Environmental fate and bioavailability of wood preservatives in freshwater sediments near an old sawmill site.

Impacts of an old contaminated sawmill site located in Eastern Finland were studied, with emphasis on transportation and bioaccumulation of wood preservatives in the surrounding water system. To assess the transportation of chlorophenols and chromated copper arsenate (CCA) from the sawmill to the nearby lake, the concentrations of these compounds in selected sediment samples were analyzed. To assess the contribution of a pulp mill further upstream, the concentration of extractable organic halogens (EOX) was analyzed. Bioaccumulation of wood preservatives from sediments was examined using Lumbriculus variegatus as test organism. In sediments collected from the sawmill area, concentrations of chlorophenols, arsenic, chromium and copper were high. In the surrounding area the concentrations of these compounds were slightly elevated at some sampling points but were mostly within the natural range of variation. Thus, it can be concluded that transportation of wood preservatives from the sawmill area to its surroundings is fairly low. However, 60 microg/l of arsenic and 50 microg/l of copper were found in water taken from a brook that runs through a landfill area of the sawmill to the nearby river, and the concentration of arsenic in the surface sediment at one sampling point in the lake was slightly elevated. The total amount of organohalogens in sediment was higher in the river and the lake than in the sawmill area. Of all the wood preservatives studied, only arsenic was found to bioaccumulate in present conditions, reaching a tissue concentration of 362 microg/g dw in organisms exposed for 28 days to sediment from the brook. High concentration of arsenic in oligochaeta tissue was related to high concentration of arsenic in the pore water.     

Formation of singlet oxygen during farmorubicin oxidation.

The enhanced generation of singlet oxygen (1O2) during oxidation of farmorubicin in the Co(II) + H2O2 system was studied using chemiluminescent, fluorescent and spectrophotometic techniques. The influence of 1O2-quenchers, catalase, superoxide anion radical (O2*-) and hydroxyl radical (HO*) scavengers on the light emission was studied. The spectrophotometric determination of 1O2 was based on bleaching of p-nitrosodimethylaniline caused by an intermediate product of the reaction of 1O2 with imidazole, and was followed by monitoring the decrease in optical density at 440 nm.     

Gefahrstoff-Substitution — Innovation durch erfolgreiches Zusammenwirken von Wirtschaft, Staat und Zivilgesellschaft

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

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.     

Relationships between species richness, evenness, and abundance in a southwestern savanna

Species richness and evenness are components of biological diversity that may or may not be correlated with one another and with patterns of species abundance. We compared these attributes among flowering plants, grasshoppers, butterflies, lizards, summer birds, winter birds, and rodents across 48 plots in the grasslands and mesquite-oak savannas of southeastern Arizona. Species richness and evenness were uncorrelated or weakly negatively correlated for each taxonomic group, supporting the conclusion that richness alone is an incomplete measure of diversity. In each case, richness was positively correlated with one or more measures of abundance. By contrast, evenness usually was negatively correlated with the abundance variables, reflecting the fact that plots with high evenness generally were those where all species present were about equally uncommon. Therefore richness, but not evenness, usually was a positive predictor of places of conservation value, if these are defined as places where species of interest are especially abundant. Species diversity was more positively correlated with evenness than with richness among grasshoppers and flowering plants, in contrast to the other taxonomic groups, and the positive correlations between richness and abundance were comparatively weak for grasshoppers and plants as well. Both of these differences can be attributed to the fact that assemblages of plants and grasshoppers were numerically dominated by small subsets of common species (grasses and certain spur-throated grasshoppers) whose abundances differed greatly among plots in ways unrelated to species richness of the groups as a whole.     

Sex,food and conflicts: nutrition dependent nuptial feeding and pre-mating struggles in scorpionflies

Female and male reproductive interests often differ. In species in which matings are accompanied by a transfer of resources valuable for both participants, such as nuptial prey gifts, conflicts may readily occur. Scorpionflies may use alternative mating tactics. One is to offer a prey item (dead arthropod) to females in exchange for mating. This prey gift tactic includes a conflict because a male must decide on whether to offer the gift rather than to fight the female and consume the gift. The outcome may depend on the nutritional status of both males and females. Males may be more willing to give if they themselves are satiated and the condition of the females may influence the payoff from the males’ investment. Similarly, females may be more willing to accept food gifts if they are in poor nutritional condition. In this study of the scorpionfly Panorpa cognata, I experimentally manipulated the feeding history of both males and females. I observed the outcome of the direct interactions that followed when males that were holding prey were approached by females. I found that well-fed males offered the food gift sooner than males in poor nutritional condition that fed extensively on the food item before offering. Female condition had no significant influence on whether prey items were offered by males or accepted by females. I also found that well-fed males rarely searched for prey to pursue the prey gift tactic in courtship. Thus, the prey tactic does not seem to be the males’ first option.     

Carbon mitigation potential of Indian steel industry

Steel dominates the global metal production accounting for 5 % of increase in Earth’s atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂). Today, India is the 4th largest producer of crude steel in the world. The sector contributes around 3 % to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) but adds 6.2 % to the national greenhouse gas (GHG) load. It accounts for 28.4% of the entire industry sector emissions, which are 23.9% of the country’s total emissions. Being a developing country, India is not obliged to cut its emissions under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), but gave voluntary commitment to reduce the emission intensity of its GDP by 20–25 % from the 2005 level by 2020. This paper attempts to find out if the Indian steel sector can help the country in fulfilling this commitment. The sector reduced its CO₂ emissions per ton of steel produced by 58% from 1994 to 2007. The study generates six scenarios for future projections which show that the sector can reduce its emission intensity by 12.5 % to 63 %. But going by the conservative estimates, the sector can reduce emission intensity by 30 % to 53 %. However, actual emissions will go up significantly in every case.     

Ligand exchange rate of metal-nom complexes by EDTA

Metal complexation by natural ligands is important for metal transport and distribution in surface and ground water. The goal of the work was to study the ligand exchange rate for two important metal ions in natural aquatic systems (Al, Fe) was determined using EDTA and natural organic matter (NOM) of humic type as ligands. After adding EDTA to a solution containing metal-NOM complexes, these complexes dissociated and metal-EDTA complexes were formed. Metal-NOM complexes were separated from metal-EDTA complexes with the help of size-exclusion chromatography and detected by on-line inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Injecting the samples into the system over time after addition of EDTA allowed us to measure the rate of the exchange of NOM by EDTA. The experiments could be well described with a first-order rate law assuming that the dissociation of the metal-NOM complexes is the rate-determining step. The exchange rate of Fe was found to be faster than that of Al. This corresponds well with the exchange rate of water molecules from the coordination sphere of the metal ions, which is also faster for Fe than for Al. Furthermore, the UV and the fluorescence signal of the chromatograms were measured. The results indicate that no disaggregation of NOM molecules took place, although about 75-85% of the aggregate-forming metal ions exchanged NOM by EDTA in their coordination sphere. This suggests clearly the fundamental role of NOM in colloidal transport of metals and in their bioavailability.     

Role of Amino Acids on <Emphasis Type="Italic">In Situ</Emphasis> Photografting of Jute Yarn with 3-(Trimethoxysilyl) Propylmethacrylate

To improve the mechanical performance of natural lignocellulosic jute yarn, grafting with [3-(trimethoxysilyl) propylmethacrylate] (TMSPM) monomer has been performed on in situ UV radiation and optimized the monomer concentration (30%) and irradiation time (30 min). Effect of various amino acids (1%) as additives in TMSPM with photografted jute yarn at optimized system has been studied. The polymer loading (PL) and tensile properties like tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (Eb) of treated samples were enhanced by incorporation of amino acids and the highest properties (TS = 300% and Eb = 386%) achieved by the sample treated with l-Arginine (Arg) with 32.5% PL value. Weak acid like 3% acetic acid and inorganic acid like 1% sulfuric acid were also incorporated in the optimized system of TMSPM grafting and compared their effect on the tensile properties with amino acid treated samples. Water absorption and weathering resistance of treated and untreated samples were also performed and treated sample showed lesser water uptake as well as less weight loss and mechanical properties as compared to untreated samples.