Think globally,act locally: neighbourhood pollution and the future of the earth

Each year governments and industry around the globe spend billions of dollars in search of treatments and cures for diseases that shorten lives, which often means gadgets, implants, radiation and pills. These “cures”, do not get to the root of the problem. Perhaps it is time for us to adjust our thinking to be more proactive instead of reactive in public health. Perhaps we need to consider confronting environmental pollution of air, soil and water at a local level. As the Physicians for Social Responsibility point out, we should be “preventing what we cannot cure”. One such preventive measure is ensuring that our communities, including our poor inner-city neighbourhoods, enjoy a clean environment. We challenge local and national policy-makers to respond to the global call and to take action to address environmental toxins; to take local action to ameliorate the pollution of the air, water and soil in so many of our nation’s neighbourhoods. A person’s neighbourhood, and the proximity of dangerous environmental contaminants within it, is a powerful predictor of how long s/he will live. While situations like the poisoning of the water in Flint, Michigan have gotten some attention, they are generally treated as the exception rather than a reflection of real environmental hazards that exist in the west. Moreover we wonder why more endemic issues of neighbourhood environmental contamination that shorten human lives are not a priority for local action or that it is not linked to disproportionate production of greenhouse gases that cause climate change/warming/chaos.     

壳聚糖/纳米CdS复合颗粒可见光光催化降解猩红B动力学研究

采用仿生矿化法制备了壳聚糖/纳米CdS复合颗粒光催化剂,并用于可见光光催化降解猩红B染料模拟废水,研究了猩红B初始浓度、pH、催化剂投加量和催化剂重复使用次数等因素对猩红B光催化降解的影响.X射线衍射(XRD)分析表明,壳聚糖能有效负载CdS纳米微晶.采用Langmuir-Hinshelwood模型描述壳聚糖/纳米CdS复合颗粒可见光光催化降解猩红B反应动力学行为,在猩红B初始质量浓度较低(≤20 mg/L)时,光催化降解过程符合假一级动力学方程.降低猩红B初始浓度和溶液pH都可显著增大光催化降解速率常数;催化剂投加量小于0.7 g/L时,光催化降解速率随其增加而增大,但催化剂投加量过大会使光催化降解速率减小;催化剂重复使用第5次时,猩红B光催化降解速率常数仍为第1次使用时的63.4%.     

高锰酸钾降解地下水中PCE的研究

以氯代有机污染物中常见的PCE为目标污染物,以自制高锰酸钾溶液为氧化剂,采用批实验方法,探讨了高锰酸钾降解PCE的反应动力学、影响因素以及反应机理。反应结果表明,高锰酸钾降解PCE的反应符合一级动力学方程,反应活化能E为57.119 kJ/mol,在30℃条件下,反应速率常数为0.0076 min^-1,半衰期为91.20 min。在pH在3～10,离子强度在0～0.1030 mol/L之间变化时,反应速率不受明显影响。     

强化生物通风修复过程中柴油衰减规律及其影响因素研究

强化生物通风技术对于修复因地下储油罐泄漏引起的土壤污染具有很大的应用前景。通过室内土柱模拟柴油泄漏污染土壤,从土柱中总石油烃（total petroleum hydrocarbon,TPH）剖面分布随时间的变化及降解模式角度,分析了其自然衰减和强化生物通风过程。结果表明：初始柴油浓度直接影响着各柱在自然衰减和强化生物通风过程中柱内的残余TPH平衡分布曲线的形状和浓度峰值位置;在前期自然衰减过程中（约1个月）,当土壤中的柴油浓度为5 000～40 000 mg油/kg土时,整个柱内TPH变化的主要原因是重力扩散迁移的结果;当土壤中的柴油浓度≤5 000 mg油/kg土时,其TPH的变化不仅是重力扩散迁移作用的结果,生物降解作用也存在;通风约2个月后,抽提作用对于保持土柱上部柴油浓度稳定变化的意义较为突出。     

对水敏感性的机理与影响因素的研究

通过对咸淡水界面水敏感性机理与影响因素的研究,表明在非反应性微粒的释放迁移、反应性微粒的膨胀和絮凝作用与胶体吸附架桥作用下多孔介质中微粒物质的释放、膨胀、迁移、重沉积等引起的孔喉阻塞是导致水敏感性的机理所在;临界盐浓度、临界盐浓度变化率、临界离子强度、一临界流速和pH值是水敏感性的主要影响因素;指出水敏感性的研究对防止海水入侵具有重要的理论意义和实用价值。     

我国冬小麦霜冻灾害致灾因子危险度评价——基于作物生育阶段气象指标

霜冻是一种威胁农业生产的气象灾害,对其致灾因子危险度的研究,可为大尺度的作物霜冻灾害区划及农业保险提供依据。根据作物生长发育的阶段性原理,以全国751个气象台站56年的逐日最低气温资料以及作物生育期资料为基础,统计得到冬小麦各个生育阶段不同灾害等级（轻霜冻、中霜冻、重霜冻）的年霜冻日数,并计算出冬小麦全生育期内不同等级霜冻的发生概率,基于以上两项指标对冬小麦霜冻致灾因子危险度做出评价。结果表明,研究期内重霜冻年霜日最大值为129d,而轻霜冻和中霜冻霜日最大值分别为23 d和19 d,冬小麦受重霜冻危害时间较长;冬小麦霜冻的频发区、多发区、少发区从北向南依次分布,随着霜冻等级增加,频发区的面积差异不大,但多发区的面积减小、少发区面积增大;冬小麦霜冻灾害危险度等级最低的地区主要分布在低纬度的几个省份,如海南、广东、广西、云南等,危险度等级最高的地区集中在青藏高原地区。     

崇明东滩不同部位的季节性沉积研究

2002年4月至2003年4月,通过对崇明东滩南部、中部和北部的标志桩观测以及实地观测分析,发现崇明东滩在一年中不同季节冲淤变化过程存在很大差异：春季到夏季,南部以冲刷为主,中部和北部以淤积为主;夏季到秋季,南部和中部以淤积为主,北部表现为冲刷;秋季到冬季,南部、中部和北部都以冲刷为主;头一年冬季到次年春季,南部和北部以淤积为主,中部则表现为冲刷。在同一观测路线上,不同季节高、中、低潮滩冲淤也存在一定差异。通过对沉积物粒度、水体含沙量等指标的测试,并借助潮差等资料,探究了影响潮滩季节性沉积的因素,发现潮滩季节性沉积与潮滩基础地貌、水体含沙量、水动力、潮流等有密切关系;但在不同部位不同季节,各因素对潮滩冲淤影响程度各不相同。     

Analysis of long-term changes in the dates of seasonal phenomena in plants and insects of the Il’men Reserve as related to climatic factors

The results of monitoring the dates of the onset of flowering and leaf budding in eight herbaceous and woody plant species and the first appearance of three insect species in the Il’men Reserve (1972–2005) were processed by means of regression and correlation analyses. No significant changes in test parameters were revealed in the majority of these species. Only two early spring plants, coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara L.) and goat willow (Salix caprea L.), showed a weak tendency toward earlier flowering in the 1980s and 1990s. This is explained primarily by the absence of any significant trends in spring and summer air temperatures in the study region over the observation period. On the other hand, interannual fluctuations in the dates of plant flowering and insect appearance were well manifested not only in early spring but also in late-spring species. These fluctuations proved to depend largely on spring temperatures: in years with early and warm springs, flowering and leaf budding in plants and the appearance of first individuals in insects were recorded on significantly earlier dates.     

Field Evaluation of DRAINMOD 5.1 Under a Cold Climate: Simulation of Daily Midspan Water Table Depths and Drain Outflows1

Abstract: The hydrologic performance of DRAINMOD 5.1 was assessed for the southern Quebec region considering freezing/thawing conditions. A tile drained agricultural field in the Pike River watershed was instrumented to measure tile drainage volumes. The model was calibrated using water table depth and subsurface flow data over a two‐year period, while another two‐year dataset served to validate the model. DRAINMOD 5.1 accurately simulated the timing and magnitude of subsurface drainage events. The model also simulated the pattern of water table fluctuations with a good degree of accuracy. The R² between the observed and simulated daily WTD for calibration was >0.78, and that for validation was 0.93. The corresponding coefficients of efficiency (E) were >0.74 and 0.31. The R² and E values for calibration/validation of subsurface flow were 0.73/0.48 and 0.72/0.40, respectively. DRAINMOD simulated monthly subsurface flow quite accurately (E > 0.82 and R² > 0.84). The model precisely simulated daily/monthly drain flow over the entire year, including the winter months. Thus DRAINMOD 5.1 performed well in simulating the hydrology of a cold region.     

Modeling the Hydrology of Climate Change in California’s Sierra Nevada for Subwatershed Scale Adaptation1

Young, Charles A., Marisa I. Escobar‐Arias, Martha Fernandes, Brian Joyce, Michael Kiparsky, Jeffrey F. Mount, Vishal K. Mehta, David Purkey, Joshua H. Viers, and David Yates, 2009. Modeling the Hydrology of Climate Change in California’s Sierra Nevada for Subwatershed Scale Adaptation. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 45(6):1409‐1423. Abstract: The rainfall‐runoff model presented in this study represents the hydrology of 15 major watersheds of the Sierra Nevada in California as the backbone of a planning tool for water resources analysis including climate change studies. Our model implementation documents potential changes in hydrologic metrics such as snowpack and the initiation of snowmelt at a finer resolution than previous studies, in accordance with the needs of watershed‐level planning decisions. Calibration was performed with a sequence of steps focusing sequentially on parameters of land cover, snow accumulation and melt, and water capacity and hydraulic conductivity of soil horizons. An assessment of the calibrated streamflows using goodness of fit statistics indicate that the model robustly represents major features of weekly average flows of the historical 1980‐2001 time series. Runs of the model for climate warming scenarios with fixed increases of 2°C, 4°C, and 6°C for the spatial domain were used to analyze changes in snow accumulation and runoff timing. The results indicated a reduction in snowmelt volume that was largest in the 1,750‐2,750 m elevation range. In addition, the runoff center of mass shifted to earlier dates and this shift was non‐uniformly distributed throughout the Sierra Nevada. Because the hydrologic model presented here is nested within a water resources planning system, future research can focus on the management and adaptation of the water resources system in the context of climate change.