Compartmentalisation and groundwater–surface water interactions in a prospective shale gas basin: Assessment using variance analysis and multivariate statistics on water quality data

An environmental concern with hydraulic fracturing for shale gas is the risk of groundwater and surface water contamination. Assessing this risk partly involves the identification and understanding of groundwater–surface water interactions because potentially contaminating fluids could move from one water body to the other along hydraulic pathways. In this study, we use water quality data from a prospective shale gas basin to determine: if surface water sampling could identify groundwater compartmentalisation by low-permeability faults; and if surface waters interact with groundwater in underlying bedrock formations, thereby indicating hydraulic pathways. Variance analysis showed that bedrock geology was a significant factor influencing surface water quality, indicating regional-scale groundwater–surface water interactions despite the presence of an overlying region-wide layer of superficial deposits averaging 30–40 m thickness. We propose that surface waters interact with a weathered bedrock layer through the complex distribution of glaciofluvial sands and gravels. Principal component analysis showed that surface water compositions were constrained within groundwater end-member compositions. Surface water quality data showed no relationship with groundwater compartmentalisation known to be caused by a major basin fault. Therefore, there was no chemical evidence to suggest that deeper groundwater in this particular area of the prospective basin was reaching the surface in response to compartmentalisation. Consequently, in this case compartmentalisation does not appear to increase the risk of fracking-related contaminants reaching surface waters, although this may differ under different hydrogeological scenarios.     

Comparison of environmental tracers including organic micropollutants as groundwater exfiltration indicators into a small river of a karstic catchment

Understanding groundwater–surface water (GW–SW) interactions is vital for water management in karstic catchments due to its impact on water quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the applicability of seven environmental tracers to quantify and localize groundwater exfiltration into a small, human-impacted karstic river system. Tracers were selected based on their emission source to the surface water either as (a) dissolved, predominantly geogenic compounds (radon-222, sulphate and electrical conductivity) or (b) anthropogenic compounds (predominantly) originating from wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents (carbamazepine, tramadol, sodium, chloride). Two contrasting sampling approaches were compared (a) assuming steady-state flow conditions and (b) considering the travel time of the water parcels (Lagrangian sampling) through the catchment to account for diurnal changes in inflow from the WWTP. Spatial variability of the concentrations of all tracers indicated sections of preferential groundwater inflow. Lagrangian sampling techniques seem highly relevant for capturing dynamic concentration patterns of WWTP-derived compounds. Quantification of GW inflow with the finite element model FINIFLUX, based on observed in-stream Rn activities led to plausible fluxes along the investigated river reaches (0.265 m³ s⁻¹), while observations of other natural or anthropogenic environmental tracers produced less plausible water fluxes. Important point sources of groundwater exfiltration can be ascribed to locations where the river crosses geological fault lines. This indicates that commonly applied concepts describing groundwater–surface water interactions assuming diffuse flow in porous media are difficult to transfer to karstic river systems whereas concepts from fractured aquifers may be more applicable. In general, this study helps selecting the best suited hydrological tracer for GW exfiltration and leads to a better understanding of processes controlling groundwater inflow into karstic river systems.     

Water quality monitoring at a virtual watershed monitoring station using a modified deep extreme learning machine

ABSTRACT

A new deep extreme learning machine (ELM) model is developed to predict water temperature and conductivity at a virtual monitoring station. Based on previous research, a modified ELM auto-encoder is developed to extract more robust invariance among the water quality data. A weighted ELM that takes seasonal variation as the basis of weighting is used to predict the actual value of water quality parameters at sites which only have historical data and no longer generate new data. The performance of the proposed model is validated against the monthly data from eight monitoring stations on the Zengwen River, Taiwan (2002–2017). Based on root mean square error, mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error and correlation coefficient, the experimental results show that the new model is better than the other classical spatial interpolation methods.     

新疆艾比湖流域枯、丰水期三维荧光光谱特性及其与水质的关系

以艾比湖流域主要入湖河流为研究对象,在5月（丰水期）和8月（枯水期）分别沿博尔塔拉河（博河）和精河进行采样,采用平行因子模型（PARAFAC）和三维荧光区域积分法对水体三维荧光特性进行研究并对其与水质的关系在枯、丰水期下的变化进行探讨.结果表明①河流DOM在枯水期与丰水期都含有C1（240、425 nm） UVC类腐殖质,C2（225、290 nm）紫外区内络氨酸类有机物,C3（230/280、330 nm）蛋白类有机物,C4（265、260 nm）腐殖质类共4种组分.通过对水体三维荧光进行区域积分可以看出DOM荧光成分的占比在不同时期的变化.博河在枯水期时EEM光谱中的区域Ⅲ富里酸含量低于丰水期,枯水期时区域Ⅱ芳香类蛋白质、区域Ⅳ可溶性微生物代谢物以及区域Ⅴ类腐殖质酸高于丰水期;对于精河来说,区域Ⅱ芳香类蛋白质和区域Ⅳ可溶性微生物代谢物在枯水期的含量高于丰水期,区域Ⅲ富里酸和区域Ⅴ类腐殖质酸的含量枯水期低于丰水期,这表明水体腐质化程度较高.②本研究选取了一些常规的荧光指数来描述枯、丰水期水体的荧光指数特性.经研究发现,精河的荧光指数、自生源指数和腐殖化指数在不同时期的变化幅度较小,而博河的变化幅度较大.③将荧光指数与水质参数进行相关性分析并建模,结果表明枯水期自生源指数（BIX）与化学需氧量呈显著正相关,相关系数R=0.688;丰水期时BIX与铵态氮浓度呈显著负相关,相关系数R=-0.493.通过对比分析艾比湖主要入湖河流的三维荧光光谱特性与水质在枯、丰水期时的关系进一步表明水体中DOM的特性以及在枯、丰水期下的差异,为艾比湖流域的治理改善提供一定的理论支持和参考依据.     

富营养化高原浅水湖泊持续多年生态修复工程效果分析——以滇池大泊口为例

大泊口位于滇池草海南部,水域面积0.52 km²,平均水深约2 m,作为滇池草海重富营养化水域生态修复示范区,大泊口分别于2015和2019年开展了两期生态修复工程,经过近年来的系统治理,大泊口水生态治理效果初步显现。为分析探究成功修复湖区水质改善、生态系统企稳向好的原因,本研究选择2015年2月—2021年12月共7年的连续监测数据,根据工程开展情况以及水生态状况将大泊口水域划分为4个部分(A1～A4水域),首先分析4个区域内主要的水质指标(悬浮物(SS)、化学需氧量(COD_Cr)、总磷(TP)、总氮(TN)和叶绿素a(Chl.a))的变化趋势和相关性,其次探究不同类型生态工程的修复效果,最后与草海和外海水域进行对比,分析大泊口的治理效果。结果表明,治理后大泊口A1～A4水域的COD_Cr、TP和Chl.a稳定下降,COD_Cr分别降低18.65、27.96、25.26、40.92 mg/L,TP分别降低0.11、0.10、0.11、0.14mg/L,Chl.a分别降低0.037、0.068、0.06...     

洱海湖滨带冬季水鸟的水质指示作用

水鸟在物种或群落水平上可以对湿地营养状态有所响应,预警生态系统有害的改变.以大型淡水湖泊洱海为例,基于2015年2月沿岸17个观察点的冬季水鸟调查与水质同步监测,研究小(Podiceps ruficollis)、白骨顶(Fulica atra)和黑水鸡(Gallinula chloropus)密度对沿岸水体中总磷和总氮浓度的响应关系.结果发现白骨顶和小密度均与总氮浓度呈显著正相关,也均与总磷浓度呈显著正相关;黑水鸡密度与总氮和总磷浓度无显著相关性.结果表明,水鸟可以在物种水平上对洱海湖滨带水中营养物质变化有所响应,也强调了根据具体指示物种的生态学习性选择水鸟指示物种尤为重要.白骨顶和小在更大空间和时间尺度上的水质指示作用有待于更多湖泊或水库水体的长期相关研究.     

冬、春季芦苇(Phragmites australis)和狭叶香蒲(Typha angustifolia)的腐解过程及其对水质的影响

水生植物修复已经成为水体富营养化修复的重要手段,但其周期性的衰亡也给水体带来不容忽视的负效应.以府河流域丘陵地带农业区小水系自然生长的芦苇(Phragmites australis)和狭叶香蒲(Typha angustifolia)为研究对象,通过模拟实验,研究其冬季和春季腐烂分解过程的差异以及对水体营养盐水平的影响.结果表明,2种挺水植物的剩余干物质量整体上都呈现先快速下降再缓慢下降的趋势,芦苇和狭叶香蒲春季的分解速率分别为0.0251和0.0169 d~(-1),分别明显高于冬季分解速率(0.0027和0.0052 d~(-1));且腐烂分解速率与植物初始氮磷含量和氮磷比都有一定相关性.2种植物在冬季和春季磷的矿化速率都明显高于氮的矿化速率.实验水体的总氮和总磷浓度在腐解过程呈现初期迅速上升、中期迅速下降、后期缓慢下降的趋势.总体来看,芦苇和狭叶香蒲的腐烂分解受季节和初始氮磷浓度的影响较大,芦苇反应较香蒲更敏感且对水质的影响具有时效性.     

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Dust‐Bound Trace Metal Elements around Kuhdasht Watershed Area in Iran

Dust, as a source of trace metal elements, affects the health of society. The spatial and temporal concentrations of dust‐bound trace metals (Cd, Pb, Ni, Zn, Cu, and Mn) in Kuhdasht watershed (456 km²), Lorestan Province, Iran, is investigated. Dust is collected using glass traps placed in ten research stations in the region. The spatial and temporal distribution of dust trace metals are plotted using ARC‐GIS. The highest and the lowest concentrations of Zn (9751150 mg kg^?1), Pb (46.352.9 mg kg^?1), and Cd (2.443.30 mg kg^?1) are obtained in winter, of Ni (98110 mg kg^?1) and Cu in autumn (16.053.5 mg kg^?1), and of Mn in summer (385505 mg kg^?1). The spatial concentrations of dust‐bound trace metals indicate all, except Cu, show a decreasing trend from the mountains toward the plains, similar to that of soil and of dust, except for Zn, which shows higher concentrations in dust than in soil. The potential sources of dust‐bound trace metals and their rate of contamination are also investigated using the enrichment and contamination factors. The major sources of Cd and Zn in the dust of watershed are due to anthropogenic activities or from activities outside the borders.     

Very high resolution Earth Observation features for testing the direct and indirect effects of landscape structure on local habitat quality

Modelling the empirical relationships between habitat quality and species distribution patterns is the first step to understanding human impacts on biodiversity. It is important to build on this understanding to develop a broader conceptual appreciation of the influence of surrounding landscape structure on local habitat quality, across multiple spatial scales. Traditional models which report that ‘habitat amount’ in the landscape is sufficient to explain patterns of biodiversity, irrespective of habitat configuration or spatial variation in habitat quality at edges, implicitly treat each unit of habitat as interchangeable and ignore the high degree of interdependence between spatial components of land-use change. Here, we test the contrasting hypothesis, that local habitat units are not interchangeable in their habitat attributes, but are instead dependent on variation in surrounding habitat structure at both patch- and landscape levels. As the statistical approaches needed to implement such hierarchical causal models are observation-intensive, we utilise very high resolution (VHR) Earth Observation (EO) images to rapidly generate fine-grained measures of habitat patch internal heterogeneities over large spatial extents. We use linear mixed-effects models to test whether these remotely-sensed proxies for habitat quality were influenced by surrounding patch or landscape structure. The results demonstrate the significant influence of surrounding patch and landscape context on local habitat quality. They further indicate that such an influence can be direct, when a landscape variable alone influences the habitat structure variable, and/or indirect when the landscape and patch attributes have a conjoined effect on the response variable. We conclude that a substantial degree of interaction among spatial configuration effects is likely to be the norm in determining the ecological consequences of habitat fragmentation, thus corroborating the notion of the spatial context dependence of habitat quality.     

生态疏浚对太湖五里湖湖区生态环境的影响

五里湖作为太湖富营养化最严重的区域,内源污染和生态退化成为困扰五里湖最主要的两个问题.生态清淤工程的特点是对所要疏浚污染底泥污泥厚度通过采样分析后精确测定,并且在施工过程中的控制精度也高于一般的工程疏浚.所以生态清淤既可以清除五里湖的内源污染,又能为其生态恢复创造条件.本文通过对五里湖生态疏浚对生态系统的影响,疏浚区底泥、水质质量的改善的效果以及对原位培养生物的抗氧化系统组分变化等多个方面进行分析评价,发现,五里湖生态疏浚区底泥中磷含量下降了30%,左右,重金属含量升高的地质积累指数小于1级.疏浚后半年内水体中总磷和溶解磷含量比疏浚前下降10%-25%左右,叶绿素a含量下降40%,左右,其它水质理化参数保持正常.作为生物标志物原位培养生物的抗氧化系统组分在疏浚前后变化较小所以认为,五里湖疏浚达到了一定的效果,并且控制了对生态的压力,为下一步生态修复创造了条件.