Environmental Science is supervised by Chinese Academy of Sciences and sponsored by Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Launched in 1976, it is a monthly and international public journal. Its scope covers the latest and significant achievements in basic research and applied research, and the theories and techniques for pollution control, clean production and ecological construction.
The journal is included in MEDLINE, CA, AJ, BP, IM, JICST, ZR, CSA, CSTPCD, CNKI and CSCD.
Editor-in-Chief Ouyang Ziyuan
Associate Editor Zhao Jingzhu, Hao Jiming, Tian Gang
PM2.5 background concentration at different directions in 2013 in Beijing was analyzed combining the techniques of mathematical statistics, physical identification and numerical simulation (CMAQ4.7.1) as well as using monitoring data of six PM2.5auto-monitoring sites and five meteorological sites in 2013. Results showed that background concentrations of PM2.5 at northwest, northeast, eastern, southeast, southern and southwest boundary sites were between 40.3 and 85.3 μg·m−3 in Beijing. From the lowest to the highest, PM2.5 background concentrations at different sites were: Miyun reservoir, Badaling, Donggaocun, Yufa, Yongledian and Liulihe. Background concentration of PM2.5 was the lowest under north wind, then under west wind,and significantly higher under south and east wind. Calculated PM2.5 background average concentrations were 6.5–27.9, 22.4–73.4, 67.2–91.7, 40.7–116.1 μg·m−3 respectively in different wind directions. Simulated PM2.5 background concentration showed a clear north-south gradient distribution and the surrounding area had a notable effect on the spatial distribution of PM2.5 background concentration in 2013 in Beijing.
This study studied the pollution characteristics of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in Qiantang River in Hangzhou section (QR). Surface water samples, collected in July 2014 and January 2015 from 14 sites in QR were analyzed for 16 PFCs. All samples were prepared by solid-phase extraction with Oasis WAX cartridges and analyzed using the ultra performance liquid chromatography interfaced to tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The results showed that 8 medium- and short-chain PFCs including C4 and C8 perfluorinated sulfonates (PFSAs) and C4-C9 perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) were detected in the surface waters. The total concentrations of PFCs ranged from 0.98 to 609 ng·L−1, while perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) dominated, with range of 0.59–538 ng·L−1, and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was detected at lower levels, ranging from 0 to 2.48 ng·L−1. The spatial distribution of PFCs varied, and the pollutant concentrations at the sampling sites located in upstream of the river such as Lanjiangkou and Jiangjunyan were relatively high, ΣPFCs concentration showed a decreasing trend from the upstream to the downstream. According to the ratio of feature components, PFCs in surface water of QR originated largely from the input of direct sewage emissions. Taken together, the PFCs pollution was highly correlated with the upstream of Qiantang River valley's industry distribution, and most of the mass load in the investigated river was attributed to upstream running water with a minor influence from the wastewater discharges along the river basin. Overall, the results presented here indicated that greater attention should be given to the contamination of PFCs, especially for PFOA in water body of QR.
This study intends to assess the potential health hazards of drinking water quality and explore the application of geographic information system (GIS) in drinking water safety in Tianjin. Eight hundred and fifty water samples from 401 sampling points in Tianjin were measured according to the national drinking water standards. The risk assessment was conducted using the environmental health risk assessment model recommended by US EAP, and GIS was combined to explore the information visualization and risk factors simultaneously. The results showed that the health risks of carcinogens,non-carcinogens were 3.83 × 10−5, 5.62 × 10−9 and 3.83 × 10−5 for total health risk respectively. The rank of health risk was carcinogen > non-carcinogen. The rank of carcinogens health risk was urban > new area > rural area, chromium (Ⅵ) > cadmium > arsenic > trichlormethane > carbon tetrachloride. The rank of noncarcinogens health risk was rural area > new area > urban, fluoride > cyanide > lead > nitrate. The total health risk level of drinking water in Tianjin was lower than that of ICRP recommended level (5.0 × 10−5),while was between US EPA recommended level (1.0 × 10−4–1.0 × 10−6). It was at an acceptable level and would not cause obvious health hazards. The main health risks of drinking water came from carcinogens. More attentions should be paid to chromium (Ⅵ) for carcinogens and fluoride for non-carcinogens. GIS can accomplish information visualization of drinking water risk assessment and further exploration of risk factors.
Based on observations of soil respiration rate (Rs) and both biotic and abiotic factors in Pangquangou Nature Reserve at three sampling scales (4, 2, and 1 m), we studied the spatial heterogeneity of Rs and the factors, and analyzed impacts of soil temperature at the 5, 10 and 15 cm depth (T5, T10, T15), soil moisture over the depth of 0–10 cm (Ws), and soil total nitrogen (N), soil total organic carbon (C), ratio of carbon and nitrogen (C/N), soil total sulfur (S), litter fall mass (Lw) and litter fall moisture (Lm) on the spatial heterogeneity of Rs, respectively. We also calculated the minimum sampling number of all the factors at different confidence levels and under the responding estimation accuracy. The results showed that: 1 the spatial heterogeneity of C/N at 4 m sampling scale, Ws at 2 m sampling scale and T10, T15 at 1 m sampling scale had low variability, while the spatial variation of Rs and other related factors had medium variability.. Coefficients of variation of Rs, C/N and S decreased with the increase of the sampling scales, but those of N, C, Ws, T5, T10, T15, Lw and Lm showed contrary trend; 2 the spatial autocorrelation of Rs, Ws, T5, T10, T15, Lw and Lm decreased with the decrease of sampling scales but the spatial autocorrelation of C, N, C/N increased with the decrease of sampling scales, and the spatial autocorrelation of S decreased with the decrease of the sampling scales at initial stage and then increased; 3 the key factors that influenced the spatial heterogeneity of soil respiration were different at different sampling scales. Soil temperature was the key factor influencing the spatial heterogeneity of Rs at a larger scale. However, at a smaller scale,the spatial heterogeneity of Rs was influenced by C, Lw and Lm; 4 the minimum sampling number for soil respiration measurement and its influencing factors reduced greatly with the decrease of confidence level and responding estimation accuracy. The sampling numbers of Rs, C/N and S increased with the decrease of sampling scales, while those of N, C, Ws, T5, T10, T15, Lw and Lm decreased.
Ammonium-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) play important roles in the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle. Rivers are important ecosystems containing a large number of functional microbes in nitrogen cycle. In this study, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) technology were used to analyze the distribution and abundance of AOA and AOB in sediments from Oujiang River. The results showed that the AOA community structure was similar among various sites, while the AOB community structure was significantly different, in which all detected AOB sequences were classified into Nitrosospira and Nitrosomonas, and 90% affiliated to Nitrosospira. The community composition of AOA was influenced by NH4+ and TS; in addition, the AOB composition was affected by NH4+, EC, pH, NO3−, TC and TN. Total sulfur (TS) and electrical conductivity ( EC) were the major factors influencing the diversity of AOA and AOB, respectively. AOA abundance was significantly higher than that of AOB. EC, NH4+-N and NO3−-N were the main environmental factors affecting the abundance of AOA and AOB. This study indicated that the community composition and abundance of AOA and AOB were significantly influenced by environmental factors, and AOA might be the dominant driver in the ammonia oxidation process in Oujiang River surface sediments.
In order to investigate the internal exposure levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in primary school students of Guangzhou, the research collected urine of 78 and 86 primary school students from two primary schools in the summer of 2014, one school located in the ordinary residential area and the other in the industrial area. The contents of 10 kinds of OH-PAHs were tested by the liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadruple tandem mass spectrometry. The results showed that the concentrations of total OH-PAHs in primary school students in the residential zone ranged from 0.83 μmol·mol−1 to 80.63 μmol·mol−1, while those in industrial area ranged from 1.06 μmol·mol−1 to 72.47 μmol·mol−1. The geometric average concentrations were 6.18 μmol·mol−1 and 6.47 μmol·mol−1, respectively, and there was no statistical significance between them (P > 0.05). Comparison of the exposure levels of different components of PAHs in the two areas found that all the OH-PAHs had no significant difference except for the levels of 1-OHP (P < 0.05). We should also pay attention to the higher exposure levels of PAHs in both areas when compared with other studies. In addition, the OH-PAHs in primary school students in the ordinary residential area had a good correlation between 0.511 and 0.928 (P < 0.01), whereas there was no correlation between 1-OHP and 2-OHN, 1-OHN in the primary school students in the industrial area and other OH-PAHs had relatively weak correlation ranging from 0.338 to 0.855 (P < 0.01). This difference might indicate different pollution sources of PAHs in different functional areas, which was relatively single in the residential area, while the industrial area was polluted by multiple sources of industrial enterprises and logistics transportation emissions.
In order to understand the pollution characteristics of heavy metals in surface water sediments of Yongkang, we analyzed the concentrations of 10 heavy metals including Ti, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Pb and Fe in 122 sediment samples, explored the underlying source of heavy metals and then assessed the potential ecological risks of those metals by methods of the geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and the potential ecological risk. The study results showed that: 10 heavy metal contents followed the order: Fe > Ti > Mn > Zn > Cr > Cu > Pb > Ni > As > Co; all heavy metals except for Ti were 1.17 to 3.78 times higher than those of Zhejiang Jinhua-Quzhou basin natural soils background values. The concentrations of all heavy metals had a significantly correlation between each other, indicating that those heavy metals had similar sources of pollution, and it mainly came from industrial and vehicle pollutions. The pollution extent of heavy metals in sediments by Igeo followed the order: Cr > Zn > Ni > Cu > Fe > As > Pb >Mn > Ti; thereinto, Cr, Zn, Cu and Ni were moderately polluted or heavily polluted at some sampling sites. The potential ecological risk of 9 heavy metals in sediments were in the following order: Cu > As > Ni > Cr > Pb > Co > Zn > Mn > Ti; Cu and As contributed the most to the total potential ecological risk, accounting for 22.84% and 21.62%, and others had a total of 55.54%. Through the ecological risk assessment, 89.34% of the potential ecological risk indexes (RI) were low and 10.66% were higher. The contamination level of heavy metals in Yongkang was slight in total, but was heavy in local areas.
Sedimentary phosphorus forms were investigated to clarify the release of sedimentary phosphorus forms under the repeated disturbance with the addition of algae at different initial concentrations. The sediments and overlying water were taken from the Meiliang Bay in Taihu Lake. The results showed that the concentrations of NH4Cl-P and Res-P decreased, while the content of Fe/ Al-P and CaP increased without disturbance. In addition, the Ca-P increased with the increase of the initial concentration of algae and the net increase of Ca-P increased by 48% (30 μg·L−1), 66% (60 μg·L−1), 74% (120 μg·L−1), respectively. However, under the disturbance, the NH4Cl-P and Res-P were significantly reduced, the Fe/Al-P increased significantly. The percentage of Fe/Al-P to TP was up to 66.2% (average of the 3 experiments with the addition of algae of 30 μg·L−1, 60 μg·L−1 and 120 μg·L−1), it was higher than the value (53.4%, average of the 3 experiments) without the disturbance. Moreover, under the disturbance, the percentage of Ca-P to TP was 24.1% (average of the 3 experiments with the addition of algae of 30 μg·L−1, 60 μg·L−1 and 120 μg·L−1) and it was slightly lower than that (33.0%, average of the 3 experiments) without the disturbance. It is suggested that the coexistence of disturbance and algae facilitated the formation of Fe/ Al-P, but the algae accelerated the formation of Ca-P without disturbance.
In order to disclose the interception mechanism of forestry canopy to atmospheric wet deposition, the concentrations of nutrients (C, N, P, S) and trace elements (K, Ca, Na, Mg, Al, Fe, Mn, Zn) in wet deposition and through fall in winter were monitored in Subtropical Qianyanzhou basin. The results showed that the wet deposition in this area was mainly acid deposition, the pH of which ranged from 3.49 to 7.0. The major components of wet deposition were nitrate (NO3−) and sulfate ions (SO42−) , the monthly average deposition fluxes of which were 4.68 kg·hm−2and 0.36 kg·hm−2, and trace elements (Zn, K, Ca) with monthly average deposition fluxes of 1.72, 0.56 and 0.36 kg·hm−2, respectively. Non-metallic nutrients such as dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved total nitrogen (DTN), total phosphorus (TP), Ca, Mg and Mn were easy to leach, the dilution rate could reach up to 64.69%, 206.75%, 301.38%, 137.94%, 405.25% and 1 226.60%, respectively. Moreover, the Zn and sulfate ion (SO42−) could be well absorbed by forests canopy, the absorption proportions of which were 73.50%and 12.51%, respectively.