New and versatile optical-immunoassay instrumentation for water monitoring

This article is a review of new and versatile optical-immunoassay instrumentation for water monitoring developed through two European Union projects, RIver ANAlyser (RIANA) and Automated Water Analyser Computer Supported System (AWACSS). Both projects utilise immunoassay techniques to isolate the analytes and Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) to quantify them. Completed in 1999, the RIANA project developed a sensitive and cost-effective analytical system capable of simultaneous detection of multiple-analytes in real-world water samples. The AWACSS project has been in progress since 2001 and is developing rugged-but-sensitive instrumentation that will detect up to 30 analytes simultaneously, will operate unattended, and will have networking capability.     

FUNDAMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF GRAVITY CURRENTS WITH VARYING DENSITY1

ABSTRACT: A one-dimensional, gradually varying, non-uniform, flow equation is developed to describe the movement of a variable density gravity current through a reservoir. A linearly decreasing underflow density function is used to investigate the effect of in-reservoir density reduction on typical gravity current flow profiles. Only two types of flow profiles are found to exist for varying density underflows: Type I profiles where the underflow asymptotically approaches a horizontal surface, and Type III profiles where the underflow vertically approaches critical depth. Type I profiles pass through a transitional depth as the underflow density approaches that of the upper layer. Results indicate that a reservoir can be segmented into four distinct spatial regions with well defined flow profile characteristics. The location of these regions allows the sketching of interfacial flow profiles along with identifying the location of transitional depth conditions. Transitional depth conditions are utilized as the logical starting point for Type I flow profile numerical computation. (KEY WORDS: density; fluid flow; reservoirs; hydraulics.)     

The interaction between some human obstacles and birds

Some of the literature pertinent to the interactions of birds of flight and man made obstacles, such as transmission lines is reviewed here. Some birds use these towers, poles, and buildings for nesting and perches. They also collide with them. Original observations presented here suggest that the environmental impacts of these types of obstacles on birds, and vice-versa, seem not due to the inability of the birds to perceive the obstacles, but rather that the birds are apparently distracted from a safe flight pattern by their own species, or by others. Editor's Note: Although this paper is quite specialized in comparison with many other articles published in Environmental Management, I feel it is a very useful overview of the problems and the literature related to bird collisions with manmade obstacles. It is hoped that the information presented by the Willards will be helpful to other workers who are perhaps engaged in preparing environmental impact statements concerning structures that could invite bird collisions.     

Trampling Impacts on Thermotolerant Vegetation of Geothermal Areas in New Zealand

Geothermal features such as geysers, mud pools, sinter terraces, fumaroles, hot springs, and steaming ground are natural attractions often visited by tourists. Visitation rates for such areas in the Taupo Volcanic Zone of New Zealand are in the order of hundreds of thousands annually. These areas are also habitat for rare and specialized plant and microbial communities that live in the steam-heated soils of unusual chemical composition. We evaluated historical and current trampling impacts of tourists on the thermotolerant vegetation of the Waimangu and Waiotapu geothermal areas near Rotorua, and compared the results to experimental trampling at a third site (Taheke) not used by tourists. Historical tourism has removed vegetation and soil from around key features, and remaining subsoil is compacted into an impervious pavement on which vegetation recolonization is unlikely in the short term. Social tracks made by tourists were present at both tourist sites often leading them onto hotter soils than constructed tracks. Vegetation height and cover were lower on and adjacent to social tracks than further from them. Thermotolerant vegetation showed extremely low resistance to experimental trampling. This confirms and extends previous research that also shows that thallophytes and woody shrubs, life forms that dominate in thermotolerant vegetation, are vulnerable to trampling damage. Preservation of these vulnerable ecosystems must ensure that tourist traffic is confined to existing tracks or boardwalks, and active restoration of impacted sites may be warranted.     

Rehabilitation of a lowland river: Reconciling flood defence with habitat diversity and geomorphological sustainability

Geomorphologically appropriate rehabilitation measures were proposed to enhance the in-stream environment of the lowland River Idle, north Nottinghamshire, UK. However, the River Idle has multi-functional management requirements including those of flood defence so environmental enhancement must be pursued without significantly increasing the flood risk. Hydraulic testing of rehabilitation proposals is complicated because of the stringent assumptions about flow and morphology in ‘traditional’ hydraulic models. While new generation two- and three-dimension hydraulic models may overcome some of these problems, they are extremely data intensive, require advanced modelling capabilities and are, therefore, very expensive to apply. Also, they do not yet predict morphology-flow interactions adequately. As an alternative, several simple hydraulic models were applied to test the rehabilitation proposals, based on a fitness-for-purpose criterion.BENDFLOW was applied to fine tune the optimal siting of measures and to estimate the additional near-bank scour generated by proposed bend re-profiling. HMODEL2 and the FCFA method were used to test the impact on local channel conveyance capacities and HECRAS was applied to simulate the impact of the proposals on regional flood defence. Indicative results from the testing suggested a maximum increase in near-bank scour of 0·15 m in re-profiled bends, a loss of approximately 10% in flood conveyance locally due to deflector installation or reed and tree planting, and a 0·12 m increase in flood stage within the reach for a 15 year flood. The modelling results were acceptable to the management authority as an indication of an acceptable compromise between flood defence and conservation interests, and construction of the measures followed in 1996. It is clearly that it will require the results of post-project monitoring to indicate whether compromises made to the rehabilitation initiatives in order to satisfy flood defence requirements have unduly reduced their environmental enhancement potential but, for assessing the proposed methods, the models are recommended for use other lowland river environments.     

Scaling toxicity data across species

The response of various species to doses of chemicals can often give the impression that some (such as cattle in the case of molybdenum) are much more susceptible than others to these chemicals. These impressions usually rely on an underlying assumption that equivalent doses are based on mg of the chemical per kg body weight of the animal. That is, that doses scale as the first power of body weight. This assumption is more often wrong than right. When viewed in a more general way, where the scaling is proportional to a power of the body weight and the exponent determined empirically, it is often found that equivalent doses scale with an exponent in the range of 0.6 to 0.8. As a result, larger animals are indeed more susceptible to toxicity on a mg kg^–1 body weight basis, but this is not because of unique differences in the species, but only because of different body sizes. This method of scaling is called allometry or allometric scaling. An early version of this approach was based on body surface area where the exponent is 2/3. More recently, pharmacokinetics has revealed that the reason for the different response of larger animals is related to the slower metabolic and clearance rates for larger animals which give rise to larger biological half-lives for chemicals in the body and to higher tissue concentrations per given dose.     

Optimal Treatment Zone Moves During Enhanced Reductive Dechlorination in Fractured Bedrock

An enhanced bioremediation pilot test was implemented to study the efficacy of enhancing in situ reductive dechlorination of tetrachloroethene (PCE) in shallow bedrock where some intrinsic degradation to cis‐1,2‐dichloroethene (cis‐1,2‐DCE) was observed without further degradation to vinyl chloride or nontoxic ethene. Limited Dehalococcoides spp. cell concentrations were present within the study area prior to the gravity‐fed injection of an injectate of fermentable carbon substrates in native anaerobic groundwater. Direct connectivity between the injection well screen and performance monitoring well was evidenced and resulted in the degradation of nearly all PCE to cis‐1,2‐DCE, significant decrease in pH, and apparent inhibited Dehalococcoides spp. growth in the study area groundwater in the first six months. After 24 months, nearly all cis‐1,2‐DCE had degraded to nontoxic ethene, pH rebounded to more optimal levels, and abundant growth of Dehalococcoides spp. (6.8E05 cells/mL) and its functional gene expressions responsible for complete dechlorination were evident. The observations indicated initial poor dechlorination within the injection zone did not preclude effective treatment, allowing sufficient monitoring time showed the effective treatment zone (or more‐optimal fringe) first moved outward from the injection zone beyond the monitoring point and then receded back toward the point of injection over a period of two years. ©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Routine Measurement of Dissolved Inorganic 15N in Precipitation and Streamwater

The difficulty of measuring 15N in dilute solutions has limited the potential of ecosystem labeling experiments and model comparisons. By concentrating the N from large (up to 20 L) water samples on ion-exchange resin columns, we obtained enough N for accurate and reproducible 15N measurement using the Teflon tape diffusion method. Analysis of standards demonstrated >95% recovery of inorganic N from samples, and 15N values comparable to those obtained using standard distillation methods. The value of the blank at our laboratory was 0.16 moles N. Analytical precision was within 2 15N when samples of streamwater from the Bear Brook Watersheds (1800 eq · ha-1 · yr-1 N addition at 192 15N) were kept frozen until analysis. The analytical process is lengthy, but once set up can easily be performed for large numbers of samples.     

The impacts of a global pandemic on the efficacy and stability of contemporary wildlife conservation: South Africa as a case study

Conservationists speculated on potential benefits to wildlife of lockdown restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic but voiced concern that restrictions impeded nature conservation. We assessed the effects of lockdown restrictions on biodiversity conservation in South Africa, a biodiverse country with economic inequality and reliance on wildlife resources. We solicited expert opinion using the IUCN’s Threats Classification Scheme to structure a questionnaire and illustrated responses with individual case studies from government parastatal and non-governmental conservation organisations. The most highly reported threats were biological resource use, residential/commercial developments, invasive species, and human intrusions. The trends reported by 90 survey respondents were supported by case studies using environmental compliance data from parastatal conservation organisations. Lack of tourism revenue and funding were cited as hindrances to conservation. Mechanisms to prevent environmental degradation in the face of global emergencies must be implemented and ‘ring-fenced’ to ensure conservation is not a casualty during future global crises.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-022-01814-z.