Hydrochemistry and environmental isotopes of spring water and their relation to structure and lithology identified with remote sensing methods in Wadi Araba,Egypt

Springs located at the historical sites of Wadi Araba (Eastern Desert of Egypt) and emerging from the escarpments of the Northern and Southern Galala Plateaus were investigated. A combination of methods, including hydrochemistry, stable and radioisotope composition, and structural analyses based on satellite data, provided information about the structure of the subsurface and the derived groundwater flow paths. Satellite images reveal karst features within the northern plateau, e.g. conical landforms. Karstic caves were documented along both escarpments. Chemical analysis of floodwater from Wadi Araba indicates higher concentrations of terrestrial salts compared to floodwaters from central and southern parts of the desert. δ¹⁸O and δ²H signatures in spring waters resemble those of floodwater and fall on the global meteoric water line, confirming their fast infiltration with minor influence of evaporation. The aquifer feeding the springs of the Northern Galala Plateau has low retention and the springs dry out quickly, even after heavy rainfall. Contrastingly, ³H activities in springs emerging from the Southern Galala Plateau refer to much slower subsurface passage. With respect to ³H content (3.8 TU) in recent flood waters, the spring water at Southern Galala Plateau contains about 40% recently recharged groundwater. However, its largest spring—the St. Antony spring—discharges water with a radiocarbon age of about 15,000 years. In combination with this spring’s constant and high discharge over a period of several months, that age estimate suggests a large reservoir with moderate to high retention.

     

Legal challenges to the management of transboundary watercourses in Central Asia under the conditions of Eurasian Economic Integration

Worldwide experience has shown that interstate economic integration can help states in strengthening of management of transboundary waters and international water law serves as a reference for developing of relevant interstate cooperation. Transboundary waters in Central Asia play important role in the economic cooperation among riparian states, including those who are members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). At the current stage of transboundary waters management in Central Asia, the obsolete legal status is evident. The international water law sources developed under the United Nations’ auspices have no binding application due to luck of formal membership of the EAEU states in these treaties. Also the regional set of regulations, especially for the Aral Sea Basin, needs further enhancement and more efficient implementation. The bilateral interstate regulatory framework of the managemennt of waters shared by EAEU states in Central Asia requires development of additional rules to enable better accommodation of challenges existing in terms of the current interstate cooperation. Having said that can one further assume that EAEU could serve as a new legal framework for more effective cooperation on transboundary watercourses in Central Asia? The answer might be yes, but… the current stage of the legal framework for cooperation on transboundary waters within the EAEU requires sufficient enhancements in terms of developing its legal and institutional framework. The first condition for EAEU to serve as framework for cooperation on transboundary waters of Central Asia is to strengthen the regulatory framework for the cooperation of EAEU member states regarding environmental issues in general and transboundary water relations in particular, able to accommodate two main goals: environmental protection on the one hand and economic development on the other hand. The EAEU legal framework shall also lead to improvement of existing institutional cooperation and a dispute settlement mechanism on transboundary waters shared by the member states of the EAEU.     

Three Spaces of Spatial Cognition

As we move about and interact in the world, we keep track of different spaces, among them the space of navigation, the space immediately around the body, and the space of the body. We review research showing that these spaces are conceptualized differently. Knowledge of the space of navigation is systematically distorted. For example, people mentally rotate roads and land masses to greater correspondence with global reference frames, they mentally align roads and land masses, they overestimate distances near the viewpoint relative to those far from it. These and other distortions indicate that the space of navigation is schematized to elements and spatial relations relative to reference frames and perspective. The space around the body is organized into a mental framework consisting of extensions of the major axes of the body. Times to report objects around the body suggest that the relative accessibility of the axes depends on their perceptual and functional properties and the relation of the body to the world. Finally, times to verify named or depicted body parts indicate that body schemas depend on perceptual and functional significance. Thus, these spaces (and they are not the only ones important to human interaction) differ from one another and are not conceptualized as Euclidean. Rather they are schematized into elements and spatial relations that reflect perceptual and conceptual significance.     

Timing of the Last-Interglacial High Sea Level on the Seychelles Islands, Indian Ocean

Corals from the Seychelles Islands, Indian Ocean, occur mainly as small coralline algae–vermetid remnants found in cavities adhering to the rock surface, and they rarely attain more than 2 m²in area. Samples ofGoniastreaandPoritesfrom elevations between 1.7 and 6 m above present mean sea level were dated by TIMS²³⁸U–²³⁴U–²³⁰Th techniques. The ages from well-preserved corals lie between 131,000 and 122,000 yr B.P., in agreement with most other observations of the last-interglacial sea level. Field evidence and dating from high marine limestones from two sections at La Digue Island indicate a period of coral buildup until 131,000 yr B.P., followed by a drop in sea level between 131,000 and 122,000 yr B.P.     

Magnetic structure of polluted soil profiles from Eastern Ukraine

Our study concerned magnetic properties of soil profiles taken from polluted regions of Eastern Ukraine around the industrial centres Krivyj Rig, Mariupol and Komsomolsk. Soils represent chernozem and podzoluvisol. The low-field magnetic susceptibility shows enhancement in the topsoil caused by contamination by coarse-grain magnetite connected with industrial pollution. Magnetic mineralogy was determined by means of thermal demagnetisation of SIRM, monitoring of susceptibility changes during warming from ?196°C to room temperature and heating to 700°C, and Mössbauer analysis. Granulometry of magnetic particles was investigated by determination of hysteresis parameters, susceptibility, M _s , SIRM and ARM ratios and frequency dependence of susceptibility. The chemical parameters, namely pH, organic carbon and iron content in different pedogenic and lithogenic minerals, measured for particular horizons determined pedogenic characteristic of soil profiles. Our study showed that differences in magnetic parameters of non-polluted and polluted soil profiles are not limited to the topsoil, but reach deep layers of the parent material. Industrial pollution promotes formation of the so-called “pedogenic” SP and SD particles in these layers.     

Quantification of TCE Co‐Oxidation in Groundwater Using a 14C–Assay

Bacteria that degrade natural organic matter in groundwater contain oxygenase enzymes that can co‐oxidize trichloroethene (TCE). This degradation pathway is promising for large dilute plumes, but its evaluation is limited because the density of the bacteria with oxygenase enzymes has not been correlated to field scale rates of degradation. A ¹⁴C–TCE assay was developed to determine pseudo first‐order rate constants for the aerobic co‐oxidation of TCE in groundwater. The assay involved incubating ¹⁴C–TCE in samples of groundwater contained in 160 mL serum bottles, and monitoring the accumulation of radiolabel in degradation products. A first‐order rate constant for co‐oxidation was extracted from the rate of accumulation of ¹⁴C in products, accounting for volumetric changes in the serum bottles due to sampling and subsequent changes to the distribution of TCE between the aqueous and gaseous phases. Of the groundwater samples evaluated from 19 wells at five sites, eight samples at three sites had ¹⁴C product accumulation rates that exceeded the accumulation rate in filter‐sterilized groundwater controls. First‐order rate constants ranged from 2.65 to 0.0066 year^?1, which is equivalent to half‐lives of 0.26 to 105 years. Groundwater samples from a few of the wells in which co‐oxidation occurred had volatile organic contaminants in addition to TCE; their presence may have induced the oxygenase enzymes that are needed for TCE co‐oxidation. ¹⁴CO₂ represented ~37% to 97% of the ¹⁴C products that accumulated; the balance of the products was soluble and non‐volatile.     

Examining the Extraction Efficiency of Petroleum-Derived Dissolved Organic Matter in Contaminated Groundwater Plumes

The extraction efficiency of petroleum-derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) was examined for groundwater samples from an aquifer contaminated with crude oil. Five different types of extraction techniques were investigated to determine which method is best suited for the analysis of potentially toxic petroleum-derived DOM. The five types were a liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) with dichloromethane (DCM) and total petroleum hydrocarbons-diesel range (TPH_d) with DCM (EPA method 3510C), and three solid-phase extraction (SPE) stationary phases that are routinely used for extraction of polar analytes from water. For the LLE and TPH_d, that is selective for nonpolar compounds, the extraction efficiency of petroleum-derived DOM decreased downgradient as the petroleum-derived DOM becomes increasingly polar due to biodegradation. In contrast, the average extraction efficiency by the SPE methods was greater than 65% across the gradient. The results showed that SPE is more efficient for extracting petroleum-derived DOM at hydrocarbon-contaminated sites. The use of a method with greater extraction efficiency for partially oxidized hydrocarbons may prove useful in determining relationships between their composition and structure and potential for risks to human health or the environment.