Effects of Climate Change,Invasive Species,and Disease on the Distribution of Native European Crayfishes

Climate change will require species to adapt to new conditions or follow preferred climates to higher latitudes or elevations, but many dispersal‐limited freshwater species may be unable to move due to barriers imposed by watershed boundaries. In addition, invasive nonnative species may expand into new regions under future climate conditions and contribute to the decline of native species. We evaluated future distributions for the threatened European crayfish fauna in response to climate change, watershed boundaries, and the spread of invasive crayfishes, which transmit the crayfish plague, a lethal disease for native European crayfishes. We used climate projections from general circulation models and statistical models based on Mahalanobis distance to predict climate‐suitable regions for native and invasive crayfishes in the middle and at the end of the 21st century. We identified these suitable regions as accessible or inaccessible on the basis of major watershed boundaries and present occurrences and evaluated potential future overlap with 3 invasive North American crayfishes. Climate‐suitable areas decreased for native crayfishes by 19% to 72%, and the majority of future suitable areas for most of these species were inaccessible relative to native and current distributions. Overlap with invasive crayfish plague‐transmitting species was predicted to increase. Some native crayfish species (e.g., noble crayfish [Astacus astacus]) had no future refugia that were unsuitable for the modeled nonnative species. Our results emphasize the importance of preventing additional introductions and spread of invasive crayfishes in Europe to minimize interactions between the multiple stressors of climate change and invasive species, while suggesting candidate regions for the debatable management option of assisted colonization. Efectos del Cambio Climático, Especies Invasoras y Enfermedades sobre la Distribución de Cangrejos de Río Europeos Nativos     

Ultrasonically enhanced anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge

Anaerobic digestion is increasingly applied to stabilise sludge and to reduce operating costs of the wastewater treatment plant by generating biogas, considered as a sustainable energy source. The process suffers from many drawbacks such as slow and incomplete degradation rates, the result of the slow and rate‐limiting sludge hydrolysis step, due to the low biodegradability of the cell walls and the presence of extra‐cellular biopolymers.

Methods to enhance the biogas formation should hence make the substrate more accessible to the anaerobic micro‐organisms. Research on increasing the biogas production is extensive, with low‐frequency ultrasound treatment emerging as the technical and economic most appropriate technology. Although ultrasound is now widely applied in practice, underlying phenomena and optimum operating conditions are still open to debate. Laboratory ultrasound treatment was coupled with digestion experiments (at 37°C) using 12 parallel digesters, two of them being used as control digesters with untreated sludge.

The present paper demonstrates that ultrasound treatment can – within specific ranges of energy‐input – achieve (i) an increased disintegration of the sludge, as witnessed by an increasing soluble COD‐fraction accompanied by an increasing presence of BOD; (ii) an increased release of volatile fatty acids as a result of the oxidising radicals being formed through cavitation; and (iii) a slightly reduced dewaterability of the residual sludge, needing an increased dosage of poly‐electrolyte to obtain a high degree of cake dryness.

As pre‐treatment to digestion, ultrasound enhances the biogas production by more than 40% at low specific energy‐inputs (SE), and approximately 15% at higher SE‐values.     

Quantifying sediment-associated metal dispersal using Pb isotopes: Application of binary and multivariate mixing models at the catchment-scale

In this study Pb isotope signatures were used to identify the provenance of contaminant metals and establish patterns of downstream sediment dispersal within the River Maritsa catchment, which is impacted by the mining of polymetallic ores. A two-fold modelling approach was undertaken to quantify sediment-associated metal delivery to the Maritsa catchment; employing binary mixing models in tributary systems and a composite fingerprinting and mixing model approach in the wider Maritsa catchment. Composite fingerprints were determined using Pb isotopic and multi-element geochemical data to characterize sediments delivered from tributary catchments. Application of a mixing model allowed a quantification of the percentage contribution of tributary catchments to the sediment load of the River Maritsa. Sediment delivery from tributaries directly affected by mining activity contributes 42-63% to the sediment load of the River Maritsa, with best-fit regression relationships indicating that sediments originating from mining-affected tributaries are being dispersed over 200 km downstream.     

处理高浓度氨氮废水的研究

采用新型吹脱汽提-超声波联用技术，对高浓度氨氮废水的处理进行了研究，结果表明，吹脱汽提-超声波联用技术处理效果大于两者单独使用的效果之和。另外，研究中还考察了填料的使用、pH条件、温度、气液比和处理时间的影响，以利选择最优的处理条件。     

Environmental fate and bioavailability of agent orange and its associated dioxin during the vietnam war

BACKGROUND: In 1996, the Committee on the Assessment of Wartime Exposure to Herbicides in Vietnam of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report on an exposure model for use in epidemiological studies of Vietnam veterans. This exposure model would consider troop locations based on military records; aerial spray mission data; estimated ground spraying activity; estimated exposure opportunity factors; military indications for herbicide use; and considerations of the composition and environmental fate of herbicides, including changes in the TCDD content of the herbicides over time, the persistence of TCDD and herbicides in the environment, and the degree of likely penetration of the herbicides into the ground. When the final report of the IOM Committee was released in October 2003, several components of the exposure model envisioned by the Committee were not addressed. These components included the environmental fate of the herbicides, including changes in the TCDD content over time, the persistence of TCDD and herbicides in the environment, and the degree of likely penetration of herbicides into the ground. This paper is intended to help investigators understand better the fate and transport of herbicides and TCDD from spray missions, particularly in performing epidemiological studies. METHODS: This paper reviews the published scientific literature related to the environmental fate of Agent Orange and the contaminant, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), and discusses how this affected the potential exposure to TCDD of ground troops in Vietnam. Specifically, the mechanisms of dissipation and degradation as they relate to environmental distribution and bioavailability are addressed. RESULTS: The evaluation of the spray systems used to disseminate herbicides in Vietnam showed that they were capable of highly precise applications both in terms of concentrations sprayed and area treated. Research on tropical forest canopies with leaf area indices (a measure of foliage density) from 2 to 5 indicated that the amount of herbicide and associated TCDD reaching the forest floor would have been between 1 and 6% of the total aerial spray. Studies of the properties of plant surface waxes of the cuticle layer suggested that Agent Orange, including the TCDD, would have dried (i.e., be absorbed into the wax layer of the plant cuticle) upon spraying within minutes and could not be physically dislodged. Studies of Agent Orange and the associated TCDD on both leaf and soil surface have demonstrated that photolysis by sunlight would have rapidly decreased the concentration of TCDD, and this process continued in shade. Studies of 'dislodgeable foliar residues' (DFR, the fraction of a substance that is available for cutaneous uptake from the plant leaves) showed that only 8% of the DFR was present 1 hr after application. This dropped to 1% of the total 24 hrs after application. Studies with human volunteers confirmed that after 2 hrs of saturated contact with bare skin, only 0.15-0.46% of 2,4,5-T, one of the phenoxy acetic acid compounds that was an active ingredient of Agent Orange, entered the body and was eliminated in the urine. CONCLUSIONS: The prospect of exposure to TCDD from Agent Orange in ground troops in Vietnam seems unlikely in light of the environmental dissipation of TCDD, little bioavailability, and the properties of the herbicides and circumstances of application that occurred. Photochemical degradation of TCDD and limited bioavailability of any residual TCDD present in soil or on vegetation suggest that dioxin concentrations in ground troops who served in Vietnam would have been small and indistinguishable from background levels even if they had been in recently treated areas. Laboratory and field data reported in the literature provide compelling evidence on the fate and dislodgeability of herbicide and TCDD in the environment. This evidence of the environmental fate and poor bioavailability of TCDD from Agent Orange is consistent with the observation of little or no exposure in the veterans who served in Vietnam. Appreciable accumulation of TCDD in veterans would have required repeated long-term direct skin contact of the type experienced by United States (US) Air Force RANCH HAND and US Army Chemical Corps personnel who handled or otherwise had direct contact with liquid herbicide, not from incidental exposure under field conditions where Agent Orange had been sprayed.     

超声波有机改性凹凸棒土的苯酚吸附性能研究

采用超声波技术,对凹凸棒土进行有机改性,提高凹凸棒土的苯酚吸附能力,比较了不同的阳离子表面活性剂的改性效果,并且通过正交实验得出了超声波改性的最优化工艺条件为:十八烷基三甲基氯化铵的添加比例为35mmol/100g,超声波处理时间10min,屏极电流0·5A。在此条件下,苯酚去除率可达酸处理凹凸棒土的80倍以上,是搅拌有机改性的1.5倍。     

超声-生物沥浸-氧化钙联合超高压压滤系统实现市政污泥深度脱水及其泥饼的毒性评估

本研究采用超声-生物沥浸-氧化钙调理联合超高压压滤系统对市政污泥进行深度脱水试验,探讨了其调理过程对污泥脱水效率的影响,并对调理后的脱水污泥的重金属含量及植物毒性进行评估.结果表明,经超声-生物沥浸-氧化钙调理后,比阻（SRF）去除率和结合水去除率分别达到90.12%和72.21%.经预调理联合超高压压滤系统处理后,泥饼含水率降低至49.94%,泥饼中Cr 、Cu、Cd、 Zn、As 和Pb的去除率分别为42.41%、36.50%、30.92%、27.97%、25.94%、22.11%,白菜发芽指数大于80%.通过分析污泥理化性质及滤液有机物含量,阐明该联合技术的作用机理.首先,超声预处理后,污泥结构被破坏,造成污泥粒径d_0.5减小、zeta电位上升,污泥中多糖和蛋白质被释放,从而改善脱水性能,促进污泥中重金属释放,植物毒性降低;经超声-生物沥浸调理后,污泥粒径d_0.5进一步减小、zeta电位趋近于中性,滤液中酪氨酸/色氨酸类氨基酸类有机物和酪氨酸/色氨酸类蛋白有机物被降解且疏水性的腐殖酸和富里酸类有机物含量升高,污泥脱水性能进一步提高,泥饼重金属含量进一步下降,但植物毒性反而加强;最后添加氧化钙后,污泥颗粒被重新絮凝,形成刚性骨架,增加了污泥的可压缩性能,在高压压滤过程释放出更多有机物,最终实现了污泥深度脱水,重金属总量减少,植物毒性显著降低.此外,经济分析表明该联合工艺具有一定潜在推广应用价值.     

水中有机污染物超声强化氧化技术研究进展

超声波技术在化学、环境、制药以及生物等领域有着广阔的应用前景。在降解水中难降解有机污染物方面 ,超声强化氧化技术有一定优势 ,降解效果显著 ,符合绿色环保技术的要求。超声强化氧化技术主要可分为超声空化技术、超声强化化学 (催化 )氧化技术、超声强化电化学 (催化 )氧化技术、超声强化光化学 (催化 )氧化技术、超声 生物降解等几大类 ,本文对各类技术的优缺点进行了评述。     

A comparative study on the recovery of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from fly ash and lignite coal

The recovery of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from lignite coal burnt in Greek power stations and the fly ash produced is examined comparatively using Soxhlet, ultrasonic and accelerated solvent extraction procedures with various organic solvents. Soxhlet using toluene/methanol mixture and accelerated solvent extraction/toluene were found to be the most efficient methods for fly ash PAHs, yielding average recoveries of about 80%. The accelerated solvent extraction/toluene procedure was superior for lignite PAHs, yielding 96% average recovery, whereas ultrasonic and Soxhlet extraction yielded relatively lower recoveries (75% and 67%, respectively).     

超声光催化降解酸性粒子元青染料的研究

对超声波作用下的纳米TiO2光催化氧化法降角酸性粒子元青染料进行了研究。结果表明，超声波的引入提高了纳米TiO2光催化降解酸性粒子元青染料的降解率；降解率受反应时间、坡声波功率、空气流量的影响；添加少量的H2O2能够明显地提高酸性粒子元青染料的降解率。