Imazaquin degradation and metabolism in a sandy loam soil amended with farm litters

Irnazaquin applied in legume crops has a long residual time in soil, which often impacts safety of the susceptible crops. To increase safety of imazaquin application, two composted litters, bovine manure （BM） and chicken manure （CM）, were used to determine their effects on imazaquin environmental behavior by incorporating each kind of manure into the tested sandy loam soil at 10% （w/w）. The degradation of imazaquin in BM- and CM-amended soil was about 2.4 and 1.5 times, respectively, faster than that in unamended soil. The half-lives of imazaquin in BM-amended soil varied between 6.7 and 15.4 d over the temperature range of 20 to 40℃, and the degradation rate constant （k） increased by a factor of about 1.5 for every 10℃ change. Higher mix ratio did not significantly increase the degradation, and the optimal active degradation of imazaquin was observed approximately at the mix ratio of 10：1 of soil to BM. The different moisture levels had negligible effect on imazaquin degradation. In both unamended and BM-amended treatments, two metabolites were observed at 5, 10 and 30 d after treatment. One metabolite at retention time （RT） of 8.4 rain was identified as 2-（4- hydroxyl-5-oxo-2-imidazolin-2-yl） quinoline acid, originating from the loss of isopropyl group and hydroxylation at the 4-position of imidazolinone ring. The other at RT of 12.9 rain was identified as quinoline-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride, resulting from detachment of imidazolinone ring and the forming of dicarboxylic anhydride. This finding suggested that the addition of farm litters into soil might be a good management option since it can not only increase soil fertility but also contribute to increase safety of imazaquin application to the following susceptible crops.     

Adsorption thermodynamics and kinetic investigation of aromatic amphoteric compounds onto different polymeric adsorbents

The adsorption behavior of p-aminobenzoic acid and o-aminobenzoic acid onto the different polymeric adsorbents was systematically investigated as a function of the solution concentration and temperature.Experimental results indicated that the equilibrium adsorption data of the four polymeric adsorbents fitted well in the Freundlich isotherm.The adsorption capacity of multi-functional polymeric adsorbent NJ-99 was the highest,which might be attributed to the strong hydrogen-bonding interaction between the amino groups on the resin and the carboxyl group of aminobenzoic acid.The adsorption capacity of o-aminobenzoic acid onto any adsorbent was higher than p-aminobenzoic acid.Thermodynamic studies suggested the exothermic,spontaneous physical adsorption process.Adsorption kinetics results showed that the adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order kinetics model and the intraparticle mass transfer process was the rate-controlling step.     

Effect of NOM characteristics on brominated organics formation by ozonation

In this study, organic fractions, namely, humic acid, fulvic acid, hydrophobic base and neutral, and hydrophilic acid, base, and -neutral, were extracted from source water. First, the characteristics of the organic fractions, such as carboxylic acidity, phenolic acidity, ultraviolet absorbance, and aromatic content, were analyzed. Further, a systematic study was carried out to the by-products obtained when organic fractions, to which various amounts of bromide had been added, were oxidized with ozone. Samples after ozonation were analyzed for several brominated organics. The results indicate that the characteristics of the aquatic organic matter, including carboxylic/phenolic acidity, aromatic/aliphatic content, and ultraviolet absorbance, appear to affect the formation of halogenated organics. In general, hydrophobic organics having higher phenolic acidity, aromatic content, and ultraviolet absorbance have higher ozone consumption and produce higher concentrations of brominated organics than hydrophilic organics. It was also found that humic acid demonstrated the highest bromoform (CHBr(3)), dibromoacetic acid (DBAA), and 2,4-dibromophenol (2,4-DBP) formation, whereas hydrophilic neutral produced less CHBr(3) and 2,4-DBP than the rest of the organic fractions but produced the highest amount of dibromoacetone (DBAC) and dibromoacetonitrile (DBAN).     

Recent Changes in Stream Flashiness and Flooding,and Effects of Flood Management in North Carolina and Virginia

The southeastern United States has undergone anthropogenic changes in landscape structure, with the potential to increase (e.g., urbanization) and decrease (e.g., reservoir construction) stream flashiness and flooding. Assessment of the outcome of such change can provide insight into the efficacy of current strategies and policies to manage water resources. We (1) examined trends in precipitation, floods, and stream flashiness and (2) assessed the relative influence of land cover and flow‐regulating features (e.g., best management practices and artificial water bodies) on stream flashiness from 1991 to 2013. We found mean annual precipitation decreased, which coincided with decreasing trends in floods. In contrast, stream flashiness, overall, showed an increasing trend during the period of study. However, upon closer examination, 20 watersheds showed stable stream flashiness, whereas 5 increased and 6 decreased in flashiness. Urban watersheds were among those that increased or decreased in flashiness. Watersheds that increased in stream flashiness gained more urban cover, lost more forested cover and had fewer best management practices installed than urban watersheds that decreased in stream flashiness. We found best management practices are more effective than artificial water bodies in regulating flashy floods. Flashiness index is a valuable and straightforward metric to characterize changes in streamflow and help to assess the efficacy of management interventions.     

Regime shifts and resilience in China’s coastal ecosystems

Regime shift often results in large, abrupt, and persistent changes in the provision of ecosystem services and can therefore have significant impacts on human wellbeing. Understanding regime shifts has profound implications for ecosystem recovery and management. China’s coastal ecosystems have experienced substantial deterioration within the past decades, at a scale and speed the world has never seen before. Yet, information about this coastal ecosystem change from a dynamics perspective is quite limited. In this review, I synthesize existing information on coastal ecosystem regime shifts in China and discuss their interactions and cascading effects. The accumulation of regime shifts in China’s coastal ecosystems suggests that the desired system resilience has been profoundly eroded, increasing the potential of abrupt shifts to undesirable states at a larger scale, especially given multiple escalating pressures. Policy and management strategies need to incorporate resilience approaches in order to cope with future challenges and avoid major losses in China’s coastal ecosystem services.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0692-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Reviving wood-pastures for biodiversity and people: A case study from western Estonia

Wood-pastures are associated with high cultural and biodiversity values in Europe. However, due to their relatively low productivity, large areas of wood-pastures have been lost over the last century. In some areas, incentive schemes have been developed to revive wood-pastures. We investigated the effects of one such scheme in western Estonia. We compared the structure of grazed wood-pastures (old and restored) to those of abandoned wood-pastures and ungrazed forest stands to explore the effects of management, and conducted interviews with 24 farmers to investigate their motivations to carry out the management. We found a positive influence of active management on the semi-open structure of wood-pastures. Financial support was vital for management, but personal values related to tradition also played an important role. The interviewees differed widely in their range of motivations, suggesting that other strategies in addition to financial incentives would further improve the management of wood-pastures in the region.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-015-0719-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Local and regional variability in snow conditions in northern Finland: A reindeer herding perspective

Weather station measurements were used to force the SNOWPACK snow model and combined with reindeer herders’ experiences to study the local and regional variations in snow conditions in a Finnish reindeer herding area for the 1981–2010 period. Winter conditions varied significantly between the four selected herding districts and between open and forest environments within the districts. The highest snow depths and densities, the thicknesses of ground ice, and the lengths of snow cover period were generally found in the northernmost districts. The snow depths showed the strongest regional coherence, whereas the thicknesses of ground ice were weakly correlated among the districts. The local variation in snow depths was higher than the regional variation and limits for rare or exceptional events varied notably between different districts and environments. The results highlight that forests diversify snow and foraging conditions, e.g., ground ice rarely forms simultaneously in different environments. Sufficient and diverse forest pastures are important during the critical winter season if reindeer herding is pursued on natural grazing grounds also in the future.     

Effects of humic acids derived from lignite and cattle manure on antioxidant enzymatic activities of barley root

To investigate the effects of humic acids (HAs) on the ability of plants to defend themselves against oxidative stress, barley was hydroponically cultured in the absence and presence of HAs, and the antioxidant enzymatic activities (catalase, superoxide dismutase, ascorbate and glutathione peroxidases) of root tissue were evaluated. Auxin-like structures in HAs, which were extracted from an oxidation product of lignite (LHA) and compost derived from cattle manure (CHA), were identified by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with tetramethylammonium hydroxide. The LHA, which had the lower molecular weight, was more effective in promoting the growth of barley root than CHA. However, the amounts of auxin-like structures in the CHA were much higher than those for LHA. The antioxidant enzymatic activities were initially decreased in the presence of LHA and CHA at the first day after refreshing the culture solution, but were significantly increased on the second day. The CHA sample, which contained relatively high levels of phenolic acids that contained auxin-like structures, was effective in increasing four types of enzymatic activities, while the activities of catalase and ascorbate peroxidase were increased in the presence of LHA, which contains naphthalene derivatives. These results indicate that using HAs as a supplement can be effective in enhancing antioxidation enzymatic activities, while the appearance of the effects is retarded because of the decomposition and release of auxin-like compounds from HAs by organic acids from the plant roots.     

Levels of PCDD/F in adipose tissue on non-occupationally exposed subjects living near a hazardous waste incinerator in Catalonia, Spain

The potential adverse effects on human health of hazardous waste incinerators (HWIs) are a subject of concern. The construction of the first and till now only HWI in Spain finished in 1999. In 2007, after approximately 9 years of regular operations in the facility, the concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/F) were determined by HRGC/HRMS in samples of adipose tissue of 15 autopsied subjects living in the area under potential impact of the HWI (Constantí, Tarragona County, Catalonia). These data were compared with the levels found in two previous surveys performed in 1998 (baseline) and 2002. The current mean PCDD/F concentration in adipose tissue was 14.6 pg WHO-TEQ/g of fat (range: 3.3–55.4 pg WHO-TEQ/g of fat). It means significant changes (a reduction of 64% and an increase of 47%) in the mean PCDD/F levels in comparison to those found in 1998 and 2002: 40.1 and 9.9 pg WHO-TEQ/g of fat, respectively. Women showed higher levels of PCDD/F than men (23.8 vs 11.2 pg WHO-TEQ/g of fat). The increase in the last 5 years would not be directly attributable to exposure to PCDD/F emitted by the HWI, as other biological monitors such as human plasma and milk decreased during the same period.     

Isolation and characterization of mesotrione-degrading Bacillus sp. from soil

Dissipation kinetics of mesotrione, a new triketone herbicide, sprayed on soil from Limagne (Puy-de-Dôme, France) showed that the soil microflora were able to biotransform it.Bacteria from this soil were cultured in mineral salt solution supplemented with mesotrione as sole source of carbon for the isolation of mesotrione-degrading bacteria. The bacterial community structure of the enrichment cultures was analyzed by temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TTGE). The TTGE fingerprints revealed that mesotrione had an impact on bacterial community structure only at its highest concentrations and showed mesotrione-sensitive and mesotrione-adapted strains. Two adapted strains, identified as Bacillus sp. and Arthrobacter sp., were isolated by colony hybridization methods.Biodegradation assays showed that only the Bacillus sp. strain was able to completely and rapidly biotransform mesotrione. Among several metabolites formed, 2-amino-4-methylsulfonylbenzoic acid (AMBA) accumulated in the medium. Although sulcotrione has a chemical structure closely resembling that of mesotrione, the isolates were unable to degrade it.