Impact of atrazine-bearing agricultural tile drainage discharge on planktonic drift of a natural stream

Preliminary results are reported from a co-operative study between Agriculture Canada and Environment Canada on environmental impacts of atrazine measured in a field stream receiving agricultural drainage. Systematically, tile drained plots of known crop rotation, area, flow and pesticides use were used in the study. A maximum tile drainage concentration of 13.9 microg liter(-1) atrazine was measured while the maximum measured stream concentration was 1.89 microg liter(-1). Phytoplankton and zooplankton samples were collected on a bi-monthly basis during the growing season. The study indicated possible negative impacts of low concentrations of atrazine on planktonic drift populations, when natural stream flow was reduced, resulting in a lower dilution capacity. A 20 m section of the stream was affected by the tile drainage waters as measured by the resident biological community. Both atrazine and ambient environmental conditions were felt to be contributing to the measured results. No negative impacts on planktonic drift populations were evident beyond 50 m downstream of the tile drainage and stream confluence.     

Hunger, poverty and food aid in Sub-Saharan Africa: Retrospect and potential

Frustrations and failures will continue to mount if we do not immediately summon the courage to revise the ways we think and take action-as well as maintaining essential services to support life and health … Saving hundreds of thousands … who are at risk of dying from malnutrition or infection is an immediate imperative. But it must be only one stage in the progress toward other activities, and one element in the truly comprehensive approach… The main intent of this paper is to explore aspects of the nature and evolution of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa with special reference to food and hunger and their interaction with macro-economic policy. An attempt is made to outline the overall context within which food aid needs to be used in order to have a greater developmental impact. Following an Introductory Section I, Section II provides a sketch map of how recession and lagging food production - with cyclical weather crises superimposed - affect the human condition of poor people. Section III reviews die interaction between "standard" IMF stabilization and World Bank structural adjustment strategies and poverty/hunger. Improvements in the design of stabilization and adjustment programmes, and of the inter-relationship with them of emergency programmes, can be identified. A number turn on the broadened and more innovative or catalytic use of food aid. Section IV reviews aspects of facing a continuing series of emergencies and of designing life support programmes to facilitate rehabilitation of the households directly affected as well as of the national economies. From this base it explores a series of elements in achieving renewed development. The concluding Section seeks to explore the strengths, limitations and potentials of food aid in the context set by the previous sections. The standard criticisms of food aid appear to be overstated and/or to relate to particular modalities or approaches rather than to anything intrinsic. A number of criteria for improving the effectiveness of food aid - especially in respect to rehabilitation, recovery and renewed development - are set out.     

Demand forecasting of green metal materials using non-equidistant grey prediction with robust nonlinear interval regression analysis

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The main advantages of magnesium alloys are that they are lightweight, easy to recycle, and have high vibration absorption. These unique...     

碘化阶层孔氧化硅纳米球对水中典型有机氯污染物的吸附性能研究

采用共缩聚法,成功地原位合成了碘改性的阶层多孔氧化硅纳米球（SiO₂-I）,研究了其基于卤键作用对典型有机氯污染物六六六的吸附性能,并考察了改性剂I-硅烷含量和pH值对吸附效果的影响.实验结果表明,该纳米材料对六六六表现出优异的吸附富集性能,吸附速率快,60 min内对六六六的去除率为71.6%,240 min内达到吸附平衡,去除率可达98.3%,最大吸附量为178.6 mg·g^-1;吸附动力学符合拟二级动力学模型;碘物种的加入提高了阶层多孔氧化硅的吸附速率和吸附效率.另外,为了便于纳米吸附材料的分离,本研究对SiO₂-I纳米球进行了磁性化.研究发现,磁性化修饰后,SiO₂-I纳米材料仍然保留对六六六优异的吸附富集性能,240 min时的吸附去除率达90.3%.     

不同空间划分方式下袁河流域景观结构对水质的影响

近年来景观结构的水文效应受到关注,研究不同空间划分方式下景观结构对河流营养盐、重金属变化的影响机制对于流域生态保护具有重要意义.本文于2018年7月和2019年1月在袁河干流及支流38个采样点采集水样,测定水体营养盐类污染指标（DO、NO₃^--N、NH₄⁺-N、TP和DOC浓度）和重金属类污染指标（Cr、Mn、Fe、Cu、Zn、As、Cd和Pb浓度）.基于前向变量选择、冗余分析等方法,筛选景观结构指标,量化其在不同尺度下对水体营养盐、重金属变化的影响.结果表明：①农田、斑块密度（PD）、斑块聚集指数（COHESION）及散布与并列指数（IJI）是影响水体营养盐变化的主要指标.林地、建设用地（Res）、平均最近邻体距离（ENN_MN）和最大斑块指数（LPI）的组合是影响重金属变化的主要指标.②在河岸缓冲带与圆形缓冲区划分方式下,景观结构均在100 m尺度对营养盐变化解释能力最强,平均解释率分别为31.5%、24.3%,均在1000 m尺度对重金属变化解释能力最强,平均解释率分别为32.0%、42.6%.③100 m河岸缓冲带和子流域尺度分别是景观结构影响水体营养盐、重金属变化的最佳空间尺度,平均解释率分别为31.5%、42.8%.以上结果表明,针对水体不同的污染类型,采用对应的划分方式及缓冲尺度有助于提高定量分析精度,为流域水环境保护、景观优化与管理提供科学依据.     

Aerosol optical properties under different pollution levels in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China

To clarify the aerosol hygroscopic growth and optical properties of the Pearl River Delta(PRD)region,integrated observations were conducted in Heshan City of Guangdong Province from October 19 to November 17,2014.The concentrations and chemical compositions of PM_(2.5),aerosol optical properties and meteorological parameters were measured.The mean value of PM_(2.5) increased from less than 35(excellent) to 35-75 μg/m~3(good) and then to greater than 75 μg/m~3(pollution),corresponding to mean PM_(2.5) values of 24.9,51.2,and 93.3 μg/m~3,respectively.The aerosol scattering hygroscopic growth factor(f(RH = 80%)) values were 2.0,2.12,and 2.18 for the excellent,good,and pollution levels,respectively.The atmospheric extinction coefficient(σext)and the absorption coefficient of aerosols(σ_(ap)) increased,and the single scattering albedo(SSA)decreased from the excellent to the pollution levels.For different air mass sources,under excellent and good levels,the land air mass from northern Heshan had lower f(RH) and σ_(sp) values.In addition,the mixed aerosol from the sea and coastal cities had lower f(RH) and showed that the local sources of coastal cities have higher scattering characteristics in pollution periods.     

Phosphate recovery with granular acid-activated neutralized red mud: Fixed-bed column performance and breakthrough curve modelling

Granular acid-activated neutralized red mud (AaN-RM) has been successfully prepared with good chemical stability and physical strength. However, its potential for industrial application remains unknown. Therefore, the performance of granular AaN-RM for phosphate recovery in a fixed-bed column was investigated. The results demonstrated that the phosphate adsorption performance of granular AaN-RM in a fixed-bed column was affected by various operational parameters, such as the bed depth, flow rate, initial solution pH and initial phosphate concentration. With the optimal empty-bed contact time (EBCT) of 24.27 min, the number of processed bed volumes and the phosphate adsorption capacity reached 496.95 and 84.80 mg/g, respectively. Then, the saturated fixed-bed column could be effectively regenerated with a 0.5 mol/L HCl solution. The desorption efficiency remained as high as 83.45% with a low weight loss of 3.57% in the fifth regeneration cycle. In addition, breakthrough curve modelling showed that a 5-9-1 feed-forward artificial neural network (ANN) could be effectively applied for the optimization of the fixed-bed adsorption system; the coefficient of determination (R²) and the root mean square error (RMSE) evaluated on the validation-testing data were 0.9987 and 0.0183, respectively. Therefore, granular AaN-RM fixed-bed adsorption exhibits promising potential for phosphate removal and recovery from polluted water.     

Performance of different macrophytes in the decontamination of and electricity generation from swine wastewater via an integrated constructed wetland-microbial fuel cell process

Plants constitute a major element of constructed wetlands(CWs).In this study,a coupled system comprising an integrated vertical flow CW(IVCW) and a microbial fuel cell(MFC) for swine wastewater tre atment was developed to research the effects of macrophytes commonly employed in CWs,Canna indica,Acorus calamus,and Ipomoea aquatica,on decontamination and electricity production in the system.Because of the different root types and amounts of oxygen released by the roots,the rates of chemical oxygen demand(COD) and ammonium nitrogen(NH_4~+-N) removal from the swine wastewater differed as well.In the unplanted,Canna indica,Acorus calamus,and Ipomoea aquatica systems,the COD removal rates were 80.20%,88.07%,84.70%,and 82.20%,respectively,and the NH_4~+-N removal rates were 49.96%,75.02%,70.25%,and 68.47%,respectively.The decontamination capability of the Canna indica system was better than those of the other systems.The average output voltages were 520±42,715±20,660±27,and 752±26 mV for the unplanted,Canna indica,Acorus calamus,and Ipomoea aquatica systems,respectively,and the maximum power densities were 0.2230,0.4136,0.3614,and0.4964 W/m~3,respectively.Ipomoea aquatica had the largest effect on bioelectricity generation promotion.In addition,electrochemically active bacteria,Geobacter and Desulfuromonas,were detected in the anodic biofilm by high-throughput sequencing analysis,and Comamonas(Proteobacteria),which is widely found in MFCs,was also detected in the anodic biofilm.These results confirmed the important role of plants in IVCW-MFCs.     

牛粪-化肥配施对水稻田氮磷迁移转化的影响

在控制外源N输入量相同的前提下,通过田间小区实验,探讨有机肥与化肥不同施用量（牛粪施用量：5,10,20t/hm²）对稻田田间土-水界面氮磷迁移转化特征的影响.结果表明：控制稻田水中NH₄⁺-N、NO₃^--N、TN和TP输出的最佳时期分别为施肥后的第5,30,7,20d,且TN和TP浓度随时间变化符合单指数衰减方程（0.7444≤R²≤0.9724;1.1×10^-6≤F≤0.0055）.采用牛粪部分代替化肥的施肥方式,在一定范围内能降低稻田退水中TN、TP输出负荷（41.8%、36.0%、64.3%;20.3%、39.1%、48.9%）,还可以降低稻田水中N/P,降低水体富营养化风险.同时,牛粪的施用可提高土壤中脲酶和磷酸酶的含量,促进氮磷向植物可吸收形态转化.综合经济成本和生态效益核算,采用10t有机肥代替无机肥的处理是相对经济环保的施肥方法,该施肥方式下,氮磷年输出负荷分别为17.70,1.26kg/hm².