THE INFLUENCE OF FERTILIZERS, NaHCO3,SOIL TYPE ON CHEMISTRY OF FLOODED SOILS AND RICE PLANT GROWTH

1 INTRODUCTIONQuality of chemical properties of flooded soils isgenerally determined by salinity and alkalinity,bothof these acts as inhibiting factors of plant growth.Thecorrelation of electrical conductivity and other analysisindex has been reported by …     

Microwave-assisted extraction of organochlorine pesticides from sediments and determination by gas chromatograph with electron capture detection

A simple and rapid procedure to extract organochlorine pesticides （OCPs） from sediments by means of microwave energy is proposed. Sediment samples were irradiated with microwaves in a closed vessel system while immersed in hexane-acetone （1 ： 1, v/v）. The sample extracts were cleaned up using solid phase extraction with Florisil as adsorbent. Pesticides were eluted with hexane-ethyl acetate （80 ： 20, v/v） and determined by gas chromatographic separation with electron capture detection. Three oven programs were assayed with two different solvent mixtures in order to achieve adequate experimental conditions for the complete extraction of organochlorine pesticides from the matrix. Different variables such as the composition of extraction solvent,     

Speciation analysis and significance of ecological geochemistry

Different species of one element have different activities, so it has different effects on environment and human health. To analyze qualitatively and quantitatively the speciation of a special element in sample, which is the important basis for appraising the toxicity and studying the rule of transfer and translation of elements. Since the 1970＇s, the scheme of sequential extraction has already been used at many laboratories both at home and abroard, to get the information about heavy metals＇ activity in polluted soils. Because this method has the experimental nature, many schemes of problem has taken place, the absence of consistency of these sequential extraction have been formed. Thus the complexity of the schemes, the lack of selectivity of reagent, the lack of quality control, the result mainly related to the extraction scheme used, and so on. In the face of these problems, the study of experimental methods of sequential extraction on three different soils, sediment in Dongting Lake, soil in Jiangsu Province and loess in Shanxi Province was made. Reference materials of heavy metal speciation following sequential extraction in soil and sediment had been developed. Nowadays two kinds of sequential extraction methods which are widely used are BCR （three steps） and improved Tessier methods （seven steps）. Based on three steps of BCR, water-soluble speciation and the residual speciation were increased in our research. BCR701 was determined eight times at different laboratories using BCR three steps. The results showed that determined data obtained eight times were identical to the standard value, and it is indicated that this method has good reproducibility. The stability and homogeneity experiments indicated that the preparation of three types of candidates accorded with our requirements. Eight laboratories had afforded the determined values of 12 heavy metal elements （Cu, Pb, Zn, Mn, Co, Ni, Cd, Cr, Mo, As, Sb, Hg, Se et al.） using BCR three steps. Also, these three candidates afforded the determined values by seven steps, and 12 laboratories had participated.     

Total gaseous mercury emissions from mercury-enriched soil in Guizhou, China

Guizhou is located in the Circum-Pacific Global Mercuriferous Belt, and mercury concentrations in soil in this area are enriched. In-situ total gaseous mercury （TGM） exchange fluxes between air and soil surface were intensively measured at four sampling sites in Guiyang from 21 May to 16 June, 2003, and five sites in the Lanmuchang mercury mining area in December 2002 and May 2003, respectively. The in-situ Hg flux measurement was conducted with a dynamic flux chamber （DFC） of quartz. Overall, net emissions were obtained from all sampling sites. Soil mercury concentration and solar radiation have been proved to be the two most important parameters to control mercury emissions from soil. Meanwhile, rain events can enhance mercury emission rate significantly.     

Study on Kailyard soil amendment by adding compost of sludge

Mixture of municipal sewage sludge and organic garbage, which was alternatively treated by aerobic and anaerobic composting technologies for 60 days. The characteristics of the compost are as follows： the total nitrogen （TN）, total phosphors （TP） and total potassium （TK） are 1.40%, 0.101% and 1908.32 mg/kg on dry weight basis, the contents of Cu, Ni, Cd, Cr, Pb and Zn are 131.23, 21.49, 1.31, 35.49, 72.50 and 616.76 mg/kg on dry weight basis. A basin-scale experiment was carded out by planting watercress with kailyard soil fertilizing with the compost, the results showed that the municipal sewage sludge and organic garbage compost could promote the production of watercress to different degrees, the crop biomass increased from 74.46% to 312.00% with the amount of compost fertilizing on the kaliyard soil while the amount of compost fertilizing on the kaliyard soil below 150 g per 3.75 kg kaliyard soil and decreased from 312.00% to 102.29% while the amount of compost fertilizing on it over 150 g per 3.75 kg kaliyard soil, so the optimal addition of compost in the watercress and soil was 150 g compost per 3.75 kg kailyard soil. Furthermore,     

Analysis of a rigid footing lying on three-layered soil using the finite difference method

A numerical procedure is described for the analysis of the vertical deformation and the stress distribution of the strip footings on layered soil media. Three layers of soil with different stiffness are considered with the middle soil layer the thinnest and most stiff layer. The soil media is discretized and using the theory of elasticity, the governing differential equations are obtained in terms of vertical and horizontal displacements. These equations along with appropriate boundary and continuity conditions are solved by using the finite difference method. The vertical and horizontal displacements, strains and stresses are found at various nodes in the soil media. Parametric studies are carried out to study the effect of the placement depth of the middle soil layer, the relative ratios of the moduli of deformation of the soil layers on the vertical displacement of the footing and the vertical stress distribution. These studies reveal that the middle thin but very stiff layer acts like a plate and redistributes the stresses on the lower soft soil layer uniformly. The displacement on the top and bottom of the middle soil layer is almost the same showing that the compression of the middle layer is negligible as it is very stiff.     

Assessment of mercury mobility and bioavailability by fractionation method in sediments from coastal zone inundated by the 26 December 2004 tsunami in Thailand

The 26 December 2004 tsunami covered significant portion of a coastal zone with a blanket of potentially contaminated sediments. In this report are presented results on mercury concentrations in sediments deposited by the tsunami in a coastal zone of Thailand. Since the total mercury concentrations are insufficient to assess mercury mobility and bioavailability in sediment, its fractionation was applied. Sediments were sampled within 50 days after the event and analyzed by sequential extraction method. The procedure of sequential extraction involved five subsequent stages performed with solutions of chloroform, deionized water, 0.5 M HCl, 0.2 M NaOH, and aqua regia. The mean concentration of total mercury in sediments was 119 ± 50 ng g⁻¹ dry mass (range 66–230). The fractionation revealed that mercury is mainly bound to the least bioavailable sulphides 75 ± 6% (range 62–86), organomercury compounds 14 ± 7% (range 4–26), and humic matter 9 ± 7% (range 1–27). The lowest contributions bring fractions of water-soluble mercury 0.8 ± 1.0% (range 0.1–3.6) and acid soluble mercury 0.9 ± 0.5% (range 0.2–2.1). Although, the total mercury content is similar in a reference sample and in the tsunami sediments, the highly toxic organomercury fraction contribution is higher in the latter. The results were compared with chemical and sedimentological properties of the sediments but no significant correlations were obtained between them.     

Distribution of cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and zinc in marine sediments in Hong Kong waters

Partitioning of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn) in marine sediments collected from various sites in Hong Kong waters were determined using sequential extraction method. Sediments from Kellette Bank, located in Victoria Harbour, had higher metal concentrations especially Cu and Zn than most other sites. Slightly over 20% of total Cu and Cr existed as readily available forms in Peng Chau and Kellette Bank. At most sampling sites, over 15% of the Cu existed as the exchangeable form indicating that Cu could be readily released into the aqueous phase from sediments. A significantly higher percentage of Pb and Zn was associated with the three non-residual fractions. Hence, there is a greater environmental concern for remobilization of Pb and Zn compared with Cr. The high amount of residual Cd (>50%) and the relatively lower Cd content indicate that little environmental concern is warranted for the remobilization of Cd. Distribution of metals in sediments collected from different depth at Kellette Bank shows that metal concentrations decreased with profile depth. The levels of Pb and Zn associated with the two readily available fractions increased sharply in the surface sediment. These metals represented the pollutants, which were introduced into the area in the mid-eighties through early nineties as a result of rapid economic and industrial development in the territory. As significant portions of these metals were bound to the readily available phases in the surface sediments, metal remobilization could be a concern. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Break out resistance of inclined anchors in sand

Inclined anchors are widely used in a variety of civil engineering problems to resist oblique loads, most relevant being in transmission towers and in rocks and dams for structural strengthening. In the present study, the breakout resistance of the inclined anchors in sand has been worked out using limit equilibrium approach. The breakout resistance has been calculated for different soil friction angles with varying relative depth ratio and anchor inclination. The break out factor increases continuously with the inclination of the anchor. A comparison of predicted values of break out resistance of anchors by the proposed analysis with the experimental values as reported by the other researchers showed reasonably good agreement.