Estimating willingness to pay for a threatened species within a threatened ecosystem

This study conducts a choice experiment to determine the willingness to pay for Palouse Prairie conservation. The giant Palouse earthworm (Driloleirus americanus), a rare species endemic to the Palouse region, is included as an attribute of conservation and serves as a method for determining the willingness to pay for protecting the species. This method evaluates the value of the earthworm as an attribute of an overall willingness to pay for threatened ecosystem preservation rather than a direct willingness to pay for protecting the species. This method is expected to yield a more accurate measure of willingness to pay for rare species. The annual willingness to pay per household for the giant Palouse earthworm is $20.45 based on the conditional logit model and $19.30 based on the mixed logit model. Ranking and relative importance are included as methods for representing a non-monetary value and importance of the giant Palouse earthworm.     

微型测定法测定白醋中的总酸度

利用微型滴定法测定白醋中的总酸度,并对常量实验和微型实验的测定结果进行了比较分析。结果两种方法无显著性差异,F检验、t检验均在允许范围内,微型实验的准确度和精密度均达到常量实验的测定水平,完全满足化学分析要求,并且有效地节省了实验试剂,大大降低了实验成本。     

Impact of Sea Level Rise on Groundwater Salinity in a Coastal Community of South Florida1

Guha, Hillol and Sorab Panday, 2012. Impact of Sea Level Rise on Groundwater Salinity in a Coastal Community of South Florida. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 48(3): 510-529. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2011.00630.x Abstract: Freshwater resources of coastal communities in the United States and world over are threatened by the rate of sea level rise. According to recent estimates by various governmental agencies and climate researchers, the global sea level rise is likely to be between 0.6 and 2.1 m by the year 2100. South Florida is a coastal community and much of its coastline is subject to sea level rise and potential impacts to wetlands and the water resources of the area. To understand what the impact of sea level rise would cause to the groundwater level and salinity intrusion, an integrated groundwater and surface water model was developed for North Miami-Dade and Broward Counties of South Florida. The model was calibrated against daily groundwater heads, base flows in canals, and chloride concentrations for a period of one year and six months. Three separate sensitivity analyses were conducted by increasing the sea level by 0.6, 0.9, and 1.22 m. Results of the simulations shows increase of groundwater heads in some areas from 4 to 15%; whereas the average relative chloride concentrations increased significantly by 100-600% in some wells. The increase in groundwater elevations and chloride concentrations varies from location of the wells and its proximity to the coast. The model results indicate that even a 0.6 m increase in sea level (which is the conservative estimate) is likely to impair the vital freshwater resources in many parts of South Florida.     

Self-inhibition can limit biologically enhanced TCE dissolution from a TCE DNAPL

Biodegradation of trichloroethene (TCE) near a Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquid (DNAPL) can enhance the dissolution rate of the DNAPL by increasing the concentration gradient at the DNAPL-water interface. Two-dimensional flow-through sand boxes containing a TCE DNAPL and inoculated with a TCE dechlorinating consortium were set up to measure this bio-enhanced dissolution under anaerobic conditions. The total mass of TCE and daughter products in the effluent of the biotic boxes was 3-6 fold larger than in the effluent of the abiotic box. However, the mass of daughter products only accounted for 19-55% of the total mass of chlorinated compounds in the effluent, suggesting that bio-enhanced dissolution factors were maximally 1.3-2.2. The enhanced dissolution most likely primarily resulted from variable DNAPL distribution rather than biodegradation. Specific dechlorination rates previously determined in a stirred liquid medium were used in a reactive transport model to identify the rate limiting factors. The model adequately simulated the overall TCE degradation when predicted resident microbial numbers approached observed values and indicated an enhancement factor for TCE dissolution of 1.01. The model shows that dechlorination of TCE in the 2D box was limited due to the short residence time and the self-inhibition of the TCE degradation. A parameter sensitivity analysis predicts that the bio-enhanced dissolution factor for this TCE source zone can only exceed a value of 2 if the TCE self-inhibition is drastically reduced (when a TCE tolerant dehalogenating community is present) or if the DNAPL is located in a low-permeable layer with a small Darcy velocity.     

铁炭微电解工艺处理采油废水的研究

随着采油废水产生量的逐渐增大以及排放标准的日益严格,寻找一种经济、高效的处理方法显得十分必要。采用铁炭微电解技术对冀东油田采油废水进行了处理。考察了铁屑粒径、pH值、Fe/C质量比和反应时间对COD去除率的影响并设计了正交实验,结果表明,影响微电解工艺的因素主次关系为:pH>Fe/C质量比>反应时间,在最佳条件pH=5,Fe/C质量比为7∶1,反应时间50 min下,原水COD由170 mg/L降至95.6 mg/L,去除率达43.85%,出水满足国家二级排放标准。     

k-C*模型的人工湿地模拟研究

采用自由表面流人工湿地,对广东省中山市某小区对应段的河涌进行生态修复改造。基于k-C*模型的计算结果表明,在对现有河涌的面积的利用下,TP和NH4+-N的去除效果受到限制。采用多因素正交实验对模型的计算结果进行实验验证和分析,研究了4种植物、4种基质,分别在2、4、6和8 d水力停留时间(HRT)下对TP和NH4+-N的去除效果,得到影响TP和NH4+-N去除效果的因素主次顺序分别为基质→植物→HRT和基质→HRT→植物;各因素的最佳水平条件分别为:风车草、颗粒活性炭、4 d(HRT)。在最佳水平条件下进行实验,结果表明,TP和NH4+-N的浓度均可达到出水排放标准浓度指标。k-C*模型的计算值总是比实验值偏高,但两者之间的误差在一个数量级范围内。     

超强静磁场对染料脱色菌Escheriehia coli的acpD基因的影响

将大肠杆菌E.coli ATCC8739置于12.0 T超强静磁场(ultra-strong static magnetic field,SMF)中进行处理,获得了磁场处理0.5、1、2、4和8 h的菌株E.coli-SMFn(n=0.5、1、2、4、8)。在37℃、pH 7、静置的条件下,菌株对偶氮染料AR14(I.C.Acid Red 14)的脱色结果指出,当反应进行到4、6和8 h时,E.coli-SMF8的脱色效率分别为18%、55%和96%,远高于E.coli ATCC8739的3%、19%和50%,表明SMF作用显著地增强了菌株的脱色效率。基因组DNA提取、PCR扩增、分子克隆以及基因测序的实验结果进一步表明,全部6例E.coli ATCC8739菌株的偶氮还原酶基因(acpD)序列均与GenBank中报道的完全一致;而E.coli-SMF8菌株的acpD-SMF8核酸序列中缺失了第99位的胞嘧啶。该缺失突变不仅使acpD-SMF8的核酸序列与acpD的存在显著不同,同时得到了具新活性中心的偶氮还原酶AzoR-SMF8。这个新的活性中心具有更强的黄素(FMN)结合能力,因此使该酶与偶氮染料的亲和力大大增加,促进了脱色效率的提高。     

生物膜填料塔净化模拟烟气和电厂烟气中SO2和NOx的对比实验

对生物膜填料塔对模拟烟气和电厂烟气的净化效果进行了实验研究。实验对比分析了在相同的实验条件下生物膜填料塔对不同烟气中SO2和NOx的净化效率。实验结果表明,在循环液温度在24～35℃、空床停留时间（EBRT）为60s、喷淋量为8～10L／h、脱硫塔的pH为0．8～1．5、脱氮塔的pH为7．5～8．0的条件下,生物膜填料塔对模拟烟气和电厂烟气中SO2的净化效率都很高,但模拟烟气条件下的总脱氮率的平均值为80％,而在电厂烟气条件下只有35％。经分析认为,脱氮率产生差异的主要原因是电厂烟气中杂质的影响,以及烟气中氧气含量的不同,同时因为生长条件不同从而驯化出的微生物群体组成也不同。     

不同种植方式蔬菜中农药残留的差异及污染控制研究

采集了陕西地区不同种植方式的瓜果类、叶菜类蔬菜样品,研究了其中各种农药的残留情况,并分析了农药残留对环境的污染及其控制措施。结果表明:露地种植蔬菜与设施种植蔬菜相比,无论是农药残留检出率还是超标率都略高,两者的农药残留检出率分别为42.0%、36.5%,超标率分别为12.0%、8.2%;叶菜类蔬菜与瓜果类蔬菜相比,无论是农药残留检出率还是超标率都较高,两者的农药残留检出率分别为52.6%、29.6%,超标率分别为17.3%、5.4%;设施种植的瓜果类蔬菜和叶菜类蔬菜的农药残留检出率基本接近,而叶菜类蔬菜的农药残留超标率明显高于瓜果类蔬菜,露地种植的叶菜类蔬菜的农药残留检出率和超标率都远高于瓜果类蔬菜;设施种植蔬菜与露地种植蔬菜相比,甲胺磷、对硫磷、甲基对硫磷、毒死蜱、三氟氯氰菊酯和氰戊菊酯的残留检出率更高;瓜果类蔬菜与叶菜类蔬菜相比,毒死蜱、甲氰菊酯、三氟氯氰菊酯、氰戊菊酯的残留检出率更高;叶菜类蔬菜的农药施用浓度较高,施用农药后要间隔一定时间后再上市销售,并应采用更科学的施药方式,以减少农药在蔬菜中的残留和降低对环境的危害;一方面要开发并积极倡导使用高效、低毒、低残留的无公害农药,另一方面则要开发能够高效、快速降解残留农药的物质,同时还要进行农产品的清洁生产,以提高农产品的安全性,并降低环境中农药的残留危害。     

Effects of combinations of malathion and cypermethrin on survivability and time of metamorphosis of tadpoles of Indian cricket frog (Fejervarya limnocharis)

This study was undertaken to determine the effect of environmentally realistic concentrations of two commonly used pesticides viz., malathion and cypermethrin, using a fully 3 × 3 factorial experiments on the survivability and time of metamorphosis in a common rice paddy field frog (cricket frog) Fejervarya limnocharis under laboratory conditions. The results suggest that cypermethrin is more toxic than malathion and combinations of higher concentrations of cypermethrin (50 μg/L) with malathion (250 and 500 μg/L) are more deleterious to the survivability of tadpoles. With increasing cypermethrin concentration, the survivability of tadpole decreased (r = ?0.986, P = 0.108). But cypermethrin alone induced early metamorphosis among the surviving tadpoles. However, there was a delay in the time required for metamorphosis induced by malathion and its combination with cypermethrin. The delay in metamorphosis may indicate the altered physiological fitness of the individual. The emergent froglets will be subjected to environmental stressors like high temperature and less humidity of post-monsoon tropical climate that could enhance negative influence triggered by pesticides.