开顶式气室原位研究水稻汞富集对大气汞浓度升高的响应

采用开顶式气室熏气实验和土壤加汞培育实验,原位研究水稻各器官汞富集对大气汞质量浓度升高的响应关系.结果表明,水稻根中汞含量与大气汞质量浓度无显著相关性(P0.05),与土壤汞含量呈显著正相关(R=0.998 8,P0.05),表明水稻根中的汞主要来自于对土壤中汞的吸收累积.水稻茎中汞含量随大气汞质量浓度的升高呈线性增加(RB=0.964 6,RU=0.983 1,P0.05),且上部茎中汞含量高于下部茎;茎下部汞含量随土壤汞含量的升高呈线性增加(R=0.990 1,P0.05),茎上部汞含量随土壤汞含量的升高呈二次拟合增加(R=0.998 9,P0.05),且下部茎汞含量高于上部茎,说明茎汞含量受土壤和大气汞浓度的共同影响.水稻叶中汞含量与大气汞质量浓度呈显著正相关(R=0.998 5,P0.05),与土壤汞含量也有很好的线性关系(R=0.998 3,P=0.058 5),表明水稻从大气吸收的汞主要积累在叶片中,从土壤吸收的汞主要富集在根中并通过茎部向叶部传输.利用实验建立的函数关系对水稻地上生物质中汞的大气来源估算,至少60%~94%和56%~77%水稻叶和上部茎中的汞来自大气,而大气对下部茎仅贡献8%~56%.由此水稻地上部分生物质汞主要来自对大气汞的吸收,为区域大气汞的收支及汞循环模型提供理论依据.     

Re-evaluation of thyroid hormone signaling antagonism of tetrabromobisphenol A for validating the T3-induced Xenopus metamorphosis assay

We developed the T3-induced Xenopus metamorphosis assay, which is supposed to be able to sensitively detect thyroid hormone(TH) signaling disruption of chemicals. The present study aimed to validate the T3-induced Xenopus metamorphosis assay by re-evaluating the TH signaling antagonism of tetrabromobisphenol A(TBBPA), a known TH signaling disruptor. According to the assay we developed, Xenopus tadpoles at stage 52 were exposed to 10–500 nmol/L TBBPA in the presence of 1 nmol/L T3. After 96 hr of exposure, TBBPA in the range of 10–500 nmol/L was found to significantly inhibit T3-induced morphological changes of Xenopus tadpoles in a concentration-dependent manner in term of body weight and four morphological endpoints including head area(HA), mouth width(MW), unilateral brain width/brain length(ULBW/BL), and hind-limb length/snout-vent length(HLL/SVL).The results show that these endpoints we developed are sensitive for characterizing the antagonistic effects of TBBPA on T3-induced metamorphosis. Following a 24-hr exposure,we found that TBBPA antagonized expression of T3-induced TH-response genes in the tail,which is consistent with previous findings in the intestine. We propose that the tail can be used as an alternative tissue to the intestine for examining molecular endpoints for evaluating TH signaling disruption. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the T3-induced Xenopus metamorphosis assay we developed is an ideal in vivo assay for detecting TH signaling disruption.     

Performance of low temperature Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) catalyzed by mixed bacterial consortia

Microbial Fuel Cells(MFCs) are a promising technology for treating wastewater in a sustainable manner. In potential applications, low temperatures substantially reduce MFC performance. To better understand the effect of temperature and particularly how bioanodes respond to changes in temperature, we investigated the current generation of mixed-culture and pure-culture MFCs at two low temperatures, 10°C and 5°C. The results implied that the mixed-culture MFC sustainably performed better than the pure-culture(Shewanella) MFC at 10°C, but the electrogenic activity of anodic bacteria was substantially reduced at the lower temperature of 5°C. At 10°C, the maximum output voltage generated with the mixed-culture was 540–560 m V, which was 10%–15% higher than that of Shewanella MFCs. The maximum power density reached 465.3 ± 5.8 m W/m~2 for the mixed-culture at10°C, while only 68.7 ± 3.7 m W/m~2 was achieved with the pure-culture. It was shown that the anodic biofilm of the mixed-culture MFC had a lower overpotential and resistance than the pure-culture MFC. Phylogenetic analysis disclosed the prevalence of Geobacter and Pseudomonas rather than Shewanella in the mixed-culture anodic biofilm, which mitigated the increase of resistance or overpotential at low temperatures.     

Assessment of the maximum allowed acid deposition load at current stage in China

Soil acidification caused by acid deposition has been significant in some forests in southern China. We present an approach for assessing the current stage maximum allowed load (SML) of acid deposition for terrestrial system in the country. The main idea was that soil base cation exchange as a finite buffer to acidity was included in the soil acidity mass balance calculation at current acidification stage. We calculated the SML for five forests in southern China. The usual critical loads for the same forests were also calculated by the steady state mass balance model for comparison. The results showed that the SML is a more tolerant limit than the critical load for the forests with soils not acidified seriously at current stage. However, the SML become a more stringent limit to acid deposition when the forest soils have acidified seriously to very low base cation saturation. In this case the SML assessment is beneficial for the soils recovering from a serious acidified state. Based on a national scale database, the SML mapping for non-agricultural soil system in China was carried out.     

Mesoporous carbon nanomaterials induced pulmonary surfactant inhibition, cytotoxicity, inflammation and lung fibrosis

Environmental exposure and health risk upon engineered nanomaterials are increasingly concerned. The family of mesoporous carbon nanomaterials(MCNs) is a rising star in nanotechnology for multidisciplinary research with versatile applications in electronics,energy and gas storage, and biomedicine. Meanwhile, there is mounting concern on their environmental health risks due to the growing production and usage of MCNs. The lung is the primary site for particle invasion under environmental exposure to nanomaterials. Here, we studied the comprehensive toxicological profile of MCNs in the lung under the scenario of moderate environmental exposure. It was found that at a low concentration of 10 μg/mL MCNs induced biophysical inhibition of natural pulmonary surfactant. Moreover, MCNs at similar concentrations reduced viability of J774 A.1 macrophages and lung epithelial A549 cells.Incubating with nature pulmonary surfactant effectively reduced the cytotoxicity of MCNs.Regarding the pro-inflammatory responses, MCNs activated macrophages in vitro, and stimulated lung inflammation in mice after inhalation exposure, associated with lung fibrosis.Moreover, we found that the size of MCNs played a significant role in regulating cytotoxicity and pro-inflammatory potential of this nanomaterial. In general, larger MCNs induced more pronounced cytotoxic and pro-inflammatory effects than their smaller counterparts. Our results provided valuable information on the toxicological profile and environmental health risks of MCNs, and suggested that fine-tuning the size of MCNs could be a practical precautionary design strategy to increase safety and biocompatibility of this nanomaterial.     

Influence of coagulation mechanisms and floc formation on filterability

Minimizing particles in water is a key goal for improving drinking water quality and safety.The media filtration process,as the last step of the solid–liquid separation process,is largely influenced by the characteristics of flocs,which are formed and controlled within the coagulation process.In a laboratory-based study,the impacts of the physical characteristics of flocs formed using aluminum sulfate on the filtration treatment of two comparative water samples were investigated using a photometric dispersion analyzer and a filterability apparatus.In general,the optimum dosage for maximizing filterability was higher than that for minimizing turbidity under neutral p H conditions.For a monomeric aluminum-based coagulant,the charge neutralization mechanism produced better floc characteristics,including floc growth speed and size,than the sweep flocculation mechanism.In addition,the charge neutralization mechanism showed better performance compared to sweep flocculation in terms of DOC removal and floc filterability improvement for both waters,and showed superiority in turbidity removal only when the raw water had high turbidity.For the different mechanisms,the ways that floc characteristics impacted on floc filterability also differed.The low variation in floc size distribution obtained under the charge neutralization mechanism resulted in the flocs being amenable to removal by filtration processes.For the sweep flocculation mechanism,increasing the floc size improved the settling ability of flocs,resulting in higher filter efficiency.     

Ag-AgI/CN/MA复合物的制备及其可见光催化性能

采用沉淀法和热聚合法分别将AgI、氮化碳(CN)负载在介孔γ-Al_2O_3(MA)上,并通过光还原银离子成功制备了等离子体诱导可见光催化剂Ag-AgI/CN/MA.利用X射线衍射(XRD)、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)、场发射扫描电子显微镜(FESEM)、紫外可见漫反射光谱(UV-vis DRS)和透射电子显微镜(TEM)对Ag-AgI/CN/MA复合材料进行表征,并对其在可见光照射下(λ420 nm)的光催化性能进行了研究,考察了初始溶液pH值及催化剂投加量等条件对光催化反应的影响.结果表明,表面银以Ag+和Ag0形式共存,并且Ag和AgI均匀地分散在CN的表面.与CN和Ag-AgI/MA相比,Ag-AgI/CN/MA复合物对甲基橙(MO)具有更高的可见光催化降解效率,且反应过程中Ag+的释放量显著减少,显示出良好的稳定性.当溶液pH值为7、催化剂投加量为1 g·L~(-1)时,Ag-AgI/CN/MA-2显示出最优的催化性能.同时,其对罗丹明B(Rh B)、甲基红(MR)和刚果红(CR)等不同电性的染料均体现出良好的催化性能.     

黄土丘陵区坡面水蚀对降雨和下垫面微观格局的响应

黄土高原严重的土壤侵蚀是降雨和复杂脆弱的下垫面共同作用的结果.以微型小区尺度上(1.2 m×1.2 m;2 m×1.2m)模拟降雨技术为基本研究手段,定量刻画了降雨量和降雨强度等基本降雨特征值对定西安家沟自然坡面上荒草、沙棘中位、沙棘下位、沙棘上位、结皮裸地和裸地等不同植株微观格局及其处理下的水蚀过程的影响.主要取得以下结果:①雨强和雨量对水蚀的发生均能产生显著影响,但以雨强的影响力更大;②前期土壤含水量与产流时间显著负相关,而与径流量和侵蚀量显著正相关.前期含水量相同时,不同植株微景观格局对产流时间发挥了关键作用;③不同植株及其微观格局遏制地表径流的能力迥异.在50～60 mm.h-1的大雨强作用下,有沙棘覆盖的小区径流系数仅为5%～8%,荒草地为25%,结皮裸地为45%,而裸地则高达63%;④有沙棘覆盖的小区中,沙棘在小区中所处的具体位置对于水土流失效应又极为重要,以沙棘下位的水土保持效果最好.     

北京市近郊区土壤砷累积特征

城市近郊区土地利用类型多元化,同时也承载着巨大环境压力,研究近郊区土壤污染特征对城市规划及发展有着重要意义.通过3 km×3 km网格布点,系统采样调查了北京市近郊区5～6环路之间167个样点的0～20 cm表层土壤样品中砷的含量,分析了城市近郊区土壤砷的累积特征.结果表明,北京市近郊区土壤砷含量为2.89～11.38 mg.kg-1,平均值为7.11mg.kg-1.平均值在90年代末的背景值调查数据的范围之内,但是各个分位数级别的值均小于80年代初的北京市土壤背景值调查数据.因子分析结果发现北京市近郊区土壤砷与来源于成土母质的Co、Mn和Ni元素一组.克里格插值得到的北京市近郊区土壤砷含量空间分布图表明,西北与东部及东南部分土壤砷含量较东北和西南部高,砷含量最高25%的土壤样点与点源污染有关,而砷含量最低25%的样点大多远离污染源.不同土地利用类型土壤砷的比较结果表明人类活动在一定程度上影响土壤中砷的累积,生活区与农田土壤砷含量相似且显著大于绿地和荒地.污染源对生活区和绿地与荒地土壤中砷的累积有显著影响,工厂区附近的土壤砷含量显著比远离工厂区和交通区的土壤高.因此,北京市近郊区土壤砷在整体空间分布上主要与成土母质有关,然而人类活动在一定程度上也显著增加了土壤砷的累积.     

生物滴滤塔降解甲苯废气长期运行生物膜相特性研究

分析生物滴滤(BTF)长期运行过程生物量积累和分布规律、生物膜相特性变化,旨在探讨生物膜相特性变化与体系运行性能恶化的相关作用效应.结果表明,生物滴滤塔运行130 d后呈现出降解性能恶化的趋势,生物膜厚度和床层压降逐渐增加,且生物膜呈现出非均匀性分布,填料层上、下半段孔隙率已从启动期的85%和82%分别降低至65%和40%,表征生物膜平均代谢活性的AWCD值也明显降低,表明生物膜出现老化现象.生物膜胞外多聚物(EPS)总分泌量和蛋白质含量运行后期分别约为前期的2倍.蛋白质与多糖比值(PN/PS)逐渐从0.3增至0.95;生物膜表面疏水性与PN/PS值呈正相关,也相应从33%增为73%;EPS的平均分子量呈现减小的趋势;FTIR分析结果进一步表明,EPS的主要化学成分发生了变化.EPS分泌量和主要成分的变化可能是导致反应体系运行性能恶化的本质原因之一.上述结果可为从本质上解决生物滴滤体系长期运行面临的填料层堵塞和运行性能恶化等共性技术难题奠定基础.