Biological sulfate removal from acrylic fiber manufacturing wastewater using a two-stage UASB reactor

A two-stage UASB reactor was employed to remove sulfate from acrylic fiber manufacturing wastewater. Mesophilic operation (35±0.5℃) was performed with hydraulic retention time (HRT) varied between 28 and 40 hr. Mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) in the reactor was maintained about 8000 mg/L. The results indicated that sulfate removal was enhanced with increasing the ratio of COD/SO₄^2-. At low COD/SO₄^2-, the growth of the sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) was carbon-limited. The optimal sulfate removal efficiencies were 75% when the HRT was no less than 38 hr. Sulfidogenesis mainly happened in the sulfate-reducing stage, while methanogenesis in the methane-producing stage. Microbes in sulfate-reducing stage performed granulation better than that in methane-producing stage. Higher extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) content in sulfate-reducing stage helped to adhere and connect the flocculent sludge particles together. SRB accounted for about 31% both in sulfate-reducing stage and methane-producing stage at COD/SO₄^2- ratio of 0.5, while it dropped dramatically from 34% in sulfate-reducing stage to 10% in methane-producing stage corresponding to the COD/SO₄^2- ratio of 4.7. SRB and MPA were predominant in sulfate-reducing stage and methane-producing stage respectively.     

Demographic Consequences of Terrestrial Habitat Loss for Pool‐Breeding Amphibians: Predicting Extinction Risks Associated with Inadequate Size of Buffer Zones

Abstract: Much of the biodiversity associated with isolated wetlands requires aquatic and terrestrial habitat to maintain viable populations. Current federal wetland regulations in the United States do not protect isolated wetlands or extend protection to surrounding terrestrial habitat. Consequently, some land managers, city planners, and policy makers at the state and local levels are making an effort to protect these wetland and neighboring upland habitats. Balancing human land‐use and habitat conservation is challenging, and well‐informed land‐use policy is hindered by a lack of knowledge of the specific risks of varying amounts of habitat loss. Using projections of wood frog (Rana sylvatica) and spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) populations, we related the amount of high‐quality terrestrial habitat surrounding isolated wetlands to the decline and risk of extinction of local amphibian populations. These simulations showed that current state‐level wetland regulations protecting 30 m or less of surrounding terrestrial habitat are inadequate to support viable populations of pool‐breeding amphibians. We also found that species with different life‐history strategies responded differently to the loss and degradation of terrestrial habitat. The wood frog, with a short life span and high fecundity, was most sensitive to habitat loss and isolation, whereas the longer‐lived spotted salamander with lower fecundity was most sensitive to habitat degradation that lowered adult survival rates. Our model results demonstrate that a high probability of local amphibian population persistence requires sufficient terrestrial habitat, the maintenance of habitat quality, and connectivity among local populations. Our results emphasize the essential role of adequate terrestrial habitat to the maintenance of wetland biodiversity and ecosystem function and offer a means of quantifying the risks associated with terrestrial habitat loss and degradation.     

Estimation of the maximal population frequency of “alien” biotypes taking into account a priori data

A method is described for calculating the probability that the percentage of alien biotypes is higher than a specified threshold (e.g., 5%) in a population in which a certain number of alien biotypes has been found preliminarily. The method is based on the Bayesian approach; it assumes that the researcher has preliminary (a priori) information on the frequency of these biotypes. This a priori information makes it possible to estimate the aforementioned probability more accurately than is possible with the use of the standard binomial estimation. The method is illustrated by the results of the estimation of cultivar purity in batches of stock and foundation seeds of spring barley with the use of protein markers.Translated from Ekologiya, No. 2, 2005, pp. 106–109.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Zhivotovsky, Pomortsev, Lyalina, Kalabushkin, Pukhalskii.     

基于水体固有光学特性的太湖浮游植物色素的定量反演

基于2005-05～2005-08对太湖全湖不同湖区92个样点吸收系数、光束衰减系数、后向散射系数等固有光学特性测定与计算,选择色素浓度反演的最佳波段组合,利用反射率比建立了太湖叶绿素a,叶绿素a与脱镁叶绿素的定量反演模型.结果表明,全湖4次采样叶绿素a、脱镁叶绿素的变化范围分别为3.9～149.8μg·L^-1、均值为(38.14±28.89)μg·L^-1;0～45.8μg·L^-1、均值为(8.49±7.24)μg·L^-1,存在很大空间差异,湖心区和草型湖区的东太湖、胥口湾、贡湖湾色素浓度一般要低于其他湖区.同样吸收系数和后向散射系数也存在很大的空间差异,a_t(440)的变化范围为0.86～23.25 m^-1、均值为(6.21±3.31)m^-1,b_t(550)的变化范围0.05～2.25m^-1、均值为(0.72±0.52)m^-1,东太湖、胥口湾、贡湖湾的值要低于其他湖区.400～650nm随波长增加总吸收系数大致呈下降趋势,680nm附近存在1个峰值,峰值的强弱与水体中色素浓度有关,而到720nm以后则逐渐增加,后向散射系数随波长增加则逐渐降低.反射率比R(706)/R(682)能较好地用于太湖色素浓度的反演,叶绿素a、叶绿素a与脱镁叶绿素之和幂函数反演的决定系数R²分别达0.823、0.864 5.模型能用于包括湖面反射率受湖底和沉水植物影响的全太湖.     

企业实用安全评价方法初探--一种简单易行的企业自我评价方法

分析了当前我国安全评价中存在的问题,探讨一种企业实用的安全综合评价方法.介绍该方法的评价原理、程序和步骤,总结该评价方法的功能、特点和适用范围,提出改进方向.     

基于成本收益分析的油气管道风险控制决策过程

为实现对油气管道风险的有效控制,结合油气管道的特点,基于成本收益分析方法改进风险控制决策过程。首先,确定风险控制目标,对所建议的措施进行初步筛选,并根据行业现状确定基线场景;之后,量化筛选后的措施的成本与收益,通过计算成本收益率(CBR)或规避事故隐含成本(ICAF)来确定相应措施的合理性;最后,依据上述分析制定风险控制决策。结果表明:不同措施的CBR或ICAF值不同,CBR或ICAF值较低的措施应被优先实施;而当CBR或ICAF值超过标准值时,相应措施是不合理的,应不予以实施。     

Dynamics in the global protected-area estate since 2004

Nations of the world have committed to a number of goals and targets to address global environmental challenges. Protected areas have for centuries been a key strategy in conservation and play a major role in addressing current challenges. The most important tool used to track progress on protected-area commitments is the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). Periodic assessments of the world's protected-area estate show steady growth over the last 2 decades. However, the current method, which uses the latest version of the WDPA, does not show the true dynamic nature of protected areas over time and does not provide information on sites removed from the WDPA. In reality, this method can only show growth or remain stable. We used GIS tools in an approach to assess protected-area change over time based on 12 temporally distinct versions of the WDPA that quantify area added and removed from the WDPA annually from 2004 to 2016. Both the narrative of continual growth of protected area and the counter-narrative of protected area removal were overly simplistic. The former because growth was almost entirely in the marine realm and the latter because some areas removed were reprotected in later years. On average 2.5 million km² was added to the WDPA annually and 1.1 million km² was removed. Reasons for the inclusion and removal of protected areas in the WDPA database were in part due to data-quality issues but also to on-the-ground changes. To meet the 17% protected-area component of Aichi Biodiversity Target 11 by 2020, which stood at 14.7% in 2016, either the rate of protected-area removal must decrease or the rate of protected-area designation and addition to the WDPA must increase.     

Using the past to contextualize anthropogenic impacts on the present and future distribution of an endemic Caribbean mammal

Island species are difficult to conserve because they face the synergy of climate change, invasive species, deforestation, and increasing human population densities in areas where land mass is shrinking. The Caribbean island of Hispaniola presents particular challenges because of geopolitical complexities that span 2 countries and hinder coordinated management of species across the island. We employed species distribution modeling to evaluate the impacts of climatic change and anthropogenic activities on the distribution of an endemic mammal of conservation concern, the Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus). We aggregated occurrence points for this poorly known species for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the present (1975–2016) based on museum collections, online biodiversity databases, and new field surveys. We quantified degree of overlap between periods and scenarios with Schoener's D. Through a conservation paleobiology lens, we found that over time humans played an increasing role in shaping the distribution of S. paradoxus, thus, providing a foundation for developing conservation strategies on appropriate spatiotemporal scales. Human population density was the single most important predictor of S. paradoxus occurrence. Densities >166 people/km² corresponded to a near-zero probability of occurrence. Models that accounted for climate but not anthropogenic variables falsely identified suitable habitat in Haiti, where on-the-ground surveys confirm habitat is unavailable. Climate-only models also significantly overestimated the potential for habitat connectivity between isolated populations. Our work highlights that alternative fates for S. paradoxus in the Anthropocene exist across the political border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti due to the fundamentally different economic and political realities of each country. Relationships in the fossil record confirm that Hispaniola's sociopolitical boundary is not biologically significant but instead represents one imposed on the island's fauna in the past 500 years by colonial activity. Our approach reveals how a paleontological perspective can contribute to concrete management insights.     

Emergent conservation outcomes of shared risk perception in human-wildlife systems

Human perception of risks related to economic damages caused by nearby wildlife can be transmitted through social networks. Understanding how sharing risk information within a human community alters the spatial dynamics of human-wildlife interactions has important implications for the design and implementation of effective conservation actions. We developed an agent-based model that simulates farmer livelihood decisions and activities in an agricultural landscape shared with a population of a generic wildlife species (wildlife-human interactions in shared landscapes [WHISL]). In the model, based on risk perception and economic information, farmers decide how much labor to allocate to farming and whether and where to exclude wildlife from their farms (e.g., through fencing, trenches, or vegetation thinning). In scenarios where the risk perception of farmers was strongly influenced by other farmers, exclusion of wildlife was widespread, resulting in decreased quality of wildlife habitat and frequency of wildlife damages across the landscape. When economic losses from encounters with wildlife were high, perception of risk increased and led to highly synchronous behaviors by farmers in space and time. Interactions between wildlife and farmers sometimes led to a spillover effect of wildlife damage displaced from socially and spatially connected communities to less connected neighboring farms. The WHISL model is a useful conservation-planning tool because it provides a test bed for theories and predictions about human-wildlife dynamics across a range of different agricultural landscapes.