The impact of pumped water from a de-watered Magnesian limestone quarry on an adjacent wetland: Thrislington, County Durham, UK

Although quarrying is often cited as a potential threat to wetland systems, there is a lack of relevant, quantitative case studies in the literature. The impact of pumped groundwater discharged from a quarry into a wetland area was assessed relative to reference conditions in an adjacent fen wetland that receives only natural runoff. Analysis of vegetation patterns at the quarry wetland site, using Detrended Correspondence Analysis and the species indicator values of Ellenberg, revealed a clear disparity between community transitions in the quarry wetland and the reference site. Limited establishment of moisture-sensitive taxa, the preferential proliferation of robust wetland species and an overall shift towards lower species diversity in the quarry wetland were explicable primarily by the physico-chemical environment created by quarry dewatering. This encompassed high pH (up to 12.8), sediment-rich effluent creating a nutrient-poor substrate with poor moisture retention in the quarry wetland, and large fluctuations in water levels.     

确立灾害评估标准是我国“国际减灾十年”目标的重要问题

本文通过许多实例.从测、报、抗、防、救等几个方面论述灾害评估标准的重要性,进而说明了灾害评估与减灾管理以及灾情统计的密切关系.文中还根据我国近几年灾害经济损失的情况对90年代的减灾目标提出了看法.     

A Petrographic Investigation of two Sequential Extraction Techniques Applied to Anaerobic Canal Bed Mud

The application of sequential extraction procedures to determine metal speciation in sediments is fraught with uncertainty regarding what is actually dissolving or re-precipitating at each stage. In order to choose an appropriate scheme for the investigation of contaminated anaerobic mud two different sequential extraction procedures (Kersten and Förstner, 1986; Quevauviller, 1998) were investigated using a Cryogenic SEM (CryoSEM) technique coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA). This enabled assessment of the degree of reagent selectivity and any re-precipitation associated with the respective methods. Analysis of the non-leached sediment revealed the most abundant authigenic minerals in order of decreasing abundance to be Fe²⁺-phosphate vivianite (Fe₃(PO₄)₂·8H₂O), mixed Fe, Zn, Cu sulphides, pyrite and calcite. After each stage of the sequential extraction the sediment residue was examined using CryoSEM. After extraction of the exchangeable fraction no obvious evidence of mineral dissolution was observed. Calcite was not completely dissolved during the carbonate extraction stage of either procedure. Vivianite began to dissolve in the carbonate extraction stage of both procedures and was completely dissolved by oxide extraction stage of both procedures. The sediment leached by acidified ammonium oxalate, contained abundant Fe oxalate crystals, suggesting that a large proportion of the Fe released from the vivianite has been re-precipitated. The Fe oxalate was then dissolved with the subsequent sulphide fraction. The technique used to extract the sulphide and organic fraction is the same in both schemes and no sulphide or metal rich organic matter was found in either residue.     

Investigation of the sources of aliphatic hydrocarbons in the mussel Mytilus edulis from north sea oil production platforms by Capillary glc and CGCMS†

Aliphatic hydrocarbons isolated from mussels collected over a 20 month period from three North Sea Forties field oil production platforms have been examined by capillary gas chromatography and gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry.

The biological hydrocarbons consist predominantly (300–700 μh g^‐1 lipid) of C₃₁ and C₃₃ n‐alkenes with 2, 3 and 4 double bonds probably derived from a dietary intake of Emiliania huxleyi, a microscopic coccolithophorid alga. In some of the mussels C₁₈, C₂₀ and C₂₂ n‐alkanes are present in unusually high abundance compared to their odd carbon number homologues. Possible reasons for this distribution are discussed.

The concentrations of fossil fuel hydrocarbons (mainly unresolved complex mixtures) in the mussels ranged from 330 to 5,298 μg g^‐1 of lipid. No significant increase in values was detected two months after the start of discharge of treated Forties production water from the Forties D platform.

To determine the pollutant hydrocarbon sources, the sterane and terpane distributions of hydrocarbon fractions isolated from the mussels and from a number of fossil fuels, including Forties crude oil, were examined by mass fragmentography. The steranes in the mussels from the Forties C and D platforms contained higher proportions of regular 14α(H), 17α(H) components than Forties oil in which the steranes were mainly 13ß(H), 17α(H) diasteranes. In addition, the terpane distributions of the mussel fractions differed markedly from that of Forties crude oil, particularly in the relative abundance of diterpanes to triterpanes, which was higher in the mussel fractions than in the oil, and in the absence of 17α(H), 18α(H), 21ß(H)‐18, 30‐bisnorhopane, a known component of Forties crude. Furthermore, the ratio of C₂₉ to C₃₀ triterpanes was greater than unity in the mussels but much less than unity in the Forties oil. These data preclude Forties or other similar North Sea crudes as the major source of pollutant aliphatic hydrocarbons in the mussels. The relative concentrations and distributions of steranes and triterpanes suggest that the most likely source of pollutants is a Middle Eastern based oil derived either from rig activities, or from background pollution in the North Sea. The low concentration of ≥ C₂₇ steranes in the more polluted mussels (e.g. Forties B; UCM > 200 ppm dry wt.) suggests that gas oils used on the platforms may be the major source of petrogenic hydrocarbons in these samples.