Relationship Between Micro-Invertebrates and Macrophytes in a Wetland: Laguna Iberá (Corrientes, Argentina). Implications for Water Quality Monitoring

From November 2000 to September 2001, eight points in the Iberá lagoon were sampled bimonthly. At each point, pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen were measured and invertebrates were collected from the water around macrophytes by mean of a net of 180 μ m pore size. Four biotic indices were calculated and compared, given similar trends. The total number of taxa shows to be a good and simple indicator of water quality. Averaging indices across points we obtained a good positive correlation between indices and temperature. In this ecosystem, multi-habitat sampling must be used in order to obtain a good estimation of ecological integrity. The total number of taxa can be used for water quality assessment.     

Data Sharing – a Case of Shared Databases and Community Use of On-Line GIS Support Systems

Data management is becoming increasingly simple and complex at the same time. The challenge is to effectively use the increasing number of tools available to manage increasing amounts of environmental information for purposes of data capture, analysis, display, sharing and storage. Government is no longer the main collector and provider of data. Community groups possess vast amounts of data collected through daily work of monitoring the environment in their local community. The chief concerns are data access, sharing, integrity and comparability. The capacity of groups to sustain data management is the key to making the sharing possible. The Southeast Environmental Association has been working with Environment Canada to develop a community, on-line database that will be linked to other geo-spatial data sets to allow instant access to geo-referenced data.     

杭州快速路、主次干道植物群落降噪功能比较研究

城市绿地是城市生态系统的重要组成部分,在改善城市生态系统方面有重要作用。现今交通是城市环境中的主要噪声来源,城市道路绿地是交通噪声治理的有效方式之一。本文选取杭州市西湖区不同等级的三条道路(紫金港路、天目山路和丰潭路)作为研究对象,利用手持噪声测量仪测量实时噪声对不同道路等级和距离的绿地降噪效果进行分析。研究发现,杭州市三条道路存在以下问题:(1)噪声距离道路越远越低,且噪声平均衰减率表明绿地降噪效果为主干道次干道快速路;(2)配置模式为乔木+灌木+地被的绿地植物群落的降噪效果最佳,且乔木和灌木交错的种植形式在降噪效果上优于灌木在前、乔木在后的排列式种植;(3)当道路绿地宽达到15m时,植物群落降噪效果会有大幅度提升,且快速路与次干道在距离为15m处,植物群落降噪能力最佳。     

苏州河浮游植物群落结构特征

以正在生态恢复进行中的苏州河水体为研究对象,共设黄渡、华漕、北新泾、武宁路桥、长寿路桥和浙江路桥6个采样点,从2000年10月至2002年10月间按春、夏、秋、冬进行了9次采样,另外,在黄渡、华漕和武宁路桥于2002年的5月和6月增加了5次采样,对苏州河浮游植物群落的种类组成和数量特征进行了调查研究,结果表明：苏州河浮游植物的平均个体数达到了 4.7×10⁶ ind/L,细胞密度平均值为 10.2×10⁶ ind/L,生物量均值为 5.73 mg/L。苏州河浮游植物群落结构的定性和定量组分表达均显示绿藻优势,其密度和生物量分别为 5.774 ind/μL 和 2.159 mg/L;属数、种数和生物量结构以硅藻次之。生物量、个体数与细胞数的Shannon Weaver指数均值分别为3.05、3.22和3.28;生物量、个体数与细胞数的Pielou均匀度指数均值则分别为0.73、0.76和0.77,Margalef和Simposon指数均值分别为1.59和0.84.     

Status of Aquatic Bioassessment in U.S. EPA Region IX

U.S. EPA Region IX is supporting bioassessment programs in Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada using biocriteria program and Regional Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (R-EMAP) resources. These programs are designed to improve the state, tribal and regional ability to determine the status of water quality. Biocriteria program funds were used to coordinate with Arizona, California and Hawaii which resulted in these states establishing reference conditions and in developing biological indices. U.S. EPA Region IX has initiated R-EMAP projects in California and Nevada. These U.S. EPA Region IX sponsored programs have provided an opportunity to interact with the States and provide them with technical and management support. In Arizona, several projects are being conducted to develop the State's bioassessment program. These include the development of a rotational random monitoring program; a regional reference approach for macroinvertebrate bioassessments; ecoregion approach to testing and adoption of an alternate regional classification system; and development of warm-water and cold-water indices of biological integrity. The indices are projected to be used in the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) 2000 water quality assessment report. In California, an Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) has been developed for the Russian River Watershed using resources from U.S. EPA's Non-point Source (NPS) Program grants. A regional IBI is under development for certain water bodies in the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. Resources from the U.S. EPA Biocriteria program are being used to support the California Aquatic Bioassessment Workgroup (CABW) in conjunction with the California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG), and to support the Hawaii Department of Health (DoH) Bioassessment Program to refine biological metrics. In Nevada, R-EMAP resources are being used to create a baseline of aquatic information for the Humboldt River watershed. U.S. EPA Region IX is presently working with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) to establish a Nevada Aquatic Bioassessment Workgroup. Future R-EMAP studies will occur in the Calleguas Creek watershed in Southern California, and in the Muddy and Virgin River watersheds in southern Nevada, and the Walker River watershed in eastern California and west-central Nevada.     

赣江流域浮游植物群落结构与功能类群划分

2009~2010年3次对赣江流域浮游植物群落特征进行淡水生态学调查,鉴定出包括绿藻门、硅藻门、蓝藻门、裸藻门、甲藻门、隐藻门、黄藻门及金藻门在内的浮游植物共8门109属312种(包括变种、变型)。硅藻门和绿藻门无论是在物种数还是在种群密度上均为赣江流域的优势类群。对所鉴定出的种类按功能类群划分,共划分出功能类群32个,以此建立赣江流域浮游植物功能类群特征表(基于生境、耐受性和敏感性)。本研究首次在国内大型河流中开展浮游植物功能类群的划分,划分结果显示赣江流域浮游植物种数和密度占优势的功能类群,多适宜生活在中营养-富营养化水体,这反映出赣江水体环境已经受到了一定程度的人为干扰,水体呈现富营养化趋势。功能类群划分是理解浮游植物群落的重要工具,但是使用该方法必须检查物种的分类是否符合该生物体的个体生态特征     

Analysis of bacterial community structures in two sewage treatment plants with different sludge properties and treatment performance by nested PCR-DGGE method

The bacterial community structures in two sewage treatment plants with different processes and performance were investigated by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis （DGGE） of nested polymerase chain reaction （nested PCR） amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments with group-specific primers. Samples of raw sewage and treated effluents were amplified using the whole-cell PCR method, and the activated sludge samples were amplified using the extracted genomic DNA before the PCR products were loaded on the same DGGE gel for bacterial community analysis. Ammonia-oxidizing bacterial and actinomycetic community analysis were also carried out to investigate the relationship between specific population structures and system or sludge performance. The two plants demonstrated a similarity in bacterial community structures of raw sewage and activated sludge, but they had different effluent populations. Many dominant bacterial populations of raw sewage did not appear in the activated sludge samples, suggesting that the dominant bacterial populations in raw sewage might not play an important role during wastewater treatment. Although the two plants had different sludge properties in terms of settleability and foam forming ability, they demonstrated similar actinomycetic community structures. For activated sludge with bad settling performance, the treated water presented a similar DGGE pattern with that of activated sludge, indicating the nonselective washout of bacteria from the system. The plant with better ammonium removal efficiency showed higher ammonia-oxidizing bacteria species richness. Analysis of sequencing results showed that the major populations in raw sewage were uncultured bacterium, while in activated sludge the predominant populations were beta proteobacteria.     

城市社区防灾减灾工作机制研究

在组织论指导下,提出在区民防办下设街道防减灾办公室,负责社区防减灾的领导工作。根据灾害管理过程,设置下属机构包括:社区灾害预防组、应急救援组和灾后恢复组。明确各相关方在具体工作中的角色和责任,完善社区防减灾机制。按自愿原则组建志愿者队伍,建立良好的培养和激励机制,确保服务人员的长期化。扩大基层防减灾宣传教育的广度,特别是基层领导干部和青少年的宣教。将宣教和防灾演练结合,使得防灾演练制度化。同时,需要重视在现有"120"急救网络上,建立院前急救体系,配备相应的物资和人员。     

Performance and Environmental Impact of Biodegradable Films in Agriculture: A Field Study on Protected Cultivation

The performance, the degradability in soil and the environmental impact of biodegradable starch-based soil mulching and low tunnel films were assessed by means of field and laboratory tests. The lifetime of the biodegradable mulches was 9 months and of the biodegradable low-tunnel films 6 months. The radiometric properties of the biodegradable films influenced positively the microclimate: air temperature under the biodegradable low tunnel films was 2 °C higher than under the low density polyethylene films, resulting in an up to 20% higher yield of strawberries. At the end of the cultivation period, the biodegradable mulches were broken up and buried in the field soil together with the plant residues. One year after burial, less than 4% of the initial weight of the biodegradable film was found in the soil. According to ecotoxicity tests, the kinetic luminescent bacteria test with Vibrio fischeri and the Enchytraeus albidus ISO/CD 16387 reproduction potential, there was no evidence of ecotoxicity in the soil during the biodegradation process. Furthermore, there was no change in the diversity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in the soil determined on the basis of the appearance of amoA gene diversity in denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis.     

A Systematic Review of Wild Burro Grazing Effects on Mojave Desert Vegetation,USA

Wild burros (Equus asinus), protected by the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act on some federal lands but exotic animals many ecologists and resource mangers view as damaging to native ecosystems, represent one of the most contentious environmental management problems in American Southwest arid lands. This review synthesizes the scattered literature about burro effects on plant communities of the Mojave Desert, a center of burro management contentions. I classified 24 documents meeting selection criteria for this review into five categories of research: (i) diet analyses directly determining which plant species burros consume, (ii) utilization studies of individual species, (iii) control-impact comparisons, (iv) exclosure studies, and (v) forage analyses examining chemical characteristics of forage plants. Ten diet studies recorded 175 total species that burros consumed. However, these studies and two exclosure studies suggested that burros preferentially eat graminoid and forb groups over shrubs. One study in Death Valley National Park, for example, found that Achnatherum hymenoides (Indian ricegrass) was 11 times more abundant in burro diets than expected based on its availability. Utilization studies revealed that burros also exhibit preferences within the shrub group. Eighty-three percent of reviewed documents were produced in a 12-year period, from 1972 to 1983, with the most recent document produced in 1988. Because burros remain abundant on many federal lands and grazing may interact with other management concerns (e.g., desert wildfires fueled by exotic grasses), rejuvenating grazing research to better understand both past and present burro effects could help guide revegetation and grazing management scenarios.