AQUATOX: Modeling environmental fate and ecological effects in aquatic ecosystems

AQUATOX combines aquatic ecosystem, chemical fate, and ecotoxicological constructs to obtain a truly integrative fate and effects model. It is a general, mechanistic ecological risk assessment model intended to be used to evaluate past, present, and future direct and indirect effects from various stressors including nutrients, organic wastes, sediments, toxic organic chemicals, flow, and temperature in aquatic ecosystems. The model has a very flexible structure and provides multiple analytical tools useful for evaluating ecological effects, including uncertainty analysis, nominal range sensitivity analysis, comparison of perturbed and control simulations, and graphing and tabulation of predicted concentrations, rates, and photosynthetic limitations. It can represent a full aquatic food web, including multiple genera and guilds of periphyton, phytoplankton, submersed aquatic vegetation, invertebrates, and fish and associated organic toxicants. It can model up to 20 organic chemicals simultaneously. (It does not model metals.) Modeled processes for organic toxicants include chemodynamics of neutral and ionized organic chemicals, bioaccumulation as a function of sorption and bioenergetics, biotransformation to daughter products, and sublethal and lethal toxicity. It has an extensive library of default biotic, chemical, and toxicological parameters and incorporates the ICE regression equations for estimating toxicity in numerous organisms. The model has been implemented for streams, small rivers, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries. It is an integral part of the BASINS system with linkage to the watershed models HSPF and SWAT.     

Enhanced irreversible fixation of cesium by wetting and drying cycles in soil

Environmental Geochemistry and Health - The retention of radioactive cesium (Cs) in soil is significantly related to the types of clay minerals, while the weathering process affects the...     

High removal of phosphate from wastewater using silica sulfate

This report shows that silica sulfate is removing phosphate from wastewater very efficiently. Phosphorus removal and recovery from wastewater is a worldwide issue due to pollution of natural waters by phosphate and depletion of phosphate ores. Adsorption is a process that can remove phosphate at low concentrations. Adsorption also allows the recovery of phosphate for possible re-use. Here, we studied the adsorption of phosphate from wastewater using commercial Zr ferrite, Zr-MCM 41 and silica sulfate. We calculated equilibrium isotherms, kinetic models and thermodynamic effects under conditions similar to real wastewaters. We found that the equilibrium data for the adsorption of phosphate were best fitted to the Freundlich model. The results show that the maximum uptake of phosphate was 3.36 mg g⁻¹ for Zr-MCM, 27.73 mg g⁻¹ for Zr ferrite and 46.32 mg g⁻¹ for silica sulfate. The kinetic results of the three adsorbents were satisfactorily predicted using a pseudo-second-order model. We found that silica sulfate provided excellent characteristics in terms of the maximum adsorption and rate constant for the adsorption of phosphate. The thermodynamic data showed that increasing the temperature enhanced the adsorption of phosphate onto silica sulfate. Our findings will help to define efficient methods to remove phosphate from wastewater.     

Assessment of Young Dong tributary and Imgok Creek impacted by Young Dong coal mine,South Korea

An initial reclamation of the Young Dong coal mine site, located in northeastern South Korea, was completed in 1995. Despite the filling of the adit with limestone, acid rock drainage (ARD) enters Young Dong tributary and is then discharged to Imgok Creek. This ARD carries an average of 500 mg CaCO₃/l of mineral acidity, primarily as Fe(II) and Al. Before spring runoff, the flow of Imgok Creek is 3.3–4 times greater than that of the tributary and has an alkalinity of 100 mg CaCO₃/l, which is sufficient to eliminate the mineral acidity and raise the pH to about 6.5. From April through September 2008, there were at least two periods of high surface flow that affects the flow of ARD from the adit. Flow of ARD reaches 2.8 m³/min during spring runoff. This raised the concentrations of Fe and Al in the confluence with Imgok Creek. However, by 2 km downstream the pH of the Imgok Creek is 6.5 and only dissolved Fe is above the Korean drinking water criteria (0.30 mg/l). This suggests only a minor impact of Young Dong Creek water on Imgok Creek. Acid digestion of the sediments in Imgok Creek and Young Dong Tributary reveals considerable abundances of heavy metals, which could have a long-term impact on water quality. However, several water-based leaching tests, which better simulate the bioavailable metals pool, released only Al, Fe, Mn, and Zn at concentrations exceeding the criteria for drinking water or aquatic life.     

Uptake and elimination of perchlorate in eastern mosquitofish

The purpose of this study was to investigate the uptake and elimination of perchlorate in eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). Fish were exposed to 0.1-1000 mg/l sodium perchlorate for 12h, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 30 days, and perchlorate was determined in whole body extracts. Perchlorate was not detected in mosquitofish exposed to the low concentrations of perchlorate (0, 0.1, and 1mg/l sodium perchlorate), regardless of the exposure time, whereas it was detected when fish were exposed to 10, 100, and 1000 mg/l. The tissue concentrations were approximately 10 times less than that in the water. There was no difference in the uptake of perchlorate depending upon the exposure time, however, a difference in perchlorate uptake depending upon the concentration of the exposure dose (P<0.001) was observed. Uptake (K(u)) and elimination (K(e)) rate constants were 0.09 l/mg day and 0.70 day(-1), respectively. The half-life (T1/2) of perchlorate was 0.99 day. Thus, it appears that perchlorate is rapidly taken up and eliminated in eastern mosquitofish. These results are critical and may be used to develop models of fate, effects, and transport of perchlorate in natural systems, as well as to assess ecological risk in affected ecosystems.     

Simultaneous oxidation of EDTA and reduction of metal ions in mixed Cu(II)/Fe(III)-EDTA system by TiO2 photocatalysis

Both the photooxidation of EDTA and the photoreduction of metal ions in metal-EDTA systems were investigated. EDTA oxidation by TiO(2) photocatalysis occurred sequentially as Cu(II)-EDTA>Cu(II)/Fe(III)-EDTA>Fe(III)-EDTA. For Cu(II)-EDTA, EDTA was completely decomposed after only 60min of irradiation. The rate of EDTA decomposition was directly correlated with the initial Cu(II) concentration in the case of a mixed Cu(II)/Fe(III)-EDTA system. The metal ions in a single metal-EDTA complex were removed following significant decomposition of EDTA. For a mixed Cu(II)/Fe(III)-EDTA system, however, no copper was removed whereas almost all of the iron was removed. The iron and copper species deposited on the TiO(2) surface were identified via EPR and XPS as mixed FeO/Fe(3)O(4) and Cu(0)/Cu(2)O, respectively.     

Sorption and reduction of tetrachloroethylene with zero valent iron and amphiphilic molecules

Effects of surfactants and natural organic matter (NOM) on the sorption and reduction of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) with zero valent iron (ZVI) were examined in this study. PCE reduction by ZVI depended on the ionic type of the surfactants. The removal of PCE and production of TCE with non-ionic Triton X-100 and cationic hexadecyltrimethyl-ammonium (HDTMA) at one-half and two times the critical micelle concentration (CMC) were 1.2-1.8 times higher than without surfactants because of the enhanced PCE partitioning and surface concentration by the sorbed surfactants. When anionic sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate (SDDBS) at one-half and two times CMC and NOM at 20 mg l(-1) and 50 mg l(-1) concentrations were used, the removal of PCE doubled and TCE production decreased. In the presence of SDDBS, TCE production by ZVI was lower than with HDTMA and Triton X-100 while PCE removal was higher than with the other surfactants.