Treatment of Malting Wastewater in a Granular Sludge Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR)

Aerobic granular sludge was successfully cultivated in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) treating wastewater from the malting process with a high content of particulate organic matter. At an organic loading rate of 3.2 kg/(m³ d) COD_total and an influent particle concentration of 0.95 g/L MLSS an average removal of 50% in COD_total and 80% in COD_dissolved could be achieved. A comparison of granular and flocculent sludge grown under the same operating conditions showed no significant difference in removal efficiency although granules exhibited a higher metabolic activity in terms of specific oxygen uptake rate (r_{O2, X}). Two distinct mechanisms of particle removal were observed for granular sludge: during initial granule formation, particles were incorporated into the biofilm matrix. For mature granules, a high level of protozoa growth on the granule surface accounted for the ability to remove particulate COD. Combined evaluation of the development in MLSS content and sludge bed settling rate (i.e., mean derivative of the normalized sludge volume) was found to be an adequate method for monitoring the characteristic settling properties of a granulizing sludge bed. By means of this method, a distinct substrate gradient out of several operating conditions was concluded to have the biggest impact on the formation of aerobic granular sludge.     

The effect of dissolved barium on biogeochemical processes at cold seeps

A numerical model was applied to investigate and quantify the biogeochemical processes fueled by the expulsion of barium and methane-rich fluids in the sediments of a giant cold-seep area in the Derugin Basin (Sea of Okhotsk). Geochemical profiles of dissolved Ba²⁺, Sr²⁺, Ca²⁺, SO₄²⁻, HS⁻, DIC, I⁻ and of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) were fitted numerically to constrain the transport processes and the kinetics of biogeochemical reactions. The model results indicate that the anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is the major process proceeding at a depth-integrated rate of 4.9 μmol cm⁻² a⁻¹, followed by calcium carbonate and strontian barite precipitation/dissolution processes having a total depth-integrated rate of 2.1 μmol cm⁻² a⁻¹. At the low seepage rate prevailing at our study site (0.14 cm a⁻¹) all of the rising barium is consumed by precipitation of barite in the sedimentary column and no benthic barium flux is produced. Numerical experiments were run to investigate the response of this diagenetic environment to variations of hydrological and biogeochemical conditions. Our results show that relatively low rates of fluid flow (<∼5 cm a⁻¹) promote the dispersed precipitation of up to 26 wt% of barite and calcium carbonate throughout the uppermost few meters of the sedimentary column. Distinct and persistent events (several hundreds of years long) of more vigorous fluid flow (from 20-110 cm a⁻¹), instead, result in the formation of barite-carbonate crusts near the sediment surface. Competition between barium and methane for sulfate controls the mineralogy of these sediment precipitates such that at low dissolved methane/barium ratios (<4-11) barite precipitation dominates, while at higher methane/barium ratios sulfate availability is limited by AOM and calcium carbonate prevails. When seepage rates exceed 110 cm a⁻¹, barite precipitation occurs at the seafloor and is so rapid that barite chimneys form in the water column. In the Derugin Basin, spectacular barite constructions up to 20 m high, which cover an area of roughly 22 km² and contain in excess of 5 million tons of barite, are built through this process. In these conditions, our model calculates a flux of barium to the water column of at least 20 μmol cm⁻² a⁻¹. We estimate that a minimum of 0.44 × 10⁶ mol a⁻¹ are added to the bottom waters of the Derugin Basin by cold seep processes, likely affecting the barium cycle in the Sea of Okhotsk.     

The changing nature of, and approaches to, UK coastal management at the start of the twenty-first century

As we enter the twenty-first century, effective coastal management will become more of a central issue for coastal users and governors alike. The new century sees the review of many of the UK's existing management plans, and the subsequent publication of revised versions. Some of these new editions will have to show changes from their predecessors because of natural processes of erosion and accretion, yet other changes will be because of human interference. In this, we mean the continued ignoring of previous management plan recommendations regarding new development and coastal usage. Coastal management needs to adapt and develop, yet along with this, increased education and awareness is also necessary to allow users to understand and appreciate what is being recommended in management plans.     

海南博螯沿岸地貌与人类活动的潜在影响

The Boao coastal system along the eastern coast of Hainan Island is a dynamic delta-tidal inlet-barrier formed during the late Holocene. The delta developed inside a shallow lagoon barred by a sandy barrier with a narrow, shallow tidal inlet opening. Two major distributary channels separated by small islands characterize the delta. The lagoon is silting up receiving and trapping sediments from both the river and, in minor measure during storms, through the tidal inlet opening and barrier washovers. The barrier at the tidal inlet is highly dynamic and changes its form, accreting (migrating spit) against the inlet during fair-weather conditions and being eroded during storms and river floods.The delta has almost completely filled the lagoon and major concerns exist on the effect that ongoing large development plans may have on the environment. These concerns include the effect on floods and rate of siltation once banks of the islands have been stabilized and floodwater and sediment load are impeded from spreading over the lowlands, and the effect of increasing pollutant loads from the new facilities on the ecosystems of the increasingly restricting lagoon water and on the seashores.     

Creation of the Cocos and Nazca plates by fission of the Farallon plate

Throughout the Early Tertiary the area of the Farallon oceanic plate was episodically diminished by detachment of large and small northern regions, which became independently moving plates and microplates. The nature and history of Farallon plate fragmentation has been inferred mainly from structural patterns on the western, Pacific-plate flank of the East Pacific Rise, because the fragmented eastern flank has been subducted. The final episode of plate fragmentation occurred at the beginning of the Miocene, when the Cocos plate was split off, leaving the much reduced Farallon plate to be renamed the Nazca plate, and initiating Cocos–Nazca spreading. Some Oligocene Farallon plate with rifted margins that are a direct record of this plate-splitting event has survived in the eastern tropical Pacific, most extensively off northern Peru and Ecuador. Small remnants of the conjugate northern rifted margin are exposed off Costa Rica, and perhaps south of Panama. Marine geophysical profiles (bathymetric, magnetic and seismic reflection) and multibeam sonar swaths across these rifted oceanic margins, combined with surveys of 30–20 Ma crust on the western rise-flank, indicate that (i) Localized lithospheric rupture to create a new plate boundary was preceded by plate stretching and fracturing in a belt several hundred km wide. Fissural volcanism along some of these fractures built volcanic ridges (e.g., Alvarado and Sarmiento Ridges) that are 1–2 km high and parallel to “absolute” Farallon plate motion; they closely resemble fissural ridges described from the young western flank of the present Pacific–Nazca rise. (ii) For 1–2 m.y. prior to final rupture of the Farallon plate, perhaps coinciding with the period of lithospheric stretching, the entire plate changed direction to a more easterly (“Nazca-like”) course; after the split the northern (Cocos) part reverted to a northeasterly absolute motion. (iii) The plate-splitting fracture that became the site of initial Cocos–Nazca spreading was a linear feature that, at least through the 680 km of ruptured Oligocene lithosphere known to have avoided subduction, did not follow any pre-existing feature on the Farallon plate, e.g., a “fracture zone” trail of a transform fault. (iv) The margins of surviving parts of the plate-splitting fracture have narrow shoulders raised by uplift of unloaded footwalls, and partially buried by fissural volcanism. (v) Cocos–Nazca spreading began at 23 Ma; reports of older Cocos–Nazca crust in the eastern Panama Basin were based on misidentified magnetic anomalies.There is increased evidence that the driving force for the 23 Ma fission of the Farallon plate was the divergence of slab-pull stresses at the Middle America and South America subduction zones. The timing and location of the split may have been influenced by (i) the increasingly divergent northeast slab pull at the Middle America subduction zone, which lengthened and reoriented because of motion between the North America and Caribbean plates; (ii) the slightly earlier detachment of a northern part of the plate that had been entering the California subduction zone, contributing a less divergent plate-driving stress; and (iii) weakening of older parts of the plate by the Galapagos hotspot, which had come to underlie the equatorial region, midway between the risecrest and the two subduction zones, by the Late Oligocene.     

Mise au point d'un milieu de culture pour l'étude de l'altération de silicates en présence de Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The influence of microorganisms on mineral alteration is not easy to determine in environmental conditions, because of the difficulty to raise for comparison purposes an identical but abiotic system. Another problem in this context is the choice of reliable tracers to evaluate the alteration rate of materials during in vitro experiments. To face such difficulties, we elaborated a defined medium allowing both the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a precise measurement of the elements solubilized from the minerals. Thanks to this medium, we were able to quantitatively determine the amounts of major elements solubilized from the materials in the presence of bacterial growth, compared to a sterile system. Moreover, the analysis by ICP-MS of trace elements was possible after a chromatographic treatment, which selectively eliminated 99% of the sodium content of the medium. To cite this article: G. Aouad et al., C. R. Geoscience 337 (2005).