Short rotation coppice for revaluation of contaminated land.

When dealing with large-scale environmental contamination, as following the Chernobyl accident, changed land use such that the products of the land are radiologically acceptable and sustain an economic return from the land is a potentially sustainable remediation option. In this paper, willow short rotation coppice (SRC) is evaluated on radiological, technical and economic grounds for W. European and Belarus site conditions. Radiocaesium uptake was studied in a newly established and existing SRC. Only for light-texture soils with low soil potassium should cultivation be restricted to soils with contamination levels below 100-370 kBq m-2 given the TFs on these soils (5 x 10(-4) and 2 x 10(-3) m2 kg-1) and considering the Belarus exemption limit for firewood (740 Bq kg-1). In the case of high wood contamination levels (> 1000 Bq kg-1), power plant personnel working in the vicinity of ash conveyers should be subjected to radiation protection measures. For appropriate soil conditions, potential SRC yields are high. In Belarus, most soils are sandy with a low water retention, for which yield estimates are too low to make production profitable without irrigation. The economic viability should be thoroughly calculated for the prevailing conditions. In W. Europe, SRC production or conversion is not profitable without price incentives. For Belarus, the profitability of SRC on the production side largely depends on crop yield and price of the delivered bio-fuel. Large-scale heat conversion systems seem the most profitable and revenue may be considerable. Electricity routes are usually unprofitable. It could be concluded that energy production from SRC is potentially a radiologically and economically sustainable land use option for contaminated agricultural land.     

区域高时空分辨率VOC天然源排放清单的建立

将中尺度气象模式MM5应用于估算VOC天然源排放的研究,建立了高时空分辨率VOC天然源排放清单的估算方法.根据方法需要,确定了我国部分树木排放异戊二烯和萜烯的标准排放因子,各植被类型排放各种VOC的标准排放因子,以及各植被类型季节平均的叶生物量密度.应用该方法估算了华南地区满足区域空气质量数值模拟要求的高时空分辨率VOC天然源排放清单.结果表明,华南地区夏季典型日的VOC天然源排放总量约1.12×10⁴t,VOC排放速率具有明显的时空分布,其中地理分布取决于植被类型及其分布,日变化规律则依赖于太阳辐射和温度的高低.并讨论了VOC天然源排放估算过程中误差的来源     

Carbonaceous species in fine particles at the background sites in Korea between 1994 and 1999

Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in fine particles (PM_2.5) at two background sites, Kosan and Kangwha in Korea were measured during intensive field studies between 1994 and 1999. Fine particles were collected on pre-fired quartz filters in a low-volume sampler and analyzed using the selective thermal oxidation method with MnO₂ catalyst. The OC and EC concentrations at Kosan located at western tip of Cheju Island in southern Korea are lower than those at Kangwha located at western coastal area in mid-Korean peninsula. Still, the OC concentrations at Kosan are generally higher than those at other background areas in Japan and USA. The EC concentrations at Kosan are lower than or comparable to those at other background areas. The total carbon (TC, sum of OC and EC) to EC ratio values at both sites were higher than those at other background areas in Japan and USA. At Kosan, the OC and EC concentrations when air parcels were from southern China were higher than those when air parcels were coming from northern China. However, at Kangwha, the differences were statistically not clear since most air parcels were from northern China. Except when air parcels were from the North Pacific during summer, the OC and EC concentrations are well correlated indicating that both OC and EC share the same emission/transport characteristics. From the gaseous hydrocarbon data and the OC and EC relationship, it was found that during summer local biogenic emissions of OC might be significant at Kosan.     

Preparation of polymeric biosurfactant containing sugar and fatty acid esters

Vinyl sugar ester, 6-O-vinyladipoyl-d-glucose (VAG), was polymerized with vinyl fatty acid esters in dimethylformamide (DMF) with azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) to produce new amphiphilic polymers having branches of sugar and fatty acid esters. The influence of structural variations by changing the length of the alkyl chain of fatty acid moiety was examined by measurements of the surface tension and biodegradability.     

Environmental behaviour of a construction made of a mixture of hydraulic binders and air pollution control residues from municipal solid waste incineration Part 1. Physico-chemical characterisation and modelling of the source term

The reuse of waste materials requires the development of assessment methods for the long-term release of pollutants (source term) from wastes (or materials containing wastes) in contact with water. These methods depend on the scenario conditions: characteristics of the materials (especially physical structure and composition), contact with water. The scenario studied here is a water storage reservoir for fire fighting. The reservoir construction is made of a mixture of hydraulic binders and air pollution control (APC) residues from a municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI). The modelling of the source term is performed in 5 steps ranging from the physico-chemical characterisation of the material to the validation of the proposed model by means of field simulation devices. This article presents the first steps of the methodology: physico-chemical characterisation of the source term, identification of the main transfer mechanisms and laboratory scale modelling of the source term. During the physico-chemical characterisation, it has been shown that the solidified waste shows a high basic capacity and that a relative decrease in pH during leaching favours retention of the main pollutants. During the first leaching sequences, the dynamic leaching tests show that the release of pollutants such as cadmium, arsenic, zinc and lead is extremely low but that the release of alkaline species (sodium and potassium) and chloride is very high from the beginning, whereas the release of calcium remains very high even after 3600 h of leaching. Identification of the main transfer mechanisms concludes that the release of soluble pollutants is the combined result of diffusional transfer of pollutants in the solution and the physico-chemical specificity of the species. The modelling based on these features enables a good simulation of the release but reveals a deviation from the experimental results after 500 h for alkaline species and 1000 h for Ca and Cl leaching. However, this deviation only appears after release of the major part of these elements.     

云南稻核心种质F2主要形态性状变异及地理生态研究

种质资源是水稻育种的重要基因来源.掌握育种材料遗传背景信息,可为发掘优异种质,选育优良性状新品种提供依据.以548份云南稻核心种和云南主栽籼稻品利慎屯502(Oryza satica)、粳稻品种合系35(Oryzasatica)配制的杂种F2(498份)为材料,采用群体遗传学的方法,研究云南稻核心种质杂种F2代的11个形态性状的综合变异系数、遗传多样性指数(Shannon指数)及其地理分布.结果表明:(1)F2存在明显的性状分化和遗传变异,以有效穗、穗颈长、穗下节长、每穗实粒数、秕粒数、总粒数和结实率的综合变异系数高,遗传多样性丰富;(2)滇西南(临沧、思茅、德宏、西双版纳)和滇东南(文山、红河)的材料在表型性状上存在更大的分化,综合变异系数高,遗传多样性丰富;保山、昭通、曲靖次之;怒江、丽江、迪庆、大理最低.     

An integrated assessment method of urban drainage system: A case study in Shenzhen City, China

In recent years, the urban drainage system in China is facing the dual pressure of renovation and construction. This requires that the integrated assessment for the planning and operation of the urban drainage system is obligatory. To evaluate the urban drainage system, an integrated assessment methodology based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), integrated simulation, and fuzzy assessment is established. This method is a multi-criteria decision adding app roach to the assessment of the urban drainage system comprehensively. Through the integration of the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), a simple wastewater treatment plant model, and a surface water quality model, an integrated modelling system for the urban drainage system is developed and applied as a key tool for assessment. Using the established method, a case study in Shenzhen City has been implemented to evaluate and compare two urban drainage system reno vation plans, the distributed plan and the centralized plan. Because of the particularity of this case study, the established method is not applied entirely. Considering the water environ mental impact, ecological impact, technological feasibility, and economic cost, the integrated performance of the distri buted plan is better. As shown in this case study, the proposed method is found to be both effective and practical.     

Effect of electrokinetic transport on the vulnerability of PAH-degrading bacteria in a model aquifer

There has been increasing interest in employing electro-bioremediation, a hybrid technology of bioremediation and electrokinetics, to overcome the low bioavailability of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOC) by homogenizing sorption-retarded HOC and immobilised microorganisms. Present electro-remediation approaches mainly aim at macroscale pollutant extraction and tend to neglect possible impacts of direct current (DC) on the physiology of microorganisms. The effect of weak electric fields (X = 1 V cm⁻¹) on the fitness of electrokinetically dispersed fluorene-degrading Sphingomonas sp. LB126 in bench-scale model aquifers was investigated by flow cytometry using propidium iodide (PI) as an indicator that distinguishes between PI-permeable (cells with porous membranes, i.e. dead or vulnerable) and PI-impermeable bacteria. After 15.5 h of DC treatment 56% of all cells recovered were dispersed at the centimetre scale relative to 29% in the absence of DC. There was no overall negative effect of the 15.5-h DC treatment on cell vulnerability, as 7.0% of the DC-treated bacteria exhibited PI-staining compared to 6.5% of the control population. Minor differences were observed in the subpopulation that had been mobilised by electroosmosis with an approximately twofold increase in the percentage of PI-stained cells relative to the control. Enhanced PI staining did not correlate with reduced culturability of the cells on rich-medium agar plates. Relative to the control, DC-treated cells mobilised by electroosmosis were threefold more culturable, confirming earlier data that that PI-cell membrane permeability does not always indicate reduced viability of oligotrophic environmental bacteria. Our findings suggest that electrokinetics is a valuable mechanism to transport viable and culturable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-degrading bacteria in soil or sediments.     

An engineering model for countercurrent flow under wind-induced waves and current

A general model for the phase-averaged velocity field in wind-induced countercurrent flow is proposed. The influence of waves on the time-averaged velocity is accounted for by introducing a skewness factor in a parabolic eddy viscosity model. The skewness factor represents the net effect of the wavy surface in the engineering model for velocity. The coherent velocity components are described separately by an orbital velocity obtained from linear wave theory and are added to the time-averaged components to give a complete model for the phase-averaged velocity field. The proposed model collapses to the standard model for deep-water conditions, but is also shown to yield the correct behavior for intermediate conditions. Moreover, the bed shear stress, derived from the proposed velocity model, is also shown to be in agreement with experiments.     

Rats on the run: removal of alien terrestrial predators affects bush rat behaviour

Predators can strongly influence the microhabitat use and foraging behaviour of prey. In a large-scale replicated field experiment in East Gippsland, Australia, we tested the effects of reduced alien red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and alien wild dog (Canis lupus familiaris) abundance (treatment) on native bush rat (Rattus fuscipes) behaviour. Bush rats are exposed to two main guilds of predators, namely mammalian carnivores and birds of prey. Tracking rat movements using the spool-and-line technique revealed that, in treatment sites, rats used ground cover, which provides shelter from predators, less often than at unmanipulated fox and wild dog abundance (non-treatment sites). In treatment sites, rats more frequently moved on logs where they would have been exposed to hunting foxes and dogs than in non-treatment sites. Furthermore, in treatments, rats showed a preference for understorey but not in non-treatments. Hence, bush rats adapted their behaviour to removal of alien terrestrial predators. Giving-up densities (GUDs) indicated no treatment effects on the marginal feeding rate of bush rats. Interestingly, GUDs were higher in open patches than in sheltered patches, suggesting higher perceived predation risk of bush rats during foraging at low versus high cover. The lack of treatment effects on GUDs but the clear response of bush rats to cover may be explained by the impact of predators other than foxes and wild dogs.