Persistent organic pollution characterization of sediments in Pearl River estuary

As a byproduct of rapid urbanization and industrial development in the Pearl River estuary of South China, excessive release of various types of persistent toxic substances were conveyed from agricultural, industrial and municipal discharges at upstream section down into the estuary largely via various river outlets. In this paper, a persistent organic pollution (POP) characterization of sediments in the estuary is undertaken. More than one bioavailable toxicants are detected to play active roles in causing toxicity of marine sediments in the estuary. POPs may be transported for long distances to the downstream end of the Pearl River delta region. The data suggests that DDT might still be applied illegally within the region recently and that the prevalent levels of DDTs and HCHs in sediments are likely to pose detrimental biological effects on benthic organisms. The findings have significant implications in order to understand the environmental changes, to determine reasonable ways for future development, and to maintain a sustainable environment in the Pearl River estuary region.     

Baseline mercury and zinc concentrations in terrestrial and coastal organisms of Admiralty Bay, Antarctica

This paper provides the first quantitative information on mercury in soil, coastal sediment, and in characteristic organisms of terrestrial and shallow coastal marine ecosystems from Admiralty Bay (King George Island, Antarctica). As expected for a remote area, mercury content is low in abiotic components of the ecosystem, and probably similar to natural levels. Mercury also occurs in very low concentrations in the vegetation, invertebrates and fish. These low mercury levels may be due to sulphide formation in reducing sediments of this environment. Higher concentrations of mercury occurred in bird feathers and mammal hair, indicating biomagnification. This was not found for Zinc. These results may be useful as a reference background to detect future inputs of trace elements in this remote area of the earth. Terrestrial vegetation and bird feathers are suggested as target regional biomonitors.     

SOLUTE TRANSPORT IN THREE‐DIMENSIONAL SATURATED POROUS MEDIA HAVING SELF‐SIMILAR HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY DISTRIBUTION1

ABSTRACT: Customarily, it has been assumed that hydraulic conductivity is a stationary, homogeneous stochastic process with a finite variance for stochastic analysis of solute transport in the subsurface. That the distribution of hydraulic conductivity may have a fractal behavior with long range correlations was suggested from field data analyses. This motivates us to further investigate how the fractal behavior of permeability distribution impacts solute transport in porous media. This study provides longitudinal and transverse macrodispersivity coefficients and the variance of the solute concentration. Longitudinal and transverse macrodispersivity coefficients are found to depend strongly on the fractal dimension (D) of logarithmic hydraulic conductivity (logK). The longitudinal and transverse macrodispersivity coefficients are the highest when D = 1, and the values decrease monotonically to zero at D = 2. Both coefficients correspond to the characteristic length scale of the logK distribution, thus are scale dependent parameters. The ratio of the transverse to the longitudinal macrodispersivity coefficient is on the order of 10^‐1 to 10^‐4. Concentration variance also decreases with the fractal dimension of logK. There is no spatial spreading of solute for D = 2, and the concentration variance reaches zero for this case.     

Quantitative analysis of toxic halogenated contaminants in Oluyoro stream of Nigeria

Analysis of organic contaminants is reported for the Oluyoro stream located in the South-Western Nigeria. Using gas chromatography methods with flame ionization, electron capture and mass spectrometer detectors, alarming levels of organic pollutants including alkanes, alkenes, alcohols and alkyl halides were detected. Remarkably, toxic halogenated organic substances such as 4,4′-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (4,4′-DDT), 4,4′-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane (4,4′-DDD), beta-benzenehexachloride (beta-BHC), heptachlor epoxide, endrin aldehyde and endrin ketone are found to be at 15,820, 6,176, 1,155, 336, 24 and 13 times, respectively, more than the permitted levels of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA). Furthermore, 4,4′-DDD, a probable human carcinogen, and methoxychlor are detected for the first time when compared to the last report published in 1992. Activities such as high influx of domestic and industrial wastes to the stream have drastically increased the concentrations of these halogenated contaminants. Results presented in this article provide important information for potential future effects of these contaminants on human health and the integrated environment in the region.     

Factors affecting urban electricity consumption: a case study in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area using an integrated approach of earth observation data and data analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Urbanization induces shifts in surface environmental factors, including impervious surface expansion, green space loss, and temperature increase in...     

Significance of mangrove–mudflat boundaries as nursery grounds for the mud crab, Scylla paramamosain

Fisheries managers frequently try to protect juveniles in order to preserve stocks. Juveniles can be protected by either implementing changes designed to avoid catching immature animals (e.g. increasing mesh size or altering fishing techniques) or protecting nursery grounds. To prevent the capture of immature animals, an estimate of size at maturity is required as well as a knowledge of both fishing methods and the exact location of the nursery grounds. Strong demand for juvenile mud crabs to stock aquaculture ponds has resulted in development of fisheries targeting crabs of all sizes from instar 1 to mature individuals. Using five different fishing methods, different stages in the life cycle of Scylla paramamosain were followed for a period of 16 months in an estuarine population in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Mangrove habitat utilisation begins when crabs settle out from the plankton at instar 1 [modal internal carapace width (ICW), 0.5 cm] amongst the pneumatophores at the mangrove fringe. Increasingly larger crabs were found deeper into the mangrove but they were still living on the surface (modal ICW size class, 1.5 cm). As their size increases, the crabs either dig burrows (modal ICW size class, 4.5 cm) or they live in the sub-tidal zone, migrating into the mangrove with each tide to feed (modal ICW size class, 4.5 cm). Larger crabs were caught offshore (modal ICW size class, 12.5 cm) where females accounted for 60% of the catch although of these, only 63% were mature. Recruitment of early instars was continuous but peaked in December to February. Subsequent peaks in the catch rates of larger size classes indicated the development of a single cohort with an estimated growth rate of 2.0 cm ICW per month. On the basis of abdominal width, females were estimated to mature at 10.2 cm ICW although at 9.7 cm ICW, 50% of females had disengaged abdomens. Abdominal disengagement occurred in males at the slightly smaller size of 9.1 cm ICW. Allometric relationships between chela height and carapace width suggested 50% of males acquire mature chelae at 10.2 cm ICW. These results demonstrate the close linkage between early life stages of S. paramamosain and certain specific niches within mangrove habitats, with the main adult population found to be living sub-tidally at some distance from the mouth of the estuary. The study also highlights the special importance of the mangrove fringe, the border between the mangrove forest and the sea, an area which is particularly vulnerable to physical and anthropogenic impacts.     

Simulation of retention and transport of copper,lead and zinc in a paddy soil of the Red River Delta,Vietnam

Heavy metal (HM) contaminations in the topsoil around handicraft villages with non-ferrous heavy metal recycling in the Red River Delta can impose serious threats to the subsoil as well as to the groundwater quality. This feature is very important for paddy soils due to relatively high leaching rates and the dissolution of Fe–Mn oxides under reducing conditions which can accelerate the amount of HM translocated to the subsoil and groundwater.The transport of Cu, Pb and Zn in paddy soils was simulated by numerical modeling of non-equilibrium solute transport with an adaptation of the Hydrus-1D model. For the simulation, a water layer on the soil surface was included, from which HM can infiltrate into the soil depending on the soil hydraulic properties. Sorption coefficients, obtained from batch experiments were used as input data for the simulations. Calculated leaching rates were compared with the binding forms of HM in the samples.The simulations show that leaching rates decrease in the order: Zn > Cu > Pb. This order is confirmed by the results of sequential extractions. Under constant flooded conditions at a water table of 20 cm, Cu, Pb and Zn were estimated to reach the soil depth of 1 m within 470, 495 and 370 days, respectively, emphasizing that reactive pollutants can reach groundwater in a relatively short time. A change of the water layer from 1 to 30 cm can accelerate the leaching rate of HM up to 36%. The hard pan layer was observed to induce a hysteresis in hydraulic conductivity and slow down the movement of HM. Uncertainties in modeling arise as several parameters in the simulation can be determined only with significant errors. However, Hydrus-1D is a suitable tool for simulation of the transport of HM in paddy soils.     

Evaluation of health benefits for improving indoor air quality in workplace

In contrast to a majority of reported damage-cost literature being focused on outdoor pollution, this paper describes the development of a protocol that links population exposure data with reported epidemiological concentration-response coefficients. A change in indoor particulate level is expressed as a change in total exposure levels, which is then linked with a corresponding change in ambient particulate concentrations before evaluating the associated health benefits. In this study, the development of protocol is illustrated by using a typical office building environment and daily time activity patterns of office occupants in Hong Kong. Our results indicate that some benefit gains for the owners-employers and the society would be anticipated if certain filter set configurations had been adopted. However, the amount of benefit gains for the owners-employers is shown to be increased with the average salary level of employees and the duration of their stay in offices.     

Assessment of pilot direct contact membrane distillation regeneration of lithium chloride solution in liquid desiccant air-conditioning systems using computer simulation

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Membrane distillation (MD) has been increasingly explored for treatment of various hyper saline waters, including lithium chloride (LiCl) solutions...