Phosphorus Loadings Associated with a Park Tourist Attraction: Limnological Consequences of Feeding the Fish

The Linesville spillway of Pymatuning State Park is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Pennsylvania, USA, averaging more than 450,000 visitors · year⁻¹. Carp (Cyprinus carpio Linnaeus) and waterfowl congregate at the spillway where they are fed bread and other foods by park visitors. We hypothesized that the “breadthrowers” constitute a significant nutrient vector to the upper portion of Pymatuning Reservoir. In the summer of 2002, we estimated phosphorus loadings attributable to breadthrowers, and compared these values to background loadings from Linesville Creek, a major tributary to the upper reservoir. Items fed to fish included bread, donuts, bagels, canned corn, popcorn, corn chips, hot dogs, birthday cakes, and dog food. Phosphorus loading associated with park visitors feeding fish was estimated to be 3233 g day⁻¹, and estimated P export from the Linesville Creek watershed was 2235 g·day⁻¹. P loading attributable to breadthrowers exceeded that of the entire Linesville Creek watershed on 33 of the 35 days of study, with only a heavy rainfall event triggering watershed exports that exceeded spillway contributions. Averaged across 5 weeks, breadthrowers contributed 1.45-fold more P to Pymatuning Reservoir than the Linesville Creek watershed. If Linesville Creek P exports are extrapolated to the entire Sanctuary Lake watershed, spillway contributions of P added 48% to the non-point source watershed P entering the lake. Park visitors feeding fish at the Linesville Spillway are a significant source of nutrients entering Sanctuary Lake.     

The application of artificial neural networks to flow and phosphorus dynamics in small streams on the Boreal Plain,with emphasis on the role of wetlands

Historically, management strategies in Canada's boreal forest have focused on forest polygons and terrestrial biodiversity to address ecological considerations in forest management. The Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance (FORWARD) project examines the problem from a watershed perspective rather than a forest polygon viewpoint. The main objective of this study was to devise an artificial neural network (ANN) modeling tool that can predict flow and total phosphorus (TP) concentration for ungauged watersheds (where daily flow is not monitored). This dictates that all inputs should be easily accessed via a public domain database, like the Environment Canada weather database, without the need to install flow gauges in each modeled watershed. Daily flow and TP concentration for two of the project watersheds were modeled using ANNs. The two watersheds (1A Creek, 5.1 km² and Willow Creek, 15.6 km²) were chosen to reflect variations in wetland area and composition in the study area. Flow was modeled with a feed-forward multilayer perceptron ANN trained with the error back-propagation algorithm. Simulated values for flow were then used, as inputs, to model TP concentration using the same neural networks algorithm. One hidden layer with three slabs; each operating with a different activation function was utilized to simulate the conceptual differences between base flow, snowmelt, and storm events. Time domain analysis was conducted to identify possible model time-lagged inputs reflecting the time dependency of the modeled variables. Spectral analysis was used to address data hystereses. Our results highlight the capabilities of ANN in modeling complex ecosystems and highly correlated variables. Results also indicated that more research towards the phosphorus dynamics in wetlands is required to better represent the impact of wetland area and composition on the water-phase phosphorus in ANN modeling.     

Water Quality Functions of Riparian Forest Buffers in Chesapeake Bay Watersheds

/ Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, USA, have agreed to reduce nutrient loadings to Chesapeake Bay by 40% by the year 2000. This requires control of nonpoint sources of nutrients, much of which comes from agriculture. Riparian forest buffer systems (RFBS) provide effective control of nonpoint source (NPS) pollution in some types of agricultural watersheds. Control of NPS pollution is dependent on the type of pollutant and the hydrologic connection between pollution sources, the RFBS, and the stream. Water quality improvements are most likely in areas of where most of the excess precipitation moves across, in, or near the root zone of the RFBS. In areas such as the Inner Coastal Plain and Piedmont watersheds with thin soils, RFBS should retain 50%-90% of the total loading of nitrate in shallow groundwater, sediment in surface runoff, and total N in both surface runoff and groundwater. Retention of phosphorus is generally much less. In regions with deeper soils and/or greater regional groundwater recharge (such as parts of the Piedmont and the Valley and Ridge), RFBS water quality improvements are probably much less. The expected levels of pollutant control by RFBS are identified for each of nine physiographic provinces of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Issues related to of establishment, sustainability, and management are also discussed.KEY WORDS: Riparian forest buffers; Chesapeake Bay; Nonpoint source pollution; Nitrogen; Phosphorus; Sediment     

Biochemical responses of the freshwater microalga Dictyosphaerium sp. upon exposure to three sulfonamides

Sulfonamides (SAs) are common antimicrobial drugs, which are frequently detected in surface water systems, and are difficult to degrade, posing a potential threat to the aquatic environment. However, little is known about the potential adverse effects of SAs on non-target organisms (e.g., microalgae) in the aquatic ecosystem. In this study, the effect of SAs (sulfadiazine (SD), sulfamerazine (SM1), and sulfamethazine (SM2) at 1, 5, 20, and 50 mg/L concentrations, respectively) on the freshwater microalga Dictyosphaerium sp. was investigated, with respect to changes of biomass and chlorophyll a content and induction of extracellular polymer substances (EPS), including protein and polysaccharide contents. At the same time, the residue of SAs was determined. The results showed that Dictyosphaerium sp. was tolerant to the three SAs, and the chlorophyll a content in Dictyosphaerium sp. significantly decreased on day 7, followed by a “compensation phenomena”. The increase in protein and polysaccharide contents played a defensive role in Dictyosphaerium sp. against antibiotic stress, and there was a strong positive correlation between polysaccharide contents and antibiotic concentrations. Dictyosphaerium sp. exhibited 35%–45%, 30%–42%, and 26%–51% removal of SD, SM1, and SM2, respectively. This study is helpful to understand the changes of EPS in the defense process of microalgae under the action of antibiotics, and provides a new insight for the ecological removal of antibiotic pollution in natural surface water system.     

Adsorption and recovery of phosphate from water by amine fiber, effects of co-existing ions and column filtration

A weak-base adsorption fiber, acrylic amine fiber (AAF), was prepared for removal and recovery of phosphate from water. The adsorption properties of the AAF for phosphate and effects of co-existing ions were investigated using batch and column filtration experiments, scanning electron microscope, and Fourier transform infrared techniques. Experimental results showed that AAF had a high phosphate adsorption capacity of 119?mg/g at pH?7.0. The effects of calcium, sulfate, carbonate, nitrate, and fluoride showed that sulfate and calcium inhibited phosphate adsorption. However, AAF showed higher binding affinity toward phosphate than sulfate. Column filtration results showed that AAF could filter 1420 bed volumes of tap water containing 1.0?mg-P/L of phosphate. The saturated AAF could be regenerated using 0.5?mol/L hydrochloric acid solution and reused. After desorption, phosphate was recovered through precipitation of hydroxyapatite (Ca₅(PO₄)₃OH). The easy of regeneration, good adsorption performance, and the fiber morphology of AAF make it an attractive alternative for phosphate recovery from multiple water sources.     

Effect of phosphate releasing in activated sludge on phosphorus removal from municipal wastewater

Aluminum and ferric salts are commonly used in municipal wastewater treatment plants(WWPTs) for phosphorus(P) removal. In this study, on-site jar tests were conducted to determine the removal of different P species from the fresh samples in the presence and absence of activated sludge(AS) with different doses of alum, poly-aluminum chloride,and ferric chloride at different p H. The soluble P(SP) concentration in the samples was about 0.63 mg/L. When the mixed liquor containing AS was treated with 8 mg/L of Al, SP could be reduced to 0.13 mg/L, while it was reduced to 0.16 mg/L with only 1 mg/L of Al after sedimentation removal of AS from sample. Chemical analysis determined that AS contained 59.8 mg-P/g-TSS and 43.8 mg-Al/g-TSS and most of the P was associated with the aluminum hydroxide. We discovered that the phosphate in the AS could readily be released from it, which was mainly responsible for ineffective removal of P to low levels in mixed liquor even with very high alum dose. This study provides new insight into the behavior and fate of P in the wastewater treatment plants that use alum to enhance P removal in the final effluent.     

氮和磷对铜山源水库优势藻生长影响实验研究

分别研究了N、P等对铜山源水库优势藻类（绿球藻和舟形硅藻）生长的影响。结果表明，当N／P比为25时，绿球藻生长量最高，其限制因子是磷。绿球藻生长最适pH范围为6－8，生长过程中培养基pH没有显著变化。绿球藻和舟形硅藻混合培养时，绿球藻占优，而硅盐浓度对硅藻生长有明显促进作用。     

A Daily Time Series Analysis of StreamWater Phosphorus Concentrations Along an Urban to Forest Gradient

During a 1-year period, we sampled stream water total phosphorus (TP) concentrations daily and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations weekly in four Seattle area streams spanning a gradient of forested to urban-dominated land cover. The objective of this study was to develop time series models describing stream water phosphorus concentration dependence on seasonal variation in stream base flows, short-term flow fluctuations, antecedent flow conditions, and rainfall. Stream water SRP concentrations varied on average by ±18% or ±5.7 μg/L from one week to another, whereas TP varied ±48% or ±32.5 μg/L from one week to another. On average, SRP constituted about 47% of TP. Stream water SRP concentrations followed a simple sine-wave annual cycle with high concentrations during the low-flow summer period and low concentrations during the high-flow winter period in three of the four study sites. These trends are probably due to seasonal variation in the relative contributions of groundwater and subsurface flows to stream flow. In forested Issaquah Creek, SRP concentrations were relatively constant throughout the year except during the fall, when a major salmon spawning run occurred in the stream and SRP concentrations increased markedly. Stream water SRP concentrations were statistically unrelated to short-term flow fluctuations, antecedent flow conditions, or rainfall in each of the study streams. Stream water TP concentrations are highly variable and strongly influenced by short-term flow fluctuations. Each of the processes assessed had statistically significant correlations with TP concentrations, with seasonal base flow being the strongest, followed by antecedent flow conditions, short-term flow fluctuations, and rainfall. Times series models for each individual stream were able to predict ∼70% of the variability in the SRP annual cycle in three of the four streams (r² = 0.57–0.81), whereas individual TP models explained ∼50% of the annual cycle in all streams (r² = 0.39–0.59). Overall, time series models for SRP and TP dynamics explained 82% and 76% of the variability for these variables, respectively. Our results indicate that SRP, the most biologically available and therefore most important phosphorus fraction, has simpler and easier-to-predict seasonal and weekly dynamics.     

铁屑微电解法处理光致抗蚀剂废水的初步研究

初步研究了铁屑微电解法处理先致抗蚀剂废水；对废水pH值、曝气、铁屑和活性炭的用量等作了单因素影响试验。正交试验结果表明：当铁屑投加量50．0g／L，活性碳投加量5．0g／L，废水pH值2．0，反应时间60min时，CODCr去除率达42％。     

磷的沉积物-水界面反应

本文对磷在水中和沉积物中的赋存状态进行了简单介绍;对磷在沉积物-水界面的反应机制作了详细的介绍;且认为有必要对磷进行更深入地研究.