Properties of agricultural aerosol released during wheat harvest threshing, plowing and sowing

This study shows for the first time a chemical and morphological characterization of agricultural aerosols released during three important agricultural operations： threshing, plowing and sowing. The field campaigns were carried out in the eastern part of the Po Valley, Italy, in summer and autumn 2009. The aerosol particles were sampled on quartz fiber filters and polytetrafluoroethylene membranes in order to allow Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry （ICP-MS） analysis and Scanning Electron Microscopy equipped with an Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer （SEM-EDS） investigations, respectively. The organic carbon mass concentrations were measured with a Sunset Laboratory Dual-Optical Organic Carbone/Elemental Carbon （OCEC） Aerosol analyzer. The morphological and chemical analyses by SEM-EDS allowed recognizing four main particle classes： organic, silica, calcite and clay minerals. The organic particles contribute to both fine and coarse aerosol fractions up to ca. 50% for all three agricultural activities. This was also confirmed by OCEC analysis for fine fraction. Most of the agricultural aerosols, about 60%, were single particles and the remaining 40% were agglomerations of particles. The ICP-MS results showed that threshing and plowing produce more aerosol particles than sowing, which was characterized by important amounts of clay minerals produced from land soils.     

Can the envisaged reductions of fossil fuel CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> emissions be detected by atmospheric observations?

The lower troposphere is an excellent receptacle, which integrates anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions over large areas. Therefore, atmospheric concentration observations over populated regions would provide the ultimate proof if sustained emissions changes have occurred. The most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO(2)), also shows large natural concentration variations, which need to be disentangled from anthropogenic signals to assess changes in associated emissions. This is in principle possible for the fossil fuel CO(2) component (FFCO(2)) by high-precision radiocarbon ((14)C) analyses because FFCO(2) is free of radiocarbon. Long-term observations of (14)CO(2) conducted at two sites in south-western Germany do not yet reveal any significant trends in the regional fossil fuel CO(2) component. We rather observe strong inter-annual variations, which are largely imprinted by changes of atmospheric transport as supported by dedicated transport model simulations of fossil fuel CO(2). In this paper, we show that, depending on the remoteness of the site, changes of about 7-26% in fossil fuel emissions in respective catchment areas could be detected with confidence by high-precision atmospheric (14)CO(2) measurements when comparing 5-year averages if these inter-annual variations were taken into account. This perspective constitutes the urgently needed tool for validation of fossil fuel CO(2) emissions changes in the framework of the Kyoto protocol and successive climate initiatives.     

Intraspecific variation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Oxytropis chankaensis</Emphasis>, a Far Eastern Endemic

Variation and intraspecific differentiation of Oxytropis chankaensis Jurtz. (Fabaceae), a plant endemic to the Russian Far East, have been studied by analyzing a complex of morphological characters. A high level of morphological variation has been revealed, and the most variable populations growing in the Khankaiskii Nature Reserve have been identified. Populations growing in the zone of anthropogenic impact are characterized by low values and reduced variability of test characters. Distinct morphological differentiation of O. chankaensis populations has been observed.     

萱草修复石油烃污染土壤的根际机制和根系代谢组学分析

采用温室盆栽方法,研究花卉植物萱草(Hemerocallis middendorfii Trautv.et Mey.)对大港油田石油烃污染土壤的修复,设定的土壤石油烃污染含量为:0、10 000和40 000 mg·kg~(-1).结果表明,萱草对石油烃含量≤40 000 mg·kg~(-1)具有良好的耐性,并且萱草对石油烃污染土壤中石油烃的修复效果比较显著,主要表现在试验组石油烃的去除率分别为53.7%和33.4%,显著高于空白对照组(31.8%和12.0%).通过GC-MS测定土壤中的氨基酸、有机酸以及糖类等成分的相对含量,并结合PCA和PLS-DA模型探讨了土壤石油烃去除的根际机制.结果发现,萱草的种植确实改变了土壤各成分的分布特征,而且其中喃葡萄糖对石油烃的去除起到关键的作用.此外,对萱草根系代谢组学的分析结果显示,仅在污染组发现了特殊的代谢物丙氨酸、肉豆蔻酸、棕榈酸和亚油酸.而且,石油烃的暴露确实改变了萱草根系的初生代谢流,引起了一些代谢物的显著变化.总之,萱草可以种植于石油烃含量≤40 000 mg·kg~(-1)的污染土壤,并具备了对石油烃的修复能力;同时石油烃的暴露改变了萱草的根系代谢,而这种改变可能是萱草对石油烃污染土壤做出的代谢响应.     

Seasonal variation of municipal solid waste generation and composition in four East European cities

The quality of recyclable and residual municipal solid waste (MSW) is, among other factors, strongly influenced by the seasonal variation in MSW composition. However, a relatively marginal amount of published data on seasonal MSW composition especially in East European countries do not provide sufficient information on this phenomenon. This study provides results from municipal waste composition research campaigns conducted during the period of 2009–2011 in four cities of Eastern European countries (Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine and Georgia). The median monthly MSW generation values ranged from 18.70 in Kutaisi (Georgia) to 38.31 kg capita⁻¹ month⁻¹ in Kaunas (Lithuania). The quantitative estimation of seasonal variation was performed by fitting the collected data to time series forecasting models, such as non-parametric seasonal exponential smoothing, Winters additive, and Winters multiplicative methods.