固体介质中的重金属源解析及其在中国近海沉积物中的应用

沉积物中重金属源解析对甄别人为活动与自然变化对近海生态系统演化的影响有重要作用.本文总结了近年来污染物源解析常用的多元统计分析、地球化学方法和地质统计分析3种主要研究方法,剖析了不同方法的优劣及适用性,提出正定矩阵因子分析、Pb同位素示踪在重金属来源定量化研究中具有良好应用前景.梳理了中国近海沉积物中重金属来源的主要研究结果,发现河口和海湾是沉积物重金属受人为来源影响剧烈的典型近海区域,不同定量解析方法(多元统计分析、背景值估算、Pb同位素分析)均表明中国近海沉积物重金属的人为来源贡献率接近或超过50%.当前中国近海沉积物中重金属源解析研究还存在源识别端元模糊、解析结果缺乏相应的可靠性评价等问题.据此提出近海沉积物重金属源解析研究应使用多种解析技术手段综合、集成与优化,提高源解析的准确性;建立完善指标体系,筛选代表特定人为活动和自然过程的指标;甄别人为源重金属入海方式及过程,为沉积物数据信息的解译提供理论基础.     

烟气脱硫石膏对滨海农耕土壤磷素形态组成的影响

为探明不同烟气脱硫石膏施用量对滨海农耕土壤中的全磷、有效磷、无机磷组分等的影响,通过田间试验的方式,分别在试验区土壤中施加0t/hm~2、15t/hm~2、30t/hm~2、45t/hm~2烟气脱硫石膏。研究结果表明:与对照组相比,各处理组的土壤全磷含量无显著差异,而土壤中的有效磷和渗滤液中的可溶性磷含量则随着烟气脱硫石膏施入量的增加而降低;施入烟气脱硫石膏后农耕土壤中无机磷含量显著增加,其中又以磷酸钙盐含量的增加为主,磷酸钙盐中的Ca2-P、Ca_8-P和Ca_10-P含量分别增加了30.8%—68.9%、35.2%—66.3%和7.3%—17.8%。烟气脱硫石膏的施用促进了植物的生长发育,有效磷的降低和无机磷组分中磷酸钙盐的增加并未影响到植物对磷素的吸收。因此,烟气脱硫石膏能有效地固定滨海农耕土壤中的溶解态磷,控制土壤过量磷素向水体迁移,降低附近水体富营养化发生的机率,保障区域水体生态系统环境安全。     

Mangrove blue carbon stocks and dynamics are controlled by hydrogeomorphic settings and land‐use change

Globally, carbon‐rich mangrove forests are deforested and degraded due to land‐use and land‐cover change (LULCC). The impact of mangrove deforestation on carbon emissions has been reported on a global scale; however, uncertainty remains at subnational scales due to geographical variability and field data limitations. We present an assessment of blue carbon storage at five mangrove sites across West Papua Province, Indonesia, a region that supports 10% of the world's mangrove area. The sites are representative of contrasting hydrogeomorphic settings and also capture change over a 25‐years LULCC chronosequence. Field‐based assessments were conducted across 255 plots covering undisturbed and LULCC‐affected mangroves (0‐, 5‐, 10‐, 15‐ and 25‐year‐old post‐harvest or regenerating forests as well as 15‐year‐old aquaculture ponds). Undisturbed mangroves stored total ecosystem carbon stocks of 182–2,730 (mean ± SD: 1,087 ± 584) Mg C/ha, with the large variation driven by hydrogeomorphic settings. The highest carbon stocks were found in estuarine interior (EI) mangroves, followed by open coast interior, open coast fringe and EI forests. Forest harvesting did not significantly affect soil carbon stocks, despite an elevated dead wood density relative to undisturbed forests, but it did remove nearly all live biomass. Aquaculture conversion removed 60% of soil carbon stock and 85% of live biomass carbon stock, relative to reference sites. By contrast, mangroves left to regenerate for more than 25 years reached the same level of biomass carbon compared to undisturbed forests, with annual biomass accumulation rates of 3.6 ± 1.1 Mg C ha^?1 year^?1. This study shows that hydrogeomorphic setting controls natural dynamics of mangrove blue carbon stocks, while long‐term land‐use changes affect carbon loss and gain to a substantial degree. Therefore, current land‐based climate policies must incorporate landscape and land‐use characteristics, and their related carbon management consequences, for more effective emissions reduction targets and restoration outcomes.     

Restoration and Science: A Practitioner/Scientist's View from Rare Habitat Restoration at a Southern California Preserve

Researchers reexamining the relationship between restoration science and practice report a continuing scientist‐practitioner gap. As a land manager with scientific training, I offer my perspective of the chasm and describe a restoration practice infused with as much science as the realities of limited budget and time allow. The coastal sage scrub (CSS) restoration project at Starr Ranch, a 1,585 ha Audubon preserve in southern California, combines non‐chemical invasive species control, restoration, and applied research. Our practices evolve from modified scientific approaches and the scientific literature. Results from experiments with non‐optimum replication (on effects of seed rates, soil tamping, and timing of planting) nonetheless had value for management decisions. A critical practice came from academic research that encouraged cost‐effective passive restoration. Our passive restoration monitoring data showed 28–100% total native cover after 3–5 years. Another published study found that restoration success in semiarid regions is dependent on rainfall, a finding vital for understanding active restoration monitoring results that showed a range of 0–88% total native cover at the end of the first season. Work progresses through a combination of applied research, a watchful eye on the scientific literature, and “ecological intuition” informed by the scientific literature and our own findings. I suggest that it is less critical for academic scientists to address the basic questions on technique that are helpful to land managers but rather advocate practitioner training in methods to test alternative strategies and long‐term monitoring.     

Description of a new marine species of Askenasia Blochmann, 1895 (Ciliophora,Haptoria), with notes on its ecology

A marine planktonic ciliate, belonging to the genus Askenasia Blochmann, 1895, is described with notes on its distribution and ecology. Specimens of this new species were collected from four coastal sites across the northern hemisphere. Samples were collected between March and December, from depths of 1-20 m. Relatively low (< 1 ml(-1)) densities were recorded from Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and North Sea coastal sites, whereas samples from the English Channel suggested that this species has the ability to form blooms. Specimens were protargol-stained, revealing the key features of the genus, including the diagnostic sub-equatorial kinety belt consisting of three unciliated monokinetids. However, the species is larger than other Askenasia with a single distinctive, rope-like, scalloped macronucleus. This species also appears to have an extra somatic kinety belt, which may be present but has not been observed in other Askenasia species. Based on size, kinety structure, kinety number, and macronuclear shape a new species has been established.     

Marine genetic swamping: hybrids replace an obligately estuarine fish

Populations of obligately estuarine taxa are potentially small and isolated and may lack genetic variation and display regional differentiation as a result of drift and inbreeding. Hybridization with a wide‐ranging marine congener should introduce genetic variation and reduce the effects of inbreeding depression and genetic drift. However, high levels of hybridization can cause demographic and genetic swamping. In southeastern Australia hybridization occurs between obligately estuarine Black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri) and migratory marine Yellowfin bream (Acanthopagrus australis). Here, we surveyed genetic variation at eight microsatellite loci and the mitochondrial control region of juvenile fish from five coastal lagoons (including temporal replication in two lagoons) (total n = 970) to determine the frequency and persistence of hybridization, and its likely consequence for the estuarine restricted A. butcheri. Of 688 juvenile fish genotyped 95% were either A. australis (347) or hybrids (309); only 5% (32) were A. butcheri. Most hybrids were later generation hybrids or A. butcheri backcrosses, which are likely multi‐generational residents within lagoons. Far greater proportions of hybrid juveniles were found within two lagoons that are generally closed to the ocean (>90% hybrid fish within generally closed lagoons vs. 12–27% in permanently or intermittently open lagoons). In both lagoons, this was consistent across multiple cohorts of fish [79–97% hybrid fish (n = 282)]. Hybridization and introgression represent a major threat to the persistence of A. butcheri and have yet to be investigated for large numbers of estuarine taxa.     

Displacement of disordered water molecules from hydrophobic pocket creates enthalpic signature: Binding of phosphonamidate to the S1'-pocket of thermolysin

Background

Prerequisite for the design of tight binding protein inhibitors and prediction of their properties is an in-depth understanding of the structural and thermodynamic details of the binding process. A series of closely related phosphonamidates was studied to elucidate the forces underlying their binding affinity to thermolysin. The investigated inhibitors are identical except for the parts penetrating into the hydrophobic S₁'-pocket.

Methods

A correlation of structural, kinetic and thermodynamic data was carried out by X-ray crystallography, kinetic inhibition assay and isothermal titration calorimetry.

Results and conclusions

Binding affinity increases with larger ligand hydrophobic P₁'-moieties accommodating the S₁'-pocket. Surprisingly, larger P₁'-side chain modifications are accompanied by an increase in the enthalpic contribution to binding. In agreement with other studies, it is suggested that the release of largely disordered waters from an imperfectly hydrated pocket results in an enthalpically favourable integration of these water molecules into bulk water upon inhibitor binding. This enthalpically favourable process contributes more strongly to the binding energetics than the entropy increase resulting from the release of water molecules from the S₁'-pocket or the formation of apolar interactions between protein and inhibitor.

General significance

Displacement of highly disordered water molecules from a rather imperfectly hydrated and hydrophobic specificity pocket can reveal an enthalpic signature of inhibitor binding.     

Evaluation of a eutrophic coastal lagoon ecosystem from the study of bottom sediments

Morphological reconstruction and biogeochemical characterisation of the lagoon of Comacchio (Italy) were carried out in order to provide recommendations for the recovery, conservation and sustainable management of the Fattibello-Spavola coastal lagoon ecosystem. Samples were taken in two seasons: July 1997 and November 1998. The irregular morphology of the Fattibello lagoon affects depositional processes and seawater exchange (tidal currents). Several depressions retain part of the dense water of the saline wedge; these stagnant waters became sinks for fine terrigenous and organic matter. The basin is already extensively supplied with N and P compounds from land. The inflow is demonstrated by the large quantity of organic C, N and organic and inorganic P compounds in the superficial sediment. The ratios between the various forms of macronutrients indicate that the organic matter is primarily of autochthonous origin, with relatively low C/N ratios (8.4±0.6 and 8.1±0.6 in July and November, respectively). Shallow areas were almost always oxygenated by tidal currents and thus rich in organisms, with a predominance of molluscs and Ficopomatus enigmaticus. However, the trophic equilibrium of the ecosystem was affected by the accumulation of organic matter in the depressions, favoured by the increased hydrodynamics during the autumn. These accumulations generate high oxygen consumption and release considerable quantities of nutrients into the water column, with the risk of serious dystrophy throughout the basin during the summer. Local dredging and an improvement of the circulation have been suggested and carried out to contain these processes. Reclamation measures in the longer term were proposed.     

Habitat fragmentation in coastal southern California disrupts genetic connectivity in the cactus wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus)

Achieving long‐term persistence of species in urbanized landscapes requires characterizing population genetic structure to understand and manage the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on connectivity. Urbanization over the past century in coastal southern California has caused both precipitous loss of coastal sage scrub habitat and declines in populations of the cactus wren (Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus). Using 22 microsatellite loci, we found that remnant cactus wren aggregations in coastal southern California comprised 20 populations based on strict exact tests for population differentiation, and 12 genetic clusters with hierarchical Bayesian clustering analyses. Genetic structure patterns largely mirrored underlying habitat availability, with cluster and population boundaries coinciding with fragmentation caused primarily by urbanization. Using a habitat model we developed, we detected stronger associations between habitat‐based distances and genetic distances than Euclidean geographic distance. Within populations, we detected a positive association between available local habitat and allelic richness and a negative association with relatedness. Isolation‐by‐distance patterns varied over the study area, which we attribute to temporal differences in anthropogenic landscape development. We also found that genetic bottleneck signals were associated with wildfire frequency. These results indicate that habitat fragmentation and alterations have reduced genetic connectivity and diversity of cactus wren populations in coastal southern California. Management efforts focused on improving connectivity among remaining populations may help to ensure population persistence.