Additional disturbances as a beneficial tool for restoration of post-mining sites: a multi-taxa approach

Open interior sands represent a highly threatened habitat in Europe. In recent times, their associated organisms have often found secondary refuges outside their natural habitats, mainly in sand pits. We investigated the effects of different restoration approaches, i.e. spontaneous succession without additional disturbances, spontaneous succession with additional disturbances caused by recreational activities, and forestry reclamation, on the diversity and conservation values of spiders, beetles, flies, bees and wasps, orthopterans and vascular plants in a large sand pit in the Czech Republic, Central Europe. Out of 406 species recorded in total, 112 were classified as open sand specialists and 71 as threatened. The sites restored through spontaneous succession with additional disturbances hosted the largest proportion of open sand specialists and threatened species. The forestry reclamations, in contrast, hosted few such species. The sites with spontaneous succession without disturbances represent a transition between these two approaches. While restoration through spontaneous succession favours biodiversity in contrast to forestry reclamation, additional disturbances are necessary to maintain early successional habitats essential for threatened species and open sand specialists. Therefore, recreational activities seem to be an economically efficient restoration tool that will also benefit biodiversity in sand pits.     

Enhanced excess sludge hydrolysis and acidification in an activated sludge side-stream reactor process with single-stage sludge alkaline treatment: a pilot scale study

A pilot-scale side-stream reactor process with single-stage sludge alkaline treatment was employed to systematically investigate characteristics of excess sludge hydrolysis and acidification with alkaline treatment and evaluate feasibility of recovering a carbon source (C-source) from excess sludge to enhance nutrient removal at ambient temperature. The resulting C-source and volatile fatty acid specific yields reached 349.19 mg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/g volatile suspended solids (VSS) d⁻¹ and 121.3 mg COD/g VSS d⁻¹, respectively, the process had excellent C-source recovery potential. The propionic-to-acetic acid ratio of the recovered C-source was 3.0 times that in the influent, which beneficially enhanced biological phosphorus removal. Large populations and varieties of hydrolytic acid producing bacteria cooperated with alkaline treatment to accelerate sludge hydrolysis and acidification. Physicochemical characteristics indicated that recovered C-source was derived primarily from extracellular polymeric substances hydrolysis rather than from cells disruption during alkaline treatment. This study showed that excess sludge as carbon source was successfully recycled by alkaline treatment in the process.

     

从废FCC催化剂和废汽车尾气净化催化剂中回收稀土的研究进展

以稀土元素(简称稀土)用量较大的废FCC催化剂和废汽车尾气净化催化剂为研究对象,分析总结了两类废催化剂中稀土的成分和回收方法。从废催化剂中回收稀土普遍采用先浸出、后分离提纯的方法。浸出普遍采用无机酸(多为盐酸),分离方法包括溶剂萃取法、化学沉淀法等,最后经焙烧得到稀土氧化物。为从废催化剂中高效回收稀土,可着重考察新浸出机制的引入、分离方式的选择、分离试剂的应用,以及浸出和分离条件的优化,从而为实现工业化回收提供技术支持。     

Kinetic Analysis of the Temperature Effect on Polyhydroxyalkanoate Production by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Haloferax mediterranei</Emphasis> in Synthetic Molasses Wastewater

Haloferax mediterranei is an extremely halophilic archaeon that is able to synthesize polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) in high salt environment with low sterility demand. In this study, a mathematical model was validated and calibrated for describing the kinetic behavior of H. mediterranei at 15, 20, 25, and 35 °C in synthetic molasses wastewater. Results showed that the production of PHA by H. mediterranei, ranging from 390 to 620 mg h^?1 L^?1, was strongly dependent on the temperature. The specific growth rate (µ _max), specific substrate utilization rate (q _max), and specific decay rate (k _d) of H. mediterranei increased with temperature following Arrhenius equation prediction. The estimated activation energy was 58.31, 25.59, and 22.38 kJ mol^?1 for the process of cell growth, substrate utilization, and cell decay of H. mediterranei, respectively. The high temperature triggered the increased PHA storage even without nitrogen limitation. Thus, working at high temperatures seems a good strategy for improving the PHA productivity of H. mediterranei.     

水位高程变化对湿地土壤微生物代谢功能的影响研究——以蚌湖为例

在淡水湖泊生态系统中,水位高程的变化会对整个生态系统产生重要的影响。本研究以鄱阳湖最具代表性的碟形湖——蚌湖为实验地点,研究了水位高程对于湖泊湿地土壤微生物代谢功能的影响。在实验中沿水位高程及植被带演替布设6个样地,利用Biolog-Eco技术探究不同水位高程样地土壤微生物群落代谢功能的多样性及分布规律。结果表明:随着样地水位高程的降低,土壤含水量逐渐升高,地表植被的覆盖率逐渐减少,土壤有机养分出现先减小后增大的趋势;而土壤微生物对碳源代谢活性随着高程的降低依次减弱,且优先利用的碳源种类和碳源利用率也有显著不同。通过dbRDA排序分析表明:土壤微生物群落功能多样性沿高程呈现区域性分布特征,相邻的两样地土壤微生物碳源代谢功能更为相近。影响湿地土壤微生物碳源代谢功能的主要因子为土壤含水量、土壤有机质含量、pH、NH_4-N和地表植被类型。本研究结果可为合理管理和保护鄱阳湖湿地生态系统提供科学的指导。     

Rare earth elements in street dust and associated health risk in a municipal industrial base of central China

The content levels, distribution characteristics, and health risks associated with 15 rare earth elements (REEs) in urban street dust from an industrial city, Zhuzhou, in central China were investigated. The total REE content (∑REE) ranged from 66.1 to 237.4 mg kg^?1, with an average of 115.9 mg kg^?1, which is lower than that of Chinese background soil and Yangtze river sediment. Average content of the individual REE in street dust decreased in the order Ce > La > Nd > Y > Pr > Sm > Gd > Dy > Er > Yb > Eu > Ho > Tb > Tm > Lu. The chondrite-normalized REE pattern indicated light REE (LREE) enrichment, a relatively steep LREE trend, heavy REE (HREE) depletion, a flat HREE trend, a Eu-negative anomaly and a Ce-positive anomaly. Foremost heavy local soil and to less degree anthropogenic pollution are the main sources of REE present in street dust. Health risk associated with the exposure of REE in street dust was assessed based on the carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effect and lifetime average daily dose. The obtained cancer and non-cancer risk values prompt for no augmented health hazard. However, children had greater health risks than that of adults.     

Evaluation of heavy metal concentrations of edible wild-grown mushrooms from China

ABSTRACT

The heavy metal contents (Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn) of eight species of wild edible mushrooms from China were determined. The analyses were performed using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrophotometry after microwave digestion. The contents of Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn in caps of mushroom samples were 0.7–7.2, 16.2–70.4, 371–1315, 12.5–29.8, 7.1–58.5, and 77.8–187.4 mg kg^?1 dry matter (dm), respectively, while considerable differences were found to be 1.8–25.9, 9.8–36.3, 288–6762, 13.3–103.9, 5.9–78.7, and 38.7–118 mg kg^?1 dm for stipes. The results indicated that higher levels of Co, Fe, and Ni were found in the mushrooms samples analyzed. Zinc and manganese levels were similar to previous reports, whereas Cu was lower than literature values. Correlation analysis suggested that significant correlations were found between the minerals determined and the greatest amount of contamination is associated with Co, Mn, Ni, and Fe. The results of this study indicate that heavy metal contents in mushroom species are mainly related to the mineral resources of sampling sites.     

基于联系数与三角模糊数的黄柏河梯级水库富营养化评价

针对水体富营养化评价具有模糊性和不确定性的多属性决策问题,提出联系数与三角模糊数耦合的富营养化综合评价方法。利用多元联系数描述评价因子与评价等级之间隶属关系的不确定性,采用分段三角模糊数确定联系数差异度系数的连续变化过程和模糊性,进而计算评价因子与评价等级之间的综合联系数,并结合评价指标组合权重确定级别特征值。应用该方法对2016年7月黄柏河梯级水库的富营养化状况进行了评价。结果表明:玄庙观水库处于贫营养状态,天福庙水库、西北口水库和尚家河水库均处于中营养状态。各水库富营养化程度排序为:尚家河水库西北口水库天福庙水库玄庙观水库。该法所得结果与其它多种评价方法的结果对比表明,该方法评价结果直观有效,可以真实反映水库富营养化等级状况,能够更加细微、准确的区分同一等级水体富营养化差异,在湖库富营养化评价中具有良好的应用前景。     

Optimization of thermal performance of the parabolic trough solar collector systems based on GA-BP neural network model

The aim of this paper is to optimize the thermal performance (system output energy, thermal efficiency, and heat loss of cavity absorber) of parabolic trough solar collector (PTC) systems in order to improve its thermal performance, based on the genetic algorithm-back propagation (GA-BP) neural network model. There are a number of undefined problems, fuzzy or incomplete information and a complex thermal performance of the PTC systems. Therefore, the thermal performance prediction of the PTC systems based on GA-BP neural network model was developed. Subsequently, the metrics performances have been adopted to comprehensively understand the algorithm and evaluate the prediction accuracy. Results revealed that the GA-BP neural network model can be successfully used to predict the complex nonlinear relationship between the input variables and thermal performance of the PTC systems. The cosine effect has a great influence on the thermal performance; thereby the geometrical structure of the PTC systems was optimized. It was found that the optimized geometrical structure was beneficial to improve the thermal performance of the PTC system. In conclusion, the GA-BP neural network model has higher prediction accuracy than the other algorithm and it can be feasible and reliable.