Application of CCME Water Quality Index to Monitor Water Quality: A Case Study of the Mackenzie River Basin, Canada

All six ecosystem initiatives evolved from many years of federal, provincial, First Nation, local government and community attention to the stresses on sensitive habitats and species, air and water quality, and the consequent threats to community livability. This paper assesses water quality aspect for the ecosystem initiatives and employs newly developed Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Water Quality Index (CCME WQI) which provides a convenient mean of summarizing complex water quality data that can be easily understood by the public, water distributors, planners, managers and policy makers. The CCME WQI incorporates three elements: Scope – the number of water quality parameters (variables) not meeting water quality objectives (F ₁); Frequency – the number of times the objectives are not met (F ₂); and Amplitude. the extent to which the objectives are not met (F ₃). The index produces a number between 0 (worst) to 100 (best) to reflect the water quality. This study evaluates water quality of the Mackenzie – Great Bear sub-basin by employing two modes of objective functions (threshold values): one based on the CCME water quality guidelines and the other based on site-specific values that were determined by the statistical analysis of the historical data base. Results suggest that the water quality of the Mackenzie-Great Bear sub-basin is impacted by high turbidity and total (mostly particulate) trace metals due to high suspended sediment loads during the open water season. Comments are also provided on water quality and human health issues in the Mackenzie basin based on the findings and the usefulness of CCME water quality guidelines and site specific values.     

水环境中有机磷酸酯的污染现状及其生物毒性

为有效评估有机磷酸酯（OPEs）潜在的生态健康风险,综述了OPEs在全球水和沉积物中的污染现状,并重点关注OPEs对水生生物的毒性效应,根据浮游生物、游泳生物和底栖生物等不同生物类群的特点分析其潜在的毒性作用机制,进而展望本领域未来的研究方向和科学问题,以期有效评估OPEs的生态效应和健康风险,推动我国OPEs食品安全监控和生态毒理学研究,为规范其绿色应用提供参考.     

东太湖水生植物的促淤效应与磷的沉积

东太湖水生植物促进淤积效应显著,硬度小于５ｋｇ／ｃｍ＾２的淤积物了平均深度０．９６ｍ,总淤积量１４９３７００００ｔ,东南沿岸茭草分布区淤积尤为严重,生物有机物质只占总淤积量的１．５２％,水生植物并非淤积物的主要来源,但生物有机物质引起的淤积物疏松效应使得全湖淤积深度增辑０．２０ｍ,占总淤积深度的２０．８％,表层沉积中生有机物含量３．７７％,疏松效应占淤积深度的６４％,淤积物中总磷平均含量０．０２３     

河岸混合植物带处理受污染河水中试研究

利用2种混合植物带(香根草+沉水植物、湿生植物+香蒲+芦苇)对受污染河水进行中试研究,并与无植物空白带进行了对比.结果表明,混合植物带对污染物的降解效果优于无植物空白带,其中香根草+沉水植物带效果最好,它在整个运行期间对COD、NH₄⁺-N和TP的去除率分别为43.5%、71.1%和69.3%.对出水溶解氧及水温进行了考察,结果表明混合植物带水域中水的溶解氧比无植物带稳定,且在夏季水温低于无植物带水域的水温.说明在河道修复中植物带对平衡河岸带环境条件、改善河流局部小气候有重要作用.     

ANADROMOUS SALMONID RECOVERY IN THE UMATILLA RWER BASIN,OREGON: A CASE STUDY1

ABSTRACT: The Umatilla River Basin Fisheries Restoration Plan was initiated in the early 1980s to mitigate salmonid losses caused by hydroelectric development and habitat degradation. The objectives are to enhance the abundance of endemic steelhead and reintroduce extirpated chinook and coho salmon. The project prompted collaborative effort among federal, state, and tribal agencies, and local water users. It has incorporated habitat restoration, flow enhancement, fish passage improvements, and population supplementation through artificial production. Water exchanges have successfully increased minimum flows during spring and fall migration. While flows remain depressed compared to historic conditions, there is potential for improved habitat, passage, and homing. The mean adult‐to‐adult return rate of hatchery‐reared steelhead exceeded replacement and that of the naturally‐spawning population. Although the smolt‐to‐adult survival rates of hatchery‐reared fish fluctuate, salmonid escapement has increased in recent years, permitting steelhead and spring chinook harvest. Enumeration of potential spawners and observed redds reveals an increase in natural production of all supplemented species. Comparison of hatchery‐reared and naturally‐spawning steelhead populations revealed differences in life history characteristics (in age composition and sex ratios) though run timing and genetic stock compositions of the two components of the populations have not differed. Sustained monitoring is needed to determine benefits of integrating habitat restoration and artificial production in restoring salmonid populations.     

GRASS VERSUS TREES: MANAGING RIPARIAN AREAS TO BENEFIT STREAMS OF CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA1

ABSTRACT: Forestation of riparian areas has long been promoted to restore stream ecosystems degraded by agriculture in central North America. Although trees and shrubs in the riparian zone can provide many benefits to streams, grassy or herbaceous riparian vegetation can also provide benefits and may be more appropriate in some situations. Here we review some of the positive and negative implications of grassy versus wooded riparian zones and discuss potential management outcomes. Compared to wooded areas, grassy riparian areas result in stream reaches with different patterns of bank stability, erosion, channel morphology, cover for fish, terrestrial runoff, hydrology, water temperature, organic matter inputs, primary production, aquatic macroinvertebrates, and fish. Of particular relevance in agricultural regions, grassy riparian areas may be more effective in reducing bank erosion and trapping suspended sediments than wooded areas. Maintenance of grassy riparian vegetation usually requires active management (e.g., mowing, burning, herbicide treatments, and grazing), as successional processes will tend ultimately to favor woody vegetation. Riparian agricultural practices that promote a dense, healthy, grassy turf, such as certain types of intensively managed livestock grazing, have potential to restore degraded stream ecosystems.     

长江中游若干湖泊中水生植物体内重金属分布

用ICP-AES测定了长江中游若干湖泊的水生植物中重金属的含量,发现水生植物对重金属(Zn,Cr,Pb,Cd,Co,Ni和Cu)有很强的吸收积累能力,而一些重金属元素,比如Cd含量增加的同时也会减少必需元素(如Zn)的含量.此外,水生植物会控制重金属在植物体内的分布,使得更多的重金属积累在根部.根据重金属污染指数(MPI)判断,位于城市附近的湖泊重金属的水平较高,位于农村附近的湖泊的金重属含量水平较低.      

TIMBER HARVEST IMPACTS ON SMALL HEADWATER STREAM CHANNELS IN THE COAST RANGES OF WASHINGTON1

ABSTRACT: We evaluated changes in channel habitat distributions, particle‐size distributions of bed material, and stream temperatures in a total of 15 first‐or second‐order streams within and nearby four planned commercial timber harvest units prior to and following timber harvest. Four of the 15 stream basins were not harvested, and these streams served as references. Three streams were cut with unthinned riparian buffers; one was cut with a partial buffer; one was cut with a buffer of non‐merchantable trees; and the remaining six basins were clearcut to the channel edge. In the clearcut streams, logging debris covered or buried 98 percent of the channel length to an average depth of 0.94 meters. The slash trapped fine sediment in the channel by inhibiting fluvial transport, and the average percentage of fines increased from 12 percent to 44 percent. The trees along buffered streams served as a fence to keep out logging debris during the first summer following timber harvest. Particle size distributions and habitat distributions in the buffered and reference streams were largely unchanged from the pre‐harvest to post‐harvest surveys. The debris that buried the clearcut streams effectively shaded most of these streams and protected them from temperature increases. These surveys have documented immediate channel changes due to timber harvest, but channel conditions will evolve over time as the slash decays and becomes redistributed and as new vegetation develops on the channel margins.     

EFFECT OF A POINT SOURCE INPUT ON STREAM NUTRIENT RETENTION1

ABSTRACT: We examined the effect of a point source (PS) input on water chemistry and nutrient retention in Spavinaw Creek, Arkansas, during summer baseflows in 1998 and 1999. The nutrient uptake length (S_w) concept was used to quantify the impact of nutrient inputs in the receiving stream. We used an artificial injection upstream of the PS inputs to estimate background S and used the natural decline in nutrient concentrations below the PS to estimate the net nutrient uptake length (S_net). S_w for soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) in the upstream reference section was O.75 km, but S_net ranged from 9.0 to 31 km for SRP and 3.1 to 12 km for NO₃‐N in the reach below the PS. S_net‐SRP was significantly correlated with discharge whereas S_net‐NO₃‐N was correlated with the amount of NO₃‐N enrichment from the PS. In order to examine specific mechanisms of P retention, loosely exchangeable P and P Sorption Index (PSI) of stream sediments were measured. Sediments exhibited little natural P buffering capacity (low PSI) above the PS, but P loading from the PS further reduced PSI. Loosely exchangeable P in the sediments also increased three fold below the PS, indicating sediments removed some water column P. The physical process of flow and sediment sorption apparently regulated P retention in Spavinaw Creek, whereas the level of N enrichment and possibly biotic uptake and denitrification influenced N retention. Regardless of the mechanism, Spavinaw Creek demonstrated little ability to retain PS‐added nutrients because net nutrient uptake lengths were in the km range.     

Effect of sorbed and desorbed Zn(Ⅱ) on the growth of a green alga (Chlorella pyrenoidosa)

Toxic effect of Zn(Ⅱ) on a green alga (Chlorella pyrenoidasa) in the presence of sepiolite and kaolinite was investigated.The Zn-free clays were found to have a negative impact on the growth of C.pyrenoidosa in comparison with control samples (without adding any clay or Zn(Ⅱ)).When Zn(Ⅱ) was added,the algae in the presence of clays could be better survived than the control samples,which was actually caused by a decrease in Zn(Ⅱ) concentration in the solution owing to the adsorption of Zn(Ⅱ) on the clays.When the solution system was diluted,the growth of algae could be further inhibited as compared to that in a system which had the same initial Zn(Ⅱ) concentration as in the diluted system.This in fact resulted from desorption of Zn(Ⅱ) from the zinc-contaminated clays,although the effect varied according to the different desorption capabilities of sepiolite and kaolinite.Therefore the adsorption and desorption processes of Zn(Ⅱ) played an important part in its toxicity,and adsorption and desorption of pollutants on soils/sediments should be well considered in natural eco-environmental systems before their risk of toxicity to aquatic organisms was assessed objectively.