On board short-time high temperature heat treatment of ballast water: a field trial under operational conditions

A ballast water short-time high temperature heat treatment technique was applied on board a car-carrier during a voyage from Egypt to Belgium. Ballast water from three tanks was subjected for a few seconds to temperatures ranging from 55 degrees C to 80 degrees C. The water was heated using the vessel's heat exchanger steam and a second heat exchanger was used to pre-heat and cool down the water. The treatment was effective at causing mortality of bacteria, phytoplankton and zooplankton. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) standard was not agreed before this study was carried out, but comparing our results gives a broad indication that the IMO standard would have been met in some of the tests for the zooplankton, in all the tests for the phytoplankton; and probably on most occasions for the bacteria. Passing the water through the pump increased the kill rate but increasing the temperature above 55 degrees C did not improve the heat treatment's efficacy.     

Differential kinetics and temperature dependence of abiotic and biotic processes controlling the environmental fate of TNT in simulated marine systems

This work seeks to understand how the balance of abiotic and biotic kinetic processes in sediments control the residual concentration of TNT in marine systems after release from ocean-dumped source. Kinetics of TNT disappearance were followed using marine sediments at different temperatures and under both biotic and presumably abiotic conditions (through sodium azide addition). Sediments exhibiting the highest rate of TNT disappearance under biotic conditions also exhibited the highest sorption affinity for TNT under abiotic conditions. Significant temperature dependence in the abiotic processes was observed in the diffusion coefficient of TNT and not sediment sorption affinity. At higher temperature, kinetics of biotic processes outpaced abiotic processes, but at low temperature, kinetics of abiotic processes were much more significant. We concluded that the differential influence of temperature on the kinetics of abiotic and biotic processes could provide distinguishing predictions for the potential residual concentration of TNT contamination in marine-sediment systems.     

Impacts of diverted freshwater on dissolved organic matter and microbial communities in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, U.S.A

Here we present results of an initial assessment of the impacts of a water diversion event on the concentrations and chemical composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and bacterioplankton community composition in Barataria Bay, Louisiana U.S.A, an important estuary within the Mississippi River Delta complex. Concentrations and spectral properties of DOM, as reflected by UV/visible absorbance and fluorescence, were strikingly similar at 26 sites sampled along transects near two western and two eastern areas of Barataria Bay in July and September 2010. In September 2010, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was significantly higher (568.1-1043 μM C, x=755.6+/-117.7 μM C, n=14) than in July 2010 (249.1-577.1 μM C, x=383.7+/-98.31 μM C, n=14); conversely, Abs254 was consistently higher at every site in July (0.105-0.314) than in September (0.080-0.221), averaging 0.24±0.06 in July and 0.15±0.04 in September. Fluorescence data via the fluorescence index (FI450/500) revealed that only 30% (8 of 26) of the July samples had an FI450/500 above 1.36, compared to 96% (25 of 26) for the September samples. This indicates a more terrestrial origin for the July DOM. Bacterioplankton from eastern sites differed in composition from bacterioplankon in western sites in July. These differences appeared to result from reduced salinities caused by the freshwater diversion. Bacterioplankton communities in September differed from those in July, but no spatial structure was observed. Thus, the trends in bacterioplankton and DOM were likely due to changes in water masses (e.g., input of Mississippi River water in July and a return to estuarine waters in September). Discharge of water from the Davis Pond Freshwater Diversion (DPFD) through Barataria Bay may have partially mitigated some adverse effects of the oil spill, inasmuch as DOM is concerned.     

A time series of mercury accumulation and improvement of dietary feed in net caged Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

The study was undertaken to investigate the uptake of mercury in salmon throughout the entire farming period at the net cage. Mercury concentrations in muscle, liver, kidney, and gill and responses to the various dietary mercury concentrations were determined. The accumulation of mercury is in the order of kidney>gill=liver>muscle. The highest mercury peak concentrations were observed for both kidney and gill at the parr-smolt period, while liver and muscle mercury peaked one month later after caging at the grow-out site. High dietary sodium and calcium fed to the salmon contributed to the elevation of mercury in kidney and gill during the smolting process. The mercury burden over the grow-out period increased sharply with a linear relationship of mercury uptake. The tissue mercury burden per gram of growth was calculated using the slope of mercury burden and the slope of growth over the period of each stage. The results showed dietary mercury loadings on marketable salmon were within tolerance limits of FDA and US EPA. Rapid growth of salmon and low dietary mercury progressively reduces the uptake of mercury in salmon. The time series of mercury monitoring showed that mercury concentrations in salmon were greater at the parr stage in freshwater than at the grow-out stage in salt water.     

Sources and distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the sediments of Kaoping River and submarine canyon system, Taiwan

In this study, we measured and analyzed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediment samples collected from the Kaoping river and submarine canyon (KPSC) system to determine the compositional patterns and characteristic distributions of PAH and to elucidate the transport and fate of these land-derived particles. Concentrations of total PAH (sum of 28 PAH compounds) ranged from 22.6 to 45,100 ngg(-1) dry weight (dw) and the highest concentrations were found in the sediments of Donggang Harbor. The ratio of perylene to sum of penta-aromatic PAH isomers (47-55%) was higher in off-shore stations, suggesting a diagenetic PAH source. Various isomeric ratios also indicated that combustion was a significant source of PAH to the sediment at stations located along the Kaoping river and the north-western shelf of the Kaoping estuary. However, in the south-eastern shelf and some canyon sites, petroleum-derived PAHs were a more significant source of these compounds. Principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis suggest PAHs in the sediments from the north-western shelf, and river and canyon sediments might be a pyrogenic product of coal and diesel-burning vehicles, while those of the south-eastern shelf may be petrogenic. PAH concentrations and compositional patterns are effective tracers of particulate transport in KPSC system. The seaward transport of riverine particulates was found to be mostly directed to NW-shelf and/or canyon.     

鄂尔多斯盆地侏罗纪煤的煤岩特征及成因分析

鄂尔多斯盆地侏罗系发育多层厚煤层,煤质优良,储量巨大,且构造简单,埋深较浅,具有很大的开采价值。该岩系独特的煤岩特征与其成煤沼泽环境有密切联系,即内陆湖泊发育有关的河流体系上部的一系列高位沼泽;泥炭埋藏后继续经历不同程度的氧化阶段,使得煤岩组分中惰性组分含量普遍偏高,而镜质组分普遍经受一定程度的丝炭化作用而成为半镜质体。研究表明盆地中侏罗系煤系中煤的宏观煤岩主要以半暗煤和暗淡煤为主,半亮煤和光亮煤占次要地位;在盆地边缘,特别是靠近盆地北部物源地区,半暗煤、暗淡煤含量比例较高,往南向盆地中心部位半亮煤和光亮煤逐渐增多,表明沉积环境和成煤沼泽环境对煤岩组分具有主要控制作用;含煤岩系中,特别是煤层下部砂岩越厚,颗粒越粗,显微煤岩组分中丝质体含量越高,而且其结构完整、清晰,半镜质体含量也越高,植物细胞结构越完整和规则。埋藏后顶底板岩性还会继续影响煤岩组分的演化过程。煤层顶底板砂体由于物性条件好,孔隙水仍可长时间处于氧化与循环流通状态,使得各煤岩组分能长时间处于氧化状态,有利于丝炭化作用进行;相反,在盆地中心,湖泊相发育,泥炭被埋藏之后迅速被泥岩覆盖,煤层很快处于还原缺氧环境,凝胶化作用得以充分进行,镜质组的含量就会增高。研究还发现,壳质组常常在煤层中的某一部位富集,虽然整个煤层中其平均含量不高,但是却对煤层的总体生烃能力会有很大贡献。以往的研究成果中,壳质组含量常常被低估,尤其是呈流动状态的沥青质体,因为它最容易流动到刚性比较强的丝质体内部或各种裂隙中而常常被忽略,在以后的研究中值得加以重视。     

Development of symbiosis-specific genes as biomarkers for the early detection of cnidarian-algal symbiosis breakdown

Coral bleaching, i.e. the loss of dinoflagellate symbionts from cnidarian hosts, is occurring globally at increasing rates, scales, and severity. The significance of these bleaching events to the health of coral reef ecosystems is extreme, as bleached corals exhibit high mortality, reduced fecundity and productivity and increased susceptibility to disease. This decreased coral fitness leads to reef degradation and ultimately to the breakdown of the coral reef ecosystem. To date there has been little work describing the application of biomarkers to assess coral health. The most commonly applied biomarker is, in fact, the bleaching event itself. We are interested in developing early warning biomarkers that can detect coral stress before bleaching occurs. Recently, several genes that are likely to function in regulating interactions between cnidarians and their symbionts have been characterized, using the temperate sea anemone Anthopleura elegantissima as a model species. One "symbiosis gene" identified from the host genome, sym32, is expressed as a function of anemone symbiotic-state, where sym32 expression is higher in symbiotic cf. aposymbiotic (symbiont-free) anemones. Real-time quantitative RT-PCR suggested that the level of sym32 expression was correlated with the abundance of algae in the host. Furthermore, laboratory exposures of anemones to low levels of cadmium (0, 20, 100 microg(-1) CdCl2; 14 days), which caused no change in algal cell numbers, resulted in a down-regulation of sym32 compared to controls, indicating that sym32 expression may serve as a new sensitive early warning biomarker of cnidarian-algal symbiosis breakdown.     

用于确定热成熟度的定量孢粉颜色

油源岩研究已成为烃类勘探中的日常工作。孢粉学在这方面提供了有效的方法,如光学干酪根类型和孢子颜色确定,尽管这些方法已得到广泛应用,但它们仍未达到如镜质体反射率这样的定量技术水平。可以相信,这种定量技术(Marshall,1991)标志着对测定和理解孢粉颜色方面的一项革命,也说明它怎样能够达到与所建立的方法进行比较的和互补的效果,并且在一些应用中显示出优越性。