Distribution and bioaccumulation of microcystins in water columns: A systematic investigation into the environmental fate and the risks associated with microcystins in Meiliang Bay, Lake Taihu

For the purpose of understanding the environmental fate of microcystins (MCs) and the potential health risks caused by toxic cyanobacterial blooms in Lake Taihu, a systematic investigation was carried out from February 2005 to January 2006. The distribution of MCs in the water column, and toxin bioaccumulations in aquatic organisms were surveyed. The results suggested that Lake Taihu is heavily polluted during summer months by toxic cyanobacterial blooms (with a maximum biovolume of 6.7 x 10(8) cells/L) and MCs. The maximum concentration of cell-bound toxins was 1.81 mg/g (DW) and the dissolved MCs reached a maximum level of 6.69 mu g/L. Dissolved MCs were always found in the entire water column at all sampling sites throughout the year. Our results emphasized the need for tracking MCs not only in the entire water column but also at the interface between water and sediment. Seasonal changes of MC concentrations in four species of hydrophytes (Eichhornic crassipes, Potamogeton maackianus, Alternanthera philoxeroides and Myriophyllum spicatum) ranged from 129 to 1317, 147 to 1534, 169 to 3945 and 124 to 956 ng/g (DW), respectively. Toxin accumulations in four aquatic species (Carassius auratus auratu, Macrobrachium nipponensis, Bellamya aeruginosa and Cristaria plicata) were also analyzed. Maximum toxin concentrations in the edible organs and non-edible visceral organs ranged from 378 to 730 and 754 to 3629 ng/g (DW), respectively. Based on field studies in Lake Taihu, risk assessments were carried out, taking into account the WHO guidelines and the tolerable daily intake (TDI) for MCs. Our findings suggest that the third largest lake in China poses serious health threats when serving as a source of drinking water and for recreational use. In addition, it is likely to be unsafe to consume aquatic species harvested in Lake Taihu due to the high-concentrations of accumulated MCs. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

扬子地区上奥陶－下志留统黑色岩系形成机理

The black rock series of the Upper Ordovician - Lower Silurian in Yangtze area are important source rocks and have exceptional characteristics of sediment, biology, element geochemistry, carbon and oxygen isotope, organic geochemistry and etc. These characteristics are the reflection of important geology events. Due to scarce system research, many problems that relate to the development mechanism of source rocks are not solved. And this restricts the exploration of Oil and gas in South China. In this paper, author studied the palaeo-climate, palaeo-structure and palaeo-environment of the Upper Ordovician - Lower Silurian in Yangtze area by sedimentology, palaeobiology and geochemistry, especially the element geochemistry and isotope geochemistry. The environment model of source rocks is established and some conclusions are drawn. The Upper Ordovician - Lower Silurian sediment types in Yangtze area are mostly black shales, next, mudstone, shell limestone and siltystone. During the Late Ordovician and Earily Silurian periods, a series of big upheaval and depressed are distributed in Yangtze area, and the strata pattern of interphase upheaval and depressed led to Yangtze palaeosea isolated with outside sea. So the stagnant and anoxic environment that are the favorable factor of rich organic black shales sediment is formed in Yangtze area. That Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) values of the lower Wufeng formation and Longmaxi formation exhibits moderate chemistry weathering suggests they were deposited under the circumstances of the warm and humid climate. However, the large difference of the CIA values of N.extraordinarius-N.ojsuensis biozone suggests that climate is changeful. Therefore, there were two different kinds of climates in the course of the deposition of the Wufeng formation and Longmaxi formation. During the Late Ordovician - Earily Silurian periods, in Yangtze palaeosea, the surface water which is full of rich nutriment and abundant bacterium - algae has high palaeo-productivity that is obvious difference in the different space – time. The content of sulphate changes gradually from the surface water columns to the deep water columns. That is, salinity in the surface water columns is serious low and the salinity in deep water columns is normal. Salinity delamination is favor of the forming of deep anoxic environment. During Wufeng period, the oxidated and low sulfate environment exists in the upper Yangtze palaeosea, while the anoxic and normal salinity environment occurs in the lower Yangtze palaeosea. During the Late Wufeng and Guanyinqiao periods, the steady anoxic environment is replaced by oxidated environment. During the Longmaxi period, layered and anoxic environment recur. In Yangtze area, studies of δ13C of sedimentary organic carbon show a positive δ13C excursion up to 4‰ in the Guanyinqiao stage and then, acute negative excursion in the earily Longmaxi stage. These organic carbon isotopes curve are not only efficient measure of carving up strata borderline, but also reflected the change of originality productivity. These organic carbon isotopes curves showed the process of the enhanced embedding of the global organic carbon. Anoxic event is the main factor of increasing organic carbon embedding speed. And the reduced organic carbon embedding in Hirnantian stage is due to the water column with abundant oxygen. The δ34S values are gradually positive excursion from P.pacificus biozone to N.extraordinarius biozone, and reach the maximum in the Upper Hirnantian stage. Then, the δ34S values are negative excursion. The excursions of δ13C and δ34S reflect the acute change of environment. The formation of source rocks is largely dependent on the nature of organisms from which kerogen is derived and the preservation conditions of organic matter, which are fundamentally dependent on a favourable combination of various elements in which organisms live and are subsequently buried. These elements include palaeoclimate, palaeostructure and palaeoenvironmental conditions. Based on above mentioned circumstance, the coupling connection of source rock and the palaeoclimate, and of palaeostructure and palaeoenvironmental conditions are confirmed, and the “anoxic-marginal depression-photosynthesis” environemental model is established. It is indicated that anoxic played important role in production of organic matter. The produced organic matter was accumulated in marginal depression of the Yangtze area. The photosynthesis is favor of the high productivity. Source rocks have a good perspective, like that of “hot shale” deposited in North Africa.

The Liquefaction and Displacement of Highly Saturated Sand under Water Pressure Oscillation

In order to investigate the characteristics of water wave induced liquefaction in highly saturated sand in vertical direction, a one-dimensional model of highly saturated sand to water pressure oscillation is presented based oil the two-phase continuous media theory. The development of the effective stresses and the liquefaction thickness are analyzed. It is shown that water pressure oscillating loading affects liquefaction severely and the developing rate of liquefaction increases with the decreasing of the sand strength or the increasing of the loading strength. It is shown also that there is obvious phase lag in the sand Column. If the sand permeability is non-uniform, the pore pressure and the strain rise sharply at which the smallest permeability occurs. This solution may explain Why the fracture occurs in the sand column in some conditions.

Scour of the seabed under a pipeline in oscillating flow

The scour of the seabed under a pipeline is studied experimentally in this paper. Tests are carried out in a U-shaped oscillatory water tunnel with a box imbedded in the bottom of the test section. By use of the standard sand, clay and plastic grain as the seabed material, the influence of the bed material on the scour is studied. The relationship between the critical initial gap-to-diameter ratio above which no scour occurs and the parameters of the oscillating flow is obtained. The self-burial phenomenon. which occurs for the pipeline not fixed to two sidewalls of the test section, is not observed for the Bred pipeline. The effect of the pipe on sand wave formation is discussed. The maximum equilibrium scour depths For different initial gap-to-diameter ratios, different Kc numbers and different bed sands are also given in this paper.

Hydrodynamic interaction between two vertical cylinders in water waves

The hydrodynamic interaction between two vertical cylinders in water waves is investigated based on the linearized potential flow theory. One of the two cylinders is fixed at the bottom while the other is articulated at the bottom and oscillates with small amplitudes in the direction of the incident wave. Both the diffracted wave and the radiation wave are studied in the present paper. A simple analytical expression for the velocity potential on the surface of each cylinder is obtained by means of Graf's addition theorem. The wave-excited forces and moments on the cylinders, the added masses and the radiation damping coefficients of the oscillating cylinder are all expressed explicitly in series form. The coefficients of the series are determined by solving algebraic equations. Several numerical examples are given to illustrate the effects of various parameters, such as the separation distance, the relative size of the cylinders, and the incident angle, on the first-order and steady second-order forces, the added masses and radiation-damping coefficients as well as the response of the oscillating cylinder.

Preparation and characterization of monolithic columns for capillary electrochromatography with weak electroosmotic flow

Monolithic columns of capillary electrochromatography (CEC) with weak electroosmotic flow (EOF) have been prepared by in situ polymerization of butyl methacrylate and ethylene dimethacrylate, without any charged groups in the reaction mixture. The reproducibility of such columns has been proved good no matter whether they are prepared in the same batch or in different batches. In the case of BMA-EDMA monoliths, besides the traditional ternary mixture - 1-propanol, 1,4-butanediol, and water, binary porogenic solvents with only alcohols have also been adopted. Compared with ternary porogenic solvents, the design with binary ones allows for fine control of the pore diameter and the formation of the specific surface of the monolithic polymers. The composition of porogenic reagents has also been shown to have an effect on EOF in the column systems. In addition, the Joule heat effect in such columns has been studied by varying the inner diameter of columns. Through the separation of acidic compounds, monolithic columns with low EOF have shown potential in the analysis of charged samples.

Estimation of soil organic partition coefficients: from retention factors measured by soil column chromatography with water as eluent

The retention factors (k) of 104 hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOCs) were measured in soil column chromatography (SCC) over columns filled with three naturally occurring reference soils and eluted with Milli-Q water. A novel method for the estimation of soil organic partition coefficient (K-oc) was developed based on correlations with k in soil/water systems. Strong log K-oc versus log k correlations (r>0.96) were found. The estimated K-oc values were in accordance with the literature values with a maximum deviation of less than 0.4 log units. All estimated K-oc values from three soils were consistent with each other. The SCC approach is promising for fast screening of a large number of chemicals in their environmental applications. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.