Variation in the microbial biomass and community structure found in sediment of heavily polluted bays and the adjacent unpolluted
areas were examined using phospholipid fatty acid analysis. Total microbial biomass and microbial community structure were
responding to environmental determinants, sediment grain size, depth of sediment, and pollution due to petroleum hydrocarbons.
The marker fatty acids of microeukaryotes and prokaryotes - aerobic, anaerobic, and sulfate-reducing bacteria -were detected
in sediments of the areas studied. Analysis of the fatty acid profiles revealed wide variations in the community structure
in sediments, depending on the extent of pollution, sediment depth, and sediment grain size. The abundance of specific bacterial
fatty acids points to the dominance of prokaryotic organisms, whose composition differed among the stations. Fatty acid distributions
in sediments suggest the high contribution of aerobic bacteria. Sediments of polluted sites were significantly enriched with
anaerobic bacteria in comparison with clean areas. The contribution of this bacterial group increased with the depth of sediments.
Anaerobic bacteria were predominantly present in muddy sediments, as evidenced from the fatty acid profiles. Relatively high
concentrations of marker fatty acids of sulfate-reducing bacteria were associated with organic pollution in this site. Specific
fatty acids of microeukaryotes were more abundant in surface sediments than in deeper sediment layers. Among the microeukaryotes,
diatoms were an important component. Significant amounts of bacterial biomass, the predominance of bacterial biomarker fatty
acids with abundance of anaerobic and sulfate-reducing bacteria are indicative of a prokaryotic consortium responsive to organic
pollution. 相似文献
Since the 1997 local ban on ocean dumping of dredged sediments, the States of New York and New Jersey have pursued a policy of environmentally sound solutions to the management of dredged material, including beneficial use of stabilized dredged material (SDM) in transportation applications. A pilot study was initiated in 1998 to evaluate the use of SDM in the construction of highway embankments. Utilizing 80,000 cubic yards of dredged material, two embankments were constructed from SDM on a commercial development area adjacent to the Harbor. Geotechnical properties and handling of SDM were evaluated both during and one year post - construction. This article presents the evaluation of the embankments themselves, including constructability and performance. The results demonstrate that SDM satisfies most of the geotechnical criteria for fill construction, except those for durability, requiring proper coverage and protection similar to that provided for fills constructed on cohesive soils. This same characteristic precludes long term stockpiling of SDM prior to final placement, limiting applications to those that have schedules overlapping with dredging projects. Increased costs for the use of SDM can be as high as $8 per cubic yard over traditional fills; however, this cost may be recouped through management fees collected from dredging projects. 相似文献
The formation of incised valleys on continental shelves is generally attributed to fluvial erosion under low sea level conditions. However, there are exceptions. A multibeam sonar survey at the northern end of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, adjacent to the southern edge of the Gulf of Papua, mapped a shelf valley system up to 220 m deep that extends for more than 90 km across the continental shelf. This is the deepest shelf valley yet found in the Great Barrier Reef and is well below the maximum depth of fluvial incision that could have occurred under a − 120 m, eustatic sea level low-stand, as what occurred on this margin during the last ice age. These valleys appear to have formed by a combination of reef growth and tidal current scour, probably in relation to a sea level at around 30–50 m below its present position.
Tidally incised depressions in the valley floor exhibit closed bathymetric contours at both ends. Valley floor sediments are mainly calcareous muddy, gravelly sand on the middle shelf, giving way to well-sorted, gravely sand containing a large relict fraction on the outer shelf. The valley extends between broad platform reefs and framework coral growth, which accumulated through the late Quaternary, coincides with tidal current scour to produce steep-sided (locally vertical) valley walls. The deepest segments of the valley were probably the sites of lakes during the last ice age, when Torres Strait formed an emergent land-bridge between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Numerical modeling predicts that the strongest tidal currents occur over the deepest, outer-shelf segment of the valley when sea level is about 40–50 m below its present position. These results are consistent with a Pleistocene age and relict origin of the valley.
Based on these observations, we propose a new conceptual model for the formation of tidally incised shelf valleys. Tidal erosion on meso- to macro-tidal, rimmed carbonate shelves is enhanced during sea level rise and fall when a tidal, hydraulic pressure gradient is established between the shelf-lagoon and the adjacent ocean basin. Tidal flows attain a maximum, and channel incision is greatest, when a large hydraulic pressure gradient coincides with small channel cross sections. Our tidal-incision model may explain the observation of other workers, that sediment is exported from the Great Barrier Reef shelf to the adjacent ocean basins during intermediate (rather than last glacial maximum) low-stand, sea level positions. The model may apply to other rimmed shelves, both modern and ancient. 相似文献