Distribution, sources, and potential risk of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in drinking water resources from Henan Province in middle of China

Distribution and risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in drinking water resources have been carried out for the first time in Henan Province, China. Water samples collected from four river systems and their tributaries, as well as groundwater resources, were analyzed according to EPA method 525.2. Total of 68 water samples were collected in 18 cities in Henan province in May, August and November, 2001. Concentrations of sum of 16 priority PAHs in water samples ranged from 15 to 844 ng/L with a mean value of 178 +/- 210 ng/L (n = 68). The spatial and temporal distribution of PAHs showed that the Huanghe and the Huaihe river systems had relatively higher concentrations of total PAHs. Higher concentrations of total PAHs were observed in August and November than in May, with respective mean values of 262, 232 and 33.6 ng/L. Ratios of Ant/(Ant + Phe) and Flur/(Flur + Pyr) were calculated to evaluate the possible sources of PAH contamination, which indicated that the coal combustion sources were the main contributors to PAHs in most drinking water resources. Some petrogenic (or pyrolytic) sources of PAHs were also found. The toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) were used to calculate benzo[a]pyrene equivalents (BaPE) for water samples. The average value of BaPE was 0.6 ng/L. The values in most stations were much lower than the guideline values in drinking water of Chinese Environmental Protection Agency (CEPA, 2.8 ng/L) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA, 200 ng/L). Overall, the drinking water resources in Henan province showed some carcinogenic potential.     

Concentrations and inventories of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and organochlorine pesticides in watershed soils in the Pearl River Delta,China

The concentration levels, source, and inventories of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in 55 surface vegetable soils in the watershed of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) were analyzed and compared with those of the surface sediments in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) and northern South China Sea (SCS). The 16 priority PAHs on US EPA list range from 58 to 3,077 microg/kg (average: 315 microg/kg). The concentrations of DDTs and HCHs range from 3.58 to 831 microg/kg (average: 82.1 microg/kg) and from 0.19 to 42.3 microg/kg (average: 4.42 microg/kg). The ratios of DDT/ (DDD+DDE) are higher than 2 in majority of the soil samples, suggesting that DDT contamination still exists. The PAH ratios suggest that the source of PAHs is petroleum, and combustion of fossil fuel, biomass, and coal. The average concentrations of PAHs and the linear regression slope between PAHs and TOC for the soils and the sediments are quite similar. It was estimated that the soil mass inventories at 0-20 cm depth are 1,292 metric tons for PAHs and 356 metric tons for OCPs in the studied region. The average PAHs inventory per unit area for the soil samples investigated in PRD is about 0.86 time that of surface sediments in the Pearl River Estuary, and about 2.43 times that of surface sediments in the northern South China Sea. PAHs in the soils in PRD have similar source to those of the surface sediments in PRE. All of those may suggest that PAHs in PRE and SCS are probably mainly inputted from the soils in PRD via soil erosion and river transport.     

Ecological risk assessment of open coal mine area

The coal mine areas in China have the serious conflicts between resources exploitation and ecology safety, therefore the coal mine ecological risk assessment is an important problem which relates to the sustainability of coal mines to regions and the whole country. In this study, open coal mine area serves as researching object, heavy metals, soil erosion and coast are screened out as risk resources, soil wireworm as the receiver of heavy metals risk, biotope ecosystem as the receiver of soil erosion and coast risk; ecological indexes are calculated with species background index, biological diversity index and natural degree index, ecological friability indexes are calculated with soil fertility index, plant coverage, plant species diversity index, soil wireworm index and maturity index, and the typical coal mine area assessment indexes system is established. In addition, the regional ecological risk assessment is conducted on the friable ecological system of Fuxin Haizhou open coal mine area. Examples are researched of Haizhou open coal mine, the coal mine risk distribution is established, and foundations are provided for the administrative decision-making.     

Prediction models of CO, SPM and SO2 concentrations in the Campo de Gibraltar Region, Spain: a multiple comparison strategy

The 'Campo de Gibraltar' region is a very industrialized area where very few air pollution studies have been carried out. Up to date, no model has been developed in order to predict air pollutant levels in the different towns spread in the region. Carbon monoxide (CO), Sulphur dioxide (SO(2)) and suspended particulate matter (SPM) series have been investigated (years 1999-2000-2001). Multilayer perceptron models (MLPs) with backpropagation learning rule have been used. A resampling strategy with two-fold crossvalidation allowed the statistical comparison of the different models considered in this study. Artificial neural networks (ANN) models were compared with Persistence and ARIMA models and also with models based on standard Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) over test sets with data that had not been used in the training stage. The models based on ANNs showed better capability of generalization than those based on MLR. The designed procedure of random resampling permits an adequate and robust multiple comparison of the tested models. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to reduce the dimensionality of data and to transform exogenous variables into significant and independent components. Short-term predictions were better than medium-term predictions in the case of CO and SO(2) series. Conversely, medium-term predictions were better in the case of SPM concentrations. The predictions are significantly promising (e.g., d (SPM 24-ahead) = 0.906, d (CO 1-ahead) = 0.891, d (SO2 1-ahead) = 0.851).     

Dynamics of the lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin, China, since late nineteenth century

The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin have the most representative and largest concentration of freshwater lakes in China. However, the size and number of these lakes have changed considerably over the past century due to the natural and anthropogenic impact. The lakes, larger than 10 km² in size, were chosen from relief maps and remotely sensed images in 1875, 1950, 1970, 1990, 2000, and 2008 to study the dynamics of lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin and to examine the causes and consequences of these changes. Results indicated that there was a dramatic reduction in lake areas, which decreased by 7,841.2 km² (42.64 %) during the study period (1875–2008), and the number of lakes in this region changed moderately. Meanwhile, a large number of lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin were directly converted into paddy fields, ponds, building lands, or other land-use types over the study period. Therefore, all kinds of lake reclamation should be identified as the major driving factors for the loss of lake in this region. Furthermore, flooding, soil erosion, and sedimentation were also the main factors which triggered lake changes in different periods. Some wetland conservation and restoration projects have been implemented since the 1970s, but they have not reversed the lake degradation. These findings were of great importance to managers involved in making policy for the conservation of lake ecosystems and the utilization of lake resources.     

Histopathological changes in zebrafish embryos exposed to DLPCBs extract from Zhanjiang coastal sediment

Dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (DLPCBs) are ubiquitous persistent pollutants that cause adverse effects in many environmental organisms. DLPCBs in marine sediments can be absorbed by benthic organisms, bioaccumulate, and biomagnify through the food chain and threaten animal and human health. There are no reports of DLPCBs concentrations in the Zhanjiang Gulf seabed. This study was designed to investigate the concentration of DLPCBs in the Zhanjiang coastal sediment and histopathological changes in zebrafish (Diano rerio) embryos exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of DLPCBs. Of the five sites selected, two sites TS and JSW contained DLPCBs at concentrations of 0.08 and 22.54 ng/g dry sediment, respectively. Two groups of zebrafish embryos were used. One group was exposed to 3.75, 7.5, 15, 30, and 60 mg/ml of DLPCBs extracted from the sediments sampled from the TS site and the second group to 4.375, 8.75, 17.5, 35, and 70 mg/ml of DLPCBs from JSW site from 0.75 h post-fertilization (hpf) to 96 hpf. The zebrafish exposed to 60 and 70 mg/ml of DLPCBs at 96 hpf displayed gross histopathological changes with cardiac lesions including pericardial edema being the most deleterious. Other changes observed were hydropic degeneration of gill filaments and hepatocytes, loss of intestinal folds, and uninflated swim bladder. It appears that only a few sites of the Zhanjiang gulf are contaminated with DLPCBs. This is the first report of histopathological changes in the gills, hepatocytes, intestines, heart, and the swim bladder in zebrafish embryos exposed to DLPCBs from a coastal sediment. Further studies with sampling at different stages of development are required to identify which organ/tissue is most sensitive to DLPCBs.     

5—(4—磺酸基苯偶氮)8—(2,4—二硝基苯氨基)喹啉测定食品中铜的研究应用

在弱碱性介质中 ,5— (4—磺酸基苯偶氮 ) 8— (2 ,4—二硝基苯氨基 )喹啉 (SPDNPAQ)与铜反应生成 2∶ 1紫红色络合物 ,体系 λmax=56 0 nm,ε=1.2 3× 10 5L· mol-1· cm-1。铜含量在 0～ 0 .4 mg/ L内符合比耳定律 ,方法用于一些生物样品和水样中铜的测定。     

Investigative monitoring within the European Water Framework Directive: a coastal blast furnace slag disposal, as an example

The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes a framework for the protection of estuarine and coastal waters, with the most important objective being to achieve 'good ecological status' for all waters, by 2015. Hence, Member States are establishing programmes for the monitoring of water quality status, through the assessment of ecological and chemical elements. These monitoring programmes can be of three types: surveillance monitoring; operational monitoring (both undertaken on a routine basis); and investigative monitoring (carried out where the reason of any exceedance for ecological and chemical status is unknown). Until now, nothing has been developed in relation to investigative monitoring and no clear guidance exists for this type of monitoring, as it must be tackled on a 'case-by-case' basis. Consequently, the present study uses slag disposal from a blast furnace, into a coastal area, as a case-study in the implementation of investigative monitoring, according to the WFD.In order to investigate the potential threat of such slags, this contribution includes: a geophysical study, to determine the extent of the disposal area; sediment analysis; a chemical metal analysis; and an ecotoxicological study (including a Microtox test and an amphipod bioassay). The results show that metal concentrations are several times above the background concentration. However, only one of the stations showed toxicity after acute toxicological tests, with the benthic communities being in a good status. The approaches used here show that contaminants are not bioavailable and that no management actions are required with the slags.     

Effects of pig manure containing copper and zinc on microbial community assessed via phospholipids in soils

Pig manure (PM) is widely used as an organic fertilizer to increase yields of crops. Excessive application of compost containing relatively great concentrations of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) can change soil quality. To clarify the effects of different rates of application and to determine the optimal rate of fertilization, PM containing 1,115 mg Cu kg^?1, dry mass (dm) and 1,497 mg Zn kg^?1, dm was applied to alkaline soil at rates of 0, 11, 22, 44, 88, and 222 g PM kg^?1, dm. Phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) were used to assess soil microbial community composition. Application of PM resulted in greater concentrations of total nitrogen (TN), NH₄ ⁺-N, NO₃ ^?-N, total carbon (TC), soil organic matter (SOM) but lesser pH values. Soils with application rates of 88–222 g PM kg^?1, dm had concentrations of total and EDTA-extractable Cu and Zn significantly greater than those in soil without PM, and concentrations of T-Cu and T-Zn in these amended soils exceeded maximum limits set by standards in china. Except in the soil with a rate of 11 g PM kg^?1, dm, total bacterial and fungal PLFAs were directly proportional to rate of application of PM. Biomasses of bacteria and fungi were significantly greater in soils with application rates of 44–222 g PM kg^?1, dm than in the soil without PM. SOM, TC and EDTA-Zn had the most direct influence on soil microbial communities. To improve fertility of soils and maintain quality of soil, rate of application should be 22–44 g PM kg^?1 dm, soil containing Cu and Zn.     

Penicillin fermentation residue biochar as a high-performance electrode for membrane capacitive deionization

● We have provided an activated method to remove the toxicity of antibiotic residue. ● PFRB can greatly improve the salt adsorption capacity of MCDI. ● The hierarchical porous and abundant O/N-doped played the key role for the high-capacity desalination. ● A new field of reuse of penicillin fermentation residue has been developed. Membrane capacitive deionization (MCDI) is an efficient desalination technology for brine. Penicillin fermentation residue biochar (PFRB) possesses a hierarchical porous and O/N-doped structure which could serve as a high-capacity desalination electrode in the MCDI system. Under optimal conditions (electrode weight, voltage, and concentration) and a carbonization temperature of 700 °C, the maximum salt adsorption capacity of the electrode can reach 26.4 mg/g, which is higher than that of most carbon electrodes. Furthermore, the electrochemical properties of the PFRB electrode were characterized through cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) with a maximum specific capacitance of 212.18 F/g. Finally, biotoxicity tests have showed that PFRB was non-biotoxin against luminescent bacteria and the MCDI system with the PFRB electrode remained stable even after 27 adsorption–desorption cycles. This study provides a novel way to recycle penicillin residue and an electrode that can achieve excellent desalination.