Study of the elemental composition of suspended particles in large northern-Asian lakes （Baikal and Khubsugul）

Lakes Baikal （Russia） and Khubsugul （Mongolia） are rift freshwater water bodies. The maximal depth of Baikal is 1642 m, that of Khubsugul -238 m. One of the important aspects in the study of suspended matter is its geochemical composition which depends on mineralogy and granulometry of the suspended matter. As the concentration of suspended matter in the sites of deep lakes is not high - about 1 mg/L, to determine the elements in the suspended matter the monochromatized synchrotron radiation method （SRXFA, Novosibirsk, Russia） was used. Water sampling was conducted in three basins of Lake Baikal and in Lake Khubsugul on central vertical cross-sections and in near-coastal sites. The water samples were collected with 10-liter batometers. The suspension was extracted from the water by filtration under vacuum through ＂Nuclepore＂ filters of 47 mm in diameter with pore size of 0.4 mkm. The mean weight of dry suspension on the filters was about 1 rag. The results of study of lacustrine suspended matter show that such elements as Fe, Ca, Mn, Ti, V, Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb dominate in lakes Baikal and Khubsugul. The concentration of other elements is low. On the whole, the vertical distribution of total amount of suspended matter in open Baikal decreases from the surface to the bottom. As for Lake Khubsugul, it increases.     

Heavy metal contents in soil of major towns in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia

A total of 63 soil samples from 3 different soil profiles （urban, suburban and industrial areas） in major towns in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia were analyzed for the total concentrations of Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni and Cr. The soil samples were subjected to acid digestion and the concentrations of total metals extracted were measured or flame atomic absorption spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma - atomic emission spectrometry. According to the result of this study, Pb and Zn concentrations in urban soils are much higher than those of industrial and suburban soils. Total concentrations of Cu and Cr in industrial soil samples are high compared to other two soil profiles and Ni concentrations in the suburban area are slightly higher those of urban and industrial soils. Since Malaysia has not yet to come up with her own soil maximum allowable limit, the heavy metal concentrations were compared with the Dutch maximum allowable limit. The results indicated that the median of heavy metals values in the three different soil profiles is still below the Dutch system limit. From the maximum allowable value obtained from the Dutch system, a contamination/pollution （C/p） index for each site was calculated for the set of these five heavy metals. An advantage of using this method is to make a differentiation between pollution （C/p〉1） and contamination （C/p〈1） status in soils as well as being able to characterize each status into 5 different categories （slight, moderate, severe, very severe and excessive）.     

Prognosis of the state （eutrophication and pollution） of freshwater ecosystems on the example of long-term research into Lake Baikal

Systematic （monthly） observations of changes in the components of trophic status in the pelagic zone of Baikal were carried out during years of spring blooms of almost pure cultures： Gymnodinium （1965）, Aulocoseira bai-calensis （1968）, Synedra acus （1969）, Nitzschia acicularis （1984 and 1987）, picocyanobacteria （2004-2005）. The research period coincided with various anthropogenic impacts on Baikal ecosystem： （1） the period of the natural state of the lake （until 1969）; （2） the period of weak anthropogenic impact （until 1985）; and （3） the period of acute anthropogenic impact. In the third period the following was found in the deep-water part of the lake： the episodic appearance of ammonium and nitrite nitrogen; change in the components of suspended matter （SM）; disturbed patterns of seasonal changes in SM content, chlorophyll-a, organic forms of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus; the average annual concentrations of suspended organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus have increased considerably; the vertical distribution pattern of minerals and organic forms of nitrogen and phosphorus have been disturbed; finally, an observed inverse correlation between winter nitrogen content and the spring concentration of chlorophyll-a （1986-1989） would indicate the presence of toxins in the lake. This led to the study of POPs in Baikal and the Baikal region. Investigations undertaken during 2004-2005 in the pelagic coastal zones of the lake indicated the presence of toxic pollutants in southern Baikal （the correlation between winter nitrogen content and spring concentration of chlorophyll-a is inverse and equals 0.99 and 1.00 respectively）. Toxicants that enter the lake during the iced-over period mainly enter the trophogenic layer, as wastewaters are warmer than the lake waters, depress the development of endemic spring diatomic algae and lead to a rise in the trophic status.     

Metals in coniferous vegetation of PreBaikal National Park （Olkhon District of Lake Baikal）

A comprehensive assessment of man-made impact on the environment is much kept behind because of missing unified systems of environmental monitoring. They represent sources of reliable information on the current status of the environment, as well as the absence of approaches to assess the impact of chemical pollution by different anthropogenic sources. Vegetation, being the component of environmental systems, is very sensitive to atmospheric man-made load. However, permissible concentrations of elements in plants, causing deflection in their development are differently estimated in different regions and vegetation species. As to the Baikal region, it is commonly the sanitary state of woods, that is primarily assessed. Coniferous trees, in particular pine, represent the main tree species in the region. In the Olkhon region we investigated the trace element compositions in pine needles to obtain the background contents of toxic metals. This region of the National park lies 300 km away from the industrial sources of pollutants, beyond the zone of wind effect, and has no industry. The research was made on the healthy （green） and dried up （red） pine needles. The elements like Zn, Al, Mn, Fe, Cr, Cu, Co, Ni, Sr, Cd, Pb, Li, Rb, Sb and As were measured by atomic absorption and flame emission photometry. The samples were decomposed in autoclaves with the mixture of nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. Distinct differences were found in a series of elements contained in the green and dried needles. The red needles are characterized by higher contents of Zn, Al, Cu and low Mn, Fe, Pb with similar contents of other elements.     

Estimating contributions of sources of soil CO2 at the shallower layer in a Japanese larch forest area

Soils contain about twice the amount of carbon presented in the atmosphere, so a small change in the soil carbon will influence atmospheric chemistry and heat balance. The soil carbon ultimately exchanged with the atmospheric CO2 as soil CO2, which mainly exists at the depth of 0-20 cm. The transport of soil CO2 is affected by the sources of soil CO2. Thus, separation of the contributions of sources of soil CO2 is a fundamental need to understand and predict implications of environmental change on soil carbon cycling and sequestration. It is a complicated task, so that a number of different methodological approaches such as component integration, root removal, and gap analyses have been developed. However, these methods could not avoid changing soil characteristics such as air-filled porosity, soil temperature and soil water contents. Consequently, fractional contributions of respiration of living root and decomposition of soil organic matter to the total soil CO2 cannot be estimated correctly. In this study, based on mass balance theory of both concentrations and δ^13C of soil CO2, a trenching method with a stable-isotope technique was used to determine both soil CO2 sources at the depth of 3-13 cm in a Japanese larch forest area during 30 May to 7 October 2005 and fractional contributions of these sources. Experimental results showed that the amount of atmospheric CO2 invaded the soil air was not significantly variable while its percent rate in the total soil CO2 had significantly temporal variations with the lower values between 5 August and 1 September. The litter-layer decomposition was very small. The soil CO2 derived from the respiration of living root and the decomposition of soil organic matter showed significantly temporal variations with increase from 30 May to 5 Aug. and decrease from 1 September to 7 October, 2005; and it accounted for 82%-98% of the total soil CO2 in which the respiration of living root was in the range from 32% to 62%.     

Speciation analysis of metals （Tl, Cd and Pb） in Tl-containing pyrite and its cinder from Yunfu Mine, China, by ICP-MS with sequential extraction

The speciation of heavy metals such as thallium, cadmium and lead existing in pyrite and pyrite cinder was analyzed by ICP-MS with a sequential extraction procedure. The distribution patterns of these metals including exchangeable, reducible, oxidizable and residual fractions were obtained. Tl, Cd and Pb in pyrite and pyrite cinder samples from each extraction step were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Under the optimized instrumental conditions, detection limits of Tl, Cd and Pb in different matrices were within the range of 0.006–0.07 μg/L, and the relative standard deviations ranged from 0.8% to 1.2%. The accuracy of Tl, Cd and Pb determination was checked by analyzing two certified reference materials. The results demonstrate that trace Tl, Cd and Pb in the samples can be accurately determined. The sequential extraction results revealed that the percent contents of Tl, Cd and Pb in exchangeable, reducible and oxidizable fractions in pyrite cinder are different from those in pyrite and in pyrite cinder. Tl, Cd and Pb mostly are distributed in residual fraction. Therefore, the mobility of metals in pyrite is higher than that in pyrite cinder. Although distributions of Tl, Cd and Pb in the non-residual fraction are not dominant in pyrite cinder, the total concentrations of them could not be ignored. Consequently, attention must be paid to the risk of potential pollution by pyrite cinder.     

Experimental research on the influence of two cultivation practices on rainfall runoff- and （sandy and muddy） sediment-generating processes in purple soil environment

Rainfall simulations have been conducted to study the soil erosion process of purple soil in two cultivation practices---contour cultivation and downslope cultivation. Results showed that under the two cultivation practices, the surface runoff can be described by the logarithmic function formula. In the initial period of rainfall, the amount of runoff increased with the rainfall duration and 20 minutes later it became relatively constant. The changing process of soil erosion rate may be described by the logarithmic function formula. The erosion rate increased with the rainfall duration and 20 minutes later it also became constant. Under downslope cultivation condition, the soil erosion rate increased more significantly than that under contour cultivation condition in the case of gentle rainfall intensity, and there is no obvious difference in erosion rate for downslope cultivation and contour cultivation practices. However, with increasing rainfall intensity the soil erosion rate under the downslope cultivation condition could be more than 30 times that under the contour cultivation condition. But this kind of difference would be reduced to some extent in the case of heavy rain.