Determining the drivers of population structure in a highly urbanized landscape to inform conservation planning

Understanding the environmental contributors to population structure is of paramount importance for conservation in urbanized environments. We used spatially explicit models to determine genetic population structure under current and future environmental conditions across a highly fragmented, human‐dominated environment in Southern California to assess the effects of natural ecological variation and urbanization. We focused on 7 common species with diverse habitat requirements, home‐range sizes, and dispersal abilities. We quantified the relative roles of potential barriers, including natural environmental characteristics and an anthropogenic barrier created by a major highway, in shaping genetic variation. The ability to predict genetic variation in our models differed among species: 11–81% of intraspecific genetic variation was explained by environmental variables. Although an anthropogenically induced barrier (a major highway) severely restricted gene flow and movement at broad scales for some species, genetic variation seemed to be primarily driven by natural environmental heterogeneity at a local level. Our results show how assessing environmentally associated variation for multiple species under current and future climate conditions can help identify priority regions for maximizing population persistence under environmental change in urbanized regions.     

Free energy flow in the process of collecting material for body build up of aquatic organisms

A general formula defining the free energy expenditures in the processes of algal nutrition and zooplankton feeding has been derived. It appears to be symmetrical in respect of space and time scales. In conditions of optimal control the theoretical relationship between effective free energy expenditures and losses appears to be the ‘golden proportion’. The general trends of the system due to the first and second laws of thermodynamics and Prigogine's theorem form a theoretical basis for phenomenological rules of ecosystem's development.     

Soil resource supply influences faunal size–specific distributions in natural food webs

The large range of body-mass values of soil organisms provides a tool to assess the ecological organization of soil communities. The goal of this paper is to identify graphical and quantitative indicators of soil community composition and ecosystem functioning, and to illustrate their application to real soil food webs. The relationships between log-transformed mass and abundance of soil organisms in 20 Dutch meadows and heathlands were investigated. Using principles of allometry, maximal use can be made of ecological theory to build and explain food webs. The aggregate contribution of small invertebrates such as nematodes to the entire community is high under low soil phosphorus content and causes shifts in the mass–abundance relationships and in the trophic structures. We show for the first time that the average of the trophic link lengths is a reliable predictor for assessing soil fertility responses. Ordered trophic link pairs suggest a self-organizing structure of food webs according to resource availability and can predict environmental shifts in ecologically meaningful ways. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to all users.     

Separation and measurement of thorium, plutonium, americium, uranium and strontium in environmental matrices

A technique for the isolation of thorium (Th), plutonium (Pu), americium (Am), uranium (U) and strontium (Sr) isotopes from various environmental matrices has been adapted from a previously published method specific to water samples (Maxwell, 2006). Separation and isolation of the various elemental fractions from a single sub-sample is possible, thereby eliminating the need for multiple analyses.The technique involves sample dissolution, concentration via calcium phosphate co-precipitation, rapid column extraction using TEVA™, TRU™ and Sr-Spec™ resin cartridges, alpha spectrometry for Th, Pu, U and Am and Cerenkov counting for Sr.Various standard reference materials were analysed and chemical yields are in the range of 70-80% for Th, Am, U and Sr and 50-60% for Pu. Sample sizes of up to 10 L for water, 5 g for dry soil and sediment and 10 g for dry vegetation and seaweed can be processed using this technique.     

Comparison of annual dry and wet deposition fluxes of selected pesticides in Strasbourg, France

This work summarizes the results of a study of atmospheric wet and dry deposition fluxes of Deisopropyl-atrazine (DEA), Desethyl-atrazine (DET), Atrazine, Terbuthylazine, Alachlor, Metolachlor, Diflufenican, Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl, Iprodione, Isoproturon and Cymoxanil pesticides conducted in Strasbourg, France, from August 2000 through August 2001. The primary objective of this work was to calculate the total atmospheric pesticide deposition fluxes induced by atmospheric particles. To do this, a modified one-dimensional cloud water deposition model was used. All precipitation and deposition samples were collected at an urban forested park environment setting away from any direct point pesticide sources. The obtained deposition fluxes induced by atmospheric particles over a forested area showed that the dry deposition flux strongly contributes to the total deposition flux. The dry particle deposition fluxes are shown to contribute from 4% (DET) to 60% (cymoxanil) to the total deposition flux (wet + dry).     

Heterogeneous light-induced ozone processing on the organic coatings in the atmosphere

Many of the more recent studies concerning heterogeneous reactions of atmospheric interest, carry, in some cases, much more details but still follow the basic philosophy of the first pioneering studies. Therefore, in this study the accent is put on the additional complexities that arise when the aerosols of interest have more complex compositions. Hence, it is attempted to identify the products following the simultaneous ozone processing and light irradiation on particles coated with 4-phenoxyphenol in the presence of 4-carboxybenzophenone as a photosensitizer. In order to reveal a more complete picture on the fate of these aromatic compounds under controlled experimental conditions, different analytical tools such as gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) have been applied.Several surface bound products were identified via GC–MS and some of them (phenol, hydroquinone, catechol, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, benzoic acid, fumaric acid, terephthalic acid, maleic acid, 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene and 4,4′-oxydiphenol) confirmed with standards. The main volatile secondary products as identified by PTR-MS in this study were formic acid, phenol and p-benzoquinone.A reaction mechanism was proposed and density functional theory calculations were performed in order to elucidate the initial steps of the ozonolysis reaction on 4-phenoxyphenol in the presence of 4-carboxybenzophenone.     

Lake Borullus of the Nile Delta: a short history and an uncertain future

Borullus, the most centrally situated of the Nile Delta lakes, probably evolved around the eighth century AD from a preexisting salt marsh by fluviatile deposition of sand dunes north of the lake and subsidence of the preexisting tidal swamp behind this barrier. It was flooded yearly (September-December) by the Sebennytic branch of the Nile, and evacuated water through an exit, Bughaz. At low river levels, this process reversed and Bughaz functioned as a marine inlet. Because of this switch, its fauna and flora contained a mix of marine, freshwater, and brackish-water species. Around the mid-nineteenth century, damming of the Nile began, culminating with the high Aswan Dam (1964) that brought the yearly flood fully under control. As a result, a steady flow of Nile water, used for irrigated delta agriculture, began to drain to the lake and became a constant evacuator to the Mediterranean. It turned almost fresh, and its fishery, formerly marine and mullet-based, became cichlid-catfish based. However, rice and other new delta crops caused huge amounts of nutrients to wash down the drains, and currently the lake is eutrophied and only resists hypertrophication because of the low residence time of its water. Finally, the damming of the Nile terminated the influx to the delta of a yearly sediment layer, but subsidence and coastal erosion continue and are now consuming the sand bar that separates the lake from the sea.     

Brominated flame retardants,a cornelian dilemma

Environmental Chemistry Letters -     

Habitat use of a multispecific seagrass meadow by green turtles Chelonia mydas at Mayotte Island

We investigated the habitat use in green turtles exploiting a 13-ha multispecific seagrass meadow at Mayotte Island, south-western Indian Ocean. A phyto-ecological survey shows the occurrence of eight seagrass species, dominated by Halodule uninervis and Syringodium isoetifolium, distributed according to four distinct seagrass communities along the depth gradient. Direct underwater censuses show that green turtles occurred all over the meadow. Yet when community relative surface area was taken into account green turtles preferentially frequented the most seaward, biomass-richer S. isoetifolium-dominated community, suggesting that green turtles compensate for their intrinsically nutrient-poor herbivorous diet. Additionally, smaller (<80 cm standard curved carapace length, SCCL) individuals also preferentially occurred in the most shoreward H. univervis-dominated community where no larger (>80 cm SCCL) individuals were sighted, suggesting habitat use is indicative of diet selection and may reflect size-specific food requirements and physiology.     

UASB反应器处理造纸废水不同高度的污泥特性

为探讨上向流污泥床（UASB）反应器不同高度处的污泥特性,研究了生产性UASB反应器（总高7.2m）处理造纸废水时不同高度的污泥外观形态、稳定性及其产甲烷活性.结果显示,VS、TS、VSS、TSS浓度随着在反应器中取样高度的增加逐渐降低,并在距离反应器底部2.20m高度处出现分层.反应器1.20m和3.45m高度处的溶解性COD值较大（900mg·L-1以上）.反应器1.20m处污泥的稳定性较好（VS/TS较低）,固体浓度较高（TS136g·L-1,VS75g·L-1）,产甲烷活性较高（0.16g·g-1·d-1,以每gVSS中的COD计）,颗粒较大（平均当量直径为308μm）.UASB反应器处理造纸废水不同高度的污泥颗粒外观形态虽有差异,但污泥的生物活性近似.