Occurrence and microbial degradation of phthalate esters in Taiwan river sediments

Concentrations and microbial degradation rates were measured for eight phthalate esters (PAEs) found in 14 surface water and six sediment samples taken from rivers in Taiwan. The tested PAEs were diethyl phthalate (DEP), dipropyl phthalate (DPP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP), diphenyl phthalate (DPhP), benzylbutyl phthalate (BBP), dihexyl phthalate (DHP), dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCP), and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). In all samples, concentrations of DEHP and DBP were found to be higher than the other six PAEs. DEHP concentrations in the water and sediment samples ranged from ND to 18.5 μg/l and 0.5 to 23.9 μg/g, respectively; for DBP the concentration ranges were 1.0–13.5 μg/l and 0.3–30.3 μg/g, respectively. Concentrations of DHP, BBP, DCP and DPhP were below detection limits. Under aerobic conditions, average degradation half-lives for DEP, DPP, DBP, DPhP, BBP, DHP, DCP and DEHP were measured as 2.5, 2.8, 2.9, 2.6, 3.1, 9.7, 11.1 and 14.8 days, respectively; under anaerobic conditions, respective average half-lives were measured as 33.6, 25.7, 14.4, 14.6, 19.3, 24.1, 26.4 and 34.7 days. In other words, under aerobic conditions we found that DEP, DPP, DBP, DPhP and BBP were easily degraded, but DEHP was difficult to degrade; under anaerobic conditions, DBP, DPhP and BBP were easily degraded, but DEP and DEHP were difficult to degrade. Aerobic degradation rates were up to 10 times faster than anaerobic degradation rates.     

The lack of microbial degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from coal-rich soils

Analytical techniques used to assess the environmental risk of contamination from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) typically consider only abiotic sample parameters. Supercritical fluid extraction and sorption enthalpy experiments previously suggested slow desorption rates for PAH compounds in two coal-contaminated floodplain soils. In this study, the actual PAH availability for aerobic soil microorganisms was tested in two series of soil-slurry experiments. The experimental conditions supported microbial degradation of phenanthrene if it was weakly sorbed onto silica gel. Native coals and coal-derived particles in two soils effectively acted as very strong sorbents and prevented microbial PAH degradation. The long history of PAH exposure and degree of coal contamination apparently had no influence on the capability of the microbial soil community to overcome constraints of PAH availability. Within the context of the experimental conditions and the compounds chosen, our results confirm that coal-bound PAHs are not bioavailable and hence of low environmental concern.     

组装式单自由度地震模拟振动台的创新技术研究

首先阐述了东南大学4 m×6 m组装式单自由度地震模拟振动台系统的组成、性能参数以及创新技术的运用;接着深入地论述了如何正确运用台面拼装技术、合理利用现有的基础和导轨,以及现有控制系统的改造和控制方法的选择;最后通过实际的台面背景噪声试验以及波形失真试验,验证了这些创新技术的突出优点。组装系统节约了60%的建设成本;300 kN的最大载重量以及超出93%的信噪比证明,运用创新技术还极大地发挥了组装系统的动态性能。     

Meter-scale variation within a single transect demands attention to taxon accumulation curves in riverine microbiome studies

● Riverine microbiomes exhibited hyperlocal variation within a single transect. ● Certain family-level taxa directionally associated with river center and bank. ● Taxon accumulation curves within a transect urges more nuanced sampling design. Microbial communities inhabiting river ecosystems play crucial roles in global biogeochemical cycling and pollution attenuation. Spatial variations in local microbial assemblages are important for detailed understanding of community assembly and developing robust biodiversity sampling strategies. Here, we intensely analyzed twenty water samples collected from a one-meter spaced transect from the near-shore to the near-center in the Meramec River in eastern Missouri, USA and examined the microbial community composition with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Riverine microbiomes across the transect exhibited extremely high similarity, with Pearson’s correlation coefficients above 0.9 for all pairwise community composition comparisons. However, despite the high similarity, PERMANOVA revealed significant spatial differences between near-shore and near-center communities (p = 0.001). Sloan’s neutral model simulations revealed that within-transect community composition variation was largely explained by demographic stochasticity (R² = 0.89). Despite being primarily explained by neutral processes, LefSe analyses also revealed taxa from ten families of which relative abundances differed directionally from the bank to the river center, indicating an additional role of environmental filtering. Notably, the local variations within a river transect can have profound impacts on the documentation of alpha diversity. Taxon-accumulation curves indicated that even twenty samples did not fully saturate the sampling effort at the genus level, yet four, six and seven samples were able to capture 80% of the phylum-level, family-level, and genus-level diversity, respectively. This study for the first time reveals hyperlocal variations in riverine microbiomes and their assembly mechanisms, demanding attention to more robust sampling strategies for documenting microbial diversity in riverine systems.     

Mercury removal from flue gas using nitrate as an electron acceptor in a membrane biofilm reactor

Membrane bioreactor achieved mercury removal using nitrate as an electron acceptor. The biological mercury oxidation increased with the increase of oxygen concentration. Ferrous sulfide could make both Hg²⁺ and MeHg transform into HgS-like substances. Nitrate drives mercury oxidation through katE, katG, nar, nir, nor, and nos. Mercury (Hg⁰) is a hazardous air pollutant for its toxicity, and bioaccumulation. This study reported that membrane biofilm reactor achieved mercury removal from flue gas using nitrate as the electron acceptor. Hg⁰ removal efficiency was up to 88.7% in 280 days of operation. Oxygen content in flue gas affected mercury redox reactions, mercury biooxidation and microbial methylation. The biological mercury oxidation increased with the increase of oxygen concentration (2%‒17%), methylation of mercury reduced with the increase of oxygen concentration. The dominant bacteria at oxygen concentration of 2%, 6%, 17%, 21% were Halomonas, Anaerobacillus, Halomonas and Pseudomonas, respectively. The addition of ferrous sulfide could immobilize Hg²⁺ effectively, and make both Hg²⁺ and MeHg transform into HgS-like substances, which could achieve the inhibition effect of methylation, and promote conversion of mercury. The dominant bacteria changed from Halomonas to Planctopirus after FeS addition. Nitrate drives mercury oxidation through katE, katG, nar, nir, nor, and nos for Hg⁰ removal in flue gas.