Elemental composition of bottom-sediments from Pangani river basin,Tanzania: lithogenic and anthropogenic sources

River-bed sediments from the Pangani basin, Tanzania, were characterized for elemental compositions, following contamination risks from rapid expansions of human activities in the area. Samples were collected during two individual seasons and analyzed by high-polarizing beam energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) for eight major and 14 trace elements. Evaluation of enrichment factors (EFs) was used to investigate the elemental flux and assess the contributions of natural and anthropogenic influences. The abundances of the major elements followed the order Si?>?Al?>?Fe?>?Ca?>?K?>?Ti?>?Mn?>?P, similar to that of the upper earth's crust, and were generally from the weathering of the bed-rock. The high concentrations of typical anthropogenic trace-elements (Cr??1, V??1, Ni??1, Cu??1, La??1) coupled with high EFs (>2) in some locations indicated contamination associated with agricultural and industrial activities. Factor analysis extracted five principal components that contributed to 96.0% of the total observed variance. The results indicated that river-bed sediments of the Pangani basin were influenced to a larger extent by lithogenic sources than anthropogenic impacts.     

Recent trends in chemical composition of bulk precipitation at Estonian monitoring stations 1994–2001

Monthly and annual means of main anions (SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻, Cl⁻) and summed base cations (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, Na⁺) in bulk precipitation were studied at 10 stations during an 8-year monitoring period. The data showed statistically significant decreasing trends in most cases. Average declines of mean annual volume-weighted concentrations for both anions and cations were about two-fold. Despite the decrease, the loads of S and cations are still relatively high in Estonia (about 4–14 kg S ha⁻¹ and 0.6–1.2 keq ha⁻¹, respectively) compared with the loads in Finland and Sweden. Estimated linear decline trends followed the same pattern as annually combusted oil shale from Estonian power plants and emissions of SO₂ and fly ash. Recent trends in chemical composition of bulk precipitation at the monitoring stations reflected economic changes in Estonia as well as transboundary fluxes from neighbouring countries.     

西藏拉萨河流域巴嘎雪湿地水化学特征

以西藏拉萨河流域主要天然湿地之一的巴嘎雪湿地作为研究对象,对该湿地水体的pH值、水温、溶解氧(DO)、色度、浊度和15种金属元素的含量进行了分析检测.结果表明,巴嘎雪湿地水的pH、DO平均值分别为7.68、7.01mg/L;湿地水中15种金属元素含量均较低,汞、锡两种金属元素未能检出,其他13种金属元素的含量顺序为:Fe >Cr> V>Ni> Mn> As> Sb> Mo> Pb> Zn> Cu >Co> Cd,并均达到了国家《地表水环境质量标准》(GB3838-2002)Ⅰ类水质标准.通过比较湿地进水和出水水质的发现,巴嘎雪湿地对色度、浊度和部分金属元素的去除效果显著.对色度、浊度的去除率分别达到了51.73%、94.8%,对不同金属元素的去除效果不同,Cu、Pb、Zn、Mo、As、V的去除率分别为64.2%、36.9%、40.7%,28.2%、31.9%、67%.     

The Seasonal Variation of the Concentrations of Ozone, Sulfur Dioxide, and Nitrogen Oxides in Two Nigerian Cities

A combination of multivariate statistical methods including factor analysis, principal component analysis, principal component regression, and multiple linear regression (MLR) were employed to evaluate the influence of seasons on the concentrations of ozone, sulfur (IV) oxide, and oxides of nitrogen in ambient air of Nigerian cities of Lagos and Ilorin. The former city is located in the coastal area, and it is highly congested with a high intensity of marine, vehicular, and industrial activities, and the latter city is a medium size town, located in the central guinea savannah zone of Nigeria. Samples were collected using a high-volume sampler from near the ground at various sites of diverse human and industrial activities, during wet and dry seasons from 2003 to 2006. The PCA reveals three distinct groupings during the day for all data, which is a reflection of different factors contributing to the atmospheric chemistry of these cities. The predicted ozone concentration values by MLR agree fairly well with the measured data. The dependence of ozone on meteorological parameters including relative humidity, air temperature, and sun exposure and the precursor pollutants depends on weather and the anthropogenic activities. The results for the two cities indicate that reduction in the level of NO₂ is accompanied by an increase in the level of ozone, suggesting the interconversion between the two via photochemical activity.     

Increased environmental gamma-ray dose rate during precipitation: a strong correlation with contributing air mass

It has long been observed that the environmental gamma-ray dose rate increases noticeably during precipitation intervals. This increase, due to the presence of radon progeny in the rain droplets (or snow flakes), can affect the reliability of the monitoring of artificial radioactivity and long term estimates of exposure to ambient natural radionuclides in surveillance network. Predicting the amplitude of the dose increase has been shown to be surprisingly challenging. In this work, standard air mass back trajectory analysis is used to show that the amplitude of the increase can be quantitatively linked to the history of the air mass where the precipitation is occurring. Furthermore, we show how back trajectory analysis, environmental gamma and rain data can be used to obtain estimations of relative radon emanation rates for locations far from the actual point of detection.     

Chemical transport models

Background, aim, and scope  Improving the parameterization of processes in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and surface layer, in air quality and chemical transport models. To do so, an asymmetrical, convective, non-local scheme, with varying upward mixing rates is combined with the non-local, turbulent, kinetic energy scheme for vertical diffusion (COM). For designing it, a function depending on the dimensionless height to the power four in the ABL is suggested, which is empirically derived. Also, we suggested a new method for calculating the in-canopy resistance for dry deposition over a vegetated surface. Materials and methods  The upward mixing rate forming the surface layer is parameterized using the sensible heat flux and the friction and convective velocities. Upward mixing rates varying with height are scaled with an amount of turbulent kinetic energy in layer, while the downward mixing rates are derived from mass conservation. The vertical eddy diffusivity is parameterized using the mean turbulent velocity scale that is obtained by the vertical integration within the ABL. In-canopy resistance is calculated by integration of inverse turbulent transfer coefficient inside the canopy from the effective ground roughness length to the canopy source height and, further, from its the canopy height. Results  This combination of schemes provides a less rapid mass transport out of surface layer into other layers, during convective and non-convective periods, than other local and non-local schemes parameterizing mixing processes in the ABL. The suggested method for calculating the in-canopy resistance for calculating the dry deposition over a vegetated surface differs remarkably from the commonly used one, particularly over forest vegetation. Discussion  In this paper, we studied the performance of a non-local, turbulent, kinetic energy scheme for vertical diffusion combined with a non-local, convective mixing scheme with varying upward mixing in the atmospheric boundary layer (COM) and its impact on the concentration of pollutants calculated with chemical and air-quality models. In addition, this scheme was also compared with a commonly used, local, eddy-diffusivity scheme. Simulated concentrations of NO₂ by the COM scheme and new parameterization of the in-canopy resistance are closer to the observations when compared to those obtained from using the local eddy-diffusivity scheme. Conclusions  Concentrations calculated with the COM scheme and new parameterization of in-canopy resistance, are in general higher and closer to the observations than those obtained by the local, eddy-diffusivity scheme (on the order of 15–22%). Recommendations and perspectives  To examine the performance of the scheme, simulated and measured concentrations of a pollutant (NO₂) were compared for the years 1999 and 2002. The comparison was made for the entire domain used in simulations performed by the chemical European Monitoring and Evaluation Program Unified model (version UNI-ACID, rv2.0) where schemes were incorporated.     

青海湖水化学的季节性和空间变化及其受自生碳酸盐沉淀的影响

青海湖湖水季节性和空间上的变化特征对青海湖沉积物中自生碳酸盐形成过程及环境意义的理解、湖泊的演变趋势具有重要的指导意义。本文通过沉积物捕获器采集了为期一年每月一次的青海湖季节性的湖水,并采集了青海湖和周围子湖空间分布上的湖水样品。对季节性样品阳离子的分析显示,青海湖湖水中的阳离子在旱季（12月至次年4月）达到最高值,在雨季逐渐降低。湖水的Ca²⁺和Mg²⁺从2—3月份逐步降低,表明自生碳酸盐开始沉淀,并且在雨季来临时沉淀持续大量发生,而在雨季后期,则可能发生含Mg碳酸盐的部分溶解。空间分布的样品分析显示,青海湖可能经历了太阳湖和月牙湖的水化学阶段,在未来的演变过程中,湖水的Ca²⁺和Sr²⁺受自生碳酸盐沉淀的控制而保持基本稳定,Mg²⁺、Na⁺、K⁺则将持续增加,其水化学将朝着当前海晏湾,并进一步朝尕海湖水的方向演变。本文的研究还进一步暗示了在长时间尺度上自生碳酸盐形成对气候变化的可能响应。     

新疆阿克苏平原区地下水水化学演化特征

地下水作为新疆平原区重要的饮用水水源。为了解新疆阿克苏平原区地下水化学演化过程，运用数理统计、Piper三线图、Gibbs图、离子比法、矿物稳定场图和反向水文地球化学模拟，对研究区2017年30组地下水取样点的检测结果进行分析。其结果表明：阿克苏平原区地下水中阳离子平均含量总体为Na⁺ > Ca²⁺ > Mg²⁺ > K⁺，阴离子平均含量总体为SO₄^2- > HCO₃^- > Cl^-；从山前倾斜平原到冲积平原地下水中各离子表现出累积作用；地下水各化学成分不仅来源于蒸发盐岩和碳酸盐岩的溶滤，钠长石、钙长石等硅酸盐岩对地下水中化学成分也存在一定影响，各矿物溶解强度表现为岩盐岩 > 蒸发盐岩 > 碳酸盐岩 > 硅酸盐岩；在反应路径中，含水介质岩土颗粒越细，反应路径越长，越有利于离子交换。     

华北工业城市降水中金属元素污染特征及来源

为了解华北工业地区降水中金属元素的污染特征及其来源,使用干湿沉降自动观测仪采集了河北唐山市2009年12月～2010年11月大气降水样品,使用ICP-MS对样品中25种金属元素的浓度进行了分析.结果表明,唐山降水中地壳元素(Ca、Mg、Na、K、Fe和Al)占所测元素浓度总量的97.72%,重金属(Zn、Mn、Pb、Ba、Sb、Cu、Ni、As、V、Co和Se)仅占2.25%;Zn和Ca分别是含量最高的重金属和地壳元素,加权平均浓度分别为88.7μg·L-1和4.5 mg·L-1.降水中金属元素浓度的季节变化十分明显,多数元素表现为冬春季高、夏秋季低的特征.唐山降水中部分重金属的浓度高于华北背景地区泰山顶的报道结果,其中Tl、As、Ag、Zn、Pb、Cd、Se和Sb的富集因子介于102～105之间,明显受到人类活动的影响.因子分析表明唐山降水中金属元素的污染主要与钢铁冶炼工业、扬尘和燃煤的源排放有关.