Endocrine disrupting effects on Chinese rare minnow (Gobiocypris rarus) fed with field collected Limnodrilus sp.

The potential endocrine disrupting effects and other toxicity effects on aquatic biota resulted from food uptake was simulated by feeding the laboratory cultured rare minnow(Gobiocypris rarus) with field collected Limnodrilus sp. The results indicated that the food chain processes affected significantly the growth, slightly reduced gonadosomatic indices, and elevated hepatosomatic indices. There was an obvious vitellogenin(VTG) induction, which generally only occurred in mature female, in the serum of juvenile rare minnow and mature male when fed with Limnodrilus sp. In addition, the rare minnow feeding on Limnodrilus sp. had significantly high renal indices, it meant obvious renal hyperplasia. The present work suggested that. Limnodrilus sp. from field water may contain toxic pollutants and could lead to endocrine disruption effects to the predators. It was concluded that endocrine disruptors may not only be assimilated through water, but also be bioconcentrated through food web. The results also suggested the importance of food selection in conducting the study of endocrine disruption effects using sensitive species.

Heavy metal pollution in China: Origin, pattern and control

Goal, Scope and Background. Heavy metal is among one of the pollutants, which cause severe threats to humans and the environment in China. The aim of the present review is to make information on the source of heavy metal pollution, distribution of heavy metals in the environment, and measures of pollution control accessible internationally, which are mostly published in Chinese. Methods. Information from scientific journals, university journals and governmental releases are compiled focusing mainly on Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn. Partly Al, As, Cr, Fe, Hg, Mn and Ni are included also in part as well. Results and Discussion. In soil, the average contents of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn are 0.097, 22.6, 26.0 and 74.2 mg/kg, respectively. In the water of. the Yangtze River Basin, the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn are 0.080, 7.91, 15.7 and 18.7 pg/L, respectively. In reference to human activities, the heavy metal pollution comes from three sources: industrial emission, wastewater and solid waste. The environment such as soil, water and air were polluted by heavy metals in some cases. The contents of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn even reach 3.16, 99.3, 84.1 and 147 mg/kg, respectively, in the soils of a wastewater irrigation zone. These contaminants pollute drinking water and food, and threaten human health. Some diseases resulting from pollution of geological and environmental origin, were observed with long-term and non-reversible effects. Conclusions. In China, the geological background level of heavy metal is low, but with the activity of humans, soil, water, air, and plants are polluted by heavy metals in some cases and even affect human health through the food chain. Recommendations and Outlook. To remediate and improve environmental quality is a long strategy for the polluted area to keep humans and animals healthy. Phytoremediation would be an effective technique to remediate the heavy metal pollutions.

Enhancement of planktonic rotifers by Microcystis aeruginosa blooms: An enclosure experiment in a shallow eutrophic lake

Enclosure experiments with three treatments (sediment addition, sediment + nitrogen enrichment, sediment + phosphorus enrichment) and unfertilized controls were performed in shallow hypereutrophic Lake Donghu during the summer of 2000. Dense Microcystis aeruginosa blooms occurred in all the enclosures during the experimental period but not in the surrounding lake water. Generally, the dominant rotifers were Polyarthra vulgalis, Filinia longiseta, Proales sp. and Asplanchna sp. at the beginning of the experiment, followed by a shift to Brachionus calyciflorus, Trichocerca similis, Cephalodella catellina and Anuraeopsis fissa, and finally to F. longiseta, Proales sp. and Keratella cochleris. M. aeruginosa blooms strongly suppressed the larger Diaphanosoma brachyurum but enhanced the development of the smaller cladocerans and rotifers that probably efficiently utilized organic matter from M. aeruginosa through the detritus food chain. The smaller cladoceran and rotifers coexisted successfully throughout the experimental period.

MOBILITY AND TRANSFER OF RESIDUAL HEXACHLOROCYCLOHEXANE (HCH) IN AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT

An investigation was carried out to study the mobility and transfer of HCH-residues in Yanjia lake, Hubei, China, from 1990-1993. By sampling at different locations, the horizontal distribution of HCH-residues was determined; by sampling at different depths in the same location, the vertical mobility of HCH-residues and its penetration were measured. The vertical profiles of HCH-residues in sediment showed a gradient distribution, which was reduced with the increase in depth. This was very similar in shape to the organic carbon and nitrogen content profiles. The penetration of HCH-residues was measured as 60cm approximately. Meanwhile, water, sediment (0-12cm), benthos and benthic fish collected from the lake were analyzed to determine the transfer of HCH-residues along aquatic food chain. The BCF values of HCH-residues indicated that the bioaccumulation of HCH-residues in freshwater food chain still exsisted in spite of the banning of HCH since 1983. The maxium BCF value of HCH-residues in the liver samples of 5-year-old common carp was up to 61966 (calculated by beta-HCH).

功能菌剂的混合发酵研究

随着化工行业的发展，大量有毒有害难降解有机物随工业废水的排放进入环境，这些物质能够在环境中长期存在、积累和扩散，通过食物链对动植物的生存及人类的健康造成不良影响。本文以苯酚、对氯硝基苯、氯苯和十六烷为模拟污染物，以前期研制的功能菌剂为对象，经过紫外线线诱变筛选出优于出发菌株的功能菌，对诱变后功能菌的理化性能进行了研究，对菌种进行了鉴定，在此基础上，就其相互之间的微生态关系进行研究，为混合发酵提供理论基础，并就其最佳发酵条件及发酵参数进行了研究，最后对发酵产品的性能进行了检测。目前，国内外有关功能菌剂的研究还存在多方面的不足，主要包括：①由于多菌种混合发酵过程较为复杂，各菌之间存在复杂的相互作用，影响因素较多，关于菌种之间的相互关系研究得很少，环境功能菌剂的发酵方法大多采用单独发酵后混合的方式。单独发酵对原材料、设备和能源的利用率较低，对于多菌种制剂发酵，在设备、能源和原材料的方面造成的浪费更大，将会大幅增加菌剂的生产成本，影响多菌种功能菌剂的发展；②功能菌剂生产过程的质量控制方面研究得较少；③功能菌剂产品的稳定性、抗冲击性能研究得较少，对环境微生物制剂的研究主要集中在菌种选育和培养条件优化方面。 通过本论文研究，得到以下主要结论。 （1）在紫外线诱变处理中，用紫外线对发生一定程度退化的出发菌株进行诱变处理后，六株具有高效降解性能的菌株被筛选出来，诱变筛选出的菌株形态和ERIC-PCR指纹图谱与出发菌株相比发生了明显改变；而且诱变后的菌株对目标难降解底物的降解能力均得到改善，其中，FPN、FCB、F14、FEm对目标底物的降解率提高了20%以上；诱变后菌株经过7次连续传代接种后，对目标难降解底物的降解率无显著变化，具有一定的遗传稳定性。并对诱变后的功能菌进行了初步的鉴定，这6株菌都分别是芽孢杆菌。 （2）对诱变后的功能菌相互之间的微生态关系进行了研究，通过抑菌实验、生长量以及基质消耗量的比较，确定它们之间的生长关系是无害共栖关系，可以进行混合发酵。 （3）对该功能菌剂进行发酵培养条件研究，结果表明发酵培养基的最佳成分（g/L）：葡萄糖 31.0g/L、玉米粉10.0g/L、磷酸氢二钾1.0g/L、硫酸铵1.1g/L、硫酸镁0.55g/L。通过研究不同的培养条件对菌体生长和降解性能的影响，确定了最佳培养条件：培养基初始pH7.5；最适温度32℃；培养基装液量125mL（250 mL三角瓶），以及培养时间对降解性能的影响，培养20 h的产物对降解最为有利。通过研究添加不同目标污染物对菌体生长和降解性能的影响，确定了添加目标污染物的最佳量以及最佳时间：苯酚投加量：1.125 g/L，对氯硝基苯投加量：0.1 g/L；最佳投加时间为发酵培养开始后4 h。 （4）以摇瓶分批发酵最优条件为基础，对FPN、F10、FCB、FNa、F14 和 FEm进行了摇瓶分批发酵试验。以摇瓶分批发酵试验数据为依据，对功能菌剂分批发酵动力学进行了研究，建立了菌体生长和基质消耗的动力学模型，拟合模型能较好的反映功能菌剂分批发酵过程。 （5）功能菌剂和活性污泥协同作用，可以提高系统的生物降解能力，功能菌剂投加量为2%，新鲜活性污泥3500 mg/L，降解24 h条件下，功能菌剂和活性污泥的协同作用对COD的去除率和对照组相比，最多的提高了36.8%。功能菌剂和活性污泥协同作用以及活性污泥的单独作用，其生物降解过程均符合一级反应动力学过程，功能菌剂和活性污泥协同作用的生物降解动力学方程为：，相关系数97%。采用SBR运行方式，引入功能菌剂的SBR系统明显能够改善和提高生物降解的效率。与仅有活性污泥的系统相比，系统对COD的平均去除率可以提高27.1%，同时，系统的耐负荷冲击以及耐毒害冲击的性能比仅有活性污泥的SBR系统强，特别是负荷冲击对引入功能菌剂的SBR系统影响很小。仅有活性污泥的SBR系统经过负荷冲击和毒害冲击之后，不能恢复到冲击之前的水平，而且系统有效作用时间的周期比引入功能菌剂的SBR系统相比大大缩短，而引入功能菌剂的SBR系统处理效果较为稳定，恢复能力很强。 Along with the development of industries, many recalcitrant organic chemicals have been discharged into natural environments together with wastewaters and can exist in waters, soil and sediments for a long time without degradation. These haz-ardous substances, their byporducts and metabolizabilities can be highly toxic, mu-tagenic and carcinogenic, thereby threatening animals, plants and human health through food chain. Consequently the removal of these compounds is of significant interest in the area of wastewater treatment. In this dissertation, the phenol, hydro-quinone, chlorobenzene and hexadecane treated as the model pollutants, the func-tional microorganism agent was used as the starting strains, they treated with ultra-violet light, and then the mutant strains with high degradation ability were screened out and identified primarily, the relationship between these stains were studied, the medium composition and fermentation conditions were optimized, the degradation ability of the fermented production was tested. The literature survey indicates that the study of the microorganism agent is far from complete and more information is re-quired on following problems. 1, Because of the complexity of relationship in mixed fermentation and the complicated factors, the study is hardly to process.2, There is a lack of information on the quality control of the producing process .3, And there is a lack of information on the stability about the microorganism agent. In this dissertation, the main results of the present study could be summarized as follows: (1)The degenerate starting strains were treated with the ultraviolet light, and six mutant strains with high biodegradation ability were screened out by using the me-dium with selective pressure of model pollutants. The mutant strains had great changes in colonialmorphology and ERIC-PCR fingerprinting. And the mutant strains got obvious advantages over the starting strains in degradation ability and over 20% improvement of removal rates was achieved for FPN、FCB、F14 and FEm. The de-gradation ability of the mutant strains was stable after seven generations. After that, the mutant strains were primarily identified as bacillus respectively. (2) The relationship between these mutant strains was studied. By the compari-son of antibiosis effect, biomass and consumption of substrate, the relationships were neutralism and they could be mixed fermented. (3) The optimized cultivation conditions were as follows: glucose 31.0 g/L, corn power 10 g/L, K2HPO4 1.0 g/L, (NH4)2SO4 1.1 g/L, MgSO4 0.55 g/L, initial pH7.5, temperature 32℃, working volume 125 mL/250 mL, and cultivation time 20h (con-sidering the time effect on degradation ability), adding pollutants phenol (1.125 g/L) and hydroquinone (0.1 g/L) into the broth at 4 h after cultivation. (4) Based on the above optimum condition, the batch fermentation was per-formed with strains FPN, F10, FCB, FNa, F14 and FEm in shake flask. The batch fermentation kinetics was studied based on the experimental data. Two kinetic models were constructed which could reflect the regularity of growth and substrate consump-tion in the process of batch fermentation. (5) The co-operation of functional microorganism agent and activated sludge could raise biodegradation of system by adding some microorganism agent and 3500 mg/L fresh activated sludge. Bioaugumentation by the addition of high effective deg-radation culture enhanced the treatment effect of SBR system and the COD removal rate was increased by 20%-36.8%. Its biodegradation matched first-order dynamical reaction equation, and the reaction equation was ln0.2327.391ct=−+. The micro-organism agent had the effect of optimization to activated sludge micro-ecosystem. The SBR system adding 2% microorganism agent, the average COD removal rate of that was increased by 27.1% and stronger anti-shock ability to load and toxicant were achieved (compared with SBR system just adding activated sludge). Especially the load-shock has barely effect to the SBR system adding microorganism agent. After the load and toxicant shock, the SBR system just adding activated sludge couldn’t come back to original level and the activated sludge micro-ecosystem was frustrated. The applying of microorganism agent increased biological activity and system’s re-sistance ability to load shock and toxicant shock.

Remediation of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in Two Different Soils

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a set of chemicals that are toxic, persist in the environment for long periods of time, and biomagnify as they move up through the food chain. The most widely used method of POP destruction is incineration, which is expensive and could result in undesirable by-products. An alternative bioremediation technology, which is cheaper and environ-mentally friendly, was tested during this experiment. Two different soil types containing high and low organic matter (OM) were spiked with 100 mg/kg each of pyrene and Aroclor 1248 and planted with three different species of grasses. The objective of the study was to determine residue recovery levels (availability) and potential effectiveness of these plant species for the remediation of POPs. The results showed that recovery levels were highly dependent on the soil organic matter content—very low in all treatments with the high OM content soil compared to recoveries in the low OM soil. This indicates that availability, and, hence, biodegradability of the contaminants is dependent on the organic matter content of the soil. Moreover, the degree of availability was also significantly different for the two classes of chemicals. The polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) recovery (availability) was extremely low in the high organic matter content soil compared to that of the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In both soil types, all of the plant species treatments showed significantly greater PCB biodegradation compared to the unplanted controls. Planting did not have any significant effect on the transformation of the PAHs in both soil types; however, planting with switchgrass was the best remedial option for both soil types contaminated with PCB.

Enrichment of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes of plant populations and plateau pikas along altitudes

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were measured in plant populations and plateau pikas to determine enrichment in stable isotopes of three alpine meadow ecosystems at different elevations in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results indicated that stable carbon isotope signatures of plant populations at the three locations showed significant variations, delta C-13 of plant populations showed an enrichment of 0.86 parts per thousand per 1000 in over the linear proportion of the altitudinal response, while stable nitrogen isotopes showed no apparent difference. The stable nitrogen isotopes of plateau pikas became significantly isotopically heavier along altitudinal gradients and showed an enrichment of 3.17 parts per thousand/km. Stable carbon isotopes showed no significance, however, and the enrichment of 0.448 parts per thousand/km. delta C-13 and delta N-15 in plateau pikas were not significantly correlated. There appeared to be segregation between the metabolism of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes of plateau pikas. Variances in metabolic rate at lower water availability and temperatures are presumed to be the main cause of enrichment of stable nitrogen isotopes along altitudinal gradients. Attention should be paid to construct trophic positions and to trace food chain information based oil an isotopic enrichment model.

Estudo da suscetibilidade aos antibióticos em isolados de Enterobacteriaceae provenientes de suiniculturas Portuguesas

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências Farmacêuticas

Caracterização da estrutura populacional de isolados de Escherichia coli provenientes de suiniculturas de produção intensiva e extensiva de Portugal

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências Farmacêuticas

Caracterização molecular de isolados de Enterobacteriaceae produtores de beta-lactamases de espectro alargado (ESBLs) provenientes de suiniculturas de produção intensiva e extensiva de Portugal

Projeto de Pós-Graduação/Dissertação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências Farmacêuticas

Investigation of lactic acid bacteria mediated bioprotection with applications in cereal industry. Case-study: malting process

Antifungal compounds produced by Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) metabolites can be natural and reliable alternative for reducing fungal infections pre- and post-harvest with a multitude of additional advantages for cereal-base products. Toxigenic and spoilage fungi are responsible for numerous diseases and economic losses. This thesis includes an overview of the impact fungi have on aspects of the cereal food chain. The applicability of LAB in plant protection and cereal industry is discussed in detail. Specific case studies include Fusarium head blight, and the impact of fungi in the malting and baking industry. The impact of Fusarium culmorum infected raw barley on the final malt quality was part of the investigation. In vitro infected barley grains were fully characterized. The study showed that the germinative energy of infected barley grains decreased by 45% and grains accumulated 199 μg.kg-1 of deoxynivalenol (DON). Barley grains were subsequently malted and fully characterized. Fungal biomass increased during all stages of malting. Infected malt accumulated 8-times its DON concentration during malting. Infected malt grains revealed extreme structural changes due to proteolytic, (hemi)-cellulolytic and starch degrading activity of the fungi, this led to increased friability and fragmentation. Infected grains also had higher protease and β-glucanase activities, lower amylase activity, a greater proportion of free amino and soluble nitrogen, and a lower β-glucan content. Malt loss was over 27% higher in infected malt when compared to the control. The protein compositional changes and respective enzymatic activity of infected barley and respective malt were characterized using a wide range of methods. F. culmorum infected barley grains showed an increase in proteolytic activity and protein extractability. Several metabolic proteins decreased and increased at different rates during infection and malting, showing a complex F. culmorum infection interdependence. In vitro F. culmorum infected malt was used to produce lager beer to investigate changes caused by the fungi during the brewing processes and their effect on beer quality attributes. It was found, that the wort containing infected malt had a lower pH, a higher FAN, higher β-glucan and a 45% increase in the purging rate, and led to premature yeast flocculation. The beer produced with infected malt (IB) had also a significantly different amino acid profile. IB flavour characterization revealed a higher concentration of esters, fusel alcohols, fatty acids, ketones, and dimethylsulfide, and in particular, acetaldehyde, when compared to the control. IB had a greater proportion of Strecker aldehydes and Maillard products contributing to an increased beer staling character. IB resulted in a 67% darker colour with a trend to better foam stability. It was also found that 78% of the accumulated mycotoxin deoxynivalenol in the malt was transferred into beer. A LAB cell-freesupernatant (cfs), produced in wort-base substrate, was investigated for its ability to inhibit Fusarium growth during malting. Wort was a suitable substrate for LAB exhibiting antifungal activity. Lactobacillus amylovorus DSM19280 inhibited 104 spores.mL-1 for 7 days, after 120 h of fermentation, while Lactobacillus reuteri R29 inhibited 105 spores.mL-1 for 7 days, after 48 h of fermentation. Both LAB cfs had significant different organic acid profiles. Acid-base antifungal compounds were identified and, phenyllactic, hydroxy-phenyllactic, and benzoic acids were present in higher concentrations when compared to the control. A 3 °P wort substrate inoculated With L. reuteri R29 (cfs) was applied in malting and successfully inhibited Fusarium growth by 23%, and mycotoxin DON by 80%. Malt attributes resulted in highly modified grains, lower pH, higher colouration, and higher extract yield. The implementation of selected LAB producing antifungal compounds can be used successfully in the malting process to reduce mould growth and mycotoxin production.

Chamber investigations of atmospheric mercury oxidation chemistry

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin even at low concentrations. The unoxidised metal has a high vapour pressure and can circulate through the atmosphere, but when oxidised can deposit and be accumulated through the food chain. This work aims to investigate the oxidation processes of atmospheric Hg0(g). The first part describes efforts to make a portable Hg sensor based on Cavity Enhanced Absorption Spectroscopy (CEAS). The detection limit achieved was 66 ngm−3 for a 10 second averaging time. The second part of this work describes experiments carried out in a temperature controlled atmospheric simulation chamber in the Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada, USA. The chamber was built around an existing Hg CRDS system that could measure Hg concentrations in the chamber of<100 ngm−3 at 1 Hz enabling reactions to be followed. The main oxidant studied was bromine, which was quantified with a LED based CEAS system across the chamber. Hg oxidation in the chamber was found to be mostly too slow for current models to explain. A seven reaction model was developed and tested to find which parameters were capable of explaining the deviation. The model was overdetermined and no unique solution could be found. The most likely possibility was that the first oxidation step Hg + Br →HgBr was slower than the preferred literature value by a factor of two. However, if the more uncertain data at low [Br2] was included then the only parameter that could explain the experiments was a fast, temperature independent dissociation of HgBr some hundreds of times faster than predicted thermolysis or photolysis rates. Overall this work concluded that to quantitatively understand the reaction of Hg with Br2, the intermediates HgBr and Br must be measured. This conclusion will help to guide the planning of future studies of atmospheric Hg chemistry.

Eco-evolutionary trophic dynamics: loss of top predators drives trophic evolution and ecology of prey.

Ecosystems are being altered on a global scale by the extirpation of top predators. The ecological effects of predator removal have been investigated widely; however, predator removal can also change natural selection acting on prey, resulting in contemporary evolution. Here we tested the role of predator removal on the contemporary evolution of trophic traits in prey. We utilized a historical introduction experiment where Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) were relocated from a site with predatory fishes to a site lacking predators. To assess the trophic consequences of predator release, we linked individual morphology (cranial, jaw, and body) to foraging performance. Our results show that predator release caused an increase in guppy density and a "sharpening" of guppy trophic traits, which enhanced food consumption rates. Predator release appears to have shifted natural selection away from predator escape ability and towards resource acquisition ability. Related diet and mesocosm studies suggest that this shift enhances the impact of guppies on lower trophic levels in a fashion nuanced by the omnivorous feeding ecology of the species. We conclude that extirpation of top predators may commonly select for enhanced feeding performance in prey, with important cascading consequences for communities and ecosystems.

Intraspecific variation in a predator affects community structure and cascading trophic interactions.

Intraspecific phenotypic variation in ecologically important traits is widespread and important for evolutionary processes, but its effects on community and ecosystem processes are poorly understood. We use life history differences among populations of alewives, Alosa pseudoharengus, to test the effects of intraspecific phenotypic variation in a predator on pelagic zooplankton community structure and the strength of cascading trophic interactions. We focus on the effects of differences in (1) the duration of residence in fresh water (either seasonal or year-round) and (2) differences in foraging morphology, both of which may strongly influence interactions between alewives and their prey. We measured zooplankton community structure, algal biomass, and spring total phosphorus in lakes that contained landlocked, anadromous, or no alewives. Both the duration of residence and the intraspecific variation in foraging morphology strongly influenced zooplankton community structure. Lakes with landlocked alewives had small-bodied zooplankton year-round, and lakes with no alewives had large-bodied zooplankton year-round. In contrast, zooplankton communities in lakes with anadromous alewives cycled between large-bodied zooplankton in the winter and spring and small-bodied zooplankton in the summer. In summer, differences in feeding morphology of alewives caused zooplankton biomass to be lower and body size to be smaller in lakes with anadromous alewives than in lakes with landlocked alewives. Furthermore, intraspecific variation altered the strength of the trophic cascade caused by alewives. Our results demonstrate that intraspecific phenotypic variation of predators can regulate community structure and ecosystem processes by modifying the form and strength of complex trophic interactions.

VegeDog: Formalism, vegetarian dogs, and partonomies in transition

The pragmatics of 'vegetarian' and 'carnivorous' exhibits an asymmetry that we put in evidence by analyzing a newspaper report about vegetarian dog-owners imposing a vegetarian diet on their pets. More fundamental is the problem of partonomy versus containment, for which we attempt a naive but formal analysis applied to ingestion and the food chain, an issue we derive from the same text analyzed. Our formal tools belong in commonsense modelling, a domain of artificial intelligence related to extra-linguistic knowledge and pragmatics. We first provide an interpretation of events analyzed, and express it graphically in a semantic-network related representation, and propose an alternative that we express in terms of a modal logic, avoiding the full representational power of Hayes's "ontology for liquids".