Phytoextraction of lead-contaminated soil using vetivergrass (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Vetiveria zizanioides</Emphasis> L.), cogongrass (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Imperata cylindrica</Emphasis> L.) and carabaograss (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Paspalum conjugatum</Emphasis> L.)

Background, Aims and Scope The global problem concerning contamination of the environment as a consequence of human activities is increasing. Most of the environmental contaminants are chemical by-products and heavy metals such as lead (Pb). Lead released into the environment makes its way into the air, soil and water. Lead contributes to a variety of health effects such as decline in mental, cognitive and physical health of the individual. An alternative way of reducing Pb concentration from the soil is through phytoremediation. Phytoremediation is an alternative method that uses plants to clean up a contaminated area. The objectives of this study were: (1) to determine the survival rate and vegetative characteristics of three grass species such as vetivergrass, cogongrass and carabaograss grown in soils with different Pb levels; and (2) to determine and compare the ability of the three grass species as potential phytoremediators in terms of Pb accumulation by plants. Methods The three test plants: vetivergrass (Vetiveria zizanioides L.); cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica L.); and carabaograss (Paspalum conjugatum L.) were grown in individual plastic bags containing soils with 75 mg kg⁻¹ (37.5 kg ha⁻¹) and 150 mg kg⁻¹ (75 kg ha⁻¹) of Pb, respectively. The Pb contents of the test plants and the soil were analyzed before and after experimental treatments using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. This study was laid out following a 3 × 2 factorial experiment in a completely randomized design. Results On the vegetative characteristics of the test plants, vetivergrass registered the highest whole plant dry matter weight (33.85–39.39 Mg ha⁻¹). Carabaograss had the lowest herbage mass production of 4.12 Mg ha⁻¹ and 5.72 Mg ha⁻¹ from soils added with 75 and 150 mg Pb kg⁻¹, respectively. Vetivergrass also had the highest percent plant survival which meant it best tolerated the Pb contamination in soils. Vetivergrass registered the highest rate of Pb absorption (10.16 ± 2.81 mg kg⁻¹). This was followed by cogongrass (2.34 ± 0.52 mg kg⁻¹) and carabaograss with a mean Pb level of 0.49 ± 0.56 mg kg⁻¹. Levels of Pb among the three grasses (shoots + roots) did not vary significantly with the amount of Pb added (75 and 150 mg kg⁻¹) to the soil. Discussion Vetivergrass yielded the highest biomass; it also has the greatest amount of Pb absorbed (roots + shoots). This can be attributed to the highly extensive root system of vetivergrass with the presence of an enormous amount of root hairs. Extensive root system denotes more contact to nutrients in soils, therefore more likelihood of nutrient absorption and Pb uptake. The efficiency of plants as phytoremediators could be correlated with the plants’ total biomass. This implies that the higher the biomass, the greater the Pb uptake. Plants characteristically exhibit remarkable capacity to absorb what they need and exclude what they do not need. Some plants utilize exclusion mechanisms, where there is a reduced uptake by the roots or a restricted transport of the metals from root to shoots. Combination of high metal accumulation and high biomass production results in the most metal removal from the soil. Conclusions The present study indicated that vetivergrass possessed many beneficial characteristics to uptake Pb from contaminated soil. It was the most tolerant and could grow in soil contaminated with high Pb concentration. Cogongrass and carabaograss are also potential phytoremediators since they can absorb small amount of Pb in soils, although cogongrass is more tolerant to Pb-contaminated soil compared with carabaograss. The important implication of our findings is that vetivergrass can be used for phytoextraction on sites contaminated with high levels of heavy metals; particularly Pb. Recommendations and Perspectives High levels of Pb in localized areas are still a concern especially in urban areas with high levels of traffic, near Pb smelters, battery plants, or industrial facilities that burn fuel ending up in water and soils. The grasses used in the study, and particularly vetivergrass, can be used to phytoremediate urban soil with various contaminations by planting these grasses in lawns and public parks. ESS-Submission Editor: Dr. Willie Peijnenburg (wjgm.peijnenburg@rivm.nl)     

实验室煤与瓦斯突出模拟试验回顾及展望

为借鉴国内外煤与瓦斯突出模拟试验研究成果,查阅大量相关文献,进行分析和总结。以人们对煤与瓦斯突出试验研究的深入程度为主线,将实验室煤与瓦斯突出模拟试验的研究历程进行阶段划分。研究表明:20世纪50—60年代,成功诱导了突出,初步考察诸因素对突出的影响;70—90年代,深入探究突出发生的力学判据及突出过程,并提出数十种有关突出机理方面的假说;21世纪初,以组建三维模拟试验台进行试验为特点,大大提高了模拟试验条件与现场的相似度,但在力学加载系统的稳定性和可调性、模型的整体密封性、测试探头的精度等方面仍需改进。     

应用模糊论方法学优化交通噪声布点

本文应用模糊论方法学以及聚类分析、贴近度计算,择近原理等数学手段,把沈阳市原有的48条干线优化成12条监测干线.经 F 检验、T 检验及其它各种误差检验,证明了优化结果具有较高精度,满足了国家城市环境质量综合整治定量考核及监测规范的要求,为城市交通噪声监测布点优化,提供了借鉴及参考.     

《生态环境状况评价技术规范》修订的生态管理效用评估——以山东省为例

简述了生态环境状况评价指标构成以及新旧规范中生态环境状况指数影响因子的对比分析。通过对2014—2017年山东省市、县两级生态环境状况的评价与影响因子相关性分析,结果表明,新规范实施后,有林地、灌木林地、湖泊(库)、水田、中度侵蚀、重度侵蚀面积增加对EI评价结果的影响以正面影响为主,其它建设用地、盐碱地面积增加均对EI评价结果产生负面影响,以上8个影响因子对县级EI评价结果的影响明显大于对市级EI评价结果的影响;城镇建设用地面积增加对市级和县级EI评价结果的影响不同,但相比旧规范其负面影响均有所减小;相比旧规范,二氧化硫排放量增加对市级EI评价结果的负面影响明显减弱,但对县级EI评价结果的负面影响明显增大。     

Genotypic Differences in Effects of Cadmium Exposure on Plant Growth and Contents of Cadmium and Elements in 14 Cultivars of Bai Cai

Abstract

Fourteen cultivars of bai cai (Brassica campestris L. ssp. chinensis var. communis) were grown in the nutrient solutions containing 0–0.5 μg mL^?1 of cadmium (Cd) to investigate genotypic differences in the effects of Cd exposure on the plant growth and uptake and distribution of Cd in bai cai plants. The Cd exposure significantly reduced the dry and fresh weights of roots and shoots, the dry weight ratio of shoot/root (S/R), total biomass, and chlorophyll content (SPAD value). Cd concentrations in bai cai ranged from 13.3 to 74.9 μg g^?1 DW in shoots and from 163.1 to 574.7 μg g^?1 DW in roots under Cd exposure, respectively. The considerable genotypic differences of Cd concentrations and accumulations in both shoots and roots were observed among 14 bai cai cultivars. Moreover, Cd mainly accumulated in the roots. Cd also caused the changes of uptake and distribution of nutrients in bai cai and under the influence of cadmium, the concentration of potassium (K) decreased in shoot and increased in root. However, the concentrations of magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), manganese (Mn), boron (B), and iron (Fe) increased in shoots and decreased in roots. In addition, Cd exposure resulted in an increase in calcium (Ca), sulphur (S), and zinc (Zn) concentrations in both shoots and roots but had no significant effects on the whole uptake of the examined mineral nutrients except for S.     

Accumulation of polonium 210Po in tissues and organs of deer carvidae from Northern Poland

This study was undertaken to provide information on accumulation of polonium in tissues and organs of deer carvidae in order to assess the potential transport of this element via food-chain to game meat consumers. Livers, kidneys and muscles of large herbivorous animals belonging to three species: roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), red deer (Cervus elaphus) and fallow deer (Dama dama), collected in Northern Poland, were the subject of the present investigation. Activities of ²¹⁰Po were determined by means of alpha spectrometry along with relevant radiochemical procedures. The concentration of ²¹⁰Po in analyzed animals decreased in the order kidney > liver > muscle tissue. The average activity concentrations of ²¹⁰Po ranged between 0.02 ± 0.01 Bq· kg^{? 1} w.w. in muscles and 7.15 ± 0.12 Bq· kg^{? 1} w.w. in kidneys. Levels of polonium were not influenced by sampling location, sex, age and species of animals.     

A spatial clustering perspective on autocorrelation and regionalization

We revisit one of the classical problems in geography and cartography where multiple observations on a lattice (N) need to be grouped into many fewer regions (G), especially when this number of desired regions is unknown a priori. Since an optimization through all possible aggregations is not feasible, a hierarchical classification scheme is proposed with an objective function sensitive to spatial pattern. The objective function to be minimized during the assignment of observations to regions (classification) consists of two terms: the first characterizes accuracy and the second, model complexity. For the latter, we introduce a spatial measure that characterizes the number of homogeneous patches rather than the usual number of classes. A simulation study shows that such a classification procedure is less sensitive to random and spatially correlated error (noise) than non-spatial classification. We also show that for conditional autoregressive error (noise) fields the optimal partitioning is the one that has the highest within-units generalized Moran coefficient. The classifier is implemented in ArcView to demonstrate both a socio-economic and an environmental application to illustrate some potential applications.

环境基准研究与环境标准制定进展及展望

环境基准是一个非常棘手且具有挑战性的科学难题,环境标准制定与修订是一项长期的、艰巨的任务。根据国际上该方向近年来的发展,对环境基准和环境标准的概念与内涵进行了论述,对过去的认识进行了纠正,指出:环境基准不等于环境质量基准,环境基准应该包括环境质量基准和污染环境修复基准2个方面;相应地,环境标准则应包括环境质量标准和污染环境修复标准2个部分。在此基础上,概述了国际和国内有关环境质量基准研究方面取得的显著成绩,列举了法国(作为西欧的代表)、加拿大(作为美洲的代表)和意大利(作为中欧的代表)在环境质量标准制定过程中的先进做法,介绍了美国、英国和俄罗斯等国家在污染环境修复基准研究与污染环境修复标准制定等方面的进展。最后,对我国今后环境基准的研究进行了展望。     

科尔沁沙地生态环境质量综合评价

基于研究区2000年土地利用图形数据、土地沙漠化监测数据、环境状况公报数据以及统计年鉴数据,采用中华人民共和国环境保护行业标准《生态环境状况评价技术规范（试行）》HJ／T192—2006）规定的生态环境状况评价的指标体系和计算方法。从旗、县尺度上对科尔沁沙地的生态环境状况进行综合评价。结果表明：2000年科尔沁沙地各旗县的生物丰度指数为22．01-37．96。植被覆盖指数为25．20～45．86,水网密度指数为22．51—30．97。土地退化指数为1．47—21．06。环境质量指数为57．98～59．84,综合生态环境质量指数为25．28～33．25。根据国家生态环境状况分级标准判断．该区域生态环境状况属于较差级别．意昧着该区域植被疆盖度较差。严重干旱少雨．物种较少。存在着明显限制人类生存的因素。     

细尾矿砂破坏准则的测试与安全影响

为研究细尾矿砂破坏准则的具体形式和安全影响,利用HCA试验的方法测试了子午平面和π平面的破坏曲线;采用数值模拟的方法分析了所获破坏准则引起的尾矿坝安全系数变化。结果表明:子午平面的破坏曲线为单调递增;π平面破坏曲线在静水压力较小状态与Mohr-Coulomb准则一致,静水压力较大状态与Drucker-Prager准则一致,针对试验对象静水压力分界点可确定为200 kPa;若基于分界点在坝体内设置双重破坏准则,安全系数介于单独准则所得值之间,且Drucker-Prager准则单元所占比重介于31.33%～60.67%时,滑面区内Drucker-Prager准则单元数量变化,安全系数变化较明显,比重取其余值滑面区内Drucker-Prager准则单元数量不变,安全系数变化不明显。细尾矿砂破坏准则应为Mohr-Coulomb与Drucker-Prager组合而成的双重准则,组合过程需考虑静水压力的影响。