Probabilistic distribution coefficients (Kds) in freshwater for radioisotopes of Ag,Am, Ba,Be, Ce,Co, Cs,I, Mn,Pu, Ra,Ru, Sb,Sr and Th – implications for uncertainty analysis of models simulating the transport of radionuclides in rivers

The objective of this study was to provide operational probability density functions (PDFs) for distribution coefficients (K_ds) in freshwater, representing the partition of radionuclides between the particulate and the dissolved phases respectively. Accordingly, the K_d variability should be considered in uncertainty analysis of transport and risk assessment models. The construction of PDFs for 8 elements (Ag, Am, Co, Cs, I, Mn, Pu and Sr) was established according to the procedure already tested in Durrieu et al. [2006. A weighted bootstrap method for the determination of probability density functions of freshwater distribution coefficients (K_ds) of Co, Cs, Sr and I radioisotopes. Chemosphere 65 (8), 1308–1320]: (i) construction of a comprehensive database where K_ds values obtained under various environments and parametric conditions were collected; (ii) scoring procedure to account for the ‘quality’ of each datapoint (according to several criteria such as the presentation of data (e.g. raw data vs mean with or without replicates), contact time, pH, solid-to-liquid ratio, expert judgement) in the construction of the PDF; (iii) weighted bootstrapping procedure to build the PDFs, in order to give more importance to the most relevant datapoints. Two types of PDFs were constructed: (i) non-conditional, usable when no knowledge about the site of concern is available; (ii) conditional PDFs corresponding to a limited range of parameters such as pH or contact time; conditional PDFs can thus be used when some parametric information is known on the site under study. For 7 other radionuclides (Ba, Be, Ce, Ra, Ru, Sb and Th), a simplified procedure was adopted because of the scarcity of data: only non-conditional PDFs were built, without incorporating a scoring procedure.     

湛江硇洲岛海域19种贝类食用部位的重金属含量及评价

测定了湛江硇洲岛海域产的17种腹足类足部肌肉和2种双壳类软体部的Cr、Cu、Zn、Ni、As、Cd、Pd和Hg等8种重金属质量分数。通过对比金属污染指数,发现桶形芋螺Conus betulinus、粗糙滨螺Littorinopsis scabra、鳞片扭蚶Trisidos kiyonoi、可变荔枝螺Thais mutabilis和小结节滨螺Nodilittorina exigua受到的污染较严重;以单因子污染指数为标准,无Cu、Zn和Ni污染,Pd和Hg仅少数种轻微污染,Cr污染较严重,Cd和As污染非常严重;以重金属绝对质量分数来衡量,含As、Cr和Cd最高的贝分别是黑凹螺Chlorostoma nigerrina、粒花冠小月螺Lunella corontat和习见赤蛙螺Bursa rana。     

深圳蛇口港及深圳湾潮间带动物的有机锡污染

以异辛烷为萃取剂、四乙基硼化钠为衍生剂对样品进行同步化液-液萃取衍生反应,采用气象色谱-火焰光度检测法,研究了深圳蛇口港及深圳湾海域潮间带动物的有机锡污染状况。结果显示,所有站位采集的双壳类体内普遍检测出三苯基锡、三丁基锡及其降解产物二丁基锡,含量分别为127.1～349.1、6.3～380.8及2.7～99.9ng/g(湿重)。采自赤湾和东角头的渔舟蜒螺体内存在较高含量的三苯基锡567.3～651.6ng/g(湿重)。所有软体动物均未检测出单丁基锡。采自红树林的纹藤壶含127.1ng/g(湿重)的三苯基锡,但未检测出丁基锡。文章结果与国内外已有的相关数据比较表明,蛇口港潮间带动物已经受到较严重的有基锡污染,深圳湾的海洋生物也受到一定程度的污染。深圳湾红树林国家自然保护区对于生物多样性的维持及侯鸟的保护都极其重要,该海区的有机锡污染问题需要引起高度重视。     

Coagulation of colloidal material in surface waters: the role of natural organic matter

Organic matter has a great influence over the fate of inorganic colloids in surface waters. The chemical nature and structure of natural organic matter (NOM) will be an important factor in determining whether colloids will be stabilised or destabilised by NOM. Under environmentally relevant conditions, the ubiquitous fulvic acids are likely to be responsible for coating and imparting a negative charge to colloids. If the adsorbed polyelectrolyte coating produces an increase in absolute surface potential, it will act to stabilise colloids in the water column. On the other hand, colloidal organic carbon, especially chain-like structures, has been shown to be involved in the aggregation of inorganic colloids through the formation of bridges. It is highly probable that both adsorption and bridging flocculation are occurring simultaneously in the natural aquatic environment. The importance of each process depends directly on the nature and concentration of organic matter in the system and indirectly on the productivity of the lake, its hydrological pathways, temporal variations, temperature, etc. The present paper reports such results and emphasises the need to discriminate the different kinds of NOM.     

The toxicity of copper,cadmium and zinc to four different Hydra (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa)

An acute toxicity study of three metals to Hydra species carried out using two different assessment methods, (i) determination of the LC50 and (ii) measurement of progressive morphological changes, demonstrated that relative toxicity decreased from copper to cadmium with zinc the least toxic for all species. The latter method revealed more details of the effect on Hydra in terms of physical damage to the polyp but both methods indicated that H. viridissima was more sensitive to copper and cadmium than H. vulgaris¹ (Zurich strain, male clone), H. vulgaris² (a dioecious strain reproducing sexually and asexually) and H. oligactis (dioecious, reproducing sexually and asexually). The responses to zinc were similar for all Hydra. The possible role of metabolic interactions between H. viridissima and its symbiotic green algae in contributing to the greater sensitivity of this polyp is discussed.     

Assessing the utility of dissolved organic matter photoreactivity as a predictor of in situ methylmercury concentration

Methylmercury(MeHg) bioaccumulation is a growing concern in ecosystems worldwide. The absorption of solar radiation by dissolved organic matter(DOM) and other photoreactive ligands can convert MeHg into less toxic forms of mercury through photodemethylation. In this study, spectral changes and photoreactivity of DOM were measured to assess the potential to control photoreactions and predict in situ MeHg concentration. Water samples collected from a series of lakes in southwestern Nova Scotia in June, August, and September were exposed to controlled ultraviolet-A(UV-A) radiation for up to 24 hr. Dissolved organic matter photoreactivity, measured as the loss of absorbance at 350 nm at constant UV-A irradiation, was positively dependent on the initial DOM concentration in lake waters(r~2=0.94). This relationship was consistent over time with both DOM concentration and photoreactivity increasing from summer into fall across lakes. Lake in situ MeHg concentration was positively correlated with DOM concentration and likely catchment transport in June(r = 0.77) but not the other sampling months. Despite a consistent seasonal variation in both DOM and Fe, and their respective correlations with MeHg, no discernable seasonal trend in MeHg was observed. However, a 3-year dataset from the 6 study lakes revealed a positive correlation between DOM concentration and both Fe(r = 0.91) and MeHg concentrations(r = 0.51) suggesting a more dominant landscape mobility control on MeHg.The DOM-MeHg relationships observed in these lakes highlights the need to examine DOM photoreactivity controls on MeHg transport and availability in natural waters particularly given future climate perturbations.     

Comparative performance of generalized additive models and multivariate adaptive regression splines for statistical modelling of species distributions

Two statistical modelling techniques, generalized additive models (GAM) and multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), were used to analyse relationships between the distributions of 15 freshwater fish species and their environment. GAM and MARS models were fitted individually for each species, and a MARS multiresponse model was fitted in which the distributions of all species were analysed simultaneously. Model performance was evaluated using changes in deviance in the fitted models and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), calculated using a bootstrap assessment procedure that simulates predictive performance for independent data. Results indicate little difference between the performance of GAM and MARS models, even when MARS models included interaction terms between predictor variables. Results from MARS models are much more easily incorporated into other analyses than those from GAM models. The strong performance of a MARS multiresponse model, particularly for species of low prevalence, suggests that it may have distinct advantages for the analysis of large datasets. Its identification of a parsimonious set of environmental correlates of community composition, coupled with its ability to robustly model species distributions in relation to those variables, can be seen as converging strongly with the purposes of traditional ordination techniques.     

Direct measurement of denitrification activity in a Gulf coast freshwater marsh receiving diverted Mississippi River water

Wetland loss along the Louisiana Gulf coast and excessive nitrate loading into the Gulf of Mexico are interrelated environmental problems. Nitrate removal by soil denitrification activity was studied in a ponded freshwater marsh receiving diverted Mississippi River water for the purpose of reversing or slowing wetland loss. Labeled ¹⁵N-nitrate was applied at 3.8 g N m⁻² into four replicate study plots after removing above ground vegetation. Nitrogen gas (N₂) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from the plots were determined by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Nitrous oxide emissions were also compared with the results determined by gas chromatograph (GC). Results showed that it took 2 weeks to remove the added nitrate with N₂O emission occurring over a period of 4 d. The apparent denitrification dynamics were assumed to follow the Michaelis–Menten equation. The maximum denitrification rate and K_m value were determined as 12.6 mg N m ⁻² h⁻¹, and 6.5 mg N l⁻¹, respectively. Therefore the maximum capacity for nitrate removal by the marsh soil would be equivalent to 110 g N m⁻² yr⁻¹, with more than 30% of nitrogen gas evolved as N₂O. For typical nitrate concentrations in Mississippi River water of about 1 mg N l⁻¹, nitrate would be removed at a rate of 14.7 g N m⁻² yr⁻¹ with N₂O emission about 1.5%. A denitrification dynamic model showed that the efficiency of nitrate removal would largely depend on the water discharge rate into the ponded wetland. Higher discharge rate will result in less retention time for the water in the marsh where nitrate is denitrified.     

Human Freshwater Demand for Economic Activity and Ecosystems in Taiwan

Freshwater is necessary to economic activity, and humans depend on goods and services generated by water-dependent ecosystems. However, national freshwater management usually focuses on direct use of domestic freshwater. With an increasing scarcity of freshwater, attention has turned to two indirect uses of freshwater by humans. The first indirect use is freshwater used by foreign countries when producing products for export. The second use is freshwater required by local ecosystems: human survival and development depend on goods and services generated in these ecosystems. This work adopted Taiwan as a case study. In addition to two widely recognized ecosystem freshwater demands, evapotranspiration and reversed river flow, this study suggests that freshwater is a constituent of some abiotic components, such as groundwater in aquifers, because excessive withdrawal has already caused significant land subsidence in Taiwan. Moreover, the estimated results show that Taiwan’s net imports of freshwater through trade amounts to approximately 25% of its total freshwater use for economic production. Integrating industrial policy, trade policy, and national freshwater management is a useful approach for developing strategies to limit the growing use of freshwater in Taiwan. Policy implications are then developed by further analyzing withdrawal sources of freshwater (domestic and foreign) for supporting economic production in Taiwan and identifying the factors (domestic final demand and export) driving freshwater-intensive products.