土壤中砷的形态分析和生物有效性研究进展

土壤砷污染是当今全球十分严重的环境与健康问题之一。土壤砷形态及生物有效性研究是开展污染诊断、评估环境健康风险及开展砷污染土壤修复的重要依据。目前土壤砷形态的研究方法包括化学选择性提取操作定义法、溶剂提取仪器测定或吸附材料选择性分离法和同步辐射X射线近边能谱（XANES）直接测定法,这些方法相互结合在土壤砷的形态转化研究中发挥着重要作用。目前关于生物有效性研究存在多种方法并存的局面,化学提取法相对经济、方便,但存在很大的局限性,往往不能真实反映土壤砷的有效态含量,只能作为环境危害程度识别的参考;植物指示法需选择敏感性植物方能有效地指示土壤砷对环境与健康的潜在危害;土壤动物与微生物指示法代表了未来开展砷污染早期预警的发展方向,具有广阔的应用前景。模拟肠胃液提取法(In Vitro Gastrointestinal Method)比较接近动物或人体对土壤砷污染的真实吸收状态,在环境健康风险评价中发挥着重要作用。目前国外已发展出采用兔、仔猪和猴的动物模型以研究经口摄入的生物有效性砷,但尚不清楚哪种动物模型更能准确反映砷对人体的生物有效性。     

用湖泊沉积研究过去气候变化

湖泊沉积是一种具高分辨率的自然档案，记载了丰富的过去气候变迁信息；研究湖泊沉积，从中提取气候代用指标，可以恢复区域过去气候变迁史，进而推断过去全球气候变化。评述了目前研究和应用较多的十几种气候代用指标，如孢粉、碳和氧同位素、微体化石、分子化合物、碳酸钙含量、有机碳含量、藻类、沉积物粒径、矿物组合等；指出了当前特别重要的是要对各种气候代用指标的形成及其变化过程、气候代用指标的具体环境意义作深入细致的     

Carbonate petrography, kerogen distribution, and carbon and oxygen isotope variations in an early Proterozoic transition from limestone to iron-formation deposition, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa

The transition zone comprises Campbellrand microbialaminated (replacing "cryptalgalaminate") limestone and shale, with minor dolomite, conformably overlain by the Kuruman Iron Formation of which the basal part is characterized by siderite-rich microbanded iron-formation with minor magnetite and some hematite-containing units. The iron-formation contains subordinate intraclastic and microbialaminated siderite mesobands and was deposited in deeper water than the limestones. The sequence is virtually unaltered with diagenetic mineral assemblages reflecting a temperature interval of about 110 degrees to 170 degrees C and pressures of 2 kbars. Carbonate minerals in the different rock types are represented by primary micritic precipitates (now recrystallized to microsparite), early precompactional sparry cements and concretions, deep burial limpid euhedral sparites, and spar cements precipitated from metamorphic fluids in close contact with diabase sills. Paragenetic pathways of the carbonate minerals are broadly similar in all lithofacies with kerogen intimately associated with them. Kerogen occurs as pigmentation in carbonate crystals, as reworked organic detritus in clastic-textured carbonate units, and as segregations of kerogen pigment around late diagenetic carbonate crystals. Locally kerogen may also be replaced by carbonate spar. Carbon isotope compositions of the carbonate minerals and kerogen are dependent on their mode of occurrence and on the composition of the dominant carbonate species in a specific lithofacies. Integration of sedimentary, petrographic, geochemical, and isotopic results makes it possible to distinguish between depositional, early diagenetic, deep burial, and metamorphic effects on the isotopic compositions of the carbonate minerals and the kerogen in the sequence. Major conclusions are that deep burial thermal decarboxylation led to 13C depletion in euhedral ferroan sparites and 13C enrichment in kerogen (organic carbon). Metamorphic sparites are most depleted in 13C. Carbonates in oxide-rich iron-formations are more depleted in 13C than those in siderite-rich iron-formation whereas the kerogens in oxide banded iron-formations (BIF) are more enriched. This implies that the siderite-rich iron-formations were not derived from oxide-rich iron-formation through reduction of ferric iron by organic matter. Organic matter oxidation by ferric iron did, however, decrease the abundance of kerogen in oxide-rich iron-formation and led to the formation of isotopically very light sparry carbonates. Siderite and calcmicrosparite both represent recrystallized primary micritic precipitates but differ in their 13C composition, with the siderites depleted in 13C by 4.6 per mil on average relative to calcmicrosparite. This means that the siderites were precipitated from water with dissolved inorganic carbon depleted in 13C by about 9 per mil relative to that from which the limestones precipitated. This implies an ocean system stratified with regard to total carbonate, with the deeper water, from which siderite-rich iron-formation formed, depleted in 13C. Iron-formations were deposited in areas of very low organic matter supply. Depletion of 13C may, therefore, derive not from degradation of organic matter but from hydrothermal activity, a conclusion which is supported by 18O composition of the carbonate minerals and trace element and rare earth element (REE) compositions of the iron-formations.     

我国生物修复技术的现状与展望

环境问题是当前人类生存与发展过程中所面临的重大问题。生物修复技术是解决环境污染,恢复被人类活动破坏的生态系统,实现人类社会可持续发展的重要手段之一。近年来,我国生物修复技术研究与应用蓬勃发展,取得了显著成绩。其内容主要包括微生物修复技术、重金属污染的植物修复技术、矿山废弃地生态恢复技术、固体废弃物资源化技术、垃圾填埋场生态修复技术及湖沼生态恢复技术等。在高效特异微生物与重金属超富集植物筛选及其机理研究上取得了一系列的突破,已筛选出近50种针对农药、石油、多环芳烃等有机污染物的高效特异菌种和As、Cd、Mn、Zn等12种重金属的超富集植物。今后应注意吸收其他学科的理论知识,拓宽研究领域,注重生物修复的机理研究及相关分子生物学技术的开发与应用;开展全国范围的环境污染调查与风险评估工作;建立污染环境修复的法规与标准;从而促进生物修复技术的持续发展,为国民经济发展及环境与健康保护服务。     

Dynamic behaviour of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Brighton marina, UK

The distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) between various phases is fundamental in the control of their movement and impact in the marine environment. In this study samples of water and sediments were regularly collected from Brighton marina, UK, to quantify the intensity, spatial and temporal variations of PAH contamination. The results show clearly that PAH behaviour in marine systems is highly complex, and controlled by the interplay of PAH sources, compound physicochemical properties, water and sediment movement, and field conditions. Levels of total PAHs (16 compounds) in the dissolved phase were found to vary between <2 and 11,400 ng/l, with higher values observed in the winter months. Total PAH concentration in sediment samples varied between 24 and 4710 ng/g dry weight. PAHs in water were dominated by low molecular mass compounds (2-ring), while PAHs in sediments were mainly derived from 2-4 ring compounds. In addition, dissolved concentrations were increased during sediment dredging and after a period of severe rainfall. PAHs in Brighton marina are likely to be from both pyrolytic and petrogenic sources; as a result, field-derived distribution coefficients for individual PAHs between sediment and water tend to follow the equilibrium partition models, although slight exceedance is apparent. The extended partition model incorporating soot carbon has achieved limited success in better predicting PAH behaviour.     

采矿及相关活动对美国爱达荷州科伦达湖中沉积物微量元素地球化学…

１９８９年至１９９０年间，在爱达荷州科伦达湖中采集了１２组重力岩心样品和１５０个抓取的湖底沉积物样品，用于确定湖底沉积物中微量元素的浓度、分配以及表层和下部微量元素的分布模式。此外，从一个钻孔中选取副样分析放射性＾１３７Ｃｓ，用以开始确立该湖的向量元素地球化学演化史。     

The effect of Prestige oil ingestion on the growth and chemical composition of turbot otoliths

Juvenile turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) were kept in captivity and were fed a prepared food contaminated with five different concentrations of seawater-accommodated fuel oil from 2.4+/-0.35 to 48.2+/-2.2 mg g(-1) food, with a control group receiving uncontaminated food. The growth and survival of individually tagged fish (N=202) were measured after a six-week treatment period. The otolith growth rate was measured and otolith composition was determined before and after the treatments using LA-ICPMS. Fish and otolith growth were negatively affected by the fuel oil treatment, and the response decreased with the level of contamination. Otolith growth and element incorporation peaked at mid level exposures and decreased at the highest level. The otolith elemental composition reflected the presence of some elements in the Prestige fuel that may have been incorporated through the diet into the otolith.     

The emergence of life from iron monosulphide bubbles at a submarine hydrothermal redox and pH front

Here we argue that life emerged on Earth from a redox and pH front at c. 4.2 Ga. This front occurred where hot (c. 150 degrees C), extremely reduced, alkaline, bisulphide-bearing, submarine seepage waters interfaced with the acid, warm (c. 90 degrees C), iron-hearing Hadean ocean. The low pH of the ocean was imparted by the ten bars of CO2 considered to dominate the Hadean atmosphere/hydrosphere. Disequilibrium between the two solutions was maintained by the spontaneous precipitation of a colloidal FeS membrane. Iron monosulphide bubbles comprising this membrane were inflated by the hydrothermal solution upon sulphide mounds at the seepage sites. Our hypothesis is that the FeS membrane, laced with nickel, acted as a semipermeable catalytic boundary between the two fluids, encouraging synthesis of organic anions by hydrogenation and carboxylation of hydrothermal organic primers. The ocean provided carbonate, phosphate, iron, nickel and protons; the hydrothermal solution was the source of ammonia, acetate, HS-, H2 and tungsten, as well as minor concentrations of organic sulphides and perhaps cyanide and acetaldehyde. The mean redox potential (delta Eh) across the membrane, with the energy to drive synthesis, would have approximated to 300 millivolts. The generation of organic anions would have led to an increase in osmotic pressure within the FeS bubbles. Thus osmotic pressure could take over from hydraulic pressure as the driving force for distension, budding and reproduction of the bubbles. Condensation of the organic molecules to polymers, particularly organic sulphides, was driven by pyrophosphate hydrolysis. Regeneration of pyrophosphate from the monophosphate in the membrane was facilitated by protons contributed from the Hadean ocean. This was the first use by a metabolizing system of protonmotive force (driven by natural delta pH) which also would have amounted to c. 300 millivolts. Protonmotive force is the universal energy transduction mechanism of life. Taken together with the redox potential across the membrane, the total electrochemical and chemical energy available for protometabolism amounted to a continuous supply at more than half a volt. The role of the iron sulphide membrane in keeping the two solutions separated was appropriated by the newly synthesized organic sulphide polymers. This organic take-over of the membrane material led to the miniaturization of the metabolizing system. Information systems to govern replication could have developed penecontemporaneously in this same milieu. But iron, sulphur and phosphate, inorganic components of earliest life, continued to be involved in metabolism.