ALBERT

Description: Publication date: Available online 13 September 2013 Source: Geoscience Frontiers Author(s): K. Naganjaneyulu

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Quanxi Zhang , Jingjing Tian , Yunlong Bai , Zhenhua Yang , Huifang Zhang , Ziqiang Meng The present study was designed to investigate the mechanisms underlying the effects of SO2 on functions of the isolated perfused hearts in rats. The results suggest that both SO2 and SO2 derivatives (sulfite: bisulfite, 3:1, M/M) elicited a negative inotropic effect. At high concentrations, the effects of SO2 or its derivatives on heart functions might be related to the increasing of reactive oxygen species (ROS) contents and decreasing of ATPase activities as well as the potentially damaging effects on the hearts; while at low concentrations, SO2 or its derivatives might modulate heart functions mainly through the NO signal transduction pathway.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Lei Li , Xinqiang Shen , Yunlong Wang , Hang Jiang , Mei Jiang The toxicity effects of Alexandriurn minuturn and Gymnodiniurn on the embryonic development of Sparus macrocephalus were tested through the toxicological experiments about hatching spawns and developing larvae of Sparus macrocephalus . Alexandriurn minuturn and Gymnodiniurn solution was diluted into three groups (about 3000cell/ml, 1500cell/ml, 500cell/ml). The results showed that the hatch of the spawns was sensitive to both kinds of the algae. And the toxicity results from Alexandriurn minuturn were inferior to that from Gymnodiniurn . The test of larvae 96-LC50 showed that, larvae was more susceptible to the Gymnodiniurn and produced certain resistance to the toxicity of the algae. Both the Alexandriurn minuturn and Gymnodiniurn restrained body length and weight increase as well as ATPase and GSH-PX enzyme activities of the larvae, while restrain from Gymnodiniurn was stronger. In conclusion, the effects on growth and development of Sparus macrocephalus spawns and larvae resulted from Gymnodiniurn was much higher than that from Alexandriurn minuturn .

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Xiaodong Ding , Shirong Zhang , Shuyi Li , Xinrong Liao , Rongping Wang To test the hypothesis that exogenous silicon (Si) would mediate the detoxification of Chromium (Cr) on pakchoi ( Brassica Chinensis L.) growing in Cr-contaminated soil, a pot experiment that 0, 50, 100 and 200 mg·kg -1 Cr (Na 2 Cr 2 O 7 2H 2 O) were supplied to soil together with 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 g·kg-1 Si (Na2SiO3) for 48 days, was studied. Results showed that supplying Si improved the growth of pakchoi in low Cr level. However, the shoot dry weight decreased with the increasing Si supplied in high Cr level. Compared with under non-Cr stress, the application of Si significantly increased the activities of POD, SOD and CAT of pakchoi under excess Cr. However, antioxidant enzymes activities displayed no difference under three Cr levels supplied. Shoot Cr accumulation decreased, while root Cr concentration increased, which was ascribed to the formation of precipitation-bound, “organic matter bound” Cr and the reduction of exchangeable-bound Cr fractions in the soil. Furthermore, the rhizosphere soil pH increased with Si level under either Cr level, suggesting that exogenous Si would induce the alkalization in the rhizosphere mediated detoxification of Cr on pakchoi by promoting the formation of precipitation-bound, organic matter bound Cr in Cr-contaminated soil, thereby probably decreasing Cr uptake from Cr-contaminated soil. These results proved direct evidence that Si played a mediated role, which decreased Cr uptake and improved the stabilization of Cr in Cr- contaminated soil.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Shuyi Li , Shirong Zhang , Xiaodong Ding , Xinrong Liao , Rongping Wang A field experiment of foliar application of silicon sol, cerium sol and silicon-cerium composite sol of different concentrations on Lettuce in field mildly combined Cd/Pb contaminated soil, was conducted to study effects of the application on yield, quality, antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD) activities and Cd/Pb absorption, and hence to determine optimum concentration of the silicon sols and cerium sols to be sprayed for relieving toxicity of Cd/Pb. Results showed that spraying silicon and cerium sols could promote growth of Lettuce, increase contents of vitamin C and soluble sugar, and reduce nitrite content, enhance activities of SOD and POD, and inhibit the absorption of Cd/Pb and decrease the content and accumulation of Cd/Pb in shoots and roots, and reduce the risk of Cd/Pb to human body through food chain, while spraying silicon-cerium composite sol of 0.50 g·kg -1 silicon sols (SiO2) and 0.20 g·kg -1 cerium sols (CeO 2 ) was the most significant in effect.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Fayun Li , Guoqiang Wu , Shui Hu , Zhiping Fan , Qun Gao The negative effect of deicing salt on surface water have been reported by a number of studies, but there is a lack of knowledge about the effects of deicing salt on the growth behavior and the change of biochemical composition of algal Chlorella vulgaris ( C. vulgaris ). Algal were cultured at different concentration of deicing salt, algal cell densities, chlorophyll (a), protein and polysaccharides contents were measured. The results of this work showed that deicing salt had statistically significant inhibitory effects ( P 〈0.01) on the cell growth of algae, and the best-fit predictive equation of algal cell densities ( D algal, algal cells m/l) versus concentration of deicing salt ( C salt, g/l) after 7- day culture in this experiment was presented as a quadratic equation with C salt being the independent variable and D algal being the dependent variable (R 2 =0.944, P 〈0.01). The contents of chlorophyll (a) in C. vulgaris cell exposed to different concentrations of deicing salt suggested that the chlorophyll (a) content significantly decreased ( P 〈0.05) with the concentration of deicing salt higher than 4 g/l. Deicing salts also caused the trend of proteins contents decrease in C. vulgaris cells, and significantly increased ( P 〈0.05) the contents of polysaccharides in algae cell at 2 g/l deicing salt, however, the change of that was not significantly affected at deicing salt concentrations higher than 2 g/l.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Zhenhua Yang , Yuexia Zhang , Quanxi Zhang , Tianxing Pei , Ziqiang Meng A number of studies on sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) in toxicology and pharmacology have been reported, however spectral properties of SO 2 and its derivatives were seldom investigated. We investigated the absorption spectra of SO 2 , sodium sulfite (Na 2 SO 3 ), sodium bisulfite (NaHSO3) and sodium metabisulfite (Na 2 S 2 O 5 ) in aqueous solution. In the meanwhile, the effects of HCl on spectral properties of SO 2 and its derivatives were also investigated. We found that gaseous SO 2 in ethanol, n-butyl-alcohol and glycerol had a characteristic absorption peak at 276 nm. Na 2 S 2 O 5 and NaHSO 3 exhibited an absorption peak at 257 nm. Absorption of SO 2 at 276 nm was strongly enhanced in the presence of HCl. NaHSO3, Na 2 SO 3 and Na 2 S 2 O 5 also exhibited absorption at 276 nm with the addition of HCl, which was enhanced with the increase of HCl concentration. Importantly, two conclusions have been reached on the basis of our results. First, we attributed the absorbing power of SO 2 to SO 2 molecule, rather than hydrated sulfur dioxide. Second, absorption of SO 2 strongly enhanced by HCl at 276 nm was due to H + , instead of the formation of a complex SO 2 Cl-. Primary studies also indicated that NaHSO 3 and Na 2 S 2 O5 with HCl had a similar effect as SO 2 did in rat thoracic aortic rings, which prompted us believe that NaHSO3 and Na2S2O5 with HCl may be acted as a donor of SO2 in biology and other area.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Yuexia Zhang , Zhenhua Yang , Dan Guo , Hong Geng , Chuan Dong In the study, we present the results of thermodynamic simulation of CaSO4 water-salt systems containing Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , Na + , K + and HCO - 3 at 37°C. The results showed that the solubility of CaSO phase increased with increasing NaCl as wells as KCl concentration in the range of 0.0 to 2.0 M and 0.0 to 1.0 M, respectively. Remarkably, enhanced effect of MgCl 2 on the solubility of CaSO 4 phase was much larger than that of KCl or NaCl. The only exception was CaCl 2 , which was found to reduce solubility value of CaSO4 in aqueous solution at 37°C with the increase of CaCl 2 concentration. Also, the solubility of CaSO4 phase in mixed salt solutions was investigated at 37°C. The common ion effect was the main factor on the solubility of CaSO 4 in the mixed salts solution. Furthermore, CaSO 4 solubility was reduced by small amounts of NaHCO 3 in mixed solutions. These studies are of relevance in the estimating the changes of various salts in blood plasma and production of salt with low impurities of Ca2+ and SO 4 2- ions, as well as estimating oceanic-containing CaSO 4 uptake of CO 2 .

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Huimin Zhao , Hongtao Wang , Xie Quan , Feng Tan Tetracycline (TC), a widely used broad spectrum antibiotic, is excreted to environment seriously. Because of its harmful effects, it is essential to establish an effective method for TC determintation. In this work, we fabricated an electrochemical sensor for TC detection based on molecularly imprinted technique. The molecularly imprinted polymer was thermalpolymerized on Ti substrate electrodeposited with micro-nano Pt cluster (MIP-Pt/Ti). The linear range was in a TC concentration range from 0.1 to 10 mg L-1, and the detection limit was 0.026 mg L-1 (S/N = 3). The current change of TC on MIP-Pt/Ti electrode was 10 and 14 times than that of CTC and CAP, respectively. The results indicated that this electrochemical sensor exhibited good sensitivity and selectivity for TC.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Hongbo Xu , Wanping Zhang , Xiaoshun Zhang , Jing Wang , Jian Wang A new cloud point extraction procedure was established for the simultaneous preconcentration and determination of cobalt(II), nickel(II), and copper(II) ions in water samples. After complexation with 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5- (diethylamino) phenol (5-Br-PADAP), the analytes could be competitively extracted in a surfactant octylphenoxy polyethoxyethanol (TritonX-114), prior to determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The effects of pH, the concentrations of chelating agent and surfactant, equilibration temperature and time, sample volume, etc on CPE were studied. The preconcentration factor obtained was 25 and the limits of detection (DL) obtained for cobalt(II), nickel(II), and copper(II) were 2.4, 1.7 and 1.5 ng·mL−1, respectively. Standard reference material of poplar leaf (GBW 07604) was analyzed by the proposed methods, giving results of cobalt(II), nickel(II), and copper(II) found contents in consistency with the standard values. The presented preconcentration procedure was successfully applied to determination cobalt(II), nickel(II), and copper(II) in water samples.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Duanping Xu , Changjian Gu , Xiao Chen Humic acid (HA) was isolated from lignite. Flocculent HA was made and used to adsorb and remove dye acid red 3R from aqueous solution. The adsorption experiments were carried out in a batch process to observe the effect of various parameters such as contact time, dose of flocculent HA, ionic strength (NaCl) as well as adsorption kinetics and isotherm. Results showed that adsorption of acid red 3R on flocculent HA could reach equilibrium at less than 180 min. The adsorption kinetics obeyed the pseudo-second order model (R2=0.994). The adsorption was described with Freundlich equation on the basis of value of regression coefficient (R2=0.984). The removal rate of the dye increased with the increase of the dose of flocculent HA, while it decreased with the addition of NaCl in the aqueous solution. These suggested that the adsorption mechanism was the electrostatic attraction, to form hydrogen bonds, and van der waals’ force between molecules of HA and acid red 3R. Conclusion was made that flocculent HA isolated from lignite could be used as an adsorbent to remove the dye from aqueous solution.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Shouliang Huo , Zhuoshi He , Jing Su , Beidou Xi , Chaowei Zhu Artificial neural network (ANN), a data driven modeling approach, is proposed to predict the water quality indicators of Lake Fuxian, the deepest lake of southwest China. To determine the non-linear relationships between the water quality factors and the eutrophication indicators, several ANN models was chosen for the investigation. A commonly used back-propagation neural network model was used to relate the key factors that influence a number of water quality indicators such as dissolved oxygen (DO), total phosphorus (TP), chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), and secchi disk depth (SD) in Lake Fuxian. The measured data were fed to the input layer, representing forcing functions to control the in- lake bio-chemical processes. Eutrophication indicators such as DO, TN, Chl-a and SD were represented in the output layers. The results indicated that the back-propagation neural network model performs good in ten months prediction and the neural network is able to predict these indicators with reasonable accuracy. This study also suggested that the neural network is a valuable tool for lake management.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Yiran Du , Bo Gao , Huaidong Zhou , Xinxin Ju , Hong Hao , Shuhua Yin Due to the continuous urbanization and industrialization in many countries of the world, heavy metals are continuously emitted into the terrestrial environment and pose a great threat on human health. A detailed study was conducted to determine the concentrations of six heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb) in road dusts in urban parks of Beijing, and assessed the health risk of these metals for local people. The dust samples were collected from 13 different urban parks in Beijing, China. The health risk was assessed using Hazard Quotient ( HQ ) and Health Index ( HI ). The results show that the average concentrations of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb in the dust samples are 69.33, 25.97, 72.13, 219.20 0.64 and 201.82 mg/kg, respectively. The concentrations of Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb were much higher than those in the background value of Chinese soil. The assessment of health risk indicated that there were mainly three exposure pathways for people: ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation. The main exposure pathway of heavy metals to both children and adults is ingestion. The values of HQ and HI are lower than the safe level (=1), indicating no health risk exists in present condition. Meanwhile, the HI value for children is higher than that for adults, indicating that children have higher potential health risk than adults in Beijing parks.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Juan Chen , Yuanbo Xie , Wei Li Energy consumption leads to air pollution, which is a great threat to residents’ health. According to the requirements of energy and environment during “12th Five Year” period in Beijing, this paper set two different energy-constraint scenarios, applying an integrated energy-environment-health model to quantitatively evaluate Beijing's residents’ health damage caused by energy consumption. The results showed that: compared with low-constraint scenario, up to 2015, the high-constraint scenario can reduce totally 6501 cases of mortality, in which 1200 cases are related to SO2; 2489 cases are related to NOX; 1693 cases are related to PM10; 1119 cases are related to PM2.5. Therefore restricting energy consumption and improving energy structure are conductive to the reduction of atmospheric pollutants and the protection of population health.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Shuming Ma , Shushen Zhang , Yu Chen , Hongbo Zheng To meet the practical deficiency in the management of major environmental risk source, one of key issues in environmental management, especially in China, a major environmental risk source management system was developed based on the technology of ArcGIS Engine, .NET, and Oracle. The system used a C / S structure. Three function modules were designed. They are basic environmental information management module, enterprise risk source reporting module and risk source audit & management module. The system was applied to Da Gushan Peninsula, China.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Yuan Qin , Yi Wang , Huiqiong Wang , Jinsuo Gao , Zhenping Qu The dynamic adsorption/desorption behavior of VOCs (C7H8) was evaluated for mesoporous SBA-15 silicas with four kinds of morphologies and pore sizes on a fixed bed unit. The SBA-15 silica with interconnected rodlike morphology exhibited exceptionally good breakthrough behavior, a higher adsorption capacity, and better desorption performance for toluene. The large dynamic VOC capacity of the interconnected rodlike silica was attributed to the pore system of the micropores and mesopore size, group-togethering rods which can aggregate to enhance the ability of adsorption, together with the smoother surface.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Yaxin Su , Liming Ren , Wenyi Deng Waste tire powder was used to reduce NO emission by reburning and burnout in a two-stage furnace with simulated flue gas. Ceramic tubes were used as the flow reactor. The reburning temperature was 1150 °C and burnout temperature was 1250 °C respectively. The simulated flue gas consisted 16.8% vol. CO2, 1.95% vol. O2, and 0.05% and 0.08% vol. NO in a helium base. 4 kinds of ashes were used to abate the reburning intermediate products, HCN and NH3 in order to improve the final NO reduction efficiency after burnout. Resutls showed that waste tire was very good reburning fuel. More than 95% NO reduction efficiency was achieved after reburning of waste tire when the stoichiometric ratio for reburning, SR2, was 0.9. When waste tire powder was mixed with lignite ash collected by baghouse at power plant and used as reburning fuel, the final NO reduction efficiency after reburning and burnout was as high as 86%, which was very close to that of natural gas. Further test showed that lignite ash could effectively reduce HCN and NH3 during reburning. The present research demonstrated that waste tire is a very effective reburning fuel.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Jinlong Yan , Guixiang Quan , Cheng Ding The effects of heavy metals contamination on soil are quite alarming and can cause huge disturbances in the ecological balance and health of living creatures on earth. Effects of the heavy metals combined pollution of lead (Pb 2+ ) and cadmium (Cd 2+ ) cations on soil urease activity and nitrification were studied by soil incubation method to evaluate whether there is a synergistic interaction on soil enzyme activities, nutrient cycling and pollutants. Results showed that activated effect on soil urease activity was found only in the low concentrations (such as 0.5 mg/kg Pb2+ and 0.5 mg/kg Cd2+ combined) than the control, and the inhibitory effect was existed in most of the higher concentrations ( P 〈 0.05). With the increasing of Pb2+ concentration in soil from 0.5 mg/kg to 100.0 mg/kg combined with 0.5 mg/kg of Cd2+, the soil urease activity decreased and varied as the incubation proceeded. At the same time, soil nitrification was also inhibited in a certain degree with the threat of heavy metals contamination, and the nitrifying activity in contaminated soil samples were significantly lower than the control. A statistical analysis indicated that there were some correlations between the inhibition of soil urease activities and nitrification.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Shuang Li , Wenhua Song , Minling Gao This study chose the propiconazole and nano-zinc oxide of different particle size as the study object. The single and combined toxicity on the mouse embryonic fibroblast cell (NIH/3T3) was researched. The results showed that the cell growth was inhibited by propiconazole and nano zinc oxide of different concentrations, and it presents a dose- response relationship. When the two substances are combined, the combined of nanoscale particles produces the antagonism effect, and the combined of micron scale particles could generate synergy effect.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Yuying Dong , Jing Wang , Ling Ding , Yaoye Liu There is little information about the influence of organic solvents for low water-solubility compounds on Photobacterium phosphoreum toxicity test, though it appears likely that much of data were obtained by using solutions prepared with the cosolvents or surfactants. In this study the influence of five stock solvents, including dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO), acetone, aether, ethanol, tetrahydrofuran, on Photobacterium phosphoreum toxicity test were measured and different effective concentration (EC) values were obtained. DMSO was selected as the most suitable solvent of chemical compounds with low water-solubility according to its good characters and less toxicity effect to Photobacterium phospherum . Chlorobenzene and nitrobenzene, whose toxicity can be detected even if without any solvent, were selected to testify the effect of DMSO to toxicity of chemicals to Photobacterium phopherum . It was demonstrated that DMSO (its concentration no more than 0.20mol·L-1) had little effect on the toxicity of organic chemicals with EC value no more than 10%. The successful application of DMSO used as cosolvent provides a good example and a good idea to improve traditional acute toxicity test of Photobacterium phopherum .

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Gary R.W. Denton , Sara Namazi Radon (Rn) is a naturally occurring, radioactive gas that impacts air quality world-wide. It is a known carcinogen and considered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to be the second leading cause of lung cancer after tobacco smoking. Of several known isotopes of radon, 222 Rn is the most stable with a half-life of approximately four days. This particular isotope is associated with the uranium ( 238 U) decay series and accounts for most public ionizing radiation exposures. Most global indoor 222 Rn emanates from granitic bedrocks located underneath buildings. While such rocks are absent on Guam, the karst limestone formations that overlay the island's basement volcanics (basalt) are of biogenic origin and are believed to be a significant source of radon. In a recent multi-year survey conducted on Guam by the local EPA, indoor 222 Rn levels exceeded the U.S. EPA air quality standard of 4 pCi/L in ~40% of all buildings tested. Concentrations were log-normally distributed and exceeded 300 pCi/L in two instances. Weighted average indoor 222 Rn levels were generally much higher in villages from the northern half of the island where limestone coverage predominates. The relationship between 222 Rn and lung cancer incidence on Guam was examined in the study reported here. The results were strongly suggestive of a hormetic effect existing between the two variables. Possible confounding effects attributable to smoking and ethnicity were examined and found to be insignificant. In fact, ethnic groups predominantly confined to the northern half of the island (i.e., Filipinos and all other Asians as a collective group) showed considerably lower cancer incidence and mortality rates than the indigenous Chamorro people who are well represented island-wide. The findings of the study lend further weight to numerous other reports that suggest low-level exposures to 222 Rn have a beneficial health effect. They also support a growing critique of the rationale behind the U.S. EPA adopted linear-no-threshold toxicological model, which assumes that any dose of radiation is harmful, no matter how small. Finally, they also imply that the current U.S. EPA action level of 4 pCi/L for indoor radon is overly conservative and needlessly prompting homeowners to install radon mitigation systems into buildings that really don’t need them.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Yingkui Zhao , Susan B. Marriott Metal mining used to be a major source of heavy-metal contamination for river systems and in England and Wales affected areas exceed 4000 km2. Under flooding conditions, heavy metals stored in riverbeds and floodplains can be remobilised and become secondary sources of diffuse pollution. During remobilisation, heavy-metal species and their association with soil/sediment particles have been changed. This paper investigates heavy metals in floodplain sediments of the River Severn, UK. Four floodplains representing the upper catchment (Caersws), the middle reaches (The Burf and Berwick Farm) and the lower catchment (Tewkesbury Ham) were studied for the concentration and distribution of Pb, Zn, Cu, Co and Cd and their associations with sediment particles. In the floodplain sediment from Caersws, heavy metals are associated with sand-sized particles and are in the form of native metals. With increasing distance downstream, these particles are broken into smaller fragments and heavy metals are released into the system where they combine with finer particles and are deposited on floodplains downstream during flooding. The highest concentrations of Pb are in the floodplain sediment at Caersws and the concentration decreases downstream due to “dilution” by local sediment supply and fragmentation. Across the floodplain, heavy metals are deposited adjacent to the present channel in the upper reaches, but are deposited in localities further away from the channel on the other floodplains further downstream, reflecting the fact that heavy-metal association with sediment particles controls their distribution. Concentration of heavy metals along vertical profiles increases first and then decreases with depth with peak values reached at varying depth between profiles. This pattern of variation along profile reflects the history of heavy metal accumulation, which is determined by the rate of heavy metal release from mining sites upstream. Although the varying depth that peak value reaches at different profiles is affected by translocation and hydroperiod, it still corresponds with the change of historical mining output upstream and can be used to calculate the sedimentation rate of floodplain surfaces.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Kazumi Akimoto , Kiyoshi Takikawa , Koichi Yakita , Takaomi Hokamura , Yukihide Shimasaki , Keisuke Mori , Izumi Sakamoto , Yoshiyuki Takino The purposes of this study are to understand mercury accumulation and diffusion based on topographic, sedimentologic, and biologic information obtained by acoustic equipment and an ROV after dredging in Minamata Bay and Yatsushiro Sea. Differences in contrast of acoustic reflections made clear the sediment distribution and the ROV investigation provided the vertical distribution of the biota and substrate. Rocks and blocks are distributed above 5 m water depth, coarse sand with rich molluscan fragments between 5 and 12m, and mud below 12m, with these sediments controlling the biota. The video shows that many depressions by ray's predation are distributed on sandy bottoms and burrows of benthic organisms on muddy bottoms. These facts suggest the possibility that a supply of mercury-free sediment moves from the sub-surface to the surface by burrowing, that mercury is concentrated by the benthos inhabiting the sediment surface, and that diffusion occurs by the predation of nekton.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Beibei Liu , Dong Qu , Xin Chen , Qinfen Li , Lixu Peng Chemical fraction plays an influential role in solubility and potential bioavailability of heavy metals in soils. Seasonally flooding and iron reduction are significant environmental processes of paddy soil. They may influence the fractionation of cooper (Cu) in paddy soil. In this study, an anaerobic incubation experiment was conducted to simulate the anaerobic environment of flooded paddy soil. The fractionations of native and spiked Cu in paddy soil were determined using a modified sequential extraction procedure (SEP) method. The effects of flooding time on Cu fractions were determined. The effects of ferrihydrite on Cu fractions were also investigated to understand the interaction between Cu contamination and iron reduction process. The results showed that the native Cu in soil were most in the residual and organic matter fractions, but the more available fractions, such as, the exchangeable and carbonates fractions occupied only a little proportion. After flooding, the native Cu in soil released from organic matter fraction and crystalloid ferric oxides fraction, and transferred to the easy extracted fractions, such as, amorphous ferric oxides, carbonates and exchangeable fractions. The spiked Cu was easily absorbed by carbonates and organic matter in soil, but after flooding, the two fractions transferred into ferric oxides fraction, especially amorphous ferric oxides fraction. Similar phenomena were observed after adding ferrihydrite in soil except for the disposal of added 400 mg/kg Cu. The process of iron reduction was inhibited significantly by Cu contamination and the inhibition of Cu contamination to iron reduction decreased after adding ferrihydrite. The transformation of Cu fractions had significant relation to the process of iron anaerobic reduction in paddy soil.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Yoshihiro Deguchi , Zhen Zhen Wang , Jun Jie Yan , Ji Ping Liu Since the demands for lowering the burdens on the environment will continue to grow steadily, understanding of pollutant emission characteristics becomes more and more important to minimize environmental disruption. These pollutant emission conditions cannot be estimated in real-time using conventional mass-based methods because of their low concentrations in air or exhaust gases. Therefore, new evaluation criteria are required for better understanding of their characteristics. In this study, the laser breakdown time-of-flight mass spectrometry was developed and applied to hydrocarbons to detect the elemental composition of gas phase materials. The laser wavelength dependence of this method was evaluated using 1064 and 266 nm laser outputs. Signals from fragments of hydrocarbons appeared using 266 nm. On the other hand, it was found that the mass spectra of atoms can be detected using the 1064 nm laser breakdown process without intermediate fragment signals. This feature is important to detect atomic signals of the measured materials without the interference of fragmentations. The pressure effect was also evaluated to enhance the detection limit. The higher pressure tends to induce the higher atomic signals. The detection limit can easily reach to ppb or less. The signal intensity was proportional to the concentration of hydrocarbons introduced. The method was applied to various hydrocarbons and the breakdown characteristics of these molecules were taken for the quantitative analysis. Compared with conventional measurements, this method has a lot of merits of the simple signal analysis, real-time and sensitive detection features. The method can cover various industrial applications including the exhaust analysis of combustors, environmental monitoring of air, and plant monitoring for safety and security.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Duoxi Yao , Zheng Chen , Kui Zhao , Qing Yang , Wenying Zhang Nanotechnology is a new booming science, which has leaped huge significant achievements for only short dozens of years, and created so much wealth for human beings. Their usages on environmental security have been ignored by public, however, multiples of evidences have been demonstrated nano-materials would perform different influence upon a variety of organism. Here, this article concerns that situations and challenges to separate or detect the nano- particles contained in the products or the environment. Meanwhile, a case was presented to introduce an available approach to prepare the nano-colloid (nano-TiO2) for environmental risks research. Therefore, it's necessary for the relevance authorities to formulate effective or available detections upon nano-materials. And the key point should be focused on the normalization of nano-materials control and the establishments on environmental risk assessment upon nano-materials, which will finally promote the developments on the fields of nanotechnology.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): K.G. Rosin , Ravinder Kaur , S.D. Singh , P. Singh , D.S. Dubey Pollution of groundwater due to industrial and municipal wastewaters is of a rising concern in many cities and industrial clusters of India. Faridabad - a peri-urban agricultural area is one such industrial site in district Haryana, India. The primary aim of this investigation was, to assess extend of ground water contamination in the peri-urban agricultural sites around Faridabad, Haryana and to assess its contribution due to salt/trace metal laden agricultural irrigation waters. For this, a detailed survey on the farming practices, soils and surface/sub-surface irrigation waters of 30 spatially separated villages around study area was conducted. The surveyed information was used for estimating deep percolation loss, salt/heavy metal leaching and thus vulnerability of ground waters at each sample site to salt/heavy metals by means of a field scale decision support system - IMPASSE © . Analysis showed that the study area was saline (i.e., ECmean = 4.79 2.76 dS/m, Clmean = 2043.30 457.26 ppm and Fmean = 11.57 4.83 ppm). These salt affected agricultural lands were found to be irrigated with (good to marginally alkali) canal, (marginally alkali to alkali) drain and (good to alkali) tube well waters. As a result, the mean EC (2.85 0.85 dS/m), Cl (1227.85 remove-image>295.93 ppm) and F (6.26 2.12 ppm) concentrations in the root zone leachates from each test site, were found to be far beyond their permissible limits of 0.75 dS/m, 1000 ppm and 1.5 ppm. Even the soil root zone water soluble concentrations of some trace metals (viz., Cr: 0.06 0.00 ppm; Ni: 0.02 0.01 ppm, and Pb:0.05 0.01 ppm) were observed to be of some threat to the deep percolating waters. However, the vulnerability assessments indicated that due to existing cropping pattern and deeper water table depths, the study area ground waters were not yet vulnerable to these salts/trace metals in the root zone leachates, and that the presence of salts in the study area ground waters was primarily geogenic

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Kaimin Shih , Fei Wang With global distribution, persistence nature, and strong bioaccumulation, the fate and transport of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) in natural environment have recently attracted strong attentions. As boehmite is a common form of hydrated aluminum oxide existing in soils and sediments, this study successfully revealed the adsorption behavior of PFOS and PFOA on boehmite and the influence from solution chemistry. The results of kinetic experiments show that the adsorption equilibrium can be achieved within 48 hours and the boehmite surface is generally receptive to PFOS and PFOA adsorption. The adsorption isotherms estimated the maximum adsorption capacities of PFOS and PFOA on boehmite to be 0.877 μg/m 2 and 0.633 μg/m2, respectively. The increase of pH can lead to a moderate decrease of PFOS and PFOA adsorption, owing to the increase of ligand exchange reaction and the decrease of electrostatic interaction. With the compression of electrical double layers, the competitive adsorption from the other ions and the Ca2+ bridging effect between perfluorochemicals have demonstrated their negative influence for PFOS and PFOA adsorption on boehmite surface. Finally, humic acid (HA) also showed significant retardant effects on the sorption of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBuS) on boehmite.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Yanan Zheng , Xilai Zheng , Zengwen Gao , Yuxiang Zhang Based on the analysis of seawater quality monitoring data, the grey predication method (GM (1, 1) model) was used to predict seawater quality in the Rigs-to-Reefs area of the Chengdao oil field. The result shows that petroleum pollutants and dissolved oxygen concentration will take on an increasing tendency from 2011 to 2015, and heavy metal Hg and Cd will be still kept at a low level. In addition, COD concentration has been gradually decreasing. On the whole, the prediction results indicate that the seawater quality of Rigs-to-Reefs area accords with the second-class seawater quality standard (GB3097-1997) and meets the requirement of artificial reef construction.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Zrafi Ines , Bakhrouf Amina , Rouabhia Mahmoud , Saidane-Mosbahi Dalila Levels, composition profiles and sources of hydrocarbons were analyzed in surface marine sediment samples collected from Khniss Coast in Tunisia. The total Hydrocarbon (TH) concentrations ranged from 2280 μg/g to 7700 μg/g. The sedimentary non-aromatic hydrocarbon (NAH) and aromatic hydrocarbon (AH) concentrations ranged from 1020 to 2320 μg/g, and from 240 to 680 μg/g, respectively. The higher level of total concentration of 17 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons ∑17PAHs is equal to 14.59 ng/g. The PAH profiles showed that the ∑4–5-ring compounds were the major PAHs detected in the sampling sites. Characteristic ratios of Anth/(Anth+ Phe), and Flu/(Flu + Pyr) indicated that PAHs could originate from petrogenic and pyrolytic sources. Petroleum contamination associated with increased marine activity and high eutrophization statue in Khniss area which can have side-effects on the ecosystems and human safety, must be controlled.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Fanxiu Li Set pair analysis (SPA) is a new method to describe and process the system uncertainty and has been applied in many areas recently. In view of the uncertainty and complexity in the process of water quality evaluation of water supply networks, the paper introduced a new model-varying coefficient of discrepancy degree based on set pair analysis theory. In the model, a new effective method to the determination of discrepancy degree coefficient i is suggested. As an example, the paper evaluated water quality conditions of water supply networks from 3 monitoring spots by the model. The results of the assessment are in concordance with other evaluation methods. Compared with the other evaluation method, this model is perfect, the evaluating result is more reasonable and its resolving power is higher.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Adrian Spence , Claion Robinson Here we report on a spectro-chemical approach to investigate the adsorption of dissolved Cd ions to montmorillonite (M) in the presence of a mixed consortium of soil bacteria. Results indicate that the order of metal-loading was M- microbial complex > microbial biomass > M. Surface interactions of Cd with M-microbial complex have also been confirmed, and we speculate that after binding to M, additional proton binding sites on microbial cells function as binding sites for Cd ions thereby enhancing the metal binding capacity of the mineral. There is also evidence to suggest that hydrogen bonding, cation bridging and ion-exchange are important mechanisms in the adsorption of metal ions to clay-organo complexes.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Wanjun Fu , Guilan Ma 108 vegetable samples were collected from Jilin suburb vegetable production base, and Pb of samples was measured using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometer (GF- AAS). Results showed that the average Pb of vegetable was 0.06 mg·kg-1 fresh weight, with only 1.5% above the Safety Requirements. Single-factor contaminant index was utilized for assessment. It was found that vegetable Pb order as following: leaf vegetables>fruit vegetables, dark vegetables>light vegetables. The average daily intake (DI) Pb of per standard person was urban 21.6 μg •d-1 and rural 18.7 μg •d-1, as well as economical family 22.1 μg •d-1and poor 18.3 μg •d-1, indicating that vegetable Pb in Jilin suburbs were safety. The Pb health risk was assessed based on the target hazard quotients (THQ). The study showed that THQurban =THQhigh >THQmedium >THQlow =THQrural, indicating the health risk via vegetable consumption in rural was relative lower than that in urban area. Assessment results proved that the vegetables Pb in this area is no health risk to persons.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Xueqin Liao , Wei Li , Jinxiang Hou Coal accounts for more than 70% of total energy consumption in China. Kinds of ecological problems resulting from coal mining have become increasingly serious, which directly threaten regional ecological security and people's normal production and livelihood in some areas. Ecological vulnerability is the overall performance of the ecosystem change under mining development, thus evaluation of ecological vulnerability based on GIS in Fuxin mining master plan environmental impact assessment was presented in this article. According to ecological condition of Fuxin, the ecological vulnerability index was established synthetically reflecting ecological environmental status, ecological sensitivity and landscape spatial structure, including 9 indictors. The study area was divided into 247 grids, then the EVI value of each grid was calculated by comprehensive evaluation and the results were divided into 5 levels by Zonal Statistic analysis of ArcGIS. Combining the distribution of vulnerability classification with the important ecological function area and natural reserves in the scope of planning, the research area was plotted into five types of zone, i.e., appropriate exploitation zone, optimized exploitation zone, moderate exploitation zone, restrictive exploitation zone and forbidden exploitation zone. Several adjustment suggestions were put forward to optimize the layout of Fuxin mining area and guide the ecological protection during coal exploitation.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Mingda Liu , Yue Li , Wei Zhang , Yaojing Wang In this paper, we collected 295 soil samples from Chaoyang as the experiment material, then identify the concentration and spatial distribution of zinc (Zn) in agricultural soils on the basis of The integrated pollution index (IPI) and index geoaccumulation (Igeo). The concentration of Zn in soils of Chaoyang are from 22.787 to 669.597 mg kg-1,with an average concentration of 107.082 mg·kg-1. And results of the evaluation show that the pollution excess rate is 2.03%, which indicated that most of samples are slightly polluted. Compared two evaluation methods, integrated pollution index focuses on the evaluation of pollution results, the Geo accumulation index method is more accurate and objective.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Quanxi Zhang , Jian Zhang , Zhenhua Yang , Yuexia Zhang , Ziqiang Meng The aim of this study is to explore the association between PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm) and daily outpatient number for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in a place where dust events are most frequent. During the study period, all hospitals in Wuwei, Gansu province, northwest of China were selected. The results suggest that there were associations between PM2.5 and the increasing of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases outpatient visits for males and females during the period when dust events frequently happen. PM2.5 was one of the main hazardous factors for these diseases during the study period.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Bo Chen , Shaobin Lin , Sheng Wu , Wenhua Li , Wenrong Chen Samples from Peifeng were studied to further investigate the influence of particle specific surface area, oil dosage, system energy input and the concentration of electrolyte on the cleaning of Fujian coal with oil agglomeration. The results showed that specific surface area of coal particles around 24m 2 g -1 led to the minimum value of ash content 3.14% obtained, and sulfur content decrease from 2.0% to 0.44%; After 10 min of stirring at 2400r min-1, the minimum product ash content 3.8% was obtained. Within the dosage range studied, considerable ash content reduction occurred with NaCl in appropriate concentrations used, in contrary, the other five other electrolytes would, to varying degrees, put a raise on ash content. No positive correlation was shown between product ash content and solid concentration, in fact, the former fell with the increasing of the latter within a certain range.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Zhen Zhen Wang , Yoshihiro Deguchi , Jun Jie Yan , Ji Ping Liu It has been highly recognized heavy metals pollution concerns the environment, as well as human health. Mercury (Hg) pollution has greatly increased and been considered as a global pollutant because of its long residence time in surrounding. This paper describes the rapid detection of mercury using laser breakdown time-of-flight mass spectrometry at high sensitivity without fragmentation interference from other species. Two irradiation wavelengths 1064 nm and 532 nm were employed under various experimental conditions. The second harmonic 532 nm performs excellent measurement results. The influence of pressure on mercury signal intensity displays a liner growth when increasing the pressure. These results also show as the laser power increased, nitrogen signal intensity increased, but mercury signal intensity increased first and then decreased. Experiment with different buffer gases clarified the recombination of Hg ions and electrons when increasing the laser power, resulting in the decrease of mercury signal intensity. According to these measurement results, the method of enlarging focus area and reducing laser power by tilting the focus lens was applied to decrease the recombination rate to enhance the detection limit. It is demonstrated that the detection limit with 1ppb can be acquired facilely.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Jing Yang , Ning Wang , Yafen Li The objectives of this study were to characterize the spatial distribution of Hg in topsoil at Jia-Pi-Gou(JPG), a centuried gold mine area, and to evaluate the Hg pollution risks. A total of 28 soil samples were collected by a stratified random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and ANN were used to analyze the data. The results show that the mean value of Hg in the soil was 0.203mg·kg -1 , higher than Chinese Soil Environmental Quality Standard's soil quality standard. In the ANN figure the high concentrations of Hg are found in three main spots, two of which are gold mine and one of which is gold mine tailing and the three spots are the center of high concentration. The geo- accumulation index assessment shows that all farmland topsoil in JPG is contaminated by Hg, while different sampling sites are contaminated to different levels, among all 53.57% are beyond heavily contaminated.

Description: Publication date: 2013 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 18 Author(s): Ting Yao , Chunxiang He , Peng Zhang , Hui Gao , Chuanguang Zhou Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in surface water collected from the Jinzhou Bay in North China were analyzed using gas chromatography to reveal their horizontal distribution tendencies and trace their sources. Total PCB concentrations ranged from 215.4 to 3161 ng/L. The level of PCB in the opening of the Bay was higher than the inner Bay. The predominated components were 5- and 6-chlorinated PCBs, indicating these residual PCBs derived from paint additives. Total OCP concentrations ranged from 4.165 to 136.8 ng/L, whose isomer concentrations’ ratios implied the usage of technical HCH and lindane.

Description: Publication date: Available online 9 June 2013 Source: Geoscience Frontiers Author(s): Yangfan Deng , Zhongjie Zhang , Weiming Fan , Marta Pérez-Gussinyé The effective elastic thickness (Te) represents the thickness of the elastic layer or the flexural rigidity of the lithosphere, the equivalent of which can be calculated from the spectral analysis of gravity and topographic data. Studies of Te have profound influence on intracontinental deformation, and coupling of the tectonic blocks. In this paper, we use the multitaper spectral estimation method to calculate the coherence between Bouguer gravity and topography data, and to obtain the Te map of South China. Through the process of correction, we discuss the relationships of Te versus heat flow, and Te versus seismicity. The results show that Te distribution of South China is affected by three factors: the original age, which controls the basic feature; the Mesozoic evolution, which affects the Te distribution; and the Neotectonic movement, which shaped the final distribution. The crust age has a positive correlation with the first-order Te distribution; thus the Yangtze Craton has a relatively higher Te (about 50 km) whereas the Te in Cathaysia block is only 10‒20km. By analysis and comparison among the tectonic models of South China, the Te distribution can be well explained using the flat-subduction model. As is typical with Neotectonics, the region with a higher heat flow is related with a lower Te. The seismicity does not have a clear relationship with Te, but the strong seismicity could cause a low Te. Seismogenic layer (Ts) has a similar trend as Te in the craton, whereas in other areas the relationship is complex. Graphical abstract

Description: Publication date: Available online 10 April 2013 Source: Geoscience Frontiers A systematic account of micro-textures and a few compositional profiles of plagioclase from high-alumina basaltic aa lava erupted during the year 1994–`95, from Barren Island Volcano, NE India ocean, are presented for the first time. The identified micro-textures can be grouped into two categories: i) Growth related textures in the form of coarse/fine sieve morphology, fine-scale oscillatory zoning and resorption surfaces resulted when the equilibrium at the crystal-melt interface was fluctuated due to change in temperature or H 2 O or pressure or composition of the crystallizing melt; and ii) morphological texture , like glomerocryst, synneusis, swallow-tailed crystal, microlite and broken crystals, formed by the influence of dynamic behavior of the crystallizing magma (convection, turbulence, degassing, etc.). Each micro-texture has developed in a specific magmatic environment, accordingly, a first order magma plumbing model and crystallization dynamics are envisaged for the studied lava unit. Magma generated has undergone extensive fractional crystallization of An-rich plagioclase in stable magmatic environment at a deeper depth. Subsequently they ascend to a shallow chamber where the newly brought crystals and pre-existing crystals have undergone dynamic crystallization via dissolution-regrowth processes in a convective self-mixing environment. Such repeated recharge-recycling processes have produced various populations of plagioclase with different micro-textural stratigraphy in the studied lava unit. Intermittent degassing and eruption related decompression have also played a major role in the final stage of crystallization dynamics. Graphical abstract

Description: Available online 30 March 2013 Publication year: 2013 Source: Geoscience Frontiers The Aravalli–Delhi and Satpura Mobile Belts (ADMBand SMB) and the Eastern Ghat Mobile Belt (EGMB) in India form major Proterozoic mobile belts with adjoining cratons and contemporary basins. The most convincing features of the ADMB and the SMB have been the crustal layers dipping from both sides in opposite directions, crustal thickening (∼45 km) and high density and high conductivity rocks in upper/lower crust associated with faults/thrusts. These observations indicate convergence while domal type reflectors in the lower crust suggest an extensional rifting phase. In case of the SMB, even the remnant of the subducting slab characterized by high conductive and low density slab in lithospheric mantle up to ∼120 km across the Purna–Godavari river faults has been traced which may be caused by fluids due to metamorphism. Subduction related intrusives of the SMB south of it and the ADMB west of it suggest N-S and E-W directed convergence and subduction during Meso‒Neoproterozoic convergence. The simultaneous E-W convergence between the Bundelkhand craton and Marwar craton (Western Rajasthan) across the ADMB and the N-S convergence between the Bundelkhand craton and the Bhandara and Dharwar cratons across the SMB suggest that the forces of convergence might have been in a NE-SW direction with E-W and N-S components in the two cases, respectively. This explains the arcuate shaped collision zone of the ADMB and the SMB which are connected in their western part. The Eastern Ghat Mobile Belt (EGMB) also shows signatures of E-W directed Meso‒Neoproterozoic convergence with East Antarctica similar to ADMB in north India. Foreland basins such as Vindhyan (ADMB–SMB), and Kurnool (EGMB) Supergroups of rocks were formed during this convergence. Older rocks such as Aravalli (ADMB), Mahakoshal–Bijawar (SMB), and Cuddapah (EGMB)) Supergroups of rocks with several basic/ultrabasic intrusives along these mobile belts, plausibly formed during an earlier episode of rifting during Paleo‒Mesoproterozoic period. They are highly disturbed and deformed due to subsequent Meso‒Neoproterozoic convergence. As these Paleoproterozoic basins are characterized by large scale basic/ultrabasic intrusives that are considerably wide spread, it is suggested that a plume/superplume might have existed under the Indian cratons at that time which was responsible for the breakup of these cratons. Further, the presence of older intrusives in these mobile belts suggests that there might have been some form of convergence also during Paleoproterozoic period. Graphical abstract

Description: Publication date: Available online 8 April 2013 Source: Geoscience Frontiers The Asmari Formation (a giant hydrocarbon reservoir) is a thick carbonate sequence of the Oligocene‒Miocene in the Zagros Basin, southwest of Iran. This formation is exposed at Tang-e-Lendeh in the Fars interior zone with a thickness of 190 m comprising medium and thick to massive bedded carbonates. The age of the Asmari Formation in the study area is the late Oligocene (Chattian)‒early Miocene (Burdigalian). Ten microfacies are defined, characterizing a gradual shallowing upward trend; the related environments are as follows: open marine (MF 8‒10), restricted lagoon (MF 6‒7), shoal (MF 3‒5), lagoon (MF 2), and tidal flat (MF 1). Based on the environmental interpretations, a homoclinal ramp consisting of inner and middle parts prevails. MF 3‒7 are characterized by the occurrence of large and small porcelaneous benthic foraminifera representing a shallow-water setting of an inner ramp, influenced by wave and tidal processes. MF 8‒10, with large particles of coral and algae, represent a deeper fair weather wave base of a middle ramp setting. Graphical abstract

Description: Available online 3 April 2013 Publication year: 2013 Source: Geoscience Frontiers In this paper, we analyze lithospheric density distribution of China and surrounding regions on the basis of 30´ × 30´ gravity data and 1° × 1° P-wave velocity data. Firstly, we used the empirical equation between the density and the P-wave velocity difference as the base of the initial model of the Asian lithospheric density. Secondly, we calculated the gravity anomaly, caused by the Moho discontinuity and the sedimentary layer discontinuity, by the Parker formula. Thirdly, the gravity anomaly of the spherical harmonics with 2–40 order for the anomalous body below the lithosphere is calculated based on the model of EGM96. Finally, by using Algebra Reconstruction Techniques (ART), the inversion of 30´ × 30´ residual lithospheric Bouguer gravity anomaly caused by the lithosphere yields a rather detailed structural model. The results show that the lithospheric density distribution of China and surrounding regions has a certain connection with the tectonic structure. The density is relatively high in the Philippine Sea plate, Japan Sea, the Indian plate, the Kazakhstan shield and the Western Siberia plain, whereas the Tibetan plateau has low-density characteristics. The minimum value of density lies in the north of Philippines, in the Taiwan province and in the Ryukyu island arc. Graphical abstract

Description: Publication date: Available online 5 September 2013 Source: Geoscience Frontiers Author(s): M.R.G. Sayyed Since continental sediments (in addition to the marine geological record) offer important means of deciphering environmental changes, the sediments hosted by the successive flows of the continental flood basalt provinces of the world should be treasure houses in gathering the palaeoclimatic data. Palaeosols developed on top of basalt flows are potentially ideal for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions because it is easy to determine their protolith geochemistry and also they define a definite time interval. The present paper summarizes the nature of the basalt-hosted palaeosols formed on the flood basalts provinces from different parts of the globe having different ages. Graphical abstract

Description: Publication date: Available online 17 September 2013 Source: Geoscience Frontiers Author(s): M.L. Renjith , S.N. Charan , D.V. Subbarao , E.V.S.S.K. Babu , V.B. Rajashekhar Magma mixing process is unusual in the petrogenesis of felsic rocks associated with alkaline complex worldwide. Here we present a rare example of magma mixing in syenite from the Yelagiri Alkaline Complex, South India. Yelagiri syenite is a reversely zoned massif with shoshonitic (Na 2 O+K 2 O 5‒10 wt.%, Na 2 O/K 2 O: 0.5‒2, TiO 2 〈0.7 wt.%) and metaluminous character. Systematic modal variation of plagioclase (An 11-16 Ab 82-88 ), K-feldspar (Or 27-95 Ab 5-61 ), diopside (En 34-40 Fs 11-18 Wo 46-49 ), biotite, and Ca-amphibole (edenite) build up three syenite facies within it and imply the role of in-situ fractional crystallization (FC). Evidences such as (1) disequilibrium micro-textures in feldspars, (2) microgranular mafic enclaves (MME) and (3) synplutonic dykes signify mixing of shoshonitic mafic magma (MgO 4‒5 wt.%, SiO 2 54‒59 wt.%, K 2 O/Na 2 O 0.4‒0.9) with syenite. Molecular-scale mixing of mafic magma resulted disequilibrium growth of feldspars in syenite. Physical entity of mafic magma preserved as MME due to high thermal-rheological contrast with syenite magma show various hybridization through chemical exchange, mechanical dilution enhanced by chaotic advection and phenocryst migration. In synplutonic dykes, disaggregation and mixing of mafic magma was confined within the conduit of injection. Major-oxides mass balance test quantified that approximately 0.6 portions of mafic magma had interacted with most evolved syenite magma and generated most hybridized MME and dyke samples. It is unique that all the rock types (syenite, MME and synplutonic dykes) share similar shoshonitic and metaluminous character; mineral chemistry, REE content, coherent geochemical variation in Harker diagram suggest that mixing of magma between similar composition. Outcrop-scale features of crystal accumulation and flow fabrics also significant along with MME and synplutonic dykes in syenite suggesting that Yelagiri syenite magma chamber had evolved through multiple physical processes like convection, shear flow, crystal accumulation and magma mixing. Graphical abstract

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Herman van Os , Rien Herber , Bert Scholtens The decision-making process for subsurface activities in the Netherlands has been unable to cope with the driving forces related to social acceptance in several recently proposed subsurface activities. We therefore investigated the possibility to include the triangle of social acceptance in the decision-making process. Our conceptual model relates the stakeholders, their goals and the driving forces to each other. We developed a framework, which describes the interaction between eleven design criteria for a Decision Support System (DSS). This framework will enable us to design a better, from a social acceptance perspective, DSS for subsurface activities in the Netherlands. Since the goals addressed in the decision-making process are very broad and the stakeholders are quite diverse, a single uniform DSS is not able to provide a satisfactory solution. We therefore suggest to design a DSS that is matched with each class of social acceptance.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Yoshie Inada , Shinobu Izumi , Motoya Koga , Shigehito Matsubara We are developing a planning support system for welfare urban design. If we quantify the optimal route (the route that is the easiest to pass through) for challenged people, we will be able to select the areas that require adjustment in terms of accessibility with greater efficiency. In this paper we report on our development of the prototype system to present an optimal route for wheelchair users, and also, the two workshops we had for evaluating the accuracy of the resulted optimal route.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Erfaneh Allameh , Mohammadali Heidari , Bauke De Vries , Harry Timmermans , Mohammad Masoud , Farhang Mozaffar Almost everyone would agree that teleworking is increasingly growing; but beyond this broad statement, we know little about how people behave when they work at home and how they balance their work and life. User comfort and productivity cannot be addressed properly, without a deep understanding of usersʼ working behavior. This gap is even deeper when it comes to the domain of smart homes as new types of housing which aim to enhance working at home. Hence, more user-centered studies are needed to comprehend the interrelationships among housing, technology, daily life and the work activities. In this paper, we use the outputs of an experiment to model usersʼ work activities in a smart home. The experiment was conducted among 254 respondents, who were asked to explore a smart home in a virtual environment and then to arrange their daily activities including work related activities in the virtual smart home. A choice modeling approach, based on the Multinomial Logit Model (MNL), is applied to model how an individual works at a smart home given influential factors such as the individualsʼ socio-demographic profile and their current lifestyle. Two features of working in a smart home are covered in this paper, namely, “the integration of work activities with other daily activities” and “the location of work activities in the house”. The results give better insight into the future trends of working at home and the effects of smart homes on working behavior of people. The results can be used in further developments of both smart homes and teleworking.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Jinhee Kim , Soora Rasouli , Harry Timmermans Hybrid choice models have been developed as an extension of discrete choice models, particularly multinomial logit models, in an attempt to include attitudinal variables. The quintessence of hybrid choice models is that a model of attitude formation is estimated and the estimated attitudes are added to the commonly used set of attributes in discrete choice models: attributes of the choice alternatives and socio-demographic variables. The most commonly applied model is based on linear specifications, both for the attitude model and the utility function. In this review paper, we discuss the principles underlying the hybrid choice model, summarize the specifications used in previous applications of the model and then continue discussing recent progress that added social influence to the model specification and replaced the linear specification of the utility function with a nonlinear function.

Description: Publication date: 2014 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 22 Author(s): Yountaik Leem , Sang Ho Lee , Jungho Yoon To overcome many difficulties in sustaining the satisfying quality of life for a large population 1 , urban spaces are evolving toward more efficient spaces by combination with ICTs (information and communication technologies) and raising the possibility to provide improved urban services which can enrich the quality of life of the citizen. In many cities over the world, a good number of public and private services in transportation, environment, urban safety from crime or disaster, health and other fields are designed and implemented with IT infrastructure. In spite of the expectation of cost-effective urban services based on the linkage between data and systems, obstructions in administrative and technical domains have made it difficult to be implemented. In this study, two advanced ICTs based urban services, which were developed by linkage and convergence of urban information and systems of Korea were introduced and analysed. The structural design of system convergence and data sharing scheme of Carbon Emission Monitoring System (CEMS) in Sejong City uses UIS (Urban Information System for local authorities), GIS data and other data provided by the public agencies, such as Korea Meteorological Administration for the monitoring and analysing the characteristics of the energy consumption of household 2 . Another system, Urban Integrated CCTV Control System (ICCS) in Anyang City, shows integrated CCTV networks for crime prevention, traffic control and public facility management to provide extended urban services, such as disaster prevention, police investigation and others. Qualitative and Quantitative effects analyses with technical and policy directions were suggested for the development and improvement of future urban services for a liveable city.

Description: Publication date: Available online 12 November 2014 Source: Geoscience Frontiers Author(s): Wengang Zhang , Anthony T.C. Goh Piles are long, slender structural elements used to transfer the loads from the superstructure through weak strata onto stiffer soils or rocks. For driven piles, the impact of the piling hammer induces compression and tension stresses in the piles. Hence, an important design consideration is to check that the strength of the pile is sufficient to resist the stresses caused by the impact of the pile hammer. Due to its complexity, pile drivability lacks a precise analytical solution with regard to the phenomena involved. In situations where measured data or numerical hypothetical results are available, neural networks stand out in mapping the nonlinear interactions and relationships between the system's predictors and dependent responses. In addition, unlike most computational tools, no mathematical relationship assumption between the dependent and independent variables has to be made. Nevertheless, neural networks have been criticized for their long trial-and-error training process since the optimal configuration is not known a priori. This paper investigates the use of a fairly simple nonparametric regression algorithm known as multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), as an alternative to neural networks, to approximate the relationship between the inputs and dependent response, and to mathematically interpret the relationship between the various parameters. In this paper, the Back propagation neural network (BPNN) and MARS models are developed for assessing pile drivability in relation to the prediction of the Maximum compressive stresses (MCS), Maximum tensile stresses (MTS), and Blow per foot (BPF). A database of more than four thousand piles is utilized for model development and comparative performance between BPNN and MARS predictions. Graphical abstract

Description: Publication date: Available online 18 November 2014 Source: Geoscience Frontiers Author(s): Fei Gao , Lily Wang , Mudan Yin

Description: Publication date: Available online 20 November 2014 Source: Geoscience Frontiers Author(s): I.V. Ashchepkov , A.M. Logvinova , T. Ntaflos , L.F. Reimers , Z.V. Spetsius , N.V. Vladykin , D.S. Yudin , A.V. Travin , H. Downes , V.S. Palesskiy Heavy mineral concentrate and xenoliths from late autolithic breccia and porphyritic kimberlite of the Sytykanskaya pipe (Alakit field, Yakutia, Russia) were studied by EPMA and LA-ICPMS methods to obtain PTXfO 2 diagrams. Trends in P- Fe# - CaO - fO 2 for minerals from the porphyritic kimberlite show greater discontinuities than xenocrysts from the breccia. Xenoliths show the widest variation at all pressures. Protokimberlite systems are marked by ilmenite PT points that range from the lithosphere base (7.5 GPa) to a pyroxenite lens situated at intermediate depths (5 - 3.5 GPa) with increasing Cr because of AFC that formed two metasomatic groups with differing Fe#Ol (∼ 10-12 and 13-15). The first Opx-Gar-based mantle geotherm for the Alakit field based on 10 mineral associations is close to the 35 mW/m 2 geotherm at 6.5 GPa and 600 ° C, i.e. near to the Moho. The oxidation state for the megacrystalline ilmenites in the lithosphere base is higher than for other kimberlites in Yakutia. Calculated parental melts for clinopyroxene and garnet by xenocrysts from the breccia show highly inclined linear REE patterns with deep HFSE troughs similar to differentiated protokimberlite magmas. Melts calculated for metasomatic xenoliths have less inclined slopes without troughs in spider diagrams. Garnets reveal S-shaped REE patterns. Calculated melts for garnets from graphite-bearing Cr-websterites located mainly in middle part of the mantle column show slightly inclined convex REE patterns and Ba-Sr troughs with variable enrichment in Nb-Ta-U. The calculated parental melts for clinopyroxenes have inclined REE spectra with a depression in HFSE. Metasomatic clinopyroxenes have enriched patterns with Ba, Zr peaks. 40 Ar- 39 Ar analyses of dispersed phlogopites from the Alakit mantle xenoliths yield a Proterozoic (1154 Ma) age, corresponding to continental arc metasomatism. Alkaline and Ti-rich veins with alkali amphiboles close to richterite formed at ∼1015 Ma and mark a plume event in Rodinia mantle. The∼600-550 Ma stage relates to Rodinia break-up. The last metasomatic event near 385 Ma is related to the protokimberlite. Graphical abstract

Description: Publication date: March 2015 Source: GeoResJ, Volume 5 Author(s): A. Poortinga , J.G.S. Keijsers , S.M. Visser , M.J.P.M. Riksen , A.C.W. Baas Coastal dunes are the primary defence protecting the coastline from the destructive forces of the sea in The Netherlands. Aeolian processes are important in this context as they contribute to dune accretion and thus the safety of the coastal hinterland. In this study, we analyze horizontal and vertical variability of event scale aeolian sand transport on a wide beach on the island of Ameland, The Netherlands. Data were obtained from a meteorological station, groundwater monitoring wells and a camera installed on the beach. Fifteen aeolian transport events (two involving onshore winds, seven longshore and six offshore) were measured using a comprehensive grid of 37 customized MWAC traps. The highest sand transport rates and largest variability was found for alongshore events. Surface moisture, governed by groundwater, was found to be an important controlling parameter for aeolian transport rates and vertical flux profiles. Groundwater levels were largely dominated by beach inundation, influencing the groundwater table for a two week period. Variations in vertical flux profiles between traps were larger for wet sand transport events than dry ones. In general, sand transport rates were highest at the foreshore and lowest at the dune toe. Sand transport dynamics are dependent on local conditions such as beach dimensions, beach orientation and also meteorological and surface characteristics. Moderate (high frequency, low magnitude) events are also capable of transporting large amounts of sand. Future studies should include spatially explicit measurements of elevation and surface moisture to obtain a more complete understanding of the complex sand transport dynamics.

Description: Publication date: September–December 2014 Source: GeoResJ, Volumes 3–4 Author(s): A. Määttänen , M. Douspis Recent datasets on heterogeneous deposition mode ice nucleation have revealed a strong dependence of the contact parameter m on temperature, ranging from linear to exponential, depending on the experiments. We analyze recent datasets using a Monte Carlo Markov Chain method with the full classical nucleation theory including spherical and planar geometry. The method we use allows us to test models of the temperature dependence of the contact parameter and evaluate their performance. We estimate the applicability of different forms of contact parameter temperature dependence, including a new well-behaved suggestion. Such a function has a more physical behavior at high and low temperatures and might thus be more easily applicable in atmospheric modeling. However, because of their limited temperature range, the present datasets are unable to reveal the behavior of the contact parameter in low temperatures, and we are unable to fully validate the proposed function. We thus call for more heterogeneous nucleation experiments reaching low temperatures (〈170 K). Such datasets may be significant for studies on, for example, polar mesospheric clouds, Mars ice clouds, and perhaps exoplanet clouds. This work provides a new framework, valid even for very small ice nucleus sizes, for analyzing heterogeneous nucleation datasets.

Description: Publication date: Available online 15 December 2014 Source: Geoscience Frontiers Author(s): Inna Safonova , Konstantin Litasov , Shigenori Maruyama The paper discusses generation of volatile-bearing plumes in the mantle transition zone (MTZ) in terms of mineral-fluid petrology and their related formation of numerous localities of intra-plate bimodal volcanic series in Central and East Asia. The plume generation in the MTZ can be triggered by the tectonic erosion of continental crust at Pacific-type convergent margins and by the presence of water and carbon dioxide in the mantle. Most probable sources of volatiles are the hydrated/carbonated sediments and basalts and serpentinite of oceanic slabs, which can be subducted down to the deep mantle. Tectonic erosion of continental crust supplies crustal material enriched in uranium and thorium into the mantle, which can serve source of heat in the MTZ. The heating in the MTZ induces melting of subducted slabs and continental crust and mantle upwelling, to produce OIB-type mafic and felsic melts, respectively. Graphical abstract

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 112-121 Simon N., Gosling , Nigel W., Arnell , Jason A., Lowe We present simulations of the impact of climate change on global water scarcity for five greenhouse gas emissions mitigation policy scenarios and compare them with a business-as-usual emissions scenario. A global water scarcity model is driven by climate change projections from 21 global climate models (GCMs). An aggressive policy scenario that gives a 50% chance of avoiding a 2°C global-mean temperature rise from pre-industrial times could avoid almost 40% of the business as usual global impacts by 2100. However, mitigation policy does not completely eliminate the impacts of climate change. For any given GCM, the avoided impacts are affected more...

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 136-145 Eleni, Karali , Mark D.A., Rounsevell , Ruth, Doherty Although there is a large body of research into complex land-use/cover change (LUCC), the mechanisms that underlie land transformation are still poorly understood. To a large extent this results from the limited attention that has been paid to the human dimension in LUCC studies. While environmental processes are described by detailed and sophisticated frameworks, human behaviour has often been theorised in oversimplified ways. This paper presents a novel approach to the analysis of rural LUCC that integrates agent-based models (ABMs) with a multi-phase social survey. Findings from the application of the latter to a farming area in Switzerland are used...

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 146-152 Etsushi, Kato , Michio, Kawamiya , Tsuguki, Kinoshita , Akihiko, Ito In the preparatory phase of IPCC AR5 development, Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) have been constructed by Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) groups as new forcing scenarios used for climate modeling and earth system modeling groups. In the process of RCP 6.0 scenario development, which has been conducted by the Asia-Pacific Integrated Model (AIM), we constructed a scenario of spatially explicit long-term aerosol emissions from biomass burning and net land-use change CO2 emissions in order to complement energy use and industrial emissions scenarios projected by socio-economic component of AIM.To estimate the emissions from biomass burning, we incorporate a vegetation fire component into...

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 153-161 Nikolinka G., Koleva , Uwe A., Schneider , Bruce A., McCarl This study uses mathematical programming to examine alternative assumptions about regulations of external costs from pesticide applications in US agriculture. We find that, without external cost regulation, climate change benefits from increased agricultural production in the US may be more than offset by increased environmental costs. The internalization of the pesticide externalities increase farmers’ production costs but increase farmers’ income because of price adjustments and associated welfare shifts from consumers to producers. Our results also show that full internalizations of external pesticide costs substantially reduces preferred pesticide applications rates for corn and soybeans as climate change.

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 15-26 Muhammad, Afzal , Martin G., Mansell , Alexandre S., Gagnon The objective of this research is to analyse temporal changes in historic rainfall variability across Scotland using different measures of variability. The CUSUM and sequential Mann-Kendall test applied to records from 28 weather stations with up to 80 years of daily precipitation data reveal the occurrence of abrupt changes in the rainfall trends. Most weather stations show a turning point between 1978 and 1985, although some stations situated in Eastern Scotland have more than one turning point. The temporal changes in rainfall variability across Scotland are presented using a number of measures of variability.

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 96-103 Sarah, Cornell Nitrogen-containing organic matter in rain and aerosol makes up a substantial proportion – 25–35% – of the total nitrogen in atmospheric deposition. Despite this quantitative significance, it is “invisible” in current policy; and existing global air quality and nitrogen deposition monitoring programmes routinely measure nitrate and ammonium but not the organic component. Although recent research, especially in Asia and Latin America, is helping to build up a global picture of organic nitrogen deposition, data sets are sparse and the chemical composition of the organic matter is relatively poorly characterised. As a result, its role in ecosystems and Earth system processes...

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 3-14 Cat, Downy , Sarah, Cornell

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 1-2 Sarah, Cornell , Cat, Downy ESS2010 was the first Open Science Conference of the international collaborative initiative AIMES, and was convened and organized by QUEST, the UK's directed research programme for Earth System science. The conference showcased advances in Earth system modelling, deploying observations and process understanding to develop more quantitative and predictive understanding of the interactions of the climate system, the biosphere and the anthroposphere. These tools extend understanding of the system dynamics of biogeochemical cycles, and give perspectives on the relationships between climate, ecosystems and human needs. As Earth system science is a global research endeavour, and its remit has important societal and...

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 104-111 Simon N., Gosling , Jason A., Lowe We compare heat-related mortality impacts for three European cities, London, Lisbon and Budapest, under five climate change policies representing different dates at which carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions peak, rates at which emissions decline, and emissions floors, and compare them with a non-mitigation business-as-usual emissions scenario, for three time periods, the 2030s, 2050s and 2080s. Under an SRES A1B business-as-usual emissions scenario and using climate projections from 21 GCMs, heat-related mortality rates (per 100,000 of the population) attributable to climate change in the 2080s are simulated to be in the range 2-6 for London, 4-50 for Lisbon and 10-24 for Budapest....

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 122-135 N.J., Grigg , F., Boschetti , M., Brede , J.J., Finnigan We demonstrate an approach to low-dimensional modeling of world population, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and gross domestic product (GDP) interactions in a way that explicitly characterizes the variability in the data informing model assumptions and the uncertainty in functional relationships. Our model choice was informed by the following considerations and choices. First, even a low-dimensional conceptualization of the interactions between these three global variables requires a model to illuminate the consequences of chains of cause and effect and feedback loops. Such interactions warrant analysis as they offer insights into influences on aggregate global dynamics. Second, rates are constrained to be...

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 60-69 Mohammad, Aurangojeb The relationship between particle number concentration and the established air quality indicators such as PM10 and NO2 is very important regarding the environmental quality of air. The results of this study revealed that correlation of the number of particles and NO2 depends on the mixing processes in the atmosphere, such as the formation of boundary layer and mixing layer. The diurnal variation of the correlation of the number of particles and PM10 is related to their sources and life times in an urban atmosphere. The effect of the wind speed and rainfall is strong in the correlation of NO2 and...

Description: Publication year: 2011 Source: Procedia Environmental Sciences, Volume 6, 2011, Pages 35-49 M. de C., Alves , L.G., de Carvalho , E.A., Pozza , L., Sanches , J.C. de S., Maia Geoinformation techniques were applied to develop predictive models to study the areas of risk to soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi Sydow) in soybean (Glycine max L.); coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix Berk & Br) in coffee; and black Sigatoka (Mycosphaerella fijiensis var. difformis) in banana, considering Brazil's climatic characterization and the distribution of soybean, coffee and banana crops. Temperature and rainfall data were obtained for the period from 1950 to 2000, for which observational data are available, and of simulations for 2020, 2050 and 2080 using the SRES A2 climate change scenarios. Using principal components analysis, a single variable was generated...