Regional Environmental Change - Agro-ecosystem energy profiles reveal energy flows into, within, and out of US Great Plains farm communities across 140 years. This study evaluates external... 相似文献
A new, simple method for directly measuring activated sludge density was developed and applied, and the effects of biomass density on activated sludge settling in full-scale systems were evaluated. The driving force of sedimentation is the physical weight of the biological solids, but the role of biomass density in sedimentation has been largely ignored. Biomass density varied amongst treatment systems and this variability was correlated with settleability. Floc densities were approximately normally distributed within individual samples. Nonsoluble phosphorus content was a major contributor to density, and plants with enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) configurations generally had higher densities and better settleability than non-EBPR plants with similar filament contents. These results suggest that future work may benefit from consideration of density as a factor affecting activated sludge settling. 相似文献
A number of Mn-oxide minerals in soils from a farm in North Devon have been tentatively identified using a combination of
advanced analytical techniques: scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning electron microprobe (SEMP), X-ray diffraction
(XRD) and bulk chemical analysis by wet digestion followed by inductively-coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP). The minerals
lithiophorite and hollandite are thought to occur throughout the study area although there is considerable geographical variation
in the proportions of minerals present. Bimessite, vernadite, romanechite, todorokite and cryptomelane may also be present,
although in smaller amounts.
The use of SEMP, together with a simple sorption experiment, has allowed a study of the extent of uptake of Co and Cu by different
Mn-oxide minerals. Lithiophorite appears to take up Co and Cu more effectively than hollandite within a pH range of 4–6. 相似文献
Future levels of climate change depend not only on carbon emissions but also on carbon uptake by the land and the ocean. Here we are using the Earth system model (ESM1) version of the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS) to explore the potential and impact of removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through the climate and carbon cycle reversibility experiment. This experiment builds on the standard Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) experiment, increasing CO2 at 1% per year until 4xCO2 is reached. The atmospheric CO2 levels are then decreased at the same rate which brings the CO2 back to pre-industrial levels. We then continue to run the model with constant CO2 for another 350 years. Our analysis focuses on the response of the land carbon cycle. We find that carbon stores are largely reversible at the global scale over the timescale of changing CO2. However, carbon stores continue to decrease after CO2 returns to its initial value, and the land loses another 40 Pg of carbon (PgC) with the largest change in the tropics. It takes about 300 years beyond the period of changing CO2 for the carbon stores to recover. Interestingly, we saw strong regional variations in the strength of the land response to changing CO2. Australia showed the largest increase/decrease in biomass carbon (about 40%) and the largest variability in productivity, which was strongly correlated with rainfall. This highlights the importance of assessing the regional response to understanding the processes underlying the response and the sensitivity of these processes within each model. This understanding will benefit future multi-model analyses of this reversibility experiment. It also illustrates more generally the potential to use Earth system model experiments as part of the evaluation of proposed applications of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. As such, we recommend that these types of modelling experiments be included when mitigation policies are developed.
Personal and area air samples were taken at a scrap lead smelter operation in a bullet manufacturing facility. Samples were taken using the 37-mm styrene-acrylonitrile closed-face filter cassette (CFC, the current US standard device for lead sampling), the 37-mm GSP or "cone" sampler, the 25-mm Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) inhalable sampler, and the 25-mm Button sampler (developed at the University of Cincinnati). Polyvinylchloride filters were used for sampling. The filters were pre- and post-weighed, and analyzed for lead content using a field-portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer. The filters were then extracted with dilute nitric acid in an ultrasonic extraction bath and the solutions were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The 25-mm filters were analyzed using a single XRF reading, while three readings on different parts of the filter were taken from the 37-mm filters. The single reading from the 25-mm filters was adjusted for the nominal area of the filter to obtain the mass loading, while the three readings from the 37-mm filters were inserted into two different algorithms for calculating the mass loadings, and the algorithms were compared. The IOM sampler was designed for material collected in the body of the sampler to be part of the collected sample as well as that on the filter. Therefore, the IOM sampler cassettes were rinsed separately to determine if wall-loss corrections were necessary. All four samplers gave very good correlations between the two analytical methods above the limit of detection of the XRF procedure. The limit of detection for the 25-mm filters (5 microg) was lower than for the 37-mm filters (10 microg). The percentage of XRF results that were within 25% of the corresponding ICP results was evaluated. In addition, the bias from linear regression was estimated. Linear regression for the Button sampler and the IOM sampler using single readings and the GSP using all tested techniques for total filter loading gave acceptable XRF readings at loadings equivalent to sampling at the OSHA 8-hour Action Level and Permissible Exposure Limit. However, the CFC only had acceptable results when the center reading corrected for filter area was used, which was surprising, and may be a result of a limited data set. In addition to linear regression, simple estimation of bias indicated reasonable agreements between XRF and ICP results for single XRF readings on the Button sampler filters, (82% of the individual results within criterion), and on the IOM sampler filters (77% or 61%--see text), and on the GSP sampler filters using the OSHA algorithm (78%). As a result of this pilot project, all three samplers were considered suitable for inclusion in further field research studies. 相似文献
Eggs were collected from seven seabird species at colonies on the British Columbia coast from 1983 to 1986 and analyzed for organochlorine contaminants. Total PCB levels (wet weight) were highest in double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) from the Fraser estuary (2.91 mg kg-1) and the Strait of Georgia (3.79 mg kg-1). Highest DDE levels were in fork-tailed storm-petrels (Oceanodroma furcata) from the Queen Charlotte Islands (1.68 mg kg-1). Organochlorine levels were generally lower in eggs from the mid 1980s than in those collected in the early 1970s. Organochlorine levels in Pacific alcids and hydrobatids foraging in offshore locations were compared to those in the same or ecologically similar species from the Canadian Atlantic coast. DDT- and HCH-related compounds were higher in Pacific populations while levels of dieldrin, oxychlordane, and HCB were generally lower. With the exception of -HCH, levels of all measured organochlorines were lower in cormorants breeding in the Fraser River estuary than in cormorants from the St. Lawrence River estuary on the Atlantic coast. 相似文献
Two statistical tests for correlation between a circular variate and a linear variate are presented. The tests are applied to a small data set concerning Freon-12 concentration and wind direction in Woods Hole, Massachusetts during the summer of 1987. A significant correlation is found. Further analysis suggests that this directional effect is related to onshore Freon-12 release.Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Contribution Number 6750 相似文献