Spatial and seasonal variations in benthic algal assemblages in streams in monsoonal Hong Kong

Samples from stone surfaces were collected in pools within four unpolluted hillstreams (two shaded and two unshaded) in monsoonal Hong Kong (lat. 23 degrees N) to elucidate the extent of spatial (within and among streams) and temporal (seasonal) variations in algal biomass and assemblage composition. Sampling continued for over 12 months, incorporating the dry season when streams were at baseflow, and the wet season when spates were frequent. We anticipated that algal biomass would be lower in shaded streams and during the wet season, with associated seasonal differences in assemblage composition or relative abundance of different growth forms (e. g. erect versus prostrate). Benthic chlorophyll a (a proxy for algal biomass) varied among streams from an annual mean of 11.0-22.3 mg m(-2). Dry-season standing stocks were 18% higher than during the wet season when spate-induced disturbance reduced algal standing stocks. Algal biomass varied significantly at the stream scale, but not at the pool scale, and was lower in unshaded streams, where standing stocks may have been limited by high densities of algivorous balitorid loaches (mainly Pseudogastromyzon myersi). An overriding effect of grazers on algal biomass could also have reduced variations resulting from spate-induced disturbance. Significant differences in assemblage composition among streams, which were dominated by diatoms and cyanobacteria (totally 82 taxa) were not systematically related to shading conditions. Seasonal variations in algal assemblages were statistically significant but rather minor, and did not involve major shifts in composition or growth form caused by spate-induced disturbance. The abundance of filamentous cyanobacteria in all the streams may have been due to 'gardening' by balitorid loaches that removed erect or stalked diatoms and favoured cyanobacteria that persist through basal regeneration of filaments. This explanation requires validation through manipulative experiments.

A dual mode SOI CMOS MEMS based thermal conductivity and IR absorption gas sensor

Design, FEM modelling and characterization of a novel dual mode thermal conductivity and infrared absorption sensor using SOI CMOS technology is reported. The dual mode sensing capability is based on the temperature sensitivity and wideband infrared radiation emission of the resistive heating element. The sensor was fabricated at a commercial foundry using a 1 μm process and measures only 1×1 mm2. Infrared detectors usually use thermopiles in addition to a separate IR source. A single highly responsive dual mode source and sensing element targeting not only low molecular mass gases but also greenhouse gases, while consuming 40 mW power at 700°C in synthetic air, thus makes this sensor particularly viable for battery powered handheld devices. © 2013 IEEE.

City versus national energy use: implications for urban energy policy and strategies

The global trend towards urbanization means that over half of the world's population now lives in cities. Cities use energy in different proportions to national energy use averages, typically corresponding to whether a country is industrialized or developing. Cities in industrialized countries tend to use less energy per capita than the national average while cities in developing countries use more. This paper looks at existing World Bank data in respect to urban energy consumption, the emissions inventory work done by New York City, and discusses how this data highlights the need for a focus on: energy policy for buildings in industrialized cities; masterplanning and new construction standards in developing cities; and how urban energy policy can become more effective in reducing urban greenhouse gas emissions.

Sustainability: A new imperative in contaminated land remediation

Land is not only a critical component of the earth's life support system, but also a precious resource and an important factor of production in economic systems. However, historical industrial operations have resulted in large areas of contaminated land that are only slowly being remediated. In recent years, sustainability has drawn increasing attention in the environmental remediation field. In Europe, there has been a movement towards sustainable land management; and in the US, there is an urge for green remediation. Based on a questionnaire survey and a review of existing theories and empirical evidence, this paper suggests the expanding emphasis on sustainable remediation is driven by three general factors: (1) increased recognition of secondary environmental impacts (e.g., life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, energy consumption, and waste production) from remediation operations, (2) stakeholders' demand for economically sustainable brownfield remediation and "green" practices, and (3) institutional pressures (e.g., social norm and public policy) that promote sustainable practices (e.g., renewable energy, green building, and waste recycling). This paper further argues that the rise of the "sustainable remediation" concept represents a critical intervention point from where the remediation field will be reshaped and new norms and standards will be established for practitioners to follow in future years. This paper presents a holistic view of sustainability considerations in remediation, and an integrated framework for sustainability assessment and decision making. The paper concludes that "sustainability" is becoming a new imperative in the environmental remediation field, with important implications for regulators, liability owners, consultants, contractors, and technology vendors. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Effects of sand burial on biomass, chlorophyll fluorescence and extracellular polysaccharides of man-made cyanobacterial crusts under experimental conditions

Soil cyanobacterial crusts occur throughout the world, especially in the semiarid and arid regions. It always encounters sand burial, which is an important feature of mobile sand dunes. A greenhouse 41 study was conducted to determine the effects of sand burial on biomass, chlorophyll fluorescence and extracellular polysaccharides of man-made cyanobacterial crusts in six periods of time (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 d after burying) and at five depths (0, 0.2, 0.5, 1 and 2cm). The results indicated that with the increase of the burial time and burial depth extracellular polysaccharides content and Fv/Fm decreased correspondingly and there were no significant differences between 20 and 30 burial days under different burial depths. The degradation of chlorophyll a content appeared only at 20 and 30 burial days and there was also no significant difference between them under different burial depths. It was also observed a simultaneous decrease of the values of the Fv/Fm and the content of extracellular polysaccharides happened in the crusted cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus Gom. It may suggest that there exists a relationship between extracellular polysaccharides and recovery of the activity of photosystem II (PS II) after rehydration.

Production planning of multi-stage multi-option seru production systems with sustainable measures

With the concerns over climate change and the escalation in worldwide population, sustainable development attracts more and more attention of academia, policy makers, and businesses in countries. Sustainable manufacturing is an inextricable measure to achieve sustainable development since manufacturing is one of the main energy consumers and greenhouse gas contributors. In the previous researches on production planning of manufacturing systems, environmental factor was rarely considered. This paper investigates the production planning problem under the performance measures of economy and environment with respect to seru production systems, a new manufacturing system praised as Double E (ecology and economy) in Japanese manufacturing industries. We propose a mathematical model with two objectives minimizing carbon dioxide emission and makespan for processing all product types by a seru production system. To solve this mathematical model, we develop an algorithm based on the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II. The computation results and analysis of three numeral examples confirm the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Methane and carbon dioxide fluxes from a shallow hypereutrophic subtropical Lake in China

Up to now, there have been few studies in the annual fluxes of greenhouse gases in lakes of subtropical regions. The fluxes of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) across air-water interface were measured in a shallow, hypereutrophic, subtropical Lake Donghu (China) over a year cycle, using a static chamber technique. During the year, Lake Donghu emitted CH4 and CO2; the average flux of CH4 and CO2 was 23.3 +/- 18.6 and 332.3 +/- 160.1 mg m(-2) d(-1), respectively. The fluxes of CH4 and CO2 showed strong seasonal dynamics: CH4 emission rate was highest in summer, remaining low in other seasons, whereas CO2 was adsorbed from the atmosphere in spring and summer, but exhibited a large emission in winter. Annual carbon (C) budget across air-water interface in Lake Donghu was estimated to be 7.52 +/- 4.07 x 10(8) g. CH4 emission was correlated positively with net primary production (NPP) and temperature, whereas CO2 flux correlated negatively with NPP and temperature; however, there were no significant relationships between the fluxes of CH4 and CO2 and dissolved organic carbon, a significant difference from boreal lakes, indicating that phytoplankton rather than allochthonous matter regulated C dynamics across air-water interface of subtropical lake enriched nutrient content. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Removal of dibutyl phthalate by a staged, vertical-flow constructed wetland

Two sets of small scale systems of staged, vertical-flow constructed wetlands (VFCW) were operated in a greenhouse to study the purification of dibutyl phthalate (DBP) in admeasured water. Each system consisted of two chambers in which water flowed downward in chamber I and then upward in chamber 2. The systems were intermittently fed with wastewater under a hydraulic load of 420 mm(.)d(-1). The measured influent concentrations of DBP in the experimental system were 9.84 mg(.)l(-1), while the other system was used as a control and received no DBP. Effluent concentrations of the treated system averaged 5.82 mug(.)l(-1) and were far below the Chinese DBP discharge standard of less than or equal to0.2 mg(.)l(-1). These results indicate the potential purification capacity of this new kind of constructed wetland in removing DBP from a polluted water body.

Effects of cadmium on chlorophyll content, photochemical efficiency, and photosynthetic intensity of Canna indica Linn.

The effects of cadmium (Cd2+) on growth status, chlorophyll (Chl) content, photochemical efficiency, and photosynthetic intensity were studied on Canna indica Linn. Plant specimens that were produced from a constructed wetland and precultivated hydroponically in 20 L of 1/10 Hoagland solution under greenhouse conditions for I week were exposed to cadmium in concentrations of 0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6 and 3.2 mg L- Cd2+, respectively. The results show that leaves were injured in the Cd2+ solution by the third day of exposure and the injury became more serious with an increase in the applied heavy metal. Under 3.2 mg L-1 Cd2+ treatment, growth retardation, the decrease of chlorophyll content from 0.70 to 0.43 mg g(-1) FW, and a decrease in Chl a/b ratio from 2.0 to 1.2 were observed. Chl a was more sensitive than Chl b to Cd2+ stress. The decrease was the same with photochemical efficiency. Photosynthetic intensity decreased by 13.3% from 1.5X10(4) mumol m(-2)s(-1) CO2 in control to 1.3x10(4) mumol m(2)s(-1) CO2 in the treatment of 3.2 mg L-1. Because Canna species are used in heavy metal phytoremediation, these results show that C. indica can tolerate 0.4 to 0.8 mg L-1 Cd2+. Therefore, it is a potential species for phytoremediation of cadmium with some limitations only at higher concentrations.

Effect of desert soil algae on the stabilization of fine sands

Four filamentous cyanobacteria, Microcoleus vaginatus, Phormidium tenue, Scytonema javanicum (Kutz.) and Nostoc sp., and a single-celled green alga, Desmococcus olivaceus, all isolated from Shapotou (Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China), were batch cultured and inoculated onto unconsolidated sand in greenhouse and field experiments. Their ability to reduce wind erosion in sands was quantified by using a wind tunnel laboratory. The major factors related to cohesion of algal crusts, such as biomass, species, species combinations, bioactivity, niche, growth phase of algae, moisture, thickness of the crusts, dust accretion (including dust content and manner of dust added) and other cryptogams (lichens, fungi and mosses) were studied. The best of the five species were M. vaginatus and P. tenue, while the best mix was a blend of 80% M. vaginatus and 5% each of P. tenue, S. javanicum, Nostoc sp. and D. olivaceus. The threshold friction velocity was significantly increased by the presence of all of the cyanobacterial species, while the threshold impact velocity was notably increased only by the filamentous species. Thick crusts were less easily eroded than thin crusts, while biomass was more effective than thickness. Dust was incorporated best into Microcoleus crust when added in small amounts over time, and appeared to increase growth of the cyanobacterium as well as strengthen the cohesion of the crust. Microbial crust cohesion was mainly attributed to algal aggregation, while lichens, fungi and mosses affected more the soil structure and physico-chemical properties.

Cementing mechanism of algal crusts from desert area

34-, 17-, 4-, 1.5-year old natural algal crusts were collected from Shapotou Scientific Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 40-day old field and greenhouse artificial algal crusts were in situ developed in the same sandy soil and the same place (37degrees27'N, 104degrees57'E). Their different cohesions both against wind force and pressure were measured respectively by a sandy wind-tunnel experiment and a penetrometer. On the basis of these algal crusts, the cementing mechanism was revealed from many subjects and different levels. The results showed that in the indoor artificial crusts with the weakest cohesion bunchy algal filaments were distributed in the surface of the crusts, produced few extracellular polymers (EPS), the binding capacity of the crusts just accomplished by mechanical bundle of algal filaments. For field crusts, most filaments grew toward the deeper layers of algal crusts, secreted much more EPS, and when organic matter content was more than 2.4 times of chlorophyll a, overmuch organic matter (primarily is EPS) began to gather onto the surface of the crusts and formed an organic layer in the relatively lower micro-area, and this made the crust cohesion increase 2.5 times. When the organic layer adsorbed and intercepted amounts of dusts, soil particles and sand grains scattered down from wind, it changed gradually into an inorganic layer in which inorganic matter dominated, and this made the crusts cohesion further enhanced 2-6 times. For crust-building species Microcoleus vaginatus, 88.5% of EPS were the acidic components, 78% were the acidic proteglycan of 380 kD. The uronic acid content accounted for 8% of proteglycan, and their free carboxyls were important sites of binding with metal cations from surrounding matrix.

灌溉方式对樱桃番茄产量和品质的影响

研究灌溉方式对樱桃番茄产量和品质的影响,为番茄栽培过程中合理用水提供理论依据。【方法】采用棚室内小区试验,研究6种灌溉方式(Ⅰ.常规沟灌;Ⅱ.交替沟灌;Ⅲ.固定灌溉种植行;Ⅳ.固定灌溉操作行;Ⅴ.前期采用常规沟灌,结果期采用交替沟灌;Ⅵ.前期采用交替沟灌,结果期采用常规沟灌)对樱桃番茄产量与品质的影响。【结果】不同灌溉方式之间樱桃番茄产量与品质特征值达到极显著差异水平,其中处理Ⅰ和Ⅵ的果形指数、单果质量及产量均极显著高于其他4种处理,果形指数分别为1.22和1.21,平均单果质量高达14.28和14.05g;但处理Ⅱ~Ⅳ的果实糖酸比、VC含量、可溶性固形物含量及干物质含量均极显著高于处理Ⅰ、Ⅵ和Ⅴ,只是造成硝酸盐含量轻度积累。【结论】前期采用交替沟灌,而结果期采用常规沟灌,不仅提高了樱桃番茄的产量与品质,而且还有节水的效果,这种灌溉方式可以在番茄生产中加以推广应用。

水肥处理对黄瓜土壤养分、酶及微生物多样性的影响

以津优1号黄瓜为试材,设3个土壤相对含水量水平(50%～60%、70%～80%、90%～100%)和2个肥料追施量(600kgN·hm-2和420kgP2O5·hm-2,420kgN.hm-2和294kgP2O5·hm-2)处理,研究了不同水肥供应对日光温室黄瓜土壤养分、酶活性及微生物多样性的影响.结果表明:土壤中NH4+-N含量随施肥量的增加而提高,随土壤相对含水量的增加而降低;水肥供给的增加有利于提高土壤中速效磷含量和蔗糖酶活性;肥料增加使土壤中蛋白酶活性降低,而水分降低使土壤中脲酶活性提高.土壤中微生物多样性与土壤中养分含量无显著相关性,与土壤脲酶活性呈显著正相关,与蔗糖酶活性呈显著负相关.土壤相对含水量70%～80%、氮肥追施量600kgN·hm-2和420kgP2O5.hm-2处理的土壤养分含量、蔗糖酶、磷酸酶和脲酶活性较高,且土壤中微生物多样性和均匀度显著高于其他处理,土壤生产潜力最优.

无压灌溉日光温室番茄作物-皿系数研究

以-25 kPa作为土壤水势临界值,将作物—皿系数(Kcp)设为0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1.0,1.2六个处理,研究了不同灌溉水量时的番茄产量、品质和灌溉水利用效率。通过经济效益评价,研究了杨凌地区无压灌溉温室番茄获得最高经济效益时的作物—皿系数。通过张力计读数变化规律,研究了利用张力计测量无压灌溉湿润体内土壤水势的特点。研究结果表明,Kcp为0.2~0.8时,灌溉水量的增加对番茄产量影响不大;Kcp为1.0~1.2时,灌溉水量的增加能显著提高番茄产量和果实大小;Kcp为0.2时的灌溉水量能极显著提高番茄的灌溉水利用效率。在综合考虑了杨凌地区水价、番茄使用目的和市场价格波动规律后,Kcp取值1.2能获得最高的经济效益。作物—皿系数法计算灌溉水量时的滞后性特点和张力计埋设位置,是判断利用张力计监测土壤水势临界值方法有效性的两个重要因素。

西北地区不同土壤水分处理对温室大棚番茄产量和耗水的影响

根据番茄的生长发育特点,分别以50%、60%、75%田间持水量作为苗期、花期、结果期的土壤水分下限,按照不同的土壤水分上限设置不同的灌水量处理。对番茄不同生育期的灌水量、耗水量、产量、水分利用效率及其关系进行了研究。结果表明,灌水控制上限和下限之间存在交互效应,番茄灌水量、耗水量与其具有显著的正相关性;当灌水控制下限一定时,耗水强度和耗水模数随灌水控制上限的减小呈降低趋势;番茄苗期、花期和结果期的灌水控制上、下限(占田持)分别控制在50%～65%、60%～75%和75%～85%为宜。