H(+)/phenanthrene symporter and aquaglyceroporin are implicated in phenanthrene uptake by wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) roots

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous organic pollutants that are toxic to human and nonhuman organisms. Dietary intake of PAHs is a dominant route of exposure for the general population because food crops are a major source of dietary PAHs. The mechanism for crop root uptake of PAHs remains unclear. Here we reveal that wheat root uptake of PAHs involves active and passive processes. The passive uptake is mercury and glycerol dependent. Mercury and glycerol inhibit uptake, indicating that aquaglyceroporins sensitive to mercury contribute to passive uptake. Active uptake is mediated by a phenanthrene/H symporter. The electrical response of wheat roots triggered by phenanthrene consists of two sequential phases: depolarization followed by repolarization. The depolarization is phenanthrene concentration dependent, with saturation kinetics that have an apparent of K(m) 10.8 μmol L(-1). As uptake proceeds, external solution pH increase is noticed. Lower pH favors the uptake. Vanadate and 2,4-dinitrophenol suppress the electrical response to phenanthrene and phenanthrene uptake, suggesting that plasma membrane H(+)-ATPase is involved in the establishment of an electrochemical proton gradient acting as a driving force for active uptake. Therefore, it is suggested that aquaglyceroporin and phenanthrene/H symporter are implicated in phenanthrene uptake. Our results provide insight into PAH uptake mechanism in wheat roots that is relevant to strategies for reducing PAH accumulation in wheat for food safety, improving phytoremediation of PAH-contaminated soils or water by agronomic practices and genetic modification to target remedial plants for higher PAH uptake capacity.     

Transformation of tetrabromobisphenol A in the presence of different solvents and metals

Solvent-based separation method is presumably an efficient and environmentally beneficial approach for elimination of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). The overall goal of this study was to evaluate possible effects of organic solvent on the behavior of BFRs during solvent-based processing of WEEE. We initiated a set of batch experiments for examining the rates and possible pathways of transformation of a representative BFR (tetrabromobisphenol A, TBBPA) using acetone, toluene, and methanol as the solvents. Our results showed that toluene and methanol had no effect on the transformation of TBBPA, but approximately 20% of TBBPA (100 mg L⁻¹) was transformed by acetone within 2 h at 50 °C. Analysis of the products with GC-MS showed that two high-molecular-weight products (MW = 586) were major products of the transformation reactions. The role of acetone as a reactant in the transformation of TBBPA was further validated with dueterated acetone. In addition, the effects of co-existing metals in WEEE (i.e., Zn, Cu, and Ni) on the transformation of TBBPA in the solvent systems were investigated. These metals tested were found to greatly enhance the rates of TBBPA transformation. The metal facilitated solvent reactions with TBBPA may lower the extractability of TBBPA by formation of larger and less soluble products, hence potentially increasing the cost for separating the chemical from WEEE.     

人工湿地构筑根孔作用下土壤物质分布状况

嘉兴市石臼漾湿地应用人工构筑根孔技术,以玉米秸秆和油菜秸秆按比例混合埋植于土壤亚表层,作为湿地的基质/填料。在湿地运行一年半后,按照正交设计表,以埋植秸秆的种类(S)、填埋的土壤层次(L)、距离秸秆外环的远近(D)和秸秆周围土壤的表观颜色(C)作为实验因素,对秸秆周围养分物质浓度、土壤酶活性以及铁含量进行采样分析。实验结果显示:玉米秸秆和油菜秸秆腐烂较充分,分别形成较发达的粗根孔和细根孔;根孔周围土壤呈中度还原状态;粗根孔具有较强的优先流效应,其周围土壤具有较高的养分物质含量和较低的Fe2+/Fe3+比。粗根孔周围土壤具有较高的磷酸酶活性,而细根孔周围具有较高的β-葡糖苷酶活性和脲酶活性。综合比较,人工湿地构建初期,径级较大秸秆腐烂后形成的粗根孔发挥着更高的水分传导效率和更强的物质截留效应。     

玉米深加工废水的混凝实验

在室温条件下,分别选用聚合氯化铝(PAC)、聚合氯化铝铁(PAFC)及三氯化铁(FeCl3)对玉米深加工废水进行混凝实验。综合考虑各种混凝剂对磷、COD以及SS的去除效果,最终选取PAC作为混凝剂。采用PAC和聚丙烯酰胺(PAM)作为复合混凝剂,对其去除效果做进一步研究,并确定了最佳投加量及pH值。实验结果表明,在PAC投加量25mg/L,PAM投加量0.5 mg/L,pH为8条件下,混凝效果最佳。磷、COD、SS去除率可分别达到90.1%、53.3%和88.2%,对应的出水质量浓度分别为0.41、26.8和2 mg/L。     

An Estimation of the Effects of China’s Priority Forestry Programs on Farmers’ Income

In the late 1990s, the Chinese government initiated some new programs and consolidated other existing ones of ecological restoration and resource development in its forest sector, and renamed them as “Priority Forestry Programs,” or PFPs. They include the Natural Forest Protection Program (NFPP), the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), the Desertification Combating Program around Beijing and Tianjin (DCBT), the Shelterbelt Development Program (SBDP), and the Wildlife Conservation and Nature Reserve Development Program (WCNR). In addition to improving the environmental and resource conditions, a frequently reiterated goal of these PFPs is to increase rural households’ income, therefore discussing why looking at rural household income impacts might be an important part of forest program evaluation. Thus, an interesting and important question is: How has implementing the PFPs affected the farmers’ income and poverty status? This article addresses this question using a fixed-effects model and a panel dataset that covers 1968 households in four provinces for ten consecutive years (1995–2004). The empirical evidence indicates that their effects are mixed. The SLCP, the SBDP, and the NFPP have made positive impact and, by far, the SLCP has the largest effect. But the WCNR and the DCBT still have not had a pronounced overall effect due to their short time span of execution, even though they may have exerted certain influence at the margin. Notably, the impact of the WCNR, if any, is negative.     

An ecological perspective on nanomaterial impacts in the environment

Growing concerns over the potential for unintended, adverse consequences of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) in the environment have generated new research initiatives focused on understanding the ecological effects of ENPs. Almost nothing is currently known about the fate and transport of ENPs in environmental waters, soils, and sediments or about the biological impacts of ENPs in natural environments, and the bulk of modern nanotoxicogical research is focused on highly controlled laboratory studies with single species in simple media. In this paper, we provide an ecological perspective on the current state of knowledge regarding the likely environmental impacts of nanomaterials and propose a strategy for making rapid progress in new research in ecological nanoscience.     

Carbon/nitrogen ratio as a major factor for predicting the effects of organic wastes on soil bacterial communities assessed by DNA-based molecular techniques

Background, aim, and scope  

Current Australian legislation permits the beneficial application of grease trap waste (GTW) to agricultural soil, viewing it as a beneficial source of organic matter and soil conditioner containing no/low amounts of metals or pathogenic organisms. However, little is known about the influence of GTW on soil bacterial community. A field experiment was established at Menangle in south western Sydney in Australia to quantitatively assess the impacts of different types (GTW CO and GTW CL) and amounts of GTW application on the soil bacterial community and diversity. Furthermore, a municipal solid waste (MSW) compost was simultaneously examined to compare against the other organic wastes. Knowledge about the shifts in microbial community structure and diversity following the applications of organic wastes could help to evaluate the ecological consequences on the soil and thus to develop sound regulatory guidelines for the beneficial reuse of organic wastes in agricultural lands.     

可见光响应型CuO/BiVO4的光催化活性研究

采用浸渍法制备了CuO/BiVO4光催化剂,通过X射线衍射(XRD)、热重/差示扫描量热(TG/DSC)和傅立叶红外光谱(FTIR)对其进行了表征,并在可见光照射下考察了其光催化氧化亚甲基蓝(MB)的动力学特性。结果表明,Cu的掺杂并未改变BiVO4的晶型结构;Cu(NO3)2/BiVO4在热处理(30～300℃)过程中,NO3-已经完全分解,Cu最终以CuO的形式存在于CuO/BiVO4光催化剂体系中;掺杂不同量Cu的CuO/BiVO4中的Cu2+/Bi+(摩尔比)实测值与理论值相近,该系列光催化剂的合成过程具有较高的可信度;在可见光照射下,CuO/BiVO4光催化降解MB反应符合表观一级反应动力学特征;当Cu2+/Bi+为0.050时,反应动力学速率常数(k)达到最高值(0.4334h-1),此时的k比单体BiVO4作用下的提高了1.04倍;由于异质结的存在,CuO/BiVO4与单体BiVO4相比,电子和空穴的利用率大大增加,使得CuO/BiVO4的光催化活性较单体BiVO4有了大幅度提高。     

生物法-人工湿地组合工艺处理小城镇混合污水研究

为适应小城镇污水处理高效、低耗、管理简单的要求,开展了生物法(水解酸化/生物接触氧化)-人工湿地组合工艺(A/BCO-CW)处理小城镇片区混合污水的研究。结果表明,A/BCO系统在停留时间为3～6 h条件下,对悬浮物和有机物有高的去除效率,COD、BOD5和TSS去除率分别达到63.1%、67.7%和66.2%,避免了人工湿地堵塞和提高处理效率,减少了所需湿地面积44%。全年运行结果表明,在0.30～0.59 m/d水力负荷率下,垂直流-表面流-水平潜流人工湿地组合系统对COD、BOD5和TSS平均去除负荷达9.4、5.1和7.2 g/(m2.d)(42%、71.2%和85.2%);COD、BOD5去除速率常数为74.6±12.1 m/y、166±30.5 m/y,这些数值均处于文献中k值范围的高量程内。A/BCO-人工湿地系统对COD、BOD5和TSS具有好的处理效果,出水水质能够稳定达到《地表水环境质量标准》(GB 3838-2002)的IV类水标准,2种处理方法有效组合起来,所开发的低成本、高效率、可持续运行的城镇废水处理组合系统,将会在实际应用尤其是高有机负荷污水处理中发挥良好效用。     

混凝与Fenton联用处理垃圾渗滤液的效能及成本

为对混凝/Fenton工艺与Fenton/混凝工艺处理垃圾渗滤液的效果和成本进行比较,分别对年轻渗滤液和老龄渗滤液原液按照混凝/Fenton工艺与Fenton/混凝工艺2种技术路线进行处理。实验结果表明,Fenton试剂对年轻垃圾渗滤液和老龄垃圾渗滤液COD去除率最高的反应条件为pH=3.5、H2O2和Fe2+的摩尔比为6、H2O2和渗滤液原液的COD质量比为3、反应时间4 h;在PAC与渗滤液原液的COD质量比为0.6时,PAC混凝对渗滤液原液的COD去除率最高。在对渗滤液COD去除率最高的Fenton反应和PAC混凝反应条件下,混凝/Fenton工艺对年轻渗滤液和老龄渗滤液的COD去除率分别为90.56%和86.56%;Fenton/混凝工艺对年轻渗滤液和老龄渗滤液的COD去除率分别为89.99%和85.99%,2种技术路线对渗滤液COD的去除率相差不大,但先PAC混凝后Fenton氧化工艺比先Fenton后混凝工艺每t节省62.6元,是更优化的渗滤液处理工艺。