Characterization of a TCE DNAPL Zone in Alluvium by Partitioning Tracers

Partitioning interwell tracer tests (PITT) were used ID determine the spatial distribution and volume of residual trichloroethene (TCE) present in alluvium beneath the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plain in southern Ohio. Its first use at this site was in support of the design of a surfactant flood to remove the residual DNAPL (dense nonaqueous phase liquids) from the alluvial aquifer. The second application assessed the performance of the surfactant flood. The average DNAPL saturation in the first PITT was 0.1 to 0.2% in a swept pore volume of 4500 gallons (17.000 L). A second PITT was undertaken following the surfactant flood and yielded an average residual saturation of 0.06% in a swept pore volume of 3400 gallons (13.000 L), the reduction in pore volume being due to the confinement of the tracers to the lower sand and gravel unit of the alluvium. The design, operation, and analysis of the two PM Is provided strong evidence of a buried channel that controls the spatial distribution of the residual TCI: DNAPL in the basal sand and gravel aquifer and must be considered in the eventual full remediation of this aquifer.     

The Winchcombe fireball—That lucky survivor

On February 28, 2021, a fireball dropped ∼0.6 kg of recovered CM2 carbonaceous chondrite meteorites in South-West England near the town of Winchcombe. We reconstruct the fireball's atmospheric trajectory, light curve, fragmentation behavior, and pre-atmospheric orbit from optical records contributed by five networks. The progenitor meteoroid was three orders of magnitude less massive (∼13 kg) than any previously observed carbonaceous fall. The Winchcombe meteorite survived entry because it was exposed to a very low peak atmospheric dynamic pressure (∼0.6 MPa) due to a fortuitous combination of entry parameters, notably low velocity (13.9 km s⁻¹). A near-catastrophic fragmentation at ∼0.07 MPa points to the body's fragility. Low entry speeds which cause low peak dynamic pressures are likely necessary conditions for a small carbonaceous meteoroid to survive atmospheric entry, strongly constraining the radiant direction to the general antapex direction. Orbital integrations show that the meteoroid was injected into the near-Earth region ∼0.08 Myr ago and it never had a perihelion distance smaller than ∼0.7 AU, while other CM2 meteorites with known orbits approached the Sun closer (∼0.5 AU) and were heated to at least 100 K higher temperatures.     

巢湖表层沉积物中多溴联苯醚的分布和污染源解析

在巢湖不同区域采集了16个表层沉积物样品,利用气相色谱-质谱仪测定沉积物中低溴代多溴联苯醚(LPBDEs)和BDE209的含量,并对其残留、组成、空间分布和污染来源进行分析.结果表明,巢湖沉积物中共计检测到9种多溴联苯醚(PBDEs)化合物.∑LPBDEs的含量为0.001~2.75 ng/g,平均值为1.15 ng/g,平均检测率为44.83%;BDE209的含量为1.16~5.49 ng/g,平均值为2.83 ng/g,检测率为100%.与国内其他区域相比,巢湖沉积物中PBDEs含量总体处于中等水平.巢湖沉积物中各类LPBDEs和BDE209同系物含量为:西半湖东半湖湖心.巢湖沉积物中PBDEs以BDE209为主要成分,不同采样点PBDEs同系物的组成不同.相关性分析表明BDE209与LPBDEs在环境中的迁移存在相关性.     

2002-2017年千岛湖浮游植物群落结构变化及其影响因素

为认识大型水库中浮游植物群落结构的演替特征及其驱动机制,以钱塘江流域新安江水库（下称"千岛湖"）为例,基于2002-2017年16年的水库浮游植物数据,结合同期千岛湖水质与水文气象资料,分析了千岛湖浮游植物结构及优势属的长期变化特征,探讨了影响浮游植物群落结构变化的主要因素.结果表明：2002-2017年千岛湖共鉴定出浮游植物7门93属,主要由硅藻门、绿藻门、蓝藻门及隐藻门种类组成.16年间,浮游植物年均丰度和群落结构经历了4个阶段：2008年前丰度持续低值且蓝藻不是主要类群,2009-2012年丰度较高且蓝藻成为主要类群,及2013-2015丰度降低且蓝藻占比降低,2016-2017年丰度增加且蓝藻再次成为主要类群.浮游植物门类变化的同时伴随着优势属的变化：浮游植物年优势属从2002-2008年的小环藻属（Cyclotella）、隐藻属（Cryptomonas）和蓝隐藻属（Chroomonas）转变为2009-2012年的颤藻属（Oscillatoria）、小球藻属（Chlorella）、小环藻属和蓝隐藻属,2013-2017年又转变为鱼腥藻属（Anabaena）、束丝藻属（Aphanizomenon）、小环藻属、针杆藻属（Synedra）、直链藻属（Melosira）、栅藻属（Scenedesmus）和蓝隐藻属.冗余分析表明,气温、风速、水位、入库流量等气象水文因子和总氮浓度、电导率、氮磷比、透明度等水质因子与浮游植物群落结构变化关系密切.研究结果表明,在千岛湖这种大型贫-中营养水库,浮游植物群落结构不仅受来水营养盐负荷的影响,还在很大程度上受水文、气象条件的影响,给水库藻类水华等生态风险的预测以及水库水质管理带来了挑战.     

Importance of unsaturated zone flow for simulating recharge in a humid climate

Transient recharge to the water table is often not well understood or quantified. Two approaches for simulating transient recharge in a ground water flow model were investigated using the Trout Lake watershed in north-central Wisconsin: (1) a traditional approach of adding recharge directly to the water table and (2) routing the same volume of water through an unsaturated zone column to the water table. Areas with thin (less than 1 m) unsaturated zones showed little difference in timing of recharge between the two approaches; when water was routed through the unsaturated zone, however, less recharge was delivered to the water table and more discharge occurred to the surface because recharge direction and magnitude changed when the water table rose to the land surface. Areas with a thick (15 to 26 m) unsaturated zone were characterized by multimonth lags between infiltration and recharge, and, in some cases, wetting fronts from precipitation events during the fall overtook and mixed with infiltration from the previous spring snowmelt. Thus, in thicker unsaturated zones, the volume of water infiltrated was properly simulated using the traditional approach, but the timing was different from simulations that included unsaturated zone flow. Routing of rejected recharge and ground water discharge at land surface to surface water features also provided a better simulation of the observed flow regime in a stream at the basin outlet. These results demonstrate that consideration of flow through the unsaturated zone may be important when simulating transient ground water flow in humid climates with shallow water tables.     

Ocean urea fertilization for carbon credits poses high ecological risks

The proposed plan for enrichment of the Sulu Sea, Philippines, a region of rich marine biodiversity, with thousands of tonnes of urea in order to stimulate algal blooms and sequester carbon is flawed for multiple reasons. Urea is preferentially used as a nitrogen source by some cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates, many of which are neutrally or positively buoyant. Biological pumps to the deep sea are classically leaky, and the inefficient burial of new biomass makes the estimation of a net loss of carbon from the atmosphere questionable at best. The potential for growth of toxic dinoflagellates is also high, as many grow well on urea and some even increase their toxicity when grown on urea. Many toxic dinoflagellates form cysts which can settle to the sediment and germinate in subsequent years, forming new blooms even without further fertilization. If large-scale blooms do occur, it is likely that they will contribute to hypoxia in the bottom waters upon decomposition. Lastly, urea production requires fossil fuel usage, further limiting the potential for net carbon sequestration. The environmental and economic impacts are potentially great and need to be rigorously assessed.     

Runoff and road erosion at the plot and road segment scales,St John,US Virgin Islands

Previous studies have identified unpaved roads as the primary source of erosion on St John in the US Virgin Islands, but these studies estimated road erosion rates only as annual averages based primarily on road rill measurements. The goal of this project was to quantify the effect of unpaved roads on runoff and sediment production on St John, and to better understand the key controlling factors. To this end runoff and sediment yields were measured from July 1996 to March 1997 from three plots on naturally vegetated hillslopes, four plots on unpaved road surfaces and two cutslope plots. Sediment yields were also measured from seven road segments with contributing areas ranging from 90 to 700 m². With respect to the vegetated plots, only the two largest storm events generated runoff and there was no measurable sediment yield. Runoff from the road surface plots generally occurred when storm precipitation exceeded 6 mm. Sediment yields from the four road surface plots ranged from 0·9 to 15 kg m⁻² a⁻¹, and sediment concentrations were typically 20–80 kg m⁻³. Differences in runoff between the two cutslope plots were consistent with the difference in upslope contributing area. A sprinkler experiment confirmed that cross‐slope roads intercept shallow subsurface stormflow and convert this into surface runoff. At the road segment scale the estimated sediment yields were 0·1 to 7·4 kg m⁻² a⁻¹. Road surface runoff was best predicted by storm precipitation, while sediment yields for at least three of the four road surface plots were significantly correlated with storm rainfall, storm intensity and storm runoff. Sediment yields at the road segment scale were best predicted by road surface area, and sediment yields per unit area were most strongly correlated with road segment slope. The one road segment subjected to heavy traffic and more frequent regrading produced more than twice as much sediment per unit area than comparable segments with no truck traffic. Particle‐size analyses indicate a preferential erosion of fine particles from the road surface and a rapid surface coarsening of new roads. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correlation of CYP1A1 induction, as measured by the P450 RGS biomarker assay, with high molecular weight PAHs in mussels deployed at various sites in San Diego Bay in 1993 and 1995

In 1993 collections of marine mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were deployed 1 m from the water surface at six sites in San Diego Bay for 88 days. A similar mussel deployment was conducted in 1995, except the animals were deployed 1 m off the bottom and only for 32 days. After recovery from the sites, tissue was extracted with dichloromethane and the solvent extracts analyzed for chemical contaminant content and the ability to produce CYP1A1 induction in a transgenic cell line (TV101L cells). The cells used in the assay (P450 RGS) are stably transfected with a plasmid containing firefly luciferase linked to human CYP1A1 promoter sequences. Induction (fold increase compared to control) was determined by luminometry 16 h after application of small volumes (2–10 μl) of solvent extracts to cultured cells. Small mussels deployed in the Naval Station (NAV) in 1993 exhibited very high bioaccumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; 52 μg/g) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), in addition to very strong induction of CYP1A1 measured by reporter gene system (RGS) responses. Large mussels deployed at the NAV station in 1993 and intermediate-sized animals placed at three stations within the NAV station in 1995 accumulated 13–29 μg PAH/g and exhibited relatively high RGS responses. Correlation of RGS responses for all mussel samples to the measured PAH concentrations was 0.85 (r²). When the concentrations of seven specific PAHs found in the samples are converted to benzo[a]pyrene equivalents, from previously derived toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) for this test system, and compared to measured RGS responses, the correlations are approximately 0.9. The results of these studies indicate that the RGS biomarker can be used as a screening tool for detection of CYP1A1-inducing compounds in tissues, and an estimate of potential human health or ecological risk from ingestion of contaminated organisms. Positive RGS responses can be followed by detailed chemical analyses of PAHs and coplanar PCBs using the same extract.     

Bulk density calibration for X-ray tomographic analyses of marine sediments

A calibration procedure is presented for generating bulk density profiles of intact marine sediment cores using X-ray computed tomography (CT). Developed using both artificial and natural marine sediment samples, the correlation is strong with an R ² value of 0.98. Similar experiments with carbonate sediments were also strongly linear, but offset from the terrigenous curve, illustrating the influence of sediment chemistry on scanner response. Comparison between newly computed densities for both sediment types with those from individually calibrated cores during our previous CT studies reveals good correspondence between the data sets. Received: 22 November 1998 / Revision received: 4 March 1999