the salt-water wedge due to natural ground-water flow can be determined by available methods. If water is pumped by a discharge well, the quality of the water depends upon the rate and duration of pumping as well as the location of the well. A study has been made to find the extent of the progress of salt-water intrusion due to the operation of one discharge well taking into account various conditions of aquifer properties, pump capacities, natural flows, time effects, and well locations. Dimension-less solutions for specific conditions have been obtained by means of a simple computer program. Range of most common conditions is discussed. One of the main findings of this study was that salt water may be pumped out of a well even if it is located in an initially totally fresh-water zone beyond the natural salt/fresh-water interface.     

ONE APPROACH TO IRRIGATION MODELING UNDER RISK1

Recent progress in operations research has refined stochastic programming with recourse sufficiently to significantly increase its potential for use in water resource planning. To demonstrate its strengths and weaknesses this paper considers an irrigation planning problem and illustrates how more and more refined variants of this problem are successively cast into stochastic programming with recourse forms. The result is an outline of the state of the art with method limitations and demands on model formulation clearly indicated.     

Degradation of volatile chlorinated aliphatic priority pollutants in groundwater

The known degradation products and degradative pathways involving selected volatile aliphatic chlorinated hydrocarbons in soil-groundwater systems are summarized. Current data indicate that the most commonly found products of microbial degradation of these compounds come from reductive dehalogenation, while nonmicrobial degradations tend to involve hydrolysis and/or oxidation. However, conclusions must be regarded as tentative, since most of the available studies have involved model systems and extrapolations, rather than direct studies of compounds in groundwater systems. Other potentially complicating factors, such as mobility and volatilization, are mentioned. Current knowledge is discussed in the context of data that would be desirable to obtain in future studies.     

Nutrient regeneration by zooplankton during a red tide off Peru,with notes on biomass and species composition of zooplankton

During March and April 1976, a red tide, dominated by the dinoflagellate Gymnodinium splendens Lebour, developed in the vicinity of 15°06'S and 75°31'W off Peru. At the height of the bloom, the euphotic zone was 6 m deep and the chlorophyll a at the surface was 48 g l^-1. A daily collection of zooplankton at 09.00 hrs showed large fluctuations of biomass, from 0.2 to 3.84 g dry weight m^-2 in a water column of 120m. Copepodids and nauplii dominated the collections. During a period of reduced wind, the adult copepods were a mixture of the species characteristic of the coastal upwelling system and the neritic species associated with more northerly, tropical waters. Nitrogen regeneration by the zooplankton varied with the development of the bloom, the type of zooplankton dominating the experiment, and biomass fluctuations, but never accounted for more than 25% of the nitrogen uptake by phytoplankton.     

Reproductive success of solitary and communal Philoponella oweni (Araneae: Uloboridae)

Summary Philoponella oweni (Uloboridae) is a facultatively communal orb-web spider found in arid regions in the southwestern United States. Within one habitat solitary adult females and communal groups of adult females coexist.This study compared the reproductive output (egg production) and reproductive success (production of live offspring) of solitary and communal females. There was no significant difference in the mean number of egg-cases produced by solitary and communal females, but communal females produced significantly more eggs per egg-case. However, communal females suffered significantly higher rates of egg-case parasitism from the pteromalid wasp Arachnopteromalus dasys. As a result, the mean number of liver offspring produced by solitary and communal females did not differ. Thus, both strategies led to roughly equal reproductive success. The advantages of aggregation of adults may be significant in the evolution of social behavior in spiders.     

Reproductive impairment in a fish inhabiting a contaminated coastal environment off Southern California

White croaker (Genyonemus lineatus), collected from a highly contaminated site in San Pedro Bay and from a reference site 80 km away (Dana Point), were induced to spawn in the laboratory. Forty-one per cent of San Pedro Bay females and 54% of Dana Point females spawned. Examination of the ovaries of non-spwaning females revealed that spawning was imminent in the remainder of Dana Point fish but only in 16% of the San Pedro Bay fish. The remainder of the San Pedro Bay fish (43%) contained only immature, yolky oocytes. No croakers containing more than 3.8 ppm ovarian total DDT could be induced to spawn whereas 36% of a contemporaneous San Pedro Bay sample had ovarian total DDT residues in excess of 4 ppm. This suggests that the inability to induce spawning in white croaker may be associated with an ovarian total DDT threshold of about 4 ppm. These data, coupled with observed decreases in fecundity (32%), fertility (14%), and early oocyte loss (30%) relative to reference fish, could partially explain the population declines observed for many southern California fishes since the 1940s.     

Inorganic carbon uptake by photosynthetically active protoplasts of the red macroalga Chondrus crispus

Photosynthetically active protoplasts were isolated from Chondrus crispus Stackh. by treating thalli with -carrageenase produced from batch culture of Pseudomonas carrageenovora. Using the silicone oil centrifugation technique, it was found that the protoplasts: (1) did not generally accumulate inorganic carbon (C_i) above the concentration in their incubation medium; (2) were saturated at C_i concentrations of 3 to 4 mM; (3) had an intracellular pH of 7.50 when incubated at pH 7.5; and (4) their initial carbon fixation rate was reduced by carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. Although the carbon fixation rate of the protoplasts was about 30% that of thallus fragments, presumably due to the relatively harsh protoplast isolation treatment, the behavior of the protoplasts was similar to that of fragments. This similarity indicates that the protoplasts are photosynthetically active and behave as thallus fragments. Further, the data are consistent with the hypothesis that C. crispus acquires C_i for photosynthesis by the diffusion of CO₂ across the plasma membrane.     

Phosphorus exchange in marine microplankton communities near Hawaii

Tracer exchange kinetics were consistent with the view that microplankton of waters near Hawaii produced and assimilated dissolved orthophosphate and dissolved compounds other than orthophosphate at roughly equal rates in experiments conducted in September, 1982. Using simple exchange models plus chemical measurements, we inferred that material other than orthophosphate could sometimes dominate the soluble molybdate-reactive pool (SRP), as is frequently the case in fresh waters. Where phosphorus exchange was most rapid, the tracer kinetics suggested that some fraction of the plankton community was disproportionately responsible for dissolved phophorus exchange. Comparisons against independent measurements of rapid phytoplankton turnover in these communities supported the conclusion that dissolved compounds other than orthophosphate were rapidly cycled and formed an important substrate for plankton growth.