Considerations for the Design of In Situ Vapor Extraction Systems: Radius of Influence vs. Zone of Remediation

When designing in situ soil vapor extraction systems, the number and placement of vapor extraction wells arc typically based on the radius of influence determined from some combination of pilot test data, theoretical considerations, and experience. In this report, we examine common methods used to determine the radius of influence, and through examples we illustrate how effective this remedial design approach is. Significant conclusions arc the following: (a) systems designed by radius of influence-based approaches may never achieve desired remedial goals: (b) systems designed by radius of influence-based approaches may result in longer operation times and higher total costs than a system that incorporates remedial goals and some level of fundamentally based predictive modeling: and (c) at best, the radius of influence-based approach ensures containment of contaminant vapors.     

Uptake of macroelements by the helophytePhalaris arundinacea L.

Helophytes are often incorporated into biological wastewater treatment plants. In favourable situations, they can take up large amounts of nutrients. One helophyte, the reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.), is fast growing when supplied with sufficient light and nutrients. Experiments were carried out under natural climatic conditions in small plastic tanks filled with sand with regular additions of a balanced and concentrated nutrient solution. In the growing season (May–October), plant production reached 10.5 kg m^–2 of dry biomass, of which 66% was in the aerial parts. Maximum nutrient uptake capacity was reached just after flowering and before senescence (beginning of October): 49% N, 34% P, 52% K and 34% Mg of the input was fixed in the aerial parts, which are easily harvestable. The corresponding values for the below ground parts were 12%, 10%, 11% and 11% respectively. Excretion of K and Mg has been observed when nutrients are translocated to the storage organs.     

Environmental impacts of shrimp farming with special reference to the situation in the continental United States

Shrimp culture technology has resulted in development of a major shrimp farming industry worldwide. Without the shrimp farming industry, increasing demands for shrimp by consumers could not be met, resulting in increased pressure on wild shrimp resources. Unfortunately, there are realized and potential adverse environmental effects on estuarine ecosystems as a result of shrimp farming. The effects can be categorized as wetland destruction for construction of shrimp farms, hypernutrification of estuarine ecosystems by shrim pond effluent, “biological pollution” of native shrimp stocks through escapement of aquaculture stocks, water use and entrainment of estuarine biota, and impacts of shrimp farm chemicals on estuarine systems. While the shrimp farming industry in the United States is small, the United States is effectively addressing all the realized and potential environmental impacts through regulation and research at the federal and state levels. Areas of regulation and research include stringent prohibitions on wetland destruction, regulation of effluents and support of research to eliminate and/or reduce effluents, escapement prevention technology and development of high-health stocks, minimizing entrainment of estuarine biota through water conservation and screening technology, and regulation of chemical use in the shrimp farming industry and support of research on shrimp pathology and environmentally safe disease control. Work is still in progress and not all problems have been resolved to the complete satisfaction of shrimp farmers and estuarine conservationists. However, the situation in the United States should serve as a model of how to encourage sustainable economic development through commercial shrimp farming while abating adverse environmental impacts on estuarine systems. To further improve the situation, the development and adoption of “best management practices” for shrimp aquaculture are recommended.     

Comparison of intertidal habitat use and growth rates of two northern Puget Sound cohorts of 0+ age Dungeness crab,Cancer magister

Density, habitat use, and growth of intertidal 0+ age Dungeness crabs, Cancer magister, were examined at five northern Puget Sound (Washington, USA) sites between June 1984 and September 1987. Sampling was conducted biweekly during settlement, from June to September, and approximately monthly or bimonthly thereafter. Northern Puget Sound Dungeness crab populations appear to be largely supported by recruitment from inland parental stocks, but a smaller proportion of recruits originate from coastal or oceanic stocks, as evidenced by earlier settlement and larger size of the first instar. Settlement of Dungeness crabs in inland waters typically peaked in August, and interannual variation in year-class strength at settlement (measured as intertidal density) was low relative to that reported for coastal crab populations. Spatial and interannual differences in settlement densities were mediated by high postsettlement mortality, which varied inversely with habitat complexity. Seasonal densities were highest in mixed sand and gravel with an overstory of attached or drift macroalgae, intermediate in eelgrass (Zostera marina), and lowest on open sand. Postsettlement growth rates corresponded to seasonal water temperatures and were greatest for the coastal cohort that settled in May and June. This cohort was larger as first juvenile instars (7.2 mm carapace width, CW) and grew rapidly at summer temperatures in excess of 15°C to a size (>30 mm CW) that allowed emigration from intertidal to subtidal areas by September. The late summer cohort settled in August at 5.3 mm CW and soon after was subjected to decreasing autumn water temperatures. There crabs experienced little growth while over wintering in the intertidal, but growth rates increased in March, and the crabs emigrated in April and May, approximately 10 mo after settlement.     

Ultra-wideband radar studies of steep crested waves with scanning laser measurements of wave slope profiles

We report results of ultra wide-band radar sea spike experiments using steep and weakly breaking non-linear water surface features in a wave tank. To generate these features we used a 1 s paddle wave and wind waves for a sequence of wind speeds. A scanning laser was used to measure synchronously the surface slope profile across 12 cm along the wave propagation direction once per radar pulse. A time domain reflectometer (TDR) radar transmitted short horizontally polarized pulses at X-band, several hundred picoseconds long, to give a range resolution of 10 cm. A radar range of 36 cm was digitally sampled so that surface feature echoes could be tracked through the area continuously with 5 ms temporal resolution with each instrument. We report results considering the wave slope component in the propagation direction and the corresponding curvature component. For the conditions studied, two types of features which produce sea spike radar echoes were generated–a non-linear feature near the crest front of the wind wave, caused by extreme steepening as a result of the passage of the paddle wave, and a steepened blocked wind wave in the trough of the paddle wave, caused by the local orbital current of the 1 s wave being nearly equal to and opposite the phase velocity of the wind wave.     

Use of GIS in Optimizing Timber Thinning Strategies in the Eastern Sierra Nevada*

This paper demonstrates the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to develop timber thinning strategies on the Kyburz Planning Area of the Tahoe National Forest in northeastern California. The primary criteria used in an assessment of selective thinning potential were forest health and fire hazard ratings. By eliminating environmentally sensitive, economically unfeasible, or low fire hazard areas from consideration, the use of GIS reduced the area that was considered appropriate for thinning by approximately 58%. GIS offers considerable potential for improving resource management strategies.     

Salinity preferences in the stage I zoeae of three temperate zone fiddler crabs,genus Uca

Zoeae of three species of temperate zone fiddler crabs, Uca pugnax, U. minax, and U. pugilator, were reared in the laboratory. The zoeae of each species were placed individually in artificial salinity gradients and observed for specific salinity preferences. Each species of zoeae displayed a salinity preference that reflected the salinity patterns of the adult crabs of the same species. Zoeae of U. pugnax and U. pugilator, like the adult crabs, displayed a preference for higher salinities (i.e., 20.6‰±3.5 and 21.5‰±3.0, respectively). Zoeae of U. minax, like the adult crabs, displayed a preference for lower salinities (i.e., 9.8‰±2.9).     

Variability of dissolved organic carbon in sediments of a seagrass bed and an unvegetated area within an estuary in Southern Texas

Pore-water dissolved organic carbon (PWDOC) concentrations were examined in vegetated and bare sediments of aHalodule wrightii seagrass bed, and in a mud bottom sediment of a southern Texas estuary. Temporal variability was examined at diel (dawn and noon) and bimonthly time scales. Distribution patterns of PWDOC were compared with physical, chemical, and biological factors thought to exert control on PWDOC. Concentration of PWDOC, bacterial production, and resultant PWDOC turnover times displayed statistically significant spatial and temporal variability. Concentration of PWDOC ranged from 14 mg C 1^?1 to 107 mg C 1^?1 of pore water, or 9–71 μg C cm^?3 wet sediment. PWDOC was more variable and was approximately 5 times higher than DOC concentrations in the water column. Low PWDOC concentrations (mean = 14.6 μg C cm^?3) and high bacterial production rates (mean = 1.92 μg C cm^?3 h^?1) were observed at the mud station, whereas PWDOC concentrations were high (mean = 24.6 μg C cm^?3) and bacterial production rates were low (mean = 0.43 μg C cm^?3 h^?1) at the bare station. PWDOC turnover times (T_t), assuming 50% bacterial growth efficiency (1–840 h) were shortest at the mud station (mean=13 h) and longest at the bare station (mean=180 h). In the overlying water column, T_t values were longer, ranging from 1,000–10,000 h. PWDOC concentrations were 25% higher in vegetated sediments than in neighboring bare sediments. This difference was probably due to inputs of labile photosynthetic excretia, since bacterial production rates in vegetated sediments displayed significant diel variability and were 4 times greater than that of bare sediments. Based upon the entire data set, PWDOC was significantly related to macrofaunal biomass, sediment POC, sediment C:N ratios, and oxygen metabolism, but was significantly correlated only to the latter two variables in stepwise multiple regression. Our findings suggest that organism activities and detrital quality are the major determinants controlling variability in PWDOC.