Influence of IHSS Standard and Reference Materials on Copper and Mercury Toxicity to Vibrio fischeri

The reduction in light emission of the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri used in the standard Microtox^® bioassay was measured for the metals copper and mercury. The concentration at which the light emission was reduced by 50% (EC₅₀) was determined to be (3.43 ± 0.83) μmol/L for Cu²⁺ and (0.66 ± 0.01) μmol/L for Hg²⁺. The reduction of the toxicity of these metals by humic and fulvic acids were studied using IHSS Standard and Reference Materials. Copper toxicity was reduced 17...20% by the soil and peat fulvic acids and 9...20% by the aquatic fulvic acids. While there appeared to be little difference in the reduction of Cu toxicity by fulvic acids from soils, peats, or aquatic systems, Hg toxicity was reduced 3.6...7.3% by the soils and peats, while aquatic fulvic acids reduced Hg toxicity 14...16%. Soil fulvic acids appear to have significantly less capacity to reduce Hg toxicity than Cu toxicity. Humic acids had much higher reductions of Cu toxicity (44...124%) compared to the fulvic acids, with little difference between aquatic and soil or peat humic acids, 44...124% and 67...100%, respectively. However, humic and fulvic acids, regardless of origin, had approximately the same effect on Hg toxicity with 3.5...16% reduction by fulvic acids and 8...20% reduction by humic acids. Unlike the fulvic acids, no clear trend was observed relative to origin of the humic acids. There was no correlation between percent reduction of Cu or Hg toxicity by the organic compounds and copper binding capacity (CuBC), C/N ratio, or carboxyl content of the materials. Examination of natural organic matter (NOM) isolated by reverse osmosis techniques from three water sources had reductions of both Cu and Hg toxicity that were most similar to the Suwannee River and Nordic fulvic acids.     

Die neue EG‐Wasserrahmenrichtlinie: Bewertung der chemischen und ökologischen Qualität von Oberflächengewässern

The New EC Framework Water Directive: Assessment of the Chemical and Ecological Status of Surface Waters The main objective of the draft EC Framework Water Directive is the good quality of all surface waters. The directive provides for an assessment of the chemical status of surface waters (EU‐wide valid environmental quality standards for approximately 30 priority substances) and a five‐stage ecological classification of waters, comprising the stages high, good, moderate, poor, and bad. The starting point for the assessment are the reference conditions, which are defined as corresponding to high water quality and characterising a water status with no significant anthropogenic impact. The reference sites in the various water body types are to be selected using hydromorphological and physico‐chemical parameters and subsequently characterised by means of biological parameters. For surface waters, three groups of characteristics are provided for, namely: 1. with priority the biology – in the case of surface waters – with the four elements phytoplankton, macrophytes/phytobenthos, benthic invertebrate fauna, and fish fauna; 2. supporting the hydromorphology, e.g. flowing waters with the three elements hydrological regime, river continuity, and morphological conditions and 3. supporting the physico‐chemical conditions with the three elements general conditions, specific synthetic pollutants, and specific non synthetic pollutants (other than the priority substances of the chemical status).     

Analysis of Anomalous Characteristics of Regional Crustal Deformation before the September 16th, 2019 Zhangye MS5.0 Earthquake, Gansu, China

To study the crustal movement in the vicinity of the epicenter before the Zhangye M_S5.0 earthquake in 2019, the characteristics of crustal deformation before the earthquake are discussed through the GPS velocity field analysis based on the CMONOC data observed from GPS. The baseline time series between two continuous GPS stations and the strain time series of an area among several stations are analyzed in the epicenter area. The resulting time series of baseline azimuth around the epicenter reflects that the energy of the fault in the northern margin of Qilian Mountain is accumulated continuously before 2017. Besides, the movement trend of azimuth slows down after 2017, indicating the stress accumulation on both sides of the seismogenic fault zone has reached a certain degree. The first shear strain and EW-direction linear strain in the epicentral area of the Zhangye M_S5.0 earthquake remain steady after 2017, and the surface strain rate decreases gradually after 2016. It is illustrated that there is an obvious deformation loss at the epicentral region three years before the earthquake, indicating that a certain degree of strain energy is accumulated in this area before the earthquake.     

离散Fréchet距离在强震台站场地分类中的应用

当强震台站场地资料不完整时,所收集到的强震数据因缺乏准确的场地类别信息而难以有效利用。为解决这一问题,本文提出一种基于离散Fréchet距离的强震台站场地分类方法。将获取到的664个KiK-net台站场地按照《建筑抗震设计规范（GB 50011—2010）》进行分类,并构建2个数据集。利用数据集1得到Ⅰ、Ⅱ、Ⅲ类场地标准谱比曲线,并结合离散Fréchet距离对数据集2中的台站进行场地分类,统计分类成功率与误判率。统计结果表明,本文方法能较准确地对场地进行分类,且误判率在可接受范围内。将本文方法分类统计结果与斯皮尔曼秩相关系数法分类的成功率与误判率进行对比,结合本文方法分类后得到的平均谱比曲线,均可表明应用本文方法进行强震台站场地分类具有合理性。     

GNSS在断层形变研究中的应用

Great earthquakes often occur along or near active fault belts. Thus, monitoring and research on fault deformation are quite important. Methods such as short-leveling, short- baseline and integrated monitoring profile across fault belts have been used to monitor fault activities for many years. GNSS observations are mainly used to obtain the horizontal velocity field in large areas and to study the activities and deformation of major blocks. GNSS technology has been used to monitor and study the deformation of faults from a different aspects, In this paper, some applications and new explorations of GNSS are discussed. They are： （1） Research and monitoring of strike-slip activities of faults with GNSS. （2） Research and monitoring of vertical activities of faults with GNSS. （3） Investigating the laws of deformation of blocks on the sides of fault zone and setting up strain models to deduce the activities and deformation of faults with respective models and compare the deduced results with the actual measurements across fault. It is concluded that a larger discrepancy between the deduced and the observed deformation indicates a stronger interaction between the blocks, which can be important for predicting the location of a strong earthquake and assessing seismic hazard, as well as the seismicity trend.     

GPS基线向量的非线性解算及精度分析

根据GPS基本观测方程,导出了顾及二次项含XY,XZ,YZ的非线性双差观测模型,根据展开至二次项含XY,XZ,YZ的基线向量模型,推导了法方程的直接解算方法,分析了基线长度的精度估计,并给出了简明的估计公式,为GPS基线非线性解算的精度评定提供了直接的评定公式.     

Comparison of seismic actions and structural design requirements in Chinese code GB 50011 and international standard ISO 3010

This paper presents a comparison between the Chinese Code GB50011-2001 and the International Standard ISO3010: 2001(E), emphasizing the similarities and differences related to design requirements, seismic actions and analytical approaches. Similarities include: earthquake return period, conceptual design, site classification, structural strength and ductility requirements, deformation limits, response spectra, seismic analysis procedures, isolation and energy dissipation, and nonstructural elements. Differences exist in the following areas: seismic levels, earthquake loading, mode damping factors and structural control.     

Interlaboratory comparison of cosmogenic 21Ne in quartz

We performed an interlaboratory comparison study with the aim to determine the accuracy of cosmogenic ²¹Ne measurements in quartz. CREU-1 is a natural quartz standard prepared from amalgamated vein clasts which were crushed, thoroughly mixed, and sieved into 125–250 μm and 250–500 μm size fractions. 50 aliquots of CREU-1 were analyzed by five laboratories employing six different noble gas mass spectrometers. The released gas contained a mixture of 16–30% atmospheric and 70–84% non-atmospheric (predominantly cosmogenic) ²¹Ne, defining a linear array on the ²²Ne/²⁰Ne-²¹Ne/²⁰Ne three isotope diagram with a slope of 1.108 ± 0.014. The internal reproducibility of the measurements is in good agreement with the formal analytical precision for all participating labs. The external reproducibility of the ²¹Ne concentrations between labs, however, is significantly overdispersed with respect to the reported analytical precision. We report an average reference concentration for CREU-1 of 348 ± 10 × 10⁶ at [²¹Ne]/g[SiO₂], and suggest that the 7.1% (2σ) overdispersion of our measurements may be representative of the current accuracy of cosmogenic ²¹Ne in quartz. CREU-1 was tied to CRONUS-A, which is a second reference material prepared from a sample of Antarctic sandstone. We propose a reference value of 320 ± 11 × 10⁶ at/g for CRONUS-A. The CREU-1 and CRONUS-A intercalibration materials may be used to improve the consistency of cosmogenic ²¹Ne to the level of the analytical precision.     

An inter-laboratory comparison of cosmogenic 3He and radiogenic 4He in the CRONUS-P pyroxene standard

This study reports an inter-laboratory comparison of the ³He and ⁴He concentrations measured in the pyroxene material CRONUS-P. This forms part of the CRONUS-Earth and CRONUS-EU programs, which also produced a series of natural reference materials for in situ produced ²⁶Al, ¹⁰Be, ¹⁴C, ²¹Ne and ³⁶Cl.Six laboratories (GFZ Potsdam, Caltech Pasadena, CRPG Nancy, SUERC Glasgow, BGC Berkeley, Lamont New York) participated in this intercomparison experiment, analyzing between 5 and 22 aliquots each. Intra-laboratory results yield ³He concentrations that are consistent with the reported analytical uncertainties, which suggests that ³He is homogeneous within CRONUS-P. The inter-laboratory dataset (66 determinations from the 6 different labs) is characterized by a global weighted mean of (5.02 ± 0.12) × 10⁹ at g⁻¹ with an overdispersion of 5.6% (2σ). ⁴He is characterized by a larger variability than ³He, and by an inter-lab global weighted mean of (3.60 ± 0.18) × 10¹³ at g⁻¹ (2σ) with an overdispersion of 10.4% (2σ).There are, however, some systematic differences between the six laboratories. More precisely, 2 laboratories obtained mean ³He concentrations that are about 6% higher than the clustered other 4 laboratories. This systematic bias is larger than the analytical uncertainty and not related to the CRONUS-P material (see Schaefer et al., 2015). Reasons for these inter-laboratory offsets are difficult to identify but are discussed below. To improve the precision of cosmogenic ³He dating, we suggest that future studies presenting cosmogenic ³He results also report the ³He concentration measured in the CRONUS-P material in the lab(s) used in a given study.