Characterization of biological responses under different environmental conditions: A hierarchical modeling approach

A natural river system is organized as a nested hierarchy of interconnected habitats with specific environmental conditions to which the biological community has adapted. Due to this hierarchical structure, identifying the role of different stressors on the biological community is a formidable task. Efforts trying to link stressors to biological integrity have always been bound to the geographic scale of the selected study area, leading to scale-specific results. In this research, an attempt is made to lift this limitation and develop a hierarchical, scale-sensitive methodology that can identify the significant environmental stressors to the biological community at different scales. Sites with similar background environmental conditions are clustered using self-organizing maps (SOM). This is used to identify stressors which affect the biological community throughout the area of study - called environmental gradients or large-scale stressors. Subsequently, these clusters of similar observations (sampling sites) are progressively sub-divided using environmental variables with a significant but localized effect on the biological community - called small-scale stressors. A parent group of sites is split only when the resulting sub-groups have significantly different biological responses. At the end of this recursive sites decomposition procedure, the original set of observations is organized as a tree of environmentally homogeneous groups of observations characterized by unique biological responses to multiple stressors with different geographic extents. The developed hierarchical analysis methodology has been validated using a large-size dataset of environmental observations from the State of Ohio. Our results show that habitat degradation and increased nutrient loading are the large-scale stressors with a widespread impact in Ohio. Other stressors, such as heavy metals, pH or nitrate concentrations have significant albeit localized effects on biological integrity.     

生活垃圾填埋场封场后种植植物中重金属迁移研究

在上海老港生活垃圾填埋场填埋单元封场的覆盖土中掺混了矿化垃圾种植植物,分析Cd、Pb、Cu、Zn 4种重金属在土壤和植物中的迁移变化,研究表明:(1)覆盖土土质从一般耕作土变成肥沃土壤;覆盖土和种植混合土重金属Cd、Pb、Cu、Zn中Cd、Pb含量相近,但种植土的Cu含量略大于覆盖原土,Zn含量远大于覆盖原土;(2)植物能富集土壤和垃圾中的重金属,木本植物的根部富集重金属的能力强于草本植物,但重金属在草本植物根、茎、叶中的迁移速度大于木本植物;(3)植物根、茎、叶的Cu、Zn含量均远大于未受污染土壤种植植物相应部位的Cu、Zn含量,种植的植物不能供家养动物食用,以免通过食物链作用危及人体安全.     

湿地生态地球化学研究进展

湿地生态地球化学研究是湿地研究的核心内容之一, 是研究其物理过程、化学过程和生物过程及其相互关系以及这些过程与湿地功能的关系.回顾了近年来国内外湿地生态地球化学方面的研究成果,介绍了它的概念,并评述了湿地的生态功能、元素地球化学、生物地球化学、湿地模型和3S技术等新技术在湿地研究中的应用等方面的研究进展.提出了中国湿地生态地球化学研究的优先领域,应加强湿地基础理论研究及在湿地的演化、生态过程、界面过程、预测与评价、信息系统等方面的研究.     

Trees as bioindicator of heavy metal pollution in three European cities

Concentrations of four heavy metals were determined in tree leaves and bark collected from polluted and non-polluted areas of three European cities (Salzburg, Belgrade and Thessaloniki) for a comparative study. Platanus orientalis L. and Pinus nigra Arn., widespread in urban northern and southern Europe, were tested for their suitability for air quality biomonitoring. Leaves and barks were collected uniformly of an initial quantity of about 30 g of each sample. Analysis was accomplished by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry after total digestion. Site-dependent variations were found with the highest concentration level measured in Belgrade, followed by Thessaloniki and Salzburg. A higher accumulation of heavy metals was found in bark compared to leaves. Pine tree bark, accumulating higher concentrations of trace metals compared to plane tree bark, shows a higher efficiency as bioindicator for urban pollution. Both indicator species are suitable for comparative studies on bioindication of urban air pollution.     

黄孢原毛平革菌所产木素过氧化物酶系对染料降解的研究

白腐真菌黄孢原毛平革菌所产生的胞外过氧化物酶系由两类同功酶木素过氧化物酶和锰过氧化物酶组成，木素过氧化物酶对所研究的染料都有解作用，锰过氧化物酶只对部分染料起作用。加入H2O2，胞外酶液可以降解多种酶性染料如卡布龙红、酸性大兰、弱酸黄和弱酸大红，它们的脱色速率依次下降，以卡布龙红为例研究了各种条件因素对其降解脱色的影响，最佳H2O2浓度是100μmol/L，最佳PH为4．0，温度越高，脱色越快，但高于50℃酶将明显失活，木素过氧化物酶活性越高脱色速率越快，高浓度染料对其脱色有抑制作用，最佳条件下，50mg/L浓度卡布龙红第一分钟的脱色率达70％。随着稀释倍数的增加，酶液的降解速率呈抛物线加速下降，表明酶液中的某些组分如元素离子的浓度也是一个重要影响因素。     

三峡水库135 m蓄水前后水体重金属环境健康风险评价

三峡水库135 m蓄水后,水体中各重金属的单因子污染指数和Nemerow综合污染指数均有不同程度的增大,特别是Pb污染应该引起重视.健康风险评价结果表明,成库前后非致癌有毒化学物质(Hg、Pb和Cu)所引起的健康危害的个人年风险为Pb＞Cu＞Hg,致癌物质对人体健康危害的个人年风险均大于非致癌物.各类污染物所致个人平均健康危害成库前后均低于国际辐射防护委员会(ICRP)推荐的标准,为可接受水平.     

Accumulation of heavy metals from contaminated soil to plants and evaluation of soil remediation by vermiculite

We evaluated the distribution of 15 metal ions, namely Al, Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, La, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sc, Ti, V, Y, Zn and Zr, in the soil of a contaminated site in Piedmont (Italy). This area was found to be heavily contaminated with Cu, Cr and Ni. The availability of these metal ions was studied using Tessier’s sequential extraction procedure: the fraction of mobile species, which potentially is the most harmful for the environment, was much higher than that normally present in unpolluted soils. This soil was hence used to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment with vermiculite to reduce the availability of the pollutants to two plants, Lactuca sativa and Spinacia oleracea, by pot experiments. The results indicated that the addition of vermiculite significantly reduces the uptake of metal pollutants by plants, confirming the possibility of using this clay in amendment treatments of metal-contaminated soils. The effect of plant growth on metal fractionation in soils was investigated. Finally, the sum of the metal percentages extracted into the first two fractions of Tessier’s protocol was found to be suitable in predicting the phytoavailability of most of the pollutants present in the investigated soil.     

Biofilm responses to marine fish farm wastes

The changes in the biofilm community due to organic matter enrichment, eutrophication and metal contamination derived from fish farming were studied. The biofilm biomass, polysaccharide content, trophic niche and element accumulation were quantified along an environmental gradient of fish farm wastes in two seasons. Biofilm structure and trophic diversity was influenced by seasonality as well as by the fish farm waste load. Fish farming enhanced the accumulation of organic carbon, nutrients, selenium and metals by the biofilm community. The accumulation pattern of these elements was similar regardless of the structure and trophic niche of the community. This suggests that the biofilm communities can be considered a reliable tool for assessing dissolved aquaculture wastes. Due to the ubiquity of biofilms and its wide range of consumers, its role as a sink of dissolved wastes may have important implications for the transfer of aquaculture wastes to higher trophic levels in coastal systems.     

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and other fluorochemicals in fish blood collected near the outfall of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Beijing

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) were measured in zooplankton and five fish species collected from Gaobeidian Lake, which receives discharge from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Beijing, China. The mean total PFCs in five fish were in the order: crucian carp > common carp > leather catfish > white semiknife carp > tilapia. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) occurred at the greatest concentrations, with mean concentrations ranging from 5.74 to 64.2 ng/ml serum. Perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA) was the second dominant PFC in fish samples except for common carp in which perfluorooctane sulfonamide (PFOSA) was dominant. A positive linear relationship (r² = 0.85, p < 0.05) was observed between ln PFOS concentrations (ln ng/ml) and trophic level (based on δ¹⁵N) if tilapia was excluded. The risk assessment showed that PFOS might not pose an immediate risk to fish in Gaobeidian Lake.