Red soil for sediment capping to control the internal nutrient release under flow conditions

Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) released from the sediment to the surface water is a major source of water quality impairment. Therefore, inhibiting sediment nutrient release seems necessary. In this study, red soil (RS) was employed to control the nutrients released from a black-odorous river sediment under flow conditions. The N and P that were released were effectively controlled by RS capping. Continuous-flow incubations showed that the reduction efficiencies of total N (TN), ammonium (NH ₄ ⁺ -N), total P (TP) and soluble reactive P (SRP) of the overlying water by RS capping were 77%, 63%, 77% and 92%, respectively, and nitrification and denitrification occurred concurrently in the RS system. An increase in the water velocity coincided with a decrease in the nutrient release rate as a result of intensive water aeration.

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Ackee apple (Blighia sapida) seeds: a novel adsorbent for the removal of Congo Red dye from aqueous solutions

The ability of ackee apple (AA) seeds to remove Congo Red (CR) dye from aqueous solution was investigated. AA was characterised using thermo gravimetric analyser, scanning electron microscopy, Braunauer Emmett Teller, pH_pzc, elemental analysis and Boehm titration. The effects of operational parameters such as adsorbent dosage, contact time, initial dye concentration and solution pH were studied in a batch system. pH has a profound influence on the adsorption process. Maximum dye adsorption was observed at pH 3.0. The reaction was fast, reaching equilibrium in 90 min. Adsorption data were best described by Langmuir isotherm and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model with a maximum monolayer coverage of 161.89 mg·g^?1. Both boundary layer and intraparticle diffusion mechanisms were found to govern the adsorption process. Thermodynamic parameters such as standard free energy change (Δ G ⁰), standard enthalpy change (Δ H ⁰), and standard entropy change (Δ S ⁰) were studied. Values of Δ G ⁰ varied between?30.94 and?36.56 kJ·mol^?1, Δ H ⁰ was 25.61 kJ·mol^?1, and Δ S ⁰ was 74.84 kJ·mol^?1·K^?1, indicating that the removal of CR from aqueous solution by AA was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. Regeneration and reusability studies were carried out using different eluents. AA gave the highest adsorption efficiency up to four cycles when treated with 0.3 M HCl. AA was found to be an effective adsorbent for the removal of CR dye from aqueous solution.     

Perturbations of population growth in a microcosm by detergents

In order to assess the effects of detergents on a microcosm system several types of detergents (anionic, cationic, nonionic, and amino acid detergents) were tested. Data showed growth perturbations in the microcosm, indicating that these detergents affected the microcosm. The potential use of growth perturbations of microcosm by addition of detergents as a biomarker of exposure is described.     

Mechanisms of moisture stress in a mid-latitude temperate forest: Implications for feedforward and feedback controls from an irrigation experiment

While it is well established that stomata close during moisture stress, strong correlations among environmental (e.g., vapor pressure deficit, soil moisture, air temperature, radiation) and internal (e.g., leaf water potential, sap flow, root-shoot signaling) variables obscure the identification of causal mechanisms from field experiments. Models of stomatal control fitted to field data therefore suffer from ambiguous parameter identification, with multiple acceptable (i.e., nearly optimal) model structures emphasizing different moisture status indicators and different processes. In an effort to minimize these correlations and improve parameter and process identification, we conducted an irrigation experiment on red maples (Acer rubrum L.) at Harvard Forest (summers of 2005 and 2006). Control and irrigated trees experienced similar radiative and boundary layer forcings, but different soil moisture status, and thus presumably different diurnal cycles of internal leaf water potential. Measured soil moisture and atmospheric forcing were used to drive a transient tree hydraulic model that incorporated a Jarvis-type leaf conductance in a Penman–Monteith framework with a Cowan-type (resistance and capacitance) tree hydraulic representation. The leaf conductance model included dependence on both leaf matric potential, Ψ_L (so-called feedback control) and on vapor pressure deficit, D (so-called feedforward control). Model parameters were estimated by minimizing the error between predicted and measured sap flow. The whole-tree irrigation treatment had the effect of elevating measured transpiration during summer dry-downs, demonstrating the limiting effect that subsurface resistance may have on transpiration during these times of moisture stress. From the best fitted model, we infer that during dry downs, moisture stress manifests itself in an increase of soil resistance with a resulting decrease in Ψ_L, leading to both feedforward and feedback controls in the control trees, but only feedforward control for the irrigated set. Increases in the sum-of-squares error when individual model components were disabled allow us to reject the following three null hypotheses: (1) the f(D) stress is statistically insignificant (p = 0.01); (2) the f(Ψ_L) stress is statistically insignificant (p = 0.07); and (3) plant storage capacitance is independent of moisture status (p = 0.07).     

Responses of the earthworm Eisenia andrei exposed to sublethal aluminium levels in an artificial soil substrate

Industrial discharges of Al are increasingly common. In this study, the activities of three antioxidases, malondialdehyde (MDA) content and changes in coelomocytes were investigated in earthworms (Eisenia andrei) exposed to different concentrations of aluminium chloride (range 0–200 mg Al kg^?1 dry soil) in artificial soils for 32 days. Within the first 16 days of Al exposure, catalase activity was elevated in most treatments, while the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were inhibited in all treatments. After 16 days exposure, SOD and GSH-Px activities returned to normal at lower Al concentrations, but were still inhibited at higher concentrations, hence the inhibition of SOD and GSH-Px showed some exposure-level dependence during the late exposure phase. MDA content was significantly elevated from 16 days after initial exposure. Neutral Red retention time of coelomocytes decreased at the highest exposure concentrations after 32 days, and an increased proportion of cells showing membrane damage was also observed at this time using flow cytometry. We conclude that excessive Al in soils can cause oxidative stress and cell damage in earthworms. Hence, Al accumulation in the environment may present an ecological hazard through suppression of the important functions of earthworms in soil ecosystems.     

2014年春季东海大面积甲藻赤潮的生态特征

为准确掌握东海近岸海域赤潮发生情况,深入了解东海海域赤潮发生时和未发生时的生态环境条件,根据浙江省舟山海洋生态环境监测站对东海近岸海域常年的监测结果,选定从杭州湾外侧向南到温州南麂列岛的东海近岸海域为赤潮高发区,开展生态环境研究.2014 年4 月和5 月利用专业海洋调查船,按《海洋监测规范》对东海赤潮高发海域进行了二次综合海洋生态环境调查,结果发现调查海域氮、磷营养盐含量普遍较高,4 月研究海域无机氮均值为0.406 mg·L^-1,活性磷酸盐均值0.013 mg·L^-1;5 月无机氮均值0.244 mg·L^-1,活性磷酸盐均值0.004 mg·L^-1.大多数样品无机氮超一类海水水质标准,尤其是4 月91.7%的样品超-类海水标准,5 月也有35.7%样品超-类海水标准.硝酸盐氮是无机氮的主要存在形式.2014 年5 月调查期间发生了大面积的赤潮,赤潮原因种是东海原甲藻（Prorocentrum donghaiense）,细胞密度平均在107/L 以上.分析赤潮发生前后的水环境变化,5 月调查海域海水温度有较大上升,各海域水温均超过了20 ℃,海域平均温度从4 月的15.9 ℃上升到5 月的21.9 ℃.通过本次研究发现在营养盐浓度普遍较高的调查海域,水温上升是引发赤潮的关键因素.使用专业统计软件SPSS17 发现赤潮藻类的细胞密度与水温、化学需氧量和溶解氧存在着极显著的正相关（P〈0.01）,与活性磷酸盐、硝酸盐氮和无机氮存在着显著负相关（P〈0.05）.另外本次调查还发现,大面积东海原甲藻赤潮暴发后,活性磷酸盐被大量消耗.综合目前有关东海原甲藻赤潮期间对活性磷酸盐的吸收动力学研究,发现今后应进一步加强这方面的调查研究.     

Harnessing the potential of integrated systematics for conservation of taxonomically complex,megadiverse plant groups

The value of natural history collections for conservation science research is increasingly recognized, despite their well-documented limitations in terms of taxonomic, geographic, and temporal coverage. Specimen-based analyses are particularly important for tropical plant groups for which field observations are scarce and potentially unreliable due to high levels of diversity-amplifying identification challenges. Specimen databases curated by specialists are rich sources of authoritatively identified, georeferenced occurrence data, and such data are urgently needed for large genera. We compared entries in a monographic database for the large Neotropical genus Myrcia in 2007 and 2017. We classified and quantified differences in specimen records over this decade and determined the potential impact of these changes on conservation assessments. We distinguished misidentifications from changes due to taxonomic remodeling and considered the effects of adding specimens and georeferences. We calculated the potential impact of each change on estimates of extent of occurrence (EOO), the most frequently used metric in extinction-risk assessments of tropical plants. We examined whether particular specimen changes were associated with species for which changes in EOO over the decade were large enough to change their conservation category. Corrections to specimens previously misidentified or lacking georeferences were overrepresented in such species, whereas changes associated with taxonomic remodeling (lumping and splitting) were underrepresented. Among species present in both years, transitions to less threatened status outnumbered those to more threatened (8% vs 3%, respectively). Species previously deemed data deficient transitioned to threatened status more often than to not threatened (10% vs 7%, respectively). Conservation scientists risk reaching unreliable conclusions if they use specimen databases that are not actively curated to reflect changing knowledge.     

Automated conservation assessment of the orchid family with deep learning

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments are essential for prioritizing conservation needs but are resource intensive and therefore available only for a fraction of global species richness. Automated conservation assessments based on digitally available geographic occurrence records can be a rapid alternative, but it is unclear how reliable these assessments are. We conducted automated conservation assessments for 13,910 species (47.3% of the known species in the family) of the diverse and globally distributed orchid family (Orchidaceae), for which most species (13,049) were previously unassessed by IUCN. We used a novel method based on a deep neural network (IUC-NN). We identified 4,342 orchid species (31.2% of the evaluated species) as possibly threatened with extinction (equivalent to IUCN categories critically endangered [CR], endangered [EN], or vulnerable [VU]) and Madagascar, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and several oceanic islands as priority areas for orchid conservation. Orchidaceae provided a model with which to test the sensitivity of automated assessment methods to problems with data availability, data quality, and geographic sampling bias. The IUC-NN identified possibly threatened species with an accuracy of 84.3%, with significantly lower geographic evaluation bias relative to the IUCN Red List and was robust even when data availability was low and there were geographic errors in the input data. Overall, our results demonstrate that automated assessments have an important role to play in identifying species at the greatest risk of extinction.     

淀粉改性混凝剂复合硅酸盐对微污染水强化混凝性能研究

传统混凝工艺对微污染地表水净化效果有限,此外,近年来淀粉等天然高分子混凝剂由于绿色环保等特点而备受关注.本研究采用一种阳离子改性淀粉材料(淀粉-3-氯-2-羟丙基三甲基氯化铵,St-CTA)为混凝剂,分别与实验室自制的聚硅酸(PSA)及聚硅酸钛锌(PSTZ)进行复合强化混凝,应用于处理微污染水体.首先以高岭土-腐殖酸(HA)混合液为模拟水样,基于表观混凝性能、絮体特征及混凝后上清液ζ电位等,详细考察了强化混凝工艺的净水效果及混凝机制.结果表明,St-CTA分别复合两种不同硅酸盐的强化混凝工艺均对模拟水样具有良好的净水效果;St-CTA与PSTZ复合优于其与PSA组合工艺的混凝性能,且St-CTA/PSTZ复合工艺能缓解St-CTA过量引起的再稳定效应,具有较宽的有效混凝范围.St-CTA通过电中和作用与污染物结合,可有效压缩表面双电层;而带正电性的PSTZ,相比于负电性的 PSA,不仅具有粘结架桥强化效应,还具有电中和作用,且与HA可形成Zn-HA复合物,实现高效净水效果.除模拟水样外,还考察了两种强化混凝工艺对实际微污染地表水的混凝效果,其均表现出良好的混凝性能,有效弥补单一混凝剂对有机微污染水体混凝效率较低的不足,进一步证实了该强化混凝工艺的有效性.此外,与处理模拟水样效果一致,St-CTA复合PSTZ的净化效果更佳,但PSA具有更低的应用成本.本研究提供了一种绿色环保的强化混凝工艺,可有效净化微污染水体,具有良好的应用前景.     

An agent-based model of red colobus resources and disease dynamics implicates key resource sites as hot spots of disease transmission

The effect of anthropogenic landscape change on disease in wildlife populations represents a growing conservation and public health concern. Red colobus monkeys (Procolobus rufomitratus), an endangered primate species, are particularly susceptible to habitat alteration and have been the focus of a great deal of disease and ecological research as a result. To infer how landscape changes can affect host and parasite dynamics, a spatially explicit agent-based model is created to simulate movement and foraging of this primate, based on a resource landscape estimated from extensive plot-derived tree population data from Kibale National Park, Uganda. Changes to this resource landscape are used to simulate effects of anthropogenic forest change. With each change in the landscape, disease outcomes within the simulated red colobus population are monitored using a hypothetical microparasite with a directly transmitted life cycle. The model predicts an optimal distribution of resources which facilitates the spread of an infectious agent through the simulated population. The density of resource rich sites and the overall heterogeneity of the landscape are important factors contributing to this spread. The characteristics of this optimal distribution are similar to those of logged sections of forest adjacent to our study area.